S14 Pre-Post-Season Captain Interview: WRIG interviews himself because he likes to hear (see?) himself talk (type?)
Captain: WRIG
Team: Pequeños Pandas
What were your expectations for your team after the draft, and how has your team performed against those expectations?
On A, I knew we were a high risk/high reward team. Rina has established herself as one of the league’s best offenders, but her rep was that she needed the right teammate and coach to flourish. With IfYouSeekAmy helping me out, I was confident that he could push her from the lead of semi-support to superstar. I think we made a lot of leeway on this, as she really shined when she was comfortable. In a somewhat similar vein, I knew Edd was a B-team star but had yet to prove himself on B. He impressed the hell out of me in tryouts, and I had him slated as a top-10 offender. The way the two of them played, thought, and communicated, I really thought it was going to be a monster pairing. They both played well on their own, but thy never got that spark together. I REALLY wanted to make this work, but it just didn’t pan out. On defense, I don’t think many people realize that EatMyShorts and I go way back and had success together in previous seasons. He is an incredible returner, which complements my game quite well. But there were some barriers we could not break through, and I failed to be a good enough partner to let him flourish on A.
On B-team, I was really proud of my draft. From top to bottom, I was getting a ton of my targets and lots of guys I knew would do well. They had a strangely slow start, but once we figured some things out, they have been playing really, really well.
In hindsight, who’s a player you wish you drafted?
Noice was my #1 target for defense coming into the draft, but Vader was too high on him and he went too late for me to afford him. Garg was a target, and I drafted him, but I didn’t want to pass up the chance at Rina, razgriz, or DanP. I definitely regret not going for him (Garg + Rina anyone?). I had 100% planned on drafting my old pal and 2x teammate Duckson. But he was an idiot and kept destroying it in tryouts so he went in the auction before I could snag him. Sorry buddy.
What player on another team had surprised you the most?
Garg, fortytwo, zeus, omar, slowpolka, spacetiger, mueller time
What are you most proud of so far this season? What do you regret?
I’m proud that our b-team went from near-last to the sixth seed in just a few weeks. Regardless of how far they get, I’m proud of how much they improved and how damn fun those Wednesday nights were. I am also happy I could make Flaccid Trip on D my pet project, even when he didn’t want to listen to me, and have him turn into one of the best defenders on B-team this season.
I have a lot of regrets, especially on A-team. My biggest regret is that things didn’t work out with Edd. Edd: I am truly sorry we decided to change things up, and I hope you’ll forgive me… maybe if you beat us Wednesday?
My other regret is trading 2rd. God he is one of the funniest guys in NLTP.
You get to hype ONE of your players to NLTP or MLTP captains next season. Who is it?
Ping tut playing defense. The dude gets a bad rep, and sometimes likes to poke the bear on the sub, but he is an incredible teammate who wants to win and have fun. From day 1, he helped coach his teammates on both A and B. On top of that, he is an excellent defender. Once he chilled with the swiping and obsession with return stats, he turned into a near-perfect defensive partner. He should be lead defender on A team next season. Smart, fun guy.
Aside from your own team, who is your pick to win the Nuper and Buper? Who are your dark horse picks?
Nuper: Dinos are the best team. Would be house money to bet on them. I think OPH, RTJ, and FLB all have outside chances to beat them, but they all have much more obvious flaws than the Dinos do.
Buper: This one is super interesting. IMO, there is no clear favorite. RTJ, OPH, DNO, LBT, and PQP I think are the best teams (I don’t know too much about FLB). I think this will come down to who gets hot at the right time, because those 5 teams could and have beat each other any given night. If I had to pick one team, I'd go with OPH.
In your mind, what’s been good about NLTP this season? What hasn’t worked?
See here. I wrote a 2,000 word essay on my thoughts.
Who’s your pick for captain of the season?
I’m torn between Vader and NameLEss. Vader drafted an awesome team and rode that out. NameLEss traded his way to a really good team without blowing anything up. Both have put in a lot of time and effort while running a clean operation. That vote will be a gametime decision. Honorable mentions to HeinousAnus and sass. When players have that much fun on a team, you know their captain is doing something right.
Hype/ramble about your teammates here.
Garg – You were the first player I drafted and now you’re MVB. If that doesn’t get me captain of the season, I don’t know what will.
Rina – Keep your damn head up! You are your own biggest critic and need to utilize this to your advantage. Don’t be afraid to be crazy in game. You’re a star.
Edd – See above. Glad you’re crushing it with OPH. Good luck Wednesday.
EatMyShorts – Sorry things didn’t finish as planned. You’re a damn good defender, just speak up. Some day we’ll meet up when I’m back home.
Eggheater – :eflnoflute: It is hard to get up to speed with a team when you miss the first 2 weeks, but you fit in right away. It’s no coincidence that we started crushing it when you became available.
Whiskey Jack – My rock on defense. Looking forward to sharing a beer with you next weekend. You showing up hammered to scrims was always a highlight.
K42Larson – My rock on offense. Your game sense and comms are incredible. Your jokes are C- at best. At least I can count on you to laugh when I say/do dumb shit.
Flaccid Trip – My guy. You are so damn hard on yourself, but when you’re on, you’re ON. I hope you stick to defense and play some A-team next season. Just stop fucking boosting backwards.
Alharrington – The cheekiest of the Euros. I knew you were a star on O, but you surpassed expectations. Thanks for waking up at 4am to play with us. And some day I will post your answers to the survey.
2rd – 2rd place nice. You’re the chillest dude around. I need to stop trading you, seriously.
Chaos – When you are so under the radar the team comes into our chat to make sure you aren’t a smurf. I think every week I’ve had multiple people ask me “who is that face guy?” You becoming active has been huge for us. If you’d stop getting banned and start taking LTP seriously you’d be in minors easily.
MunchLax – Oof, another victim of the trade. Glad you’re crushing it on DST. Dishes dishes dishes.
Pseudo – I was so sad to trade you away that I got you back. You were great on A-team, and now you’re playing the opposite position and crushing it on B. You’re a rare legit 2-way player, something I always wish I was.
Ping tut – Not much left to say about you that I didn’t up there. THANK YOU for helping almost save our team, for making me look like not total trash, for allowing me to meander off to get pups, and for coaching our team. I hope someone drafts us together next season.
Bran’s legs, camus, korupted, sealteam, masterkung – not even showing up smh
IfYouSeekAmy - thanks for being an awesome co-captain. You put up with the walls of text I would send you at 7am when I woke up thinking about what to do with the team and were always voice of reason for me.
Anze - Thank you for being a last-minute co-captain. Sorry we couldn't add a Nuper to your trophy case, but we'll work on adding a Buper. Appreciate you keeping things light-hearted when we got down on ourselves.
Doris - You came out of no where but turned into one of our most consistent scrim helpers and D coaches. I think we won like 7 straight once we added you to the Discord.
JDoe, Bobbo, Selfy, Fragrant, Pavement - Thanks for helping out this season and filling in when I was being a dummy and hanging out with my wife.
