Six Nations 2021: 6 to Watch

It feels like only yesterday that the 2020 Six Nations came to an end, but we are already just a week away from the start of the 2021 edition of the Six Nations. In theory, this should have been a big tournament, with these being the last internationals before the British and Irish Lions Tour to South Africa, but the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is currently leaving that in jeopardy.

I’ve made clear my thoughts on whether the Six Nations should be going ahead in the current circumstances, but money talks, so to help myself prepare for the tournament and get in the spirit, I am back with my latest look a one player from each nation to watch out for during the competition.

England

He may already have just over 20 caps to his name, but with Mako Vunipola and Joe Marler out, this s te time for Ellis Genge to shine. Nicknamed “Baby Rhino” for his devastating ball carrying, Genge is now also developing into a solid scrummager, and at 25 he arguably still has the potential of playing the best part of a decade at the top level.

France

The absence of Romain Ntamack is a blow to Les Bleus, but also a great opportunity for Matthieu Jalibert to show what he can do. Capped before Ntamack, injury brought an early end to his first Six Nations, but this will be a great chance to build on his Autumn Nations Cup performances and try to establish a competition for the 10 shirt with Ntamack once he is available. A real attacking talent, expect to see him creating havoc with the quality of backs around him.

Ireland

Regular readers probably won’t be surprised to see me selecting James Lowe here, as I have been a big fan of him since before his move to Leinster. Having become eligible to play for Ireland through residency, I have been shocked at how little Andy Farrell has used him so far, but expect him to be utilised more as Ireland look to become more dangerous. Lowe provides something different to elusive runners like Jordan Larmour, Andrew Conway and Hugo Keenan, in that he will be able to take contact and continue to drive himself forwards. If you go high on him, don’t be shocked to end up on the ground, watching him run away for a try.

Italy

The second fly half to appear on this list, 20-year-old Paolo Garbisi is one of the new young talents being trusted to play a key part in the rebuilding Italian squad. Garbisi looked assured during the Autumn Nations Cup and will look to build on those performances as he solidifies his place in the Azzurri XV. He will need his team to give him front-foot ball (which won’t be helped by Jake Polledri’s injury), but with a big boot and the confidence that comes with youth, he could be the one to lead this new generation of Italian rugby to improved performances and results.

Scotland

It’s probably no big surprise to see Duhan van der Merwe take this spot. Another wing to have recently qualified for his adopted nation through residency, van der Merwe brings a much more physical option to the Scottish attack out wide while still having the pace to exploit any gap. Early appearances have suggested that he will be given quite a bit of freedom to go hunting for the ball by Gregor Townsend, which could be just what the Scots need if they want to carryon last 2020’s success.

Wales

I was so close to picking Josh Macleod, but I’m not sure how much game time he will get, so instead I went for someone who has already been earning a spot in the squad: Louis Rees-Zammit. The Gloucester wing may still be young and have some learning to do, but he has one of the most dangerous weapons in international rugby – supreme pace. The only problem so far has been how the Welsh attack has wasted him and failed to give him the space to exploit, but if they can sort that out this year, he will be deadly!

During the Six Nations, I will be running a predictions pool on Superbru. For each match, you pick who you think will be the winner and the margin of victory and get points depending on how close your prediction was.

You can find my pool here or by downloading the Superbru app and searching for the pool with code tiernose

Schmoedown Season 8 Mock Draft

War has been declared in the Movie Trivia Schmoedown as season 8 kicked off with the Free Agency Special! Ahead of the 2021 Draft, each manager had to lock in 3 Schmoedown Pros from season 7 to their faction. Shannon Barney’s Faction Title gave her a 1 week head start and the ability to lock in her trio regardless of their thoughts, while the remaining 7 managers were at the mercy of the Free Agents, who get the final pick of which faction they join.

Well the Free Agency Special gave us some real shocks as Kaiser managed to convince both Dan Murrell and Ben Bateman to join him and Robert Parker in The Dungeon, while Drew McWeeny returned to competition with the Usual Suspects and JTE secured himself as Bobby Gucci’s 3ʳᵈ pick. But perhaps the shock of the night came as “Lady Justice” Marison McKee chose not to risk the raft and signed on with Kate Mulligan and the Den, only for Kate to trade her to KOrruption for Shannon’s 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ round picks!

On Friday, the 2021 Draft will take place, and managers will fill their rosters from the remaining rookies and Free Agents, but who will each manager select? I have put together a mock draft to try and predict how these teams may fill out.

A note on the picks:

Season 7 saw the Usual Suspects trade Ken Napzok, Jader Paramo and the 1ˢᵗ round pick in this year’s draft to the Burning Droogs for Ethan Ewrin. As the Droogs are no longer active, Samm retains his pick.
Season 7 also saw the Roxstars (now called the Stars) trade JTE to the Burning Droogs for Josh Quevedo and a 3ʳᵈ round pick. As the Droogs are no longer active, Roxy will have 2 picks in round 3 – her own pick and also an extra pick at the start of the round, which is where the Droogs would have been picking if still active.

