In the middle of the second half of the game, Shmoop delivers a soliloquy in which he laments the fact that his club, seiseki, has been unable to keep up with the pace of the opposition. He laments that the team's first-year players are the ones who are having trouble keeping pace with the likes of maruoka, kai, and nitobe, who are all fresh out of high school. He complains that he has been playing the game for ten years and that he is now being asked to play for the first time in his life. .