With the drafts completed, we turn to the start of the season, and kick things off again with the Third Annual All Rocks Community Shield...... The season's first piece of silverware is up for grabs. SEMIFINAL 1: I don't think this got posted at the end of last season, but Starboy XI and Journeymen finished 1st and 2nd in last season's overall "CUP" competition using the 3-2-1 scoring system. I'm not able to upload the screenshot right now, but Starboy XI had 16 points (out of 18 maximum possible), getting 3 points in the S&W, Rothmans, Olympics, DE-Cup, and Golden Boot, and settling for 1 point in the BE-Cup. Top 3 in every competition! Journeymen finished second with 10 points, sharing top spot in the Rothmans and winning the BE-Cup for 3 points each, and then taking second for 2 points in the DE-Cup and Golden Boot. Aviators finished 3rd with 5 points, finishing 2nd in the S&W and Olympics and 3rd in the Rothmans. As a result, Starboy XI and Journeymen will compete in one Community Shield semifinal. SEMIFINAL 2: For the second semifinal, we look to the final standings based on points. The 2023-24 table was recorded here: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/2023-24-summary-and-discussion.2129305/#post-42227419 1. Sand - Starboy XI - 2236 2. Small - Journeymen - 2193 3. VSR - Aviators - 2066 4. Small - Keysersoze - 2029 5. VSR - ColdDogSoup - 1973 6. Small - blechs_dawgs - 1959 The second semifinal matches the two highest scoring teams from last season who are not already in Semifinal 1. Here is where it gets awkward, as this would have been a matchup between the feuding Aviators and Keysersoze squads. With Keysersoze withdrawing under unusual circumstances this past weekend, ColdDogSoup--by a 14-point margin over blechs_dawgs--has just found itself with a massive game this weekend but with no time to prepare for it. So, the two promoted teams from VSR will now face off in Semifinal 2. Despite the short notice, Lobo promised that his squad would be ready. THE SCHEDULE: GW1: Semifinal 1: Starboy XI vs Journeymen (as the "Cup" representatives") Semifinal 2: Aviators vs ColdDogSoup (as the top scoring teams (after removal of the Cup representatives and Keysersoze's withdrawal)). GW2: Final -- Winners of Semifinals 1 and 2 Past winners: 2022-23 -- Glorydaze 2023-24 -- Top Shelf To revisit last year's competition: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/all-rocks-community-shield-2023-24.2126990/
GW1: Semifinal 1: Starboy XI ----- 72 Journeymen -- 55 Semifinal 2: Aviators ---------- 59 ColdDogSoup -- 29 Starboy XI puts up a gold medal performance to leave no drama in Semifinal 1, while ColdDogSoup had the wooden spoon, so no drama in Semifinal 2 either. With that, the first FINAL of the season is set. GW2: Final: Starboy XI vs Aviators
The All Rocks Community Shield goes to Aviators to kick off the season! Aviators ------- 71 Starboy XI ---- 65 A battle of two teams who had middle positions in the draft and both ended up with Saka and De Bruyne, and both captained De Bruyne (12*2) in GW2. So both teams had a solid 30 points to start from these two. Looking at the rest of their squads: Aviators had solid scoring from 4 more players, starting with 10 from Raya in goal and another 10 from Gibbs-White, plus 7 from Virgil and 6 from White. There are 10 bonus points in total (if KDB's 2 are doubled). So, 3 clean sheets (including a double clean sheet from Arsenal was the difference in this one. On the other side, after the points from its top two stars, Starboy had only had a couple additional players scoring more than 3 points, 14 from Luis Diaz and 9 from Wellbeck. Decent efforts but ultimately done in by all of the other 1s, 2s, and 3s, and missing out on the Arsenal clean sheet this week with Zinchenko benched for Timber. Congrats again to all participants on the fine campaign last season, and to Aviators for getting the points needed in the early weeks of this season to win the season's kickoff competition.
Updating the All Rocks Community Shield winners board: Past winners: 2022-23 -- Glorydaze 2023-24 -- Top Shelf 2024-25 -- Aviators