07-01-2021, 07:00 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-01-2021, 07:01 AM by LancedJack.)
1. This week will see the S29 Ultimus and Ultimini races begin in earnest. How did each team arrive at the playoffs? Were there any dark horse teams that went unexpectedly far, or any presumptive favorites that fell flat? Who do you think will win the final? If you’re writing this after the finals were decided, were you surprised by the outcome?
In spite of the results of the Season Predictions this weeks Ultimus comes as a surprise to not many users of the league. The teams involved have not arrived there by accident but by careful roster balancing, interesting trades and free agency acquisitions and a moderate sprinkling of sim luck.
In the NSFC we saw the Fire Salamanders, the Wraiths, the Sailfish and the Yeti arrive in the playoffs at surprise to no-one. I don't think anyone would honestly try to make the point that the ASFC is more competitive than the NSFC. The more competitive division putting out four teams that could easily take the Ultimus home was no surprise. What was surprising, however, were the results. We had the Fire Salamanders opening up their campaign with a 41 point shellacking of the defending champion Yellowknife Wraiths. The Fire Salamanders being a recent expansion team has done nothing to quell the ambitions of this outfit as they've been there or there abouts now for quite a few seasons since their inception and look ready to capitalize on this position and take the Ultimus international. The second of our opening round games saw my beloved Yeti unfortunately fall by a 20 point deficit to the Sarasota Sailfish. I'd like to blame sim magic for this but unfortunately we just didn't show up on the night and Sarasota capitalized on what was available and progressed to the next round.
The next round saw the Sailfish taking on the Fire Salamanders and it was a closer game than I think anyone would have predicted with Berlin only holding off the Sailfish with a field goal in the end. Linebacker Adam Schell being the different with his pick six and Danny King limping the Berlin outfit over the line. One could make the case that both outfits appeared to have exhausted their offensive prowess in the opening rounds as this game certainly lacked firepower, barely surpassing the score of just Berlin in the round previous. Lets hope for something more from Berlin in the Finals! It's fascinating to see an expansion team arrive in the post season so frequently and rings true some real life parallels with the Vegas Knights expansion outfit of the NHL. I can't imagine we'll see this success repeated with the Seattle Kraken and their terrible coaching staff. A lesson to learn from Berlin perhaps?
In the ASFC we saw perennial post season attendees the Otters taking on the Outlaws in the opening round, followed by the Second Line facing off with the Silverbacks.
The Otters are no strangers to the post season themselves, being quite successful since their inception. Unfortunately being familiar with the post season does mean getting familiar with post season losses and that's what we saw here, as the Otters were trounced by 26 points by an absolutely lethal Outlaws outfit. Garfield Despacito Jr barely managed to wrangle a TD back in the waning minutes of the final quarter to keep this scoreline somewhat respectable to stop the, admittedly unusual, scoreline of 38-5. As always Tatsu Nakamura was on fine form with a five touchdown performance. Enjoy those MVP honours! It was to be quite telling that the defensive MVP fell to a team who had conceded 38 points however. An ominous tell of the next round.
As for the alliteration based matchup of the Second Line vs the Silverbacks it was to be the New York collective who saw success on the day, a wonderfully weighted pass coming in from Mr Howitzer in the embers of the match letting James Wilkinson fall into the endzone and into the final spot of the playoff picture. Credit to Howitzer who kept his head above water after an ugly interception to lead the team to the win. Leon McDavid was a complete menace to the Second Line with a two sack/fumble day. Terrifying stuff.
So that left us with Arizona to take on New York to determine our Ultimus contestants and wouldn't you know it, it was another nailbiter for Silverbacks fans. Outlaws RB Nakamura was absolutely stifled on the day, 2 rushing attempts for 12 yards and a pedestrian receiving effort left fans perplexed as to the usage. As Arizona should've learned from the opening round, defense wins championships and the Silverbacks were no exceptions. Colt Mendoza's pick six on the opening drive of the second half lowering the heads of most Arizona players in the game. They would mount a futile comeback in the final few minutes but that wouldn't be enough to see off the Silverbacks.
So now we have a final with two expansion teams, equidistant from their inception. One could argue something needs to be looked at for these expansion teams. Equally one could argue this just shows how much talent there is available and a positive argument for expansion. I, personally, can't look past the Fire Salamanders for this win. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I wrote a love letter to New York who subsequently didn't draft me. Nothing to do with that whatsoever.
