IECC GRAND FINAL - GAMEDAY 1 REVIEW

A thrilling week of IECC football with all teams showing exactly why they have reached the final - all contributing to great high scoring games - yet some monster defensive performances in there also.

DIVISION A

First up saw the Derbyshire Electric visit the Guisborough Priors with both teams needing a win to have a realistic chance of reaching the semi finals.

But it was the Electric who shocked the Priors with 3 quarters of sheer dominance - despite going behind to an early fumble return for a TD. The Electric shone on both sides of the ball - scoring 35 unanswered points and limiting the Priors to just 3 first downs and 75 yards of offense until just into the 4th quarter - when the Priors hit 2 TD bombs that accounted for 75% of their offensive yardage. All this but yet the Priors sacked Electric QB Wolfram Arnold 4 times and picked him off twice. But the Priors could do nothing on offense - running 21 times for 21 yards whilst the Electric ground game buzzed all game through. Keeping the ball for nearly three quarters of the game meant the result was rarely in doubt and coach MTS can only hope for more of this as the competition progresses.

A fantastic game was fought out between Division A favourites Landru Athletics and the Leeds Celtics - Landru stormed into an early 17-0 lead - but back came the Celtic with 13 unanswered points of their own - and then going into Q4 held a slim 23-20 lead. The Athletics immediately tied the game and then the Celtics picked off the Landru QB after being held to a 3 and out - and they drove it back for a TD. But Landru werent finshed yet and compiled a 72 yard 12 play TD drive to tie it up with 5 mins left on the clock. First set of downs and the Celtics were at a crucial 4th and 1 on their own 42. Punt it deep or go for it? I think the majority would have booted it away, but Coach Jonny P clearly has the balls of King Kong and converted it with a short pass complete from the ProSet. That clearly broke the hearts of the Athletics who could not get close to stopping the Celtics again and with 38 seconds left, on a 1st and 10 at the 12. QB Tuqiri completed a TD pass to WR Slagle that won the game. The Athletics did have 3 shots at game tying TD but all passes were incomplete and the Celtics claimed the game.

The stats will say the Celtics deserved the game but the Athletics never say die spirit kept them honest - picking off Celtics QB 4 times in their pass heavy offense out of the Singleback spread.

So its Derbyshire and the Celtics who lead the way - and they meet up next Sunday in which the winner will all but assure their place in the Semis. This more so applicable to the Celtics than the Electric, who surely will be looking at the Week 3 game against the Athletics as their likely PO decider.

DIVISION B

4 genuine giants of RZA meet up here - but the first 2 games were won with apparent ease - the Dynamos putting 45 points on the old Urshult Gladiators - 21 points in Q1 almost settling the game - certainly a 38-3 half time score meant the game was surely beyond the newly named 'Engine'.

The Dynamos were certainly rolling smoothly in a very efficient performance - scoring as many TDs on defense as they did on offense. QB Andreev finishing with a very impressive rating of 118.04 whilst Engine QB van der Linden was continually harried by the Dynamo D-Line - being picked off twice and getting sacked 3 times as their multi plays out of the Goalline O could not get going against the Dynamos until late in the game when it was pretty much over. A late passing TD and a punt return for a TD gave the scoreline a semblance of respectability for the Engine but the damage has been done, and they have a mountain to climb to now make the playoffs. The Dynamos will surely be ecstatic with this result but can take nothing for granted just yet, with the formidable Free Agent Mascots up next.

Speaking of which, Sanco and his RZA conquering Mascots opened their IECC GF with a brutal game against the much vaunted Lucea Cardinals - but the defending Admirals Champions issued a stark statement of intent with a resounding 31-13 victory.

It was looking ominous for the Mascots early on - as they ended Q1 3-0 down and then an impressive 2nd qtr drive was ended on the Cardinals 19 yard line by an Interception that was returned into Mascot territory. But, once again, hero MLB Rubin Reaves stepped up and picked off the Cardinals QB just 2 plays later and carried the Mascots back into the Cards half. From there, QB Robert Ungvari orchestrated a fine TD drive and then finished off a great run based drive (5 runs, 49 yards) with a 4 yard TD pass - this on the back of a huge 2nd down sack that forced a Cardinals punt. It almost got worse for Lucea as with less than a minute to go in Q2 they were picked off again - and the Mascots were at the Cardinals 21 yard line. A 17 yard run couldnt get them into the endzone though as the clock expired and the Mascots went in 14-6 up.

The defense carried on the Mascots momentum as they recovered a fumble early in the third quarter - taking it home for 50 yards. From then on both teams drove but not deep enough for real scoring oppprtunities until with just 5 mins left in the game, the Cardinals finally found the endzone, making it 21-13. But despite forcing three and outs twice more, the Mascots picked off the Cardinals on both ensuing possession - resulting in first a FG and then the awesome Reaves taking it to the house to seal a fine 31-13 win.

Buffalo will obviously rue those turnovers that all but gifted the game to the Mascots - but the Mascots finely balanced offense (342 offensive yards - 170 rush, 172 pass) is very difficult to control or get on top of - and they have a fine defence capable at any time of making that big play. 3 sacks, 5 INTS and a forced fumble say it all.

So its the Dynamos and Mascots who assume control of the division - and as with Division A, both Week 1 winners meet in Game 2. Whoever prevails will surely claim their PO berth - whereas the Cardinals will be looking to keep their chances alive by beating the Engine - but they in turn will also be looking to bounce back.

