My first Lighthouse trip I had the only 8-0 card in my fireteam. The other two had newer cards with a loss or two on them. When we lost that match and I blew my mercy, I saw that one of our opponents hit the lighthouse, implying that we were playing a team that also only had one 8-0 member.

My second card was synced with my fireteam, and we were paying very close attention to our opponents before each match. We were playing teams in lockstep with our cards. We lost to a 7-0 team when we were 7-0 to blow mercy, and we beat an 8-0 team for the Lighthouse.

There might be an interesting "strategy" buried in there for getting single fireteam members to the lighthouse, where you all blow through the first five games or so, then have two members leave, reset their cards, and throw a couple games. You then join back up with your 5-0 teammate and proceed to drag the matchmaking down.

"WildthingVII has claimed the ultimate victory!"

It reports in the killfeed when someone reached the Lighthouse at the end of the match now? Brutal.

I'm so ignorant about how trials works, but my understanding is that players who have won 8 games are now matched with other players who have 8 wins, so doesn't everyone know they're playing for all the marbles in the ninth game?

Hmmm, I guess a team often has mixed stats, though. How does that work?

It reports in the killfeed when someone reached the Lighthouse at the end of the match now? Brutal.

Possible language warnings, emotions run high in Trials:

How not to self-res
Close shave with a Golden Gun
Spectacularly bad Invecitve ammo management
Final win for 9-0 on the bum-rush

These make it seem like the general field of competition was pretty bad, but it turns out the bad ones just make for the best game clips.