Heavy Hittaz
Heavy Hittaz are coming back to the 2022 SASL season with probably their best lineup ever. Raising the cap to 56 may have benefited them the most. Heavy Hittaz are one of the league’s oldest teams, but always manage to put together a playoff-bound team. Although they don’t have Vinny anymore, their lineup looks pretty solid.
In last year’s summer season, Heavy Hittaz placed 5th, going a flat .500 win percentage. Unfortunately for them, they were knocked out in the first round by the Ducks. It was a very close matchup in terms of skill levels, but they came up short. The off-season really helped round out HeavyHittaz’s roster with the cap change as well as other teams breaking apart.
HeavyHittaz were able to pick up some players who are well known in SASL, such as Majid, Ishaq, Yaqub, and Solyman as a new co-captain. These new additions make this team less top heavy and more well rounded. Even without Vinny, their lineup top to bottom looks great. The only thing that can hurt HH is injury. They do have a few players who are susceptible to injuries, so avoiding that is important for this team.
Roster:
Josh Castro (7)
Ramy Abdelhamid (6)
Bilal Lateef (6)
Kunal Sra (5)
Ahmad Halimi (5)
Majid Raufi (5)
Ishaq Khwaja (5)
Yaqub Najimi (5)
John Sans (4)
Harpreet Chadha (4)
Ali Ghumman (3)
Sohel Vaid (1)
Ammad Sheikh (1)
Chris Malatos (1)
3 Questions with General Manager Solyman Najimi:
1) Heavy Hittaz is one of the league’s oldest teams at this point. You’ve got lots of veterans and consistent players this year. What are your expectations for this season from your roster?
Yeah… we’re old. The other day, we celebrated Kunal’s 80th as a team. We’ve put in a request to perpetually have an ambulance standing by in the parking lot for our games. Halimi pulled a hammy again while dropping a deucer at work.
2) What do you expect to be your team’s strength in 2022? And what aspect of your team do you feel needs to be worked on?
I think we’re less top-heavy than some of the contending teams so we should have a steady offensive production throughout the lineup. Chemistry is probably the biggest hurdle that we have to tame as a team if we want to be successful in the playoffs.
3) With a 56 point cap and 9 teams, how do you think the competition will be and who are your biggest threats?
I think the average talent on the majority of teams has gone up considerably compared to last season. Higher cap plus ratings being reduced across the board means stronger teams… if it happens again next season, I’d imagine D2 may drop to 6 or 7 teams because the harder it becomes to put out a contender, the more teams will officially fold as we saw this offseason in a way. Savages and Assassins are looking impressive so far.
