2020 Power Rankings-Week 11

## Introduction

Wow! What a week of matchups we have.

1st vs 2nd

3rd vs. 4th

6th vs 7th

8th vs 9th

And then Shotti vs. Nate, which isn't great standings-wise but is still awesome because...well, it's Shotti vs. Nate.

Yes, as we head into week 11, 80% of the league is alive and well in the playoff hunt. At 3-7, you may not consider Papa's Posse a title contender. But his team is outscoring 7-3 Sweet Dee & 5-5 ma ma momma said, and with games left against Stupid Idiots (5-5) and Pain Train (6-4), Papa may soon find themselves in control of their own amazing destiny.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have 7-3 teams going at it for 1st place this week. Duck Punchers has been in first place 9 of the first 10 weeks (week 4 he was momentarily usurped by 4-0 Sweet Dee). Paddock 9 has a chance to do it to him again in week 11. One of these teams will take an 8-3 record into December with a playoff spot locked and clear in their sights.

## Stat Chat

* Duck Punchers ties The Shotti Bunch for the most weeks ever spent in 1st place (26).
* Ma ma momma said logs the 9th-lowest regular season score of all-time.
* Ma ma momma said logs the 11th-lowest overall score of all-time.
* Ma ma momma said logs the 3rd-lowest overall score of all-time in which every player scored at least one point.
* The winner of Duck Punchers vs. Garoppoblow Me has scored over 230 points in 14 of the 16 matchups.
* Paddock 9 becomes the 6th team to reach 70 combined wins.
* Shotti becomes the 9th team to reach 50 combined losses. It took him 134 games, the slowest to that mark.
* Sweet Dee wins 7 regular season games in a single season for the first time in franchise history.
* RIPDab is on his longest win streak since 2013.
* Shotti has lost a franchise record eight regular season games.
* Shotti will fail to reach 6 regular season wins for the first time in franchise history.
* This will likely be the first season that Shotti has not had a win streak of at least three games.
* Paddock 9 extends their streak of consecutive games over 200 to 9 games.

## Matchup Recaps

* Duck Punchers regains control of the conference with a convincing performance against Garoppoblow Me (9-7). **Next Matchup: 2021**
* RIPDab knocks off the league's hottest team, Pain Train, with a MNF kickoff return for a TD (8-7). **Next Matchup: Week 13**
* Sweet Dee wins three of her last four games and sweeps the season series against Stupid Idiots (3-2). **Next Matchup: N/A**
* Paddock 9 wins blowout of the week for the third time this season in a laugher vs. ma ma momma said (7-7). **Next Matchup: N/A**
* Papa keeps slim playoff hopes alive in a narrow victory over The Shotti Bunch (4-10). **Next Matchup: N/A**

## Playoffs??

Mathematically, eight teams are still alive for the six playoff spots. While a seven-win team has never missed the playoffs, we don't want to make any assumptions and so all we can say with 100% certainty is that 8 wins guarnatees you a spot. HOWEVAH, if Stupid Idiots defeats ma ma momma said this week, it hugely benefits the other five teams currently in a playoff spot. momma would be in 7th place at 5-6 with no point advantage over any team. If momma loses, it's likely enough to lock up the entire playoff race for the year.

One team will officially clinch a spot this coming Monday (the winner of Pat vs. Zach). Sweet Dee can also clinch a spot with a win over Pain Train.

### Magic Number

A Winning Magic Number is the number of consecutive upcoming games a team must **win** to guarantee winning a given playoff spot. These take into account scoring differentials deemed to be significant.

^ - Means Team will Finish Better Than this Playoff Spot

X - Means Team Cannot Win This Playoff Spot

Number - Indicates the total number of upcoming games the team must win in order to guarentee this spot.

DNCD - Means team Does Not Control Its Destiny, and thus even after winning all remaining games they need help from other teams, be it with scoring or victories.

* - Indicates First Round Bye

### Elimination Number

An Elimination Number is the number of consecutive upcoming games a team must **lose** to guarantee losing a given playoff spot.

^ - Means Team will Finish Better Than this Playoff Spot

X - Means Team Cannot Win This Playoff Spot

Number - Indicates the total number of upcoming games the team must lose in order to guarentee losing this spot.

MW - Means team Might Win this spot even if they lose the rest of their games.

* - Indicates first round bye

## Week Ten Scenarios

* **Duck Punchers** clinches a playoff spot with:
	+ **Win**
* **Paddock 9** clinches a playoff spot with:
	+ **Win**
* **Sweet Dee** clinches a playoff spot with:
	+ **Win**
* **Papa's Posse** will be eliminated with:
	+ **Loss**

## Trade Tracker

Starts:

* Mixon: 1
* CEH: 4

Mixon is heading to IR, guaranteed to miss a minimum of 3 games. I guess the Fantasy Gods really do have a way of balancing the scales. There was always something not right about this trade being accepted after the Bell trade, and I guess the powers-that-be have spoken on the matter.

Starts (Pain Train):

* Metcalf: 5

Starts (Sweet Dee)

* Chark: 5
* Kelley: 1
* Slayton: 5

Starts:

* Patterson: 2
* Bernard: 3

Instead of that shit trade between GBM and P9, how about this lowkey trade between RIP and Dee? Combined, these teams are 7-1 since this trade. The only loss in that span was when Dee lost to RIPDab in week eight. Both players are averaging around 22 points per game.

