So a little bit past the half way point of the season and Im back to stir the pot a little. Lets look at all the teams and see where they sit now that its Week 10 and not Week 4, there is a BIG difference.
Alpha
Misctanbul Crusaders 9-0
First off, I want to say that I underestimated this team, they are awfully good. But with that said, they have only played three teams that are likely to make the playoffs .. BUT they did beat those 3 teams 144-33, which is pretty devastating, the only team that was even close was Ufa, who is a darn fine team themselves and is one of the better teams in EE Pro. The Crusaders are lead by their two DEs, Robert E Lee and TheSack Jingles, they have 40 and 33 sacks respectively, but RE Lee got 33/40 of those in 4 games, against three CPU teams (27) and Washington (6) .. who is notably bad, Jingles was more consistent but still got 19/33 of his sacks against CPU teams and Washington, but his 5 against St. Pete is impressive. They have 4 games remaining with teams that might threaten them (one being this week with Montreal), but overall they have secured a high spot in the playoffs and are in good shape.
Minsk Ninjas 9-0
Similarly to Misc, this team has faced only 4 real playoff teams in their previous 9 games. Those games were much closer than Misc's games against other playoff teams. Minsk is still undefeated, but they play Ufa this week and Ufa is one of the best teams and has a chance to knock off Minsk. Minsk only plays 3 more teams that really have a chance to beat them, Im not sure you can say Kazan really has a chance .. so I have to say 3. Also, Minsk hasnt fattened up on the 2CPU teams and Washington yet, so those should be time to heal wounds and pad stats if Ufa does happen to win. Id consider this game to be the potential for an upset. But regardless, regular season losses only matter if you dont learn anything from them, Minsk will be highly ranked and are in the playoffs already.
St. Petersburg Piranhas 7-2
Their record is more of a matter of schedule than anything, they have played 5 playoff teams and have only lost to the two teams above them. They only have 2 really challenging games left this season, which means they should finish no worse than 12-4. They have a high level of talent and their loss to Minsk wasnt terribly bad, that game could have went either way, but their beatdown to Misc would be discouraging, as Misc is clearly the lead horse in the Alpha race. Overall this is a playoff team and if they can figure out Misc, I think that they can challenge anyone in Alpha.
Montreal GSPs 7-2
A soft schedule so far makes them look a little better than they are .. but they have kept their games with the other playoff teams tight, they lost two, one by one point, which hurts, I can tell you! But that was to 7th place Ljubljana. At least its nice to see that Alpha has some competition in the Top 8-9 teams instead of the usual Alpha story "Well SOMEONE had to make the playoffs and they sucked less than the teams below them". Anyhow, back to Montreal, they are a really good team, but they meet the devastation squad of the Misc Crusaders next, they are more of a passing team and thats not really a good idea against Misc's fast DEs .. what will happen in that game? That is one of the games of the week for certain. As for the rest of the season, Montreal should make the playoffs, but later in the season it will get serious when they play Vilnius, MCXA and Minsk in the course of a 4 game span, the push to the playoffs will be hot for each of those teams, that will be fun to watch.
Ufa Panthers 6-3
Three losses .. all tight and all to top teams, nothing to be ashamed of, particularly with a team that brought in so many new players in the offseason and didnt let me have any! They have had a tough schedule, but only have really 3 teams that could challenge them left on the schedule and similarly to the other top teams, ONE is this week against Minsk! I predicted that Ufa could give Minsk its first loss and I stand by that, Ufa beat Vilnius by 27 and MCXA by 41! Thats about the most impressive wins in Alpha out side of Misc. We should know pretty much after the Ljubljana game where Ufa is going to end up in the brackets, because their last two games are likely wins, they wont be pushovers, but the way that Ufa has been playing, its quite likely.
Vilnius Maulers 6-3
Not a really good sign schedule wise, have played 4 playoff teams, lost 3 of them and scraped out a 7 point win against another, the other 5 games, well just not a lot of competition there and they get another Alpha cupcake special this week in a virtual CPU team, even if it isnt one officially for some reason. They have 3 certain wins left on their schedule, to give them 9 wins, which is probably enough to ensure they are in the playoffs, Ill call Lowell a possible loss and then Misc, Montreal and MCXA as serious challenges and even probable losses at this point. They cant seem to run against better teams and thats a major issue this season as running seems to be overpowered somewhat, we wont know until after the Lowell game exactly where Vilnius stands, if they pull out that game, they are certainly in the playoffs, if not, it might get dicey.
