RSPL Playoff Picture: Road to the Superboat
A nail-biting 39-29 win for Chess Family over the NNHS Huskies meant that Chess Family were the last team to qualify for Playoffs as the #7 seed, unfortunately ending the Huskies' hopes for a first-time Playoff appearance. And a remarkable 37.5-30.5 win for Fremd Vikings over Floridians T2 meant that the Fremd Vikings were the first to become two-time regular season champions.
However, no regular season champion has ever gone on to win the Superboat title and the Fremd Vikings are in a familiar spot to attempt to defeat the curse that they themselves fell to in Season 2 along with the Chess.com Comets in Season 3. The RAR Attackers became back-to-back Raburn Series champions in those seasons with stellar play. But now it's a different story this season — the lack of the presence of the RAR Attackers means that there will be a new Raburn Series Premier League champion.
The first four teams have qualified for Playoffs based off winning their division, conference, or the whole league in the regular season. The last three teams have qualified for Playoffs based off being the top 3 teams in standing apart from divisional, conference, or league winners.
- #1 Fremd Vikings (8-1) \\ Regular Season Champions, Eastern Conference Champions, Evanston Division Champions
- #2 Floridians T2 (8-1) \\ Western Conference Champions, Aurora Division Champions
- #3 Barrington Chess Team (7-1-1) \\ Chicago Division Champions
- #4 ROARing Lions (7-2) \\ Peoria Division Champions
- #5 stonks (7-2) \\ Wildcard
- #6 Rolling Croissant Rockets (6-3) \\ Wildcard
- #7 Chess Family (5-3-1) \\ Wildcard #18 Bongybongobongclouders (1-8) \\ Sandwiches
The Playoff bracket from #1 to #7.
Board stats evaluated for each Playoff team.
On a team-by-team basis, the strengths of each Playoff team vary. For the Barrington Chess Team, Boards 1, 2, 3, and 7 have combined for an average of 29.44 points per match. For the Fremd Vikings, Boards 1, 2, 3, and 4 have combined for an average of 29.39 points per match. For stonks, Boards 1, 2 4, and 8 have combined for an average of 27.94 points per match. For the Rolling Croissant Rockets, Boards 2, 3, 6 and 7 have combined for an average of 24.28 points per match. For Floridians T2, Boards 1, 3, 4, and 6 have combined for an average of 29.83 points per match. For the ROARing Lions, Boards 1, 2, 3, and 8 have combined for an average of 24.33 points per match. Finally, for Chess Family, Boards 3, 4, 5, and 8 have combined for an average of 24.00 points per match. It'll be a battle of strengths and initiative for the 7 teams in this Playoff race and one can only look forward to seeing which way it goes in all the possibilities.
Who do you think is the favorite to win it all and win the Superboat?
