2015 Power Rankings-Week 6

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## Welcome

Welcome to the official site for the League of Champions, the new home of the LOC Power Rankings. By now, hopefully most of you have explored the site a little. It is in its early stages, but it will grow every week. I’ll feature a section in the rankings that outline any new updates. My first mission will be to complete everyone’s profile pages, then we’ll get deeper into the stats. Any suggestions for new pages are welcome.

To make this website I had to teach myself how to write code. Turns out Wikia is not very user friendly and you actually have to know how to build websites from scratch. The background took me about an hour to figure out. It took me half a day to figure out how to add colors to charts. The infoboxes on all your pages took almost a full week. I'm not kidding.

The purpose of this website is to add a little bit more meaning to the league and to keep a running journal of all the events that unfold. I'm sure for most of you there are other leagues that have bigger payouts, better scoring, maybe even people you're closer with (fuck you, you better be closest to me). But I want this to be the league everyone wants to win the most, for the glory, the trophy, the spot in LOC history. And hopefully this site adds to your enjoyment a little bit. I also thought it would be great to organize all the stats so any time a debate needs to be settled, its easy to pull up any bit of info you need to settle the score.

As for the state of the league, half of us sit below The Groot Line and half above, with everyone within one game of a playoff position through five weeks.

## What If...

There’s been a lot of chirping, as is the case every season, about how certain teams are succeeding/failing because of easy/tough schedules. At one moment on Sunday #FreeOJ ownership took a shot at GaroppoblowMe saying maybe FOJ is better and GBM has just gotten lucky with their opponents. Well thanks to Yahoo, we can settle this debate right here, right now. Here are what the standings would look like if every team played every team every single week:

(Current actual standings in parentheses)

1. (2)Deez Sons of Bitchez: 32-13

2. (3)Ma ma momma said: 30-15

3. (1)GaroppoblowMe: 29-16

4. (4)The Shotti Bunch: 26-19

5. (6)#FreeOJ: 25-20

6. (10)Paddock 9: 24-21

7. (7)Reign Maker: 18-27

8. (5)Papa’s Posse: 14-31

9. (8)TEAM MANBEARPIG: 14-31

10. (9)Fire Goodell: 13-32

So what does this mean? Well it means that Paddock 9 is really the only team who has a legitimate case to make for being screwed thanks to their schedule. On the other hand, Papa’s Posse can thank their schedule for their current 3-2 start. Turns out GBM would be in third, not first, but the three-win differential between 1st-3rd is negligible. As for #FreeOJ, turns out they aren’t a hidden gem of a team being buried thanks to their schedule.

Of course, we don’t live in a fantasy fantasy world. We live in reality fantasy world, where everyone has to face someone and its not always going to be exactly who you want it to be.

## A Tale of Two Tight-Ends

Two teams, #FreeOJ and Fire Goodell, took big risks before their matchup by picking up tight ends coming off of suspensions and scheduled to start for the first time in 2015. FOJ grabbed Antonio Gates, a veteran who may very well clinch the all-time TE TD record before it's all said and done. FG picked up Julius Thomas, a player who excelled in the Manning system over at Denver and now plays for Bortles, a youngster with a hot hand. One scored 33.20 points, a whole 196.4% over his projection. Thomas, on the other hand, scored only 4 points. It was the lowest point total of any player in the matchup.

## The 40-Win Club

Congratulations to Reign Maker. They are the first franchise to reach 40 wins in the League of Champions. They are also the only team to have played in every season and not reached 20 losses. The next best team is currently ma ma momma said with 34 wins, then Fire Goodell with 33. With 8 games left to play, those are the only two teams who have a chance at reaching 40 regular season wins this season. Everyone else will have to wait until 2016.

## The Rankings

### 1(1). GaroppoblowMe

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! GBM set out this year with a simple slogan: "Be better than last year." And through five weeks, they have already met their #1 goal. New mission: be better than the last two years combined. They'll need another 2 wins to surpass their win total of 2013 and 2014 combined. As far as this week goes, their top three scorers this week all play for the New England Patriots. Clearly this team will live or die by TB12 and his gang of assassins. The back and forth matchup between GBM and Papa's Posse climaxed with a 59-yard touchdown bomb from Brady to Edelman, a play worth 42.06 points.

With a 45.05 point margin of victory, the play didn't even matter, but it definitely sealed the deal. GBM has played 56 regular season games and Tom Brady has now started 44 of them.

### 2(4). The Shotti Bunch

A risky decision to start Sam Bradford paid off as the Eagles QB put up the highest point total of all players who started in the match with last place Paddock 9. With 73.81 points from the RBs, I'm starting to get 2013 feels from them. Are you afraid of this team yet?

### 3(3). ma ma momma said

It seems the demise of MMMS was...oh fuck it, we get it. Momma said this team is good again. As MMMS waits for Peyton to come out of hibernation, Eli has put up the second best numbers among all QBs on the bench, and this team is still putting up huge numbers in spite of that. Four WRs over 100 points help but Freeman has been the steal of the year, the league's top RB and taken in the 12th round.

