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*San Jose Scouting Guide - RussDrivesTheBus - 10-15-2021
SCOUTING: HOW TO AND WHAT TO AVOID
(Rookies!! There is a special section at the bottom of the article just for you! Feel free to jump down and check that out before spinning through the whole thing)
Intro:
For the past few seasons, San Jose has garnered a reputation around the league as "the team that doesn't scout" or "the team that scouts on the clock.” As a team we wanted to take the opportunity to use this platform to assure all prospects and the league as a whole that we are, in fact committed to scouting and creating a fun and interactive experience for prospects new and old! For our entry in this media competition we have decided to put together an informative piece on the Do's and Don'ts of scouting as this has been a hot topic in our War Room.
Scouting is one of the most unique and gratifying parts of the sim league experience. Whether it's a brand new user coming into the ISFL for the first time, or a veteran of the league, scouting can be vital to shaping not only your team, but the experience of that user too! New users especially will remember their scouting conversations, good and bad. What we hope to do with this article is reduce the number of bad convos and crank up the good ones. Happy users make for a healthy league, and that's what we should all be shooting for.
Try to remember back to when you were first a rookie getting ready for the ISFL draft. You (hopefully) had some amazing scouting conversations and had the pleasure of watching the draft stream to see which one of those scouts got their team to pick you out of everyone! If you didn’t have that, I bet you remember that as well. Getting scouted and watching the draft stream to see which team chose you is possibly the most exciting part of the league experience as a whole. But, it only happens for the first time once, so we have to make sure we create the best possible experience for each prospect that we can!
In this article we'll explore scouting from the perspective of the War Room. For those who may not be familiar with the term, War Room refers to the group of selected team leaders that either help with or actually carry out the functions that keep a team running. This includes, but is not limited to, game planning discussions, sim-testing, and scouting prospects for each draft. Each team differs on exactly how and who they select for this role or what each person does, but essentially the function is the same. But how does the War Room initiate the scouting process? What pre-work is there to be done before your team starts reaching out to prospects? What are you looking for in prospects? Should you even scout everyone? All this and more will be discussed and expanded upon.
Even if you think your team is already the best at scouting and doesn't need to learn anything else, we ask that you do give this article a read anyway. Maybe compare with what your team already does and see if there's room for improvement/change. We'd also love to have a discussion in the replies, so feel free to post your thoughts on scouting! Tell us what you think we’ve got wrong. Tell us about your scouting experience(s). We’re open to almost any suggestions!
And now it’s time to answer the big question!
How can a team scout as efficiently and effectively as possible?
In our opinion, there are 6 key steps to scouting. A number of these may seem obvious but they are imperative to successful scouting, so they are most definitely worth mentioning:
1. Employ the right people to do the job
This is the most important part of the scouting process. A GM is unlikely to be able to reach out to every single prospect in a draft which means delegation is key. As such, GMs need to set up a War Room of people who WANT to scout. When you ask a scout to reach out to a prospect you are tasking them with the critically vital role of being that prospect's introduction to your team. You need that first conversation to be as friendly and helpful as possible. That isn't going to happen if your scouts aren't interested in doing the job. You need to make sure the people you add as scouts are people you trust and are comfortable communicating with. This is crucial for a number of reasons, not least of which would be if they aren't able to finish their assignment and need to pass it off to another scout/GM. If they aren't comfortable telling you they can't get the job done, then you get hit with a surprise and you're left scrambling to get those prospects scouted too late into the process.
It’s also quite important to refresh and update your scouting team every few seasons. Just because you and three other users have been doing all the scouting for the past 5 seasons, does not mean you should keep doing things that way. Add in fresh scouts from your team that are interested in joining. Their perspectives can help you better evaluate players as well as learn new methods for scouting. This is where newer players can also make a large impact. Scouting can be their first taste of team management in the league, and they can provide you with information on how other teams scouted. Opening up the team to new ideas can only help you become more creative and impactful scouts.
2. Create a draft board
Again, this may come across as obvious, but if you have multiple people scouting prospects, they will need to leave their comments somewhere. A shared draft board is the best place to do this. It doesn't need to be high tech, so long as it includes username, player name, position & a comment section, it'll do the job. If you want to get fancier you can look at including TPE, bank Balance and tick boxes for any set questions your team may ask. As a part 2A to this point, you have to make sure scouts actually post their notes on the board. Having a fantastic scouting convo with a prospect is useless if the info you gathered isn't available come draft time! Real life stuff comes up all the time, so if you're indisposed when your team is on the clock and you have the notes on the perfect prospect but they aren't on the board, your team could miss out! Better safe than sorry.
