Warrior General Games

It's just been good fortune that Arrowhead has gotten by Guam, Lumpinee and the Beach Bums, so don't take this as me bragging about anything. But after going through the stats and looking at the league standings, a couple things stand out as interesting to me.

First, it's the old rivals of the the first season of SEA #4 that are left undefeated. The Buddhists against the Heroes look like two freight trains on the same track, heading for each other at full speed. When they do collide, it should be the game of the season to watch. And on the south side of the League, it's the Bangers and Arrowhead.

For most of that first season, the Buddhists and the Heroes were the two dominant teams of the league, with other teams like the Dragons and Columbo, all coming from Alpha and all better than the best that Zeta could offer... and there was a lot of trash talking about just how much better Alpha was over Zeta. Teams like the Beavers, Bangers and Arrowhead had to pretty much acknowledge Alpha's dominance.

In that first capped season, it was easier to see who had the better grasp on putting a team together and that advantage gained there is still shining through in this season. Each of us had a slightly different style. Most went for the highest leveled players they could find, some went for depth, some went for builds and some went for all of the above. I remember Arrowhead being outleveled constantly. I also remember the Bangers scaring the shit out of me so much, that when I went on a little fishing trip, I spent half the time on the phone with Jimmie preparing for that game or getting the results of it. (And yes all you Bangers out there... you still scare the shit out of me!)

Anyway, this season has numerous earmarks of that first one. I'm not discounting Guam here because they probably have the best team in our conference and maybe the League, but looking at the numbers and at the teams that have come up from SEA A#4 it looks extremely similar to that first season. The Buddhists and the Heroes are sitting on top looking bulletproof, with the Dragons just behind them and waiting to strike. The Bangers look like Beasts and seem to be the lower conference favorites at the moment, while Arrowhead looks underleveled once again and surprising even themselves with the wins. And.... don't forget about those Beavers. There is no team (better than the Beavers) anywhere that can sit back, just behind the leaders, then through the best gameplanning in the game, make their run into the playoffs.

(I left out a lot of good teams in this. Both from that first season and this present one. It wasn't done to slight anyone. I get wordy when I do have something to say, so I just tried to keep it short.)

just as long as our playoff history doesn't continue, that 2nd round game has had our number

Have to give my coordinators all the credit I stopped running the offense/defense in season 5 - I still scout but haven't messed with either AI since season 5.

The Bangers have always been good, just have to hope that whatever it is that makes the Beavers lucky against them holds out, we are 2 - 1 and hoping to extend that to 3 - 1 against them though after watching the dominance in A4 last year not sure its going to be possible.

We have a couple match ups against former SEA A4 teams the next two games, Phuket and well the Bangers - hoping to go 1 - 1, would love to go 2 - 0 but chances are we are looking at 0 - 2 lol

Should be an interesting season with so many of the original SEA A4 guys up here now.

ya, will be a sweet season. may not be as successful for us as usual, but we will see ^_^

In season 4 I was such a noob oner. I spent a whole wasted weekend just trying to fill my roster with whatever would come and sign. I knew hat were good builds at my own guys positions, but not a lot of other seasons. I was running both off and def, which really sucked. I was so much better with the off ai then I was with the def ai. Then Baulder brought players to the Bangers, and his def ai as well. He is a real life friend who i got addicted to this game, so it made things so much easier to communicate. I also give a ton of credit to Bignic k, who brought his players over as well and ran our special teams, it is great that him and I use irc to communicate, makes things so much easier too.
Arrowhead has always made me nervous, as i know they have solid builds, and I was devastated when they beat us in the playoffs in season 4.
In season 5 the Beavers came from nowhere, so I thought and beat us 2nd round of the playoffs, another devastating loss.
Last season, Lumpinee jumped up and bit us during the regular season, and ended our perfect season, but we rolled into the playoffs and our CB won the championship game against the Bangkok Dragons, which I figured we would lose, actually.
in some ways i really look forward to not only playing Ottowa, but also Arrowhead, to exact some revenge. But I also know how powerful of teams they are as well, and during any game, they can hand us a big fat loss.
I also look forward to playing Guam, Lumpinee, Beach bums and others. I do not think we will go undefeated, but we will give all a run for their money here.
I am probably more thrilled this season to come and join some of my division mates from SEA A4, best of luck to you all

It does make it a lot better when the history is added in. I know it's funner for me this season with everybody here. And I second Flip's motion..... Good Luck to everyone this season!

SLIGHTLY revisionist history here Quinn... in our first season (S4) the Buddhist were indeed dominating but the Heroes didn't manage to put it together until near season's end, in fact we missed the playoffs. Singapore lost to Colombo in the playoffs, paving the way for the Beijing Black Dragons to take the title. It was Season 5 when Singapore and Surabaya played out this exact story before, undefeated heading into a week 7 matchup with each other (this season it will be week 8; the Heroes will be undefeated barring an absolute meltdown and the Buddhist have a pretty good test against the Bangkok Dragons first). Surabaya won that game in a nailbiter and didn't lose until the L.A. Riots pulled off an overtime upset on the last game of the regular season, then the Heroes ultimately won the league, defeating Middlebourne, the Bangkok Dragons, the Cambodia Assassins (who did us the courtesy of knocking off the Buddhist in round two), and finally Phuket.

A large crop of the best teams in A #4 came up after that season (Surabaya, Cambodia, Singapore, Phuket, and Ottawa all joined Beijing and Arrowhead already up here from S4), and now we've got another large crop of A #4 promotions this season. It looks like a good bet that at least a few of these A #4 vets will be joining Cambodia in AAA after this season.

