I’m just imagining some teary-eyed middle aged man in full Fugitives gear going “He tooka funianimal away!”

ItDoesntMatter wrote:

Thanks for your comments, y'all! (yes, even you, fetcher) The contrast on the white jersey was bugging me too, but I hadn't come up with a good way to fix it short of reworking the entire set. I went back into the lab and tried a much thiccccker stroke, and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would, so that's canon now. I've updated the original post, but here it is again:

 
Stop, you’re making me blush >////<

Last edited by ThisIsFine (2/21/2023 6:29 pm)

I'm just now commenting but that new Redbacks set is awesome. I love the script a lot. The new DC look is solid but the two shades of red is definitely a little extra. The new Nashville raccoon is great but that primary is meh. I hope the raccoon returns to his rightful place soon. The new jerseys are really slick, the extra thick stroke helps a lot. That said, justice for the trash can logo.

Going into opening night, most predictions had the top two teams from 2033 - Minnesota and California - as the top two again in 2034. In a rare case of predictions being correct this year, there would be a Finals rematch, just not in the way that most people expected. The Sea Lions held up their end of the bargain, as B/K Kyle Zorya bounced back from a knee injury last year and W/ZB Matt Powers and F/ZB Michael Basch continued to establish themselves as a pair of two-way superstars. The team’s technical skill on offense and lockdown end zone defense earned them a top-5 spot in points scored and the league’s best defense in terms of points allowed. They did struggle with injuries, as starters W/ZB Colton Harvey, B/ZB Dave Sanderson, and F/ZB Brent Justice all missed significant time, but the Lions still went 43-23 and earned the second seed for the second straight year. It’s easy to imagine that they could have been much better if those three had stayed healthy.

The Lights, on the other hand, were a different story. They started off the season with a Finals hangover, going just 11-19 over the first 30 games of the season. With something needing to change, head coach Chase Feller tried something new, and split F/ZB Kevin Simmons and W/ZB Richard Singh onto two separate squads. The new plan worked like a charm, and Minnesota soon turned into the hottest team in the league, running through all comers and finishing out the year on a 27-9 run. Singh was nearly impenetrable in goal over the second half of the year, and without having to play second fiddle to Simmons, had the best offensive year of his career, and even surpassed Simmons’ 28.3 points per game with 29.1 of his own. With the team making the run it did, Singh was able to sweep the awards, including winning his first MVP. His team, however, was only able to climb back into the #7 seed - meaning they’ll have to face the second hottest team in the playoffs - and the team that beat them in the Finals last year - in the first round.

Even more surprising, though, were the rest of the teams considered to be top of the pack coming into this season. The only team that really met expectations were the Chargers, and even then, they were viewed as title contenders but only ended up getting the 5th seed after B/C Cameron Boggs struggled to adapt to his new team. After that, though, things got really weird. The Redbacks’ stock continued to fall, as their team continued to show their age and they looked like a shell of their former self. They did manage to sneak into the playoffs as the 8th seed, meaning they’ll have an uphill climb if they want to win their first playoff series in three years.

But at least they made the playoffs. The other two teams expected to be near the top of the standings didn’t even manage that. Orlando was easy to diagnose, as W/ZB Frank St. Peter missed much of the season after experiencing multiple setbacks with his knee throughout the year. The rest of the Orbits played very well in his absence, managing to get the team to .500, but that wasn’t good enough for a playoff spot. The Row, meanwhile, turned into absolute chaos. Like the Lights, they started off poorly, but after an extremely disappointing season the year prior, the mood in the locker room quickly turned toxic. It got bad enough that W/ZB Zebedeo Perilla issued a trade demand just over a month in, and was dealt to Minnesota as part of a six-player deal. Not only did that not help things, it really only made it worse. Eventually, the blame landed on head coach Tobias Bolton, who became the first NDL head coach to be fired mid-season. Many saw it as a quick-trigger move, and Bolton will likely be highly sought-after in the offseason. For what it’s worth, interim skipper Dakota Glendale got slightly better results, but the team’s final record of 26-40 is probably a better one than they deserved. They will be picking third come October, so at least they’ll get that out of it.

