Fast Takes with Fast Break: League City v New Orleans

Author: Isabel Roseth, Fiona Wisehart, and Naresh Edala

PC: Major League Quadball

After their 2-1 loss to the San Antonio Soldados in June, the New Orleans Curse is no doubt looking to stage a comeback this weekend against the League City Legends. New Orleans were the clear underdogs coming into that series, but came out swinging and won game 1 and lost game 3 by less than a flag catch.

Charlton Tramel proved to be a scoring powerhouse against San Antonio, and Curse veteran P.J. Mitchell provides the team with a strong backbone on both offense and defense. Dylan DeLee is not rostered, which hurts their physicality depth, but not a death sentence by any means. With the experience of the other veterans on their chaser lineup- notable names in Veronica Spicer, Marcellus Lewis, and Nicholas Savino, Curse has the pieces to win the series. A necessary tweak to get them there however, will be to make sure they win their match ups in their high press 2-2 zone. The Legends struggled against a similar defense in their Austin Outlaws series, but we know they’ll remain unafraid to drive into the space left close to the hoops, a strategy that was successful against the Kansas City Stampede. On the Legends side, Hayden Boyes and Great Usiaphre, will be looking to invoke the success of their Stampede series, where they drove through the opposing defense for dunks, while Sarah Stewart stood out for continually cutting to the right hoop at the right time for a quick goal. Ashton Jeanlewis and PJ Mitchell will both be forces on drives that are difficult to stop, so beaters will look to kill their momentum or send a solid point defender as high as possible. Field awareness and ball facilitation will really decide the level of playmaking ability for these two forces and will be the difference in a more positive plus/minus or a higher rate of turnovers.

On defense, the Legends threw Kansas a three trees zone (hoop zone where a different chaser or keeper covers each hoop). This could prove deadly to the Curse offense as they at times had difficulty scoring against the Soldados’ three trees defense. Legends also brings a higher number of heavy hitters, so attempting to drive on the zone may be exactly what they want to bait to swallow offensive drives.On both sides of the ball, defensive hits will likely be high, so the stamina and depth will be important as the series continues. Legends has the higher numbers in depth, but Curse is used to the Louisiana heat, and has always pulled through despite lower numbers.

On the beater front, New Orleans has proven time and time again their ability to select beater pairs that can bring them hard-earned victories. Their pairs are known for being able to coordinate well with the chaser game, which connected for successful drives at their last home series. The experienced Josh Mansfield and Sarah Kneiling strengthen the beater game and perform well even when the team doesn’t win every series. On the individual level, Sarah Yanofsky is rostered again and will be a driving force, continuing to force a number of turnovers at both chaser and beater. Alex Pucciarelli and Michael Sanders also boast strong arms and good positioning, allowing their effective range in games to expand their influence on the field. For Legends, their beater success will rely on what comes behind the veterans Jimmie Evans and Carlos Elarba. At times, the younger beaters on this core have looked overwhelmed by the pace of MLQ games, but they’ve been showing improvement in every series- even after their good performance in transitions against Kansas. Even through their injury, Carlos Elarba played well against Kansas with a vengeance, and may be Legends answer for holding off Curse’s top line beater Josh Mansfield. Jimmie Evans shows the most ability in opening space for offensive possessions, using a well timed tap out or taking an engagement to clear the lane. If the Legends core can do better noticing the space before it’s swallowed up by a Curse defense, we may see the series swing in their favor.

In the scoring and beating game, it’s hard to tell who is going to have more points. As the bloodbath continues for the seeker floor (the period between brooms up and flag runner release), we doubt either team will have a lead of 40 or more points. In this scenario, the flag catch will be important, and the seek-beating game with it. On the beater end, Curse’s Josh Mansfield, Alex Pucciarelli, Sarah Kneiling, and Michael Sanders will likely hold control for most of the time. Carlos Elarba understands how to play against a stronger beater pair from his season with Southwest Alliance, and will work to prioritize knocking the seeker out and using immunity to get to the right spots. For the other beaters in this core, we expect that they won’t have much success stymying the Curse seekers- as was the case last year when Curse came away with all three flag catches. At seeker, Mitchell Bauer and Christopher Dorsey will have preciously few seconds for each attempt, so they’ll need to make them count if they want the 35 for Legends. The issue with this seeking line up is that Juan and Dorsey may be needed to push the chaser game forward, so the longer he sits out to seek, the worse chaser depth will be. For Curse, veteran TJ Goaley will be looking to shake off the rust from the Soldados series to come away with more flags and keep Curse up for the win. If he can’t make it, Eric Jurgeson’s length and Sarah Yanofsky’s speed may throw a diverse new style for a catch. A quick catch would benefit Curse, allowing all resources to return to the chasing game that Legends will be making a speed run. For Legends, having a longer game might be worth the absence of Dorsey to generate more offensive drives for Great Usaphire, Hayden Boyes, and Ashton Butler to get as many goals as possible on a beaterless Curse defense.

The South Division has been known as the region where travel affects everything. The conversation about series roster sizes wins, and losses has always been predicated on "who can X team actually bring with them". New Orleans is only bringing 13 people to their home series, and it may be the lowest turnout a team has ever had when they don’t need to travel. This series will be as much about winning despite the low numbers as it will define the rest of their season. Legends miss out on another chance to debut Juan Acevedo, a player I’ve been waiting to see help this Legends team soar to new heights. However, they’ve got younger leaders who continuously pump energy into this franchise, and that energy can take them to a championship bid, a goal they were denied last season. This season, we've been seeing that it's not as much about who you can bring but how much heart the players show out on the field. Teams have shaken their head at what the stats and the writers say and trampled it underfoot, leaving everything they have on the pitch. This weekend, as people finish watching the series of the week in the North, another slugfest will be going on in the Crescent City, between two teams who will do everything they can to clinch their championship spot.

Ultimately, while full-rostered New Orleans’ prospects were good, only being able to roster, 13 players makes this series a toss-up between the two teams. Precedent in Major League Quadball has shown that depth will often outplay talent. However, in a series that will determine the future of the South division, the Curse will need to improve their seeker game which can be an immediate +35 and should help reduce the length of games, which will play in New Orleans’ favor. There’s a chance League City could “break the curse,” but if New Orleans shows up the way they have these past couple of seasons, League City will still go down, albeit fighting.

Prediction:

Fiona & Isabel: 2-1 New Orleans

Naresh: 2-1 League City