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2/24/2021 6:30 pm  #221


Re: Escalian Football League

Great work on all the new teams! I think these are some of your strongest looks so far. The Stars and Wizards are both wonderful looking. Although I agree that the Wizard beard needs some refinement.

My only other tweak would be going with black tv numbers for the sparks on the away jersey.

 

2/24/2021 7:52 pm  #222


Re: Escalian Football League

All the new looks are nice, I'd say the big winners of the new bunch IMO would be the Wizards, Roosters, Bison, and Whales in no particular order



 

2/24/2021 10:39 pm  #223


Re: Escalian Football League

The Whales look fantastic! As do the Bison. Those are both the big winners here.

The Wizards look nice, but I too would redo the beard a bit. The Stars look good. The Explorers feel collegiate to me but it's a really solid identity and uniform.

I like the Roosters but that logo does not work on a green helmet. I think it'd look better on white.

For the expansion teams, both look good. I especially like Wrauport's striping. I think the sword in the logo gets lost on the helmet but they'd prob look weird in a white helmet.

Good work overall.



AHS Admin. Creator of the THLPUCHWHA: Redux and Retroliga.
 

2/24/2021 11:50 pm  #224


Re: Escalian Football League

First off, great use of the old Power Rangers intro with your intro, lol!  As an old fart on this site that actually grew up watching the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, I loved this!

Now for the teams:

Sarnia Sparks: They'll be a very interesting team to watch as time goes on, since they'll be changing their design a lot it seems.  Their first uniforms are a hit for me, they're pretty flashy, but that's clearly the point here.  I'll echo Dr. Pepper and suggest black tv numbers for the away jersey, the home ones look fine as they are.  

Wrauport Pirates: Definitely feeling a mix of Tampa and Miami with Wrauport, and if that was your inspiration, I love this city!  The Pirates' uniforms themselves are very solid, really liking the red face mask!  I do have to say that the logo gets lost a bit on the helmet.  Maybe a thicker white outline could help with that?  Still, a really good job otherwise and I'll say this is one of my new favorite teams!

Arcanfall Wizards: The color combination is really nice here!  The wordmark is one of my favorites so far (those stars and cresent moons are a nice touch!)  The logo is pretty good, I don't hate the beard, but it may be worth playing with the design a bit more.  Speaking of playing with designs, considering Arcanfall is supposed to be a mix of English and Portugese cultures, mixing those art styles could be something you might have fun blending together down the art for this team, just an idea that popped in my head, (or heck, just going traditional Portugese styled could be fun too).  I definitely like this one a lot as it is though!

Colnica Stars: Liking the wrap-around helmet logo a lot, though I feel getting rid of the letters in that stars would be better for a helmet logo, (they'd probably be hard to make out from a distance).  I think the letters are fine for the main logo, just not the helmet.  I sorta feel the purple home jersey socks stick out a bit too much here, red could possibly be a better choice like on the away jersey, (although that's just my opinion and a bit of a nit-pick).  Otherwise, this is another nice one!

Decontro Roosters: I like the idea behind this one.  The logo admittedly does look a bit Kelloggs Cornflakes Rooster-like and it does blend in a bit much into the helmet, I would agree that a white helmet could be an idea worth considering.   The away jersey is certainly interesting, with the top half being green dominant and the bottom half being red dominant!

Great Horn Bison: My personal favorite of the new teams!  The brown and red work well here and that bison horn is a nice touch for the helmet logo, (given the city is named Great Horn, this team has the best excuse I've seen for using a horn logo for the helmet, very nice!).  Great job here!

Minola Whales: The Indianapolis Colts of this league.  One color and white teams can be risky to use since they can be a bit forgettable, but I think this team works well!  Really like that word mark for this team too, what kind of font is that out of curiousity?

Montagrada Explorers: Interesting that this team seemingly became the afterthought of the league, story-wise.   I'm interested to see if that becomes a plot point.  The team itself is simple like the Whales, which is certainly fine.  However, I'm not quite as big a fan of this team's logo.  It's fine enough on its own, but on the helmet, that M gets a little lost there, which isn't great as the logo probably needs to be a stand out a little more with the rest of uniform taking the K.I.S.S. approach.  I think it's because the white compass part is either a little too small or the red M is just a little too big.  Shrinking the M, or making the compass part larger would help a lot I feel!

