2X Claim
Baltimore Hawks
Starting from the top of the team tracker, we have the worst team in the league 2 years running. Last season wasn't as notable as the season before, as you ended up winning 2 games and creating a very funny scenario at the Sailfish's expense. Going into this season, I'm not sure if you'll be worse as a team or better: Of your top 6 players entering last season, 2 regressed, 1 retired and will be using his corpse to help you out, and another got traded. Then again, lots of your rookie performers are going to start this season at around 500 TPE as opposed to around 300 TPE. Still, a 700 TPE inactive QB, plus what should be the worst offensive supporting cast in the league, means this is almost entirely a team to avoid in fantasy...with one possible exception: I could very easily see Busch Goose, as an RB1 who is going to be utilized heavily, as a fantasy sleeper. As a team, if we had a stock market that functioned as something more than a money printing scheme restricted to the ultra wealthy (aka if it functioned differently to the real stock market) this would be an extremely interesting option for the season after this upcoming one, but as is I'm comfortable saying this is still the worst team in the league.
Berlin Fire Salamanders
Last season I said it felt like you were giving up a lot in order to maybe become the first S25 expansion team to win a playoff game. Turns out that didn't happen, but you did end up with the best record you or New York has ever gotten, even if the sim put you out in the cold in the playoffs. I'm not entirely sure how to think of this team. It's great, don't get me wrong, but half your team peaked last season. You do have one saving grace: Winning the Hood Sweepstakes means you have maybe the best cast of S23 offensive guys in the league. That sounds better than I think it actually is; in this season, the RB formerly known as Petrongolo is still 5th behind multiple S22 guys AND S24 guys despite being the highest earning S23 RB. Hood is 3rd overall, and is great, but Achtfunf is 8th in the league in TPE among WRs and will probably only be elite for this one season. Still, your offensive skill positions in general are amazing, with 3 top 20 receivers, a top 5 RB, a top 3 TE (top 2 right now) and this was one of the best teams in the league last season. I don't see why it wouldn't stay that way this season; your QB had enough TPE to survive his first bout with regression, and same with most of your other key players who are regressing. They won't survive 2nd regression though, and your D is almost certainly going to be worse this season than last season, even with picking up Derred De Ville in the offseason. Fantasy-wise, I wouldn't be surprised if a Kaepercolin-Hood pair, or a Hood-Petrongolo pair rode a team or two to the title this season.
Chicago Butchers
I would just like to say thank you for making me look like a prophet when I said you were a team with its best days behind it, but you didn't need to do it that HARD. And it's not going to get any better. Your offense is built on 3 good OLinemen and a single wide receiver, with one of the worst QBs in the league throwing the ball. Your RBs are either 2 seasons away from being true contributors or way way past their prime, your defense is facing regression and retirements all over the place. About the only saving grace this team has is its Oline and its Linebacking corp, and I'm pretty sure neither of those get you anywhere near the playoffs this time. Fantasy-wise, there's only one or two guys I'm looking at. Sam Sidekick is entirely dependent on the idea of this offense repeatedly getting near the end zone but not into it, which is a tactic I'm not a fan of in this league. Meanwhile, Luca Scabbia is very much like last season's Tychondrius Hood: A terrible team with one really good fantasy asset that should conceivable have a lot head his way. In practice, the Sabercats of last season threw the ball mostly to everyone but Hood. However, there is something that should make this more effective than last time: All of the Sabercats' other pass catchers were better than the supporting cast around Scabbia. Add that to a better OL than last season's Sabercats, and more balls should head Scabbia's way than Hood got. There is a downside, we head back to the QB being the oldest in the league with less TPE than most of his competition.
Colorado Yeti
From last season to this season, of all the top contenders in the league the Yeti were probably hit the least hard by regression and retirement. That doesn't mean they weren't hit at all; Lim and Gilbert faced first regression admirably but are still probably going to be worse this season than last, and with your wide receiver group losing a member to a switched position it should be significantly worse this season. You also got hit quite strongly at the Dline, with your DE1 going through 2nd regression and your DT1 going through their first. That being said, your QB is hitting the peak of their powers, you have 2 amazing linebackers, and in general your team should be great if depth doesn't kill you and you can manage to get turnovers against teams that aren't the Hawks. As far as fantasy goes, Caliban and Lim should be standouts, especially if the Yeti take the strat of "throw the ball closer to 1000 times than any team ever should" again.
