3. Written, 3 TPE, Haven’t I Seen This Before? (150 words min.)
Despite being the 8th and 10th ranked regular season teams in the league, our finalists from Winnipeg and New England represent two of the most dominant teams over the past several seasons. What do you think is the secret to their success? What can other teams learn from them? Which one is more likely to be back again next year?

I think the secret to both of these teams success is that they both still have really stacked teams. I am not sure how they ended up so low in the standings compared to the other teams but by looking at their rosters, neither has a starter below 1000 TPE excpet 1 on WPG which is at 975, which is very impressive. When you look at some of the top teams through the season like BUF, who I believe was top 2, they had 3 players below 1000 TPE and not many above 1500. I believe the sim was on one this regular season and two teams that should have been at the top made it there. If I had to pick one team to make it back, it would have to be NEW, as WPG's forward group looks like they may hit regression with a lot of their players, unlike NEW who barely hit it. NEW has been able to build a core of amazing players in multiple close draft classes which has helped them succeed for seasons, and more to come. Drafting has always been a part of sim leagues, as free agency seems to die down with loyalty, so having a good grasp on the players around the league is vital to organizational success.

217 words - 3 TPE

4. Written, 3 TPE, The Char B1 bis In The Room (150 words min.)
This league was until quite recently dominated by a cabal of four teams. Two of them, Winnipeg and New England, are our finalists. A third, Philadelphia, was a finalist last year. The fourth... was Montreal. Does the success of Winnipeg and New England prove that Montreal pulled the plug too soon and should’ve kept the gang around? Or did at least one of the others just get lucky and Montreal made the better decision, without hindsight? What team-building lessons can we learn from this?

I do not believe so as I think NEW and WPG are still built very well, especially NEW. Sometimes you just have to pull the plug, even if there is a chance for some success. As a GM, you have to be able to weigh the different options and the likely hood of the different options. If you do not pull the plug and wait, it could end up resulting in an even longer rebuild, which many teams do not want. If you can get out early and get some fair prices for your current players, rebuilding quicker could bring you back stronger than you may have been before. I do believe that some of these teams did get lucky, but that is the essence of the sim for many teams, just a lot of luck. Team building is all about reputation for a lot of teams in my opinion. If you are a GM or a team that does not have a good reputation, you may not be able to bring in key free agents and good draft picks that will be able to help you out faster than other teams. I am not very sure of MTL's reputation, but if they were strong for a long time, it will not take them long to get back.

218 words - 3 TPE

5. Written, 3 TPE, Upset City (150 words min)
An impressive string of upsets took place this season, especially in the West with San Francisco’s Cinderella run. Which upset series impressed you most, why, and what in that series sticks out most in your memory? For the purposes of this task, any series won by the lower seed is an upset.

The series that impressed me the most was definitely the SFP and EDM series, mainly because I picked EDM to win it all and was not expecting anyone to stop them. Well was I ever wrong because SFP was able to take care of EDM in 6 games, not even 7. This series was very impressive because EDM is super strong when looking at their TPE numbers and SFP is nowhere close to them, especially when EDM's goalie is almost double in TPE of EDM's. SFP was able to blow out the favourites twice throughout this series, but was also able to win when it mattered most in OT. This is why this series was impressive to me mainly, because they were able to beat out a better team by winning when it mattered. When looking at TPE numbers again, SFP has 0 players above 1700 TPE when EDM has 10, this shows how impressive the sim was able to sim EDM.

162 words - 3 TPE