A Leg Up in the Race

The information in the article below contains spoilers for the BFDI series. Please watch the episode(s) in question if you haven't seen them already.

## A Leg Up in the Race (BFDI 12)

### Loser(s)

* Snowball
* Bubble
* Tennis Ball
* Rocky

### Death(s)

* Bubble (2)
* Firey

### Release date

December 1, 2010

"**A Leg Up in the Race**" is the twelfth episode of *Battle for Dream Island*. It was released on December 1, 2010.

In this episode, the teams are dissolved and a points mechanic is introduced into the game.

## Plot

### Before the intro

At the beginning of the episode, Leafy walks over to Bubble and sees her reading a book titled "How to be Dumb". Leafy wants to get a closer look, so she walks over right behind Bubble and accidentally pops her. Leafy, possibly not acknowledging Bubble's death, then sits down to read the book. The intro starts after that scene.

### After the intro

Firey tells Coiny that he is a penny and is therefore worthless. Coiny says that what he meant to say was that he is priceless. Firey laughs at the remark. Coiny then says that at least he has a brain, and Firey feeling's get hurt. Tennis Ball tries to calm the two down, but Firey says Tennis Ball doesn't know anything since he lacks arms. Coiny responds with that at the very least, Tennis Ball knew more than him. Tennis Ball watches as they argue. Rocky then vomits on him off-screen. After some more arguing, the Announcer tells the tiny team of three that it's time for Cake at Stake. The trio heads to the arena, and are laughed at by an even larger crowd than before.

### Cake at Stake

Another Name is up for elimination for the 2nd time in a row, and only one of their members is safe. The safe contestant happens to be Firey, with only 9 out of a total of 61 votes. Coiny and Tennis Ball leave the team with 22 and 30 votes respectively.

Coiny freaks out as Firey laughs at him. It is up to the Squashy Grapes to decide who stays in the competition. Coiny attempts to persuade his former teammates with a brief speech about how he shouldn't be considered just a "Firey slapper". Blocky says that Coiny's speech about wanting to stay was the worst speech he's ever heard. Tennis Ball gives the Squashy Grapes a point and says that if Coiny stays on their team, he won't do them any good and just slap Firey all day long. Leafy thinks it's a good point, so on behalf of the Grapes, Leafy picks Tennis Ball, and Coiny is eliminated.

### Before the contest

Shortly after Leafy celebrates Tennis Ball being on her team, Announcer says that the teams are broken up, and the contestants get a prize for making it to the Final 12. The prizes are BFDI DDSs (DDS standing for "dodecascreen" or twelve screens); they allow them to play the most fun handheld games, and they are foldable, as Match demonstrates. The Announcer then hurries them to the twelfth contest.

### Contest

The contest is to climb a set of 3 ladders. Everyone excluding TB and Rocky, who can't climb, starts up the ladders. Announcer laughs and throws water balloons down at the contestants. The water balloons make Eraser fall, Bubble pop, and Firey scream in pain. Rocky uses his barf to get to the top. After a while, everyone except Tennis Ball are at the top. The contestants reach the top in the following order:

1. Pen
2. Snowball
3. Blocky
4. Ice Cube
5. Leafy
6. Match
7. Pencil
8. Eraser
9. Firey
10. Bubble
11. Rocky
12. Tennis Ball

Right after Rocky reaches the top, the Announcer says "OK. So now that we're here, except for 'that clumsy Tennis Ball', let's see the results."

### Results

Leafy wonders why the contestants are standing on gray squares. The Announcer says he will get to that later. He gives everyone 30 bonus points. The gray squares below them suddenly change to towers that show the contestant's points. The sudden movement scares everyone, especially Firey. Then, Announcer says that Win Tokens will be void of use. After Eraser complains, the Announcer says that the Win Tokens will be traded for 15 points. The contestants get points on how well they did in the contest, which means Pen gets 30 points, Snowball gets 20 points, Blocky gets 15 points, Ice Cube gets 12 points, Leafy gets 10 points, Match gets 8 points, Pencil gets 6 points, Eraser gets 4 points, Firey gets 3 points, Bubble gets 2 points, Rocky gets 1 point, and Tennis Ball doesn't receive any points.

Then, any elimination votes a contestant had received means -1 point for each vote, but Pencil does not have to worry because she has never got a vote. However, Bubble received 1 vote (-1), Ice Cube received 2 votes (-2), Leafy and Eraser both received 3 votes (-3), Match and Pen both received 4 votes (-4), Blocky received 10 votes (-10), Firey received 14 votes (-14), Rocky received 15 votes (-15) all vote in Ep.11, Snowball received 18 votes (-18), and Tennis Ball received 25 votes (-25).

