The Twenty20 Challenge
Damukuni | The Busoga Islands
The Twenty20 Challenge, known as the OrangeSky Twenty20 Challenge for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league, contested by 15 teams located in Damukuni and the Busoga Islands.
Eight business magnates from across Damukuni met at a conference at Atarashii-Damushuto International Stadium with plans to pay into a franchised Twenty20 cricket league to be played in the nation's largest venues, especially Shinzoba National Stadium (now The Shinzoba-zayu) and both major cricket stadiums in the cities of West Bay and East Town. The Associations Twenty20 League (ATL) was formed with teams in the three aforementioned cities (Dolphins in West Bay, Eagles in East Town, and Nationals in Atarashii-Damushuto), joined by teams from the metropolitan areas of Endoshi in South Damukuni (Lions), Reishu Circuit (Reishu Pro), Fujiwara in Central Free State (Municipal), and another team in the Nasutani-Shinzoba Greater Metropolitan Area (ThunderForce).
Seasons 1 and 2
In the first two ATL seasons, all teams played each other twice - once home, once away - with a Page-McIntyre playoff featuring the top four teams at the end.
The first two seasons established Eagles, Lions, and Stars as the dominant sides in the league. While Dolphins finished third in the regular season, losing to eventual runners-up Stars in the second qualifier match, they only placed seventh in the second season, missing a chance at the title. Reishu Pro would join the three dominant sides in the playoff for the second season, losing to Stars in the eliminator.
Season 1 Winner: Eagles (1st title). Season 1 Runner-up: Stars. Season 1 Third-Place: Dolphins.
Season 2 Winner: Lions (1st title). Season 2 Runner-up: Eagles. Season 2 Third-Place: Stars.
Season 3
Starting with season 3 of the ATL, two new teams, one from Damukuni's largest city, Namagoro (Tigers), and Arekion in Central Free State (Giants) joined the league. Additionally, the playoff format would change from Page-McIntyre to a single-elimination tournament featuring the top six teams from the expanded tournament. No changes were made to the regular-season tournament format.
The two new sides made their presence known throughout the tournament, with Giants placing third and Tigers placing fourth, both qualifying for the playoffs along with ThunderForce, Municipal, Stars, and Eagles, with ThunderForce and eventual winners Municipal qualifying for the first time. Municipal would beat Tigers in a barn-burner, showing that both teams could potentially contend for the title in future seasons.
Season 3 Winner: Municipal (1st title). Season 3 Runner-up: Tigers. Season 3 Semifinalists (3/4): ThunderForce, Eagles.
Season 4
In season 4, Tigers would clinch a first-round bye in only their second season, while previous champions Municipal would have to play an extra match against ThunderForce to attain the higher seeding of the two (a fifth-place berth) in the playoff. They would be joined by regular-season champion and season 1 winner Eagles, as well as season 2 winner Lions and title hopeful Stars. ThunderForce would be bowled out in just 15.3 overs against Lions in their quarterfinal, the first time a team would be bowled out in a playoff match. Tigers would beat Eagles in the final, thus preventing Eagles from being the first team to win more than one title.
Season 4 Winner: Tigers (1st title). Season 4 Runner-up: Eagles. Season 4 Semifinalists (3/4): Municipal, Lions.
Season 5
In season 5, Reishu Pro would qualify for the playoffs for the second time in their history, joining Municipal, Dolphins, Tigers, Eagles, and Giants in the playoffs. Additionally, Reishu Pro would advance to a semifinal match for the first time, beating Eagles by three wickets in their quarterfinal. However, Municipal would outshine its opponents in its path to the title, barely beating Giants and taking down a weakened Dolphins batting order to be the first team to win more than one title.
Season 5 Winner: Municipal (2nd title). Season 6 Runner-up: Dolphins. Season 6 Semifinalists (3/4): Reishu Pro, Giants.
Season 6
The sixth season would be the final season to only feature Damukunian teams.
Reishu Pro would nearly capture the regular-season championship - only a loss to Stars in a seeding game prevented that. Additionally, ThunderForce, although only seeded third, would take down Dolphins and Reishu Pro to seal their first appearance in an ATL final. Stars, however, took their regular-season championship momentum into semifinal weekend with a rousing victory over Nationals to charge into the final and crush the young ThunderForce side's hopes and dreams, securing the long-lost title chance after not making a final-four appearance since season 2.
Season 6 Winner: Stars (1st title). Season 6 Runner-up: ThunderForce. Season 6 Semifinalists (3/4): Reishu Pro, Nationals.