Ljubljana Pregls 5-3
Outside of a headscratcher loss to Demoniak(it didnt seem so at the time, but now its strange looking) and a blowout to Misc (Im assuming that they played the guessing game of Russian Roulette and came up "Lead"), Ljubjana has looked very competitive in all their games. They have already played 5 playoff teams and beaten two of them, with two other teams that will give them serious trouble or a very probable loss left, things look really good for Ljubjana. They have 3 likely wins, Lowell and Kazan that should put up a fight and then Ufa and St Pete that will be really tough games. I suspect that they get at least 9 wins and probably 10 wins, 11 and 12 wins become much less likely, but 10 would certainly get them in the playoffs and with as tight as they keep games, anything could happen!
MCXA Cybernationists 4-5
A tough schedule and a bit of bad luck with the Zeta draw is why this team isnt high, but also there are some questions here .. I know this team is better than their record, ah .. there is the issue .. they arent running enough .. yeah .. heres a clue if you dont read any of the other 100s of forums .. running works really well this season! Your RT build is open http://goallineblitz.com/game/player.pl?player_id=38188 Id say that he might be shopping himself or something .. not entirely sure there, but I do know that .. hes built for running with that build and if you arent running .. you are misusing that guy. This team hasnt beat a playoff team and thats discouraging, because that makes them more like "Well someone has to get 8th place" and I believe that this team is better than that .. they can start their improvement by beating Kazan tomorrow and then they have 2 CPU teams which arent going to help much besides stats and their record, then they have Misc, which if they really dont do something Misc will score 70+ on them. Im also really surprised at the lack of scrimmages, I mean with an entirely new playbook, losses to every good team .. you would think that you would get some scrimmages together and try to figure out what works and what doesnt. They will probably make the playoffs, but who knows .. I cant say a lot here because Lowell is right behind them and I havent seen Lowell's schedule.
Lowell Bengal Tigers 4-5
Depth, builds, levels .. all questionable, but they must have some tactics because they were pretty darn close to Misc, which is surprising. Also just no rushing here at all, its a mess, they have played 4 playoff teams so far and one of those was a Zeta playoff team, so they still have 5 to go, giving them one of the toughest remaining schedules in Alpha. Right now Id say that they have a tough game this week against Washington that they MUST win to say that they shouldnt be back down in AAA, they have one more easy win .. but then after that, I just cant see any wins left on the schedule, maybe Vilnius if they dont get their crap together, but all the other games .. just doesnt look good. There is pretty much no way this team makes the playoffs, I just cant see it .. but thats pretty sad because that means really after spot 7 .. Alpha isnt that competitive right now .. maybe MCXA can get it together, but otherwise there are 7 teams right now in Alpha.
The Geriatric Couch Potatoes 4-5
I attempted to come and do some consulting for this team, but honestly apathy is the word to best describe this team, I think that they have always had a level advantage on other teams and played in soft conferences and that made them think they are better than they are. There are build questions and commitment questions all over the place here and when I told them what they needed to do .. mostly a lack of response or apathy .. I just removed myself because there is nothing you can do when the people dont want to win. As for their record, close wins over Washington and Lowell pretty much tell the story, they have more talent than teams that really dont have Pro league talent, but not enough to keep from getting blown out by serious teams. I see 4 more blowouts on their schedule, one game where Kazan should beat them down .. but Kazan is also on life support this season and then 2 wins .. that gives them 6 wins in a 16 team league that I already said only has 7 really competitive teams at this time and at most has 8.
