Week 15, or A New League Record

For literally the fifth time in the five years of the Modern Era of STPS, the #1 seed fell in the semi-finals. This time, Hardcore Sacks -- the best record and the most points during the regular season -- fell victim to just about the most insane output we will EVER see in this league.

Death Valley Driver cruised in this one, his 206 points a new league record by FAR. There was literally nothing he could do wrong. I watched the first half of the Patriots game, and every time the scroll on CBS showed someone had scored a touchdown, it was one of DVD's players. It was just an unreal combination of good players in the right matchups at the right time. (I mean...FOUR touchdowns for Kenyan Drake? Seriously?) There was basically nothing Hardcore could have done.

The other semi-final went similarly, just not as crazily. Hooked On A Thielen had a good headstart from Lamar Jackson, and then big weeks from a few players. Which was nice because he also had crappy weeks from a few crappy players. Pedro Pickles fell somewhat victim to the Cowboys thorough dismantling of the Rams defense; losing 8 points from your defense is a tough way to win a fantasy matchup.

In the Loser Bowl, The Jeff Fisher Effect and Hamilton Rod and Gun will face off for the Loser Bowl "title", and the chance for the extra draft capital. Team Provost also won, and avoided the chance for a second straight The Worst title. He'll play Released Dix On Boobies in the meaningless Loser game.

The Worst Bowl this year falls between Iron Ryan and Utah Falco. I-Ry had a good run at the playoffs until his team actually showed that they're terrible. Utah Falco has the luck of the CMC on his roster, but no one else. It would be an appropriate way for either of these teams to end up as The Worst, and the honor of holding the "Back Half of Horse" trophy for the year. (Which means it can finally emerge from it's current resting place, hiding in the back of the Commish's closet.)

End of Season: The Gathering

So to this point, we're not confirmed on a date for the event. It looks like Saturday, January 4th might be our best bet, and in the evening. We'll confirm location once we've confirmed date. Provost, you coming?

Also for End of Season: The Gathering, think about any rule changes you might consider proposing. I have a few, and I know of a couple others that may be proposed. But take a thought. Not looking for wholesale changes, because I think we all love our league setup, but maybe a tweak or two could be worth instituting. 

Like some sort of reasonable punishment for being The Worst.

Good luck to our finalists this week. It should be an exciting end to a fun season of imaginary football.

Cheers!

Week 14, Or Playoff Preview

It took us 14 weeks to decide who would play in the playoffs, and we used every single one of them.

Hardcore Sacks is our top seed again this year. He scored the most points and had the most victoies (well, was tied) for. He's hoping the Top Seed Curse isn't actually a thing.

Pedro Pickles is our second seed, thanks to a 7-game winning streak, over which he averaged about 108 points per game. He's a solid second seed.

Hooked On A Thielen is our three-seed. He overcame a shaky midseason where he seemed to either put up a ton of points, or none at all. He's an equally solid 3-seed, which will make that semifinal match pretty intriguing.

Death Valley Driver is literally limping into the playoffs. He was 7-3, and looked in the (Death Valley?) driver's seat for the top seed. Then he lost four straight, and needed Hamilton Rod and Gun to face off against another Tidwell winner (sorry, Kevin) to get into the playoffs.

Playoff Preview
Probably the coolest thing about our playoffs this year is that the finals is guaranteed to be a matchup for one team vying for its second championship (Hardcore and DVD) versus one team vying for it's first (Hooked and Pickles). I will make no other commentary on my desires for who wins, as I am the Commish, and I need to remain neutral on these things.

Loser Bowl Preview
Our Loser's Bracket winds up with some lucky bastards too. I mean, how in God's name did The Jeff Fisher Effect manage to end up 7-7 and the 6th overall seed, and thus cannot be The Worst? Lucky breaks toward the end of the season pretty much. He won his last two games by a TOTAL of 3 points. The opposite applied to Released Dix On Boobies: he just needed to win in Week 14 to make the playoffs for the first time ever. And he just couldn't. Bad luck. Those two will face off in the first round of the Loser Bowl.

The Bottom Four teams are a combination of good and bad. The aforementioned HRG kinda got jobbed. He's the THIRD highest scoring team in the league, but fell on some hard luck toward the end. Yeah, he faced several Tidwell winners, but he didn't put up a ton of points in those games.

Team Provost is a mess. Utah Falco is a mess, other than Christian McCaffrey. Iron Ryan had his luck run out toward the end of the season. (or perhaps he transferred it to The Effect?)

End of Season: The Gathering
I feel like we should probably begin to schedule our end of season social. As we usually have the event on Wild Card Weekend in the NFL, we're looking at January 4 or 5. I vote for the 4th, since it's a Saturday and we'll have the time to recover before the work week. But perhaps Sunday would work better for guys. I shall start a poll in the GroupMe.

On to the playoffs! Good luck men!

Week 13, or The Clear As Mud Scenarios

Ho. Lee. Crap.

With the league standings as they sit, we're in for a wild Week 14.

Rank	Team	Wins	Losses	Points
1	Hardcore Sacks*	8	5	1481
2	Pedro Pickles*	8	5	1354
3	Hooked On A Thielen	7	6	1459.5
4	Death Valley Driver	7	6	1424.5
5	Released Dix On Boobies	7	6	1371.5
6	Hamilton Rod and Gun	6	7	1410

*Hardcore and Pickles have clinched playoff spots.


Here's the Week 14 schedule:
Hardcore vs. HRG
Pickles vs. Boobies (heh)
Hooked vs. DVD
Out of playoff team vs. another out of playoff team
A different out of playoff team vs. the fourth out of playoff team

The Game of the Week: easily the DVD/Hooked pairing. The winner will be 8-6 and clinch a playoff spot. The loser will need some help (more on that further on).

- Hardcore is in, and has the best shot at the top seed, with 21.5 points more than the second most. All that matters for him is seeding.

- The same is true of Pedro Pickles. With the schedule set up as it is, we could have a maximum of four teams that are 8-6, so he'd get in, even though he has the fewest points of the current top 6.

- We'll skip DVD/Hooked for now, other than to say "winner gets in."

- If Boobies (heh) wins, he's in. If he loses, he's likely out. He trails Hooked by 88 points, and DVD by 53. A Boobies (heh) loss puts him and whoever loses DVD/Hooked at 7-7,  (at least) 53 points is a lot to make up.

- In order for HRG to get in: he needs to win, Boobies (heh) to lose, AND make up the point differential between him and the loser of the DVD/Hooked matchup; he trails DVD by 14.5 points, but Hooked by 49.5. He'll be hoping for a Hooked victory there, and a big week from his team (read: The Cowboys offense).

- The winner of the DVD/Hooked matchup will be 8-6, and will get in.

- The loser of the DVD/Hooked matchup will need Boobies (heh) to lose. As discussed a little higher, DVD and Hooked have the second and third highest point total in the league, so they will likely win any tiebreaker.

- OK, I guess I'd be remiss to mention that Iron Ryan and Jeff Fisher Effect are "technically" still alive for a playoff spot. However, if I-Ry makes it to 7-7, he'd need to make up (at minimum) 90 points; JFE would have to make up 190 points. So, yeah, that ain't happening.

I think it's absolutely great that the teams fighting for playoff spots all play each other, and that the four bottom teams basically get to start the Loser Bowl early. No one gets an "easy road" to the playoffs.

So good luck in Week 14 guys! It's basically playoff time already!!