So a great week of IECC football and this only builds the anticipation for next week - nothing will be decided next week - but much can be lost in the battle to determine who will be the first REAL TROPHY winner in RZA.

well, yes it did.

having 3 turnovers vs 0 is just dicerolling, could just aswell had been the other way around, especially since both teams is pretty equal in talent and skills by the players that hit the field.
got a sp td which is also a result of a diceroll, so make it 2 vs 0 in favor to you.

with that being said you would probably had won anyway, but without this "engine fail" the result would and should had been closer when looking at the gains of yards.

Shit happens get over it. Even Manning, -G.O.A.T- and Rodgers throw picks. The coach can't legislate for that happening in real life. Those three QBs are future hall of famers and I can guarantee you that 75% of the players who have picked them off won't be. Is that dice rolling? No it's real life, Pete can't replicate that in a game engine and if he could he'd be charging $10 a month subscriptions for a game the entire online football community would be playing.

Sometimes it falls your way sometimes it doesn't long gone are the days when you could load the dice in your favour just because you have been playing since season 1. The teams from seasons 2,3,4,5 and even 6 are right on your heels pal.

How many sports have you watched where all of a sudden the guy without a chance has produced a career defining performance? The sporting world is littered with people / teams like that. Buster Douglas, Liverpool winning the Champions League in 2005, John Daly, Marlins beating the Cubs in 2003, 1919 White Sox (I think there was a film made about this because of match fixing), 1973 Hereford team beat Newcastle in the FA Cup.

American Football is a league followed by a cup competition how many times has the #1 seed overall NOT won the superbowl? Probably more times than they have won it. The best teams win the leagues, the luckiest teams win the cups.

Stop causing trouble on here Wadders.....if Mr Urshult wants to think he has a divine right to win every game and that some random things dont happen then let him think that.

I apologise unreservedly for my outburst but in my defense it was the shandy bass talking

I was 17-0 down against notsch just a few minutes into the 2nd Quarter, due to throwing 2 interceptions, and conceding 1 big passing TD... And despite dominating the yardage, we only just won very narrowly in the final seconds of the 4th quarter.

It happens.

It would be boring if the best team on the day always win, you just have to play the odds - as with any game! The unexpected, the stroke of luck, big plays, turnovers - they all add to the excitement.

If you disagree, go play chess.

Computer Chess as the machine doesn't make a mistake

Oh , I think you / you 've got it all wrong . I do not mind losing games , not at all. Wrote that said he probably would win in any case , when his ( dynamo ) and my team is pretty even. What bother me is how games are won or lost , not the actual gain or loss in itself , and especially when the games are smooth ( smooth strong team) then I feel that randomness is the force that stands out the most in comparison with the tactic , coaches and players.

I love sports and athletics , and has played and watched it all my life . Been active as a player, seen games on TV , played these types of manager games on different web pages and seen the games live . To draw a comparison with what happens in real life with a fake and man-made game is quite absurd because there are things that will never be recreated . It is impossible to transfer players out there in real life icons where numbers and mathematics account for the reenactment .
It is the human factor amongst players in different sports that make so that unexpected things can happen in this game , this is represented on chance, randomness and luck, which in itself is quite bisart .
What I will say is that it is not possible to make a game fair because reality and the game is based on different principles.

The following match ( 222,601 ) were good, I lost and I would have resented myself if I would have won simply because the opponent was much better.

189,341 , a match where I met the team with the best rundefense overall in the entire league , although it managed to be done a number of long runs for TD , more than succeeded throughout the season against much weaker teams .

100003513 , a match where the opponent actually became "owned " but because of big returns , 60 + TD passes and that I ended up with 21 and 22 yard FG instead of TD just shows the incredible odds.

I can at least be as annoyed with games that I win, which I believe to be the worse ( much worse) team but where losses transferred to profit due to events that can not be kontroleras . In reality , you now want to withdraw it, you have a multitude of variations of defending and attacking set-ups, something missing here. That you can not bestäma a zone or man -defense is a pretty significant factor in the occurrence of int .

What I believe is that the variation of the players are too small. Players with skill 1 in all of the attributes that play with 70% strength compared to a player who has skill 50 in all attributes (Max) playing at a 100%. This is a aldeles for small difference, especially when it is inserted into the other things of importance that experience , team chemistry and physical condition. But I can also understand why Pete has set these levels.

The biggest problem is that Pete uses an excessive material in his analysis of the game . If every game tested with 10'000 - 100'000 ' game or if it is 1000 - 10'000 matches , this is too large a quantitative analysis to aim for a management game where every game contains a maximum of 120-200 games total.
This means that what happens during matches is a total lottery over what happens on the court. For example, the situation with 4WR vs 335 occurs a total of 23 times for a team during a match (we estimate that the same players are on the field at all times ) for it to become an equal result as used when calculating 10'000 games of this particular combination . Even if the team in question may be positive dividends in 8'000 10'000 of them so still may very well happen that out of the 23 games that actually occurs during the game , if things go really bad all 23 games in a negative dividend . This was only short explain and I wrote it in Swedish and used Google translate to get it in English so I reserve for possible typos .

To translate : its a dice rolling engine.

Hmm. Won today, but a victory of the Mascots would have been better for me. So I have to beat the Dynamos with more than 15 points difference to stay in the cup.