Wait, are the Knights...good?

And 1 year later, I'm still somehow doing this project! I never thought that I would get this far with my first project, but I'd like to thank everyone for following along with this 1 year later and I hope to continue for another year or maybe even more! Anyway, with that out of the way here's the semi-finals!

1974 Playoffs: Semi-Finals:

#3 Kierport Knights @ #2 Norfolk Lumberjacks

The Lumberjacks looked to redeem themselves after the disaster that was the previous 1973 season. And they sure made their mark on the first possession of the game, with QB Nathan Slezak hitting aging WR Craig Farmer for 37 total yards on their 78 yard march to the endzone. Slezak topped off the drive to TE Duane Snyder for 8 yards to score the first touchdown of the game, by K Isaac Brandt missed the point after and the ‘Jacks only went up by 6. Kierport would begin being incredibly unlucky, as QB Arnie Kruger threw a solid pass to WR Herman Shepherd but it slipped right through Shepherd’s fingers into the hands of Norfolk DB Bradley Goodwin. The Knights would have gotten the ball back on the Lumberjacks’ punt back to them, but returner Cliff Frost muffed the punt and the ball went right back to Norfolk. Brandt would somewhat redeem himself on a 27 yard chip shot field goal to put Norfolk up by 9 at the end of the quarter.
END OF Q1: 9-0 NOR
Kierport continued to struggle on the offensive side of the ball, with Kruger not being able to get his receivers open and RB Frost not able to gain significant ground. Norfolk equally struggled on offense, as both defenses held strong to not allow the other side another point. That stalemate would break late into the second, with Slezak launching another long drive in their attempt to score. RB Bruno Fontaine would rush for 30 yards on the drive, but they were stopped before going past the 25 yard line, resulting in Brandt nailing another field goal to end the half up by 12.
END OF Q2: 12-0 NOR
While the first half was painful for the Knights, they came out of the locker room with a vengeance. Kruger made his presence known and threw three straight darts to WR Ralph Owens for 45 yards to set themselves up in scoring range for the first time in the game. While they only got three off of that drive, it changed the momentum in favor of the Knights. Getting the ball back off of a rare fumble from Fontaine, the Knights got themselves back into scoring range on a 20 yard pass from Kruger to TE Stefan Johansson. Kruger would reconnect with Johansson a few plays later for a 6 yarder to make the game closer than Norfolk would have liked it. Slezak didn’t seem to feel the pressure, as he scrambled for 29 yards to put the ‘Jacks in scoring range to end the third quarter.
END OF Q3: 12-10 NOR
Norfolk would lose some of that momentum on that drive, and would turn to Brandt to kick another easy field goal. However, Brandt missed from 31 yards out, and the ball landed back in the hands of Kruger and the Knights. Kruger would land two passes over 20 yards to reliable receivers Johansson and Owens to once again set them up to score. Kruger would force his way in from 3 yards out to take the lead for the first time in the game. The Lumberjacks would immediately retaliate, taking less than a minute to march downfield and get within scoring range. Fontaine would plunge right up the middle for 6 yards to retake the lead with only 3 minutes left in the game. The Knights would get past midfield with about a minute left, but their unluckiness from the first quarter would catch up with them. Kruger looked for Shepherd in the middle of the field, but Shepherd would fumble the ball after the catch and would be recovered by Norfolk LB Douglas Hunt to seal the game for the Lumberjacks.
FINAL: 19-17 NOR