I've been impressed with Singapore's run so far and they're going to be very hard to stop. Surabaya's had some challenges but the hard part of our schedule is just beginning; Singapore's already wading through their toughest foes. One way or another there will be another brutal Alpha playoff, with at least six teams with legitimate league championship hopes... we'll just have to see how the seeding plays out when we get there.

Originally posted by fliphusker
In season 4 I was such a noob oner. I spent a whole wasted weekend just trying to fill my roster with whatever would come and sign. I knew hat were good builds at my own guys positions, but not a lot of other seasons. I was running both off and def, which really sucked. I was so much better with the off ai then I was with the def ai. Then Baulder brought players to the Bangers, and his def ai as well. He is a real life friend who i got addicted to this game, so it made things so much easier to communicate. I also give a ton of credit to Bignic k, who brought his players over as well and ran our special teams, it is great that him and I use irc to communicate, makes things so much easier too.
Arrowhead has always made me nervous, as i know they have solid builds, and I was devastated when they beat us in the playoffs in season 4.
In season 5 the Beavers came from nowhere, so I thought and beat us 2nd round of the playoffs, another devastating loss.
Last season, Lumpinee jumped up and bit us during the regular season, and ended our perfect season, but we rolled into the playoffs and our CB won the championship game against the Bangkok Dragons, which I figured we would lose, actually.
in some ways i really look forward to not only playing Ottowa, but also Arrowhead, to exact some revenge. But I also know how powerful of teams they are as well, and during any game, they can hand us a big fat loss.
I also look forward to playing Guam, Lumpinee, Beach bums and others. I do not think we will go undefeated, but we will give all a run for their money here.
I am probably more thrilled this season to come and join some of my division mates from SEA A4, best of luck to you all

Dam that was a good game, I hate your CBs by the way. I am so pissed we had to play you first this season, that is our only loss this season which can comeback to haunt us losing our non-conference game.

Like i said many times, i was shocked we won the chapionship. then when we beat the Dragons handily the first week, i was as shocked as you were. I am not going to say that I did not expect to win, but i figured it would be real close. The Bangkok Dragons are one of the top teams, but you are probably playing in a better division, then ours. We will play every regular season in some fashion or another.

I am gong away when we play arrowhead, so i do not have to wait for the score.

Gabrosin, I stand corrected there. I did run season 4 and 5 together a bit. But most of the rest is accurate. (Damn Alzheimers!) But you see what I mean. For the moment, there's a reproduction of SEA A#4 going on.

And Flip.... you must be kidding. This is the season you kick our ass! Both the Heroes and the Buddhists beat us in scrimmages where we put in whole hearted efforts. Arrowhead is just enjoying another run of good luck. It'll change soon enough and you can expect us to finish in 5th or 6th, maybe as high as 3rd, but that'll be hard.

But...... this is turning out to be a very fun season again. We just need a few more of our boys up here.

On a side note, I was studying the A League that the Assassins and Yetis have moved up to. All of the teams promoted out of here are competing very well with the higher competition. In fact, there isn't much difference in quality between here and all the way to the Pro League. (I know you think I'm crazy, but you can study it for yourself if you want to see what I mean.) If these upper teams keep dissolving and spreading the talent out in the lower leagues, there won't be diddly squat for difference in one more season.

I'll say this much about SE Asia AA#2. We have, in addition to a horrible sim time of day, some of the best game planners of any league. Most teams can defeat any other team in the league on any given game day. Fierce competition and great fun.

.

Originally posted by quinnqn2

On a side note, I was studying the A League that the Assassins and Yetis have moved up to. All of the teams promoted out of here are competing very well with the higher competition. In fact, there isn't much difference in quality between here and all the way to the Pro League. (I know you think I'm crazy, but you can study it for yourself if you want to see what I mean.) If these upper teams keep dissolving and spreading the talent out in the lower leagues, there won't be diddly squat for difference in one more season.

I think the new promotion rules are pushing us towards an era of rapid talent consolidation. There's only a couple more seasons before the oldest players start to decline, and when that happens we're going to see which franchises can really stand the test of time. Will teams that reach the AAA/Pro level be able to keep their players together if there's a rough season? Inevitably some good teams will have bad seasons because the competition is getting so tough, and everyone knows that recruiting is infinitely more challenging if you're 4-12 than if you're 12-4.

Surabaya's in it for the long haul... our goal is to eventually reach the Pros and be competitive there. I look forward to the struggle to get there, and seeing which teams will be able to stick together once those S1 and S2 players that are the core of most high-level teams start to decline, and which teams decide to fold because they're overwhelmed by trying to replace their entire roster in too short a span.

Originally posted by fliphusker
Like i said many times, i was shocked we won the chapionship. then when we beat the Dragons handily the first week, i was as shocked as you were. I am not going to say that I did not expect to win, but i figured it would be real close. The Bangkok Dragons are one of the top teams, but you are probably playing in a better division, then ours. We will play every regular season in some fashion or another.

I am gong away when we play arrowhead, so i do not have to wait for the score.

I didn't know what happen when we played you last your defense I guess game-planned really well and stopped my offense (first time that happened since season 4!). But your a really good team and I was like 99% positive we were going to beat you in the playoffs, I think we should have won that game and it sucks for us that we lossed becuase of INT TDs. But it was a good game and I was happy to lose to you more than anyone else in the league.