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Let's have a collective update of the biggest results of the last two game days, and pretend to find what little drama there is to be found.

The results themselves were not that surprising. Perhaps the most interesting development is the emergence of X Dominate X as the second force in the S62 Great 8. When they barely made the playoffs last season with a relegation level roster and a 7-15 I took note that our division had kept afloat a team that could splurge at any moment. We're beginning to see that now. Interestingly their team and mine, which is just 1 game ahead, have the same home-away schedule in the interconfertnce round (but at different stages). Doctors of WI continues to flirt with bot danger, but picks up a win tonight

Mission #1 for my team tonight was to stop Bonilla from going off. I will take that we held him down to 21 points after performances with 52 and 37.

In the Big 8, we continue to have reasonable clarity and a fairly stable outlook with Yuck as the class of the league averaging +30 PD/Game in the first act of the season; JCW trailing (after a big effort to win away at Scrap Heap on Tuesday), then Ash, then Scrap Heap, with Crows pulling the plug on the season and focusing on growth.

In the fight to avoid the auto-relegation slot, Blacksheep picks up their first win of the season condemning Miami to a 0-7 first round. The bottom of the big 8 is less tiered, with two 1-6 teams and two 2-5 teams.

I had to bite the bullet for training purposes last week and it almost bit me. But we kind of unleashed the death start tonight, so I don't know what to think of my team.

There is an outside chance that Fabre gets called up for France's U21 team, but I've been down this road before. Had a couple guys that were on the fringe who never made it. It would be really nice to do it once.

As opposed to my Utopia team who seems to spawn cruddy players for minnows, but they are still good enough for their U21 teams. Ran into one of them in my current Private League. He's on Morroco's senior team now. He's played over 80 games between the U21 and National team. But I doubt he's be a water boy for the US

Yeah I had Georgian and Nigerian players from my Utopia play in U21, but my American HOF trainee guy who is the best of them is on the fringes of the US team (and kind of only has an outside chance to even make it.).

It doesn’t matter if I get my face ripped off or not on any given week. I still look forward to Black Lights summmary/analysis each week!

Last edited by D-Man at 9/17/2023 4:18:40 AM

That’s nice, thanks!

There was a time, not long ago, when Doctors @ JCW was absolute prime time viewing, but not anymore. JCW hangs 50 on Docs with four players scoring 18 or more.

We tried our hardest to give Ashkickers a run for their money, but our offense could never kick into gear, and the game was never close. It's going to be a few weeks until our newest additions work their way into reasonable game shape. With this loss and Dominate's gigantic blow out of Crows, X Dominate X takes the Great 8 top spot on PD.

The thriller of the night is the midwestern derby between Motor City and Hoosiers. Bonilla is back to his skull crushing ways but it's not enough to get over the hump against the Hoosier's methodical Look Inside.

Team NY and Miami Heat participate in another "no defense" shootout -- Team NY holds serve at home.

Blow outs for Bulldogs over Globo; Dominate over rebuilding Crows as mentioned; Scrap Heap over Two O's; and Yuck (now the only undefeated team left) over Blacksheep.

The Big 8 hosted this round and went 7-1. Dominate's victory over Crows is the only Great 8 win. Good luck to all of us who are still in the cup!

It's a lot easier when you know what the other team is going to do. Plus home court. Plus enthusiasm. Plus Game shape

Rest of the week won't be so positive

Impressive ratings tonight. Looking forward to our next matchup. It’ll be on your floor.

My attention tonight was on Cal Bulldogs vs. X Dominate X. For almost three quarters bulldogs looked like they could stay with the 7-1 team. However in the third quarter the better quality of Dominate opened a lead that they wouldn't relinquish.

We had a good 63 pts win against Team NY that allowed us to regain the top spot in the conference, albeit on PD.

I had been thinking that in a sense we still have the 1 game edge over Dominate that we had entering the interconference round. This was because in the first round we had Ashkickers away and they had the much easier post-sale Crows team. In a few game days, we will each get the opposite match-ups. However Crows tonight showed some fangs for the first time since their players' sale, and I realized that they punted their game against Dominate for the cup, but alas they are now out of the cup. I'm not so sure I can make up that game in our race.

JCW's defense suffocated Globo, and Ashkickers cooled off the offensive engine of Motor City (who put in less enthusiasm).

Digression:I accidentally called Motor City Machines "bottom feeders" in the league in my appearance in E.B.W.'s Buzzerbeater themed podcast ((https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJKeb_70ybc)). This was evidently not quite right. I was speaking off the cuff about their incredible 156-154 match against Miami from a few weeks ago, and well upon reflection I wouldn't say that a team that has been playing 50% ball can be called "bottom feeder".

The term did fit 0-8 (now 0-9) Miami Heat3, but even so, I didn't mean it in an offensive way. Miami brought their 0-8 record, to the home match against 8-0 Cassville Yuck. Bookmakers had stopped taking bets on this match, and Cassville cruised to an easy win with a B team.

The countdown is on for the current botification threat for Doctors of WI. Once again, I hope they log in to save their team. Today they got a win against IU, which keeps them in playoff contention.

Talking of solidifying the playoff position, Scrap Heap wins @ Blacksheep and earns a 3 win cushion over fifth place.

The Big 8 comes out of this second interconference day with a 5-3 collective away win, confirming what we all know: they are the better conference.




Last edited by Coco at 9/23/2023 10:57:25 PM

At this point, my only real objective is getting Fabre onto France's U-21 team. If that doesn't happen, I shall forever tell every NT manager to kiss my ass because I have done everything they asked. I hate being led around by the nose and left empty.

Other than that, we are 4-0 in BBM with a tricky match coming up. Nice to be in contention, but no real hope of a trophy.

I just feel like this is a replay of the NY Chunks season with a more attuned manager in his place. That season felt like there was a chance. This one doesn't.

The bookies have also stopped taking bets on who will win the league. However, I am quite enjoying this weird season---maybe it's my middle age blunting my competitiveness. I'm focusing my attention on figuring out the new GE tweaks; ensuring that I get a good W-L record, and possibly make the finals, which will help next season's ST holders and fan survey, which means I'll be able to afford a stronger roster, etc; I am continuing when I can to grow my arena and training somewhat weird players that can get me some advantages to even out my financial disadvantage w.r.t the rest of the league.

I'm out of the cup, after drawing a way too competent d.IV team who saved their A team for me, I've gotten enough BBM losses to know I won't advance (I'm 2-2).

I am also interested in comparing the prospects of my Utopia vs. my USA team. When I rejoined I decided to implement two different philosophies there: the Utopia is all long term planning and the USA team is all about being greedy with wins and team success. So e.g. USA promoted immediately out of IV, and Utopia has been toiling in the bottom league, but now we are at a point where there two strategies might get close to each other in success.

Last edited by Coco at 9/24/2023 9:27:47 AM