I wanna start by saying i loved the PTs this season. crafting this story was a blast and i hope for future seasons with a story driven theme.
Game On
Makrus is on the Up-and-Comers team for sure. About to hit the 1k tpe mark he will be a force in the league in a few season. While Makrus would prefer the team name Legends of Tomorrow he will settle for being and Up-and-Comer. Makrus centering this squad mean he needs 2 wings, 2 defensemen and a goalie. This isn’t even a hard choice. First defensemen will be Sven Svechnikov @steveoiscool . Sven is hot off wining the 4 star cup and while having a few quiet seasons in the J’s he was always a presence on the ice. Sven will be a solid enabler on defense. Second defensive pick is the legend himself Pasta the Turtle @visceralpotamus . Pasta will shut down the power play and likely the shins of any offensive player foolish enough to try and score on us. Now that defense is set lets get some points on the board. My first wing teammate will be Lev Lebedev @Lorec . Lev has been a high scorer since he joined the league and he isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Also hot off a 4 star cup win Lev has a bright future in the league. Prepare for pucks in nets. Opposite Lev will be Slavakov Vladimirashenko @Minnesotafine . Slavakov was captaining the Newfoundland Berserkers during their S60 cup win. Slavakov can bring that leadership to this squad giving them the tactics and push to thrive. Also something about feet picks. Idk dudes weird. Now you might be thinking I just picked all my friends to play hockey with and im here to tell you that yes that is exactly what I did.

Hit the Ice
Makrus knew this game wouldn't be easy. The grizzled vets are sure to put of a fight. This team is well versed in the league and know a thing or two about hockey. If we want to win we will have to use every weapon at our disposal. To start we will research drama on the vets. Anyone who has been in the sim league for a while is bound to have some drama. Said something they regret or got punished for something. We are pulling that out right away to distract them. This is as much a mental game as it is a physical one. Speaking of physical we have the king of getting physical in pasta the turtle. He is going to mess up some shins with those powerful hits. Now that we got them hurting physically and mentally we will rely on our youthful vigor to overtake them. Our forward core will skate circles around the old-timers. Meanwhile sven will probably get a misconduct because you can't keep a goon man down.

Hold this L
After taking down the grizzled vets its time to show our stuff against the Hall of famers. The game started out bad and only got worse. Makrus couldn’t win a faceoff all game. Lev and Slavakov couldn’t get open to make a shot all game. Pasta tried hitting a hall of famer, but their shins just wouldn’t break. Even Sven’s misconduct didn’t get called because the refs felt bad for us. The team took the loss hard and we needed to come together after such a hard beating. We decided to do a team building exorcise. Everyone had some ideas. Slavakov suggested we all get pedicures, Lev and Sven suggested we move to the British isles and become British to play for their IIHF team, Pasta suggested a nice relaxing day sunbathing on a log in a pond, but because its my story they went with Makrus’s idea, Pizza party and watching hockey movies. After some pizza and beer everyone felt better about the loss. Turns out everyone really liked the movie Goon, they just didn’t know it yet. After a nice refresh the team is back together and ready to face our next obstacle.

Gearing Up
After a hard loss to the Hall of Famers, the up and comers were ready to prove they still had it in them to win. Up against the grizzled vets again the up and comers didn’t expect them to go down easy. That was until the announcement that regression was changing. The grizzled vets were clearly distracted coming into the game. Many of them were already planning their retirement parties before the game even started. The team felt strong after this game. Lev and Slavakov both got hat tricks despite being down a man for most of the game. Sven got a misconduct right away for sportsmen like conduct. He was trying his best to instigate the grizzled vets by talking about how good it feels to not regress. Pasta almost got a misconduct as well, but they decided just to give him a diving penalty. Turns out grizzled vets shins break significantly easier than he expected. Makrus had a 100% faceoff win rate by just saying the word regression before each faceoff. It felt good to get a commanding win in the knockouts and the up and comers are hyped up and ready to go for the next big game.

Champions???
Its all come down to this. Facing the superstars. The team meets up the night before in Makrus’s condo to prepare for what will surely be the team getting totally blasted. While looking for some beer Sven found a bottle of orange Fanta in Makrus’s refrigerator. He took a sip and realized it was flat. So naturally he had to tell everyone how bad the flat soda tasted. And like a team they all tried a sip of the flat soda before it was poured down the drain. Makrus didn’t remember how he got an old bottle of orange Fanta with the label scratched off but it doesn’t really matter now.

Come game day the team hits the ice. To everyone’s surprise the first period goes great. The team is absolutely on fire leading the superstars 10-0. The second period was strange. The team felt like their energy was wearing off. Things went from always going right to always going wrong and by the time the second period was over the superstars lead 15-10. In the locker room the team is down. Everyone was trying to figure out why the magic was gone. That’s when Makrus remembered where the Fanta came from. It was a magic potion from that mysterious pill dealer. It was supposed to make you a hall of fame level player. But since it was flat by now it must have just made the team good for a little while. Thinking quickly Makrus bought a bottle of orange Fanta, scratched the label off, and shook the bottle up. Once it was good and flat he brought it into the locker room. He told the team about the magic Fanta and that he had a second bottle. The team drank the warm flat Fanta and could feel the magic. The third period was ours. Hitting the ice the team was doing great again. With just 3 min left in the period the score was tied 15-15. The team drank some more Fanta but it didn’t feel as good this time. They were still tired. Makrus confessed the Fanta was just Fanta and the team had the magic in them all along. Its not about wining but the friends we made along the way. To which the team assured him it was about winning. Back to the ice the Superstars are on the attack with less than a minute to play. Pasta the Turtle sees his change and slams an superstar into the wall. Using his turtle spin he sends the puck to Sven Svechnikov. Sven drives the puck passes to Makrus. Makrus moves to the corner passing to Slavakov. Slavakov takes it to the goal and back passes to Lev in the crease. Lev rockets the puck into the goal for the win. And just like that its all over. Everyone is stunned. The up and comers really did have it in them all along.