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+---- Thread: *tips from an expansion GM in another league (/showthread.php?tid=25577)
*tips from an expansion GM in another league - hotdog - 09-11-2020
1.5x media
As someone who has led an expansion team in another league (specifically the SHL) I feel like I've got unique perspective to weigh in here and provide some extremely helpful tips to the two ISFL expansion franchises as they begin their journey to greatness.
Before I begin, I should know that I am extremely qualified to be offering advice here as someone who's gone through the process myself and done so, I must say, extremely successfully. My expansion franchise in SHL, the Atlanta Inferno, has never lost a single game. That's right, we are undefeated - to this day. it's been a tough road, especially in hockey where losses happen all the time, but thanks to great leadership i've been able to avoid losing a single game there and here's how i did it.
1. have a cool team
the expansion teams here have already announced their names so this advice is worthless but at least it can be saved for the next generation of expansion, which at the rate of growth we're seeing could be soon. if your options are to have a cool team or have a not cool team, i think it's much better to go with a cool team idea as opposed to a not cool team. HOWEVER, coolness is more of a continuum than a binary, so it's possible to have an extremely cool team, an extremely not cool team, or anywhere in between. In this case, i still think it's preferable to get as close as you can to the extremely cool team side of the continuum and as far as you can away from the not cool team idea pole.
2. draft players in the expansion draft
the way you'll get your roster started is by expansion draft - existing teams will have to expose players from their organization, and you'll get to choose from among those exposed players and select various players to add to your organization. This is by far the first way to add players to your team, so it would certainly behoove the expansion GMs to draft players through the expansion draft. Again, faced with a choice of selecting players in the expansion draft or not selecting players through the expansion draft, selecting players through the expansion draft is the way to go. Which leads me to my third point...
3. draft good players in the expansion draft
here, the ISFL has an advantage over the SHL expansion - the SHL protection rules were very generous to existing teams, and the ISFL rules are the opposite, so the expansion teams here should have plenty of good players to choose from. Faced with the choice of selecting good players (active, have TPE, have money) or bad players (inactive, don't have TPE, don't have money), I think it's a no brainer to select the good players who are active and have TPE and have money. That way, your team will be made of good players instead of bad players, and the team is more likely to be good. But that's not all...
4. draft cool people in the expansion draft
not only do you want to draft good players but you also want to draft cool people. cool people will help make your locker room a cool place, and that will go a long way in establishing a team culture. even if wins don't come right away, having a great locker room is a great foundation for long term success. drafting questionable people or people that'll turn free agents and outside observers away from your team is not the way to go. faced with the choice of drafting cool people or disliked people, you gotta go with the cool people!!!
5. draft good prospects in the entry draft
we're getting ahead of ourselves here but you're gonna want to be active in scouting and draft good prospects in the entry draft. i've found over in SHL that most prospects are excited by the idea of joining an expansion team and getting in on the ground floor, so take advantage of that and bring those puppies into the team!!!!!
6. either make trades or don't make trades
during your time as GM, you will occasionally be offered trades. at other points, you'll be the one proposing trades. with any luck, people will offer you trades during the aforementioned expansion draft. at any of these junctures, be sure to either make or not make the trade! making a trade can be a great way to improve your roster - either in its current state or in the future - and it can also take away from your roster - either in its current state or in the future. both of these can be really good things to do!
7. don't post porno on the forum
from what i can glean, i don't think ISFL would approve of you posting porno on the forum, so don't do it! if you do it, people may think you're a zany character (some may think you're the good kind of zany character, but many may think you're the bad kind of zany character) but you may get punished for posting porno on the forum. i'm not sure of the rules, but it's definitely possible, so it's best to stay away from it. If you feel the need to post porno, you can post porno in your locker room AS LONG AS everyone there is ok with it; if that's not the case, you probably shouldn't post porno there either, because you want your locker room to be a place where everyone there feels comfortable.
8. don't get punished for anything actually
getting punished would be a bad look for your new franchise, and you're gonna want to foster as many good looks for the franchise as you can! given the choice between getting punished and not getting punished, you've gotta go for not getting punished. getting punished right away would make you into a meme and would raise a bunch of eyebrows like "why did these guys get chosen as GM they're already out here getting punished smh this should've gone to [someone who wouldn't get punished]" - the best way to avoid all that is to not get punished!
9. sign free agents
after the expansion draft and the entry draft, there's another way to bring people onto your team - free agency. free agency can be a great way to bring people in because you don't have to spend anything but your budget! instead of a trade, where you have to give something up, this one comes for free!! i wonder if that's why they call it free agent!!! maybe!!! anyway, sign people to your team so that you can have more people on your team. Tips 3 and 4 and 5 should apply here as well - it's better to sign good free agents than bad ones, better to sign cool people than not cool people, and a bonus can be signing young players instead of old farts, unless old farts is what you need!
10. have fun
gotta have fun! if you have to choose between having fun starting an expansion franchise in the ISFL or not having fun starting an expansion franchise in the ISFL, i think you have to go for the latter, as having fun seems more fun than not having fun!
those are the tips from an expansion gm in another sim league who has never lost a single game!!! i hope these are useful either for the Berlin and New York franchises or saved for posterity on the next round of expansion.
if you have any questions on the policy contained herein or need input on any tough decisions like the ones mentioned above, feel free to pop a question in the thread below or slide into my DMs
- hotdog
RE: tips from an expansion GM in another league - Kyamprac - 09-11-2020
(09-11-2020, 11:25 AM)hotdog Wrote: My expansion franchise in SHL, the Atlanta Inferno, has never lost a single game. That's right, we are undefeated - to this day.
![[Image: ohQjfGR.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/ohQjfGR.jpg)
RE: tips from an expansion GM in another league - Dewalt27 - 09-11-2020
How do you feel about porno in the GM chat? Asking for a few friends..
RE: tips from an expansion GM in another league - hotdog - 09-12-2020
(09-11-2020, 07:43 PM)Dewalt27 Wrote: How do you feel about porno in the GM chat? Asking for a few friends..
should be allowed but is not!!! stay away!!!