Here we go again! I'm doing two of these in a row! Texas hath frozen over (literally).
BTW, ya'll catch my TCU Horned Frogs pummeling of Ole Miss on New Years Eve? That was very pleasing to observe from my perspective. Much like that beatdown, we've got some "change the channel at halftime" matchups littering the top 10 this week.
On to the matchups!
#1 Air Raid vs #8 Stark Dire Wolves
- Air Raid handled New Jersey last week, and Stark dropped a close one too a D'Haran team that's playing good bortball of late and probably belongs in the top 15 by the end of the season. Stark's played a hellacious schedule. It continues. Now that they'll have faced Air Raid, the only team ranked higher they haven't yet faced will be Louisiana. So... it gets easier the rest of the way? Not until after tomorrow. USC will try his hand at stopping my precious and carefully designed base offense. USC's one of the good guys in GLB2. We're pals over at Ground Assault. He's not stopping my offense though. Air Raid wins this one, though maybe closer than otherwise might be expected.
#2 Portland Ronin vs #16 Brisbane Bogans
- A Classic matchup of Season 1 teams! This one's always had important implications for the top 5 standings! Brisbane runs a nasty screen/outside rushing offense, and Portland's always featured a top flight rushing attack. Thunderoo vs Digital Daggers! Excellent matchup and a sim everyone should definitely watch!.... huh?..... oh, Thunderoo's been inactive all season. Brisbane's full of inactives, professionals, and Legends. Portland wins big, Brisbane continues it's slide into oblivion.
#3 The Salty Runback vs #21 Ministry of Dotball
- Ministry was looking pretty good to challenge for a top 15 slot until they dropped the last 2 games. Of note is one of those losses was a bad, bad blowout to The Boogie Men, which would be your #1 Pro team currently sitting at 37 in the standings. They're a team to watch going forward as they ease into the lower 30s, upper 20s and start to get withing striking distance of matchups against the lower half of the top 10. In any event, Salty shouldn't have too much trouble with the Ministry. Salty consistently fields the best defense in bortball. They should win this game without too much issue.
#4 Minnesota Stunners vs #22 Seneca Hands of Fate
- Congratulations Seneca, back-2-back top 5 ladder matchups! Also a Stunners blowout victim waiting to happen. I'm sure the Hands of Fate are ready to get back to playing teams in the 15-25 range. Stunners will win.
#5 New Jersey Generals vs #10 Legacy
- We know what New Jersey is, mr consistency. Let's take a look at Legacy this season: Best win is over Stark. Worse loss is probably to Santa Clara. On the whole, they've been competitive against teams like Portland and Cobra Kai, but struggled against Ellix and D'Haran. It's actually been a pretty good season when you consider those are the only two games they've looked outmatched. New Jersey is always a difficult opponent, but I feel like Legacy could give them some trouble. Mark me down for this one as a close New Jersey win, but not surprised if Legacy pulls an upset here.
#6 Harrisonburg Bulldogs vs #11 Dookie Island
- Corndog's been having a pretty nice season at Dookie so far. The similarities in results between them and Legacy are interesting. That said, and afk Tdiddy probably still has Harrisonburg winning this one. A Tdiddy that bothers to check his base packages and decide they're good enough as is definitely will win. It's a numbers game, and Dookie doesn't have the star power to beat Harrisonburg. Harry wins handily.
#7 Louisiana Screaming Pelicans vs #14 Ellix Burghers
- Oooooo, this is a good one. LSP has been a consistent top 10 team this season. Tigerbait's regularly put a solid passing attack on the field. Ellix has that win earlier this season over Air Raid when Tdiddy was around to cobble together a defense. He's apparently back active from his holiday hiatus, so that may not bode well for Louisiana. At one time, Ellix appeared to be a lock to get into the top 10, but they've got work to do now after suffering some losses. Louisiana would be a good place to start swiping some elo from those ranked higher. This is probably a must win if Ellix intends to crack the top 10 this season. I'm picking the Burghers in an upset. Probably a close one though!
#9 Cobra Kai vs #29 Rocky Mountain Reapers
- Cobra enjoyed the vacation so much last ladder, they decided to take this week off too! Dipping down to the very bottom of the target pool and they fish out Donovan's all CPU reapers squad. We can't let the reapers just slide out of the top 30 uneventfully. Nope. We've gotta have the Kai go full bouncer on them and throw them out of the club! Kai wins really big. Like, triple digits or somesuch.
Bonus Pick
#13 MMArmy Can Crushers vs #23 D'Haran Empire
- I've previously given love to MMArmy as a top 5 team biding their time on the way up the ladder. I've also put D'Haran on my teams to watch list. Well, here they are, in the coolest matchup outside the top 10. While I think D'Haran is very good, and will reach the top 15 by seasons end, I think MMArmy is an elite squad. I don't expect D'Haran to end the undefeated season for MMArmy this week. I'm picking the Can Crushers.
