Thanks everybody for the compliments on Philly and New York! Glad to know y'all feel the same way I do on these two.

QCS wrote:

I love the new Chargers update! I will miss the stock market alt, it was clever and still looked good as a sort of half and half jersey.

The stock market alt will definitely be back in some form or another, but when I was putting together their green and black jerseys, I copied everything over from the primary and really liked how the straight-up color swap looked both times, so I went with it.

Steelman wrote:

The update for the Row is really solid. Great look all around. Digging all the tweaks.

And bro! What an amazing overhaul for the Chargers. They had the weakest brand for sure but now it looks really sharp and definitely pops. The only thing I dislike on a personal level are the drop shadows but it fits their brand for sure. Nice work man!

Yeah, I knew somebody was gonna be mad about the drop shadows, lol. I was messing around with ways to add black to their uniforms since it was in the new logo, and I thought about drop shadows, and almost dismissed them as being too 2000s BFBS, but I tried it, and it was, and I loved it? I don't get it because I hated that look on the Mets and Royals, but I guess it doesn't feel out of place like it did with those two? I'm still trying to figure it out tbh.

Cardiac Cardinal wrote:

Hey just caught up with this thread. My favorite team will likely be the Sabertooths because I was born near LA (Anaheim) until St Louis gets a team.

Welcome aboard! It's not the greatest time to be a Tooths fan right now, but you've probably missed the most miserable parts of their rebuild. Things should be looking up for them in the next couple years.

2027 should be ready to go within the next 48 hours or so. Until then, I'll let y'all get back to your fantasy football stadiums or whatever 😂

Yowza, some parity..but god are some of those teams just..bad. I think we'll get a Texas-Nashville finals. 

I have to imagine the league can't be too stoked about a 13-37 team making the playoffs. Hopefully the expansion will balance the playing field a little bit.

I'm liking this plan by Texas to allow some teams to feel they have a chance. 

New York Chargers vs Philadelphia Row
As fun as a divisional rivalry in a playoff series is, especially one like New York-Philadelphia, a matchup that pits a 13-win team against a 46-win team is not gonna be fun to watch. To the Chargers’ credit, it wasn’t quite as bad as, say, the first Atlanta-Texas series from two years ago, but it wasn’t close. Philly’s defense held New York under 100 points in each of the first two games, which they won by 64 and 60; even more impressive is that their O-squad, featuring three of the Four Oarsmen of the Apocalypse (B/ZB Kenton Snowberger, W/ZB Zebedeo Perilla, and F/K Ray Thomas), held the Chargers to just 33 points in Game 1 and 38 in Game 2.

Game 3 was a similar story, and while New York hit the century mark in front of their home crowd, the Row would take an easy 62-point win with another dominant performance by the Four Oarsmen, with the O-squad dominating again and B/K LaVarius McCargo making sure he wasn’t left out of the conversation, making a few miraculous saves. Philly went for the knockout punch in Game 4, and landed it square on the bronze jaw of the Charging Bull statue, limiting the Chargers to just 82 and coasting to a quarterfinal sweep.



Seattle Sawyers vs Nashville Fugitives
Nashville was far and away the better team on paper, and they also had quite a bit of extra incentive in this one, as the Sawyers had knocked them out in the exact same 2-7 matchup last year in just 5 games, denying the Fugitives the chance to take on Texas. Even with all that going Nashville’s way, Game 1 made it clear that the Sawyers weren’t going to just lay down and take it. The lead went back and forth for most of the game, but F/C Michel Blanchard put in the dagger with a 3-point strike past B/K Clyde Edwards to seal the game for the Fugitives. Nashville seemed to wake up in Game 2, with Blanchard earning 79 points contributed and W/K Will Orleans one-upping him on the O-squad with 86 in a 189-107 drubbing as the series moved northwest.

On their home court in Game 3, Seattle recovered some of that momentum they originally had, taking an 8-point lead late in the third, before the Fugues once again pushed back in the second half, outscoring the Sawyers 90-65 in the final four innings. With a chance at a sweep in Game 4, Nashville didn’t hold back. Their defense stepped up, holding Seattle to just 98, and like in Game 2, they would run away with it. With a 78-point win, the Fugitives would fully avenge last year’s disappointing loss and move onto the second round for just the second time in team history.



