November 12, 2017
We’re heading into the final week of the season, but for many teams the playoffs start today! Here’s a quick look at where each team stands going into Week 10:
Pinball Outreach Project: Team POP currently holds a commanding lead for first place in the league, and only need two more points to secure their first regular season pennant since the inaugural season of the league. Even if an apocalypse were to strike and Hungry Tiger were to somehow slide into first place, POP would still be guaranteed a first round bye going into the playoffs.
Tiger Balls: Hungry Tiger moved into the driver’s seat for the second first round bye in the A Division playoffs by beating GKO 12-4 and leapfrogging Clinton Street Pub FC, who lost 14-2 at POP this past weekend. Much like POP, the Tiger Balls of Hungry Tiger are not likely to move from their position – they would need to lose in their match this week against Wink Wink Nudge Nudge at My Father’s Place and CSPFC would need to both win and outscore Tiger Balls by at least five points this week in order for Tiger Balls to fall back down to third place.
Clinton Street Pub FC: The reigning champions were dealt a huge blow last week with their blowout loss at Pinball Outreach Project, falling down to third place with prospects looking pretty dim for a rebound back into first round bye territory. However, they are guaranteed home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs at the very least and would need to lose by a significant margin at home against Slingshot Through The Heart and either GKO or The Ship Show would need to run up a huge score this week in order to fall down to fourth.
The Ship Show: At this point, there’s a pretty significant dropoff between third and fourth place – while CSPFC is guaranteed to play at home in the first round of the playoffs, the fourth-place Ship Show isn’t even guaranteed a playoff spot at this point. However, of the six teams that are either 5-4 or 4-5 going into week 10, The Ship Show is by far in the best position to lock down an A Division playoff spot. They are playing at home (where they are currently 4-0 so far this season) against GKO, the other team that’s sitting at 5-4 going into this week. The winner of this match will be playing at home next week in the A Division finals. However, if The Ship Show were to lose, they are still in good position to take one of the bottom two spots in the A Division finals based off their advantage in points scored over the other five teams in contention. The most likely way The Ship Show could lose a playoff spot if they lose and both the Quarterworld teams win their matches AND outscore Ship Ahoy (the Rollers need four more points, but the Pounders need seven), but both of the Quarterworld teams have tough matches this week (the Rollers are playing against a C Bar team who are undefeated at home at C Bar, and the Pounders are hosting Pinball Outreach Project) and the odds of all of these things happening look pretty slim. Most likely, they will be playing in their second straight A Division playoff since winning the B Division in the Fall 2016 season.
GKO: GKO is one of two teams sitting at 5-4 going into the final week of the season, but they are in a much more vunrerable position than the Ship Ahoy team that also shares their record. For one, GKO has to play against The Ship Show at Ship Ahoy, a place where they have never won a match against The Ship Show. While a victory there would seal both a playoff spot and home field in the first round, a loss this week could put them in trouble. For them to lose their A Division playoff spot, they would need to lose and have two of the following happen: A Quarter Rollers win, A QuarterPounders win where they outscore GKO by at least three, A C Bar win where they outscore GKO by four, or a Blackbird Pizza win where they outscore GKO by seven. In this worst-case scenario, GKO would fall back down to the B Division but would qualify for the first-round bye. Fortunately for GKO, The Rollers are playing C Bar so only one of those two outcomes between them is possible. GKO will benefit greatly from a win, but simply keeping the score close if they lose will most likely be enough to fend off their challengers.