The other teams at the bottom were mostly expected to be there. Toronto slipped up as many predicted after their aging frontcourt failed to carry the load, and ended up tied with the Row. Of course, neither team was as bad as the Seattle Sawyers. Rumor had it that Wichita State sophomore W/ZB Phil Jones, the consensus top prospect, was already looking at houses in the Seattle area - until the Sawyers started to win games, that is. The team still lacks any sort of star, but many of their young players turned it on this year, highlighted by 24-year-old W/ZB Deonte Terrell and 22-year-old B/K Josh Bradford. While they still have a long way to go, it was the first promising season for Seattle fans in quite some time, dampened only a bit by the team earning pick #2. Jones will now almost certainly wind up in Atlanta, where the Records’ top two players, F/ZB Stu Abbott and B/C Evan Simon, both missed most of the season as the team cruised to the top of the draft order, only winning seven games all season.

Now you may have noticed that I left out a few teams at the bottom of the standings. That’s because those teams were not, in fact, at the bottom of the standings. The Boston Commodores, who had yet to amass 20 wins in a season, earned themselves a winning record in 2034 by the skin of their teeth. 24-year-old B/K Matt White broke out this season with a fantastic season in net, and 2027 3rd overall pick W/ZB Bradley Clarkson finally started to realize his potential after a disappointing beginning to his career. It wasn’t quite enough to earn them a playoff spot, but it did finally get fans in Boston to start to pay attention, and the team’s future looks a bit more stable than it did before. Their expansion partners, the Montréal Magma, had an even better go of things. It seemed like just about every player in their starting lineup was having a career year, and with 25-year-old B/K duo Travis Hauser and Alex Rennie leading the way, the team finished 4 wins ahead of Boston, and a 38-28 record was enough to clinch the third seed in the playoffs. They’re definitely not as good as that record indicates, especially given that they finished with a point differential of -19 on the season, but it’s still a huge step forward for the team.

And finally, speaking of huge steps forward, we have the DC Statesmen. After finishing just short of the postseason in 2033, the Scarlet & Plum were expected to break into the dance this year - just not like this. While the Magma are probably an impostor among playoff teams, the Statesmen look like they actually belong. Thanks in large part to the immaculate passing ability of B/ZB Ethan Keller and B/K Paul Gartside and W/ZBs Michael Cochran and Nkem Carter providing big targets, the team rolled through defenses, as their offense scored over 3.5 points per game more than the next closest team and more than 9 points above league average. Their defense was nothing to write home about, but it was solid, and as long as it wasn’t atrocious, they could usually rely on simply winning a shootout. While we all know that defense wins championships, DC’s offense managed to clinch them home field advantage throughout the playoffs, the second straight season that a 2029 expansion franchise was able to claim the top seed.

Even still, however, nobody really separated themselves at the top of the pack. DC only finished 3 games ahead of #2 California and 6 games ahead of #3 Montréal. After that, things only got more crowded, as just 7 wins separated the Magma from the fifth- and sixth-worst teams in the league, both of whom finished at .500. The Sabertooths got a stellar individual season from B/ZB Roy Lalanne, but simply didn’t have the depth to keep up, and will be picking at #5 after losing the tiebreaker with Orlando. Boston missed the playoffs by just one game, and was joined there by Chicago, who, for the second straight year, could not put together a consistent run of wins or losses to save their lives, and will be just short of the playoffs again.

Most interesting at the end of the year, though, was the race for the South Division, which culminated in a winner-take-all game between Nashville and Miami, who both sat at 38-27. The Fugitives looked like the stronger team coming in, led as usual by B/C Kevin Hur and F/ZB Eddie McDonald, and also enjoyed a breakout season from former Palm W/ZB Rich Abbott. Miami, meanwhile, was getting vintage performances out of 37-year-old B/ZB Gerald Hartline and 35-year-old B/C Ben Elkins, and got stellar usage out of a pair of offseason acquisitions in B/C Mark Shupe and 24-year-old F/ZB Jimmy May. The Palms would play host to their final game, and with the winner earning home-court advantage in round one, it was a thriller. The lead went back and forth all game, staying single digits nearly the entire way as neither team was willing to give up an inch. Ultimately, with time winding down and a 3-point Nashville lead, it would be Abbott providing the dagger against his former team, going top corner against young B/K Angel Camacho to double the lead and clinch the division for the Fugitives.

The Magma winning the North is nice to see. Sucks to see LA miss the playoffs though.