#4 Tallokope City Anchors @ #1 Ashonta Miners

The Anchors would get off to a rocky start in the first playoff game at Ashonta’s Warrick Stadium. RB Mitchell Gallagher would start the game running up the middle three times, but fell short of the first down and punted the ball to Ashonta. On the return was WR Jordan Samson, who took the ball 66 yards to the endzone to take the first lead of the game. After another punt by the Anchors, QB Daniel Haumann and the Miners would take charge in this battle of offensive heavyweights. After nailing two long passes to Samson and WR Marty Farmer, Haumann put the ball in the arms of RB Leonard Arts who rushed 12 yards into the endzone to up their lead to 14 at the end of the first quarter.
END OF Q1: 14-0 ASH
The Miners’ offensive dominance would quickly die out in the second quarter, as their first drive of the quarter resulted in a quick three and out and a punt back to the Anchors. Tallokope City got off to an extremely slow start, but they began gaining some momentum beginning in the 2nd. Gallagher started to look like his regular season self, and rushed for 31 yards on the Anchors’ first drive of the quarter. The Anchors couldn’t make it into the endzone this time, settling for 3 as their second half prospects looked fairly bright.
END OF Q2: 14-3 ASH
Right off the bat the Anchors got down to business. QB Errol Haberkorn would find trusty WR Aaron Minnett for 27 yards to start out the half strong. 6 plays later, Haberkorn would hand the ball off to Gallagher, who would rush for 3 yards and cut the Miners’ lead down to 4. Ashonta would embark on a drive of their own, but theirs would be a lot more grueling. Over a course of 15 plays, they had to convert on 3rd down 3 times and converted on 4th down once. However, their persistence paid off, with Haumann connecting with TE Spencer Maddison for 7 yards to put themselves back up by 11. Ashonta didn’t leave much time on the clock for the rest of the third quarter, but the Anchors quickly made their way past midfield as the clock expired on the third quarter
END OF Q3: 21-10 ASH
Tallokope City would easily make their way through the Miners’ defense, with Gallagher and Haberkorn cutting up the Ashonta secondary on their way to a quick score. On the second play of the quarter, Haberkorn would hit WR Floyd Morrow for 23 yards to once again put the Anchors within a possession of the Miners with a touchdown. The Miners would try to reassert their lead, but Haumann would make a key mistake and throw the ball away into the hands of Anchors LB John Hays, who returned the ball back 51 yards before being stopped 2 yards short of the endzone. Gallagher would score on the very next play, resulting in the first lead of the game for the Anchors. With 3 minutes left, the Miners were still able to come back, and many had thought Haumann would put together a miracle, as Ashonta was notorious for scoring on quick drives. However, they would fail to convert on 4th down this drive as the Anchors ran out the clock for a trip to their second straight Escalian Cup.
FINAL: 24-21 TCA



15th Escalian Cup Preview: #4 Tallokope City Anchors @ #2 Norfolk Lumberjacks

While this wasn’t the predicted matchup that people would see in the Escalian Cup, fans certainly weren’t disappointed with the end result. Norfolk has become the definitive dynasty of the league, only missing the playoffs 3 times in the past 15 years. Tallokope City has become the emerging power in the league with a surging offense and a defensive line that is one of the strongest in the league. Like most other Cups in the past, this may be another game to remember.
Escalian Sports Magazine Prediction: While the Anchors are coming off of their first Escalian Cup, the Lumberjacks are the team with the most playoff experience and that will carry them to their 4th Escalian Cup. 28-20 NOR

Fun Fact: This is the first time since the introduction of the 6-team playoff in 1974 where both the #1 seed failed to make the Escalian Cup and the first time a team from the first round made it to the Escalian Cup.



C&C Appreciated! Which team do you think will come out on top?

Congrats Norfolk, they're turning into a dynasty it seems.

 

And I'm back after like 3 weeks of hiatus! And I have big news at the end of the first half of the offseason post...

1974-75 Offseason Part 1 

Owner’s Meetings

EFL-UFL Merger Finalization
As soon as the Lumberjacks captured their 4th Escalian Cup, all the owners and the commissioner came together with the 4 remaining owners of the UFL, as Great Horn Bison owner Chris Matheson refused to show up as he knew his team would not make it to the EFL. Commissioner Cullen decided that the remaining 4 teams in Arcanfall, Colnica, Decontro, and Minola would all be accepted in the league at an expansion fee of around $2.25 million per team. The owners collectively decided that a dispersal draft would take place to pick up the remaining UFL players not already on the 4 accepted teams’ rosters, which would take place in February. Soon after the agreement was reached, the owners decided that the recently-vacated market of Montagrada was too good to pass up, and they offered to pay any UFL team for a sum of $1.5 million to kickstart stadium renovations or to put towards building a new stadium. Decontro Roosters owner Isidoro Fernandes took up the offer, as he was already considering moving the Roosters out of Decontro City due to poor stadium conditions that the Roosters had to play in. 

