1) Man, S28 was an interesting season, and for a lot of the time in key moments, surprising season for the ISFL! I am writing this after the playoffs and championship for the ISFL, so this will be a reflection on the teams that made the playoffs and how they got here and how each team did relative to their own expectations! Like last season, this season was completed with the new sim engine so there were a few surprises this season to me.
The biggest surprise that I noticed was that, despite having the same core roster with a few young players, my team, the New Orleans Second Line, for whatever reason bottomed out in the sim; I would guess that it was an anomaly in the sim; I think that we will bounce back into being contenders next season with the growth and progression of the rookies and younger players and retraining of the main core!
Onto the other surprises I noticed. Outside of my team, the biggest surprise I noticed was that the Arizona outlaws had the best record in the league after having an ok record in the previous season. They had the best point differential out of all the teams and nearly went undefeated on the road. However, in typical Arizona fashion, they failed to cap off a great season in the playoffs. They won the ASFC wild card against the Honolulu Hahalua 23-10, but lost in upset fashion to the Copperheads in the Conference Championship 16-13, ending the great season for the Outlaws in disappointing fashion.
On the other side of the above upset, we have the Austin Copperheads. After having a sort of disappointing season after making the playoffs with a 10 win season last season; the Copperheads went 9-7 this past season. However, they made up for it in the playoffs. After edging out the Silverbacks in the ASFC Wild Card 21-18, the Copperheads, as mentioned above, upset the Outlaws 16-13 in the Conference Championship and made it to their first Ultimus in a long while. They nearly even won it! However, their opponent, the experienced Wriaths, edged out the Copperheads to win their 2nd title in 3 seasons!
Speaking of the other side of the league, the Berlin Fire Salamanders had a great season in their own right! The Salamanders nearly took the first seed in the NSFC with an 11-5 record, just missing the one seed by one game to the Wraiths. They followed up their great season with a 48-15 destruction of the poor, poor Colorado Yeti in the Wild Card round before facing the YellowKnife Wraiths in a 1 vs 2 epic matchup in the Conference Championship. After an epic game between the two teams, unfortunately for the Salamanders, the Wraiths edged them out 17-13 en route to another Ultimus title; though I would say it was a great season as no one expected the Salamanders to be a serious threat to win it all!
Finally, we have the final surprise of the season: the YellowKnife Wraiths. Everyone thought that they would compete, but no one thought they would have the dominant and clutch season they would have like their past championship run two seasons ago. The Wraiths went 12-4 and clinched the first seed in the NSFC with the second best point differential in the whole league. After returning to prominence in the regular season, they solidified it in the playoffs. The Wraiths handedly defeated the Sarasota Sailfish in the Wildcard 23-14 and then advanced to the Conference Championship against the 2 seeded Salamanders in an epic 1 vs 2 matchup. After a close game the whole way through, the Wraiths prevailed 17-13 to advance to the Ultimus where they again edged out a great team in the Copperheads to the score of 24-19. With this victory, this makes it so that the Wraiths have won 2 titles in 3 seasons in dominant fashion, akin to the time period of 2015-2017 where the dominant Golden State Warriors also won two titles in 3 seasons. Is it possible that the Wraiths are becoming or have become the next dynasty or at least having the next dominant historical team run in this league? If so, then we are witnessing history! But I hope that NOLA can return to prominence again so that we can maybe spoil their run or at least compete against them like the Cavaliers did from 2015-2018.
All in all, this was an interesting season filled with epic games, suspense, and a great playoffs! I hope that this kind of season can happen again with refinement of the new sim next season! In addition, I hope that NOLA can return to prominence after a, hopefully, fluky season in sim so that we can finally break through and win our 4th title all time!
The biggest surprise that I noticed was that, despite having the same core roster with a few young players, my team, the New Orleans Second Line, for whatever reason bottomed out in the sim; I would guess that it was an anomaly in the sim; I think that we will bounce back into being contenders next season with the growth and progression of the rookies and younger players and retraining of the main core!
Onto the other surprises I noticed. Outside of my team, the biggest surprise I noticed was that the Arizona outlaws had the best record in the league after having an ok record in the previous season. They had the best point differential out of all the teams and nearly went undefeated on the road. However, in typical Arizona fashion, they failed to cap off a great season in the playoffs. They won the ASFC wild card against the Honolulu Hahalua 23-10, but lost in upset fashion to the Copperheads in the Conference Championship 16-13, ending the great season for the Outlaws in disappointing fashion.
On the other side of the above upset, we have the Austin Copperheads. After having a sort of disappointing season after making the playoffs with a 10 win season last season; the Copperheads went 9-7 this past season. However, they made up for it in the playoffs. After edging out the Silverbacks in the ASFC Wild Card 21-18, the Copperheads, as mentioned above, upset the Outlaws 16-13 in the Conference Championship and made it to their first Ultimus in a long while. They nearly even won it! However, their opponent, the experienced Wriaths, edged out the Copperheads to win their 2nd title in 3 seasons!
Speaking of the other side of the league, the Berlin Fire Salamanders had a great season in their own right! The Salamanders nearly took the first seed in the NSFC with an 11-5 record, just missing the one seed by one game to the Wraiths. They followed up their great season with a 48-15 destruction of the poor, poor Colorado Yeti in the Wild Card round before facing the YellowKnife Wraiths in a 1 vs 2 epic matchup in the Conference Championship. After an epic game between the two teams, unfortunately for the Salamanders, the Wraiths edged them out 17-13 en route to another Ultimus title; though I would say it was a great season as no one expected the Salamanders to be a serious threat to win it all!
Finally, we have the final surprise of the season: the YellowKnife Wraiths. Everyone thought that they would compete, but no one thought they would have the dominant and clutch season they would have like their past championship run two seasons ago. The Wraiths went 12-4 and clinched the first seed in the NSFC with the second best point differential in the whole league. After returning to prominence in the regular season, they solidified it in the playoffs. The Wraiths handedly defeated the Sarasota Sailfish in the Wildcard 23-14 and then advanced to the Conference Championship against the 2 seeded Salamanders in an epic 1 vs 2 matchup. After a close game the whole way through, the Wraiths prevailed 17-13 to advance to the Ultimus where they again edged out a great team in the Copperheads to the score of 24-19. With this victory, this makes it so that the Wraiths have won 2 titles in 3 seasons in dominant fashion, akin to the time period of 2015-2017 where the dominant Golden State Warriors also won two titles in 3 seasons. Is it possible that the Wraiths are becoming or have become the next dynasty or at least having the next dominant historical team run in this league? If so, then we are witnessing history! But I hope that NOLA can return to prominence again so that we can maybe spoil their run or at least compete against them like the Cavaliers did from 2015-2018.
All in all, this was an interesting season filled with epic games, suspense, and a great playoffs! I hope that this kind of season can happen again with refinement of the new sim next season! In addition, I hope that NOLA can return to prominence after a, hopefully, fluky season in sim so that we can finally break through and win our 4th title all time!