Philadelphia Liberty
There's no reason whatsoever to look at this team for fantasy. As for team power, at least you don't have the worst QB in the league this season? At least Killian Chambers is pretty good? At least you have some good S25 players on your team? Darrell Williams isn't here to drag your team to wins this season. Negs might be able to throw for a greater than 1 TD/INT ratio, so maybe you can still scrounge up some wins? This team at least has a good amount of middling talent that some other terrible teams lack, but, well, this is one of two teams very clearly in a rebuild.
Sarasota Sailfish
Oof. I think that's all I can say. 4 straight losses to end the season, straight into some of the heaviest regression any top contender faced this season. Chan has undergone a name change and fell below 1100 TPE, your top WR had to go take De Ville's spot, both your safeties lost a large chunk of TPE, and at this point your offense is looking shaky for a top contender: The worst QB of the S24 group, the best Tight End which unfortunately doesn't matter all too much, really it's your WR group that stinks up the joint like a barrel of fish. Instead of your WR1 being 5th, it's 11th, behind all 3 of the Outlaws' WR group, and both your WR2 and WR3 are young guns in the 550 TPE range. Your Defense could be very strong, but last season 3 or 4 of your players had career years and by the numbers your D still wasn't spectacular. Some of those guys regressed, others left. As far as fantasy goes I don't want to touch this group with a 10 foot pole other than Frost's new waifu and Angler. She should be good, might be a top 5 RB on the year, and Angler could be the best TE on the season, but that's very much up in the air right now.
Yellowknife Wraiths
Congrats on the Ultimus against all odds. Your reward is a year in which I think you miss the playoffs. You haven't had your regression hit yet on the tracker, but your QB will have enough TPE to be viable. My main question is: what is your running game going to look like? Last season Vermillion and Skyline performed well above their TPE grade, but you traded one of them away for a retiring player and Skyline is going to regress past acceptable levels next season. Will your D survive 2 regressing Safeties, 2 regressing D-linemen, and a linebacker in 2nd regression? Add that to a regressing QB, and you could be in a ton of trouble in the upcoming season. Colby Jack has been a decent QB option for years, and he could be that again. I think Sakura is interesting in terms of fantasy; lots of decent supporting options could lower his numbers especially if Rechs is a TD hog again.
Arizona Outlaws
Offense. This is a team that I struggle to pick a single key contributor on Offense, they have 3 top 10 receivers, 2 top 5 running backs, and a top 5 QB. Their D isn't exactly a slouch, although with regressing secondary members it could be a bit stronger. Still, 3 members of the secondary are over 1000 TPE, along with two DTs basically at 1000. Their weakest position is probably Oline, with their best player having around 750 TPE at the position. Now hopefully we don't get screwed in the playoffs this time. As far as fantasy goes, I might actually be a good fantasy player this time! But I'd look more towards Nakamura, Raimon and Cortez here.
Austin Copperheads
Good news, your QB is over 1000, finally. You have two linebackers and Cornerbacks over 1200, or close enough. Your third LB still has over 1000 TPE. You have the best RB in the league, and one of the best WRs. About the only weaknesses I see in this team is that your QB is no longer a massive weakness but I wouldn't call him a strength yet, and depth. After your top Dline guy, the next player has 600 less TPE, and after Videl San, Howlett has barely over 800 TPE. If you can lean on your star power, you might be able to get over the hump this time. You have 2 more shots and then regression really comes calling. Videl and Watts should be top picks in fantasy, and I wouldn't be surprised if Daytona was also a good pickup.
Honolulu Hahalua
Rule of thumb: Do not have the lowest TPE QB in the league if you can help it. You can't exactly help it, and here we are. You have a really strong back 7 and then I struggle mightily to find strengths in this team. Ayers is decent, over 1000 TPE, but he's not all that high and he isn't going to be able to lift up Joilet Christ. Speaking of, 635 TPE. That is just flat out not enough for a good QB in this league. Give him a couple seasons to bake, and put some good players around him, Hon. Because the older half of your team is not going to be good enough by the time he's ready to take this franchise to the promised land.
New Orleans Second Line
I'm going to give a piece of advice to this team: Prepare for the future, because the present is bad. And I think bad is understating it. All their best players are retired, aged into regression, or Juosu. Having a S25 player over 1050 already is quite impressive, but especially considering it's only one player, having no S23 or S24 players over 950 is almost more impressive in the opposite way. Still, you do have a couple good pieces in the secondary, a good QB, good pieces on the Dline...but all your receivers and running backs are no better than "eh". As is, you have maybe 3 players I'd consider elite in terms of TPE between Seasons 23 and 26 on your roster, with another 2 or 3 I'd consider good, and one of those goods is retiring (I'm pretty sure you're not even supposed to HAVE Botty for the upcoming season). You've got a number of NOLA aligned recreates coming, so wait for those and you'll get back to competing. But right now this is a very dry period for the franchise.
