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+---- Thread: *Richard Leaking: The Story of a Very Orange Otter (/showthread.php?tid=32660)
*Richard Leaking: The Story of a Very Orange Otter - ReverendOReily - 05-31-2021
2x media voucher claim
Hello my dear fellow Simulation Football enthusiasts. Today, I'm here to take advantage of that sweet sweet double media payout bonus, and while doing so, write about one of my favorite things in this league full of great things that we're all a part of. That favorite thing, is of course, the Orange County Otters. I had initially planned on getting into the nitty gritty of a lot of in depth Otter-y things in this article, including a breakdown of the team's current roster and a recap of the games we've played so far this season/ alook forward at the ones that are still to come, but unfortunately, I waited too long to write this article (in fact I'm typing this particular sentence at 11:38) and if I'd like to take advantage of JKortesi's generosity, I'll have to submit this soon. While I'd love to tell you about those superbly otter-y things, it will have to wait until next media. For now, you will have to settle for a story time segment in which I tell you my own history with the Otters.
Where to begin? People often say the beginning is a good place, so I think I'll try there! Richard Leaking was born in Louisiana. Some not vague but not detailed either stuff happened for a few years, and then one day, Richard was horrifically transformed into a dot. Not just any dot, but an athletic dot. A dot that had real drive, a scrappy lunch pail kind of dot who had a real knack at the good old American tradition of hand egg. When Leaking Dot was on a football field, he really shined, and that caught the eye of Stanford University. After playing football at Stanford for four years and graduating with a degree in being a dot, Richard was drafted by the Dallas Birddogs in the sixth round with the 46th overall pick of the DSFL (Dot Simulation Football League) draft. How a dot with such perfectly round edges fell all the way down to the sixth round, I will never understand, but it was a damn good thing it happened because in the end, Richard was drafted by the team he hoped to be drafted by. Leaking loved his time with Dallas, meeting lifelong friends on the team who would go on to be league stars, such as New York Silverbacks Safety/general manager and resident league stinker Bob Roberts, Austin copperheads top league running back Zoe Watts, two time ultimus champion Raylan Crowder, and also Kyle was there.
After an extremely memorable season with the Birddogs, Richard was once again entered into a football draft, this time for the ISFL. Leaking was scouted by thirteen great football teams from all over the country and the globe, in far and wide places such as Yellowknife, Honolulu, Sarasota, but not his home state of New Orleans. Shame on you, New Orleans. Going into the draft, Richard Leaking was pretty sure he would be drafted by one of four teams; Sarasota, Philadelphia, Honolulu, or Orange County. He had had great scouting conversations with all four teams, and had spent a good amount of time dicking around in a non-league setting with at least one of the GMs of each of those four teams, and he felt like he had really hit it off and built a rapport. Eventually, after what felt like months and months of waiting, draft day rolled around, and it was time for Richard to hear his named called by the ISFL commissioner. The first round rolled by and Leaking watched 19 of his peers get drafted before him until suddenly, halfway through the second round, a trade was announced; Austin, who had to use their second round pick to select their general manager and quarterback of the future Jackie Daytona, had traded down into the draft with the Orange County Otters.
Remember those four teams I mentioned earlier? Philadelphia and Honolulu both had higher picks in the draft order than Sarasota and Orange County. Philadelphia used that higher second round pick to draft their future short term GM Killian Chambers. From what I understand, Philadelphia then attempted to trade with Austin back up into the second round so that they could draft me. As it turns out, Sarasota and Orange County were attempting to make the same sort of trade with Austin. All three teams had one goal - trade up to get a draft selection pick before Honolulu's next pick. I don't think it was any secret to Philly, Orange County, or Sarasota that Honolulu needed a linebacker, and the Birddog to Hahalua pipeline, while maybe not quite as solidly established as it is today, was definitely a known thing. I gotta tell you, it's a nice feeling to know that there was (in my head canon) a small scale bidding war between multiple teams to see who would draft my player.
