Round 7 came up with a real monster deal. Looking only at its single components it may not have been as monstrous as the Buccaneers-Legion-Agreement (#143: DeCastro, Lineman w/ +Str, Block, Guard for Blanda, Blitzer w/ Piling On, Mighty Blow, Frenzy, Tackle). But as we all know:

"Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

This article is about a deal that made massive waves, at least in DLE's KFC East... and very likely beyond it as well.

This deal is:

Trade #158
Nuln Gunners give: Cortez Allen, Blitzer w/ Piling On, Mighty Blow, Tackle, Guard
Averheim River Bandits give: 1st + 4th (Brionne Buccaneers)


The four teams in KFC East are seperated only by one win, with Nuln Gunners and Averheim River Bandits being the hunters behind the division leader Templehof Thunder. But even Talabheim Sluggers are in striking distance, as one win can easily be made up for in a direct encounter (for those of you not familiar with the league's schedule: the teams will play each other once more in the second half of the season, plus some more teams from another division).

In this setting, the River Bandits and the Gunners came along to trade the hard hitting Cortez Allen. This can... no, this HAS to be regarded as a huge power shift within the division. River Bandits haven't had the reputation of being a physical dominating team so far, achieving their victories with swiftness and cunning instead of brute force (from Grunth's DLE Round 8 stats: River Bandits, #28 in team casualties, get Cortez Allen, currently #6 in casualties by player).
With this deal they adress a need that critics usually point at when it comes to giving reasons why this team should NOT be a contender for the divisional title (or even more).
Gunners on the other hand seem to give up the close race in KFC East in favour of coming back next season, much stronger then and ready to roll over anything their competitors might be able to rally for reinforcements. In this regard it has to be mentioned, that in an earlier trade (#151), Gunners already acquired the future 1st rounder of River Bandits (for the draft rights of their current 1.5 rounder, too long and devilish story to get this layed out into detail at this point).
So in a nutshell, it can be said that these recent deals not only have the potential to shift powers in KFC East for the rest of this season but also for those to come.

Now, how do the other powers in KFC East react to this development? Obviously it didn't go unnoticed. As from a Sluggers' press release right after the deal's announcement: This trade "has certainly raised eyebrows in Talabheim". This may have been a spontanous reaction but usually some truth lies within those words spoken out of the shock.

Soon after this deal got visible for the public eye, both Sluggers and Thunder got active on the trade market as well. Thunder's gem Sébastien Chabal - a blitzer with +Ma, +Str - was traded cross-conference to the Brionne Buccaneers, in return they got Ryan Clark, a blitzer with Mighty Blow and Guard (a build that they already had on their roster, but we'll come to that in a second)*. Along with the swap of players Thunder also improved its position in the upcoming drafts (both current and future). Thunder then traded with divisional rival Sluggers: The aforementioned clone build* in Fleming was send to Talabheim for some more improvements in the upcoming drafts (again: both current and future).
So what does that mean? As it seems, both Sluggers and Thunder are only taking limited steps to counter the call from Averheim. If at all they seem to have agreed on a joint-venture to "not make it too easy for those River Shmocks to steal the crown". At least Thunder seems to focus on future battles fought in season 4 instead.


* This has proven to be wrong after further investigations. Fleming comes with a slightly different build: It is Guard and Side Step instead of Mighty Blow. Apologizes from the editors.


On a second note: this article used to have much more bbcode added, but sadly these seemed not to be supported by the Blog. I'm currently negotiating alternative ways to publish this thing of beauty ;-)