* **Bold name** means that the contestant got the most points on the current score.
* *Italic name* means that the contestant is in the bottom third, and is up for elimination.

Announcer says that the voting will be between the bottom third: Snowball, Bubble, Rocky, and Tennis Ball.

### Stinger

At night, Tennis Ball talks to Firey about him setting the Recommended characters on fire. The characters are then seen running and panicking on fire.

## Cast

 Michael Huang
 AT&T/NaturalReader Mike

## Trivia

* The game that is seen in the BFDI DDS is "Get to the Top Although There Is No Top!" (GTTTATINT), a game made by the creator of Battle for Dream Island, and it has a version where you can play as the BFDI characters.
* Along with the previous episode, no cake was used for Cake at Stake, and everyone pretended the cake was there.
* At the start of the episode, it reveals that Bubble's book is called "How to be Dumb", and chapter 5 is "Forget It All!" However, this book has been mentioned in episodes 9 and 23 as well. Pencil read it on episode 9, Bubble on episode 12 and Flower on episode 23 (Although in episode 23, the book name is changed to "How to be So Very Dumb" instead of "How to be Dumb".)
	+ The page in "How to be Dumb" that Leafy is reading says "Although it's not really amnesia per se, forgetfulness can make any person dumber, simply because anything that someone ends up learning (which is detrimental to their dumbness journey) will be conveniently forgotten, easing the transition to dumbness. Now innovations like these can make even the most intelligent people very, very dumb. Now, that doesn't mean that saying "I forget" will make you dumb. That will never happen. It'll never ever, ever, ever, ever happen. What you have to do is, upon learning something new, think of something entirely different. For example, when you learn about Cary, think of someone good. When you learn about Michael, think of someone very, very bad."
		- This may be a sign that jacknjellify are in the BFDI universe as well.
* The balloon that popped when holding up the "Last Episode" and "3" signs at the beginning of the episode said "Failure" when popped.
* Blocky holds 2 different "Losers" signs at the laughing scene. More than one of many contestants can be seen at the same time during the scene.
* The Announcer forgot to ask Firey if he wanted to use his Win Token.
* This is the last episode that aired in 2010.
* This is the only episode after the elimination that has the same amount of contestants as the episode number.
* Coincidentally, Coiny was eliminated at 30 votes, the same number as the bonus points that everyone got.
* This is the only episode in the three team's stage that has the contestant with the most votes actually get eliminated.
* Snowball, Rocky, Leafy, and Bubble were the only contestants to lose points all from one episode.
* This is the first episode to have only one contestant safe in Cake at Stake.

## Continuity references

* At the start of the episode, Bubble is reading how "How to be Dumb", the same book Pencil read in BFDI 9.
* Another Name is laughed at again.
* The Announcer calls Tennis Ball clumsy again.
* The contestants lose points based on the amount of votes they received throughout the season.

## Cultural references

* This is the first episode to use Minecraft's old (Pre-1.0) grass sound.
	+ BFDI and Minecraft both have sounds from Freesound.

## Goofs

* Firey stops burning/flaming a few times.
* At 5:14, Snowball's score is better than Firey's. But on the next 2 shots, when Announcer is confused about Firey possibly tasting peanut butter, Snowball is replaced by Eraser.

 File:Mistake.PNG
* A piece of tall grass appeared when Bubble was reading, but it suddenly disappeared when Bubble was popped.  File:Line.PNG
* At 5:51, when Pen said: "Well, I'm still in first!", his mouth didn't move.
* At 2:57, when the remaining contestants are shown, Snowball is floating. A more detailed picture of the mistake can be seen on the right.
* When the points counted Win Token's, Eraser isn't standing but floating on the platform.
* When the Dodecascreen folds over Match's face, her face asset disappears before it covers her face.
* Popping sounds can be heard before Bubble is popped by Leafy.
* A mysterious line can be seen poking out of the book Bubble was reading.
* When Rocky barfs his way up the tower, he starts on one side but when he reaches the top, arrives at the tower on the other side, even though he was going in a straight line.

## Deaths

* Bubble is popped by Leafy.
* Bubble is popped by a water balloon dropped by the Announcer.
* Firey dies from the water balloon.
* The 15 recommended characters may have burned to death. (debatable)

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