Playoffs:
Big 8:
1) Rallies (21-1) vs. 4) Ooh Kill Em (16-6)
OK, before I talk about the match up let's talk about the last week of the season. Going into the last week Ooh Kill Em and Black Oar River Kings had the same record and were both eyeing the 4 seed. However, Ooh Kill Em had to play the undefeated Rallies and Black Oar River Kings got a free win from the CPU managed team SuperBois. So you would think Black Oar wins and Ohh Kill Em loses and misses out on the playoffs. Wrong. Ooh Kill Em pulls off the upset and hands Rallies the first loss of the season. Impressive.
So here is where it gets interesting. Statistically speaking theses teams are so ridiculously close it isn't even funny. They are 1st and 2nd in the league in PPG and APG. Rallies is 1st in FG% at 53.6 and Ooh Kill Em is shooting 51.7%. Same thing with RPG, Rallies bring down 59.1 boards per game, 13.3 of which are Offensive Rebounds and Ooh Kill Em sit at 58.5, 13.2 Offensive. Even Turnovers are the same 9.2 and 9.3 respectively. They are so ridiculously even and I am so excited to see who comes away with the win.
Personally, I don't like that Rallies is running Patient and we are probably going to see a change, Kekilli can't carry the team alone, but who knows what either team will run. I could go on and on about this match-up. Enough rambling who is going to win? It is hard to choose against the home team in what I feel is a 50/50 game like this one but I like Ooh Kill Em even as the away team. Rallies has a really good shot and is probably the favorite being at home and how well they played all season but fuck it I'm all in on Ooh Kill Em.
Prediction: Ooh Kill Em
MVP Prediction: Raul Las Heras Perez
2) Washington Waves (19-3) vs. 3) Cockfights (17-5)
Similar situation to the 1 vs 4 match-up. Two teams that are at the top of the leader boards in the league in pretty much all of the stat categories throughout the season. That shouldn't be surprising though the Big 8 is the dominant division. Any of these four teams, Black Oar River Kings or tiger sharks could easily win the Great 8. This will be another nail biter just like the last game of the season they played last week. The Waves took the W in a very close 76-74 game. Keeping this one brief, I think the depth of the Washington Waves do in the Cockfighters. However, it will be interesting to see if the Cockfighters change anything from last week.
Prediction: Washington Waves
MVP Prediction: Tomo Grajzl
Great 8
1) AZ Sunburn (16-6) vs 4) Portland_Genius (8-14)
I'll preface this match-up with the fact that both of these managers joined late in the season so looking at their total record for the year is worthless. Since joining the league AZ Sunburn is 1-1 and Portland is 1-3. However, Portland has played much stiffer competition through those games by having to deal with The Bots before they were taken over by AZS (92-115), Fast Food Orchestra (92-110), and Wilder One (102-106). So even though Portland was 1-3 they have played the best the Great 8 has to offer and they played them close. AZ Sunburn on the other hand got smacked down by Wilder One (119-71). Both teams only league win came against Team Umi Zumi at home. Team Umi Zumi has only beaten CPU managed teams this season so those wins were to be expected out of AZS and PG and nothing to write home about.
Looking at the rosters, I like Portland's roster much more. Dexter Bliss and Ken Carrol make up a very nice 1st and 2nd offensive option for Portland and I don't think AZ Sunburn has anyone that is capable of guarding either of them for a full game. Portland also hasn't shown their offensive strategy. They have been running Base Offense all season and likely sitting on their playoff offense. I'm excited to see what they will run in the playoffs. Perhaps AZ Sunburn has something.....