The Stuttgart Scorpions are an American football team from Stuttgart , Germany . The club's greatest success came in 2007, when it reached the German Bowl but lost to the Braunschweig Lions .
13-627: The Stuttgart Scorpions were formed in December 1982. The new club spent its first couple of seasons in the 2nd Bundesliga , now the German Football League 2 , where it played until 1985. The club, after having earned promotion, spent the 1986 and 1987 season in the central division of the American Football Bundesliga , now the German Football League , but was only able to win one game in two years and found itself relegated back to
26-515: Is the second tier of American football in Germany, below the German Football League . Until 2007, the league was known as the 2. Bundesliga . The GFL2 , formerly the 2. Bundesliga , which was formed in 1982, is divided into a northern and southern division, with eight teams in each division. Unlike the GFL, there are no inter conference games and no GFL2 champion is determined. For the 2011 season, both
39-626: The GFL for only the second time and then progressing all the way to the German Bowl . In this game, the Scorpions were defeated 27–6 by the Braunschweig Lions , despite playing at home in Stuttgart. Since then, the team's performances have fallen off, only being able to reach the quarter-finals of the championship in 2008, 2009 and 2010. In 2011, the side finished third in its division, qualifying for
52-510: The Regionalliga to the GFL2. However, additional spots may become available if teams resign from either the GFL or the GFL2. Promotion to the GFL2 is achieved through a promotion round at the end of the Regionalliga season which includes the best Regionalliga teams. For the southern division of the GFL2 the champions of the southern, southwestern and central division and for the northern GFL2 division
65-413: The champions of the Regionalliga divisions north, west and east play each other once to determine the two promoted teams. The league was formed as the 2nd American Football Bundesliga in 1982, consisting of 16 clubs in three regional divisions. League strength varied from season to season after this, but the three division format was retained until 1986, when a fourth regional group was added. In 1995,
78-409: The league was reduced to two divisions with seven clubs each. The strength was increased to eight teams per division in 1998 but continued to fluctuate because of teams withdrawing. Promotion to the GFL2 is achieved through the promotion round of the best Regionalliga clubs whereby the champions from the south plays the runners-up from central division and the champions from central the runners-up from
91-705: The member base rejected the offer, but management and coaching staff decided to join the Stuttgart ELF franchise. Since the Scorpions rejected an ELF cooperation, the WLAF "Sacracmento Surge" (1992 World Bowl champion) was revived as "Stuttgart Surge". The Scorpions remain a constituent of the GFL. The club has only appeared once in the German Bowl: Recent seasons of the Scorpions: German Football League 2 The German Football League 2 (GFL2)
104-489: The northern and the southern champions were promoted, while the runners-up of the two divisions played the last placed team in the GFL division above for another spot in the league in 2012. Since then the two division champions play a home-and-away series for a place each in the northern and southern division of the GFL. Below the GFL2, six Regionalligas , Regional Leagues , are set, North, South, West, Central, East and Southwest. Four teams each are promoted each season from
117-488: The play-offs once more, where they lost to the Mönchengladbach Mavericks . In 2012, the club came fourth in the southern division of the GFL and qualified for the play-off where it was knocked out by Kiel Baltic Hurricanes in the quarter-finals. After 15 consecutive play-off qualifications the club came only sixth in 2013 and missed the finals for the first time since 1997. In 2014, the club finished second in
130-475: The promotion round and moved up for a third time in their history. The club was now much improved at the top level and reached the quarter-finals in its first two seasons back, 1995 and 1996. After a difficult 1997 season, when survival was only assured in the relegation round against the Saarland Hurricanes , the Scorpions would finally be able to deliver constant top-level performances. From 1998 onwards,
143-528: The second tier for 1988. At this league, the team once more was a top performer and won two division titles in 1990 and 1991, with the later also earning promotion to the Bundesliga once more. The Scorpions once more struggled at top level and were immediately relegated again. After coming second in 1993 and winning its division the following year, the Scorpions were able to defeat the Franken Knights 47–0 in
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#1732852281591156-575: The southern division of the GFL but lost 28–33 to the Cologne Falcons in the quarter-finals of the play-offs. After a third-place finish in 2015 the club lost to the Dresden Monarchs in the quarter-finals of the play-offs. In 2021, the Scorpions received an offer to become a franchise of the newly established European League of Football ELF which sees itself as a continuation of World League of American Football WLAF and NFL Europe. A 2/3 majority of
169-472: The team was to reach the play-offs every season. The Stuttgart Scorpions won the southern division of the Bundesliga in 1998 and were able to reach the semi-finals of the German championship for the first time. In 2001, 2002 and 2006, this play-off performance was repeated, in between, the club was knocked out in the semi-finals. The 2007 season was to be the club's best-ever, first winning the southern division of
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