New York Silverbacks
I think New York might make the playoffs by default this season. They're not going to be bad, they have too much talent on D, most notably a strong secondary, too strong of a QB, and too many offensive weapons of at least above average quality to be a bad team. But are you going to be better than the powerhouses of the division? Jackson Kingston and Howitzer is another pair that I could see turning out to do very well in fantasy; the main problem I have with the Silverbacks is their running game. Captain Rogers has only just cracked 900 TPE and only has 2 seasons before regression. Add that to a decent OL that isn't a world beater and I think of this team as a 2nd tier team in the ASFC. Good team, but not on the level of Austin or Arizona.
Orange County Otters
The good news for this team is much shorter than the bad news. On the positive side of things, you now have a running back with over 1000 TPE for the first time since you traded away Tatsu Nakamura. On the negative side, not only did this murder your Dline when combined with Rapid Eagle and Rotticus Scott going through their second bouts with regression, but regression smacked this team all over the place; your top wide receiver now has below 900 TPE, your QB is decent but didn't have enough TPE to hold up perfectly, half the secondary regressed, and your TE went to just above 1000 TPE. The Otters have decent players, and their secondary is still excellent, but this team really doesn't have the makings of a contender. Perhaps Heath Evans can recapture a bit of the magic and become a good fantasy TE at least?
San Jose Sabercats
Last season you were one of the worst teams in the league. Then you underwent regression and lost your best player from S23. I struggle to find a strength for this team; technically you have the 2nd best RB in the league, but you don't have the line to help with that. Technically you have a top kicker, but who counts that? You have 2 decently strong Dlinemen, but they don't even combine for over 2000 unlike many other teams. You'd have a good WR group with 2 people over 800, but you don't have the top flight option to complete it. Your secondary is also completely awful, with only one player above 850 in the group, and the 4th secondary member has barely over 450. This is a team that I expect to struggle, and your QB isn't anywhere near good enough to pick up the slack considering he's the worst S22 QB that didn't go IA.
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Baltimore Hawks
Starting from the top of the team tracker, we have the worst team in the league 2 years running. Last season wasn't as notable as the season before, as you ended up winning 2 games and creating a very funny scenario at the Sailfish's expense. Going into this season, I'm not sure if you'll be worse as a team or better: Of your top 6 players entering last season, 2 regressed, 1 retired and will be using his corpse to help you out, and another got traded. Then again, lots of your rookie performers are going to start this season at around 500 TPE as opposed to around 300 TPE. Still, a 700 TPE inactive QB, plus what should be the worst offensive supporting cast in the league, means this is almost entirely a team to avoid in fantasy...with one possible exception: I could very easily see Busch Goose, as an RB1 who is going to be utilized heavily, as a fantasy sleeper. As a team, if we had a stock market that functioned as something more than a money printing scheme restricted to the ultra wealthy (aka if it functioned differently to the real stock market) this would be an extremely interesting option for the season after this upcoming one, but as is I'm comfortable saying this is still the worst team in the league.
Berlin Fire Salamanders
Last season I said it felt like you were giving up a lot in order to maybe become the first S25 expansion team to win a playoff game. Turns out that didn't happen, but you did end up with the best record you or New York has ever gotten, even if the sim put you out in the cold in the playoffs. I'm not entirely sure how to think of this team. It's great, don't get me wrong, but half your team peaked last season. You do have one saving grace: Winning the Hood Sweepstakes means you have maybe the best cast of S23 offensive guys in the league. That sounds better than I think it actually is; in this season, the RB formerly known as Petrongolo is still 5th behind multiple S22 guys AND S24 guys despite being the highest earning S23 RB. Hood is 3rd overall, and is great, but Achtfunf is 8th in the league in TPE among WRs and will probably only be elite for this one season. Still, your offensive skill positions in general are amazing, with 3 top 20 receivers, a top 5 RB, a top 3 TE (top 2 right now) and this was one of the best teams in the league last season. I don't see why it wouldn't stay that way this season; your QB had enough TPE to survive his first bout with regression, and same with most of your other key players who are regressing. They won't survive 2nd regression though, and your D is almost certainly going to be worse this season than last season, even with picking up Derred De Ville in the offseason. Fantasy-wise, I wouldn't be surprised if a Kaepercolin-Hood pair, or a Hood-Petrongolo pair rode a team or two to the title this season.
