I don't think I've ever done a team news post but I thought it could be fun, and I couldn't let the Lagos Ledger be the only team sharing their news. I'm going to try doing this as if I was a reporter for the team. I'll start with a quick look at the team's history.



The Tornadoes play at Ecuavisa Dome in Guayaquil Ecuador. Ecuavisa Dome has only been sold out twice since it's first game, and hasn't sold out since 2080. Ecuavisa is a TV network in Ecuador. The roof of the Dome is usually open because Guayaquil seems to always have great weather. They were named the Tornadoes because it is scientifically impossible to have a tornado or hurricane in Ecuador. This is the explanation from Google.

"Hurricanes and tornadoes in the northern hemisphere spin counter-clockwise while cyclones in the southern hemisphere spin clockwise. So, in the middle – the tropical convergence zone – they cancel each other out. It is why it is scientifically impossible to have tornadoes or hurricanes in Ecuador."


In the Tornadoes 23rd season the team hired it's 8th GM in team history awest827. No Tornadoes GM has lasted longer than 5 seasons. With the frequent turnover at the GM position it's been difficult for the team to find long term success. In 22 seasons the Tornadoes have 7 winning seasons 13 losing and 2 seasons finishing .500. Gauyaquil has never had a winning team for more than 2 years in a row. They have had 4 wild card apperances 2 division titles and 1 conference championship.


The team now has high hopes for it's future after hiring a proven winner. awest827 is entering his 18th season in Ultimate Legends. He spent his first 17 seasons with the Stampede and won 6 Ultimate Showdowns in that time. He was hired with a 0.751 winning percentage in the league. Which is the best in the league just a little better than JakeJarmel and Frank.

In my next post I'll take a look at some of the moves awest made when he first arived in Guayaquil.

thumbs up aint enough......top notch & thank you. Tornadoes are in good hands and good to have you back. the 2085 Stampede season is still the high water mark....do it again:)

Awest missed FA and the draft not being able to assemble the team he wanted until just days before the start of the regular season. Without having a GM, the Tornadoes signed just one player a backup DE in the early FA weeks while also releasing one player. The AI draft on the other hand wasn’t a complete bust for the Tornadoes as they landed 2 starters a DT in the 1st and a WR in the 2nd round. The other 4 players would be immediately released by the new GM. In late FA the team would sign 7 players. 2 of those players would make the team as backups.

In preseason week 2 the Tornadoes would hire their new GM. Of course, whenever a team hires a new GM no player or coach is safe. With very little time to put his team together, more than a page of transactions was made in preseason week 2.

The first move awest would make would be to find a new HC. Somehow his former HC from his days with the Stampede was a FA. HC Brad Taylor had been unemployed since 2085. In his 2 seasons as HC of the Stampede Taylor had a 27-3 record and won an Ultimate Showdown in 2085. Taylor might not have the attributes that teams look for in a HC, but awest is much more concerned about the play calling. If awest can get the players needed to win games history shows Taylor will call plays that put those players in a position to succeed.

nice. he was waiting for you. i dont imagine the Tornadoes will be missing the playoffs next season

In more current news in week 15 the Tornadoes beat the Strongbows to stay alive for the potential 7th seed. The Strongbows were clearly the better team on the day, but as they were in position to kick the game winning FG CB Dwight Hearn made the play of the game forcing and recovering a fumble to seal the game for the Tornadoes.

Heading into week 15 the Tornados had a very clear and luck-filled path to potentially get in the playoffs. There were 5 teams tied at 6-8 competing for the 7th seed would likely need to win there next 2 games to get it. If all of those teams were to lose at least one of their next 2 games the Tornadoes are half a game back.

3 of those 5 teams lost in week 15. The Tornadoes need to win next week and the Bayhawks and Trident need to lose for the Tornadoes to get the 7th seed. It’s an unlikely scenario and the Tornadoes haven’t played like a playoff team this season but there is still a slim chance.

With RB Barbeque Sauce a little banged up the Tornadoes decided to change things up at the RB position this week. Sauce is in the last year of his contract and the team wants to know if their future RB is currently on the team. WR Napoleon Kirk has been a disappointment as a WR since being drafted 1st overall in 2088. Despite being the team’s best receiver on paper, he has less than 200 receiving yards this season. The team has to find a way to get him the ball and see what he can do with it. It will be hard to evaluate Kirk on such a small sample size, so he may get an opportunity at RB next season despite the results this week. He recently received a 6 year extension, let’s hope it was money well spent on a guy who hasn’t shown us much as a WR.

he wants praise for his 3 TDs on only 16 kick off returns

Well the Tornadoes did what they needed to do to give themselves a shot at the playoffs the last 2 weeks. But so did the Bayhawks who got the 7th seed in the New World. Overall Gauyaquil fans should be encouraged by the progress that was made this season. In the last 8 seasons the team has just one winning season. Last season the team finished 5-11. The expectation was that they improve on that record which they did. The goal was to finish with a winnning record but if there was ever a year to miss that goal it would be this year. The team isn't built to beat playoff teams yet, just to be competitive which they were. Gauyaquil finished with a respectable 7-8-1 record good for 2nd place in the division despite just one divional win. Congrats to the Rosario Gauzues on winning the South America Division.