Notable absences:

Andrew Ghai is arguably the biggest name missing from the Draft board, and it doesn’t seem that many people have seen him since he went missing during Spectacular.

Other notable veterans who were not on the draft list so appear to be sitting out the season are Matt Atchity, Scott Mantz, Tim Franco, Grae Drake, Hecor Navarro and Adam Hlavac.

Some key notes from this draft:

With Kate’s 2 Free Agent signings and first 2 draft picks covering the 3 main divisions, Kate opens Round 2 by taking a Star Wars competitor. While I imagine she’d want to show loyalty to Sean Sullivan, Laura Kelly’s #1 Contender match is too much of a draw to avoid.
Though she doesn’t get to pick until the end of Round 3, Shannon then has consecutive picks, which she uses to take Marc Edward Heuck and Sean Sullivan. Having made these 2 picks, she immediately offers both Heuck and Sullivan to the Den for Laura Kelly, which Kate accepts. This allows Shannon to get her top 5 back, while Kate still has an underrated Star Wars competitor in Sullivan and a dangerous Singles/Teams competitor in Heuck.
A number of managers show loyalty to promising Schmoedown Pros from last year’s factions
- The Dungeon brings back Zipper, Witt and Britney Young
- Samm brings back Jeannine and Jen Kempe as potential triple threats, as well as Doug Bensen, who did not get a match last season
- Kate brings back Saul, Silvestrini, Brett, Alex Marzoña (who was on the faction but did not get a match) and James White, while also bringing back Sean Sullivan in a trade
- The Mercs bring back Mara, Perri and the Reel Rejects
- Dagnino holds onto Andrew Dimalanta
- Roxy retains Stacy Howard, Jim Vejvoda, David Del Rio and Chris Jericho
- Winston brings back Ace, RB3 and Sean Gerber
- Shannon retains her top 5 and Eliot Dewberry during the draft. As she would only have 10 picks by the time every other faction is full, she will either have the last 2 picks of the draft or use Free Agency to bring back Claudia Dolph and Klee Wiggins, who both had limited opportunity to show what they could do in 2020
Roxy shows faith in Alex Damon in IG by taking Stacy Howard with her Round 1 pick, while also trusting that he will win his early Star Wars Title defence(s) and bringing in Thomas Harper with the intention of creating a Stars 1-2 at the top of the Star Wars rankings in the same way that Kaiser tried to do with Smets and Parker in IG last year
Roxy also brings in a couple of competitors to show her quality as a manager and further feuds with Dagnino and Shannon by bringing in Emily Rose Jacobson and Bonnie Somerville respectively
Winston picks up Mark Reilly and Haleigh Foutch with early picks, with the intention of making them this year’s Lon Harris and Liz Shannon Miller
Winston and Shannon will both draft second Star Wars competitors in the first half of the draft despite having recently signed a Star Wars specialist due to this second competitor – Zack Burkett and Jacob Wittneben also being a threat in IG

How do you think the draft will work out? Will Shannon get Laura Kelly back to KOrruption? Let me know in the comments.

In the meantime, pick your side and prepare for WAR!

The Wrong Move?

This weekend just gone, myself and a group of fellow Pistol Shrimps found ourselves on a Zoom call to wish a teammate a happy birthday, and talk invariably turned to the future. May 2021 should have seen the Shrimps competing in their 10ᵗʰ Aber 7s, but the COVID-19 pandemic has left us stuck on 8, with last year’s tournament cancelled and this year’s likely not going ahead either.

And yet the professional tournaments for “elite” players continue, despite people going down with COVID left, right and centre. Squads are currently being named for the Six Nations, despite the most recent 2 rounds of European rugby being canned due to France taking a stand against the pandemic. The whole build-up seems like a farce and after the boredom of the Autumn Nations Cup – with it’s empty stadiums and matches cancelled due to COVID outbreaks – I have never found myself less enthused about the start of the Six Nations.

I am a die-hard rugby fan, but right here, right now, the health of the population – in every country – is much more important. And yet as each round of Premiership rugby goes on, we hear of more players testing positive. Celebrations for scoring a try become limited, but if you can’t high five someone from your own bubble, why should you be able to scrum down against someone from outside your bubble? I understand that rugby needs to keep going as much as possible to avoid financial trouble, but the league is a farce when teams are getting more points for having to cancel due to COVID than teams who are successfully avoiding outbreaks, while the wrong people having to isolate can prove costly.

To me, rugby should be stopping its elite competitions right now and creating more localised bubbles containing a handful of local teams (Premiership teams could link with Championship teams) for smaller exhibition tournaments and effectively use this season as a long preseason ahead of next season, by which point we should be in a better place.

Taking players to the Six Nations is just a recipe for spreading the disease among a wider group, so I sincerely feel that the Six Nations should be missed this year, and I also find it hard to imagine that rugby will be ready for the Lions Tour to South Africa in the summer.

Right now, it’s hard to feel that professional rugby has any credibility, with money appearing to be much more important than health, safety or even the integrity of the game. I can’t help feel that if we look back at the end of 2021, I can’t help feel that we would agree that a break from competition ended up being the right call.

