1. The Ultimus and Ultimini were both awesome to watch this season. With my Portland Pythons coming away with the Ultimini everyone in our locker room is super stoked to finally bring a ring to Portland and do it from a "Last to First" scenario. In the DSFL, POR faced TIJ in the championship game and their stories couldn't be any different. Tijuana had a dominant regular season and although their defense was the lowest in TPE, it didn't show. This led to them going 10-4 entering the playoffs. Portland on the other hand had a rough start, going 1-4 in their first 5 games as the last ranked team the previous season. They managed to pick it up at the end of the season however which led to them winning 8 of their last 9 games to narrowly beat out London for the last playoff slot.
In the DSFL conference championship, POR had to face MINN away who was even more dominant than TIJ all season, going 11-3 total so most people had MINN as a lock for the Ultimini. It looked that way too as the game started 27-0 in favor of the Grey Ducks before something really funny happened. POR somehow came back in the 4th quarter and won 28-27 perhaps giving the biggest comeback in DSFL/ISFL history. This definitely came as a shock to people as POR surprised everyone, including myself, while MINN fans were devastated getting knocked out in the first round back-to-back seasons after dominating all season. On the other side, TIJ had a similarly close game to BBB but everyone expected TIJ to win so it came as no surprise. Like POR's victory over MINN, it came as a shock to most people that we also came out on top of TIJ in the Ultimini. A 23-14 scoreline in favor of TIJ at the beginning of the 4th soon crumbled as POR quickly scored twice to win 28-23 which only a few users thought to be possible. But now the Portland Pythons are your Ultimini Champs so it's all said and done!
In the ISFL, ARI clawed their way back in to the game to get to OT and quickly scored to take the win over NOLA. Meanwhile CTC dominated an already limping BAL (sorry Baron) to face a strong CHI in the conference championship. While SJS led ARI for a while, ARI woke up in the end to take a clean victory over the Sabercats and take them to the Ultimus once again. A lack luster performance from the Butchers where they only scored in the second quarter showed CTC also entering the Ultimus as one of the lowest seeded teams. However their journey would end there as the Outlaws, who kept it close in the first half, annihilated the Crash to no-ones surprise. I think both CTC and NOLA were pretty surprising in the playoffs. Although NOLA lost in the first round, they took it to OT against the reigning champions in a close loss and performed very well. CTC on the other hand made it to the Ultimus and had a very strong season despite a patchy start. The main teams that were a disappointment in the playoffs were the Butchers, Sabercats, and Hawks, who, despite being a higher seed and having a better season than their opponents, lost in the first game they played which is never ideal when you're considered a "favorite".
While there were a lot of CTC believers, I don't think the outcome of the Ultimus was surprising given how the playoffs played out. I inititially had SJS and CHI playing in the championship so I guess the teams that actually made it could be considered a surprise but ARI has playoffs in their blood and CTC is an extremely competitive team so they deserved it. No-one likes a back-to-back champ so I see everyone gunning to take ARI down next season to not let it happen again.
In the DSFL conference championship, POR had to face MINN away who was even more dominant than TIJ all season, going 11-3 total so most people had MINN as a lock for the Ultimini. It looked that way too as the game started 27-0 in favor of the Grey Ducks before something really funny happened. POR somehow came back in the 4th quarter and won 28-27 perhaps giving the biggest comeback in DSFL/ISFL history. This definitely came as a shock to people as POR surprised everyone, including myself, while MINN fans were devastated getting knocked out in the first round back-to-back seasons after dominating all season. On the other side, TIJ had a similarly close game to BBB but everyone expected TIJ to win so it came as no surprise. Like POR's victory over MINN, it came as a shock to most people that we also came out on top of TIJ in the Ultimini. A 23-14 scoreline in favor of TIJ at the beginning of the 4th soon crumbled as POR quickly scored twice to win 28-23 which only a few users thought to be possible. But now the Portland Pythons are your Ultimini Champs so it's all said and done!
In the ISFL, ARI clawed their way back in to the game to get to OT and quickly scored to take the win over NOLA. Meanwhile CTC dominated an already limping BAL (sorry Baron) to face a strong CHI in the conference championship. While SJS led ARI for a while, ARI woke up in the end to take a clean victory over the Sabercats and take them to the Ultimus once again. A lack luster performance from the Butchers where they only scored in the second quarter showed CTC also entering the Ultimus as one of the lowest seeded teams. However their journey would end there as the Outlaws, who kept it close in the first half, annihilated the Crash to no-ones surprise. I think both CTC and NOLA were pretty surprising in the playoffs. Although NOLA lost in the first round, they took it to OT against the reigning champions in a close loss and performed very well. CTC on the other hand made it to the Ultimus and had a very strong season despite a patchy start. The main teams that were a disappointment in the playoffs were the Butchers, Sabercats, and Hawks, who, despite being a higher seed and having a better season than their opponents, lost in the first game they played which is never ideal when you're considered a "favorite".
While there were a lot of CTC believers, I don't think the outcome of the Ultimus was surprising given how the playoffs played out. I inititially had SJS and CHI playing in the championship so I guess the teams that actually made it could be considered a surprise but ARI has playoffs in their blood and CTC is an extremely competitive team so they deserved it. No-one likes a back-to-back champ so I see everyone gunning to take ARI down next season to not let it happen again.
S47 DSFL MDM