KSL2005
| Best Record | Dave Pate (12-2) | |||
| Worst Record | Aaron (4-10) | |||
| Won Playoffs | Russ Hughes | |||
| Last in Playoffs | Brian Schoutteet | |||
| Most Points For | Dave Pate | |||
| Most Against | Aaron Hughes | |||
| Next Year | ||||
KSL moved back to the head to head system in 2005. This became the default system for years to come. In 2005 we saw Frail, Mike and Charlie depart. We did see a few new arrivals from Ryan McCarty, Russ Hughes and Blake Clayton. Moving back to the head to head format proved to be popular and it made each week more fun since you only played one person instead of a whole league.
Contents
Week 1-4
The "Movie Theater" division consisted of Kevin Smith, Ryan McCarty, Blake Clayton and Andrew Hughes. The first 4 weeks of this division saw Ryan jump out to an early lead of 4-0 having 3 divisional wins and one non-divisional win. Kevin was right behind him at 2-2 whereas Andy and Blake were at the bottom with 1 win a piece. Andy's only win came from his matchup with Blake.
The "Poker" division consisted of Dave Pate, Brian Schoutteet, Russ Hughes and Aaron Hughes. Dave jumped out to 4-0 with 3 divisional wins. Brian was at 2-2 and Russ, Aaron were at 1-3 each. Aaron's only win was against Russ week 1 of the regular season.
Week 5-9
Kevin was able to jump to a big lead by winning his next 4 games to improve to 6-3. Ryan kept pace with him by finishing 7-2 also despite 1 loss to Kevin. Blake and Andy had both added 1 more win to their record but both finished through week 8 at 2-6 each. Amazingly enough, Andy's only other win came from beating Blake.
Dave had continued his winning ways by improving to 8-0 with wins over really tough teams. He did eventual lose in week 9 but finished an impressive 8-1. Russ was able to get back on track by winning 4 straight, three of which were weeks 5-8. Russ improved to 4-5. Brian had a rough fall by losing 4 in a row and falling to 4-5. Meanwhile, Aaron had a really rough start by losing 7 games in a row to fall to 2-7.
Week 10-14
Kevin had a rough end to the regular season by going 1-4 in his last 5 games to finish 7-7. However, one of his wins was against divisional rival Ryan which gave Kevin the divisional title. Ryan had a rough ending too as he had started off 7-2. Ryan lost his last 5 games and therefore lost his division to Kevin. Ryan had then dropped in the playoffs from 2nd seed to 5th. Blake was able to finish strong and win 3 of his last 5 and improve to 6-8. Andrew was also able to finish with 3 more wins to finish 5-9.
Dave was able to finish this final set 4-1 to finish with a record setting 12-2 record. Brian was able to get back on a winning track and get 6 straight wins, 4 during this stretch to finish 8-6. Russ was able to win 3 in this stretch and finish 7-7 and get the 4th seed in the playoffs. Aaron was able to win 2 of his last 5 and go to 4-10 overall.
Playoffs
Dave Pate secured the top seed weeks ago and he took on the 8th seed Aaron. Despite being heavily favored, Aaron put up record numbers whereas Dave put up record low numbers. This was the start of the number 1 seed getting beat by the 8th seed. Kevin was the 2nd seed and he took on his rival Andy Hughes. Andy was also able to upset the top seeded team. Next we had the 3rd seed Brian taking on Blake. Blake moved on to the next round. Finally we had Russ beating Ryan to move on to round 2 of the playoffs.
In Round 2, Russ was the top seeded team at #4 and he took on Aaron for the right to be in the championship. Aaron's luck had run out as Russ was the victor that day. Meanwhile, Blake and Andy were battling to make it in and Blake was able to win decisively that day.
In the championship game Russ took on Blake and narrowly defeated him to win his first Championship. This was the second time in a row that the newbie won his first year in.
| Divisional Finals | Conference Finals | Championship | |||||||||||
| 1 | Dave | L | |||||||||||
| 8 | Aaron | W | |||||||||||
| 8 | Aaron | L | |||||||||||
| 4 | Russ | W | |||||||||||
| 4 | Russ | W | |||||||||||
| 5 | Ryan | L | |||||||||||
| 4 | Russ | W | |||||||||||
| 6 | Blake | L | |||||||||||
| 2 | Kevin | L | |||||||||||
| 7 | Andy | W | |||||||||||
| 7 | Andy | L | |||||||||||
| 6 | Blake | W | |||||||||||
| 3 | Brian | L | |||||||||||
| 6 | Blake | W | |||||||||||
Legacy
Despite not really managing his team, Russ Hughes won the return back to head to head scoring. Andy managed Russ's team for the majority of the year and so there has been the question about who the real champion is. According to KSL bylaws, Russ is the rightful champion. KSL since changed their bylaws so that absentee owner's teams are left "as is" instead of managed.
The move back to head to head was so popular that KSL has stayed in this format ever since. At the end of the year it was decided that Russ would not be returning and Ryan chose not to return as well. This paved the way for Doug Hahn and Mike Smith to join KSL for the 2006 season and beyond.
This was the first year that all the teams made it into the playoffs which started a debate about how many should make it in. Eventually in 2007 we moved to 12 teams with 8 making it in.