I know that a lot of critiquing to read through, but I hope you know that I think these are overall really good, just gotta say my long winded critiques as usual, lol!  Looking forward to seeing more EFL (and UFL).




 

3/03/2021 8:21 pm  #225


Re: Escalian Football League

NeoPrankster wrote:

Wizards: I would tweak the beard a little bit. The star shaping of the beard seems a little forced.

Roosters: The colors remind me a little too much of the Kellogg's Corn Flakes rooster.

The beard was one the toughest things about that logo, so in the near future it will either be fixed, completely reworked, or just dropped in favor of the hat.

On second glance, that logo does look like the Corn Flakes rooster, but that's kind of hard to not make it like it when you have the exact same colors as the actual logo (for completely different reasons). I'll fix them up relatively soon.

MyTeamIsDr.Pepper wrote:

Great work on all the new teams! I think these are some of your strongest looks so far. The Stars and Wizards are both wonderful looking. Although I agree that the Wizard beard needs some refinement.

My only other tweak would be going with black tv numbers for the sparks on the away jersey.

The beard is one of the biggest issues I've seen, so it will defintely be on the top of my "please fix" list

QCS wrote:

I am a very big fan of the Stars' look, but the simplicity of the Bison is also very nice. Great work!

Section30 wrote:

All the new looks are nice, I'd say the big winners of the new bunch IMO would be the Wizards, Roosters, Bison, and Whales in no particular order

Thanks!

Steelman wrote:

The Whales look fantastic! As do the Bison. Those are both the big winners here.

The Wizards look nice, but I too would redo the beard a bit. The Stars look good. The Explorers feel collegiate to me but it's a really solid identity and uniform.

I like the Roosters but that logo does not work on a green helmet. I think it'd look better on white.

For the expansion teams, both look good. I especially like Wrauport's striping. I think the sword in the logo gets lost on the helmet but they'd prob look weird in a white helmet.

Good work overall.

I made the Explorers collegiate-like on purpose, since they were mostly an afterthought to the UFL, mainly due to Colnica owner/league commissioner George Curtis hating the city of Montagrada with a passion, which may or may not come into play later for the UFL.

As for the Roosters white helmet, I agree that the white makes it look better, and I'll make that change when its appropriate for them in a few years' time.

Thanks again Steel!

Stickman wrote:

First off, great use of the old Power Rangers intro with your intro, lol!  As an old fart on this site that actually grew up watching the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, I loved this!

Now for the teams:

Sarnia Sparks: They'll be a very interesting team to watch as time goes on, since they'll be changing their design a lot it seems.  Their first uniforms are a hit for me, they're pretty flashy, but that's clearly the point here.  I'll echo Dr. Pepper and suggest black tv numbers for the away jersey, the home ones look fine as they are.  

Wrauport Pirates: Definitely feeling a mix of Tampa and Miami with Wrauport, and if that was your inspiration, I love this city!  The Pirates' uniforms themselves are very solid, really liking the red face mask!  I do have to say that the logo gets lost a bit on the helmet.  Maybe a thicker white outline could help with that?  Still, a really good job otherwise and I'll say this is one of my new favorite teams!

Arcanfall Wizards: The color combination is really nice here!  The wordmark is one of my favorites so far (those stars and cresent moons are a nice touch!)  The logo is pretty good, I don't hate the beard, but it may be worth playing with the design a bit more.  Speaking of playing with designs, considering Arcanfall is supposed to be a mix of English and Portugese cultures, mixing those art styles could be something you might have fun blending together down the art for this team, just an idea that popped in my head, (or heck, just going traditional Portugese styled could be fun too).  I definitely like this one a lot as it is though!

Colnica Stars: Liking the wrap-around helmet logo a lot, though I feel getting rid of the letters in that stars would be better for a helmet logo, (they'd probably be hard to make out from a distance).  I think the letters are fine for the main logo, just not the helmet.  I sorta feel the purple home jersey socks stick out a bit too much here, red could possibly be a better choice like on the away jersey, (although that's just my opinion and a bit of a nit-pick).  Otherwise, this is another nice one!