Kazan Golden Horde 4-5
One of the few remaining original EE Pro teams is dying, Sammage told me that his players are headed for retirement, dberner has brought most of his players to the team, where there used to be higher level talent .. its a bad situation. The players that are there have questionable builds for their level and you just have to wonder how much longer they are going to hold out. When they have played anyone with a pulse this season, they have lost .. badly. A Week 2, 49 point loss to a Lowell team that will get at most 6 wins in a league with only 8 teams (should have at least 8 wins) shows really how far they have dropped. Also ... dberner with 113 players, 3 teams and 6GM positions seems to be spread a little to thin to actually take care of his "main team" so he has told me. I asked him either last season or season 4, what he was going to do with all those players and teams and he said that he would never give up Kazan .. but it looks like he may have no choice, he needs to focus some energy on his team, recruiting and less on numerous of his own players <L20 and 8 other teams if this is indeed his main team.
Teams that really dont matter, offense meant
Washington Chairmen
A one or two man team, Im not sure why Greenguy keeps holding on when he cant recruit. Im still not sold that Fatherof2 isnt Greenguy himself, because it would be tough for just two people to hold out. Much like dberner of Kazan, this Season 2 EE Pro team has been suffering a long and painful death since well .. Season 3 or so. No recruiting, no real effort put in and this season the competition has widened the gap. Greenguy would be an awesome addition to some team with all his players, but as an owner .. not so much. BTW I told Saris (you know the guy with Ray Finkle the highest level player in GLB) I told him back in Season 2 that he sucked ass as an owner, but had several good, high level players and that he should bring them to a team and let someone else be the owner .. he listened, Kalamazoo has been very good for several seasons .. Greenguy should have done the same at least in Season 4 .. but the issue of having a two man team is just like the owner of the Margaritaville Fins .. its incestuous, if you have bad builds .. the entire team will have bad builds, because you dont have a 2nd opinion .. the high level players on this team are okay, but not elite, why? most likely 10x too many SAs .. but because of not having anyone else on your team to tell you otherwise .. you keep doing the same crap season after season .. GCP is also guilty of that minus ahomnis who has good builds all around. No chance for playoffs, please sell the team and become a very valuable part of a team whose owner has time for tactics and recruiting .. please
Gen. Patton's Demon Brigade
I said last season this team was going to die .. I said before the season it was dead, Psychonaut assured me someone would take it over .. one of the players wanted it! he said ... not the case, all of them were so happy to get off this sinking ship and now for some strange reason psychonaut is holding onto it, even though before the season he moved his players all off it, but wouldnt cut the other players loose. There are 2 human players left, its a CPU team .. its awful .. please sell the team psychonaut, its over. Minsk Koats, Kazan and Demon Brigade are the last remaining EE Pro Alpha original teams and Im not sure any of them will survive the offseason.
Minsk Koats
Depth, builds, stubbornness ..
Mike and Khayos are stubborn, much like Washington, they want to ride the boat to the bottom .. but builds are an issue and Minsk has never been an elite team, Washington won a championship one time .. they were very good Season 2 .. Demon Brigade was one of the best teams in Alpha for a long time until hurricane Ike .. but Minsk well .. I believe they might have made the playoffs once .. maximum twice, but I believe once and then a first round exit. There are a few players with elite levels .. the builds are also not hot but not a mess like Washington .. what can I say .. their time would be better served by selling the team and being part of a good team somewhere else. If they are dead set on staying in EE Pro then look for a team in EE Pro next season to join with your players .. I dont have anything against yall .. nor Greenguy .. I wish you all would stay .. but seriously .. if you cant recruit (recruiting is a nightmare and only by word of mouth and personal relationships does it work at all really) .. then its better off to be part of a team that can.
U.S.S.R. Goons
Jubs was never all in .. he abandoned ship and this team will end up at the bottom of the pyramid .. it only cost us one season of a CPU team, too bad he didnt sell it earlier when we could have got another team up here.
Rome's Fighting Gladiator's aka St. Petersberg Red Army Regulars
One of the 4 last original Alpha teams .. Blakes finally abandoned ship and then some newbie bought it .. changed the name two times, realized being an owner isnt as fun as he thought and quit .. leaving a stupidly named team in Alpha .. somewhat fitting I guess for what a mess Alpha is an always has been.
