The unarmed award ceremonies; a mantel of trophies and no ranking at all

pivotal · UNDATED (the last pre-Subsidized year)

• When: "that last pre-Subsidized year" (the final Unsubsidized tour season)
• What: At each tournament's post-final ceremony and dance, Clipperton attended unarmed, ate a little shaved turkey, muttered to Mario, received his outsized first-place trophy amid "witheringly slight and scattered applause," and dematerialized. He amassed a whole mantel-and-bookcase of tall U.S.T.A. trophies (each "a tall metal boy [...] arched in mid-serve [...] like a wedding-cake groom with a very good outside slider") yet held "no official ranking whatsoever" — the U.S.T.A. regarded him as never having had a legitimate victory, or even a legit match, in sanctioned play. Asked why he seemed so glum, Mario's questioners guessed it was that the very tactic that let him win kept the wins, and Clipperton himself, from being treated as real.