In spite of the results of the Season Predictions this weeks Ultimus comes as a surprise to not many users of the league. The teams involved have not arrived there by accident but by careful roster balancing, interesting trades and free agency acquisitions and a moderate sprinkling of sim luck.
In the NSFC we saw the Fire Salamanders, the Wraiths, the Sailfish and the Yeti arrive in the playoffs at surprise to no-one. I don't think anyone would honestly try to make the point that the ASFC is more competitive than the NSFC. The more competitive division putting out four teams that could easily take the Ultimus home was no surprise. What was surprising, however, were the results. We had the Fire Salamanders opening up their campaign with a 41 point shellacking of the defending champion Yellowknife Wraiths. The Fire Salamanders being a recent expansion team has done nothing to quell the ambitions of this outfit as they've been there or there abouts now for quite a few seasons since their inception and look ready to capitalize on this position and take the Ultimus international. The second of our opening round games saw my beloved Yeti unfortunately fall by a 20 point deficit to the Sarasota Sailfish. I'd like to blame sim magic for this but unfortunately we just didn't show up on the night and Sarasota capitalized on what was available and progressed to the next round.
The next round saw the Sailfish taking on the Fire Salamanders and it was a closer game than I think anyone would have predicted with Berlin only holding off the Sailfish with a field goal in the end. Linebacker Adam Schell being the different with his pick six and Danny King limping the Berlin outfit over the line. One could make the case that both outfits appeared to have exhausted their offensive prowess in the opening rounds as this game certainly lacked firepower, barely surpassing the score of just Berlin in the round previous. Lets hope for something more from Berlin in the Finals! It's fascinating to see an expansion team arrive in the post season so frequently and rings true some real life parallels with the Vegas Knights expansion outfit of the NHL. I can't imagine we'll see this success repeated with the Seattle Kraken and their terrible coaching staff. A lesson to learn from Berlin perhaps?
In the ASFC we saw perennial post season attendees the Otters taking on the Outlaws in the opening round, followed by the Second Line facing off with the Silverbacks.
The Otters are no strangers to the post season themselves, being quite successful since their inception. Unfortunately being familiar with the post season does mean getting familiar with post season losses and that's what we saw here, as the Otters were trounced by 26 points by an absolutely lethal Outlaws outfit. Garfield Despacito Jr barely managed to wrangle a TD back in the waning minutes of the final quarter to keep this scoreline somewhat respectable to stop the, admittedly unusual, scoreline of 38-5. As always Tatsu Nakamura was on fine form with a five touchdown performance. Enjoy those MVP honours! It was to be quite telling that the defensive MVP fell to a team who had conceded 38 points however. An ominous tell of the next round.
As for the alliteration based matchup of the Second Line vs the Silverbacks it was to be the New York collective who saw success on the day, a wonderfully weighted pass coming in from Mr Howitzer in the embers of the match letting James Wilkinson fall into the endzone and into the final spot of the playoff picture. Credit to Howitzer who kept his head above water after an ugly interception to lead the team to the win. Leon McDavid was a complete menace to the Second Line with a two sack/fumble day. Terrifying stuff.
So that left us with Arizona to take on New York to determine our Ultimus contestants and wouldn't you know it, it was another nailbiter for Silverbacks fans. Outlaws RB Nakamura was absolutely stifled on the day, 2 rushing attempts for 12 yards and a pedestrian receiving effort left fans perplexed as to the usage. As Arizona should've learned from the opening round, defense wins championships and the Silverbacks were no exceptions. Colt Mendoza's pick six on the opening drive of the second half lowering the heads of most Arizona players in the game. They would mount a futile comeback in the final few minutes but that wouldn't be enough to see off the Silverbacks.
So now we have a final with two expansion teams, equidistant from their inception. One could argue something needs to be looked at for these expansion teams. Equally one could argue this just shows how much talent there is available and a positive argument for expansion. I, personally, can't look past the Fire Salamanders for this win. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I wrote a love letter to New York who subsequently didn't draft me. Nothing to do with that whatsoever.
![[Image: KScBQJ5.png]](https://i.imgur.com/KScBQJ5.png)
![[Image: tmCo06K.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/tmCo06K.jpg)
