November 17, 2016
As we head into the final week of the season, we’d like to take a moment to break down the playoff scenarios for each team:
Team Flipperoni: Blackbird Pizza’s new team (via POP) have clinched the top seed in the main playoff division, and with it they have clinched a home game in the second round of the playoffs. They can tie the league record for wins in a season at nine with a win at Clinton Street Pub this Sunday, but they would need thirteen points in order to tie the record held by Clinton Street Pub FC for most points in a season (104).
Clinton Street Pub FC: CSPFC landed a huge break last week as GKO defeated Tiger Balls at Ground Kontrol, which puts CSPFC back in the driver’s seat for the second first-round bye. All CSPFC has to do to clinch the first round bye would be to win outright. Even if CSPFC wins in a tiebreaker, Tiger Balls would need to completely shut out The Ship Show in order to retake the second seed. CSPFC hosts Team Flipperoni this week, so their work is cut out for them. If CSPFC loses, then they could fall back as far as fourth place – even in that scenario, though, CSPFC will no matter what play a home game at some point during the playoffs.
Tiger Balls: As stated above, The Tiger Balls loss last week did a number on Hungry Tiger’s hopes of clinching the first round bye. It’s still possible, but they need to defeat The Ship Show at home and CSPFC needs to lose to Blackbird Pizza at Clinton Street Pub this week. Even with these two things happening, they also need to score no fewer than two less points of what The Counts of Belmonte Cristo score (who are hosting Scoreboard at home), or they are in danger of being passed in points by Belmont Inn. Regardless of whatever else happens, The Tiger Balls will be assured a first round home game at the very least with a win this Sunday. If Hungry Tiger loses this week, they could fall all the way back to sixth place if a very specific and relatively unlikely set of events occur.
The Counts of Belmonte Cristo: The Counts are still in the hunt for a first round bye, though they need to outscore Hungry Tiger by at least three points (assuming The Tiger Balls win) and they need CSPFC to lose at home against Blackbird Pizza. Similarly to Hungry Tiger, they will clinch a home game in the first round at the very least with a win. Also similarly to Tiger Balls, a loss could send them as far down as sixth if they get absolutely blown out.
The Ship Show: The Ship Show is currently the highest ranking team that has yet to clinch a main division playoff spot, and their ultimate match of the regular season may prove to be their most challenging. There are a lot of possible outcomes for the Ship Ahoy team going into this final week. First, the good scenarios – The Ship Show will clinch a playoff spot with a victory at Hungry Tiger this week, though that would come against a team that has lost at home only once in three seasons. They could end up as high as the second seed if they beat Hungry Tiger by a margin of 10-6 or greater, Belmont Inn loses, and CSPFC loses badly at home. They will clinch a home game in the first round with a win and any one of the conditions previously mentioned come to fruition. As for the bad scenario, they could find themselves locked into the top spot of the B Division with a loss, a Quarter Rollers victory over the Quarter Pounders, and a GKO victory over Slingshot Through The Heart where they outscore The Ship Show by at least four points.
Quarter Rollers: The Quarter Rollers are in roughly the same boat as the Ship Show, where they are holding on to a playoff spot but could fall back to the B Division if the stars align in an unlucky way for them. As it stands now, they are unable to catch CSPFC and at least one of Hungry Tiger and Ship Ahoy in points so the very highest that the Quarter Rollers could place is fourth – that would require a blowout win at home against the Quarter Pounders, a bad loss for Belmont Inn, and a massive blowout for either Hungry Tiger and Ship Ahoy in their match. A win would guarantee them a spot in the playoffs, though they would most likely be playing on the road in the first round. A loss, combined with a GKO victory, would send them back to the B Division. Even if the Quarter Rollers lose this week, they will clinch a playoff spot with a GKO loss at Slingshot.
GKO: Ground Kontrol’s team is on the outside looking in as we go into the last week of the season, but there is good reason for hope for this squad: A win, along with either a Quarter Rollers loss or a Ship Show loss where they outscore Ship Ahoy by four or more points, will put them into the playoffs. At best, they will be on the road in the first round, as the highest they can climb would be fifth. Without a win and either one of the necessary scenarios coming true, GKO would stay in the B Division. However, they cannot fall any lower than the top seed, as Scoreboard cannot catch them in terms of points.
Scoreboard: Our league’s favorite nameless team has managed to put together three wins in a row, but ultimately have very little to play for other than the chance to spoil Belmont Inn’s hopes for playing at home at some point in the playoffs. They cannot move up with a win because they cannot catch GKO in points even if GKO loses, and they cannot move down as they have two wins over both Slingshot Through The Heart and The Quarter Pounders
Slingshot Through The Heart/Quarter Pounders: These two teams will be looked at together as they are nearly in the exact same predicament as each other. Both teams have one win and 50 points, and whichever team scores more than the other will take the third seed in the B Division playoffs. Slingshot Through The Heart holds the tiebreaker if they are tied in points at the end of the season, so the Quarter Pounders need to explicitly outscore Slingshot in order to overtake them.
Good luck to everyone as we head into the final week!