Subject: I.1

It looks like I won the playoffs for the second year in a row. The pballas really made it competitive though when I thought I would run away with the title after resting for the entire regular season and first round of the playoffs.

Cataclysm is now the 4th most successful franchise in U.S. handball after Mojo Xpress (6), Doppelgangers (5), and Covington Rowdies (3). I'm not really sure how I got to this point since my team wasn't really the best team until suddenly it was 50 points ahead of everyone else. I should be able to be competitive for a handful of seasons until Doppelgangers' prospects mature and the majority of my players start to get old and significantly decline. The pballas will probably continue to be my main rivals until that point, though 4th place through 7th place could easily make a few significant acquisitions and be competitive.

Congrats! I think the game is better for everyone when there aren't dynasties--at least, not ones that last uninterrupted for 10+ seasons with no hope for anyone else. When there are more teams able to compete, it's better for everyone!

Well that was a good start for our U21 national team in the WC. We beat Ukraine 35-26. The turn happened at the tail end of the first half and beginning of the second, where USA went from up 11-9, to up 20-10, and never looked back!

Congrats!

Thanks!

I probably agree. It's more fun for the other teams when they have a chance to catch up. It's also more fun for the top team to have a competitive league. A few top teams have quit because they were easily winning everything in the United States but had no chance when it came to competing at the international level.

A 37-30 win today over Poland. So far both opponents we've faced have been better numerically overall than us, but we've managed to pull it off. There are three group stage games left, against Slovakia, Brazil, and Belgium. We sit atop the group standings, and likely need to win only one of these to advance.

With a 33-29 win over Brazil, the USA has likely secured its place in the final 16, as I don't see any scenario in which six points isn't good enough to advance (especially given the matchups remaining). The last several seasons, six points has always been good enough to move on. Our potential playoff matchups are against, at this point in the standings, Russia, Bulgaria, France, and Argentina/Latvia. I feel we can match up very well against all of those teams, with the possible exception of Russia. Any team in the playoffs will present a challenge, for sure. We'll have to see!

Well, even though we took a heartbreaking 30-29 loss to Slovakia, we're still tops in Group 2, thanks to goal differential. Our offense is churning along just fine--we've actually scored the most goals of any team at the WCs thus far.

Today we have Belgium, a team that has a sneaky-good defense (second in the group in goals allowed!) and tends to vary their tactics. We can win the group provided we beat Belgium (and barring Slovakia beating Ukraine by enough to make up the goal differential). There is a scenario in which we win the group even while losing to Belgium, but it depends on Slovakia losing to Ukraine. Should be fun!

A 33-30 win over Belgium is powered in part due to a dynamite 38.8% save percentage from Rayshawn Peet . At 5pm Eastern time we'll see what Slovakia does. If they win by six or fewer, draw, or lose, USA will win the group*. If they win by seven or more, Slovakia will win the group. Tune in to see!

*=A six-goal win would place Slovakia in a tie with USA for GD, where I believe the difference would be in most goals scored. If this is the case, then likely--though not guaranteed--the USA would come out on top. Going into today we had scored 12 more than they had.

Today we're in the round of 16, and France's victory over Argentina means we play Argentina! This is going to be a very tough matchup, as the Argentines have been conserving energy the entire group stage. Basically, they've played normal the entire stage. I feel like I should have botched the game against Belgium in order to play France lol. We'll see!

It was a great run, but it ended 29-23 to Argentina. The one thing I would've done differently for the match is just went with Sheldon Minton all the way. But in any case there's some lessons we can take from this WC, and some good things, too--we're #10 currently in ranking of countries in U21, so that's something!

Good job making the playoffs at the very least!

Thanks! It's so hard not to second-guess yourself on these things, but it was nice to make the playoffs again.

^ This.

If i'm being honest, the reason I got so complacent was largely because I started being able to win like, 95% of the league games without even having to look at my lineup or tactics.

I totally understand the dilemma of "being good enough that it gets boring," and I honestly think it was sort of a blessing (looking back at things now) for myself (and probably the league as a whole) that my team got gutted.

I think the league has actually been in a really good place recently. No one is especially dominant, and there's a lot of parity between the 3rd -7th place teams.

I actually just accepted a bonus laden sponsorship contract and chose the option for "above rank 7" because honestly, I don't have any confidence (despite my 3rd place finish and national cup victory this season), that the 4th - 7th place teams will be easily beaten next season.

yeah. definitely congrats and good job on the run this year! it definitely gets tough, really really fast once you get to the playoffs / knock out round. so even getting there is definitely noteworthy.