Decontro Roosters: I like the idea behind this one.  The logo admittedly does look a bit Kelloggs Cornflakes Rooster-like and it does blend in a bit much into the helmet, I would agree that a white helmet could be an idea worth considering.   The away jersey is certainly interesting, with the top half being green dominant and the bottom half being red dominant!

Great Horn Bison: My personal favorite of the new teams!  The brown and red work well here and that bison horn is a nice touch for the helmet logo, (given the city is named Great Horn, this team has the best excuse I've seen for using a horn logo for the helmet, very nice!).  Great job here!

Minola Whales: The Indianapolis Colts of this league.  One color and white teams can be risky to use since they can be a bit forgettable, but I think this team works well!  Really like that word mark for this team too, what kind of font is that out of curiousity?

Montagrada Explorers: Interesting that this team seemingly became the afterthought of the league, story-wise.   I'm interested to see if that becomes a plot point.  The team itself is simple like the Whales, which is certainly fine.  However, I'm not quite as big a fan of this team's logo.  It's fine enough on its own, but on the helmet, that M gets a little lost there, which isn't great as the logo probably needs to be a stand out a little more with the rest of uniform taking the K.I.S.S. approach.  I think it's because the white compass part is either a little too small or the red M is just a little too big.  Shrinking the M, or making the compass part larger would help a lot I feel!

I know that a lot of critiquing to read through, but I hope you know that I think these are overall really good, just gotta say my long winded critiques as usual, lol!  Looking forward to seeing more EFL (and UFL).

Always love your feedback Stick! I like your idea of mixing British and Portugeuse styles for the Wizards later down the line, I haven't even thought about that for their design! I'll consider some of the fixes for the teams you suggested, with some (like removing the letters from the Stars' helmet and fixing up the logo for the Explorers) being some I'll eventually make down the line. The Whales' font is called Eagle, from the NRA posters in the 1930's. I thought it worked well with the set, and seeing how it was well-liked I'll say it fits well.

The 1972 EFL season will be up later tonight! Stay tuned and thanks to everyone who gave feedback!



Founder of the EFL and the AFL
     Thread Starter
 

3/03/2021 9:33 pm  #226


Re: Escalian Football League

1972 Season: 

While the playoff structure remained the same, the way to clinch in was changed, as the 4 division winners and 2 wild cards will play, with the division winners getting seeds 1-4 and the wild cards get the 5th and 6th seeds.



North Division
With the departure of the Miners to the East Division, many expected the Gatekeepers and Mariners to run the table. The Mariners kept that promise, winning a franchise best 11 games and clinched the second seed for the playoffs. Ellesby’s best season yet saw QB Matt Kollen have his best season yet, but only managed to get 2nd in MVP votes in what many saw as a snub over another popular player. Hadley had their fall from grace, with long-time QB Jack Reuter turning 38 this season and many parts of their offense beginning to age and lose their luster. The main surprise in the division was the Knights making a resurgence after years without former stars of Acker and Dane. QB Arnie Kruger, in only his second season as a starter, improved drastically over the last two seasons, and nearly led the Knights to their first playoff berth since 1964. The Angels struggled with a tough division schedule, their lone divisional win coming off a surprising romp over the Mariners in week 6, and due to injuries and poor play of their biggest playmakers. 

East Division
The Miners were expected to run the table in the East this year, but were in a dogfight with the Reapers all season instead for the chance at winning the division. Last year’s MVP in QB Daniel Baumann went down with an injury in week 4 against the Generals and didn’t come back until week 10, and he still didn’t play like himself. The Reapers performed almost identically to last year, but their defensive unit seemed to have improved from last year, making them a tough opponent to face when their offense wasn’t playing at the same level as the defense. Though the fight was close, the Miners did best the Reapers in week 14 in a winner-take-all game for the division title, with the Reapers knocked out of the playoffs because of unexpected appearances from two other teams. The other two teams weren’t much to talk about, as the Generals suffered a down year in a tougher division than last year and the expansion Sparks didn’t fare much better. 

