[MIJB#19]

First, I'm not sure wheter I will be updating regularly, but I'll try to do an update after the stages.

I won't give too much details on stages that are yet to come, since my rivals could read this, even knowing I'm the laughing stock of the league at the start.

Note that we are a little bit further in progress the this post suggests, some teams have made big roster changes, like Tucker Tigers, to become playoff contenders now.


Foreword
Well, I haven’t written a FOF dynasty in a long time and basically it all has to do with we not upgrading from FOF2 to a newer version. Well, with some French help, that has changed and the MIJB returns with a new dynasty. And this dynasty won’t be a normal dynasty, this story will tell about my first game in FOF2004 and it’s my first multi player experience as well.

Prologue
It was about three months ago, or maybe longer – or shorter, I can’t remember that well – I was asked by the International House of Football to become general manager – and basically owner as well – of one of the thirty-two teams to play in this new football league.
As the teams and owners were getting shape, it was my goal to find a location and team name for my team. Thinking over the success of my fantasy football team – the Maassluis Anglers – I decided not to pollute the good name and pick up a tourist like dictionary to find the proper nicknames.
Sparing the details of my brain cramps of finding a proper nickname, eventually the Maassluis Merchantmen rolled out of my head as a winner. For those interested, Maassluis is my hometown and the Merchantmen nickname is supposed to refer to the golden ages of the Netherlands, the time Dutch “pirates” explored the world by ships and colonized places like New York, Cape Town and Indonesia.
With the name in place and the division taking shape, the league was about to start and it was time for me to analyze the opposition division wide, conference wide and league wide.

My sidekicks
Well, I'll do not much detail on them yet, especially since I haven't had the option to hire them myself.
You'll have to believe me that my team has a head coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and a lead scout.

Divisional Alignment
The Merchantmen are placed in the European division of the Atlantic Ocean Conference (AFC). We face the French teams from Paris (the Musketeers) and Bordeaux (the Vineyard), respectively run by Darkiller and Alf, and a team located in the Swedish city Göteborg – the Gothenborg Giants – run by 3ric. Notice that these four teams are the only teams from oustide of the United States of America.
The other division in the AFC are the Northeast, the Southeast and Deep South. Obviously familiar faces run these teams, but to me the most fun can probably be found in facing the Orlando Knights, managed by Dutch.
In the other conference, the North American Conference (NFC), teams are divided into the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Atlantic Coast and West divisions. Personally, I’m looking forward to the year when my team meets the team in the Mid-Atlantic division, as all the owners there bring up various sentiments.
For your interest, the conference names where my suggetion and they seemed to have enough support to become the official names, go me!

League Draft Instructions
Without much of a discussion, almost unanimously the league owners voted to have a preference draft, meaning the lead scouts will meet some day and do the drafting for the initial 53-men rosters. Of course, these scouts will go there with instructions, and so will my lead scout.
I haven’t quite made up a plan to build up my team, yet I decided to instruct my scout to focus on player potential, primarily draft offensive linemen, focus players who do better in the running game and build the defense around linebackers and a decent secondary.

League Draft Result
After a huge blunder, I found out I sent my scout out with preferences being the opposite of what I want him to come home with. Oh well, some instructions did work out as planned: my defense is run defense, and the roster is young. What does amaze me is the low intelligence and high loyalty around the roster. Besides that, the receivers corpse has turned out to be amongst the top 5 in the league, but in about 7 positions we’re the league’s worst. Did I mention the high number of popular players?
Going through the roster, a few players jump out:
Justin McDavid, one of three rookie QBs, who might turn out to be a 2nd RB, he is the expected starter
Randy Harris, our RB, potentially a top dog if used properly, which he likely won’t
Vincent Lopez, FB, leader of the offense and amongst the best FB in the league
Frederic Vargas, WR, tied for the league’s fastest men, receiver’s leader and one of the top 20 WR league-wide
Charles Gomez, DT, our first round pick, the projected anchorman on our defense for the coming 6 seasons
Harold Wells, DE, potentially a top pass rusher, or maybe he’s an all round DE, only time will tell
Cody Cluff, LB, the guy behind the line, he might make a profit out of the DL and score 100 tackles a year
Percy Francis, S, our free safety and leader of the secondary, just another fan favorite who should boost the D