Alpha
Misctanbul Crusaders 9-0
First off, I want to say that I underestimated this team, they are awfully good. But with that said, they have only played three teams that are likely to make the playoffs .. BUT they did beat those 3 teams 144-33, which is pretty devastating, the only team that was even close was Ufa, who is a darn fine team themselves and is one of the better teams in EE Pro. The Crusaders are lead by their two DEs, Robert E Lee and TheSack Jingles, they have 40 and 33 sacks respectively, but RE Lee got 33/40 of those in 4 games, against three CPU teams (27) and Washington (6) .. who is notably bad, Jingles was more consistent but still got 19/33 of his sacks against CPU teams and Washington, but his 5 against St. Pete is impressive. They have 4 games remaining with teams that might threaten them (one being this week with Montreal), but overall they have secured a high spot in the playoffs and are in good shape.
Minsk Ninjas 9-0
Similarly to Misc, this team has faced only 4 real playoff teams in their previous 9 games. Those games were much closer than Misc's games against other playoff teams. Minsk is still undefeated, but they play Ufa this week and Ufa is one of the best teams and has a chance to knock off Minsk. Minsk only plays 3 more teams that really have a chance to beat them, Im not sure you can say Kazan really has a chance .. so I have to say 3. Also, Minsk hasnt fattened up on the 2CPU teams and Washington yet, so those should be time to heal wounds and pad stats if Ufa does happen to win. Id consider this game to be the potential for an upset. But regardless, regular season losses only matter if you dont learn anything from them, Minsk will be highly ranked and are in the playoffs already.
St. Petersburg Piranhas 7-2
Their record is more of a matter of schedule than anything, they have played 5 playoff teams and have only lost to the two teams above them. They only have 2 really challenging games left this season, which means they should finish no worse than 12-4. They have a high level of talent and their loss to Minsk wasnt terribly bad, that game could have went either way, but their beatdown to Misc would be discouraging, as Misc is clearly the lead horse in the Alpha race. Overall this is a playoff team and if they can figure out Misc, I think that they can challenge anyone in Alpha.
Montreal GSPs 7-2
A soft schedule so far makes them look a little better than they are .. but they have kept their games with the other playoff teams tight, they lost two, one by one point, which hurts, I can tell you! But that was to 7th place Ljubljana. At least its nice to see that Alpha has some competition in the Top 8-9 teams instead of the usual Alpha story "Well SOMEONE had to make the playoffs and they sucked less than the teams below them". Anyhow, back to Montreal, they are a really good team, but they meet the devastation squad of the Misc Crusaders next, they are more of a passing team and thats not really a good idea against Misc's fast DEs .. what will happen in that game? That is one of the games of the week for certain. As for the rest of the season, Montreal should make the playoffs, but later in the season it will get serious when they play Vilnius, MCXA and Minsk in the course of a 4 game span, the push to the playoffs will be hot for each of those teams, that will be fun to watch.
Ufa Panthers 6-3
Three losses .. all tight and all to top teams, nothing to be ashamed of, particularly with a team that brought in so many new players in the offseason and didnt let me have any! They have had a tough schedule, but only have really 3 teams that could challenge them left on the schedule and similarly to the other top teams, ONE is this week against Minsk! I predicted that Ufa could give Minsk its first loss and I stand by that, Ufa beat Vilnius by 27 and MCXA by 41! Thats about the most impressive wins in Alpha out side of Misc. We should know pretty much after the Ljubljana game where Ufa is going to end up in the brackets, because their last two games are likely wins, they wont be pushovers, but the way that Ufa has been playing, its quite likely.
Vilnius Maulers 6-3
Not a really good sign schedule wise, have played 4 playoff teams, lost 3 of them and scraped out a 7 point win against another, the other 5 games, well just not a lot of competition there and they get another Alpha cupcake special this week in a virtual CPU team, even if it isnt one officially for some reason. They have 3 certain wins left on their schedule, to give them 9 wins, which is probably enough to ensure they are in the playoffs, Ill call Lowell a possible loss and then Misc, Montreal and MCXA as serious challenges and even probable losses at this point. They cant seem to run against better teams and thats a major issue this season as running seems to be overpowered somewhat, we wont know until after the Lowell game exactly where Vilnius stands, if they pull out that game, they are certainly in the playoffs, if not, it might get dicey.