South Division
Duvall, as expected, easily took home the South division crown without Norfolk to take it away from them. Coming out of the woodworks to barely claim the 6th seed were the Anchors, with their first ever season over .500. QB Errol Haberkorn and WR Aaron Minnet each had breakout years, and 2nd year HC Laurence Dale brought the Duvall-style offense over to TC to finally have a productive team. Pattlia had a minor improvement over last year’s campaign, as they put up a few more wins while still not being so good. And then there was Adelaide, who lost former QB Terry Rogers to the UFL and were left as a husk of their former self, as rookie QB Lyle Joseph performed poorly as a starter, with backup Victor Paddon relieving him multiple times due to his play. Their defense was a pushover compared to their stalwart defense of the early 60’s, with multiple injuries preventing them from doing any better. 

West Division
QB Nathan Slezak and the Lumberjacks ruled the West, with the QB winning his first MVP leading the ‘Jacks to the #1 seed. Their defense was in their best shape as well, holding opponents to a league-low 18 points per game. The Bulls and Racers were either beginning to go through or already in extensive rebuilds, so they finished tied for last in the division. With such weak competition, the other expansion team of the Wrauport Pirates surprisingly took the #5 seed in the playoffs, the best season for an expansion team so far. First overall pick RB James Radcliff carried the team like Belmont or Arts before him, although the Pirates built up a fairly strong offensive line to keep him protected. Their defense is slightly worse, with inexperience and lack of playtime together holding them back from serious contention.  

Awards:
Most Valuable Player: QB Nathan Slezak (NOR)
Most Valuable Coach: William Kinnard (WRA)
Most Outstanding Offensive Player: QB Matt Kollen (ELB)
Most Outstanding Defensive Player: LB Dennis Riley (ELB)
Most Outstanding Rookie: RB James Radcliff (WRA)

First Round Preview: 

#3 Duvall Dragons vs. #6 Tallokope City Anchors
Previous Matchups: W4: TC 14-13 DUV, W12: DUV 36-16 TC 
The consistent Dragons take on their new divisional rival in the surging Anchors, who look like no team to take lightly. These two teams split their matchups against each other, although the Dragons toppled the Anchors in their second matchup after narrowly losing to them in week 4. The Anchors may have one of the Dragons’ former coaches, but a way to stop their still-potent offense seems to be the best way for them to upset them. The Dragons just have to play like they have been playing at this season to best the Anchors as their inexperience may be their undoing.
Escalian Sports Magazine Prediction: Duvall seemed to get the better of the Anchors the second time around, and the third time they’ll still have the upper hand as the Dragons go on to face the Mariners. 30-14 DUV 

#4 Ashonta Miners vs. #5 Wrauport Pirates
Previous Matchups: W11: WRA 20-27 ASH 
The defending champs have fallen a bit since last year, mainly due to the inconsistent play of Baumann after coming back from his injury. The Pirates are completely new to the game, and upsetting the Miners would be one of the biggest upsets in the history of the league. They might be able to pull it off, as the Miners have struggled since the return of Baumann and their defense getting to know them in their recent week 11 matchup. The Miners don’t want to lose to a brand new team, as their offense is still mainly intact but has suffered in recent weeks. Baumann returning to form is their best chance of winning for the Miners, and the Pirates have to pray that Ashonta’s offense plays sub-optimally and that ROTY Radcliff stays at his peak form.
Escalian Sports Magazine Prediction: As much as I want the Pirates to come out on top, the Miners are the more experienced team and will go to Norfolk in a rematch in last year’s Cup in an uncomfortably close game. 24-23 ASH 



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Founder of the EFL and the AFL
     Thread Starter
 

3/03/2021 11:29 pm  #227


Re: Escalian Football League

There’s been a theme of 4s in the Escalian Cup, Kierport did it, then Duvall, and now I think Ashonta will. As much as I’d like to see the Pirates go all the way as the expansion team, I think the Miners will beat them and Norfolk before playing the Mariners in the Cup.

Also rough year for my Generals seems like.

 

3/04/2021 8:14 am  #228


Re: Escalian Football League

Really liking the new 4 division format a lot!  Just like with the NFL, now everything is super balanced, just looks appealing.  (Of course, if we get a 6-8 division winner in the playoffs over a 8-6 would be wild card team, it'll look less nice but hopefully we luck out and that doesn't happen).

