2022 Year in Review

This season’s final dispatch on League Veteran Brady Gaga is imminent.  Flying W Awards, our Tiffany & Co., is a small mom-and-pop that enjoys a reasonable holiday recess, hence the downtime. Word on the wire indicates that the trophy has been assembled, its inner core bathed in the liturgical green and gold, the hardened exterior creamed and buffed with a fine chamois, and is awaiting final benediction from Saint Vincent Lombardi. Until then, let’s reflect on the season’s end, some lessons learned, and lay out a few minor improvements to our composition, should we continue to do this again…

 

Regular Season

The Vampire format seemed to work as designed. The Vampire had chances to win. In Week 2 he would have beaten five other teams in the league. In Week 9 he would have beaten four, and in Week 10 he lost to one of only two teams, two teams, that would have beaten him. Week 12 he would have beaten four teams. Tragically, the Vampire was cursed with the toughest schedule in the league, and the most Points Against by a huge margin. This worked, but it should have culminated much differently. That said, changes still need to be made.

The following rule originated from the concern that the Vampire my end up with no lottery entries for next season. Though this rule needs to apply to all team owners.

• *NEW* 1.2.4. STERN BEARS – Regardless of the number of wins, or lottery entries earned and deducted, all teams will be bailed out and have a minimum of three lottery entries towards next season’s draft lottery.

We will vote on league format each season going forward. After seeing the Vampire experiment play out, some teams are itching for a shot at this role.

• *UPDATED* 1.4. LEAGUE FORMAT – The regular season may be played under a traditional Head-to-Head format, a Points Table format, Vampire format, or some variation thereof, based on the determination of the League Commissioner and will be voted on each year by Team Owners. League format will be prescribed at least one month prior to the league draft.

I understand why the crux of this next update happened this year. It’s frustrating not getting in to the playoffs and only playing one official match during the last three weeks. For some very selfish reason, we (I) deviated from full playoff admission and limited playoff berths this year. Maybe it was because the 10 seed knocked off the odds-favorite in the championship game last season – I don’t know…

We will go back to a 10-team playoff next year to keep everyone engaged and playing, but this rule still needs to be updated should we ever deviate again in the future.

• *UPDATED* 1.4.3.6. HOLY WATER – If the Vampire doesn’t win a single game during the season, 50 percent of the individual league dues will be returned to the Vampire. If the Vampire sells off or trades away any players in the final weeks of the season this amendment is void. This amendment must be reviewed each year the Vampire format is played to account for updates and changes to the Vampire rules in order to make it more competitive.

The following charts indicate a pretty balanced strength of schedule (all within a 10% threshold) with the exception of Coming Tua America. The role of the Vampire had no impact on this measurement. CTA faced twice as hard a schedule as the rest of us, and we all had huge days when we faced him.

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Trade Results

I’ve updated the results of the trades executed this season through Week 16. Highlighted yellow are the results that would have benefitted those two teams had they continued to compete in weeks 15 and 16. Since the original review of these transactions in the Confidence Man, the impacts of these trades continued to echo significantly throughout the playoffs. But I won’t beat this dog any longer. If you’re that “bored,” as one team interpreted their own abhorrent decisions, then maybe these results will readjust such rank receptivity.

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Post Season

The League History page has been updated. The following results of the final standings are outlined below.

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The 7th seed in the playoffs is undefeated at 2-0. The 4th seed, the most common seed to make the playoffs finals, is 2-4 overall. After eleven seasons, the 2nd seed in the playoffs has still not made the finals and the 1st seed has only made it to the main event once.

On average, the overall #1 draft pick results in a 4th place finish. Regular Season and Playoff Champions come from teams with the overall #6 draft pick, on average, through our first eleven seasons.

Lastly, the following new rule has been added to account for what happened this season in Week 17 following Damar Hamlin’s injury and the cancellation of the Bills – Bengals game. Fortunately, our playoffs had already concluded.

• *NEW* 1.5. CHASING M’S – If any regular season or playoff game is cancelled by the NFL, affected players may be substituted by a player from the bench. If no viable bench options are available, tough shit.

 

League Leaders

• QB – Coming Tua America (T. Tagovailoa MIA, 55.60 pts, Week 2)
• RB – SKOLya’gain (J. Mixon CIN, 55.10 pts, Week 9)
• WR – Lambeau Calrissian (S. Diggs BUF, 44.80 pts, Week 2)
• TE – Lambeau Calrissian (T.J. Hockenson DET, 39.90 pts, Week 4)
• K – Coming Tua America (T. Bass BUF, 26.00 pts, Week 11)
• DEF – Brady Gaga (Buccaneers TB, 48.30 pts, Week 2)
• LB – UWLtoDISNEY (D. Campbell GB, 23.80 pts, Week 7)
• Single Game High Score – Brady Gaga (238.35 pts, Week 8)

 

Pre Season 2023

Since this Vampire format garnered some future interest, especially for teams desiring to play the Vampire role, we will update the format to accommodate these blood-thirsty parasites.

Moving forward, under this particular format, we will do two separate drafts, and team owners will declare which end of the order they want their lottery entries applied.

Top Half Draft – the teams that enter this draft lottery will be drawing for the #1 overall draft pick. Each successive lottery ball selected will fill in at #2, #3, #4, etc. until all participating teams are selected.

Bottom Half Draft – the teams that enter this draft lottery will be drawing for the #10 overall draft pick, also known as the Vampire under this format. Each successive lottery ball selected will fill in at #9, #8, #7, etc. until all participating teams are selected.

• *UPDATED* 1.4.3. VAMPIRE – The Draft Lottery under this format will be split in to two (2) separate drafts – one for the 1st overall pick (Top Half Draft), and one for the 10th overall pick, or Vampire position (Bottom Half Draft). Each team owner will declare which half of the draft order they want to participate in. Following the draft lottery, the team drawn as the 10^th overall pick in the draft, will be designated the Vampire for the regular season and will not participate in the league draft. Upon completion of the nine-team draft, the Vampire will fill their roster with the remaining free agents.

That’s a wrap on the season recap. One final post coming soon on our 2022 season champ.