(S25) - Ultimus Week

[hotdog]

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You may use a PBE, SHL, and GOMHL PT as credit for a maximum of 1 TIER 3 TASK here. If your username is different on your affiliate task, you must provide the correct name in your response.

SHL PT - 2.5 TPE

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It’s always important to look forward to the future. Examine your team, and in 400 words or more, talk about how they can improve themselves to get a stab at trophy contention next year. Are you loaded with draft capital for the next draft? Do you have plenty of cap space to sign free agents? Go through the roster and note the different strengths and weaknesses, and how you think those will change over the next few seasons. How should your team adapt?

I think Arizona has done an amazing job with drafting since I've been in the league and paying attention, and it really has seemed like the majority of our team is young and improving. We're starting to get to the point where our top players are hitting regression, but we've really still got a pretty young team overall. Running back was identified as a position of need during the season, as evidenced by the trade made for Mathias Hanyadi, but with Gunner Thorbjornsen improving steadily I think we'll have a realiable RB there for seasons to come, and he should be ready to be good enough this season already. We've also demonstrated depth at WR, with Passmann stepping into the limelight as the top dog this season with Saba Donut's regression. Taro Raimon is next up to fill in at WR, Rigby Raccoon is next up to fill in at TE, and when my beloved outlaw Jay Cue finally hangs up the cleats, we'll have Charlemagne Cortez ready to step in. So on offense, we've built the depth necessary to keep up. On defense we see a slightly different story - not the same depth, but no glaring holes needing replacement either. The defense overall has been exceptionally young since I've been around, and the unit has done a lot of growing together. if you look at the roster, you can see a lot of similar years - Galf Wilf and Desmond Scarlett at S20, "Plop" Miller at S21, Maj's player (not typing that lol) and Zamir and Ryeu at S22, Jadakiss at S23. That's all three levels (d line, linebackers, secondary) who, if they stick together for a while, will anchor the defense for a few seasons to come. I do think there are a couple of holes that could be filled, though with a strong DT prospect and another LB prospect joining already-up safety Crunk, I think we'll be good for a bit! Assembling a stacked roster does seem to be the easy part around here, however, and getting over that sim hump will be the toughest hurdle. Our defense is still getting better so I really think we'll be fine long term on that end, I think our focus now should be on retaining free agents and keeping that core together. Free Agency seems much more active here than in other leagues so I really hope we can keep as many players in this core around and together for as long as we can to maximize chances at an Ultimus. I think it's coming the season after next!

429 words - 5 TPE

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Reflect on the two expansion teams. How did their first seasons go? What were their key strengths and weaknesses, and how are they poised to improve in seasons to come?

I was definitely impressed with the way New York performed this season. It wasn't necessarily a powerhouse season for them, as the Silverbacks still finished last in the division with four wins, but those four wins are much more than others were predicting for them at the start of the season, so props to them! In addition, they had some standout individual performances from Jackson Kingston, Ashley Owens, and Thor Kirkby, among others. I can't quite remember why I thought it at the time, but I do recall thinking that Berlin would be more likely to have early success than New York this season, but New York had a better season and, for my money, a more impressive showing. I expect New York to continue improving alongside their franchise QB Sam Howitzer; he's still low in TPE so as he continues to improve his game I think the New York offense will rise with it. They should focus on building up that defense to go along with it, and I have no doubts they'll be eventually successful in that effort. Berlin should also be attending to bolstering the defensive side of the ball, as their 465 points allowed ranked worst in the league this season. They also had the fewest points scored so maybe attend to both sides lol. Not a diss, I know it's super hard to start from scratch as an expansion team.

235 words - 2.5 TPE