Another great year for the Lumberjacks, hopefully they can get over the hump this year.  Even if they don't though, there's still multiple fresh teams to root for, with the Anchors and Pirates (!) getting in the playoffs for the first time.  The Mariners too have never won a championship and they seem like a good bet as usual too!

I'm feeling a Lumberjacks/Mariners final, with Norfolk pulling through to win (which I'm predicting with absolutely no bias whatsoever, lol)




 

3/11/2021 10:11 pm  #229


Re: Escalian Football League

1972 Playoffs: First Round 

Wrauport Pirates @ Ashonta Miners 
When the Pirates clinched the playoffs in only their first season, many were skeptical of their performance during the regular season. And then people saw that they were facing the defending champions in their opening playoff game. The Pirates proved that they could go toe-to-toe against the better teams of the league in a narrow loss against the Miners, but this time back in Brown County Stadium the Pirates quickly proved their skeptics wrong. ROTY RB James Radcliff diced his way through the Miners defense as he almost carried the Pirates into the endzone, with QB Kerry Knight finding WR Ian Bourdillion for a 1 yard TD. If there were any skeptics left, they quickly left the room after Miners QB Daniel Haumann misread a route and threw into the hands of DB Willy Cuypers, who returned it back 40 yards to go up 14-0. Ashonta’s offense was held to 0 points in the 1st for the first time in over a year, as they were stumped by Wrauport’s performance. However, something seemed to click with the Miners when they finally gained some ground entering the 2nd quarter.
END OF Q1: 14-0 WRA
On the first play of the quarter, Baumann handed the ball off to RB Leonard Arts, who went right up the middle for a 57 yard score to make the game within 7 for the struggling Miners. What clicked on offense also clicked on defense this quarter, as the D stopped Radcliff anywhere he went. The offense got their mojo back, although their swagger on their second drive was stopped before the 20, so a field goal by K Edmond John cut the lead to 4. Wrauport attempted to get something going in the 2nd, but a fumble by Bourdillion put the Miners back into scoring range. Baumann put his first points on the board with a 7 yard pass to TE Bradford Bonnet for Ashonta to take the lead for the first time in the game to end the first half.
END OF Q2: 17-14 ASH
Ashonta kept their momentum going into the second half, as their first drive out of the locker room wound up on the 3 yard line, where Arts pounded his way through to extend the Miner lead to 10. After an exchange of punts, the ball finally got moving with the Pirates. Instead of feeding Radcliff like the rest of the regular season, the receiving core got a decent workout on this drive, with Knight hitting WR Tony Bonner thrice for 31 yards, with the third time being a touchdown to keep them within a score. After this drive, both teams went back to punting the ball back and forth to each other in the hopes that the other would do something. 
END OF Q3: 24-21 ASH
The team that actually did something with the ball would again be Wrauport, with Knight putting on a clinic against the Ashonta secondary, finding Bonner for his second score of the game on a 20 yard dime. The Miners, now with only 6 minutes left on the clock, had to score to not be upset by the first year team. With Baumann slightly ineffective, Arts took the helm to be the savior of the team, pounding his way into the endzone to score with only 30 seconds left on the clock. Brown County Stadium went wild to prevent the Pirates from getting any ideas of scoring. With one play left and a dream, Knight heaved the ball from the Miners’ 49 yard line only for it to be caught by his #1 target all day in Tony Bonner after getting past DB Peter Tobias on the Miners, and found the endzone on a miracle. Cheers from the Miners faithful quickly turned into stunned silence, as the expansion Wrauport Pirates beat the defending champions on a miracle Hail Mary.
FINAL: 35-31 WRA 



