(S4) - PT #6 - Playoff Scenarios

[RedCydranth]

Usually by week 12 the Playoff Scenario in the ASFC is crystal clear. For the first 3 seasons, the Outlaws and Otters had secured their tickets to the post season. This year, however, there might me a shakeup. As of week 12 the ASFC Divisional looked like this:

Arizona Outlaws 10-2
Orange County Otters 8-4
San Jose Sabercats 7-5
Las Vegas Legion 3-9

The obvious here is that this is another season of failure for the Legion, who are mathematically eliminated from contention. Another thing here is that the Outlaws have clinched a playoff spot. And upon further analysis, they've already clinched the division because they have beat the Otters twice, so even if they Otters win out and Outlaws lose both of their remaining games, they own the tie breaker.

So, the final spot which is up for grabs is between the Otters and the Sabercats. Orange County has a definitive edge by being a game up on the 'cats. However if they lose their remaining 2 games and San Jose wins out, they'd be outside the bubble looking in. San Jose must win their final 2 games to have any hope of making the playoffs.

The teams can end up with a tied record if San Jose can beat Orange County in the final week of the season and if both teams win their week 13 matchup. This would cause them to split the series on the season and with a lead in the Points For category, I do believe the Otters would ever so narrowly edge out the Sabercats for the contested spot.

So, basically, if Orange County wins during week 13, they've clinched their playoff spot regardless of whether or not San Jose wins week 14 or not.

(296 words)

[SwagSloth]

With the play-offs already decided, instead of taking time to talk about what could have been, let’s talk about what will be. And most shocking of all in this play-off picture is the fact that the Wraiths made the play-offs. Not only did they make the play-offs, but they earned the top seed, forcing the Liberty to travel to Yellowknife to face them on their turf.

The history of the Wraiths has been a troublesome one. After falling to securing the Ultimus in S1 and S2, the Wraiths came into S3 determined to finally do what they could not do it before. They had their heart set on a championship and they finally had the talent to do it. Only they fell short. With their hopes dashed, several players left for greener pastures or requested trades elsewhere. Chris Orosz, Josh Garden, and Kevin Cushing all left, leaving huge gaps in the team’s needs. Fans were devastated. And so they set their sights on S5, focusing on the season ahead at the expense of the current season. The Yellowknife faithful rallied behind their team and packed the stadium in hopes of seeing their team secure the most impressive of draft picks. All they had to do was lose. Only they couldn’t even do that. Fans were dejected as the Wraiths found ways to score more points than the other teams, fumbling the ball over the goal line and mistaking their own wide receivers for defenders as would-be interceptions turned into first downs before their very eyes. Even the one guaranteed loss of the season was taken away from them as the team somehow snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, finding a way to defeat the Arizona Outlaws in week 6. Apparently, the Wraiths can’t even lose right. Worst rebuild ever.

With their dreams of perfect draft picks dashed and only a shot at the Ultimus to make up for it, Yellowknife now turns its sights to the S6 draft. Let’s hope they can regain their lost focus and actually lose the appropriate number of games next season.

347 Words

[JKortesi81]

I’m going to write about the playoffs themselves here. How crazy is it that we had a 9-5 team miss the playoffs when an 8-6 and 7-7 team made it? San Jose deserved better, for sure. And what about the Hawks? They went from potential upsetters of the Outlaw dynasty to losing to the Yeti and missing the playoffs too. That’s crazy to type. But seriously, both conferences had ties for the last playoff spots. I think the league itself should look into either eliminating conferences, or maybe give the division winners a first round bye, (like the lesser football league, the NFL, does) and have each team’s 2 and 3 seeds play in the first round. Gives us two more exciting playoff games per season, and look at how this worked out this year: The 7-7 Hawks would travel to the 7-7 Liberty while the 9-5 Sabercats travel to play the 9-5 Otters. THOSE ARE AWESOME FIRST ROUND MATCHUPS. Plus, by winning your division, you earn a first round bye, which means the season matters a little bit more. Even still, what a crazy season its been for the NSFL. Here’s hoping that Colorado and Las Vegas improve a bit more and we can have an even more fun season next year! And as for the playoffs? Well, at this point, #AnyoneButArizona. Thanks. (224)

[daBenchwarmer]

#allforone

[run_CMC]

The DSFL playoff teams have been decided with the regular season coming to a close on Thursday, but there's still much to discuss. First off, the Tijuana Luchadores. Including the preseason, they started 0-9. They then proceeded to go on a 7 game winning streak... before losing the last 2, and in turn, losing their home field advantage to the San Antonio Marshals. This doesn't bode well for them at all, since the Luchadores lost to their tough division rival recently in week 13. Even if they did beat them, they'd still have to go through the Portland Pythons in order to win the championship. Now, the Pythons aren't guaranteed to be the Western Conference representative to the championship game, but it's likely. They've beat the Norfolk SeaWolves in all 3 games this year, with victory margins of 1, 11, and 6 points, and the Pythons will be playing at home. Let's not discredit Norfollk though: the SeaWolves currently have a better record than either of the two eastern conference playoff teams, and have gone 2-0 against the San Antonio Marshals and 1-1 against the Tijuana Luchadores this season. Then again, their loss to Tijuana wasn't any normal loss: it was a 37-10 blowout. To make a long story short: Tijuana and Norfolk will probably struggle to reach the final round, but the championship may be a tossup either way.

