FAF Roll of Honour

For the first time in FAF history, a team lifted the championship for the second time. The victorious Voodoo Volunteers made it two wins in three years. The 2023 side emulated the 2021 team but was rarely favoured throughout the year. The Volunteers topped the table just the once through the regular season despite getting off to a strong start with a 5 game win streak to kick things off. A real dip in form during the middle of the season lowered expectations significantly. Four losses from weeks 6-9 along with stellar performances elsewhere meant Voodoo was not the juggernaut they had been in previous years.

Another surge put the Volunteers back amongst the contenders and they were able to confirm a playoff position with a week to spare. It was a handy buffer to have as Voodoo found themselves on the losing end in week 14. The team's points were down on prior campaigns and they were seen as a fairly distant third despite a creditable 9-5 record during the regular season.

The semi finals pitted Voodoo against 11 Fat Men who had made a rapid rise through the FAF ranks and to that point had a perfect record in semi final games. It was a tense encounter with the difference ultimately being the Miami Dolphins Defense who performed magnificently. It was enough to put the Volunteers into the final for the second time in their third playoff season in a row.

The final was higher scoring but for Voodoo that was in part due to one man. Amari Cooper put in a legendary performance while the remainder of the team were largely at or below par. Against a Phoenix Knights unit making their first appearance in a final it was enough. Cooper's 51.5 points set a standard that might not ever be met in a final and meant a second championship trophy would be heading to Voodoo.

The 2022 season saw the title taken by the New England Patriot Missiles who became the RBB FAF Champions one year after having narrowly missed out in the 2021 final. Suffering no real hangover from the exertions the year before, the Missiles were able to put together a strong year throughout 2022 to register a 9-5 season and a place in the playoffs. New England did have a slight blip in the middle of the season, losing back to back games in weeks 6 and 7 but the team was dependable throughout.

The last game of the regular season was an unusual one. The Missiles found themselves handily beaten by Ratscallions in a game that confirmed the Rats in 4th place and into the playoffs themselves. New England's path to the title first meant having to overcome the upstart Payton Raiders who had produced a 10 win season in their first year in Division 1. New England put on a dominant performance, amasing an almighty 180 points in one of the most impressive post-season efforts the league had ever seen.

The huge score in the semi finals put New England into the championship game for the second consecutive season. The first team to ever find themselves in that position. In 2021 they had fallen short against Voodoo but this time round it was Ratscallions who stood in their way. The teams had split the regular season contents 1-1 during 2022 so an evenly balanced matchup was on the cards. So it proved. Both teams showed they were worthy to be in the showpiece event. It could have gone either way but New England eventually claimed the trophy with a narrow 9 point win and a jubilant occasion for the Missiles.

The first expansion team to win the FAF Championship were the 2021 Voodoo Volunteers. The Volunteeers were also the first side to lift the title while based outside of the UK, bringing the prestigious FAF trophy to Haiti. The team had already shown promise during the rookie season in 2020, just missing out on the playoffs. 2021 saw the team climb all the way to the top, powered in part by the arm of Aaron Rodgers. A monster season by Cooper Kupp as well paired with Davante Adams at wideout offered terrific returns for the team throghout the year.

During the Regular Season, the Volunteers went 9-5 to land the 3 seed for the playoffs despite backing into them with 2 straight losses. The blip towards the end of the Regular Season meant nothing for the playoffs though. Voodoo's performances during the semi final and final were extremely strong. Their score in the semi final round was higher than anyone else in Division One for week 15 as they eliminated Ratscallions who had managed an impressive 10 wins on the year.

The final was an even mightier performance from Voodoo. A matchup for the ages against the 11-3 New England Patriot Missiles was always going to whet the appetite but the final itself delivered beyond expectation. In taking on the 1 seed, the Volunteers would clearly need to be at their best. They were. The predicted score was fairly close but both teams significantly outperformed expectations. The Volunteers stars performed as well as anticipated but it was a Christmas Day RB pickup who pushed Voodoo over the top. Justin Jackson had been injured much of the year but his incredible week 16 made the difference. It had to. The Missiles were in catch-up mode during the late games and for a moment it did look like they might actually pull off something incredible themeselves. It was not to be though. Voodoo held on having registered an incredible 162.58 points in a final where their opponent also put up a big score.

The Volunteers etched their names into FAF immortality with a great season including a magnificent Post-Season. The team had picked right near the end of the draft, were not an original FAF team, and were based outside the originating core in the UK yet tipped the scales and led to the first champsionship being claimed by a team in the Western Hemisphere. Worthy 2021 Champions.

2019 champions No Talent Allstars were the pre-season favourites. Ranked No 1 and claiming to have won the pre-season, on paper it looked like a procession but their ascension to the top was far from the easy ride some may have expected. Much was expected given their being helmed by the most successful Blood Bowl coach with a keen interest and knowledge of the NFL, the man who had initiated the RBB League coming into existence. Those expectations came crashing down in week one though with a loss first up against the MLA Irregulars.

Further down weeks followed with a series of low scores and a 2-3 record after 5 weeks. It looked as though the Allstars had played themselves firmly out of the favourites tag and struggling to keep pace with the higher scoring teams. Something clicked in the middle of the season and the Allstars began gelling as a team and racking up the wins. The only blip another loss to the Irregulars but it was weeks 13 and 14 which really pushed the team on to greater heights with revenge wins against The Savages and the Unforced Errors. It was a tough stretch run towards the playoffs but those two wins against fellow contenders meant it was enough to see the team through.

In the playoffs, the Allstars showed up. A season's best score in the semi finals against the Muswell Hillbillies held off an impressive performance of its own by Muswell but it was on to the final for the Allstars. The final match saw them pitted against The Savages. The rubber match after splitting the series during the regular season. Although the Blood Bowling rivalry between the coaches was by now quite a distant memory, it was in any case an intriguing matchup.

The final was tense. It was a low scoring week 16 across the board. In the end though, the Allstars had done enough. They became the first ever RBB FAF Champions and etched their name in history. Key to their stretch run was Derrick Henry. The workhorse back of the Tennessee Titans was consistently a strong performer and proved as much in the lead-up to the title game. A bold coaching decision saw him benched for the final but stellar efforts by Julio Jones and Travis Kelce won the game and the title for the Allstars. It had been a great first season for the league and a worthy champion stood tall at the end in the form of the No Talent Allstars.