Tallokope City Anchors @ Duvall Dragons 
It was a particularly cold day for early December, but the cold didn’t seem to stop either team’s offenses all game. The Anchors started off quick, as returner Aaron Minnett showed off by scoring a touchdown off the opening kick to take an unexpected 7-0 lead. Duvall wasn’t one to take an early score without retaliation, so QB Harold Bauer showed that he still had steam left in him and found the endzone after only 6 plays, mainly due to a 50 yard TD to WR Abram Radcliff. The first quarter still had some action left in it, as the next drive saw TC QB Errol Haberkorn scramble through the Duvall secondary for a 30 yard gain, but the Anchors were unable to reach the endzone while on the 2 yard line, and kicked a field goal to take a 3 point lead. That lead wouldn’t last for long, with the Dragons finding their way into the redzone before the end of the quarter to kick a field goal of their own and tie the game up by the end of the 1st.
END OF Q1: 10-10 TIE
The back-and-forth scoring continued into the second quarter, with the Anchors being the first to score on a 1-yard sneak by Haberkorn to retake the lead. The Dragons struck right back on a 40 yard pass from Bauer to WR Alvin Paul, but that momentum would not last for long as they were stopped within the 20 and took 3 to cut the lead to 4. Duvall had a second chance of getting into the endzone though, with a fumble by TC RB Ford Penning in Dragons territory putting them back into scoring range. Their second attempt at the endzone this quarter was about as successful as their first trip, with another key stop by the Anchors forced the Dragons to take another field goal, which extended their lead to 6. That lead would not stay for long, as TC found some momentum and breezed right past the Duvall defense to score on a 20 yard pass from Haberkorn to Minnett to put themselves in front by 1. The Anchors could not stop the ever-potent Dragons offense, who also breezed right through TC to finally find the endzone this half, with RB Placid Smith punching it in from the half-yard line to retake the lead by one by the end of the half.
END OF Q2: 24-23 TC
Duvall’s offense got going immediately instead of scoring multiple field goals, as Bauer hit Paul twice for 48 yards on their first drive to put them within the redzone, with Smith once again capping off the drive for the Dragons to once again retake the lead by 6. Naturally with this game, that lead didn’t last very long, as TC’s next drive resulted in a 10 yard TD from Haberkorn to WR Jesse Abreu. After trading punts with each other, Duvall got the ball back and once again drove right into the redzone in an attempt to retake the lead. Their attempt was successful, with K Jem Wyatt nailing his 4th field goal of the day to take the lead once again before the end of the 3rd.
END OF Q3: 33-31 DUV
Compared to the previous three quarters, the fourth quarter was a slow burn. Neither team wanted to give the other any more ground nor wanted them to score, and neither team did for the first half of the time remaining. Duvall made their last attempt towards the endzone with about 7 minutes to go, and eventually found their way there on a 7 yard catch by Paul from Bauer to put the game out of 1 possession’s reach. The Anchors were held scoreless the remaining of the quarter, as Duvall wound down the clock to advance to Ellesby for a rematch of the 8th Escalian Cup.
FINAL: 40-31 DUV



Semi-Final Preview: 

#5 Wrauport Pirates @ #1 Norfolk Lumberjacks
Previous Matchups: W3: WRA 13-55 NOR, W8: NOR 34-21 WRA
 Almost everyone predicted that we’d see two Escalian Cup rematches in the semi-finals, but the Pirates beating Miners put a damper in that plan. Instead, we see the two new division rivals against each other. The Pirates showed that they can play at the league’s highest level, so this game may be closer than many would expect. Their two previous games against the Lumberjacks have gotten closer and closer, but they were on the losing side both times. Norfolk was dominant all season, and their only real challenge in the Miners were taken out early, and could cruise right past the Pirates.
Escalian Sports Magazine Prediction: As much as Wrauport may be a Cinderella story, Norfolk will dominate over the Pirates for the third time this season. 33-10 NOR 

#3 Duvall Dragons @ #2 Ellesby Mariners
Previous Matchups: W11: DUV 29-27 ELB 
This may be the playoff’s most anticipated matchup, as these two had a classic game in week 11 and Ellesby is looking to look past their woes and get an Escalian Cup for once. No matter who wins, it’s expected for this game to be incredibly close.
Escalian Sports Magazine Prediction: As much as the Mariners dominated all year, I’m picking the underdog Dragons to narrowly beat the Mariners for a former divisional rematch for the Escalian Cup. 27-23 DUV 



How'd your team do? C&C Appreciated!



Founder of the EFL and the AFL
     Thread Starter
 

3/11/2021 10:46 pm  #230


Re: Escalian Football League

Very nice write up!   The Pirates win over the Miners on a hail mary of all things is an excellent way to end the game that continues their excellent debut season has been very fun storyline to read!  I'll always root for the Lumberjacks, but I wouldn't be too upset if the Pirates win this one either.




 

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