Hi all, just posting on a message from TTH (The Tassie Hawk).  All comments are from TTH, apart from in brackets where I couldn't resist...



2012 League vs. League Comp – The Round 18 Playoff 



It’s that time of year when some of us are struggling and completely fed up with Supercoach, Ross Lyin’ et al and for others the year is starting to get exciting.   (And that's with Jacobs playing most weeks...sigh)



It’s also the time of year that the League vs. League Challenge is set to start. Make no mistake this is a coveted title, not quite up with Olympic Gold but give it time as it is only in its second year.



In Round 18 we have a standalone match – as the DEFENDING CHAMPS – the NBA Crew – have exercised the right to challenge the 16th ranked league – Ucant Be TS for the final spot in the main draw which commences next week.



Match Preview over the break...



 



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The NBA Crew are a passionate – some would say obsessive – bunch of fantasy sport nuts, be sure that if you start up or promote a fantasy sport comp hereon TS a few of them will probably join – they include Anthak, Underachievers, Owen, Stowie, Steve etc (add as many others as you want) – a distinguished crew indeed !!



The Champs have been gloating all year about how they want to go back to back. It’s worth reminding everyone that this was the championship that almost didn’t happen after narrowly defeating the Premier League by 79pts and Donor Kebabs (TS’s best ranked league in 2011) by 126pts in the early rounds last year they then went about annihilating (I almost said decimating but have been well educated by Chels in recent times) the Superleague and Tin-Lids by over 1200 each in the Semis and Grand Final, thus adding their names collectively to the esteemed honour roll of TS high achievers.



After placing in the top 100 leagues overall through to round 10 in 2012 they have slid back to #118 after Round 17 – which raises the question as to whether they have been conserving trades to take a shot at the League vs. League title. Well, before we took nominations a few of us thought long and hard about giving them the playoff opportunity in the event they didn’t meet the automatic qualification – in the end we couldn’t deny the other leagues the chance to knock off the reigning champs !!



As previously posted this year’s League vs. League comp requires the lower ranked league to beat the higher ranked league by a margin based on their comparative year to date performance (up to round 17). As UCantBe TS averaged 2064 up to round 17 and the NBA Crew averaged 2062 the NBA Crew will have to win by 40 (ie 2pts * 20 multiplier) or more. Not a big margin, but as I said earlier the NBA Crew had some tight ones last year including 79pts in the first round !



But what about the Challengers ??



UCant BE TS is a league that until now has existed in the shadows, lurking and wanting to cause danger, but not knowing its own lethal power. &#160; Now with one fell swoop, there is a chance for this league to end the season for the NBA Crew (and all that white noise chatter). In recent weeks their league ranking has improved from #135 overall to #113 – so they are in from at the right time and ready to take their place amongst the top 16! &#160; (So. &#160;If you're a member of this league, can you step up in the comments, and identify yourself. &#160; Get chirpy if you think that helps!)



Note to all that the leading bookmaking agencies (as well as the other bookmaking agencies) are refusing to field bets on this matchup since Anthak has been trying to get the Donor Team to tank for a round in order to improve the NBA Crew’s chances ! Note any further funny business may lead to an investigation by the TS brass – and be sure, this week will be the first of an eventful five weeks before we unveil our 2012 League vs. League Challenge Champions !!