In the meantime, I will just continue to look ahead to the return of the COVID-free Super Rugby Aotearoa.

FREE AGENT FRENZY: Who Will Each Manager Pick?

With the voting closed for the Schmoedown Awards, which will be announced shrtly, it’s time to start looking ahead to season 8 and all-out WAR. Stage 1 of the war will begin 1 week after the Awards show in a Free Agent Special, which will end with each of the 8 factions having secured the services of 3 Schmoedown Pros ahead of the 2021 Draft.

But who will end up where? It’s not just a matter of the manager wanting a certain Schmoedown Pro, that person has to also decide that said manager is the right one for them. My predictions for tournament brackets were woefully off in season 7, so hopefully I can kick off season 8 with a bit more accuracy.

KOrruption

Not really a prediction here as Shannon Barney’s prize for winning the Faction Championship last season was the chance to lock in her 3 before Free Agency even opened for any other manager. In no real shock, Shannon chose to keep hold of Mike Kalinowski, Chance Ellison and Adam Collins, securing herself 2 triple-threats, one of the 3 longest-tenured teams (and arguably one of the elite teams) remaining in the league and the undefeated Singles Champion, who will be a solid lead to a second team.

mts teams division KOrruption mike kalinowski chance ellison

Stars

I’m making Roxy the first of my actual predictions as I can’t help feel that her trio is pretty obvious. I’m assuming that with big names like Chris Jericho there will be some unspoken agreement that other managers won’t come after them allowing Roxy to not have to use one of her 3 spots on him and being able to pick him up a couple of rounds into the draft. This will allow Roxy to pick up her 3 champions in Jeff Sneider, Marc Andreyko and Alex Damon. While Andreyko may only be featuring in Teams so may be on the bench early in the season, it gives Roxy an elite team once that division gets going, with a strong chance of defending for big points, while Sneider already has a #1 Contender Match scheduled. Similarly, Alex will likely still be the favourite in his upcoming title match, and can also look to push on after a great first season in IG and could also be a solid B player on a team, utilising the IG-specific wheel slices.

mts teams division the odd couple marc andreyko jeff sneider

Quirky Mercs

Next up is Coy Jandreau, as he is in a relatively similar situation to Roxy. Like Jericho, I am assuming that Coy will be able to pick up Kevin Smith in the draft, allowing him to get quality cover for 3 divisions with his 3 picks. Keeping hold of the Shazam! pairing of William Bibbiani and Brendan Meyer appears a no-brainer for all parties involved – Coy gets an elite team and 2 elite Singles competitors (as well as the master of FreeForAlls, while Shazam stick with the manager who got them over the hump and helped them win their first Team Title. For his final pick, I see Coy sticking with his top 3 from last year’s draft by picking Mara Knopic, who has a Title Match early in the season, and I can see Mara showing some loyalty to Coy for keeping her on the faction through season 7 despite being inactive.

MTS Shazam Announcers william bibbiani brendan meyer

S.W.A.G.

This is where things get interesting. Winston Marshall and Chandru Dhandapani look like a solid match so I envision the Innergeekdom Champion sticking with S.W.A.G. Paul Oyama looked revitalised with Winston and is a former champion with solid strategy, so I can see the pair also agreeing to stick together. However, I can see Final Exam coming to an end after twice failing to get the win against the elite teams, with Winston Marshall bringing in Ben Bateman as his third pick. I feel that Bateman will respect the effort that Winston puts into the league and his players, while a pairing with Oyama would cover some of his weaker areas like Classics and family movies, while he knows that Oyama will put in the same effort he will. Don’t be shocked to see Winston looking to secure Ace in the opening round of the draft.

mts chandru dhandapani innergeekdom entrance

The Den

The Den was hard to call as it feels like there will be big changes here with Kate now having a year of experience under her belt. Ben Goddard impressed over 3 divisions before being left out in the second half of the season, but I think that a fired-up Kate could convince him to stay as one of the leads within the faction. I wouldn’t be shocked to see Paul Preston move on after a disappointing season, but I think that she could convince him to stay by proving she has learned from last season and pairing him with the GOAT Dan Murrell. A shock move for Murrell? Maybe, but the faction feels like it has good quality and was just missing an elite veteran to lead them.

feat mts Movie-Trivia-Schmoedown-Dangerous-Dan-Murrell

Finstock Exchange

What a difference a year makes. Tom Dagnino kicked off 2020 by drafting all 4 Horsemen and future star “The Barbarian”. Now hehas to start almost from scratch after losing the support of Ben Bateman and then throwing out Dan Murrell. By doing so though, he appears to have secured the services of John Rocha to lead the faction. Early in the offseason, I had thoughts that Ben Bateman may convince The Barbarian to follow him to a new faction where they could pair up, but I now see Dagnino holding onto him by offering him a partnership with Rocha as the lead team. Barbarian’s ability to also cover IG means that Dagnino will look to cover all 4 divisions with his 3 picks by holding onto Andrew Dimalanta, who has a guaranteed title shot early in the season.

