WATERMAN'S LAST RIDEWritten By: Abraham Osta and Buck Peterson
Drawkian fans have been crushed with the recent announcement from longtime quarterback Dak Waterman. While foreign World Bowl fans may not recognize the name immediately, Waterman has been synonymous with Drawkland for those that know the Corps.
Since Drawkland's very first excursion in the World Bowl (edition XXVIII in the Royal Kingdom of Quebec), Waterman has been at the helm of the Grid Corps as quarterback. When the team was formed he was a second-year player in the GLD, but he was quickly rising to meteoric fame as the QB of the Drawk Corps (unrelated to the Grid Corps). He had won the MVP with the Corps that year before the Bowl, and had won the college MVP award two years prior at DCU. While he's definitely a pocket passer, his ability to work outside of the pocket and even run for short gains always threw off defenses. He was the obvious choice to take the mantle for the multiversal stage.
Now, two rings and ten Bowls later, Waterman has decided to hang it up. He'll still be starting and playing the first halves of every game, but most of the focus will now be on the young sensation Dustin Beck, the presumptive new starter for the Grid Corps after this Bowl concludes. He's been decent the past few Bowls, and helped lead the Corps to a championship when Waterman was injured in World Bowl XXXV. For this Bowl though, we'll all be cheering on Dak extra hard as he hopefully helps bring the Corps to the promised land again.
Waterman hasn't yet confirmed whether he'll be retiring from domestic play soon, but with this retirement we can assume he'll soon be on the way out. As far as the Grid Corps is concerned, we'll likely be in good hands with the now-experienced Beck becoming the new primary signalcaller, and the now-veteran presence of Jack Hoy leading the backfield.
WORLD BOWL XXXVIIILet's return to the news at hand of the current edition of the World Bowl! Once again, the Federation of Free Republics are hosting, and once again, they're hosting with an interesting format. Some may remember the last time they hosted with an interesting format was World Bowl XXXI, where Drawkland won 16 straight games by acing the group stage. Unfortunately, they fell short of a championship by losing to Banija in the quarterfinals, but by all means it was a successful campaign. The main format difference lied in the group stage - teams were divided into groups, and groups divided into conferences. Teams would play their groupmates twice, and their non-group conferencemates once.
The XXXI format was, for all intents and purposes, pretty normal. Besides the group stage scheduling, it wasn't very different from a standard tournament as far as playoffs are concerned. This World Bowl has been a totally different ballgame, so to speak. Teams have been divided into eight groups of six, with the top teams qualifying not to a playoff, but to a second group stage. We've seen this before in other tournaments, and even something similar in the recent Banijan-hosted Bowl.
This second round is brutal, however. After the single round-robin (a five-game schedule), two thirds of the field is eliminated. A short season is not going to have many teams happy, but for the more elite squads it's simply another minor challenge approaching the second round. The second tier is four groups of four, a single round robin that World Cup fans may find familiar. However, this is even more of an intense battle, as only the top team in each group qualifies for the final playoff, a 4-team double-elimination knockout round.
This far into the season it's hard to say who has a real chance at making it to the promised land, but things will become much clearer once the first round ends and the second round groups are drawn. One thing is certain ... it's gonna be a rough ride for everyone in this Bowl. A miracle run is incredibly unlikely.
Our campaign is off to a good start, as we were the first team to secure qualification to the second round with a 4-0 start. Oops, spoilers! Let's look at how we performed up to this point.
We were placed in the FreedomCola Group, alongside unknown nations such as Christos, Jaspec, and Champagne Socialist Sharifstan. Some more familiar names are present as well, such as Terre Septentrionale (the new incarnation of the Alpine Union), and Vangaziland. This was a rather lucky draw for our 4th-ranked squad, as the Pot 2 nation Vangaziland is only ranked #17 going into this Bowl. With Drawkland being the Pot 1 team, all of our games except one are held in the Googolplex, a 109k-seater that many Drawkian fans would feel comfortable in.
vs VANGAZILANDOur campaign started against our only big challenge in the group, that of Vangaziland. The game certainly looked like it was going to be a bigger challenge than it seemed as the Royals marched up the field to score on their first drive. The Corps defense was delivering big hits the whole drive, and it only got worse as the game progressed for the Royals offense. Josh Depzman hit Jaykaye Sadler with a play-action pass on third and goal to score a touchdown, but unfortunately for the Royals that would be their only TD of the game.
The Corps didn't have a great game on offense themselves, with neither QB throwing a passing touchdown. The Corps also had a single touchdown, that from a 30-yard run by Jack Hoy in the second quarter. The teams traded field goals for the rest of the game, until Matthew Watts netted one just inside five minutes. The Royals drove down the field to try and tie or win, but ultimately fell short after a huge tackle for loss and incomplete pass, holding Vangaziland out of field goal range.
