Landlord Shmandlord

I received notice that my ex-tenants, the ones against which I received the default judgment, filed an appeal. First of all, I still don’t understand how they are allowed to appeal a default judgment when they did not show up in court the first time around, but apparently they are. What exactly are they appealing?

Anyhow, in response I had to file my formal claim against them, which has already been received by the court. The thing that was interesting about this complaint is that the court would tell me absolutely _nothing_ about how to format it, about the process, or anything. To each question, they recommended I get a lawyer or go to a law library and look up the state’s civil procedure laws. While I did not pay a lawyer to help, I was able to consult with one in order to get all the paperwork together properly.
Now that I’ve filed the complaint, the defendants are most likely going to have to get themselves a lawyer in order to take it to the next level.

I am particularly curious if they had planned this from the beginning (of the small claims process). Are they aware of how much trouble it is to file the formal complaint, and if so, chose not to show up in court with the intension of appealing?