Usual Suspects

So much was expected from the Suspects last season, but the early retirement of Drew McWeeny and the impact of COVID seriously hampered their season. One good thing did come of it though: a trade with the Burning Droogs that involved Ethan Erwin joining the Suspects at the cost of their 1ˢᵗ round draft pick. Well the dissolution of the Droogs has allowed Samm to keep his draft pick and I’m sure he will also be keeping Ethan Erwin. However, it looks like he may be getting a new partner as Andrew Ghai has been MIA on the Schmoedown scene since Spectacular, while he has also previously talked about how he is focused on Teams but struggles in the online environment. For that reason, I see Samm looking for a new partner for Erwin, and who better than someone who he already knows well: Liz Shannon Miller, who had a great run in the Singles Tournament. For the final spot, I see Samm also showing faith in someone whose 1-2 record this season does not match up with her quality, Jeannine “The Machine”, who could become a legitimate triple threat if she looks to carry on from her foray into the IG tournament.

The Dungeon

And so that brings us to The Dungeon, who probably have a little more wiggle room here as they own the 1ˢᵗ overall pick in the draft to supplement their 3 picks here. Last season, Kaiser chose to try dominating the IG Division with his early draft picks, picking up Kevin Smets and Robert Parker with his first 2 picks. Well Smets will be inactive this year as he continues to smash cancer, so I see Robert Parker stepping into the role of the team’s IG leader. I expect the IG focus to continue though with the acquisition of Brandon Hanna, who is the 4ᵗʰ most accurate of all time in IG (min 5 matches) and hinted at his quality outside the division with his foray into Teams with Jader Paramo. Hanna is an underrated player and as a triple threat, he could cause some havoc under Kaiser’s tutelage. For his final spot, I can see Kaiser showing loyalty with one of his originals and holding onto Eric Zipper, who is another legitimate triple threat and has improved year on year. Don’t be shocked to see Kaiser looking to pick up the best available Singles/Teams competitor on the board with his opening pick to pair with Zipper/Hanna.

So those are my predictions. Who you think each manager will pick up?

Premier League 2020/21: December

Happy New Year Premier League fans!

Before I get into this, I have a sincere apology to make, to my good friend Chris and all Spurs fans. It was beginning to look like this would finally be their season, but it would appear that I jinxed them by praising them so much in last month’s article, as they promptly went off the boil and dropped right out of the Champions League qualifying spots.

Tottenham were replaced at the top of the table by Liverpool, who led the league at Christmas as saw in the new year at the top spot, though Manchester United finished the month just3 points behind with a game in hand. Leicester and Everton filled out the top 4, though Villa are just 3 points behind, with a game in hand on Everton and 2 on the Foxes. The rest of the big name teams (other than 13ᵗʰ-placed Arsenal) fill out the rest of the top 8, with Chelsea, Spurs and Manchester City all finishing the month on the same number of points as Villa, though games in hand favour City and Villa.

At the bottom of the table, Chris Wilder’s seat must be feeling pretty toasty, as Sheffield United’s 1-1 draw at Brighton saw them double their points tally for the season, 6 points behind West Brom, who have turned to Sam Allardyce to keep them up. Fulham fill the final spot in the relegation zone, but they are only 2 points behind Brighton with a game in hand, while Burnley will hope that their improved form helps continue to pull them away from danger.

The race is on!

The race for the Golden Boot: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) – 13 goals; Son Heung-Min (Tottenham), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton) & Jamie Vardy (Leicester) – 11 goals

The race for Playmaker of the Season: Harry Kane (Tottenham) – 10 assists; Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) & Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) – 7 assists

The race for the Golden Glove: Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa) – 8 clean sheets; Ederson (Manchester City) & Alex McCarthy (Southampton) – 7 clean sheets

Rewarding honesty

Anyone who has been reading my Premier League thoughts for years will know that I hate diving. It’s cheating, pure and simple, a way to deceive the officials into giving a penalty or a free kick.

Now, we’re certainly in a much better place then we were a few season ago, but there are still far too many occasions where you see players either going to ground without being touched or feeling the slightest brush from a defender and Launching themselves through the air as if they were taking flight.

This issue (and the obvious solution) was highlighted to me as I watched 2 matches on 5ᵗʰ December: Chelsea’s 3-1 win over Leeds and Manchester City’s 2-0 win over Fulham. With the score 2-1 at Stamford Bridge, Ian Poveda was caught in the box by Ben Chilwell. Rather than go to ground, he stayed on his feet in an attempt to still make something from the situation, but the chance was now gone. What should have been a clear penalty to Leeds ended up being nothing. Meanwhile at the Etihad, Fulham defender Joachim Andersen caught Raheem Sterling in the box. Though there was less contact than in the Poveda incident, Raheem didn’t hesitate in throwing his legs into the air and doing a dramatic belly flop, and the penalty was awarded for Kevin De Bruyne to double the score and secure the win.

