Weekend with the Russian Legion

The RL was in San Antonio this past weekend--in fact they are still there--prepping for Dallas, in part, by scrimmaging X-Factor on Saturday and Sunday. It was a productive weekend for both teams and interesting to get a close up of the "new look" Russians, which, as it turned out, look a lot like the "old" Russian Legion. the new coach was promoted from within the system so has been around the team for years and all the player and management mainstays remain in place. It was also interesting to see how the Legion responded to the new "old" field dimensions. (Hint: they tried a bit of everything but at the end of the day were working hard to aggressively force the action. It was good--and it was fun to watch and compete against.)
We had our ups and downs, particularly on Saturday, but as a team the weekend proved to be the sort of productive foundation we can continue to build on this coming weekend as we finalize our prep for Dallas. There's always more that you could have done especially when the pressure is on like it is leading into Dallas but the Big Picture is coming together. And as we solidify roles I expect everyone to fall comfortably into place and X-Factor to bring a hard-charging game into the first event.
While I don't discuss in detail layouts the team will play until after the events I do have a couple of predictions for y'all. One, the tournament layout, on whichever field, will not be the same as the layout you practiced on and if it's even close consider yourself lucky. Two, this layout, despite some unusual characteristics, remains a product of the limitations of the "technical" snake props in that the only stand-up props on the snake side of the field are the corner Cans--and as long as that snake survives it will continue to dictate broad elements of every PSP potential layout designed. (Okay, not exactly a prediction, more of an observation or perhaps a mini-rant.) Three, while it is possible to score some very fast points on this field--welcome back 150'--it is also possible for this layout to get bogged down and drag out points like the nasty fields of old, or at least last year. At the pro level match outcomes could ride on which team calls the better game of rock, paper, scissors. There are a few high risk high reward possibilities so do you, as a team, go for it or play it conservatively? Gonna be something to see.