(230 words)

[jaskins811]

With the regular season over, we now know what the playoffs will look like, and this will be a great one. The NSFC preseason favorites, the Baltimore Hawks, narrowly missed the playoffs, after reaching the championship game last year against the Outlaws. This was a major blow to the Hawks and their fans as they were expecting another playoff run. However, in the NSFC, the Yellowknife Wraiths made the playoffs after missing out on them last season, and not only that, but they will have home field advantage for their game against the Liberty. This will be a good matchup, as the Liberty won on Yellowknife's turf earlier in the season, but you know that this week the Wraiths are not going to let that happen again.

Over in the ASFC, there weren't too many surprises, as the Otters claimed the second seed and the Outlaws claimed the top seed, like usual. Luckily, there seems to be more talent involved in the ASFC, as the SaberCats were this close to beating out the Otters for their first ever playoff bid. Next season will definitely be a bloodbath in the ASFC.

All in all, the playoffs this season should be very exciting and I can not wait to see what unfolds.

[Bayley]

Going into the last day of the season vs the Otters, the Cats needed to win and win by a lot. This was the struggle. This team had a couple games during the year in which should have been victories that did not turn out that way. Overall, the season has to be considered a success for this team. They are 9-5 with two of the best CB in the league in John Canton and Benson Bayley. For a team that struggled to find pieces in their secondary, they found two of them. When you look at teams that had zero chance, there was the Colorado Yeti and Las Vegas Legion. But, honestly, was anyone really surprised by either of these teams being out of it? This is going to be continued trend likely for a couple seasons. It seems like the same teams are focusing on the hunt and the same teams are clinching while the same teams are so far out. The Cats are showing that the splash that they had with Jackson, Orosz, and Lee came out to benefit the team long term. This team is going to be huge moving toward, so keep an eye on them.

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[Beaver]

Code:

249 words

By far the most interesting playoff race was in the National Simulation Football Conference. Going into Week 12 the Baltimore Hawks were top in the conference with a 7-4 record, 3 games clear of the 4-7 Philadelphia Liberty and 1 game ahead of the 6-5 Yellowknife Wraiths. Then the Liberty made one a playoff push for the ages starting by gaining a game on the Hawks with their win over the Yeti matched by the Hawks' loss to the Outlaws. Those results were pretty expected. Not to be left out, the Wraiths beat the Sabrecats to tie the Hawks for 1st.

The Liberty had to win their last two games and hope for one of the teams ahead of them to lose both of their last two and win the tiebreaker for a playoff berth. Luckily for them, their last two games were against the teams they needed to lose. The season would come down to those games, just as it should. If they won out all they'd need is for one of the other teams to lose one more game to have a chance. In Week 13, the Liberty bested the Wraiths and cheered on as the Orange County Otters cruised to a win over the Hawks. They Liberty were now a game behind the Wraiths and Hawks and had a loser-goes-home matchup against the Hawks. With the tiebreaker against the Wraiths secured, the Liberty could get home field advantage or miss the playoffs altogether.

In a back and forth battle for the ages, the Liberty found themselves up 8 with just minutes remaining on the clock. Facing 3rd and Goal from the 4, the Hawks found Wheat open in the end zone for the touchdown. A two point conversion was needed to tie the game and keep the Hawks' playoff hopes - which looked so secure mere weeks ago - alive.

Unfortunately it was not to be. The Liberty escaped with a 2 point victory and snuck into the playoffs on a 3 game winning streak while the Hawks lost their last three. The Wraiths, meanwhile, blanked the Yeti to secure the top seed.

[TheWoZy]

In the NSFC, it's a battle for 2 playoffs spot. The Liberty, wraiths and the hawks are very close in the standing. Although the hawks are ahead of the two teams, they have a very bad schedule. They have an easy game against the Legion at home but they will face the otters and the outlaws away. Their last game would be against the Liberty at home. The Liberty will face the Sabercats, the Yeti, the Wraiths and the Hawks. They will have an easy game against the Yeti and they are the favorite to win against the Wraiths but they will play against the Sabercats away. As for the Wraiths, they also play against the Yeti and against the Sabercats at home. Unfortunately, they will be having a bad in Arizona and maybe in Philadelphia. The three will have a chance to have the same result which would be 2-2. The Wraiths are expected to make the playoffs. Winning at home would be an easy task for them. The Hawks would make the playoffs too if they were to win two games. Is this going to happen? I don't think so. The Liberty are undefeated in their conference and I believe they would stay undefeated. If the Hawks goes 1-3 then they will miss the playoffs. Their loss against Yeti is putting them in corner.

[Evok]