Fast Takes with Fast Break: League City vs San Antonio
Authors: Fiona Wisehart and Mario Nasta
PC: Major League Quidditch
As we head into the final regularly-scheduled regular season series (the August 13th between the Washington Admirals and Boston Forge being irregularly scheduled and part of the regular season), one question remains: who will get the final bid to the MLQ Championship? It all depends if the League City Legends can take a game from the San Antonio Soldados.
Currently, the New Orleans Curse is 3-9 and League City is 3-6, which means if League City can take a single game from San Antonio, they will knock New Orleans out of contention and League City will attend Championships.
Heading into this weekend, two things are set in stone: Austin will be taking first in the south and Kansas City will be finishing third. Everything else is up for grabs. Whoever wins at least two games this series will be taking the second place in the division, placing the loser of the series in fourth. The only exception to this would be if San Antonio wins all three games, in this scenario League City would finish fifth instead of fourth, and New Orleans would steal the fourth place finish.
PC: Major League Quidditch
All Possible Rankings After This Weekend:
SA 3-0: AU 1st, SA 2nd, KC 3rd, NO 4th, LC 5th
SA 2-1: AU 1st, SA 2nd, KC 3rd, LC 4th, NO 5th
LC 2-1: AU 1st, LC 2nd, KC 3rd, SA 4th, NO 5th
LC 3-0: AU 1st, LC 2nd, KC 3rd, SA 4th, NO 5th
League City’s most impressive quality is their ability to play in sync with each other, something that even more experienced teams can crucially lack. On offense, the quaffle players attack with their beaters and on defense, the beaters are ready to back their chasers up after they make a hit. Their chasers guarding the small hoop, in particular, played well against Kansas City. Of any position in a 2-2 zone, that position is the easiest to play sloppily, but the League City chasers were not afraid to come off of their hoop and apply pressure or lay hits. They are a team that has extremely strong fundamentals.
For them to get the last bid to Championships, they just need one win over San Antonio. They might just have the team to do it. Each series they have consistently played better and better. They have, overall, an extremely young roster, with many of their players not only being MLQ rookies, but also only having one USQ season under their belt. Yet, they have managed to play cohesively and with poise. They have relied heavily on their female chasers, particularly Viviana Estrada, Mallory Hughes, and Olive Jim-Daniels, who have risen to the challenge. Their beaters, led by Carlos Elarba and Connor Mason, will have an uphill battle ahead of them this weekend, playing against the deeper and more experienced San Antonio beaters. If they get this win, it will be because of their team’s cohesive play style.
San Antonio is a team that relies heavily on their athleticism. So far, they have lost two series, the first to an Austin Outlaws team that was just head-to-toe more athletic, who could beat them at their own game. The second was to Kansas City, due to a very limited 16 player roster at a Kansas City home game. We got to see San Antonio shine in their games against New Orleans, where an edge in speed and physically, led them to a commanding 3-0 performance. The big question for this weekend is, which team will show up? This series is again an away series for San Antonio, and they have players participating in the US Quadball Invitational the day before. Hopefully this will not stop them from rostering a full roster.
Assuming they do have a full line up, this should be a great opportunity for San Antonio to clinch the two seed. Both teams run a 2-2 zone as their preliminary defense, which should give San Antonio the edge due to their athleticism and the edge they will likely enjoy in the beating game. San Antonio will look to create repeated fast breaks by relying on aggressive chaser defense, and consistent beating support. If they can give Miguel Esparza and Jay Stewart the ball in space, before League City gets set up in their zone, goals are guaranteed to follow.
While San Antonio did drop two games to Kansas City in their last series, the short roster both forced and allowed the back end of their bench to get a lot more minutes. The development they gained from that series could be a huge boon. One of the previous gaps in San Antonio’s offense was finding Mel Kite and Milena Sousa as they cut to hoops. This was much less of an issue when they played against Kansas City and if they can take the learnings into this League City series, it will give San Antonio a big edge on offense.
While most of this series is expected to be out of range in favor of San Antonio, if they do find themselves in a snitch range end game, they should feel very comfortable. San Antonio has shown substantial depth in their seeking game, and have gone 6-3 in catches so far this season. This paired with their outstanding beater depth lead by Daniel Williams, Kris De La Fuente and Katherine Hayworth, should allow them to lock down any snitch catches they need to take the series.
Prediction: San Antonio 3-0