### 4(2). Deez Sons of Bitchez

At the start of the week, Dee looked to be the biggest challenger to GBM for the 1 seed. Now Shotti and Momma both seem to be putting up better numbers and Dee takes a big hit with the loss of their first round pick, Jamaal Charles. Charles was a top three RB and a top ten scorer, excluding QBs and DEF. To fill the gap, Dee has made another massive trade with #FreeOJ that could sway power in the league. Lynch, who has beeen battling injury all season, brings high risk high reward to Dee in exchange for Emmanuel Sanders, fresh off his first 100 yard game of the season. The last trade between these two put both teams into a tail spin. How will Dee fair against first place GBM, against whom they have never won a game.

### 5(8). #FreeOJ

FOJ has a bad case of the mondays. Each of their last three matchups has been decided by the Monday Night Game. Trailing late Monday, the flood Gates opened and Rivers connected with his reinstated TE for a game winning TD against Fire Goodell. I have to admit, those puns are not as great as the one I had for if FOJ lost. "#FreeOJ suffering from withdRAWLS" because they lost with Rawls and then they benched him and he went off on the bench. Get it? Anyway, does FOJ have enough in them to keep the pain train rolling against Papa's Posse? This storied rivalry should not be ignored, especially with each of them having a guy going on Monday Night Football.

### 6(5). Papa's Posse

This team is trending in the wrong direction. They had their lowest scoring game of the year and are leading the league in average margin of defeat. Their love for veterans is well-documented but this week they came up way short, with Witten, Garcon, Palmer and Johnson all coming in under their projections. With a key player at WR, RB, and TE on the bye this week, they'll need to hope #FreeOJ does something to tick off the Fantasy Gods so they can come away with a much needed win.

### 7(7). Fire Goodell

    Fire Goodell has lived and died by the free agent pickups for years now, capitalizing on players with boom or bust potential. In past season, FG has enjoyed the success of some booms. This season, that has not been the case. Bell could not save them from the disaster that was Julius Thomas, the latest in a long line of bust that includes Reggie Wayne, Victor Cruz, Alfred Blue, and DeSean Jackson. So what is this squad? It could be the year's "beat the bad teams" team, the unit that reigns supreme over the teams below The Groot Line and can't hang with the elites. Or, they could just be getting started. They did take down GBM in week four.

### 8(10). Reign Maker

With a Mind-Bortling 229.48 points, Reign Maker upsets Deez Sons of Bitchez and moves to 2-0 when scoring over 200 points. In defeating second place Dee, they move up to 7th in the standings and will really be back in business if they can take down the reeling TEAM MANBEARPIG in week six. Trailing at the start of the Monday Night Game, it didn't take long for The Great Woodhead to save the day. Their QB situation is still not figured out. Luck is second in the league in interceptions through five weeks and has only played three games.

### 9(6). Paddock 9

After a dramatic win in week 4, Paddock 9 was annihilated by Shotti and brought back down to earth. All four losses this season have come against teams having their best week of the year. To make the playoffs now they'll need some help, but sources close to the organization believe this team is already getting ready for next year. For some, one game out of a playoff spot with 8 left to play doesn't sound so bad. But P9 is not like other teams and their luck has been notoriously terrible throughout their entire franchise history. But hey, it could be worse...

### 10(9). TEAM MANBEARPIG

After blasting out challenges to both Paddock 9 and #FreeOJ this week, TEAM MANBEARPIG got their soul torn out by ma ma momma said. In doing so, they may have lost yet another player to injury: Julio Jones, the star WR. Jones is expected to play Thursday but his hip injury has been ailing him for a few weeks and you can just add this to the growing list of ailments for TMBP, the year's walking wounded.

## Matchup of the Week

This is one of those weeks that is packed with marquee matchups to the point where the battle for first place between Dee and GaroppoblowMe doesn't even seem that appealing. You have a Championship Game rematch between The Shotti Bunch and Fire Goodell. Then you have a 2011 Semifinals rematch between #FireOJ and Papa's Posse, games that always end close no matter what the projections. A battle of 2-3's with Reign Maker and TEAM MANBEARPIG both jockeying for the 6th seed. And then you have Paddock 9 and ma ma momma said, age old rivals with one team's season hanging in the balance. But all that being said, you have to go with the teams at the top. GBM, the notorious Patriot lover, vs. JetsNation club member Deez Sons of Bitchez. Both teams ended last season at the bottom and now fight for the top. How will Dee survive without Charles and will TB12 break Yahoo when he assaults the Colts defense? Does GBM stick with Graham, a tried and true Tight End who has failed to live up to expectations, or Gary Barnidge (who?), a guy who has been in the league 8 years and whose name you just learned this week because he caught a ball with his butt?