And herein lies the issue and the reason that players will continue to dive: if they are honest and stay on their feet, officials will not react. Officials need to go back to basics and look at what constitutes a foul – it does not need to include the player going to floor. If they start rewarding the honesty of players by awarding a free kick or penalty even when the player keeps their feet, then players will not have to dive in order to win the decision they are due – and anyone who continues to can be rightly vilified!

Classless

On 16ᵗʰ December, West Brom became the first Premier League team this season to part ways with their manager, with he announcement that they had sacked Slaven Bilić. That very same day, Sam Allardyce was announced as the new manager. It’s understandable why West Brom made the change, as they were 19ᵗʰ in the league on just 7 points. The problem is, this came less than 24 hours after the team held Manchester City to a 1-1 draw at the Etihad.

No offence to West Brom, but a draw at the Etihad is likely going to be one of the best results of the season, and the fact that both the sacking and the new appointment were announced the next day says to me that the decision was already made ahead of the match, so to sack a manager right after such a positive result shows a certain lack of class.

Big Sam may be an expert in keeping teams up, but this is a weak team in a strong league, and I can’t see this appointment paying off. Bilić will find another team and it would be a beautiful irony if West Brom drops to the Championship and Bilić manages in the Premier League before the Baggies make it back up.

Boom or bust

Leeds have been a breath of fresh air in the league this season. Under the watch of Marcelo Bielsa, the Whites have brought a flashy attack-minded gameplan that has surely been winning them the support of neutrals in a number of matches.

Of course, it hasn’t been all success for them, as their big wins (like 5-2 against Newcastle and 0-5 at West Brom) are a flip side to equally big losses, like the 6-2 loss at Old Trafford. They find themselves entering the new year with 7 wins, 7 losses and 2 draws, with 30 goals for and 30 goals against.

While this level of success will be enough to keep them up this year, they will need to find some way to adapt their game in the long-term, so that they can continue to be super dangerous in attack, but not at the expense of their defence. After all, a focus on attacking brilliance is fine, until your star striker gets hurt or hits a barren spell – I’ve learned that the hard way on FIFA!

Transfer talk

The new year means that the transfer window is open again, and some teams certainly need to be utilising it, as some teams have a clear need.

While Manchester City may finally be creeping back up the table, they are still feeling the impact of playing much of the season without a recognised striker. With Aguero and Jesus, they don’t need to break the bank on a superstar, but they need to get someone who has a striker’s natural instincts if they want to start winning the close games.

Other teams that are in desperate need of a striker are Wolves – who have really missed Raúl Jiménez since his head injury – and Brighton, who are rotating between Neal Maupay, Aaron Connolly, Florin Andone and Danny Welbeck of all people!

Meanwhile, Edinson Cavani has been a great option for Manchester United while Bruno Fernandes has helped drag the Red Devils into the title hunt, but they will need an elite winger and centreback if they legitimately want to win the league – though their early elimination from the Champions League will make it even harder for them to get that kind of quality, especially with Ed Woodward still in his role!

What other teams do you think have a burning need to fill during this transfer window?

Team of the Month

Everton

The Toffees get my vote for December as, following a drop in form, they returned with an unbeaten month. Things kicked off with a 1-1 draw at Burnley, and then they followed this up with 4 wins: 1-0 against Chelsea, 0-2 at Leicester, 2-1 against Arsenal and 0-1 at Sheffield United. That’s a 7-2 aggregate score in December, including wins against 2 of their rivals for European qualification and another big name team to boot!

They are certainly not the perfect team, with Jordan Pickford skittish between the sticks and summer loan signing Robin Olsen not sufficient competition, but in this season where nobody looks like they will run away with the league, a Champions League spot looks a real possibility, so long as they can stay consistent.

And the Award Goes to…

Happy New Year y’all! It’s time to start putting 2020 behind us, but before we completely forget about it, we need to take one more look at Season 7 in order to pick the winners for the 2020 Schmoedown Awards.

As a Patron of the Schmoedown, I had the honour of being involved in the voting process for this year’s awards, and wanted to take a moment to reflect on a bright point in a poor year and talk through my votes.

So without further ado, my votes went to:

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Jeff Sneider (8-3 overall) 4-2 in singles, tournament finals, 4-1 in teams. Teams tournament winner, team champion)
Adam Collins (8-1 overall) (7-0 in singles, 1-1 in teams, FreeForAll Horror Winner)
Dan Murrell (4-1 in singles, 3-1 in title matches, defended title twice. 1-2 in teams)
Chance Ellison: 7-3 overall Won the IG tourney, went 4-0 in the tourney. 2-1 in teams, won teams titles. 1-1 in singles
Andres Cabrera 4-2 overall in Star Wars and IG, went 4-0 in Star Wars tourney from play in and won SW tourney

So most of the talk I have heard has been between Sneider and Collins for understandable reasons given their second half of the season. Ace did fantastic in the Star Wars Division, but only played 1 match (a loss) outside of the Division so I can’t give him the award. Murrell doesn’t have the same number of wins, but almost every match he played was for a title and an absolute thriller. Collins’ Singles run was fantastic, but like Ace he barely played outside of that division so misses out on the overall award. Sneider had a fantastic end to the season, finishing with a tournament victory, a Teams Title and another tournament final with an 8-3 record. However my vote goes to someone who I think has been criminally underlooked: Chance Ellison won a Teams title like Sneider (the only difference being Sneider hasn’t had a chance to lose it since) and finished with a similar record (7-3, just one match less) while also winning the IG tournament and fighting for that title, but what he did that nobody else on this list did is compete in 3 Divisions and find a degree of success in each – exactly what I’m looking for with the overall award.