Quarter Rollers: The Quarter Rollers sit atop the four teams at 4-5 with 72 points, the second most in the group of six teams that are vying for the bottom three A Division playoff spots. This bodes well for them if they were to hammer out a win this week, as it would most likely put them in the best position to clinch one of the last two playoff spots. However, they face a challenge this week in the form of a C Bar team that has yet to lose at home. However, because of their record, a loss at this point will sink any chances they have at claiming an A Division playoff spot, so a win here is a must if the team is to have any hope of making it in. If the team loses, they will most likely slip back into a first round bye in the B Division (in the absolute worst case, they would be playing at home in the B Division in the first round). However, simply winning will give them a huge leg up over the other 4-5 teams simply based on their advantage in points. Only the Pounders could catch them, as Blackbird wouldn’t be able to make up the number of points needed to pass them if the Rollers win. However, the Pounders have to beat POP in order to do it, which is a tall order for any team. Speaking of which…
QuarterPounders (With Cheese): The QuarterPounders are, at least on paper, in a relatively good position to make the A Division finals after nine weeks – all they need is a win and to outscore the other 4-5 teams that also win. However, as stated before, there’s just one problem – they have to beat a historically good POP team, who are only one more point away from tying the league record for most points in one season. If the Pounders rise up to this challenge and defeat POP, they will also need to outscore the other teams who would also end the season at 5-5 in order to take one of the two remaining spots in the A Division bracket. A GKO loss would be good for them, they would only need to outscore them by three in order to pass them in that case. Same with a Quarter Rollers loss, as long as C Bar doesn’t pass them in the process. On the flipside, a loss would put them in the B Division, as far down as being forced to play in the first round if C Bar and Blackbird pass them in points scored. If the QuarterPounders lose but keep it close, they might be able to clinch one of the two first round byes in the B Division bracket.
C Bar: Despite sitting in eighth place leaguewide at the moment, C Bar is sitting in a prime position to make a push into the A Division playoffs. However, they need a win, and possibly need a big one in order to do it. They are playing at home against the Quarter Rollers, one of the teams currently sitting ahead of them in the league standings. If they get help from POP in the form of a victory over the QuarterPounders, C Bar would only need to outscore either GKO (of which they are four points behind) or Blackbird Pizza (of which they currently have a two point advantage over). They do not have the tiebreaker over either of those teams, so they would need to explicitly outscore either one of those teams to make it in. It gets a lot more complicated if either GKO or the QuarterPounders win, as they likely would not be able to catch Ship Ahoy in points if GKO wins and a Pounders win would force them to outscore another team to make it in. A loss would put them out of contention for the A Division, and they could potentially fall down to playing in the first round of the B Division playoffs if Blackbird wins and they fail to outscore any of the other teams.
Blackbird Pizza: Blackbird is currently the lowest ranked team that’s still in contention for an A Division playoff spot, and they will need a lot of help along with a very big win this week at home against Scoreboard But With The Cool S in order to make it in. They will most likely need wins from Ship Ahoy, POP, and C Bar in order to knock down their biggest competitors in terms of points, and they will have to hope that either the Quarter Rollers keep their match close in order to give Blackbird a chance to score enough points to pass C Bar or Ship Ahoy wins by a significant enough margin over GKO to allow Blackbird to pass them. A win will, at the very least, clinch a first round bye in the B Division if they do not get the help they need in order to make the A Division finals. A loss would likely mean that they would stay in the same place as they are now, which would mean they would be playing at home in the first round of the B Division playoffs. There’s a wide range of possibilities for this team, but it all hinges on them winning big this Sunday.
Scoreboard But With The Cool S: Scoreboard is eliminated from contention for the A Division finals, and the best they can reasonably hope for is a win to cement their position as a home team in the first round of the B Division finals. It is possible that they could be forced to play on the road if they lose and Slingshot Through The Heart defeats Clinton Street Pub FC at Clinton Street Pub.
Slingshot Through The Heart: Slingshot would need a victory at Clinton Street Pub FC in order to have a chance at home field in the first round of the B Division playoffs, but they would also need Scoreboard to lose at Blackbird Pizza in order to make that happen.
Wink Wink Nudge Nudge: It’s theoretically possible for them to move up one spot with a very large victory over Tiger Balls and a loss from Scoreboard, but either way they are locked into an away match in the first round of the B Division playoffs.