Searching for The Good Place

Is 2025 the year Tormenta makes it to The Good Place?

(Warning: This post contains spoilers for "The Good Place", but that show debuted in 2016 so I don't feel too bad about spoiling the end of Season One. However, if it's on your offseason watch list and you've never seen it, you should probably stop reading now.)

In the TV show "The Good Place," when the experiment with the afterlife goes wrong, Michael, a Demon from the Bad Place intent on finding new way to torture humans, simply reboots the experiment and wipes the memories of the four humans who figured out they were actually in the Bad Place. Everything that happened is erased and they just start over in their efforts to get the people to torture each other.

While not exactly the same thing, that's kind of the vibe I got when Tormenta announced they were only bringing back five players from the 2024 squad. South Georgia choosing to do almost a complete reboot of the experiment to see if things go better this time than last time. (This may not have been a perfect analogy as in The Good Place the people were the same instead of getting new people, but I'm currently rewatching it and I'm annoyed that the Santa Barbara team is going to USL-Championship and I won't get to use all my "Psych" references, so just let me work through this. Don't be a gooey chocolate chip cookie, ok Gus?)

And to be certain, something needed to change. Running it back again in 2025 was not going to work. While Tormenta was in playoff contention until being eliminated in the second-to-last week of the season, they only won four games in 2024, including Jagermeister Cup action (but excluding the US Open Cup). The expanded playoffs and mediocrity of the bottom five teams in the league papered over the fact that the 2024 edition of the team just didn't click. Four wins in 30 USL1 games proved that. (Some of that may have just been unfortunate timing as the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th place teams, including Tormenta, all had a -9 goal differential. A few breaks and Tormenta is in 7th place and in the playoffs like Spokane was.)

In The Good Place universe, Tormenta spent most of 2024 at Mindy St. Claire's (The Medium Place.)

Let's start with who is coming back. Forward Sebastian Vivas along with midfielders Conor Doyle and Mason Tunbridge, defender Callum Stretch and goalkeeper Sam Jones all return for 2025.

The midfield duo saw considerable playing time in 2024. Doyle saw just over 1,000 minutes while Tunbridge both saw more than 750 minutes in 17 games. Doyle saw action in 19 games while Tunbridge played in 17 matches regular season matches.

Vivas had eight goals across 21 appearances for Tormenta in 2024 to lead the team in scoring as well as adding two assists.

Jones served as depth at goalkeeper who didn't see any action behind Ford Parker and Drew Romig. Parker has announced his retirement from soccer. 

Everyone else was let go, including Jake Dengler, the last player from the 2022 title winning team still with Tormenta. (I'll have more on this thought in another post soon.)

We can expect another focus on young players either fresh out of college or still on the upswing of their careers. Manager Ian Cameron and Team President Darin Van Tassell both have expressed a preference for younger players and making Tormenta a landing spot to showcase a player's talent and attract the attention of higher level leagues. Nick Akoto, who played with Tormenta 2 before signing with Tormenta's League One squad is the prime example of this, parlaying his time at Tormenta into a spot with Burton Albion in the English League One in the middle of the 2024 campaign. 

We saw Jackson Khoury transferred to the Tacoma Defiance of MLS NEXT Pro, part of the Seattle Sounders' organization, for an undisclosed amount in December.

Kaylor Hodges and John Morrissey on The USL Show had high praise for Tormenta's ability to develop players and sell contracts in a way that should make South Georgia very attractive to young players looking to improve and showcase their abilities. (Discussion starts around the 3:30 mark in the video.)

Knowing that is the process doesn't make it any easier for fans who grow attached to players. In all honesty, I hope every player for Tormenta sticks around for no more than two years. I want them to be successful and develop while in Statesboro and then move on to bigger challenges. Not everyone is going to be Akoto or Conner Antley, but seeing a guy at Tormenta for a year or two before they move on to play in the USL Championship would be great.

I can't sit here and tell you that I'm a talent evaluator and tell you what Tormenta should have done in terms of keeping certain players or letting them go. Well, I could say that but I'd be lying and if you've read anything on here, you'd know pretty quickly that I was full of it. So I can't say if essentially rebooting everything is the right move. Maybe bringing back a larger core of players from 2024 would have paid dividends now that they all had a season under their belt together. Then again, maybe it would have resulted in a rewatch of the 2024 campaign and no one wants that.

With only five guys returning, any breakdown of what Tormenta needs basically boils down to "yes."

Goalkeepers? Yes. 

Defenders? Also yes. 

Midfielders? Also, also yes. 

Strikers? Also, also, also yes. 

(Editor: That's some top-notch analysis there, Luke. Always helpful to your readers to point out that teams need players to play the game. It's a good thing you don't charge for this brilliant insight.)

This isn't a new situation for Tormenta. In 2024 they only brought back six players from the year before so they're experienced at rebuilding a roster. All Cameron and the coaching staff have to do is identify the right players, recruit them to Statesboro, sign them, have them gel as a team quickly and bam, you've got a team ready to make a push for the championship. Easy, peasy, right? 

I would love to sit here and tell you I know what the 2025 edition of Tormenta is going to look like. Right now, I have no idea. But that's part of the fun. We get to see this team put together and then, come March, they'll take the field and see if the experiment worked. No one knows how it's going to go, and that's why we watch. 

We'll have more coverage as signings start happening. As always, follow Alex Ashton (League One Updater) and his transaction tracker for Tormenta signings and other moves around the league.

 Meanwhile, Happy 2025.