SINGLES PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Adam Collins 7-0, 1 title win, singles tournament winner. 6-0 in tourney
Dan Murrell 4-1, one title win, 2 title defenses
Jeff Sneider 4-2, tournament finalist
Liz Shannon Miller 3-1, tournament semi finalist
Ethan Erwin 5-2, semi finalist

Let’s be honest, this is a pretty easy one. Jeff, Ethan and Liz had great campaigns, while Dan Murrell defeated Meyer, Bibbiani, Bateman (twice) and Erwin in stunning fashion. However, it’s hard to give this award to anyone other than Adam Collins, who took the league by storm and went unbeaten in the division, including defeating Murrell at Spectacular!

UPSET OF THE YEAR

Perri beats Kalinowski
Cabrera beats Laura Kelly
Collins beats Rocha
Chance beats Parker
Cabrera beats Dimalanta

So this may be a hot take, but I didn’t actually consider Cabrera the underdog against Dimalanta, so I can rule that one out. While Robert Parker’s loss to Chance was a shock, I think that maybe we expected too much too soon from a rookie. Perri beating Kalinowski and Collins beating Rocha were certainly shocks, but I think that both of the higher-ranked competitors were below their best, which is why I go for Kelly v Cabrera, as this was Laura Kelly at her best, missing just 1 question in the entire game, and Ace having to be at his very best to come away with the win.

TEAM OF THE YEAR

Odd Couple 4-1, tournament winners, one title win
Shazam 3-1 one title win
Final Exam 4-2, tournament finalists
KOrruption 2-1, 1 title win
Founding Fathers 1-2

So this was a pretty interesting one, with 4 teams having held the Teams Title in 2020. The fact that the Founding Fathers made the shortlist with a winning record says it all. When I make the pick here, I feel that you need to look at repeated success (so a high win-loss record), while having also won the title. KOrruption and Shazam both get ruled out due to Final Exam and Odd Couple having more wins, but as Final Exam could not win a belt, they also get ruled out and leaves the Odd Couple as my vote.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

Adam Collins 8-1 over two divisions, Horror FreeForAll Winner
Barbarian 4-2 over two divisions
Goddard 4-2 over three divisions
Marisol McKee 2-2 over two divisions
Kevin Smith 2-0

Another one that ended up being a clear option. Credit to Marisol McKee, Kevin Smith and all the other rookies who showed their quality in 2020, but there was a clear top 3. Ben Goddard’s early success across 3 divisions had him leading the race and also in contention for Player of the Year, but not competing in the Teams or Singles tournaments cost him. Similarly, Craig “The Barbarian” Gaynier showed early success in Singles and IG, but not being in he Teams tournament hurt him. The clear winner here is Adam Collins. He may have only gone 1-1 in Teams but he still ended up with the same number of wins as Ben and the Barbarian combined with just 1 loss to his name and the Singles Belt around his waist.

COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Andres Cabrera SW tourney winner
Lon Harris Teams division come back and advancing in singles tourney
Liz Shannon Miller Semi finals in tourney
Jeff Sneider wins teams titles for 3rd time, makes it to singles finals
Perri Nemiroff: after long layoff, defeats Mike Kalinowski, pushes Reilly and pulls off biggest 3 round comeback in teams

So this is an interesting one with no clear winner to me. I don’t personally see what Ace’s “comeback” is from, as a loss to Team Champs in season 2 and a mauling in IG against Robert Parker is not enough to me. Likewise, Liz went 3-2 last season, with both losses coming to people on their run to the Singles Title. Sneider held a Teams Title and competed for the Singles Title in 2019, while Perri’s 2-2 record doesn’t seem award-worth to me. Lon Harris, however, limped to a 2-4 overall record last year while playing with 3 different teammates, but this year found success with Paul Oyama and SWAG, while also completely reinventing himself with his switch from Professor to Delinquent, and therefore gets my vote.

FACTION OF THE YEAR

KOrruption: Faction champions, singles title, teams title, IG tourney, singles tourney
SWAG: Second place, IG title, Star Wars tourney, teams finals
Roxstars: Third place, teams championship, Star Wars championship
Finstock Exchange: teams title, singles title
Quirky Mercs, teams title

For me, this was a 2-horse race between KOrruption and SWAG, who ran away with the Faction championship. While both had success, KOrruption won 2 titles to SWAG’s 1 during the season and also won 2 of the 4 tournaments and the Horror FreeForAll, on the way to winning the Faction Championship, so I have to give my vote to them.

