S72 Championship Week

S72 Championship Week

JamesT
Moderators
Cozy Connoisseur

#91

09-09-2023, 12:16 PM

Code:
1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1.5 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer. This is completed through a Google form linked below. Make sure to spell your answers correctly or you will not get credit. Post your verification word in your CW post.

Jammin

Code:
2. Written, up to 4 TPE - Grab Bag: Pick up to 4 Challenge Cup related topics to write about! Each topic is worth 1 TPE. Each answer must be 50+ words.

a. You can never take success for granted, but these are two of the league's heavy favorites coming into the cup finals. Pick either of our finalists, and tell me what about them impresses you the most!

b. New England vs Winnipeg makes this a rematch of the S70 finals! What does Winnipeg have to do differently to take round two, two seasons later, in season seventy-two?

c. The Aurora defeated the Blizzard in their conference final, and the Wolfpack sank the Forge. Who had the more impressive victory to punch their ticket to the cup final, and why?

d. If it ain't broke don't fix it: Who you got? Who wins? Why?

a. The S70 finals is a repeat of the S70 matchup which saw NEW surprisingly beat WPG in a tight 7 game series. For this season, I will have to say WPG is the more impressive team since this is their 4th straight appearance in the finals. WPG has been one of the most dominant teams for quite a while now and have been looking to capture the elusive cup. I think most people have picked WPG to win the cup in their season and playoff preds so a lot of the league feels the same way as well.

(98 words)

b. I'm not quite sure what WPG can do differently this time around since the last time these two faced off in the finals, it went to 7 games and in a 7th game it truly is a coinflip as to how FHM will decide to play the game out. WPG can look to mix up their lines/tactics and have balanced lines so that NEW can't look to target weaker lines for line matchups.

(74 words)

c. I will say that the WPG Aurora beating the EDM Blizzard was the more impressive feat in comparison because EDM was the 2nd ranked team TPE wise overall in the league (WPG is ranked 1st) and WPG was able to defeat the Blizzard in only 5 games while the NEW and PHI series went the distance to 7 games where it could have gone either way (good thing it went NEW's way since I picked them in my playoff bracket to win the East).

(84 words)

d. My heart wants WPG to win because they have been a strong team for many seasons in a row and should have won a few cups by now. But after seeing WPG lose all these times in the cup finals, I wouldn't be shocked to see NEW winning the cup again this season and ruining a lot of predictions.

(59 words)

Code:
3. Written, 3 TPE, Peggy's Back, Tell a Friend (150 words min.)

Winnipeg is a cup finalist for an astonishing fourth year in a row! To make that happen in the current era of the SHL requires serious skill and deserves appreciation. What is it that makes this Aurora era so successful? What have been the most crucial factors in their Western dominance? What lessons should the rest of the leak learn from their success?

Since I was part of the S62 draft class (which WPG had a lot of picks in) this is their competitive window and is why they have been able to make 4 straight cup finals. Having strong and incredible users like RashfordU (who eventually became their Co-GM) and Sburbine who is the current NL Co-GM and eventually drafting Jess in S63 have led the way in their core as to why they have been such a strong team. They also have made some significant deals as well by acquiring Miguel Hefeweizen from SFP, Noel Blanchet from BAP and this season they acquired Max Manning from SEA in the off-season to bolster their offense as we have seen in the FHM 8 era how offense is the key to winning games and no matter how strong your defense/goalie are the goals will be rampant in games.

Other teams can look to WPG's success by drafting well and sign/trade for players to compliment the core for their competitive windows.

(169 words)