I am going to use this opportunity to write about that time Slate and I were GMs of the London Royals in S28 and won the Ultimini. While I have a lot of great memories in the league (and still continue to form them), this is probably one of my favorite ones. I hope you enjoy reading about it.
So even before the season started, Slate and I had some brief but serious discussions about whether or not we wanted to just punt the season. In other words, try and trade away our picks for future draft capital. Just looking at the rosters of some our opponents (mainly Portland), we felt very out-manned on both offense and defense. We eventually concluded that this probably wouldn't be the best course of action. Besides finding a trade partner (which I feel is harder to do in the DSFL draft than the ISFL draft), we would be passing up the opportunity to draft a new user and potential future war room member or GM. And boy was that right. In our previous draft, we selected some fantastic users including Pib, Duke, Ace, and future London GM Seb (with our 2nd to last pick nonetheless). We also picked our new starting QB, Red Arrow Jr., who would only be with us one season but more on that later. In this draft, we selected Lucid Dreams who would go on to GM the team with Seb (and myself for one season).
Before the season even started, Slate and I had the entire war room behind us in testing to figure what formations and personnel combinations gave us the best chance of winning. We had a very strong war room (shades of S24) with lots of sim knowledge. Obviously there was some tweaking done throughout the season, but we eventually found something that gave us the best chance of winning. Once that was established, it was an issue of keeping everyone active and earning. Mag worked his magic the previous season and was able to pull Seb out from the depths of being IA with a Reddit message. Fortunately almost everyone we drafted required little encouragement to be active and update, which I think contributed greatly to the Royals' success in S28.
Getting into the start of the season, the Royals started strong with three straight wins, including a week 1 win over the Portland Pythons, a team that we would see 2 more times that season. Week 4, however, London suffered an unfortunate loss to our longtime rivals, the Dallas Birddogs, on their home field. The loss stung, mainly because the trash talking was incessant, but London would get revenge later on in the season. After going 1 and 1 in the next 2 weeks, London would go on a six game winning streak. Five of those wins would be by 1 possession. London would again finish the last 2 weeks of the season going 1 and 1, with Portland getting their revenge for week 1.
In the playoffs, London would first face off against, you guessed it, the Portland Pythons. Portland was a very strong team, having also gone 11-3 during the regular season. London and Portland were pretty evenly matched throughout the first half of the game with the score being 17-13 Portland. But in the second half, the Royals ran away with it, scoring an additional 10 points for a final score of 23-17. Rookie defensive end Lucid Dreams had a clutch defensive touchdown in the first half that ultimately would be the difference maker in the win.
Moving on to the Ultimini, the Royals faced the DSFL powerhouse Tijuana Luchadores. Tijuana has almost always had success in the DSFL and that was looking to be the case in the Ultimini game as well as running back Lonnie Jackson rattled off a 42-yard touchdown run to start things off. However, things quickly shifted and it was pretty much all Royals from that point on. Rainbow Dash, the kicker and punter for London, connected on 4 field goals on route to a 26-10 victory. It was an incredible feeling to see the team you put so much time and effort into running win the whole shebang. Before I end this, though, I just want to acknowledge that I could certainly not have done it without the help of my co-GM Slate. The dude is a genius and I was very fortunate to get to GM alongside him.
So even before the season started, Slate and I had some brief but serious discussions about whether or not we wanted to just punt the season. In other words, try and trade away our picks for future draft capital. Just looking at the rosters of some our opponents (mainly Portland), we felt very out-manned on both offense and defense. We eventually concluded that this probably wouldn't be the best course of action. Besides finding a trade partner (which I feel is harder to do in the DSFL draft than the ISFL draft), we would be passing up the opportunity to draft a new user and potential future war room member or GM. And boy was that right. In our previous draft, we selected some fantastic users including Pib, Duke, Ace, and future London GM Seb (with our 2nd to last pick nonetheless). We also picked our new starting QB, Red Arrow Jr., who would only be with us one season but more on that later. In this draft, we selected Lucid Dreams who would go on to GM the team with Seb (and myself for one season).
Before the season even started, Slate and I had the entire war room behind us in testing to figure what formations and personnel combinations gave us the best chance of winning. We had a very strong war room (shades of S24) with lots of sim knowledge. Obviously there was some tweaking done throughout the season, but we eventually found something that gave us the best chance of winning. Once that was established, it was an issue of keeping everyone active and earning. Mag worked his magic the previous season and was able to pull Seb out from the depths of being IA with a Reddit message. Fortunately almost everyone we drafted required little encouragement to be active and update, which I think contributed greatly to the Royals' success in S28.
Getting into the start of the season, the Royals started strong with three straight wins, including a week 1 win over the Portland Pythons, a team that we would see 2 more times that season. Week 4, however, London suffered an unfortunate loss to our longtime rivals, the Dallas Birddogs, on their home field. The loss stung, mainly because the trash talking was incessant, but London would get revenge later on in the season. After going 1 and 1 in the next 2 weeks, London would go on a six game winning streak. Five of those wins would be by 1 possession. London would again finish the last 2 weeks of the season going 1 and 1, with Portland getting their revenge for week 1.
In the playoffs, London would first face off against, you guessed it, the Portland Pythons. Portland was a very strong team, having also gone 11-3 during the regular season. London and Portland were pretty evenly matched throughout the first half of the game with the score being 17-13 Portland. But in the second half, the Royals ran away with it, scoring an additional 10 points for a final score of 23-17. Rookie defensive end Lucid Dreams had a clutch defensive touchdown in the first half that ultimately would be the difference maker in the win.
Moving on to the Ultimini, the Royals faced the DSFL powerhouse Tijuana Luchadores. Tijuana has almost always had success in the DSFL and that was looking to be the case in the Ultimini game as well as running back Lonnie Jackson rattled off a 42-yard touchdown run to start things off. However, things quickly shifted and it was pretty much all Royals from that point on. Rainbow Dash, the kicker and punter for London, connected on 4 field goals on route to a 26-10 victory. It was an incredible feeling to see the team you put so much time and effort into running win the whole shebang. Before I end this, though, I just want to acknowledge that I could certainly not have done it without the help of my co-GM Slate. The dude is a genius and I was very fortunate to get to GM alongside him.