Matt's Corner, Vol. I

Hello and good day to all you faithful Subspace players. I'd like to begin this inaugural edition of Matt's Corner by thanking Cose for giving me a forum for ranting, predictions, analysis, or whatever the hell I feel like rambling about (SS related, of course). I know less about HTML than my dead grandmother, so I could never proceed in this endeavor without his assistance.

Anyway, on to the good stuff.

AML is shaping up in ways that no one could have predicted at the beginning of the season. The only two undefeated teams after Week 4 are a team that was going to dissolve if not for the dedication of SkyOne's teammates (that was a dick move btw Sky, you obviously didn't consult with your squad before attempting to dissove) and a team that nobody thought would do anything except lose, Hitlist, fresh off a victory over the highly-favored Anarchists. Warlords are also on a tear, with their only loss to (debatably) the best team in the league, Gods. Equally surprising has been the success of Reds and Crips. Reds have looked weak as hell all preseason and in practices, but somehow they have been getting it done on Sundays. P-Mav is my hero. Crips, despite Trauma's typical efforts to suicide, are also a winning team, finally living up to their potential. Bukkwild is a fiery leader who inspires his team to play aggressively for him by example, and a team that can successfully be aggressive in this lob-ass league is something to be respected. Domination (I refuse to use that gay capitalization) is a paper tiger in my eyes until they beat a top-tier team. A 12-0 loss to any team is both horrible for morale and an indication that they can't win the big games.

On the other side of the coin, a lot of teams that were popular picks as finalists and powerhouses are disintegrating like two-week-old ramen noodles. The biggest surprise for most of you is probably Wretcheds, who are 1-3 and need to win out just to make the playoffs. If you look closely, though, you could see this coming. Pretender simply does not have the patience to be a captain, and recruiting HV is the all-time bonehead move that any Subspace captain can make, even though he adds a little spice to the community. Also, other hothead players (like Chief) were openly criticizing the team in spec after just their first loss! This has been obviously devastating for morale, and I believe has done more to cause their incessant failure than lack of talent. While Pretender has taken steps to resolve this by axing trouble players, a good move, it may be too late to save this season due to its anemic length. Externals should be at least a 2-2 team based on my play time with them, and their lack of wins can probably be attributed to a lack of experience. In one or two seasons they will be a lot stronger if they don't dissolve. Anarchists probably have the best teamwork in the Lightning division, but with Tertain being their only finisher, they can't always produce kills when they need them. Look for them to bounce back against weaker teams and make the playoffs. They also have a couple dissenters who make excuses rather than analyze and improve their play, and these are the types of things that can demoralize a squad. Big question mark here.

More or less everyone else is where they should be. If you don't agree, eat my shorts.

On that note, how about this season length? 8 games is ridiculously too short to decide who the best teams are. I would recommend a 16-game schedule, like American football, with FOUR divisions of four teams each, in two conferences. Play each team in your division twice, with the rest spread out as evenly as possible among teams in your conference, with four or so inter-divisional games to spice things up. It might not be as equal as round robin, but I think it would be more interesting.

I will rank the top 10 teams as I see fit with a number adjacent to the squad name. The analysis has been done above and I see no need to duplicate it.

Squad Rankings:

1. ElementalForces
2. Gods
3. Hitlist
4. Crips
5. Warlords
6. Anarchists
7. Reds
8. Domination
9. Untarnished
10. Externals

Next edition: Salary structure.. wha?
3 reps: the downfall of aggressive league play
Updated analysis of all pertinent teams
IML: what's next?
Sex with DeathKnight's mom: my quest into the Cracks of Doom