They’ll tell you I did it by sheer luck. They’ll tell you I did it because I followed the AZ meta. They’ll tell you I did it because I had a near-capped-out team to begin with, so of course we had a good chance to win.
But I’ll tell you that we didn’t get here so easily.
No, Portland succeeded in reaching the Ultimini heights from a rather interesting position in the season. You see, my ISFL friends, we were thrashed thirty to sixteen by London right out the gate, followed by a modest victory of thirty-four to twenty-four against Norfolk.
Then Pythons six Minnesota thirty-eight. What a game for me to be hiding underneath a desk hoping my team doesn’t come to call for mutiny. Already into the season, we have handed Minnesota one of their first big wins to start off their stellar season, and already off to a bad start for Portland.
Twenty-three and seventeen against Tijuana is…unsurprising, followed by an unfortunately similarly unsurprising thirteen and nineteen against Bondi.
But wait, hold? Is that? A comeback?
Both home and away, playing Kansas City, and also Dallas, Portland walks home with four wins out of two separate games both home and away, respectively.
Pythons away at Bondi - Crushing defeat for Portland.
It is at this point, as the dust settled, that I was at something of an inflection point as a GM.
I could accept that cards might fall as they may for the rest of the season, and simply hope for playoffs. Simply hoping that we’d get to at least playoffs, especially considering the teams that had come forth to compete for the spot, it was worrying whether or not I would even be able to succeed at finding the right strats for us to even come close to winning.
I wasn’t expecting much, but our team was determined, Willeh was determined to sim test, and I was going to see things through for better or worse.
But with a touchdown and a two-point conversion doing nothing to help Tijuana stop Portland from walking the field with them, going forty-two and thirty-nine, eyes are on the Pythons as now they have toppled Tijuana, and at their own game, too.
Similarly, Minnesota are surprised and upset to find that their previously easy victory against Portland shook out to be instead a defeat, with twelve points in the 4th quarter to wrest the victory from Minnesota. (I wonder if this will be a recurring theme?)
Norfolk walks away having gone fourteen to the Pythons staggering fifty-five. Similarly, London goes twelve and twenty-six against the snakes, and loses out the playoffs spot.
Finally, we revisit the ensuing battle between Portland and Minnesota, the tie-breaking game to decide who will face Tijuana in the Ultimini.
When it seemed things were looking bleak for Portland, when it seemed like there was no chance that Minnesota could possibly lose the game, three touchdowns and completed field goals in the final quarter, leaving Modpro, and everyone in the gameday voice chat, with their jaws on the floor.
Win or lose the Ultimini, I could’ve gotten a noise complaint from how loudly I was shouting by the end of things. Sorry to those who were listening in to the stream.
But with one final mission, one final task to complete, Willeh and I went back to the drawing board one final time to uncover the strats that would give us the best chance to do one final thing, one final crazy attempt to take home the championships, and with a beautiful final pass to Tyler Higbee II for the game-winning touchdown, the dust had cleared, and Portland was your winners for this years’ Ultimini.
I remember being strangely calm at the end, almost shocked that we had actually done it. And it wasn’t until Twenty6 asked how I was being so chill about this right now that the reality hit me all at once, and we had done it.
My first season as co-GM for the Portland Pythons, and my first season sim testing, and we had done it.
If I do nothing else exciting in my ISFL career, I will merely point to that trophy.
But I’ll tell you that we didn’t get here so easily.
No, Portland succeeded in reaching the Ultimini heights from a rather interesting position in the season. You see, my ISFL friends, we were thrashed thirty to sixteen by London right out the gate, followed by a modest victory of thirty-four to twenty-four against Norfolk.
Then Pythons six Minnesota thirty-eight. What a game for me to be hiding underneath a desk hoping my team doesn’t come to call for mutiny. Already into the season, we have handed Minnesota one of their first big wins to start off their stellar season, and already off to a bad start for Portland.
Twenty-three and seventeen against Tijuana is…unsurprising, followed by an unfortunately similarly unsurprising thirteen and nineteen against Bondi.
But wait, hold? Is that? A comeback?
Both home and away, playing Kansas City, and also Dallas, Portland walks home with four wins out of two separate games both home and away, respectively.
Pythons away at Bondi - Crushing defeat for Portland.
It is at this point, as the dust settled, that I was at something of an inflection point as a GM.
I could accept that cards might fall as they may for the rest of the season, and simply hope for playoffs. Simply hoping that we’d get to at least playoffs, especially considering the teams that had come forth to compete for the spot, it was worrying whether or not I would even be able to succeed at finding the right strats for us to even come close to winning.
I wasn’t expecting much, but our team was determined, Willeh was determined to sim test, and I was going to see things through for better or worse.
But with a touchdown and a two-point conversion doing nothing to help Tijuana stop Portland from walking the field with them, going forty-two and thirty-nine, eyes are on the Pythons as now they have toppled Tijuana, and at their own game, too.
Similarly, Minnesota are surprised and upset to find that their previously easy victory against Portland shook out to be instead a defeat, with twelve points in the 4th quarter to wrest the victory from Minnesota. (I wonder if this will be a recurring theme?)
Norfolk walks away having gone fourteen to the Pythons staggering fifty-five. Similarly, London goes twelve and twenty-six against the snakes, and loses out the playoffs spot.
Finally, we revisit the ensuing battle between Portland and Minnesota, the tie-breaking game to decide who will face Tijuana in the Ultimini.
When it seemed things were looking bleak for Portland, when it seemed like there was no chance that Minnesota could possibly lose the game, three touchdowns and completed field goals in the final quarter, leaving Modpro, and everyone in the gameday voice chat, with their jaws on the floor.
Win or lose the Ultimini, I could’ve gotten a noise complaint from how loudly I was shouting by the end of things. Sorry to those who were listening in to the stream.
But with one final mission, one final task to complete, Willeh and I went back to the drawing board one final time to uncover the strats that would give us the best chance to do one final thing, one final crazy attempt to take home the championships, and with a beautiful final pass to Tyler Higbee II for the game-winning touchdown, the dust had cleared, and Portland was your winners for this years’ Ultimini.
I remember being strangely calm at the end, almost shocked that we had actually done it. And it wasn’t until Twenty6 asked how I was being so chill about this right now that the reality hit me all at once, and we had done it.
My first season as co-GM for the Portland Pythons, and my first season sim testing, and we had done it.
If I do nothing else exciting in my ISFL career, I will merely point to that trophy.
Raphael will see you now.
S47 Ultimini Champions
S49 Ultimini Champions