Atlanta Records vs Texas Redbacks
These two teams are starting to get very familiar with each other, as this is the third consecutive year they’ve met in the first round, but Atlanta has yet to win a single game against Texas, either in the regular season or in the postseason. That looked like it might come to an end in Game 1, as an oft-maligned Records defense held the Redbacks to just 139 points, and while their league-leading offense was held to just 130, they were within reach. In Game 2, the Redbacks looked like they had gotten things back together. They went up early, taking a 23-point lead at one point, but Atlanta chipped their way back over the second half, and by the start of the eighth inning, trailed by just 7. The Records kept climbing, and with just 44 seconds left, F/ZB Fabiano Cordova caught a W/C James Pitts pass to give Atlanta a 1-point lead. B/ZB Tim Morris would get a stop on defense, W/ZB Mark Stewart hit a three-point bucket to extend the lead to 4, and a 5-point heave from F/ZB Sean Perez would bounce harmlessly off the backboard as time expired. The Records achieved their first win against the Redbacks in 22 tries, snapping Texas’s 28-game postseason winning streak in the process.

As the series shifted to Atlanta, Record fans were excited; having just seen their team’s first playoff win, they hoped they could see one at home. Unfortunately, as they always seem to, the Redbacks knew just when to click it into that other gear, and in Game 3, they shook off their Game 2 collapse and their defense got back into shape. W/C Elide Amigazzi and B/C Tiziano Torres were on such tears defensively that by the fourth inning Atlanta had pretty much given up on getting anywhere in the paint, and B/K Semarias Garcia and W/ZB Larry Whitt turned in 144 combined points contributed in a 166-138 victory. In Game 4, Atlanta took a lead into the sixth inning, but could not hold on down the stretch, as Texas pulled away thanks to strong second-half performances by Garcia and Whitt once again. Back in Dallas for Game 5, the teams turned up the pace, with the Records hoping that their offense would get more chances to shine, but the Redbacks outpaced them, taking down Atlanta for the third straight year and advancing once again to the semifinals.



Miami Palms vs Chicago Frost
This series didn’t really have much of a narrative going in, but it didn’t need one, because right out of the gate, it was thrilling. Game 1 was a tight, defensive battle throughout, with 29 lead changes and no team ever leading by more than 9. As minutes wound down to seconds, it became increasingly likely that the game would come down to the final possession, and with Miami down 1 with just 15 ticks left, that was exactly what would happen. W/ZB René Siemann found himself covered by two defenders after a miscommunication by Chicago on defense and found fellow W/ZB Isiah DeJesus in 3-point territory. With time winding down, DeJesus sent a pass toward F/ZB Mack Lauder, testing 37-year-old W/ZB Ed Maxwell. Maxwell was able to get part of his hand on it, deflecting it downward, but not completely out of the reach of Lauder, who was able to adjust and catch the ball by pinning it against his left hip, landing inbounds with under two seconds left and securing the victory for the Palms.

Miami was able to carry some momentum over into the early stages of Game 2 as well. B/ZB Gerald Hartline made an immediate impact on the game, scoring 13 points in the first inning alone, a tall ask with two defensive teams doing battle. The Palms got out to an early lead and were able to hold off the Frost for the rest of the game, winning by 14 and taking the first two on the road. Chicago would need to win at least one in Miami to extend the series, and they wasted no time in Game 3, with B/C Ralph Rashke and B/ZB Tony Bennett leading a Chicago defense that controlled the game from the jump. They let off the gas a bit at the end, but cruised to a 124-101 victory to get back in the series. Game 4 would be another tight game until the sixth inning, where Bennett would come alive on offense, accruing six assists and contributing on all of the Flakes’ 22 points in the inning. The Frost would replicate Miami’s feat, taking two straight on the road, and tying up the series heading back to Chicago.

Game 5 is always crucial in a 2-2 series, and as a result, both teams seemed to tighten up, leading to what would be the lowest-scoring game in a series full of low-scoring games. Neither team took many risks on offense, and neither team ever really looked in control of the game, and so it would come down to the wire once again. This time, the Frost would have the last possession after Miami’s Mack Lauder would break a 101-101 tie with a three-point bucket. Tony Bennett would find himself doubled, and would eventually get the ball to F/C Greg Bauer, but Bauer barely had enough time to throw up a jumper of his own, which would rim out, sealing the win for the Palms, who now had a chance to take the series at home in Game 6. Unfortunately, the Frost had other ideas, continuing the streak of road team wins as Bennett contributed 34 and W/K Nico Boyer allowed only 2 goals in a 130-111 win, forcing a Game 7 in Chicago. With both team’s seasons on the line, the Flakes would finally break through, with Bennett and B/ZB Al Eaton leading opposite squads with 36 and 32 contributed, respectively, as Chicago scored a series-high 143 points and clinched a date with Philadelphia in the second round.

Last edited by ItDoesntMatter (7/23/2020 4:06 pm)

Chicago, do us all a favor!!!