Ljubljana Pregls 5-3
Outside of a headscratcher loss to Demoniak(it didnt seem so at the time, but now its strange looking) and a blowout to Misc (Im assuming that they played the guessing game of Russian Roulette and came up "Lead"), Ljubjana has looked very competitive in all their games. They have already played 5 playoff teams and beaten two of them, with two other teams that will give them serious trouble or a very probable loss left, things look really good for Ljubjana. They have 3 likely wins, Lowell and Kazan that should put up a fight and then Ufa and St Pete that will be really tough games. I suspect that they get at least 9 wins and probably 10 wins, 11 and 12 wins become much less likely, but 10 would certainly get them in the playoffs and with as tight as they keep games, anything could happen!
MCXA Cybernationists 4-5
A tough schedule and a bit of bad luck with the Zeta draw is why this team isnt high, but also there are some questions here .. I know this team is better than their record, ah .. there is the issue .. they arent running enough .. yeah .. heres a clue if you dont read any of the other 100s of forums .. running works really well this season! Your RT build is open http://goallineblitz.com/game/player.pl?player_id=38188 Id say that he might be shopping himself or something .. not entirely sure there, but I do know that .. hes built for running with that build and if you arent running .. you are misusing that guy. This team hasnt beat a playoff team and thats discouraging, because that makes them more like "Well someone has to get 8th place" and I believe that this team is better than that .. they can start their improvement by beating Kazan tomorrow and then they have 2 CPU teams which arent going to help much besides stats and their record, then they have Misc, which if they really dont do something Misc will score 70+ on them. Im also really surprised at the lack of scrimmages, I mean with an entirely new playbook, losses to every good team .. you would think that you would get some scrimmages together and try to figure out what works and what doesnt. They will probably make the playoffs, but who knows .. I cant say a lot here because Lowell is right behind them and I havent seen Lowell's schedule.
Lowell Bengal Tigers 4-5
Depth, builds, levels .. all questionable, but they must have some tactics because they were pretty darn close to Misc, which is surprising. Also just no rushing here at all, its a mess, they have played 4 playoff teams so far and one of those was a Zeta playoff team, so they still have 5 to go, giving them one of the toughest remaining schedules in Alpha. Right now Id say that they have a tough game this week against Washington that they MUST win to say that they shouldnt be back down in AAA, they have one more easy win .. but then after that, I just cant see any wins left on the schedule, maybe Vilnius if they dont get their crap together, but all the other games .. just doesnt look good. There is pretty much no way this team makes the playoffs, I just cant see it .. but thats pretty sad because that means really after spot 7 .. Alpha isnt that competitive right now .. maybe MCXA can get it together, but otherwise there are 7 teams right now in Alpha.
The Geriatric Couch Potatoes 4-5
I attempted to come and do some consulting for this team, but honestly apathy is the word to best describe this team, I think that they have always had a level advantage on other teams and played in soft conferences and that made them think they are better than they are. There are build questions and commitment questions all over the place here and when I told them what they needed to do .. mostly a lack of response or apathy .. I just removed myself because there is nothing you can do when the people dont want to win. As for their record, close wins over Washington and Lowell pretty much tell the story, they have more talent than teams that really dont have Pro league talent, but not enough to keep from getting blown out by serious teams. I see 4 more blowouts on their schedule, one game where Kazan should beat them down .. but Kazan is also on life support this season and then 2 wins .. that gives them 6 wins in a 16 team league that I already said only has 7 really competitive teams at this time and at most has 8.
Kazan Golden Horde 4-5
One of the few remaining original EE Pro teams is dying, Sammage told me that his players are headed for retirement, dberner has brought most of his players to the team, where there used to be higher level talent .. its a bad situation. The players that are there have questionable builds for their level and you just have to wonder how much longer they are going to hold out. When they have played anyone with a pulse this season, they have lost .. badly. A Week 2, 49 point loss to a Lowell team that will get at most 6 wins in a league with only 8 teams (should have at least 8 wins) shows really how far they have dropped. Also ... dberner with 113 players, 3 teams and 6GM positions seems to be spread a little to thin to actually take care of his "main team" so he has told me. I asked him either last season or season 4, what he was going to do with all those players and teams and he said that he would never give up Kazan .. but it looks like he may have no choice, he needs to focus some energy on his team, recruiting and less on numerous of his own players <L20 and 8 other teams if this is indeed his main team.
