#1
New Orleans obviously made the Ultimus and lost to the Wraiths (again). I cannot claim we were that much of an underdog or dark horse but I don't think we were anyone's first choice to win. That was before the sim fuckery decided to go nuts. That said, the whole ASFC playoff situation was insane. New York managing to slide into (an unexpectedly modified version of) the first seed was definitely a dark horse in its own right, though. They went into the lasts week of the season hosting Orange County in a playoff situation so complex that half the league was trying to figure out the actual math for the entire day up to and including during the game itself. And we were all wrong. They won, and Orange County who lost jumped Austin, who was ahead of them, and snuck into the 3rd playoff spot based on the records of those four teams and Arizona, who had already been eliminated. So the index showed New York in first with home field advantage, New Orleans in 2nd hosting Orange County, who was listed in 4th, while the 3rd place Austin Copperheads went home. Go home sim, you're fired. Nola beating OCO and then having a home game we shouldn't have made us somehow more unpopular than the Otters who shouldn't have gotten in to begin with. Yet we persevered as the league's first 2nd seeded home team in the ASFC conference finals. Where we ran into New York, after beating each other on the road this season. So even with the advantage we were supposed to have gained form this sim black magic (us, the team that was 4-4 at home including a loss to PHILLY), we were concerned to say the least. So when we began the 4th quarter down 14 after haven given up a freakin' safety, we were not confident. Even when we came back we were on eggshells. We honestly didn't want to believe and get invested until it got close. Even on the game tying drive our QB got sacked with less than 3 minutes left and we kinda thought we were done. But we persevered and got to OT where we finally had the confidence to...no I'm lying we didn't. We were terrified until we picked up the fumble and managed to heart attack our way into the damn Ultimus. There was absolutely nothing easy or simple about our road to even get to the Ultimus. It was just pitfalls and obstacles and a stupidly stacked division alongside a sim that had no shreds of mercy.
Meanwhile in the NSFC, Yellowknife basically sailed through. Wait, nevermind, scratch that. They were losing to Sarasota until the stream mysteriously went goofy and the Wraiths came back to win with 5 seconds. And then we had the Ultimus. We went up 10-0 in the 1st quarter and with 5 minutes left we were driving deep in YKW territory. With a 10 point lead and 1st and 10 at the 24 yard line, we knew. We knew what was coming. We were not going to darkhorse this to victory (since we actually were an underdog here). This is the moment where I have to address the task's ultimate question. Were you surprised by the outcome? No. The sim has screwed so many teams in so many ways, botched this entire playoff in several ways, and just been an absolute menace. This was it's last hurrah. We knew better. We knew it was about to screw us like a drill driving into the ground. And so it began. The fuckening. As our teeny tiny hope quickly died, the sim took the ball form us so we wouldn't score again, did nothing with it, and then took it form us again with a pick 6 to end a quarter we dominated 10-7. It was the perfect example of how the rest of the game was going to go. Up to and including a CB Blitz allowing for a huge touchdown, even if it wasn't technically a CB Blitz because the CB only went forward as far as the OLine (which was presented as a defense but is actually worse since at least the CB Blitz is attempting something useful). And then the Wraiths proceeded to do an uncomfortable physical examination of our entire team and the offense scored virtually at will alongside the defense grabbing 5 turnovers (including two pick 6's). My personal day can be summed up by the catch I had for -3 yards.
Apparently the real darkhorse was the turnovers we gave up along the way. And New York who did actually get screwed by the sim's stupid logic. Even with not being surprised by the outcome....even with not being surprised after starting the game by dominating for almost the entirety of the 1st quarter......it still really sucked to be on the receiving end of one of the most vicious one sided beatdowns in Ultimus history. Especially after all the nonsense it took to get there.
New Orleans obviously made the Ultimus and lost to the Wraiths (again). I cannot claim we were that much of an underdog or dark horse but I don't think we were anyone's first choice to win. That was before the sim fuckery decided to go nuts. That said, the whole ASFC playoff situation was insane. New York managing to slide into (an unexpectedly modified version of) the first seed was definitely a dark horse in its own right, though. They went into the lasts week of the season hosting Orange County in a playoff situation so complex that half the league was trying to figure out the actual math for the entire day up to and including during the game itself. And we were all wrong. They won, and Orange County who lost jumped Austin, who was ahead of them, and snuck into the 3rd playoff spot based on the records of those four teams and Arizona, who had already been eliminated. So the index showed New York in first with home field advantage, New Orleans in 2nd hosting Orange County, who was listed in 4th, while the 3rd place Austin Copperheads went home. Go home sim, you're fired. Nola beating OCO and then having a home game we shouldn't have made us somehow more unpopular than the Otters who shouldn't have gotten in to begin with. Yet we persevered as the league's first 2nd seeded home team in the ASFC conference finals. Where we ran into New York, after beating each other on the road this season. So even with the advantage we were supposed to have gained form this sim black magic (us, the team that was 4-4 at home including a loss to PHILLY), we were concerned to say the least. So when we began the 4th quarter down 14 after haven given up a freakin' safety, we were not confident. Even when we came back we were on eggshells. We honestly didn't want to believe and get invested until it got close. Even on the game tying drive our QB got sacked with less than 3 minutes left and we kinda thought we were done. But we persevered and got to OT where we finally had the confidence to...no I'm lying we didn't. We were terrified until we picked up the fumble and managed to heart attack our way into the damn Ultimus. There was absolutely nothing easy or simple about our road to even get to the Ultimus. It was just pitfalls and obstacles and a stupidly stacked division alongside a sim that had no shreds of mercy.
Meanwhile in the NSFC, Yellowknife basically sailed through. Wait, nevermind, scratch that. They were losing to Sarasota until the stream mysteriously went goofy and the Wraiths came back to win with 5 seconds. And then we had the Ultimus. We went up 10-0 in the 1st quarter and with 5 minutes left we were driving deep in YKW territory. With a 10 point lead and 1st and 10 at the 24 yard line, we knew. We knew what was coming. We were not going to darkhorse this to victory (since we actually were an underdog here). This is the moment where I have to address the task's ultimate question. Were you surprised by the outcome? No. The sim has screwed so many teams in so many ways, botched this entire playoff in several ways, and just been an absolute menace. This was it's last hurrah. We knew better. We knew it was about to screw us like a drill driving into the ground. And so it began. The fuckening. As our teeny tiny hope quickly died, the sim took the ball form us so we wouldn't score again, did nothing with it, and then took it form us again with a pick 6 to end a quarter we dominated 10-7. It was the perfect example of how the rest of the game was going to go. Up to and including a CB Blitz allowing for a huge touchdown, even if it wasn't technically a CB Blitz because the CB only went forward as far as the OLine (which was presented as a defense but is actually worse since at least the CB Blitz is attempting something useful). And then the Wraiths proceeded to do an uncomfortable physical examination of our entire team and the offense scored virtually at will alongside the defense grabbing 5 turnovers (including two pick 6's). My personal day can be summed up by the catch I had for -3 yards.
Apparently the real darkhorse was the turnovers we gave up along the way. And New York who did actually get screwed by the sim's stupid logic. Even with not being surprised by the outcome....even with not being surprised after starting the game by dominating for almost the entirety of the 1st quarter......it still really sucked to be on the receiving end of one of the most vicious one sided beatdowns in Ultimus history. Especially after all the nonsense it took to get there.
![[Image: 68.png]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/722696337912496132/759304283312881684/68.png)
