Second, the competitions.  The club has not only stayed occupied off the pitch, but has also stayed busy on it - taking part in two competitions over the past week.

First came the metaverse's first-ever Boxing Day Clash.  Placed in Group #20, the club faced fellow Bronze League side FC Paris in the clash's first match.  During that 3-0 victory the newest members of MFC Judge - Valentin Collet and Stevan Vujčić - both played key roles.  Vujčić assisted on one of Isidro Sarmiento's two goals (with Elmar Jacobs assising on the other), while Collet completed the scoring from the penalty-spot in 85th minute.  This victory was followed by another - a 1-0 win over Panda MFC - to move MFC Judge into the final Clash match.  The final, however, would end on a much more sour note.  Facing longtime nemesis SCA Grande Île, against whom the club battled during the IMFF Cup, the club fell 2-1.   With MFC Judge down 1-0, forward Elmar Jacobs tied it up in the 71st minute off an assist from Jean-Claude Schoeters.  However, an 81st minute strike from Nicholas Slater proved decisive and gave SCA Grande Île the Boxing Day Clash victory.

Just two days later came the metaverse's end-of-year tournament - Holiday Heroes.  Competing in Tier 3, MFC Judge has been drawn into a tough group - facing two Gold Division clubs (MFL OLOMOUC, Casablanca Corsairs) and one Silver Division side (Ciudad Mitad del Mundo).  Things would always be tough being the only Bronze Division side in the group, but the boys came to battle.    Having played their first two group stage matches - against MFL OLOMOUC & Casablanca Corsairs - the boys came out as follows:

• December 28 v. MFL OLOMOUC:  After a 90 minute, back and forth war, the match ended in a 2-2 draw.  After Morad Touil gave OLOMOUC the 1-0 lead in the 12th minute, the match was a relative stalemate for the next forty.  It was not until the 52nd minute that MFC Judge equalized, when Stevan Vujčić slotted a beautiful pass to Elmar Jacobs, who banged it in to equalize the score.  OLOMOUC would take back the lead just ten minutes later, when Louis Marshall collected a ball on the wing and fired one into the back of the net.  This lead would be short-lived, however, as the referee (who looks mysteriously like a French robot) awarded MFC Judge a penalty just three minutes later.  Just like he had in the Boxing Day Clash, Valentin Collet stepped up calmly, took the kick, and scored from the spot.  That 2-2 scoreline is, of course, how the match would end.

• December 29 v. Casablanca Corsairs:  This matchup did not go as well, ending in a 2-0 defeat for MFC Judge.  Playing a 3-4-2-1 formation (with Jacobs and Sanderson playing as centre-forwards just behind Sarmiento), the boys from Deventer generated seven shots, with three on target, but were unable to put a single one past Arturo Vasquez, the opposition keeper.

With one point from two matches, MFC Judge currently sits in fourth place in the group - three points behind group-leaders Ciudad Mitad del Mundo, two points behind Corsairs, and a point behindOLOMOUC.. 

Manager Pieter van der Linden had this to say about the clubs' results over the past week:

"This is no time to hang our heads.  We knew we would be facing tough opponents in this competition.  We knew that our backs would be against the wall as one of the few Bronze League teams in the group.  But this is the exact type of chalenge I signed up for.  As Michael Jordan once said, 'The ceiling is the roof.'  That's how we feel.  The only ceiling for us is the roof.  We will bust through it like a wrecking ball - no matter how long it takes."

With the remaining four group stage matches taking place over each of the next four days, the club will need to turn things around quickly if they are to end Alpha 0.3 on a high note.