Whew, made it! I try not to post once the playoffs start (for superstitious reasons) but now I can say: great season for RSAS!
We hoped from the start to compete for the championship, but knew we weren't good enough to steamroll anybody, so it was a season-long effort to make sure we won the games we should, found a way to get the rough road wins, etc, because HCA was going to be huge for us when the playoffs rolled around. Throw in some good luck (injuries to opponents, none of the playoff contenders blowing a bunch of cash on high salary veterans right before the end of the season, no key injuries to my team) and with HCA it turned out to be enough to win.
It was always in doubt, though. I will admit now I was nervous to have to play any of the 1-3rd place teams on both sides, even with HCA. Didn't want to see the Tornados, really didn't feel comfortable about my SF game vs. Shootas, didn't want to see Eclypze make it out of the Big 8, wouldn't have been excited about Traptors either, and was nervous throughout the finals about playing Lake Charles too given his great GS and depth. It will be very interesting to see how things shake out next season, lots of good deserving teams all fighting over one trophy.
Glad we pulled it off though because we really needed to promote here to avoid throwing a giant wrench into RSAS's long-term plan, though given the level of competition up in D.II, there's a pretty strong chance I might see some of these friendly faces again at the start of season 19!