Chicago Butchers
I would just like to say thank you for making me look like a prophet when I said you were a team with its best days behind it, but you didn't need to do it that HARD. And it's not going to get any better. Your offense is built on 3 good OLinemen and a single wide receiver, with one of the worst QBs in the league throwing the ball. Your RBs are either 2 seasons away from being true contributors or way way past their prime, your defense is facing regression and retirements all over the place. About the only saving grace this team has is its Oline and its Linebacking corp, and I'm pretty sure neither of those get you anywhere near the playoffs this time. Fantasy-wise, there's only one or two guys I'm looking at. Sam Sidekick is entirely dependent on the idea of this offense repeatedly getting near the end zone but not into it, which is a tactic I'm not a fan of in this league. Meanwhile, Luca Scabbia is very much like last season's Tychondrius Hood: A terrible team with one really good fantasy asset that should conceivable have a lot head his way. In practice, the Sabercats of last season threw the ball mostly to everyone but Hood. However, there is something that should make this more effective than last time: All of the Sabercats' other pass catchers were better than the supporting cast around Scabbia. Add that to a better OL than last season's Sabercats, and more balls should head Scabbia's way than Hood got. There is a downside, we head back to the QB being the oldest in the league with less TPE than most of his competition.
Colorado Yeti
From last season to this season, of all the top contenders in the league the Yeti were probably hit the least hard by regression and retirement. That doesn't mean they weren't hit at all; Lim and Gilbert faced first regression admirably but are still probably going to be worse this season than last, and with your wide receiver group losing a member to a switched position it should be significantly worse this season. You also got hit quite strongly at the Dline, with your DE1 going through 2nd regression and your DT1 going through their first. That being said, your QB is hitting the peak of their powers, you have 2 amazing linebackers, and in general your team should be great if depth doesn't kill you and you can manage to get turnovers against teams that aren't the Hawks. As far as fantasy goes, Caliban and Lim should be standouts, especially if the Yeti take the strat of "throw the ball closer to 1000 times than any team ever should" again.
Philadelphia Liberty
There's no reason whatsoever to look at this team for fantasy. As for team power, at least you don't have the worst QB in the league this season? At least Killian Chambers is pretty good? At least you have some good S25 players on your team? Darrell Williams isn't here to drag your team to wins this season. Negs might be able to throw for a greater than 1 TD/INT ratio, so maybe you can still scrounge up some wins? This team at least has a good amount of middling talent that some other terrible teams lack, but, well, this is one of two teams very clearly in a rebuild.
Sarasota Sailfish
Oof. I think that's all I can say. 4 straight losses to end the season, straight into some of the heaviest regression any top contender faced this season. Chan has undergone a name change and fell below 1100 TPE, your top WR had to go take De Ville's spot, both your safeties lost a large chunk of TPE, and at this point your offense is looking shaky for a top contender: The worst QB of the S24 group, the best Tight End which unfortunately doesn't matter all too much, really it's your WR group that stinks up the joint like a barrel of fish. Instead of your WR1 being 5th, it's 11th, behind all 3 of the Outlaws' WR group, and both your WR2 and WR3 are young guns in the 550 TPE range. Your Defense could be very strong, but last season 3 or 4 of your players had career years and by the numbers your D still wasn't spectacular. Some of those guys regressed, others left. As far as fantasy goes I don't want to touch this group with a 10 foot pole other than Frost's new waifu and Angler. She should be good, might be a top 5 RB on the year, and Angler could be the best TE on the season, but that's very much up in the air right now.
Yellowknife Wraiths
Congrats on the Ultimus against all odds. Your reward is a year in which I think you miss the playoffs. You haven't had your regression hit yet on the tracker, but your QB will have enough TPE to be viable. My main question is: what is your running game going to look like? Last season Vermillion and Skyline performed well above their TPE grade, but you traded one of them away for a retiring player and Skyline is going to regress past acceptable levels next season. Will your D survive 2 regressing Safeties, 2 regressing D-linemen, and a linebacker in 2nd regression? Add that to a regressing QB, and you could be in a ton of trouble in the upcoming season. Colby Jack has been a decent QB option for years, and he could be that again. I think Sakura is interesting in terms of fantasy; lots of decent supporting options could lower his numbers especially if Rechs is a TD hog again.
