So I figured this time I’d go about things a little different. As much as I hate to admit it, X-factor did send two teams. The one everyone got to hear about (S.E. X-factor) was obviously not the one I played on but I was there for all there games so I’ll do my best to cover there story.
S.A. X-factor
Let’s get the embarrassing part out of the way first. S.A. X-factor was last year’s semi-pro team. Although we usually played well through most of the weekend, we usually fell short on Sunday and missed most semi-finals cuts. Despite a rough practice the weekend before the event, we looked forward to this season and our chance to earn a pro spot. The bad practice would end up haunting us on the field. Three games into the prelims, one of our players gets a 6-game suspension for throwing his gun. From then on, walking up with 6 guys, the refs would look at us like we were crazy and then I’d go on the explain that we enjoy X-ball so much we’re playing down a guy. As much as I’d love to blame our poor performance on the fact that we played a man down the whole event, we never played like a unit during any of our games. With everyone playing individually and no team cohesion, you have no chance at performing well in a 7-man event.
With no gap between MAO and the Tampa event, getting in a solid 7-man practice will be tough but I don’t doubt the fact we’ll rebound from this and have a good showing in Tampa if we can work through the kinks in our teamwork.
S.E. X-factor
This team is basically comprised of last year’s D1 team that was unable to finish out the season due to the fact that we bumped up to NXL, and at the same time bumping our status up as well. I was able to captain these guys from Huntington Beach all the way to our win in Boston before we weren’t allowed to play D1 anymore. At that point we were tied for 1st place in series points and after that win in Boston, I believe we would’ve gone on to win the series championship.
Although these guys would have a rough time through the prelims, when it came time to step up and win big games, they did it time and time again on Sunday. What really stood out to me was there ability to win games with there back against the wall. In the quarterfinals, Ryan Brand and Cody Bayless would go to win a huge 2 on 5 and despite not getting the pull or hang, the points from the 7 eliminations would end up giving them the extra edge to beat out Bushwackers who also had two wins. Once they secured there spot in the top four they never let off the gas. They drew Arsenal A-team, one of the most dominating teams in semi-pro last year. Ryan Cohen who had a good weekend so far would go on to single-handily destroy A-team in two games. With Aftermath beating out Elite, old D1 rivals would face off for 1st place and the 10 g’s. Although no one really stood out in there series with aftermath, solid execution and teamwork would let them win two straight and take home the win.
Although a good 7-man team needs to function as one unit to play well, some players step up and will take control of games on there own hand. S.E. X-factor’s success this past weekend was derived from the perfect blend of superstar plays and teamwork to back it up. Congrats to my boys, oh and one more thing: “Big Mike Hinman ain’t nothing to f**k with!”
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