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?
So, for this prompt, I want to specifically talk about Berlin making it to the finals. I’m part of the Berlin Fire Salamanders personally, but the main reason I want to focus on them is because they’re an expansion team. It’s completely insane to think about how they went from near bottom of the league (as expansion teams typically are in the beginning) to the ultimus! I was a S27 create (like i was drafted into the ISFL then), and that year they were near the bottom of the league as well. I remember my first ever season predictions, I completely guessed on which teams would do well, as I didn’t know any better. I remember predicting The Berlin Fire Salamanders as the top of their division, mainly because I found their mascot and name cool. Unfortunately that didn’t happen, and while i don’t exactly remember their record, they were in the bottom half of the division with 7 wins, and I just remember kinda silently rooting for them, mainly because of my predictions, but still. It’s insane to me that they go from near bottom of the league to the ultimus in such a close period of time. They’re the ultimate dark horse team. So, onto next year, where they actually did worse than the year prior. They got 6 wins in S27, earning them the fourth round pick, which was when I was selected by them (coincidence that they started winning games only after they chose me? Probably. But whatever). Berlin had a lot of holes, with both a low amount of points scored and a high amount of points allowed. S28 though was different. We literally doubled our win total, and went from 6-10 to the top in our division, with 12 whole wins. It was a winning record, which was an insane switch. We didn’t end up winning the ultimus, but it was legitimately like the comeback of the century. And then, that leads us to this ultimus. Going from bottom of the league, one of the worst records, to the ultimus is legitimately insane. But what’s the reason behind it. My personal theory is that the drafting done by High and Dewalt for Berlin during the expansion draft explains both the record before and now. We selected a ton of young players who maybe didn’t have the best TPE at that time, but were on the rise. Obviously when a team is made up mainly of young players with lower TPE, they’re going to lose versus some players with much higher TPE, but also much older as well. This is expanded with the new sim giving older players a boost at their position (I can’t remember the name of it but it’s something like positional experience that increases the longer a player is around), so older players are gonna have even more of an advantage playing against a younger team like Berlin. I can’t explain the drop from 7 to 6 wins, but then again, that’s such a small change that it’s not like it requires some major explanation. But yeah, as our team grows older and gains more in TPE, plus some key additions in free agency of more high TPE veterans (Avery as an example), there was an insanely huge jump, especially because other teams were being hit my regression while we just started hitting our stride. And now I don’t even believe we’ve reached our peak. Some of our team has stated regressing, sure, but I think we still have room to improve! We’ve had some messy drafts in the past (I ended up being the only one called up to Berlin from my draft class, which is unfortunate), but we have a good mix of new and old players, and with our recent draft (the one a bit ago where we drafted 3 QBs), I think we’re doing pretty well. We have some holes that hopefully will get filled during the draft (we shall see, no spoilers), but I cannot wait to see how we do next season. On a separate note, I wanted to comment on baltimore. I know that i’ve written about them a bit on occasion, but I wanted to comment on the fact that they did surprisingly well. Okay, i get that 3 wins isnt ideal, but considering they had 0 wins just two seasons ago, it’s a huge improvement to have anything. I feel like 3 is just above that hump of “lucked out a win” and is kinda like showing they actually aren’t awful. Lastly, am i surprised by this outcome? Well i’m 50/50 on it. We did awesome this season, but like, we did have a couple holes, so it’s one of those things where i’m not surprised either way. That’s my analysis on how the Berlin Fire Salamanders were a dark horse team and how the Baltimore Hawks did better than expected
So, for this prompt, I want to specifically talk about Berlin making it to the finals. I’m part of the Berlin Fire Salamanders personally, but the main reason I want to focus on them is because they’re an expansion team. It’s completely insane to think about how they went from near bottom of the league (as expansion teams typically are in the beginning) to the ultimus! I was a S27 create (like i was drafted into the ISFL then), and that year they were near the bottom of the league as well. I remember my first ever season predictions, I completely guessed on which teams would do well, as I didn’t know any better. I remember predicting The Berlin Fire Salamanders as the top of their division, mainly because I found their mascot and name cool. Unfortunately that didn’t happen, and while i don’t exactly remember their record, they were in the bottom half of the division with 7 wins, and I just remember kinda silently rooting for them, mainly because of my predictions, but still. It’s insane to me that they go from near bottom of the league to the ultimus in such a close period of time. They’re the ultimate dark horse team. So, onto next year, where they actually did worse than the year prior. They got 6 wins in S27, earning them the fourth round pick, which was when I was selected by them (coincidence that they started winning games only after they chose me? Probably. But whatever). Berlin had a lot of holes, with both a low amount of points scored and a high amount of points allowed. S28 though was different. We literally doubled our win total, and went from 6-10 to the top in our division, with 12 whole wins. It was a winning record, which was an insane switch. We didn’t end up winning the ultimus, but it was legitimately like the comeback of the century. And then, that leads us to this ultimus. Going from bottom of the league, one of the worst records, to the ultimus is legitimately insane. But what’s the reason behind it. My personal theory is that the drafting done by High and Dewalt for Berlin during the expansion draft explains both the record before and now. We selected a ton of young players who maybe didn’t have the best TPE at that time, but were on the rise. Obviously when a team is made up mainly of young players with lower TPE, they’re going to lose versus some players with much higher TPE, but also much older as well. This is expanded with the new sim giving older players a boost at their position (I can’t remember the name of it but it’s something like positional experience that increases the longer a player is around), so older players are gonna have even more of an advantage playing against a younger team like Berlin. I can’t explain the drop from 7 to 6 wins, but then again, that’s such a small change that it’s not like it requires some major explanation. But yeah, as our team grows older and gains more in TPE, plus some key additions in free agency of more high TPE veterans (Avery as an example), there was an insanely huge jump, especially because other teams were being hit my regression while we just started hitting our stride. And now I don’t even believe we’ve reached our peak. Some of our team has stated regressing, sure, but I think we still have room to improve! We’ve had some messy drafts in the past (I ended up being the only one called up to Berlin from my draft class, which is unfortunate), but we have a good mix of new and old players, and with our recent draft (the one a bit ago where we drafted 3 QBs), I think we’re doing pretty well. We have some holes that hopefully will get filled during the draft (we shall see, no spoilers), but I cannot wait to see how we do next season. On a separate note, I wanted to comment on baltimore. I know that i’ve written about them a bit on occasion, but I wanted to comment on the fact that they did surprisingly well. Okay, i get that 3 wins isnt ideal, but considering they had 0 wins just two seasons ago, it’s a huge improvement to have anything. I feel like 3 is just above that hump of “lucked out a win” and is kinda like showing they actually aren’t awful. Lastly, am i surprised by this outcome? Well i’m 50/50 on it. We did awesome this season, but like, we did have a couple holes, so it’s one of those things where i’m not surprised either way. That’s my analysis on how the Berlin Fire Salamanders were a dark horse team and how the Baltimore Hawks did better than expected
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