Realignment
With all the team locations set for the 1975 season, the owners took up the tough task of realignment. Initially, the 4 divisions that the league already had were to be kept and were to be expanded up from 4 teams to 5 in each. Instead of that proposal, a simpler deal was reached. The East Division would house all the new UFL teams,  with all the teams that were in it for the 1974 season (Ashonta, Fort McLeod, Homestead, and Sarnia) would move to the newly created Central Division. The playoffs would also expand from 6 to 8 teams, with all 5 divisional winners guaranteed playoff spots, with the remaining three spots being claimed by the three next best teams. The teams would then be seeded 1 to 8, regardless if they won their division or not. With the expansion to 20 teams, the season would expand from 14 games to 16. 

Uniform Updates

Adelaide was long overdue for an update, as owner Paul Pryce was extremely reluctant to update their set, as they haven’t done anything major in around 10 years. Pryce finally decided that a rebrand was in order after a long string of losing seasons, on the condition that the team would keep the old championship patch as well as having another star in the new logo. The designers came up with something new, with a winged modern A with a single four-pointed above it. The striping on the uniforms remains the same, as the green has been lightened to more of a kelly green while the blue was darkened to add some contrast between the two colors.





Arcanfall’s only change was with their main wizard logo, as the beard was changed to be more like a beard and less like a shape that just so happened to accidentally look like a star. Their uniforms introduced in 1972 remain the same.



Augusta went under a minor uniform change, removing the alternate while altering their colors slightly. The main change was adding horns to their helmet instead of the bull head logo, which owner Victor Sharman purchased the helmet decals from the remnants of the Great Horn Bison to save a bit of money instead of creating his own horns in-house.



Colnica made a minor change to their uniforms, removing the interlocking CS from the helmet due to complaints of not being able to see what was in the star.




The newly-christened Montagrada Roosters made a minor update to their rooster, while changing their helmets to a white shell, making their pant stripes red, and changing their cleat color to white.







The last change made was by the defending champions, Norfolk, who added another star to their main patch. 



Other News
With the influx of new teams, the league decided to expand the search for the newest prospects who would come into the league. As a result, the owners have announced the creation of the EFL Independent Scouting Commission (ISC). The league will relinquish its duties of overseeing all scouting operations and turn the operations over to the new commission, headed by former scout Dale Beckham, who will also play a part in submitting prospects for the upcoming draft The league is also relaxing its policy on who can join the league, allowing for players to come from all across the globe to come play with Escalia’s best. The league would prefer a majority of its players to come from the nation where all its teams are, but will accept a few players that come from the States, Canada, parts of Europe, or anywhere else on the globe.

That's right! The big addition to this offseason will be the ability to make your own players! I'll hold off on the second part of the offseason (which will be the player movement and the draft class) until I get a decent amount of players, so send them my way! There's no limit on how many you can send, but I will try to give at least 1 player to every person that submitted a prospect.

EFL SCOUTING REPORT LINK


And that's about it for this half of the offseason! I'll get to the other half of the offseason and then get to the draft after that! C&C Appreciated!

Last edited by DireBear (6/23/2021 1:05 pm)

Slapshot Kirby wrote:

DireBear, this may be my first time posting in this topic, but I have been quietly been following it from the very beginning, and I am actually quite impressed with your fictional league! My favorite team so far would have to be the Fort McLeod Generals, as just happen to really like their logo. Although I'm also really liking the Owls' updated uniforms.

Also, are basketball and hockey popular in Escalia at all? Not that I am suggesting you do basketball and hockey leagues on top of the EFL at all, but I was just wondering. Keep up the good work!

Glad you've been enjoying the series! I've really come to like the Owls rebrand, so I'm glad that you're enjoying it as well! As for your question, basketball is decently popular while hockey isn't really that popular within Escalia. Soccer is the #1 sport in the country, while football is a very close second and baseball and auto racing are a distant third and fourth place.