History of the LOD
2022: Arrival of Bryan; The Play-in; Gio’s Second Championship
The 2022 offseason began with two major issues for the Commissioner to address.
First was getting the Trophy from Rialto to Denver, which would be its first time leaving Southern California. While the previous goal was always to get the Trophy handed off before the Super Bowl, travel arrangements meant this would get postponed to March. The trophy would finally be exchanges at a Top Golf in Colorado, with Chuck, Ryan and Erik also in attendance.
The second item on the Commissioner’s plate was the replacement of founding member Hurtado after his retirement. This would be the second offseason in a row that the League would need to find a new Member. Fortunately, someone from the previous season’s search was ready and willing to step in:
- Bryan Villalpando: UCLA Bruin, LA native, current Chicago resident and close friend of Erik who also knew Hurtado and Wings from his time there
In January 2021, Bryan met with Erik and Wings in San Francisco to confirm his interest in joining the League and stepping into Hurtado’s team as he left it. With the League’s newest member locked down very early, he would later be formally announced during the Summer. Bryan’s entrance into the League would also maintain the ratio of SoCal teams to non-SoCal teams.
2022 Rule Changes and Introduction of the Play-in
2022’s rule changes focused on phasing out Covid-related rules, though some would be made permanent such as IR rules and expanding bench spots to 8. One of the major new changes passed during this cycle would be the modification of the league calendar and playoff seeding.
With the NFL having expanded to 18 weeks the season before, the League voted to revert back to a 13-week regular season to test out an NBA-inspired play-in game. This play-in would take place Week 14 between the 6 and 7 seeds after Week 13, with all other teams effectively on bye. This was intended to give teams on the fringe of playoffs a better chance to squeak in and not give up/tank.
2022 Season Results
The 2022 draft took place August 27, held remotely via Zoom, though a few League Members did gather in-person with the Commissioner in Oakland.
With the introduction of the play-in, the League would return to a 13 week regular season. This would be one of the closest-contested regular seasons in the Sleeper Era. Three teams would tie atop the league with a 9-4 record, the first such occasion and the first time since 2019 a team failed to reach double digit wins. The top 2 seeds would be split between Ryan and Bryan, who both achieved their first playoff appearances. Bryan would also be the first team to get a bye week in their debut season. Roberto, after having his best year since 2019, returned to the playoffs but ended up the odd one out on tiebreaker and would have to play in the first round, facing the winner of the play-in.
The rest of the playoff field was similarly tight. After a 5-0 start, Wings would proceed to end the season on a 3-5 skid that tumbled him down to the fourth seed. The 5 and 6 seeds were occupied by Gio and Chuck, who despite being the top 2 PF scorers of the season, had tough matchup luck. Chuck in particular would end with a losing record, becoming the perfect test subject for the effectiveness of the play-in.
The seventh seed would also be decided by a three-way tie. Ant, while the defending Champion, had one of the worst starts for a title defense, posting a 2-6 start before finishing the season 3-2 including a key week 13 win over Chuck. With a respectable gap in PF over fellow 5-win teams Erik and Nauch, Ant easily earned the right for a rematch the following week.
The League’s inaugural play-in game took place during Week 14 between Chuck and Ant. It was the only matchup this week that is officially counted for in League Records (the remaining teams being on bye). Despite winning the week before, the Defending Champ’s season would finally reach its end, with Chuck comfortably winning and moving into the main bracket.
Chuck continued his playoff campaign versus Roberto in round 1. Despite a good week from Rob, Chuck’s team came alive to win by a healthy margin and set the highest score of the week. While Rob would unfortunately go one-and-done in his playoff return, Chuck would move on to his second consecutive semifinal.
On the other side of the bracket, Wings matched up versus Gio, with the latter finding himself in the first round for the first time since 2019. Wings, continuing his downward trend in the second half of the year, would come up short in this matchup to lose his third straight first-round matchup and send Gio to the semifinals yet again.
Ryan, who’s team had shown cracks late into the regular season due to numerous injuries, put up a dud performance to give a red-hot Gio an easy path to his fourth consecutive finals appearance. While a disappointing end to his campaign, Ryan found himself in good shape for 2023 with hopes of his injured keepers bouncing back.
Meanwhile, Chuck would play Bryan, with the Rookie having made it a point early in the season to begin a rivalry with him, including a regular season win over Cassidy in week 5. In what was an incredibly close playoff matchup (~5 points), Chuck would emerge victorious to make his long-awaited return to the Final for the first time since in 2017. This also set him up for a third postseason matchup versus Gio.
The 2022 Championship had all the makings of a classic: two historic rivals who had fought through up-and-down seasons to get here, both clawing their way back up from the bottom seeds and getting hot at the right time. During the regular season, Chuck would break a 4-season winless streak against Gio, sweeping both matchups. Gio, however, proved to still have his number in the postseason. The final would surprisingly end in a 111-point blowout for Gio, which shattered the previous record of 94 set by him in the 2020 final.
Gio’s League Title would make him the second LOD Member to win multiple championships, and the first to do so in the Sleeper Era. With 2 championships in a 4-season streak of finals appearances, many also consider this to be a dynasty. It also was the first time since 2017 that a new Member won the title.
Launch of LeagueOfDegenerates.com
Another major development of the offseason was the launch of an official League website LeagueOfDegenerates.com, created by Chuck Cassdy to serve as a central hub for all League content, information and history. The Blogger Boyz would continue to post their weekly updates to this website, with occasional guest contributions from Commissioner Wings. The website would remain active for 2023 before becoming defunct.