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We won! What an incredible run we had this season. After several disappointing first round exits, we finally were able to put it together and win our first worlds gold. This was truly a team effort. There are so many people that were instrumental in making this happen.

Perhaps most importantly, thanks to the guys who trained players. There's no way we win worlds if we don't have guys training some of the best players in the world. Thanks to RamQ (Bowens), Brian (Xermade), Lucas (Simmons), OSU (Luther), Namssor (Luther), Buckeyefan (Wilder), Oriolekid (Reedy), TicTacShack (Reedy), and Natellio (Soto) for training players that made the team this season.

Coco (Goss, Nielsen), Brian (Goddard), Lucas (Tanner), Gwoodyard (Martinez), Wozz (Carino), Tangosz (Horner), Jista (Nielsen), and SaulTNuts (Owens) all either trained or held on to NT players that made the team last season. Last season's team directly qualified for world's by the slightest of margins. Wouldn't have even made worlds without these guys.

We had great players, but we were also well managed each week. I didn't have all the answers each week, but someone always did. We made great tactical decisions each week, and continually put ourselves in great spots to advance through the tournament. There are 3 great examples of this:

1. EBW talked me into guessing fast vs. Chile in the America's semi. If that doesn't happen, we don't even make worlds.
2. Lucas, EBW, A Warrior, The Rapper, and RamQ talked me into playing LI vs. Slovakia. That win put us in a great spot as we progressed through the tournament.
3. A Warrior, Oreo Dunker, EBW, Phyr, and TicTacShack convinced me to guess fast in the final. We don't win without that guess. Thanks to all these guys for making the correct call on these crucial decisions.

And thanks to everyone who contributed to the game planning - Phyr, EBW, Oreo Dunker, A Warrior, Big Shot Steve, Lucas, smallfrie, RamQ, The Rapper, Birdzilla, and fewmit.

Thanks to wozz and mfork for all the tools and the db which is really important for tracking players.

Special thanks to:
Brian - After 77 competitive NT games, it's probably time for Nem to call it quits. Thanks for holding onto Goddard and Nielsen for so long, and thanks for holding Nem and his 170k salary in D3 all season. Really appreciate it.

RamQ - Thanks for paying 234k a week for McCullough and for buying and continuing to train Bowens. And thanks for keeping them both in good GS every week. We needed both of them.

Lucas - Thanks for taking a guy in Simmons who was border line for the team and turning him into our best center.

Phyr - Thanks for being the most active on the game planning threads and following the team so closely through the tournament. Always good to read your thoughts on the games.

EBW - I noticed you talked me into all 3 of the most crucial decisions we made over the past 2 seasons. Thanks for taking a break from your U21 duties at the most opportune times.

Jfarb - I don't know if you'll ever read this, but thanks for getting me interested in the NT way back in season 16. It was an incredibly long run, and a goal you worked for tirelessly for a very long time. None of this happens without your efforts.

Thanks for the shout out. Im glad you found my thoughts useful. We have lost an incredible amount from our USA brain trust over the last year. Your success the past 2 seasons with the lack of help that other managers have had in the past (im some smuck who had zero seasons of exp above D4 last season) I think is a testament to the incredible job you did as manager.

The last two seasons has also made me appericate the incredible organizational work/guilt inducing that jfarb did.

Freedom isn't free.

Thanks for the minor shout out for game planning as well. Unfortunately I had very little time these last couple seasons to voice opinions and help with game planning as much as I wished, but you have no idea how happy I am that we finally got gold at Worlds. You did an amazing job this season, especially knowing that advanced stats havnt been working like they used to o and you had opinions from some new guys ( which were very helpful by the way). Keep up the good work. I know being the NT manager takes a lot of time and commitment to the managers, but hopefully you stick with it and win another gold.

I salute you sir. Jason gave me the heads up, congrats to you all, you guys kick ass.

There's been a jfarb sighting! I hope all is well!

Also, thanks for the shoutout magiker. I look up to a lot as a coach and you always seem to point things out to me when I am being stupid, so I'm glad you are around to do that! Keep up the good work!

World Champs! Pants off, dance off time. Anyone? No? Ok.

Thanks for the shout out! Even though I'm new to these discussion I'm glad I was able to contribute to a USA Worlds Gold. Indeed in my opinion, that Slovakia game was one of the hardest thought out games we encountered, and the outcome was us clinching a spot in the second round, and so on so forth. So, this comes to show that we definitely need more people to join the offsite ;)

World Champs! Pants off, dance off time. Anyone? No? Ok.

I'm down bro. I haven't worn pants for months now.

Which makes sense - wearing even the most comfortable pants for a month or longer usually leads to chafing.