## Absolute Standings

Hard to say which of these would make for "better" competition, but I'd think a 6-way tie for 1st place with three games left to play would be a little more fun, don't you? This is all just fantasy (the imagination sense of the word), but here is what the standings would look like if we COMBINED these two records. This is how some leagues are doing things now (get a win/loss based on matchup and then another W/L depending on if you are top five or bottom five.)

### COMBINED Absolute Standings

While the "Absolute Standings" swaps out two playoff teams, the combined only swaps one. This also creates a plausible scenario for all 10 teams to still possibly make the postseason. I don't know what is "best," but there you have it!

## 5-5 Team History

28 teams have been 5-5 in LOC history, including the four from this season. It's the most popular record in the LOC, and a sign of the balance that comes with being a contender in the League of Champions. The best 5-5 team ever was 2013's Duck Punchers team that posted 2304.35 points. That has been beaten twice over last season with Stupid Idiot at 2373.84 and Paddock 9 VERY close behind at 2371.65. This year the teams are not as strong.

 12
 9
 4

Judging by this, the likelihood of a team going either undefeated or winless is 19%. The one team to go to 8-5 was RIPDab in 2015.
It's worth it to note that although just 92% of 5-5 teams that landed at 7-6 made playoffs, no 7-6 teams have missed the playoffs in the 10-team era.

## 6-4 Team History

This year there are two 6-4 teams, which makes sense as it is the rarest record in the league. Prior to 2020, only 10 teams have been 6-4. *They have all made the playoffs*. Sweet Dee has TWICE gone 0-3 to finish the season after starting 6-4. Both times they won point tie-breakers with the 7th place team (2015 with JarJar, 2018 with Shotti).

 2
 2
 2

This bodes well for Pain Train (last year finishing 3-0) and RIPDab.

## A Family Affair

This week we see the second matchup between Papa's Posse and GBM. The first was decided by less than a quarter of a point. Whether the winner gets the W by .01 or 100, it will mark yet another week in which one of the two DiGennaro boys lost. In fact, throughout LOC history, one of the rarest things to see is both DiGennaros win in the same week.

Below is a chart showing how many times this has happened, per season.

Weeks When Both DiGennaro Boys Won, by Year
 2012
 2013
 2014
 2015
 2016
 2017
 2018
 2019
 2020

By far the craziest stretch was 2012-2014. In 39 weeks, Papa's Posse and GBM won on the same week just three times (7%). But we may be entering another wild stretch, as we will go into week 12 without father and son winning on the same week ONCE.

## Double Domination

While this year is status quo for Papa and Diggs, his year marks a shocking contrast to what we are used to seeing from Duck and Shotti. In our previous chart, we tracked how many weeks both teams WON. In this, we count how many weeks both teams LOST. And...wow.

Weeks When Both Shotti and Duck LOST, by Year
 2013
 2014
 2015
 2016
 2017
 2018
 2019
 2020

So from 2012-2014, the two teams lost on the same week....twice.
If you root against these two teams, there is a greater chance that at least one of them will win a game each week than there is that the league's most efficiant quarterback will complete a pass on any given throw.

## The Greatest Game - Week Ten

Due to time constraints, I'm going to do week ten and eleven next week.

## Power Rankings

### 1(2). Paddock 9

This may be a bad omen for P9 and I'm sure Duck is pumped I have cursed him with the top spot. However, his consistancy this season and his streak of games over 200 cannot be ignored. He was able to dominate last week with his two best players on a bye.

### 2(1). Duck Punchers

Off to an average start this week with Russ, Lockett, Hopkins, and Gonzalez all failing to meet projection. Now, I'm not one to judge from my spot down among the Squam people, but as a rule I'd say don't pick up any players and start them if they spent most of their season on GBM's roster. They will only disappoint (looking at you, Zane Gonzalez).

### 3(3). Pain Train

Boy, how about that Mixon trade? Pain Train certainly starting to look like a team of destiny with their two trades with momma and Dee, two teams that have clearly gotten worse since each transaction.

### 4(4). RIPDab

The hottest teams in the league are P9 and RIPDab. Teams that podcast together get hot together. While this stretch of wins is surely going to be enought to clinch a playoff spot, Dab now gets to focus solely on this week and a potential kick-him-while-he's-down situation vs. The Shotti Bunch. RIPDab has not enjoyed a Festival of Champions that did not feature Shotti since 2011.

### 5(6). Sweet Dee

Win three of last four...good. Score under 181 in four of the last six games...bad. Win the game, that's what matters, and they could be getting healthy JUST in time for playoffs. Do not count this team out.

### 6(5). The Stupid Idiots

This team is so ridiculously inconsistant, but they can clinch back-to-back playoff years for the first time by taking care of momma and beating either Pain Train or Papa over the last two weeks.

### 7(7). Garoppoblow Me

GBM is in a win/win scenario this week. A win eliminates Papa from the playoffs, giving him the revenge he has sought since that crushing loss earlier this season. But if he loses, his dad stays alive for what could be another improbable run. The commish in me wants to keep that storyline alive, but the team manager in me wants REVENGE!

### 8(9). Papa's Posse

Unhealthiest at the exact wrong time, they have the most ideal schedule for a team trying to make a late run. If somehow mamma defeats Stupid Idiots this week, Papa will actually be in control of his own destiny by winning out. Phenominal.

### 9(10). The Shotti Bunch

There is a part of you that has to be sad to see Shotti so down, and also maybe a little scary because he's going to come back angrier than ever in 2021.

### 10(9). Ma ma momma said

You STINK! Should have left your ass down here all season.

## Matchup of the Week - P9 vs. Duck

The picture has already painted itself. This should be a good one, folks.