The more I look at the players, the better I manage to cope with the disastrous draft. With Harris and Lopez coming from behind our terrible offensive line, our chances are slim, yet our receivers might be good enough to get up field on passing plays, hoping McDavid isn’t sacked ten times a game.
The defensive front could be able to stop the run at times, though with our terrible secondary, receivers will run around us.
I’m looking forward to this opportunity to get this team started in this league. If I can keep the talented players around for the coming 5 seasons, we might have a shot at the playoffs in a year or 3 and who knows what?
Realistically, I spread the word around the league that my team will be serious contenders for the first pick in the 2005 draft, meaning perhaps two of my European friends in this division might have a shot at reaching the playoffs.
Other than this, I’m interested in the big question how the players of my team (and the opposition) will cope with trips of 3000 miles for a single road game, sometimes at places where the clock is 8 hours ahead or behind.

Divisional Rivals
The Bordeaux Vineyards are said to have a quality secondary and a decent defensive line, at least that’s what my lead scout writes. Other then that, they have a team with potential rather then experience and an offense led by QB Joe Johnson and his close friend and RB Mike Marcano.
The Paris Musketeers are anchored by an amazing offensive line, arguably the best in the league and have a veteran QB in 35yo interceptions throwing Fabian Parker with a nice set of receivers. The defense shouldn’t be a worry, except the secondary with only average starters.
Gothenburg Goblins is led by 36yo RB Jerry McGee and has a young QB in Duane Davis, who’s weakness is his inability to read defenses, but lacks an offensive line to support them well. The charm of the team is the secondary, which is boosted by a bunch of gifted linebackers.

Remaining Teams
With 32 teams, it's hard to evaluate all teams very well, especially since this is before the additional free agency before the exhibition games start. Following is a rundown of the 28 teams outside of Europe, order alphabetically by location.
Anaheim has a talented OL, anchored by standout FB Cole Coleman, and a 37yo QB in Richard Mahon.
Ann Arbor basically has a secondary, some linebackers and QB Donald Woods, but no league super stars.
Asheville has league star LT Vince Taylor, but other then the OL there are only young players.
Astoria is a team with a good OL with extremely talented RB Billy Jamerson running from behind them.
Boston combined a great 3-man DL, anchored by all earth Jose Carrington, with talents at several positions.
Boulder has a DL, two talented CB, but furthermore only young players needing time to get better.
Brooklyn sees rookie RB Monty Avert, taught by FB Randy Saavedra, as their top guy on a young roster.
Chesapeake has the league’s top QB in Jamie Canter and a quality defense run by a LB trio of average age.
Columbus is loaded with decency, only surpassed by some OL and RB Gerald Harris.
Conyers luckily drafted NT Barton Garcia to anchor a 3-4 defense, while Everett Glenn is their franchise QB.
Fairbainks leans on receivers with skill, fed by QB Joey Allen, while the defense is build on a good secondary.
Fort Worth focuses on their OL and secondary, where CB Preston Quezada stands out.
Frederick invested in the future, though middle-aged LTs Dan Koehler and Christopher Perdomo jump out a bit.
Georgia leans on a quality front seven, hoping that RB Joseph Schoen “Joe the Shoe” will anchor the offense.
Leesburg has old DTs Barrett Yancy and Jim Ransom, while LT Jonathan Svoboda’s ego tears the offense apart.
Minnesota has rookie QB Richard Stewart, a quality secondary and DT Walt Spangler to spank to opposition.
North Plainfield is a team of the future, led by top25 fastest CBs Mel Mueller, Scott Benge and Jimmy Sprawn.
Orlando combine an excellent OL with great receivers to make average QB Wayne Christopherson look good.
Outer Banks lacks potential talents and only has some above average OL to get G Richard Osorio noticed.
RayCo is a contender with a good defense, RB Rodger Howery and 37yo QB Brian Hartsock leading the team.
Rochester went for a future-is-more-important approach, with rookie QB Jackie Williamson as their captain.
San Antonio mixes a great OL with a good secondary and QB in John McMasters, but forget their front seven.
San Luis Obispo is a contender, with a tough front seven, if RB Phil Dorsett and QB Victor Whyte stop fighting.
Springfield sees RB Huey Gervais running behind a good OL, while the defense could stop any offense any day.
Stillwater has 38yo QB Norm Rizzo to combine a good front seven with some firepower on offense for one year.
Syracuse is a team with potential when QB Brent Peterman, his receivers and the secondary start maturing.
Tucker has the leading OL duo with Ron Pereza and #1 pick Mervin Pollock, yet the others need time to grow.
Vicksburg managed to get a fine DL, a quality RB with Edward Stelly and troubles on the OL and the secondary.

