[Peter Johnson]

What was interesting about 294's alliance was we essentially had 3 midfielders with slightly different strengths, although we could each play any place on the field (and did both across matches and even in a single match).

294: excellent midfielder/defense (no hang)
67: excellent midfielder/forward (w/hang)
177: great all-arounder (w/hang)

In the quals, 294 mostly sniped (very effectively) from the midfield, and occasionally played forward to clean up (we never played defense in the quals). As in the elims, we always started in the back in quals because of our consistent 3-ball autonomous (although in the quals we usually kicked 3, then went over the bump to gain a head start in the midfield).

In the Newton QFs, 294 played forward, 67 played mid, and 177 played far/defense. It worked, but was uncomfortable for all of us. We switched it up after that. It was the perfect combo of teams in the Einstein finals because of reasons already stated: 294 couldn't hang, but was good at defense, thus freeing up 67 to play forward (amazing to watch) and 177 to play mid, and freeing up both of them to hang. It also helped that 294's kicker consistently cleared both bumps, and occasionally even scored from the far zone. Having two hangers on our alliance was key: 2, and especially 4, points is hard to make up in scoring, which we witnessed in the LA finals against 330 & 1717, both of whom are great hangers.

Interesting footnote to all this: I'm not sure this Newton alliance would have happened without 294 being the #1 seed and 67 (#2 seed) accepting us... note only 12 seeding points separated us in the end, so the reverse seeding could have easily happened! While I don't want to speak for 67, 294 would not have been an obvious first pick for 67 (gutsy but not obvious like our pick of them was). I'm thinking it would have been more likely for 67 to have picked 971... what different matchups that would have resulted in, particularly in Newton elims (anyone want to fantasize the picks & matchups had 67 been #1 and 294 been #2?).