Let's take a look at what they did well and next time we might look at where they need improvment next season. They finished 4th in rushing yards lead by RB Barbeque Sauce who will likely be leaving in the offseason. He finished with a total of 1,685 yards and 5 TDs, averaging 5.1 yards per carry. They also did very well at the line of scrimage on both sides of the ball. The defense avereged 3.3 sacks per game tied for the best in the league. On the other side of the ball the QB was sacked just 17 times about once per game. The secondary lead by CB Dwight Hearn held opposing QBs to a 63.4 completion % good for 2nd in the league.

Cam Newton recently said the Panthers team he was drafted to was a locker room of losers when he was talking to Travis Hunter about being a top pick in the NFL. The same thing can be said for the 23 new players for the Tornadoes this season. They were walking into a team that didn't know how to win. Of the Tornadoes 8 losses 6 were one possesion games including 2 OT losses.

At least the fans usually got to see a competitive team even if they didn't win. They had 3 good wins all coming against bad teams. While the other 4 wins were by 4 points or less and the Tornadoes scored just 10 points or less in those 4 games. Clearly not a team that could have done much even if they got in the playoffs. Mostly due to the lack of a passing offense and a defense that outside of their pass rush was just ok.

it was great to see Barbecue Sauce put up numbers when he finally get a chance to be RB1

And Just like that the South America division is out of the playoffs. Congrats to the ownerless Bayhawks going on the road and beating out divisions best team easily. So much of the Gauzues offense is centered around Chili Wang on one play. That play was called once and the Bayhawks were in zone so Wang only got 1 catch for 9 yards.

It's not a tough pick for who will represent the New World, in the last 6 seasons only 2 teams have represented the New World the Trident and Butchers. With the Trident missing the playoffs the Butchers are the obvious pick to represent the New World. It usually doesn't matter though as the Old World has clearly been superior to the New World over the years. The Old World has 18 Championships to the New Worlds 4.



Now let's talk about what went wrong for the Tornadoes is 2091. In a run focused offense the team isn't expected to have a ton of pasing yards but what we do expect is limited picks, a good completion %, and good Yards per attempt. QB Arthur Gayle had trouble with turnovers early in the season but seemed to get more comfortable with the new play calling at the end of the season. He finished 26th in completion % and 30th in yards per attempt in 2091. The team will need more from him in the coming years if they are to compete for a championship. The question is was the problem the QB, the WRs or both?

Now what went wrong for the Defense? The big problem I see is that the defense allowed 4.4 yards per carry which was 24th in the league. The problem seems obvious every LB on the team was picked up after late FA. The GM also traded away a very good LB and Saftey who didn't want to waste their last prime years on a rebuilding team. Most of the LBs on the team were working on minimum contract one year deals. The GM will have to do something to address the LB room this offseason and hopefully it's not more of the one year minimum contract players. They filled in as best they could but it was just a band aid solution in 2091.

Awest made 4 trades in 2091, all clearly focused on rebuilding. The Tornadoes never had a chance to compete for a Championship so some of the older players who could help other teams would get traded.

The first trade he made raised some eyebrows as he traded away LDE Wrecking Ball Thompson to the Tornadoes biggest rival in exchange for a punter. Thompson had some great years early in his career and made a ton of money for that but at year 15 most of the value he has left is just name value. The Tornadoes traded for him in 2086 giving away the 4th overall pick which turned into QB Stan Taylor. The Tornadoes would also recieve 1.32 in 2087 which turned into RT Kenneth Erwin. Thompson would have 18 injuries in his 5 seasons with the Tornadoes. In Thompson's last 4 seasons with the Tornadoes he had a combined 20 total sacks. Thompson's replacement had 20 sacks in 2091. Thompson would be a backup for most of the season for the Gauzues, he had 4 sacks. Punter may be the least important posistion in the game but the Tornadoes won't have to worry about that position for a long time with rookie P Carl Raley.

The next trade would be to trade away former first round pick RB Bus Benson Benson was the Torndadoes starting RB for 5 seasons. Benson wanted out after being relegated to a return man in 2090. So in Bensons 8th season awest traded him to the Spires were he would start 12 games and have over 1,500 yards. The Spires would also give him a 5 year extension. The Tornadoes recieved RB Christopher Paquet. Paquet would get the starting FB job for the Tornadoes in 2091 and get a 6 year extension. The Tornadoes would also recieve 3rd and 4th round picks in 2092.

The Tornadoes would be sellers at the trade deadline making 2 last minute trades. They would trade away SS Richard Arroyo and WR William Moring to the Stampede. Moring started 7 games for the Tornadoes and 8 plays for the Stampede. Arroyo had 123 tackles for the Tornadoes in 2090 and was having a good season for the Tornadoes in 2091. He had 3 tackles for the Stampede in the 2nd half of the season. Regardless of their low production for the Stampede they both got extensions. The Tornadoes would get a 3rd and 4th round pick.

The last trade awest made was unpopular among Tornados fans trading away LB Mendoza Sambito and LB Warren Windley for a 2nd round pick in 2092. Sambito has never missed a game in his 8 seasons. He has been in over 8,000 plays for the Tornadoes. I'd say that was a good draft pick in the 2nd round of 2084. Played in every game for 8 seasons and was traded for a 2nd round pick. Unfortunately he isn't a Tornado for life but at least he got to participate in the playoffs one more time while he was still in his prime.