1. The Season 34 Ultimus and Ultimini have officially come to an end. Congrats to the the Dallas Birddogs and Chicago Butchers for each winning their respective championships. How did each of the finalists in either the Ultimus or Ultimini arrive at the playoffs? Were there any teams that surprised or disappointed during the playoffs? If you’re writing this after the finals were decided, Were you surprised by the outcome?
It is always interesting to see the routes the two teams took to win the Ultimus and Ultimini. Starting off with the Chicago Butchers, the league knew they were going to be start studded at the start of the season with an average rank of 2nd place in the NSFC standings. However, at this point in time, people believed the Baltimore Hawks would remain superior once more in the NSFC and the Arizona Outlaws would win the Ultimus Bowl. Well, the early season voters were dead wrong with the Hawks pick as the team finished 6th in the NSFC standings, letting the Butchers claim the top spot of the standings with the best point percentage of the entire league. Entering the playoffs, the Butchers were definitely the team to beat but they completed the win as expected based on their regular season results; albeit, with very close margins that I am sure the team was not too comfortable with. The Chicago based team first beat the 4th placed Philadelphia Liberty 24-17. The Liberty actually lead the game entering the 4th quarter 17-14, but the Butchers managed to pull off the win. A little bit surprising one can say, but not entirely left field. Although, I am certain the Butchers expected to wipe the floor with the Liberty who had 6 more losses. Moving on the to the next stage of the playoffs, the Butchers beat the 2nd place Berlin Fire Salamanders 23-20. This was a closer game between closer teams that had only 1 win separate the 2 in points; albeit, the Butchers did have a much better points differential. Again, the game was a little surprising, but not entirely as the Butchers were down 6-17 entering the 4th but they pulled off a big comeback to make it to the finals where the team played the Honolulu Hahalua, the top team in the ASFC. Differently not the most surprising result when the top 2 teams make it to the finals, and the game was very close with the teams having to settle the game in overtime with the Chicago Butchers being the eventual Ultimus winners. Overall, from the start of the season to the Ultimus bowl win, I do not think that the Chicago Butchers route to victory was all that surprising since they were looking very strong heading into the season already and performed as expected throughout the season and playoffs.
As for the Dallas Birddogs, similar to the Chicago Butchers, the team was expected to land 2nd in their conference behind the strong Tijuana Luchadores. And unlike the ISFL, the DSFL with fewer teams basically nailed this prediction with the Dallas Birddogs indeed finishing 2nd in the conference behind the Luchadores. However, looking at the Birddogs' record in the regular season, they were definitely not expected to pull off anything big as they had the worst record of all the 4 teams entering the playoffs and the only team of the 4 to have a negative point differential. However, despite all these odds stacked against them and them barely scraping into the playoffs over the Bondi Beach Buccaneers based off a tiebreaker, the Birddogs faced the favourite Tijuana Luchadores in the semifinals. Tijuana was supposed to wipe the floor with Dallas, but the Birddogs surprised everyone taking the lead early and winning the game in a nailbiting overtime. With this massive upset, the Dallas Birddogs continued the surprising run by completely outplaying the Minnesota Grey Ducks in the finals, winning easily 33-7. No one expected such a win from the Birddogs based on their regular season record and point differential and it was certainly a surprising run to the Ultimini Bowl. It was truly an underdog story where the "worst" team in the playoffs pulled off 2 massive upsets.
It is always interesting to see the routes the two teams took to win the Ultimus and Ultimini. Starting off with the Chicago Butchers, the league knew they were going to be start studded at the start of the season with an average rank of 2nd place in the NSFC standings. However, at this point in time, people believed the Baltimore Hawks would remain superior once more in the NSFC and the Arizona Outlaws would win the Ultimus Bowl. Well, the early season voters were dead wrong with the Hawks pick as the team finished 6th in the NSFC standings, letting the Butchers claim the top spot of the standings with the best point percentage of the entire league. Entering the playoffs, the Butchers were definitely the team to beat but they completed the win as expected based on their regular season results; albeit, with very close margins that I am sure the team was not too comfortable with. The Chicago based team first beat the 4th placed Philadelphia Liberty 24-17. The Liberty actually lead the game entering the 4th quarter 17-14, but the Butchers managed to pull off the win. A little bit surprising one can say, but not entirely left field. Although, I am certain the Butchers expected to wipe the floor with the Liberty who had 6 more losses. Moving on the to the next stage of the playoffs, the Butchers beat the 2nd place Berlin Fire Salamanders 23-20. This was a closer game between closer teams that had only 1 win separate the 2 in points; albeit, the Butchers did have a much better points differential. Again, the game was a little surprising, but not entirely as the Butchers were down 6-17 entering the 4th but they pulled off a big comeback to make it to the finals where the team played the Honolulu Hahalua, the top team in the ASFC. Differently not the most surprising result when the top 2 teams make it to the finals, and the game was very close with the teams having to settle the game in overtime with the Chicago Butchers being the eventual Ultimus winners. Overall, from the start of the season to the Ultimus bowl win, I do not think that the Chicago Butchers route to victory was all that surprising since they were looking very strong heading into the season already and performed as expected throughout the season and playoffs.
As for the Dallas Birddogs, similar to the Chicago Butchers, the team was expected to land 2nd in their conference behind the strong Tijuana Luchadores. And unlike the ISFL, the DSFL with fewer teams basically nailed this prediction with the Dallas Birddogs indeed finishing 2nd in the conference behind the Luchadores. However, looking at the Birddogs' record in the regular season, they were definitely not expected to pull off anything big as they had the worst record of all the 4 teams entering the playoffs and the only team of the 4 to have a negative point differential. However, despite all these odds stacked against them and them barely scraping into the playoffs over the Bondi Beach Buccaneers based off a tiebreaker, the Birddogs faced the favourite Tijuana Luchadores in the semifinals. Tijuana was supposed to wipe the floor with Dallas, but the Birddogs surprised everyone taking the lead early and winning the game in a nailbiting overtime. With this massive upset, the Dallas Birddogs continued the surprising run by completely outplaying the Minnesota Grey Ducks in the finals, winning easily 33-7. No one expected such a win from the Birddogs based on their regular season record and point differential and it was certainly a surprising run to the Ultimini Bowl. It was truly an underdog story where the "worst" team in the playoffs pulled off 2 massive upsets.