Arizona Outlaws
Offense. This is a team that I struggle to pick a single key contributor on Offense, they have 3 top 10 receivers, 2 top 5 running backs, and a top 5 QB. Their D isn't exactly a slouch, although with regressing secondary members it could be a bit stronger. Still, 3 members of the secondary are over 1000 TPE, along with two DTs basically at 1000. Their weakest position is probably Oline, with their best player having around 750 TPE at the position. Now hopefully we don't get screwed in the playoffs this time. As far as fantasy goes, I might actually be a good fantasy player this time! But I'd look more towards Nakamura, Raimon and Cortez here.
Austin Copperheads
Good news, your QB is over 1000, finally. You have two linebackers and Cornerbacks over 1200, or close enough. Your third LB still has over 1000 TPE. You have the best RB in the league, and one of the best WRs. About the only weaknesses I see in this team is that your QB is no longer a massive weakness but I wouldn't call him a strength yet, and depth. After your top Dline guy, the next player has 600 less TPE, and after Videl San, Howlett has barely over 800 TPE. If you can lean on your star power, you might be able to get over the hump this time. You have 2 more shots and then regression really comes calling. Videl and Watts should be top picks in fantasy, and I wouldn't be surprised if Daytona was also a good pickup.
Honolulu Hahalua
Rule of thumb: Do not have the lowest TPE QB in the league if you can help it. You can't exactly help it, and here we are. You have a really strong back 7 and then I struggle mightily to find strengths in this team. Ayers is decent, over 1000 TPE, but he's not all that high and he isn't going to be able to lift up Joilet Christ. Speaking of, 635 TPE. That is just flat out not enough for a good QB in this league. Give him a couple seasons to bake, and put some good players around him, Hon. Because the older half of your team is not going to be good enough by the time he's ready to take this franchise to the promised land.
New Orleans Second Line
I'm going to give a piece of advice to this team: Prepare for the future, because the present is bad. And I think bad is understating it. All their best players are retired, aged into regression, or Juosu. Having a S25 player over 1050 already is quite impressive, but especially considering it's only one player, having no S23 or S24 players over 950 is almost more impressive in the opposite way. Still, you do have a couple good pieces in the secondary, a good QB, good pieces on the Dline...but all your receivers and running backs are no better than "eh". As is, you have maybe 3 players I'd consider elite in terms of TPE between Seasons 23 and 26 on your roster, with another 2 or 3 I'd consider good, and one of those goods is retiring (I'm pretty sure you're not even supposed to HAVE Botty for the upcoming season). You've got a number of NOLA aligned recreates coming, so wait for those and you'll get back to competing. But right now this is a very dry period for the franchise.
New York Silverbacks
I think New York might make the playoffs by default this season. They're not going to be bad, they have too much talent on D, most notably a strong secondary, too strong of a QB, and too many offensive weapons of at least above average quality to be a bad team. But are you going to be better than the powerhouses of the division? Jackson Kingston and Howitzer is another pair that I could see turning out to do very well in fantasy; the main problem I have with the Silverbacks is their running game. Captain Rogers has only just cracked 900 TPE and only has 2 seasons before regression. Add that to a decent OL that isn't a world beater and I think of this team as a 2nd tier team in the ASFC. Good team, but not on the level of Austin or Arizona.
Orange County Otters
The good news for this team is much shorter than the bad news. On the positive side of things, you now have a running back with over 1000 TPE for the first time since you traded away Tatsu Nakamura. On the negative side, not only did this murder your Dline when combined with Rapid Eagle and Rotticus Scott going through their second bouts with regression, but regression smacked this team all over the place; your top wide receiver now has below 900 TPE, your QB is decent but didn't have enough TPE to hold up perfectly, half the secondary regressed, and your TE went to just above 1000 TPE. The Otters have decent players, and their secondary is still excellent, but this team really doesn't have the makings of a contender. Perhaps Heath Evans can recapture a bit of the magic and become a good fantasy TE at least?
San Jose Sabercats
Last season you were one of the worst teams in the league. Then you underwent regression and lost your best player from S23. I struggle to find a strength for this team; technically you have the 2nd best RB in the league, but you don't have the line to help with that. Technically you have a top kicker, but who counts that? You have 2 decently strong Dlinemen, but they don't even combine for over 2000 unlike many other teams. You'd have a good WR group with 2 people over 800, but you don't have the top flight option to complete it. Your secondary is also completely awful, with only one player above 850 in the group, and the 4th secondary member has barely over 450. This is a team that I expect to struggle, and your QB isn't anywhere near good enough to pick up the slack considering he's the worst S22 QB that didn't go IA.
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