FEUD OF THE YEAR

Roxy vs Shannon
Shannon vs Winston
Dagnino vs Bateman
Founding Fathers vs KOrruption
Chandru vs Smets

So for me, the feud needs to go on for a while and remain relevant, which gives the advantage to those between managers, so I’m ruling out the bottom two, while I also think that Tom v Ben has been mainly shots for long distance rather than face to face. So that leaves Shannon (shock!) vs either Roxy or Winston. But as I said, relevance is also important and – though it may sound harsh – the Roxstars were never a legitimate threat to KOrruption, whereas SWAG were, which gave the extra edge to Shannon v Winston.

MANAGER OF THE YEAR

Shannon Barney
Winston Marshall
Roxy Striar
Tom Dagnino
Coy Jandreau

Another that was really a two-horse race in my mind, but as Roxy has also got a lot of backing I will go through all 5. Bobby Gucci’s managing style doesn’t work online and he proved unable to adapt effectively to the new format forced upon us, whilst also allowing too much squabbling within the faction. Roxy Striar may be getting some love for her speeches to the Odd Couple and the fact that she had competitors in 3/6 Spectacular matches, but 2 of those matches were basically gifted to her by drafting Alex Damon at a sport where it would have been stupid to pick anyone else and having a connection to a famous name who wanted to play. I would put her above Dagnino, but I also question why such an experienced manager is still having to constantly give speeches to stop 2 experienced Schmoedown Pros from giving up, while I also can’t ignore the missteps with Josh Quevedo and Jim Vejvoda. Coy Jandreau takes third for doing well with his whole factin, with the Reel Rejects getting a win, Greg Alba turning heads in IG and Perri making an impressive return to the league, while he also got Shazam to the title. However, with the Mercs being so far behind in the faction Standings, there is then a big gap between him and the top 2.

And so it comes down to Winston v Shannon. Shannon has 2 titles won, 1 title lost and a missed title. Winston has 1 title won, a successful defence and a missed title. So we’re pretty even there. Shannon brought out the best in Laura Kelly and discovered Marisol and Adam, but also had the benefit of pre-made team in former Team Champions KOrruption. Winston however had to start from scratch and did a great job by pairing Paul Oyama and Lon Harris, who were both revitalised with changes to their character, while he also got the best out of Liz Shannon Miller and Andres Cabrera. Shannon may have come away with the Faction Championship, but I feel that she started with a step up by having 2 established and experienced triple threats to fall back on, so Winston Marshall gets my vote.

ENTRANCE OF THE YEAR

ZaFlertinFlouse (Vs Smith)
Reel Rejects (VS The Pride)
Bonnie Somerville (Vs Mckee)
Reel Rejects (VS Cuckoos Mess)
Shazam (VS Final Exam)

This is difficult, as the move to the online format took away a lot of the possible theatricality that we got in the early months of the season. The Reel Rejects’ entrance against The Pride was fun, but as I didn’t know Red Letter Media, it just didn’t hit as well with me. The Delinquent Kid was a fun bit from Shazam that played well an honoured their opponents. Bonnie’s steamy entrance certainly got pulses racing. After the joy of SEN Live’s descent into madness midway through the pandemic, the return of ZaFlertinFlouse was the true highlight of Spectacular. My vote however goes to the Reel Rejects v Cuckoo’s Mess, as the masks were a fun gimmick (and in hindsight, a premonition of our entire year), but it went to another level as John Rocha stormed out and took Greg’s Guy Fawkes mask – a jab at Rocha beating Greg to the award last year – only for John to remove his Jigsaw mask to reveal a second Guy Fawkes mask, which he removed and gave to Greg, unveiling a second Jigsaw mask! Perfection!

HEEL OF YEAR

Shannon Barney
Chandru Dhandapani
Brandon Hanna
Jeff Sneider
Eliot Dewberry
Laura Kelly

Laura Kelly and Eliot Dewberry’s heel turns this season were great, but unfortunately had limited screen time, while Sneider also doesn’t really stick in my mind for his heel antics this year, other than his rants about Innergeekdom. And so that leaves us with 3 very different heels. Shannon kicked things off with a bang by breaking up the Wildberries, and carried on the season as a highly entertaining villain, who I couldn’t wait to see what she did next. Brandon Hanna’s speeches helped cure my insomnia this season, while Chandru’s arrogance, dancing and disrespect made him someone you couldn’t help loathe. While I think the vote should go to Hanna or Chandru, I’ve always preferred the entertaining heels, so after losing out on Manager of the Year, Shannon Barney gets my vote here.

BABYFACE OF THE YEAR

The Kid
Kevin Smith
Coy Jandreau
Andres Cabrera
Perri Nemiroff

Coy and Ace both did a great job of playing faces while keeping the competitive edge. The Kid remained a fine young tenderoni even during his delinquent phase, and his heavy breathing in the tight moments was somewhat endearing, if annoying to the Chairman. Kevin Smith added his own brand to the league, but Perri Nemiroff just gets my vote as she looked to enjoy her return to the league and matches against people she knew well.

