Playoff Challenge Roll of Honour

2024

2024 saw the RBB community take the Playoff Challenge in-house after the NFL dropped their version shortly before the playoffs began. The home grown approach was clearly welcome for the Edmonton Anomalies who produced a powerful performance throughout the entire Challenge. It was the first time any team led the way from bell to bell as never before had a team that topped the Wildcard Round gone on to lift the championship at the end of the Challenge.

Although it was not the highest scoring Wildcard Round, it was an important win in that first outing for the Anomalies. Every round was won by a different team as squads peaked at different stages of the competition. But Edmonton was solid throughout. They were never out of the top four in any round across 2024.

The Superbowl was a tense time though. It was only once the final drive was in the books that the Anomalies could celebrate. Despite having a decent lead going in to the grand finale, it was chipped away in an exciting conclusion to the Challenge. In the end, Edmonton managed to claim the title by a meagre 4 points, the second smallest winning margin to this point. It was enough though and a first ever Playoff Challenge for a Canadian side was secured.

2023

2023 saw the largest Playoff Challenge group so far with 20 participants. A range of new approaches came to the fore including some innovative player selections. The Wildcard Round saw 3 teams from Spain lead the way with a record pace set. The Challenge changed from the Divisional round onwards though. The Maseru Irregulars won each of the final 3 rounds with huge scores along the way. Despite being 19th after the Wildcard, the Irregulars tear was so strong that they set a new record for points scored in a Challenge.

The Irregulars set the highest score for any round in the Superbowl, falling just shy of becoming the first team to register a 300 point round. The team managed to have 3 players with huge scores in Mahomes, Kelce, and Brown. The combination was too much for the chasing pack despite some major scoring elsewhere in the Challenge especially from Spacecast Simulators who themselves put up the second best overall score to this point.

The Irregulars became the first franchise to register two Playoff Challenge titles having won the 2021 iteration while playing in Gombe. In 2021 it had been close with just a few points in it but this time round the Irregulars performance was simply unstoppable. Their last place finish in 2022 appeared to be an aberration compared to their other results of 1st, 1st, 2nd. With this triumph, the Irregulars set themselves up as the gold standard for Playoff Challenges and one all others would have to conquer in order to become champions themselves.

2022

A dominant debut performance by the Dallas Buyers Club took home the glory in 2022 with a new single season record of 845 points. Dallas was strong throughout the competition, topping the table from the Divisional Round onwards. It did look fairly close with NTA but the latter faded away in the Superbowl to leave Dallas the clear and well-deserved winner - in their first season of operation.

2022 smashed records for point scoring with the top five finishers landing the top spots for a single season. However, it could all have been different but for an exceptional end to the Divisonal Round in particular a final 13 second drive which transformed seasons. Riding Kansas City and the LA Rams in the main, Dallas benefited from 4x multipliers in the final for star players like Cooper Kupp but had accumulated a lot of points through the KC offense to get there. It was still a strong standing in the Superbowl itself though, finishing second in the last round.

Dallas performed exceptionally throughout. Their lowest ranking was tied 4th in the Wildcard Round before smashing the Divisional Round record and then finishing 2nd in both the Conference Championship and the Superbowl. They were tracked fairly closely by NTA but with such consistently heavy scoring, it was only going to be the Buyers Club lifting the trophy once the final whistle had blown. An amazing debut performance.

2021

The Gombe Irregulars won the the title in 2021 despite not topping the table in any round. The Irregulars put up strong performances in the Divisional Round, Conference Round, and Super Bowl to lead by one point at the end of the Conference Round. They managed to hold despite late surges from other sides to win by the incredibly narrow margin of 3 points.

It was a high scoring year in the Playoff Challenge with the change in the NFL's playoff format. The Irregulars scored heavily in the Conference Round. Their 288 points in that round was the second highest in any round over the first two years of the Challenge. It could have been different though, especially once the Packers were eliminated from the playoffs as a stronger performance by Kansas City in the Super Bowl would have delivered a different outcome to the Challenge. It was actually the last meaningful play that handed the title to the Irregulars who would have lost by 1 point had the pass been incomplete rather than intercepted.

The strategy that had seen the Irregulars end up in 2nd place in 2020 broadly worked again in 2021 by not over-emphasising the Wildcard Round in favour of trying to score more heavily in later rounds. In the end though, the team which purused that strategy to the maximum was the one that just fell short in 2021. After the first two seasons, it is pretty unquestionable that the Gombe Irregulars have been the team to beat. Their 2nd overall spot in 2020 followed by victory in 2021 gave them the best overall score as well as the top performance in the 2 years of Superbowls, Conference Rounds, and Divisional Rounds along with the best average finishing position.

2020

The FSW Trainees were the first ever winners of the RBB Playoff Challenge. Their 2020 run was anchored by a a powerful performance in the Conference Round, putting up the most points of any team in any round with 216. The Trainees had got off to a hot start in the Wildcard round, their 80 points placing them second after that round.

There was a little concern in the Trainees camp after the Divisional Round but in truth, the team's placing third after that round was the lowest placing after any round the team experienced in 2020. FSW was clearly the most consistent side throughout the competition. The sound strategy for team formation giving them a placing of no lower than 5th in any round. A solid core of players who largely advanced through the rounds was accompanied by a sprinkling of stardust from those who played fewer games but more spectacularly. The combination worked wonders for the Trainees.

Inevitably the Superbowl was tense given the greater points at stake in the game. Still, the Trainees again performed admirably, their 3rd place finish in the final round was accompanied by other challenges drop away. When finally the last competitor could not make up the remaining ground, the Trainees had won it and were enshrined in history as the first ever champions of the RBB Playoff Challenge.