BTW, ya'll catch my TCU Horned Frogs pummeling of Ole Miss on New Years Eve? That was very pleasing to observe from my perspective. Much like that beatdown, we've got some "change the channel at halftime" matchups littering the top 10 this week.
On to the matchups!
#1 Air Raid vs #8 Stark Dire Wolves
- Air Raid handled New Jersey last week, and Stark dropped a close one too a D'Haran team that's playing good bortball of late and probably belongs in the top 15 by the end of the season. Stark's played a hellacious schedule. It continues. Now that they'll have faced Air Raid, the only team ranked higher they haven't yet faced will be Louisiana. So... it gets easier the rest of the way? Not until after tomorrow. USC will try his hand at stopping my precious and carefully designed base offense. USC's one of the good guys in GLB2. We're pals over at Ground Assault. He's not stopping my offense though. Air Raid wins this one, though maybe closer than otherwise might be expected.
#2 Portland Ronin vs #16 Brisbane Bogans
- A Classic matchup of Season 1 teams! This one's always had important implications for the top 5 standings! Brisbane runs a nasty screen/outside rushing offense, and Portland's always featured a top flight rushing attack. Thunderoo vs Digital Daggers! Excellent matchup and a sim everyone should definitely watch!.... huh?..... oh, Thunderoo's been inactive all season. Brisbane's full of inactives, professionals, and Legends. Portland wins big, Brisbane continues it's slide into oblivion.
#3 The Salty Runback vs #21 Ministry of Dotball
- Ministry was looking pretty good to challenge for a top 15 slot until they dropped the last 2 games. Of note is one of those losses was a bad, bad blowout to The Boogie Men, which would be your #1 Pro team currently sitting at 37 in the standings. They're a team to watch going forward as they ease into the lower 30s, upper 20s and start to get withing striking distance of matchups against the lower half of the top 10. In any event, Salty shouldn't have too much trouble with the Ministry. Salty consistently fields the best defense in bortball. They should win this game without too much issue.
#4 Minnesota Stunners vs #22 Seneca Hands of Fate
- Congratulations Seneca, back-2-back top 5 ladder matchups! Also a Stunners blowout victim waiting to happen. I'm sure the Hands of Fate are ready to get back to playing teams in the 15-25 range. Stunners will win.
#5 New Jersey Generals vs #10 Legacy
- We know what New Jersey is, mr consistency. Let's take a look at Legacy this season: Best win is over Stark. Worse loss is probably to Santa Clara. On the whole, they've been competitive against teams like Portland and Cobra Kai, but struggled against Ellix and D'Haran. It's actually been a pretty good season when you consider those are the only two games they've looked outmatched. New Jersey is always a difficult opponent, but I feel like Legacy could give them some trouble. Mark me down for this one as a close New Jersey win, but not surprised if Legacy pulls an upset here.
#6 Harrisonburg Bulldogs vs #11 Dookie Island
- Corndog's been having a pretty nice season at Dookie so far. The similarities in results between them and Legacy are interesting. That said, and afk Tdiddy probably still has Harrisonburg winning this one. A Tdiddy that bothers to check his base packages and decide they're good enough as is definitely will win. It's a numbers game, and Dookie doesn't have the star power to beat Harrisonburg. Harry wins handily.
#7 Louisiana Screaming Pelicans vs #14 Ellix Burghers
- Oooooo, this is a good one. LSP has been a consistent top 10 team this season. Tigerbait's regularly put a solid passing attack on the field. Ellix has that win earlier this season over Air Raid when Tdiddy was around to cobble together a defense. He's apparently back active from his holiday hiatus, so that may not bode well for Louisiana. At one time, Ellix appeared to be a lock to get into the top 10, but they've got work to do now after suffering some losses. Louisiana would be a good place to start swiping some elo from those ranked higher. This is probably a must win if Ellix intends to crack the top 10 this season. I'm picking the Burghers in an upset. Probably a close one though!
#9 Cobra Kai vs #29 Rocky Mountain Reapers
- Cobra enjoyed the vacation so much last ladder, they decided to take this week off too! Dipping down to the very bottom of the target pool and they fish out Donovan's all CPU reapers squad. We can't let the reapers just slide out of the top 30 uneventfully. Nope. We've gotta have the Kai go full bouncer on them and throw them out of the club! Kai wins really big. Like, triple digits or somesuch.
Bonus Pick
#13 MMArmy Can Crushers vs #23 D'Haran Empire
- I've previously given love to MMArmy as a top 5 team biding their time on the way up the ladder. I've also put D'Haran on my teams to watch list. Well, here they are, in the coolest matchup outside the top 10. While I think D'Haran is very good, and will reach the top 15 by seasons end, I think MMArmy is an elite squad. I don't expect D'Haran to end the undefeated season for MMArmy this week. I'm picking the Can Crushers.
