By far the two most tenured teams met for what would be the sixth championship between the two. California would look to equal Texas’s three, while the Redbacks would look to increase their one-title lead over the Sea Lions. Things took a turn for the worst rather quickly for the Lions, though, as B/ZB Will Mitchell went down with a concussion just three minutes into the first frame of Game 1. B/ZB Nick Phipps-Joseph played quite well after coming in to replace Mitchell, deflecting six passes and contributing on 18 points, and California held a lead as late as the sixth inning, but when they ultimately fell by just 13 points, it was easy to wonder if Mitchell would have made up that difference. That feeling was even more prevalent in Game 2, when Phipps-Joseph misplayed a ball on offense late in the seventh that led to a five-point snipe off the foot of Texas W/C Elide Amigazzi which gave the Redbacks the lead, a potential 7-10 point swing that was extra painful when the Sea Lions fell by only nine points. While many fans in the Bay Area felt rather disappointed, they also had every reason to be hopeful as the series shifted to San José.

Instead, things only got worse. Texas found that extra gear they always seem to have, and with B/K Semarias Garcia contributing for 60 points, Cali had no shot in Game 3. They were taken behind their own shed, with the Backs hanging 153 on the league’s best regular season defense. With their backs against the wall in Game 4, the Sea Lions tried to slow the pace down. They were able to hold Texas to just 125 points, thanks in large part to B/ZB Amando Thomas and the keeping tandem of F/K Billy Moses and W/K Will Orleans, but Texas’s defense was also elite, with Garcia and fellow B/K Ares Preciado combining for 18 saves on 27 shots, Elide Amigazzi shutting down the semicircle, and a zone back corps headlined by W/ZB Joe Day and B/ZB Thomas Ridley that often made it feel like there were 5 red-and-white shirts in the end zone. By the time the clock hit zero, the Texas Redbacks had done the unprecedented, sweeping through the entire playoffs and collecting their fourth First Trophy.

Last edited by ItDoesntMatter (6/06/2020 8:14 pm)

Rugrat wrote:

Congrats to Steelman and all the Redbacks fans on here

 
All 1 of the Redbacks fans.

*sigh* Congrats Texas. We'll get you back next year 

Steelman wrote:

All hail the Redbacks!

All Hail the F'n Redbacks! 

If the first half of this decade didn’t convince you that God is a Redbacks fan, then 2026 absolutely must have. It’s not necessarily because of anything Texas did; they were expected to have a very good team and they performed about as well as was expected. It’s more because any competition the Redbacks had seemed to have been hit with a fiery bolt from on high. The Sea Lions and Sawyers were both supposed to challenge for supremacy in the so-called “Group of Death” division that was the West, but both were riddled with injuries throughout the year and just couldn’t match Texas at all. It was particularly bad for the Sea Lions, who saw nearly half of their starting lineup fall to season-ending injuries within the first half of the season. With everyone out of the way, the Backs cruised to their second perfect season in team history, going 50-0 and looking extremely likely to repeat last year’s undefeated postseason as well.

California and Seattle, as beat up as they were, were still able to field good teams. The Sawyers finished two games above .500 and earned the 7th seed, while the Lions found themselves in a race for second place that technically included 5 teams going into the final week of the season. I say “technically” because Philadelphia, enjoying a resurgence after last year’s disappointment, would’ve needed a miracle or two to catch all four of the other teams, and ended up finishing in 6th. Nashville, who had been without F/C Michel Blanchard for large stretches of the season (see: God is a Redbacks fan), had him back for the final week, and the Fugitives pulled away to claim the second spot. The third through fifth seeds had to wait until the final day to play out. The Palms, led by MVP B/ZB Gerald Hartline (who just so happens to be a former Redback) had a one-game lead over both Chicago and California, but the Frost had a much easier matchup with the Chargers as opposed to Miami’s game with Nashville and Cali’s date with a 49-0 wrecking ball. Those three games went exactly as you’d expect, with Chicago’s win vaulting them to the third seed thanks to a tiebreaker with Miami, and the Sea Lions taking the fifth seed and a series with the fourth-seeded Palms.

That leaves five teams and only one playoff spot. The Chargers were looking to improve on their playoff run last year, but despite not being in direct competition with the Redbacks, got hit with a few injuries and generally underperformed as a result. New York probably would have gotten the first overall pick if the Sabertooths weren’t mired in their version of The Process. New head coach Adrian Green wasn’t able to turn Orlando around, and they finished with just 9 wins, while Toronto made quite a bit of improvement, but with star B/ZB Dan Kirkpatrick on IR for most of the season, couldn’t make the playoffs, meaning the eighth seed once again went to Atlanta. Despite adding several stars during the offseason, including B/ZB Tim Morris, F/ZB Fabiano Cordova, and W/ZB Dwight McCann, the Records didn’t make all that much of an improvement over last season, and with another series with the Redbacks looming, their playoff fate looks to be exactly the same.