As I can see at this point, there are so many teams with issues in the league. It makes me think the team to win the first IHOF title will come from a group of seven favorites containing Ann Arbor, Chesapeake, Paris, Springfield and three teams from the Southeast division being Conyers, Georgia and Orlando.

Our Schedule
Our regular season starts at North Plainfield Plague and then we move back to Europe for our first set of divisional games at Paris Musketeers and in Maassluis against Gothenburg Giants. Our season starts with 3 home games in the top 8, but in the following 7 weeks we’ll only travel to relative nearby Gothenburg, finishing it all off with games at San Antonio and RayCo.
Of the top 7 teams I can oversee, we’ll have a tough month of November coming up with games at home against Conyers, Paris and Ann Arbor in weeks 9, 11 and 12. These are the only games against these top teams, except our week 2 divisional starter in Paris.

Team Names, Owners, Locations, Divisions and Coferences
Atlantic Ocean Footbal Conference
Northeast (North)
Chubby Syracuse, NY Syracuse Mohawks
cthomer5000 North Plainfield, NJ North Plainfield Plague
Kodos Rochester, NY Rochester Lake Monsters
primelord Boston, MA Boston Rhinos
Southeast (east)
Celeval Atlanta, GA Georgia Gridlock
KWhit Conyers, GA Conyers Condors
SkyDog Tucker, GA Tucker Tigers
Dutch Orlando, FL Orlando Knights
Deep South (south)
Buzzbee Vicksburg, Miss Vicksburg Vipers
HornedFrogPurple Fort Worth, TX Fort Worth Fury
Senator San Antonio, TX San Antonio Volunteers
TroyF Stillwater, OK Stillwater Dynamite
European (west)
3ric Gothenburg, Sweden Gothenburg Giants
Alf Bordeaux, France Bordeaux Vineyards
Darkiller Paris, France Paris Musketeers
MIJB#19 Maassluis, Netherlands Maassluis Merchantmen
North American Football Conference
Midwest (north)
Daimyo Columbus, IN Columbus Architects
FBPro Tennessee RayCo Raiders
mckerney Minnesota Minnesota Miners
Solecismic Ann Arbor, MI Ann Arbor Anachronism
Mid-Atlantic (east)
cuervo72 Frederick, MD Frederick Red Menace
Hell Atlantic Astoria, NY Astoria Heroes
QuikSand Cheasapeake, MD Chesapeake Chitterlings
SackAttack Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Fightin' Bums
Atlantic Coast (south)
Samdari Springfield, VA Springfield Isotopes
Subby Leesburg, VA Leesburg Generals
Vegas Vic Asheville, NC Asheville Axemen
WSUCougar Nag's Head, NC Outer Banks Osprey
West (west)
albionmoonlight Fairbanks, AK Fairbanks Northstars
Blackadar Boulder, CO Boulder Bulldogs
Chief Rum Anaheim, CA Anaheim Matterhorns
Vince San Luis Obispo, CA San Luis Obispo Burn