8 Rounds.
6 Teams.
One Wild Ride.

Baldwin closed Round 8 with $94.7M profit on a 56.95% contribution margin, and the line tells the whole story: every one of its six products cleared 46% margin, from Performance up to Low End and Traditional. The team led the Performance segment and held a 48.6% market share in Size — the single biggest segment share any team held in the sim. Sustained productivity-module investment from Round 4 onward cut labor and administrative costs deeply, so the volume Baldwin ran through full plant utilization converted to profit rather than carrying cost. Cumulative profit reached $313.95M, the highest in the class.

Erie posted the class's highest final-round contribution margin at 57.38% and an $81.1M Round 8 profit — remarkable for a team whose stock had fallen to $10.25 by Round 2 after back-to-back early losses. From there Erie climbed every round, and by the close it was one of only two teams (with Baldwin) competing profitably across all five segments at once, holding strong Performance and Size shares behind Baldwin's segment-leading positions. The turnaround ran on the same engine as the leaders: a high productivity index and aggressive cost reduction that lifted its Low End and Traditional products to margins near 60% and above. Cumulative profit finished at $233.18M and the stock recovered all the way to $335.97.

Digby ran the broadest, highest-volume operation in the class and reached the highest productivity index any team posted. It owned Traditional at 39.6% market share and led Low End at 35.7%, anchored by its high-volume Low End and Traditional products. The breadth carried real cost discipline, with overhead falling steadily through the sim, and Digby earned $74.5M in Round 8 profit. A single losing round in Round 4 dented the stock mid-sim, but profitable rounds followed and cumulative profit closed at $163.87M.

Andrews led the class through the first three rounds — a 39.01% contribution margin and $40.8M cumulative profit by Round 3 put it ahead — built on Able, which carried a 30.5% margin in Traditional all the way to the close. From Round 5 the picture changed: three emergency loans arrived across Rounds 5 through 7 as operating losses mounted, and by Round 8 four of Andrews's products had been repositioned into the Low End segment, where they sat largely unsold against deep inventory. The team finished cumulatively positive at $32.4M and the stock recovered off the floor it touched in Round 6. Able's steady Traditional position — Andrews held 19.9% of the segment — was the through-line that held.

Chester's surviving product, Cake, earned a 47.2% contribution margin in Traditional in the final round — proof the team could build a profitable product even at the end. Chester started strong, sitting second on stock after Round 1, but two large operating losses in Rounds 5 and 6 forced emergency loans of $99.5M and $72.0M and dropped the stock to the $1.00 floor. The team responded by paring the line all the way down to that one product, which let Round 8 itself return to profit at $12.4M even as cumulative profit stayed at -$45.3M. By the close Chester ran the leanest operation in the class — 51 employees on a single Traditional play.