Anyway, so Orange County trades up to draft me (please forgive me for changing tenses/in/out of character POV in the middle of writing this media. I'm not actually sorry, but I know you'll forgive me anyway,) and I am immediately excited, if for no other reason than the fact that I really love the color orange. Upon joining the league, I can't tell you how happy I was to learn that there was not only a team that used otters as their mascot, but they were orange otters. And my player was gonna play for that team! So that was my gut reaction - the reaction that came a bit later was slightly more nuanced. Prior to being drafted by OCO I had had a great conversation with the OCO war room member who I spoke to during scouting, qWest, and I had nothing but good interactions with some of the key people in the team's leadership, namely Laser and Jeffie, the team's GMs, and Blasoon, the team's quarterback of the future. If I'm being honest, there was a very tiny bit of nervousness that came with being drafted by OCO at the time, at least from my perspective. At the time, Orange County had never missed the playoffs in 25 seasons of existence. I had heard a fair bit of talk about how OCO were the Patriots of the ISFL, the evil successful team that everybody loved to hate because it was so damn easy to hate them. Don't get me wrong, I was super excited when they drafted me, even moreso because they traded up to get me, but I was a little worried about there being a sense of snobbiness in the locker room, for lack of a better word. 25 seasons of winning has to at least create a sense of entitlement, right? Contrary to that expectation, I've felt welcomed by my teammates at OCO since draft night. Nobody on the team ever made me feel like an outsider or the new guy, I never felt like I needed to "prove myself" before I could really contribute to the team; I've been joking around with these otter knuckleheads since the day I joined the locker room. Now I can smear Gabe's reputation with the best of them when his player dares to fumble the ball.
We've seen some major changes here in Orange County, both on the field and within the Otter locker room since the season 25 draft. The playoff streak has ended (we can't watch other teams struggle to break it if we keep extending it - now I can sit back and enjoy the fruits of the labor of otters who came long before me), both Jeffie and Laser have stepped down since then (if you guys are reading this, ily), players who were at the top of their game when I joined the team like Korrin Abernathy, Tyrone Biggums, Prince Vegeta, and Lord Beerus have all hung it up and retired to greener pastures. However, the changes definitely have not only been losses - our team has gained some incredible additions as well in the time that I've been with the team. Eugene Smoothie, Rotticus Scott, and Heath Evans, all of whom are top players at their positions and even better additions in the locker rom, have joined our team in free agency. We went through a preeeeeetttyy darn stressful time (though probably not as stressful of a time as Sarasota had HA take that fish) during one free agency period in particular, when Mori (Brandon Booker) left the Philadelphia Liberty. Incredibly luckily for us, Mori chose to come to Orange County, and he has been a huge part of our team since the first day he arrived. When Jeffie stepped down, he was replaced by Blas, and when Laser stepped down soon after, he was replaced by Mori. Under Blas and Mori the locker room has only continued to grow as we've been lucky enough to add class after class of great Otter rookies, with a healthy free agency signing sprinkled in here and there. I'm so excited to see where else this team will go under Mori and Blas, and I am pretty confident that no matter what happens for our team on the field, I'll continue having a damn fine time off the field thanks to my teammates, my GMs, our storied alumni network, our otter pups down in the DSFL, and every other person that has contributed their time towards making OCO the best team it can be. My player was drafted an Otter and he will retire in orange - I can tell you without a doubt, that fact has nothing to do with the sim success the Otters have seen (which, by the way, Wolverine Studios sim gods, if you're listening, can we get the hook up on that front again pls). It's the people, man. The furry, orange, semiaquatic people. Thanks for reading, have a great day, and go Otters!
RE: Richard Leaking: The Story of a Very Orange Otter - Gragg9 - 05-31-2021
ott ott ott
RE: Richard Leaking: The Story of a Very Orange Otter - .Laser - 05-31-2021
Ily2 rev, one of the best picks I ever did make
RE: Richard Leaking: The Story of a Very Orange Otter - zaynzk - 06-01-2021
Kyle was truly there too