November 15, 2015
We’ve got only three weeks left of the Fall season of the team league, and so far every team still has a viable chance at making the playoffs! I suppose it’s not too hard when four out of the six teams make the playoffs, but now everyone’s got at least one win (CSP!) and there’s still a lot of time for any team on the bubble to make a run at any of the four spots in the playoffs (CSP!)
That aside, the race for season MVP is also in full swing! There’s somewhere between 15 to 20 people who could theoretically take home the honors this year, but right now there are three contenders who are now starting to pull away from the rest of the pack. They are (all stats are given as wins/games played):
Zoe V., Pinball Outreach Project (11/15 Overall, 6/7 Doubles, 5/8 Singles, 3/3 Home, 8/12 Away): If the season ended right now there would be no question that Zoe would win Most Valuable Player honors. She leads the league in overall number of wins (11), tied for the league lead in wins in doubles (6) with her teammate Greg, and has the second highest overall win percentage of all players with at least 10 games played so far this season (.733). She is tied with Kane M from Tiger BallsĀ for the all-time league record for longest win streak on one machine (KISS, 5 wins) and is tied with two others for longest active overall win streak (5). These have not been easy wins, either – by the league’s Strength of Schedule metric, she has faced the seventh strongest slate of opponents thus far this season.
Rob I., GKO (10/16 Overall, 3/7 Doubles, 7/9 Singles, 3/5 Home, 7/11 Away): GKO has leaned on Rob quite a bit so far this season and up to now he shown up in a big way for his team. He leads the league in overall number of games played (16) and is second only to Zoe in overall number of wins (10). Rob also leads the league in wins in Singles rounds (9) and is second in the league (again, to Zoe) in number of wins away from home (7). Rob is one of only four people in the league to play in and win all four rounds in a match this season (the rest of the list includes his teammates Isaac and JohnNils, as well as Jeff L. from Clinton Street Pub).
Daniel R., The Counts of Belmonte Cristo (8/13 Overall, 4/6 Doubles, 4/7 Singles, 5/8 Home, 3/5 Away): Daniel’s numbers may not be as impressive as those put up by Zoe or Rob, but it’s more to do with who Daniel’s beaten to put these numbers up. Daniel leads the league in Strength of Schedule by a mile, which means his thirteen games have been as hard of a stretch of games in terms of who he has faced as anyone has played thus far this season. Despite that, Daniel has still put together solid results week by week. Up until last week’s match at Pinball Outreach Project, Daniel had put up a .500 or better win percentage in every week so far this season (there are only two people left who have attended every match and put up a .500 or better win percentage in every week, Drew M. and Rachell C. from Tiger Balls).
All of this is after five weeks, and the next three weeks can change the picture of the MVP race pretty dramatically. I’ll post an update next week after the results of this week’s matches come in.
Good luck to everyone this week!