Friday, November 29, 2013

Pro Team Prognostications

In the cold and dreary days of darkest Silly Season (except of course for sunny Florida) there is little to do besides our off season drills, organizing early tryouts, setting the next season's schedule, evaluating past efforts while seeking out new ways to improve--so we are left in our idle hours to speculate on what will happen in 2014. (I know [and you know] that most of y'all haven't given next season more than a passing thought. I'm just pretending you're on the ball.)
Today's idle speculation revolves around Russian Legion and the incoming Russian teams, Art Chaos & Red Storm (Grad.) Will Kirill beat the odds and get back on the field before Chicago? Will the latest rumored European player additions replace some of last year's squad or add to it? Does Berdnikov resist the urge to jump to Art Chaos? (Is that even an option?) Beyond that the big questions are which Russian team ends up on top? Which one is the first team to gain a Champions birth? 
Will the Legion slide continue? Will Red Storm be competitive in the Challengers?
And if you want to go there: Will any of last year's Challengers bail out before the season begins? Will the relegated teams take their place in D1 or disband?
The answers could depend on whether or not sponsorship shrinks any further.
I don't know about y'all but I can see a Challenger (or two) bow out--and I can see RL bouncing back and forth all year between Challengers and Champions.  

6 comments:

splatkid10 said...

What two challenger teams were relegated? Which D1 teams made the jump?

Baca Loco said...

Relegated Challengers are Jesters and Sac DMG. D1 moving up Red Storm (Grad) and D1 winner VCK.

splatkid10 said...

oh wow, no poop…was not expecting DMG to drop. They'll play the D1 series for sure, Jesters I'd wager a strong probably. Looking forward to seeing VCK in challengers - provides some evidence to substantiate your claim of the widened growth between D1 and Pro players…or just the opposite :)

Anonymous said...

How is a team regulated down when they are all ranked above D1?

Baca Loco said...

By rule players ranked S-P may play D1 and any team relegated will be ranked S-P--although in most cases those players will be ranked S-P or D1 anyway.

frobinson said...

From what I've heard, RL are losing 4 players at least. One that told me this whose not Russian and three of the Russians, Berdnikov, Panteleev and Lukashuk, who are all going to AC...

Is it not logical that RL would try and pick up some TonTons players for the PSP next year? Maybe Axel, Fabrice and Tavarez? It wouldn't surprise me to see Art Chaos at the top of the champs division but I really doubt Red Storm could contend at the very top level. I've got my fingers crossed for RL though to pull something together and have a strong year, but I fear you'll be right and they will in fact end up jumping between the two divisions constantly...