Cleganebowl never happens

[Toast 887]

@Victor @JardyB10 Let's enjoy a bit of a callback here...

 

Back in S51, I was general manager of the Riga Reign. A 18/19 year old with way too much time to obsess over a sim league and hoping for a miracle. In S51 Riga would win the Continental Cup which would be my first in the league after about 20 or so seasons? More importantly however the Finals series between Riga and the Toronto Legion was headlined by something more important. Cleganebowl. 

 

For anyone who wasn’t around at the time or doesn’t know the history, Jardy and Victor both created goalies around this time. Sandro and Greg Clegane were amongst the best in the league and in the playoffs? It wasn’t even close. Victor was the reason that the Legion were able to topple the superteam in Calgary that had many of the league’s top members sign as free agents. 

 

In the Cleganebowl, Sandro ended up posting a .950 save percentage and Greg Clegane was right behind him with a .948%. I’m well aware of how STHS hates goalies but there was nothing stopping this battle from going down as an all-timer. The question for this Alternate Reality article though is what if Greg didn’t stand on his head to eliminate Calgary? 

 

Well, the first thing that comes to mind here is that the Toast curse would have lived on forever. Despite being a general manager for probably five or six seasons at this point and a player since the late S20s, I had zero success when it came to making the Finals or finally winning something. This curse seemed to only effect my Continental Cup appearances though as the World Cup was fine.

 

Being hot-headed back them and coming off an inevitable sweep loss to the Wranglers there is a fair chance that if Cleganebowl doesn’t happen? Young Toast gives up on his VHL aspirations and retires both Kopralkovs and doesn’t end up on the New York Americans team that got me my second Continental Cup. 

 

If Cleganebowl doesn’t happen and Jardy doesn’t get that win? Who knows if he loses inspiration and the VHL finds itself without a simmer sooner than that happens later on in history? I'm sure that it’s definitely the Cleganebowl win that fuels Jardy going forward. 

 

The Cleganebowl was built up to for seasons with moments just not happening until these finals. If this series doesn’t happen it’s possible that the league never gets Cleganebowl and the missed opportunity would’ve been devastating for the league (I don’t think there was ever a clash later on?)

 

Without Cleganebowl, I think Calgary crushes Riga or Cologne in the finals and the rest of the league would have been miserable seeing a super team form up and destroy the rest of the league. During this two player era that may have hurt activity even further.

 

Thankfully these are all hypothetical as Cleganebowl did happen and would result in my first Continental Cup. I can’t remember what I had to trade to get Jardy to Riga but whatever it was made it possible to see the Cleganebowl and break a curse that tormented me on this league for years.

 

Enjoy some good old threads that can provide some further detail too:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Victor 10,942]

The world would be an emptier place.

[JardyB10 4,865]

I hyped potential Cleganebowls our whole career, I was pretty jazzed how the stars aligned to actually make that happen. I can’t say that I would have left earlier without it (you underestimate exactly how long I was running on fumes!), but I will admit it was one of the more invigorating playoffs I’ve had since the OG Jardy

[Victor 10,942]

42 minutes ago, JardyB10 said:

I hyped potential Cleganebowls our whole career, I was pretty jazzed how the stars aligned to actually make that happen. I can’t say that I would have left earlier without it (you underestimate exactly how long I was running on fumes!), but I will admit it was one of the more invigorating playoffs I’ve had since the OG Jardy

For how borderline inactive we both were at times, all aspects of the rivalry (the even match-ups, the quick stats by Greg, the comeback by Sandro, that culmination, and of course both being in the HOF) were so undeserved. 

 

I guess it was Simon giving back.

[JardyB10 4,865]

30 minutes ago, Victor said:

For how borderline inactive we both were at times, all aspects of the rivalry (the even match-ups, the quick stats by Greg, the comeback by Sandro, that culmination, and of course both being in the HOF) were so undeserved. 

 

I guess it was Simon giving back.

I mean, Greg was still 1000+ TPE, Sandro got kind of close.

 

Either way, the best counter to Simon T RNG is manifest destiny and lots of HYPE