MOMENT OF THE YEAR

Murrell vs Collins Post interview
Shannon drafts Dewberry
Murrell disbelief says “I won” when beating Bateman after 6 point comeback
Bibbs and Andreyko have touching moment in post interview Spectacular
Kevin Smith gives Chris Jericho….Kevin Smith movies on Opponents choice

What a great set of moments here and all of them enjoyable for different reasons. For me though, it has to be the bombshell moment during the draft where Shannon Barney drafted Dewberry immediately after Winston drafted Macuga, thereby breaking up the Wildberries. It was so out of nowhere and showed that even as a rookie manager, Shannon was not going to hold back when it came to being a heel, and it is a shame that the move online due to the pandemic meant that much of the progression of this storyline – all from a heat of the moment decision by Shannon – was lost.

HEEL TEAM OF YEAR

KOrruption
The Pride
Deception
The Odd Couple
Category 9

So for this, I’ve decided to prioritise how they act rather than their success in matches. To be honest, I think this category really took a hit by the move online. Category 9 didn’t even feel like a fully heel team in their one match and needed time to grow. The Pride calling themselves heels was like a child throwing a tantrum because they wanted to be treated like an adult. Deception wasclearly a heel team, but they were focusing on results over dramatics first. Both Odd Couple and KOrruption had their moments where they felt like heels, but also others hat ere much tamer as the emotion of events overcame them, but I think that as part of an entirely heel faction, KOrruption felt the more consistent.

BABYFACE TEAM OF THE YEAR

Shazam
Final Exam
Witching Power
The Reel Rejects
Founding Fathers

This was a hard choice, and as much as I enjoyed the light-heartedness of the Reel Rejects and Witching Power, I felt that Final Exam and Shazam had the harder tasks of remaining faces in much more meaningful matches. While both did this well, I give my vote this year to Final Exam, as Lon Harris and Paul Oyama both looked to make U-turns from their heel personas of last year and did so in a way that felt natural within the story, and continued on through the matches themselves.

NEW TEAM OF THE YEAR

Final Exam
Deep 13
The Pride
The Witching Power
Deception

So for this, I was looking at success in the year, and that meant that there is a clear winner, Deep 13 started well but not competing in the tournament hurt them, as was the case for The Pride, while Deception the Witching Power actually lost out due to only having the tournament, leaving Final Exam, who found success both before and during the tournament.

MATCH OF THE YEAR

Murrell vs Collins
Murrell vs Bateman I
Odd Couple vs Final Exam
Dimalanta vs Scrimshaw
Dimalanta vs Cabrera
Korruption vs Founding Fathers
Murrell vs Bibbs vs The Kid
Murrell vs Bateman II
Odd Couple vs Shazam
Smith vs Jericho

There are so many great matches here and that is a real testament to the league, that the season could continue at such a high level despite the switch to an online format. For me, I need a relatively close match, with a pretty high level of competition, but I also want something beyond just the competition. As many great matches as we had this season, my mind still always goes back to Atlanta, and Murrell v Bateman I. While it wasn’t 2 competitors going at 100% accuracy, the level of trivia was still super high but allowed for the scoreline and momentum to go back and forth, with Murrell coming from 5 down to win in Sudden Death.

PODCAST OF THE YEAR

A Certain Point of View
Call To Action
Let’s Get Ready
Repeat the Question
Machine Mondays

It’s not just the quality of the league that is getting better, as more and more podcasts and shows have set up to cover the league and push the standard of reporting up to new heights. A shout-out first of all to those who missed out on the shortlist this time around, it just shows how much quality content is out there. Unfortunately, that sheer amount of content has made it hard for me to keep up, and it has led to many of the podcasts not getting the love they deserve from me this year. While I have loved everything I’ve seen from all of these podcasts, I find myself voting for Call To Action due to their range of shows, from match breakdowns to Chill To Action, which has been a great show to get to know Schmoedown Pros better without the kayfabe, which has certainly helped me grow a greater appreciation for some of the characters in the league.

INNERGEEKDOM PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Chandru Dhandapani
Chance Ellison
Mike Kalinowski
Brandon Hanna
Alex Damon

To me, there are only people who can really be in consideration here: Chance Ellison and Chandru Dhandapani. Chance has more wins, with a 4-0 run to win the IG tournament, but he then has a loss to Chandru, who won all 3 of his matches, including a title shot and a title defence. I hate doing this, but I have to give this award to the belt and Chandru Dhandapani.

STAR WARS PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Andres Cabrera
Alex Damon
Laura Kelly
Andrew Dimalanta
Mollie Damon

So this one goes along similar lines to IG Player of the Year, with it being a fight between tournament winner Ace Cabrera and Champion Alex Damon. However, where Chandru’s win of the title and defence were enough to overcome Chance’s superior number of wins, Alex only played once in the division this season, and though that was a win over Cabrera, the run from play in match to tournament victory gives Andres Cabrera my vote.

How do my votes tally up against yours? Let me know what you think and where your votes went!