the Clipperton legend: the Clipperton Brigade: competition declines to occur
there came to be, in most every tournament with an initial draw of 64, a group of three boys, then four, and by the semifinals five, then finally six boys who for that tournament formed the Clipperton Brigade, players who’d had the misfortune to draw and meet Eric Clipperton and Clipperton’s well-oiled Glock 17, and who understandably declined to be the player to cause Clipperton to eliminate his own map for keeps in public for something as comparatively cheesy as a tournament win over Clipperton.
Context
The institution's competitive logic breaks and reassembles into a standing surrender: draw Clipperton and you join "the Clipperton Brigade," the boys who "declined to be the player to cause Clipperton to eliminate his own map for keeps in public for something as comparatively cheesy as a tournament win." A whole bracket of ranked, ferociously ambitious juniors chooses to lose, every time, because a win is worth less than a kid's life. Clipperton doesn't beat the field; he suspends its willingness to play.