Illinois 2014

Illinois 2014 is widely considered to be the most hyped year of a state in recent history. This hype for Illinois 2014 is responsible for the Illinois 2014 thread on the forums being the last post of both the 2013 and 2014 seasons.

Many people consider Illinois 2014 to be the spiritual successor of the fabled missing Illinois 2012 thread, which is believed to have been the longest state topic of all time.

Illinois 2014 has a very unique scoring method, with first place being awarded to the last poster on the thread when it is archived, second place being awarded to the second to last poster, and so on.

 In the 2013 Regionals, States, and Invitationals forum, a topic for Illinois 2014 was created for a preliminary discussion shortly before site rollover occurred (site rollover is when everything is updated for the next season, usually occurring in August). The last post of the 2013-specific forums was posted in this topic, meaning that Illinois 2014 is displayed as having the last post of 2013 in the archived forums section.

The next year, when site rollover occurred (updating everything for the 2015 season) in early August, the last post in the 2014-specific forums was not originally in Illinois 2014. However, while the forums were being updated heavily in early September, someone somehow managed to post in the archived Illinois 2014 topic. This bug in which users could post in the archived forums was quickly fixed, however, the post in the Illinois 2014 thread was not deleted, meaning that Illinois 2014 is displayed as having the last post of 2014 in the archived forums section.

Now, this is quite unique, having two separate topics of the same exact name being the last post of two years. In 2015, it became an inside joke, even leading to the creation of a third annual Illinois 2014 thread.