MHR FFL: SPECIAL REPORT

By I.P. Freely,  Special Reporter on Assignment

The final week of the MHR FFL regular season is about to be underway, and few things are certain as the play goes down to the wire!

This Special Report will focus on the playoff picture, where men are made and maidens are meant for them! To the report!

MHR West

Blue Collar Broncos (7-6) vs. Brazil Devils (6-7)
Qatar Wars (6-7) vs. Guru's Team (6-7)

The MHR West is a tight division where a single misstep could send a team into the abyss. These teams watch each other's moves with the cold and merciless eye of ruthless menace. Waiver wire signings mark their strategies as they move their pieces into the final positions. In the MHR West, its All or Nothing.

The division crown is anything but settled, but the formula to determine upon which brow it will rest is simple enough. The BlueCollar Broncos(7-6) currently lead the division by a game, but unfavorable tiebreak scenarios involving head to head matchups with Guru's Team (6-7) and the strong divisional record of Qatar Wars(6-7) means that they can only claim the division crown by winning their final game vs. the Brazil Devils (6-7) outright.

The Devil's themselves have no shot at the division crown, due to a lowly 1-4 divisional record that involves a lot of onesided head to head tiebreak matchups. But they are not out of wildcard contention.

Guru and Qatar Wars face similar situations in that they both require the Broncos to lose, and will both need to come out victorious from their own game vs. eachother. Favorable head to head and divisional records with the Broncos ensure that if the Broncos do not win, the winner of this game will get the division crown.

MHR Central

j.f.k. Mustangs (8-5) vs. Russ' Team (4-9)
Fighting Manginos (6-7) vs. Crush You! (3-10)

While the Mustangs have already wrapped up the division, they still would like a win to keep their momentum rolling into the playoffs. But even if they lose, and assuming a Broncos win, their head to head record vs. the Broncos ensures that they will be enjoying a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

The Mangino's must win in order to keep their wildcard chances alive.

MHR East

Albino Wildebeests (12-1) vs. Toilers of the C++ (9-4)
SacTown Beavers (7-6) vs. Cincinnatroit TexRams (4-9)

The marquee matchup of the week holds little in the way of dramatic tension. The Wildebeests long ago locked up a bye and homefield throughout the playoffs, while the Toilers are secure with the #1 wildcard seed, and #4 overall spot in the playoffs. While most would think that these two teams would be content to rest their starters, in acknowledgment of their possible rematch in the second round of the playoffs, when reached for comment Coach Grande of the ‘Beests merely laughed manically with a disturbing gleam in his eyes. What he muttered beneath his breath at that moment about the Toilers, is not fit for an honorable print publication such as this. On the other side of the battle, the leader of the Toilers could not be reached, having sealed himself off in the gameplanning section of his missle silo/evil corporate headquarters. A deliveryman approaching the silo was stopped for comment, but was only able to divulge the contents of Coach Styg's most recent purchase from Amazon: Gameplans of Doom, by Mike Shanahan.

Meanwhile, the Texrams, divisional spoilers par excellence, hope to bring down the fading hopes of the preseason fan favorites, the SacTown Beavs. A win puts the Beavs in the #3 wild card spot, uncontested. A loss and they have to go down among the dregs and fight it out in no holds barred battle of tiebreaking domination!

The Wild, Wild, Wildcard

Based on the scenarios above, the wildcard could be a free for all.

With Dave and Papi holding the division byes, and Styg in firm command of the first wild card spot, that leaves 1 divisonal crown and 2 wild card spots left to sort out amongst 6 teams. They follow, in order of degree of difficulty to reach the post season:

Blue Collar Broncos: Win and they're in. They are one of only two teams that can lose this week and still have a shot at the wildcard. If they DO lose, that means that Qatar or Guru won the divison. They need the Beavers to lose as well (head to head tiebreaker), OR they will be left in a triple tiebreak situation with the Devils (1-1 HtH, 2-4 division). They would then need to not lose by more than 4.22 this week to the Devils, to get the final wildcard spot.

SacTown Beavers: Win and they're in. But they can still lose if, and only if, the Bluecollar Broncos beat the Brazil Devils, OR the Fighting Manginos lose.

Qatar Wars: Win and they are in. If Bluecollar wins the division, the Wars can vie for the #2 wildcard with a beaver loss, otherwise, they will settle for the #3 wildcard.
 
Guru's Team: Win and they are in. If Bluecollar wins the division, Guru can vie for the #2 wildcard with a beaver loss, otherwise, they will settle for the #3 wildcard
Brazil Devils: Must beat the Bluecollar Broncos by 4.22 points or more.

Brazil Devils: Must beat the Bluecollar Broncos by 4.22 points or more

Fighting Manginos: A must win for the Manginos, and they will be rooting for the Bluecollar Broncos all the way. A bluecollar win punches their ticket to the the #3 Wildcard