Season 7
At the end of Season 7, the Islamic Republic of the Busoga Islands entered into an agreement with the owners of the cricket teams involved in the Associations Twenty20 League to enter six additional teams into the tournament, making the league a multi-associational, multi-regional tournament called the Combined Associations Twenty20 League (CATL). Additionally, teams began to be referred to by their sponsorship names within the league, but would only be referred to by their nicknames in international domestic cricket play, in accordance with the rules of the Champions' League Twenty20 (and later the International Federation of Domestic Cricket, or IFDC). This would add Crocodiles, Laskiska Sporting Club, Northern Scorpions, Panthers, Tigersharks, and Titans to the list of participating teams.
The Busogan sides quickly got to work. With only six spots in the playoffs, Northern Scorpions captured the regular season title quickly, being the only team to win 20 matches in the expanded format. They would join Tigersharks (also with a first-round bye) and Lakiska SC, as well as Damukunian sides Reishu Pro, Stars, and Dolphins. Lakiska SC and Reishu Pro would move on to the semifinals against the two more powerful Busogan sides. In the all-Busogan semifinal, Lakiska would play a trap game and topple Northern Scorpions in a nail-biter win, while Reishu Pro would take out the Tigersharks as the underdog in the final. Lakiska, however, failed to find footing as the more-experienced Reishu Pro side would finally, after several seasons of semifinal hell, exorcise their inner demons and capture their first title.
Season 7 Winner: Reishu Pro (1st title). Season 6 Runner-up: Lakiska SC. Season 6 Semifinalists (3/4): Northern Scorpions, Tigersharks.
Season 8
Starting with season 8, the playoff format was expanded to an eight-team playoff.
Having been bested by the only Damukuian team in the semifinals, the Busogan teams showed in the previous season that they could take on the best of the best in Damukuni. However, that momentum did not continue into season 8. Reishu Pro, Eagles, Stars, and Lions captured the top four spots, and Dolphins captured sixth. Tigersharks and Northern Scorpions would repeat as playoff contenders, but at fifth and eighth, respectively - and the Scorps only after a mini round-robin after they were tied for the last spot with Damukunian sides Nationals and Giants. Panthers would round out the Busogan appearances at seventh.
However, even through the top two Damukunian sides crashed out to Busogan teams, Lions and Dolphins respectively took down Tigersharks and Stars to face off against the Scorps and Panthers. In the semifinals, both Busogan sides met their matches, to be sent to the third-place game. In the final, Lions again thwarted Dolphins' chances at the title with a close match that came down to the final ball.
Season 8 Winner: Lions (2nd title). Season 8 Runner-up: Dolphins. Season 8 Third-Place: Panthers.
Season 9
Starting with season 9, Orange Sky Airlines entered into a title sponsorship contract with the Combined Associations Twenty20 League, renaming it the Twenty20 Challenge. This agreement will expire, pending renewal, after season 12.
Despite the valiant efforts of Scorpions and Tigersharks in season 8, neither team could qualify for the playoffs. But then again, neither could Panthers or Eagles. Additionally, season 9 became the longest Twenty20 Challenge season to date, with four seeding matches needing to be played at the end of the season. One thing was for sure, however - there was a new sheriff in town for the regular season, and its name was Crocodiles; they beat Nationals by two full games to finish as the regular season champions.
In the playoffs, Crocodiles held their own against Lakiska Sporting Club, but lost a heartbreaker to Lions, the latter coming off a victory against Tigers. On the other side of the bracket, Giants would appear in the final for the first time, beating Eagles and the Busogans' Titans side; the latter had taken out Nationals. After six seasons of mediocre play and a few whimpery playoff appearance, Giants would emerge victorious, bowling out Lions in a stunner, thus preventing Lions from repeating as champions. Once again, the Busoga sides would miss out on finals appearances.
Season 9 Winner: Giants (1st title). Season 9 Runner-up: Lions. Season 9 Semifinalists (3/4): Crocodiles, Titans.
Season 10
In season 10, Fujiwara Digital plc purchased both Giants and Municipal, relocating the team into Arekion and retaining the Giants name and records. This contracted the league to 15 teams.
Titans, by far Busoga's most-loved team, would again qualify for the playoffs, this time as the number-two seed. However, as with season 9, only two additional Busogan sides would qualify: Panthers at fifth, and Lakiska SC at eighth off a head-to-head tiebreaker over Stars. Titans would be the only Busogan side to make a semifinal this time, as Nationals, Giants, and Tigers powered through with flying colors. Tigers would do so with only 13.5 overs of play, marking the shortest innings by any T20 Challenge playoff contender at that point. Nonetheless, it was not enough for a high-powered Nationals side to take home their first title in the franchise's history, shortening Tigers' shortest-innings record by three balls.
Season 10 Winner: Nationals (1st title). Season 10 Runner-up: Tigers. Season 10 Semifinalists (3/4): Giants, Lakiska SC.
