Manager Leo Martinez Previews the Playoffs

As the manager of the Scorpions I am going to dissect the season and the playoffs as I see it and how the Scorpions have fared this season. Due to the last match loss against Miami we have fallen to third place and therefore will not have draw odds unless we face Miami in week 2.

Although this last match was a disappointment we are happy to be in the playoffs after barely missing the cut last season. Other than maybe Baltimore we are perhaps one of the most improved teams in the league.  Another difference between this season and last is that although we won 3 matches last season they were all against the lower bracket of the division. This season however we have wins against the Western Division Champ Seattle, the Eastern Division champ New Jersey, and the team in 2^nd place in the West San Francisco. However, now that we are in the playoffs all is forgotten and we will go for the gold as they say. Although draw odds are an advantage for sure it would be really difficult to draw your way to the championships.  To win the championships you have to play and beat the best…not draw them!  I am extremely confident in my team and really feel that if we can defeat the teams we did during the regular season, we can defeat anyone that comes our way in the playoffs.  Below is the playoff bracket from the Western Division.

Western Division Bracket

As you can see all the team’s record are fairly close and I would say the strength of all the teams, including Seattle, are very tight. Although I fully expect the Scorpions to pull through I would not be surprised with any team coming out of the West. The Scorpions have been very hot at exactly the right time this season winning their last four out of 5 matches against New Jersey, San Francisco, Chicago, and Seattle before losing against Miami. This is a slightly unfamiliar position for the Scorpions as all last season we were fighting for our lives for the last playoff spot, in the end barely missing it by half a tiebreak point. However, as everyone knows a team’s standing can change very rapidly in this league where every team is capable of beating any other team. This season we have fielded six different teams out of 8 weeks of playing, playing almost every person on our team at least once. It has been a strange season as many teams that were scrapping by trying to barely make it are doing very well (such as Seattle, New Jersey, Arizona) while many of the top teams of last season are struggling.

The final two matches were two of our toughest.  Seattle was the team to beat all season drawing their first two matches followed by winning 6 matches in a row. The final match was against the always strong Miami Sharks with two-time MVP Julio Becerra leading the way. Seattle’s success is clearly on their outer boards with Nakamura going 5.5-0.5 while Serper going a very impressive 3.5/4.

On fourth board they have been doing well also with Sinanan playing most of their games and doing really well until his final two games.  With their first board doing three points better than any other team in the league (you can see below) and the bottom board performing above average they were able to get first place in the division without too much trouble.

San Francisco has maybe the most successful history of any team in the USCL in terms of the regular season. They have made the playoffs every year since the USCL was created in 2005. They have an abundance of players that they could put on their team that any manager would be jealous of. Although we beat them in week 8 by a score of 2.5-1.5 this was perhaps the craziest match I have ever seen and easily could have been won by us 3.5-0.5 or lost by us 3.5-0.5.

San Francisco’s success every year has always been on the bottom boards with Shankland and Naroditsky doing extremely well on boards 3 and 4 last season. This season was no different. Yian Liou was one of the most successful board 4’s in the entire league with a +3 record beating Zorigt in Week 10 to give San Francisco draw odds against us. As you can see from the table above they have the best board 4 score of any team in the league and when someone does so well on one board it really eases the pressure off the other boards.

Arizona, on the other hand, has taken a very different method of scoring points. Similar to last season we have not been super impressive on any single board. However, we have been solid and good on every single one this season.  If you look at the stats above you can see that Arizona has a plus record on every single board except board 3 where we are even. Other than New Jersey (who are just ridiculous) we are the only team in the league to accomplish that. On board 1 we are +1; board 2 we are +3; board 3 we are even; board 4 we are +1. The biggest improvement has been on board 2 where we were last in the league in terms of points getting only 2/10 (-6) points throughout the whole season. This season this is our best board in terms of points getting 6.5/10.

New Jersey seems to have risen over the hump this season and with their best lineups up I think it’d definitely be a big upset if any other team from the East beat them.  With the Benjamin and Gulko tandem up front and Ippolito and Molner as possibilities they have a lot of options, all pretty attractive. Boston, as always is strong, but we will have to see if they can get past their championship demons this season in the playoffs. Although obviously I know less about their team than others in the West I am a little surprised by Boston using the lineup they have (Christiansen, Perelshteyn, Martirosov, Krasik) instead of some of their other possibilities. Obviously this is a very  strong team but I thought the team Christiansen, Perelshteyn, Esserman, Wang was extremely strong and their best option, if not the strongest possible team in the league. Anyways maybe Esserman was busy or they have a lot of faith in Krasik but either way it’s interesting to look at the lineups.

In other news around the league, the blogging from some teams has risen sharply this season. Arizona, New Jersey, Chicago, and Seattle seem to be leading the way. The excitement within our team has risen this season and with almost everyone on the team having blogged or consistently blogging our team unity is as high as ever.

Playoffs

The playoff match between San Francisco and Arizona will be a tough one. During the regular season I have always said that there are literally no easy matches with even the bottom teams being fully capable of beating anyone at any point. In the playoffs this is even more obvious.  All that is certain about San Francisco’s lineup at this point is that they will be playing their star player, Yian Liou as he is their only possible board 4. In my opinion, although there are many interesting matchups in the playoffs this match is the one to watch as the match could literally go either way and if our last match was an indication of anything it will be impossible to know what will happen until the final buzzer sounds!  Stayed tuned Scorpion nation to ICC at 9:15 PM ET and 7:15 PM Arizona time for the Scorpion-Mechanics matchup!