I had planned to just keep the old thread going and edit the title a bit. But things in there...turned. So here we have tomorrow's rookie games.
#1 Louisiana Screaming Pelicans vs #5 Dryden Blue Balls
First, I know LSP is an old GLB 1 team, but they really should be using the now retired, creepy Pierre the Pelican mascot. Anyway, onto dotball. LSP showed they deserve to be here despite what Tigerbait says with their domination of Air Raid the other day. The Balls are good (though they're the second best team of their management group), but they lost to Air Raid a week ago, though in a close one.
LSP bounces Balls, 30-21
#2 Engage with Zorp vs #3 Doinitin Djibouti 2.0
The marque matchup of the day IMO, featuring essentially last year's #5(Zorp) vs #1(DD's main team), but now the Zorpies have the best offense in Rookie ball by far. DD2 is damn good, but unless one team decides to go all in on scouting for this one (which I doubt), I've got to go with the superstar talent
Zorp, 37-24
#4 D-town Beatdown vs #4 Atlantic City Hookers
Two teams who were tied for #10 last time I did this...Dtown's only top 50 opponent so far was their last game against Hollywood, where they jumped out to a big lead early and cruised (though Hollywood brought it close late game, they never were really a threat to lead), but also an early loss to a team out of the top 100. They also are a two agent team - Kwill-bot for most players, but 10 CPUs. That depth (or lack of) could be trouble down the line. The Hookers, meanwhile, have some nice wins vs #47 Perth Scorpions (dominated in a shut out) and #25 Long Island Knights, with a tight loss to Djbouti. They've got some serious pass protection issues, though, with their QBs already sacked 71 times and hurried 67 times. That's a lot of pressure.
Beatdown, 24-14
#7 Hawaii Bulls vs #8 Rapper's Delight
The Bulls are stuck in what might be the most brutal rookie league (with Dryden in their division, and Zorp in another one, and a solid looking Long Island Knights team in the third). Their only loss so far, though, was Dryden in week 1, and with 9 superstars (but low depth), it's easy to see why they've beaten all comers since. Rappers are coming off a nice shutout win vs Athens (who fell from inside the top 10, to #47 since). From my brief looks, the Rappers have a suffocating D, but their offense may not be able to keep up with the absolute tops of the tier.
Bulls, 30-21
#8 Woodland Warriors vs #10 Air Raid
Woodland was part of the #10 backlog last time around, and managed to pull together a tight, 9-3 win vs Black hole. Since their week 1 loss, they've dominated most competition...but their scrimmages better have been full of test playbooks if they want to stay in the top 10 (losses to a lot of good teams, and not particularly close. A tight win vs Rappers, though.). A ton of tight, low scoring games - that seems to be their hallmark. Air Raid got grounded against LSP last time, but their offense is usually putting up tons of points, I don't think the Warriors can keep up.
Air Raid, 42-7
There's also one more team that can claim top 10, but due to longstanding policy, I don't do predictions for more than five games if the excess has nobody in the single digit rankings. I'm too lazy to check who they are, but they probably suck.
#1 Louisiana Screaming Pelicans vs #5 Dryden Blue Balls
First, I know LSP is an old GLB 1 team, but they really should be using the now retired, creepy Pierre the Pelican mascot. Anyway, onto dotball. LSP showed they deserve to be here despite what Tigerbait says with their domination of Air Raid the other day. The Balls are good (though they're the second best team of their management group), but they lost to Air Raid a week ago, though in a close one.
LSP bounces Balls, 30-21
#2 Engage with Zorp vs #3 Doinitin Djibouti 2.0
The marque matchup of the day IMO, featuring essentially last year's #5(Zorp) vs #1(DD's main team), but now the Zorpies have the best offense in Rookie ball by far. DD2 is damn good, but unless one team decides to go all in on scouting for this one (which I doubt), I've got to go with the superstar talent
Zorp, 37-24
#4 D-town Beatdown vs #4 Atlantic City Hookers
Two teams who were tied for #10 last time I did this...Dtown's only top 50 opponent so far was their last game against Hollywood, where they jumped out to a big lead early and cruised (though Hollywood brought it close late game, they never were really a threat to lead), but also an early loss to a team out of the top 100. They also are a two agent team - Kwill-bot for most players, but 10 CPUs. That depth (or lack of) could be trouble down the line. The Hookers, meanwhile, have some nice wins vs #47 Perth Scorpions (dominated in a shut out) and #25 Long Island Knights, with a tight loss to Djbouti. They've got some serious pass protection issues, though, with their QBs already sacked 71 times and hurried 67 times. That's a lot of pressure.
Beatdown, 24-14
#7 Hawaii Bulls vs #8 Rapper's Delight
The Bulls are stuck in what might be the most brutal rookie league (with Dryden in their division, and Zorp in another one, and a solid looking Long Island Knights team in the third). Their only loss so far, though, was Dryden in week 1, and with 9 superstars (but low depth), it's easy to see why they've beaten all comers since. Rappers are coming off a nice shutout win vs Athens (who fell from inside the top 10, to #47 since). From my brief looks, the Rappers have a suffocating D, but their offense may not be able to keep up with the absolute tops of the tier.
Bulls, 30-21
#8 Woodland Warriors vs #10 Air Raid
Woodland was part of the #10 backlog last time around, and managed to pull together a tight, 9-3 win vs Black hole. Since their week 1 loss, they've dominated most competition...but their scrimmages better have been full of test playbooks if they want to stay in the top 10 (losses to a lot of good teams, and not particularly close. A tight win vs Rappers, though.). A ton of tight, low scoring games - that seems to be their hallmark. Air Raid got grounded against LSP last time, but their offense is usually putting up tons of points, I don't think the Warriors can keep up.
Air Raid, 42-7
There's also one more team that can claim top 10, but due to longstanding policy, I don't do predictions for more than five games if the excess has nobody in the single digit rankings. I'm too lazy to check who they are, but they probably suck.
Edited by pottsman on Feb 13, 2014 15:14:02
