This is an interesting group, about which I'll disagree with the above sentiment. The Mermen are great. I like that color scheme a lot. The HR chest tattoo is a nice touch. Probably my favorite look in the group and in my top 5 of the NDDL.

I think the Cannons have a good look. No real complaints, though I'm not feeling the floating text underneath. I kind of wish it was in a plaque of some sort.

The Waves fall short for me. I think there's potential to do something cool with the wave and an A. I'm not feeling the script being positioned the way it is, it bothers me that it seems off-center and the gaps between the letters and roundel aren't filled. I'd consider rearranging the script to tighten this one up.

I think the Chargers are the least well put together look in the league. I see what you wanted to do with Long Island but it doesn't come across to me. Just looks like a weird half-filled blob with weird squiggles on the side. The bull head behind it feels very forced imo. I think it'd be more cool if you took just the horns and went a skull & horns route with this logo adaption.

Just some thoughts. As always, take 'em or leave 'em!

I dig both updates, I think that Long Island might have the best logo of all the NDDL teams imo

The buzzword around the league in 2031 was parity. With the new salary cap in place and the minor league system developing, the hope was that the talent among the teams would spread out a bit, and it worked out. Both the first and last spots in the league were decided by one game, and no team finished with fewer than 8 losses or fewer than 11 wins. It seemed as though some bored god had finally had enough of watching teams stretched far apart as ants upon a rubber band.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a magic pill. In fact, a different reading of things would make things seem quite a bit worse. Those two teams battling it out for the top spot were exactly who you’d expect them to be, as the Row and Redbacks tried to keep their decade-long streak of championships intact. Philly, despite the loss of F/K Ray Thomas in the offseason and W/ZB Zebedeo Perilla to a season-ending tibia break in April, stayed one game ahead of Texas for most of July. W/ZB Benny Ochoa was the standout for the Row this season, finishing second on the team in points scored and 4th in the league in DPOTY voting, and role players like W/ZB Leon Leyva and B/ZB David Miller stepped up to help fill the void left by Perilla and claim Philly’s fifth straight #1 seed. Texas, though, was clearly not going down without a fight, as W/ZB Larry Whitt put up a tremendous offensive performance, W/ZB Ricky Parron saw a resurgence at 35, and young F/ZB Dakota Valdez burst onto the scene, leading Texas to second in the league in both points scored and points allowed (behind Philly, of course).

Not only were those two teams at the top, there was a considerable margin between them and the field. The Orlando Orbits were expected to hang with the big boys this season, but losing F/C Mike Mill and B/ZB Alvin Milling for much of the season and a general failure to live up to expectations left them behind the pack. The Orbs were left to contend with two of their division mates for the 3rd seed, though they eventually beat out Miami and Nashville for the spot. Both the Palms and Fugitives had bounceback years in 2031, the former led by former B/C turned head coach Patrick Sanders Jr. and the latter led as usual by W/K Will Orleans and F/ZB Eddie McDonald (and perhaps by the absence of locker room drama without F/C Michel Blanchard, though the team was careful to keep that on the downlow). Ultimately, the Palms would have the edge, and will have home court advantage in the 4-5 series between the two.

Speaking of Blanchard, let’s turn to his new home in Seattle. The Sawyers got hit pretty hard with injuries; F/ZB Williams Denson, B/ZBs Clyde Kamai and Dan Volland, and Blanchard himself all missed time, but the biggest hit came on March 14, when both of the team’s starting B/Ks, brothers Malcolm and Wesley Wallace, fell victim to near-identical ACL tears in consecutive innings. To put it lightly, the team couldn’t get a rhythm going, falling all the way to the bottom of the league, finishing even below Boston and Montréal. Both teams finally started to see some improvement, and the Commodores managed to more than double their franchise win total in the space of one season.

While we’re here, let’s talk about the rest of the bad teams. Along with the Sawyers, Dores, and Magma, only the Statesmen, Records, and Sea Lions finished under .500. All three lost young starters (DC’s W/C Matt LeBas, Atlanta’s W/ZB Ali Davis and F/ZB Ronny Hong, and California’s F/ZB Michael Basch) to injury for much of the year, which stunted their growth a bit, as all three teams finished between 20 and 24 wins. That said, each group still has quite a bit of young talent - in particular, Statesmen B/K Paul Gartside and W/C Ben Meadows, Records B/K Seth Shelton and B/C Evan Simon, and Sea Lions F/ZB Colton Harvey and W/ZB Matt Powers - who all showed a lot of promise this year, so things should be looking up for all of these clubs.

That only leaves us with a few teams. The New York Chargers struggled offensively, largely due to inconsistent forward play, and so fell off a bit from the previous year. The Los Angeles Sabertooths, meanwhile, finally saw their rebuild pay off and made their triumphant return to the postseason after an eight-year drought. Both teams found themselves tangled up in the South Division race, despite not being in the South Division, and while Orlando and Miami slowly pulled away, New York and LA were both tied with Nashville with 39 wins. New York beat Boston to end their season, Nashville got a win in Orlando, but the Tooths finished one point short of California, ending up in the seventh seed while New York lost the tiebreaker to get sixth.

You may notice that that leaves us with three North Division teams and one single playoff spot. Division winners are guaranteed playoff berths, but they aren’t guaranteed anything more than that, and it soon became clear that whoever won the North would have the eighth best record in the league. Coming into Game 66, Chicago and Toronto were tied for the division lead, with Minnesota just one game back. The Frost held the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Hogs, so they just needed to win to make the playoffs; if not, whoever won the Minnesota-Toronto game would take the spot. The Lights held up their end of the bargain with a 20-point win, eliminating the Hogs from contention, but had to sit back and watch a surprisingly close Frost-Magma game to know their fate. With time winding down, Chicago had one possession to decide the game, and who better to have the ball than three-time MVP B/ZB Tony Bennett. In one of his craftier moments, Bennett pulled up for a jump shot, caught Montréal B/ZB Alex Baxter napping, and shot the ball wide of the backboard and into the hands of F/C Greg Bauer to earn three points, a win, and a postseason berth at the very last second.

One game out. Smh, Minnesota, smh.

A good showing from Minnesota, but it unfortunately wasn't good enough to get bodied by the Row in round 1. Atlanta doing poorly is good news, but if it means Charlotte did poorly, then it's bad news.

Hopefully either Philly or Texas can get shown up early on, but I don't see that happening without major injuries. It's hard to foresee anything but a Row-Redbacks final, which is disappointing. Hopefully things start to change after this season.