Teams that really dont matter, offense meant
Washington Chairmen
A one or two man team, Im not sure why Greenguy keeps holding on when he cant recruit. Im still not sold that Fatherof2 isnt Greenguy himself, because it would be tough for just two people to hold out. Much like dberner of Kazan, this Season 2 EE Pro team has been suffering a long and painful death since well .. Season 3 or so. No recruiting, no real effort put in and this season the competition has widened the gap. Greenguy would be an awesome addition to some team with all his players, but as an owner .. not so much. BTW I told Saris (you know the guy with Ray Finkle the highest level player in GLB) I told him back in Season 2 that he sucked ass as an owner, but had several good, high level players and that he should bring them to a team and let someone else be the owner .. he listened, Kalamazoo has been very good for several seasons .. Greenguy should have done the same at least in Season 4 .. but the issue of having a two man team is just like the owner of the Margaritaville Fins .. its incestuous, if you have bad builds .. the entire team will have bad builds, because you dont have a 2nd opinion .. the high level players on this team are okay, but not elite, why? most likely 10x too many SAs .. but because of not having anyone else on your team to tell you otherwise .. you keep doing the same crap season after season .. GCP is also guilty of that minus ahomnis who has good builds all around. No chance for playoffs, please sell the team and become a very valuable part of a team whose owner has time for tactics and recruiting .. please
Gen. Patton's Demon Brigade
I said last season this team was going to die .. I said before the season it was dead, Psychonaut assured me someone would take it over .. one of the players wanted it! he said ... not the case, all of them were so happy to get off this sinking ship and now for some strange reason psychonaut is holding onto it, even though before the season he moved his players all off it, but wouldnt cut the other players loose. There are 2 human players left, its a CPU team .. its awful .. please sell the team psychonaut, its over. Minsk Koats, Kazan and Demon Brigade are the last remaining EE Pro Alpha original teams and Im not sure any of them will survive the offseason.
Minsk Koats
Depth, builds, stubbornness ..
Mike and Khayos are stubborn, much like Washington, they want to ride the boat to the bottom .. but builds are an issue and Minsk has never been an elite team, Washington won a championship one time .. they were very good Season 2 .. Demon Brigade was one of the best teams in Alpha for a long time until hurricane Ike .. but Minsk well .. I believe they might have made the playoffs once .. maximum twice, but I believe once and then a first round exit. There are a few players with elite levels .. the builds are also not hot but not a mess like Washington .. what can I say .. their time would be better served by selling the team and being part of a good team somewhere else. If they are dead set on staying in EE Pro then look for a team in EE Pro next season to join with your players .. I dont have anything against yall .. nor Greenguy .. I wish you all would stay .. but seriously .. if you cant recruit (recruiting is a nightmare and only by word of mouth and personal relationships does it work at all really) .. then its better off to be part of a team that can.
U.S.S.R. Goons
Jubs was never all in .. he abandoned ship and this team will end up at the bottom of the pyramid .. it only cost us one season of a CPU team, too bad he didnt sell it earlier when we could have got another team up here.
Rome's Fighting Gladiator's aka St. Petersberg Red Army Regulars
One of the 4 last original Alpha teams .. Blakes finally abandoned ship and then some newbie bought it .. changed the name two times, realized being an owner isnt as fun as he thought and quit .. leaving a stupidly named team in Alpha .. somewhat fitting I guess for what a mess Alpha is an always has been.
Last edited Nov 29, 2008 12:49:23
Anyhow, Im pretty sure that Kutzy isnt sandbagging when he says that his team is probably the 4th or 5th best in Zeta and not 2nd, EEORG has a good record because they have only played 3 sure playoff teams, they have 4 tough games starting tomorrow with a 1 vs 2 battle in Zeta with Prague. Are they good enough to win? Definitely! I believe the game will come down to the sim, turnovers and big plays .. like it always does between good teams. At worst I believe that EEORG will win 11 games and be a solid 4th or 5th seed as Kutzy said .. which would put them in the #1 bracket and give them the hardest 1st round game IMO (I believe that 4vs5 is the crappiest 1st round game).