It was not the best day for the Drawkian offense, but the defense showed out and did their job, picking up two interceptions along the way. Despite the ugly 19-16 victory, it was crucial for the campaign to beat the Pot 2 team on Day 1.
vs CHRISTOSFor the second matchday, the Grid Corps was determined to improve their performance from the last game. A win is a win, but the offense was not looking too hot, and if the Corps expects to potentially win a championship, the team needs to be firing on all cylinders. Unfortunately for the unranked and new-to-the-Bowl Christos, this is when the Corps decided to work out the kinks.
The Emperors put up a valiant first effort, driving down into field goal range and managing to come away with a field goal. Their luck ran out quickly though, as they couldn't manage to score for the next two quarters. Meanwhile, the Grid Corps offense proved that they were still a Top 5 threat, coming away with 3 passing touchdowns and a two-point conversion from Waterman in the first half. Dustin Beck threw an interception which led to a Christos field goal early in the third quarter, but made up for it by tossing a touchdown to Jack Hoy and contributing another on the ground.
Matthew Watts contributed to the score with a field goal late in the fourth quarter, bringing it to 6-46. Christos were not done yet though, and they still wanted points at least for pride. They took advantage of the soft garbage time defense the Corps was deploying, and Roger Bryant managed to fit a pass to Caleb Toth in the end zone with 20 seconds left on the clock. They attempted a two point conversion, but the rush by Lamar Beckham failed and the game ended soon after with the 12-46 scoreline. Another win for Drawkland was in the books; one with a much more convincing margin.
vs JASPECJaspec, similar to Christos, was the recipient of a Grid Corps continuing to gain momentum. Jaspec was also suffering from the fact that they were still adjusting to a different code of gridiron. Their domestic ball is played with fewer downs and a larger field, so playing any team on the international level was challenging, much less the two-time champion #4 ranked squad. If there was any silver lining, the Grid Corps were slightly disadvantaged at having to play in a new venue for the first time, FreedomCola Stadium. Jaspec had played in the venue the previous matchday, so thing were at least a little familiar.
The upside was not enough to tamper the downsides though, and Drawkland once again rolled through their opposition with little issue. The defense only allowed a single touchdown (Deschenes to Chambers) once again, along with two field goals in the second half. Jaspec's second touchdown was scored in the third quarter thanks to a fumble by the aging Antonio Anders. Langlais forced the fumble, which was picked up by Mark Kennedy and returned for the touchdown.
The Drawkian offense excelled once again. Waterman passed for two touchdowns, Hoy ran for one (and two 2PC's), and Beck threw one later in the game. Matthew Watts scored a field goal in the waning seconds of the first half, and Jordan Max intercepted Jaspec's Luc Deschenes for a pick six on the final real drive of the game. The match played out similar to what was seen the previous matchday against Christos, and the 40-20 scoreline proved it.
vs CHAMPAGNE SOCIALIST SHARIFISTANWith a 3-0 start in the books and qualification for the next round nearly guaranteed, Quentin Averfel decided to take a chance and rest the starters for the match against unknown Champagne Socialist Sharifistan. This ended up being a good move, as the backup players were able to get their feet wet with big playing time. This could end up being a masterful move if big-name players go down with injuries at some point in the coming games, so hopefully this pays off if that time comes.
Due to the backups not seeing significant time on the field, they needed a bit of time to get themselves situated. The offense was decent, but could only put up three touchdowns (with a failed two point conversion on one). The defense had a better game, only allowing a single touchdown and two field goals (and no points in the second half at all). Once again, the defense managed to put up a pick six. This one came from Keegan Masters, who lurked and intercepted a halfback screen pass deep in CSS territory for an easy touchdown.
With this win, Drawkland has officially qualified for the second round! The only other nation to achieve that so far is Taeshan, though Main Nation Ministry and Ranoria are also 4-0. This isn't a huge achievement, as the next game will decide all the other qualifiers, but it's good to know that we're currently playing at the top of our game.
PREDICTIONSOur final match of the first round will be against Terre Septentrionale. This 24th-ranked squad had high hopes for their season, hoping to catch a couple upsets and make it to the next round. These hopes didn't pan out, as a crushing loss to Vangaziland followed by a thrilling overtime upset loss to Christos which officially ended their season. They no longer have anything to play for, but a mid-major squad with a chip on their shoulder is nothing to sleep on. It's crucial that the Grid Corps wins this game in order to get a top seed for the second round. If they win they'll definitely be Pot 1, as there's only 4 undefeated teams left, but with a loss they'll have to hope the other undefeated and one-loss teams underperform.
It's too close to call the second round so far, especially since that round will require another group draw. On top of that, Drawkland's great performance so far can mainly be attributed to the weak strength of schedule. In any case, the momentum is still on their side, especially if they get out of the Terre Septentrionale match with a win. All we can do now is wait and watch to see how things pan out. More to come later. As always .... On Corps!!