Fast Takes with Fast Break: Kansas City vs League City
PC: Major League Quidditch
Travel and roster depth seem to be two important factors for MLQ’s South Division this summer. During the first weekend of July, from a combination of Stampede’s home turf pride and Soldados’s lack of roster depth, Stampede pulled through for a series win over San Antonio; the first time in franchise history that they’ve taken a series over the Soldados. This weekend the script is flipped, however, with Kansas City going the distance and giving League City the home court advantage. With Kansas City down players and League City showing up closer to full strength, League City is poised to turn its record around.
Stampede’s victory over the Soldados gave them the inside track into the #2 seed in the South division and put them in prime position for a quarterfinals berth at MLQ Championships. With a roster of only 13 people for this upcoming weekend, however, they may have just hit a roadblock. With only four female/nonbinary players on the roster for the series, it will be a tough task for Stampede to avoid running their players into the ground. The weather, an expected 93 degrees, and 62% humidity, doesn’t look advantageous for the limited depth that Kansas City is bringing.
In the clinching game for Kansas City against San Antonio, Kansas City had to overcome a 30-point deficit that was only possible by a Joe Goulet snitch catch to bring the score to 115-110. With Joe Goulet unavailable this weekend and John Alvarez rostering for League City, snitch on pitch may swing away from Kansas City, allowing Alvarez to become a series game changer.
The League City Legends have had an uphill battle their entire season, but this weekend might be the summit. With a roster announcement missing female beaters, the Legends started off knowing they would rely heavily on their female chasers. While chasers like Viviana Estrada, Mallory Hughes, and Olive Jim-Daniels have found the spacing and open areas, the Legends will have to cycle the ball to these threats before the defense is covering them. The Legends have, when needed, taken time walking the quaffle up to the opponent’s keeper zone before an attempted shot or drive to get quaffle points on the board. Against the wingspan of Stampede’s Darian Murcek-Ellis and the aggressive beating of Justin Dewick, Brenna Duncan, and Keighlyn Johnson they’ll need to play a more flexible offense.
A quick review of Stampede’s San Antonio series shows every game in range, and while this seems like a compelling argument for the level of performance by Stampede, the Soldados were missing many of their star players; playing without Kris De La Fuente, Baldemar Nunez, and Daniel Williams in the beater game. With the reappearance of Carlos Elarba to the Legends roster as well, the beater game doesn’t have a clear favorite as we preview this weekend. With the tackling ability of Murcek-Ellis and Ryan Dickey on Stampede’s side, and Christopher Dorsey and Will Spencer on the Legends’ side, both sides will look to run against each other. However, League City has the clear advantage if this turns into a track meet - a sentiment usually not seen against a Murcek-Ellis led team.
The implications of this series are massive as a full-rostered Stampede team would probably sweep. However, League City now has an opportunity to keep fighting for a championship bid by getting a series win. With the lack of roster depth and the return of the League City stars (minus Hayden Boyes), that should be enough for League City to run Kansas City into exhaustion in games 2 and 3.
Ultimately, this series will come down to the coaching prowess and flexible strategies of Stampede’s coaching staff Adam Heald and Katie Branstetter and Legends Head Coach Ashton Jeanlewis. Understanding their players’ strengths and weaknesses on Saturday, adjusting for the 93-degree heat, and updating snitch on pitch strategy will all affect the overall results. Kansas is looking to make up for the championships that should’ve been after an unfortunate drop from the end of last summer, while League City is looking to save their ability to attend champs after losing all of their games so far. The deck seems to be a little more stacked for League City to have a home field victory and we believe they’ll be able to pull through.
Prediction: League City 2-1