3. Go with the flow
You may ask what on earth we’re on about here, as this sounds rather vague. What a lot of people forget is - Scouting is a 2-way conversation; you aren't just asking a question and gathering a response. We may have some set questions we need to ask over the course of the conversation but these shouldn't take precedent over chatting with the prospect to find out if their personality meshes with the rest of your team. Don't halt a good convo simply to ask another question on your list. Ideally, your questions should be built and phrased in such a way that they are a bit more open-ended and allow for a natural conversation to flow. A player may give a very interesting answer to your question and allowing yourself to be fluid can open up a path into a conversation that is more meaningful than you anticipated. Keep the good times rolling and try to weave the other questions in naturally later on. This isn't to say if things get way off track you can't real it back in.
You don't want to have a formulaic conversation with each prospect, but you do generally want to gather the same information from each. We have a list of topics pinned in our War Room that we try to hit with each person, but we don't go straight down that list. And you don’t have to ask the questions the same way each time. Get creative! Remember that a prospect is having multiple similar conversations with each team, so you want yours to stick out. Also keep in mind that, if this is their first experience with a sim league, they may be intimidated, overwhelmed, and/or confused by some things that you take for granted as common knowledge. If you notice a prospect’s bank is low, instead of asking them if they’re going to need a big contract, ask them if they’re familiar with the ways they can earn money. This gives them the opportunity to tell you what they’ve done, and gives you the opportunity to help them out by suggesting things they may not be aware of.
4. Be Honest
Another key facet of scouting is to be honest with the prospect and yourself. Prospects will look for certain things on their ISFL team, whether that be immediate playing time, a chance to win a championship or a locker room that plays games with each other regularly. Being honest about what your team can offer the prospect will allow both sides to see if it is a fit. If a prospect is walking into a situation expecting something very different than what is actually offered, it will lead to an unhappy locker room. Similarly, don’t lie to yourself about a prospect. If you have a feeling a prospect won’t be a great fit with your team, don’t try to trick yourself into taking him due to his high TPE. It is better for the long term health of your team and the entire league that the new player is happy with their situation. This is where having a great War Room comes into play. Make sure you keep an open dialogue with your guys and bounce ideas off them. Scouting and team building is not an individual effort. Have guys you can trust will tell you when you're trying to force something that may be detrimental to the team.
5. Scout early and scout often
Scouting prospects early is a great way to leave a lasting impression on them. If your team is the first to get to them it can really improve their opinion of you as a team with their proverbial shite together. Day/night before scouting is a sure fire way of leaving a poor impression on prospects as the team comes across as not being particularly organised.
No two scouting conversations are created equally. Some prospects are available to chat as soon as you send that initial DM and can smoke through the full convo in 30 minutes. Some may only reply a few times then need a break. We're an international league, so time zones also play a big factor in discussion times. It's important to give yourself enough time to have meaningful convos with as many prospects as possible, if not all of them.
If you've managed to scout your whole draft board with time to spare, it's a fantastic idea to go back through the people you talked to at the beginning to check back in and see if circumstances have changed. A week or two can make a large difference in sim leagues.
Remember that prospect who didn't reply to you a week ago? Hit them up again! Maybe they were going through some shit at school/work and forgot to reply. Giving them that second opportunity closer to the draft may help you hit on a diamond in the rough.
6. Assume Nothing
So things didn't go well for your team last season and you've ended up with a top 3 pick in the draft. You see a couple highly regarded veterans on the draft board. You hear from around the league that they are 100% definitely going back to X team, so you think there's no need to waste time with scouting them. STOP RIGHT THERE, BUSTER! Scout that person anyway! It is ALWAYS worth checking in regardless. Worst case scenario, they tell you flat out that they'd like to go to another team. Best case, your prior intel was incorrect and they'd be happy to play for your team! Not scouting someone is doing your team a disservice. Even if it doesn't work out this time, maybe come FA time they remember the conversation they had with you and want to give your team a shot. Keeping positive relationships with all prospects new and old is one of the keys to prolonged success.
How about a true rookie who didn't earn as well as their peers or didn't talk much in the locker room? Rumors around the league are that they’re focused on other leagues or outside hobbies. SCOUT THEM ANYWAY! Never assume a rumor is factual. Give them the full scouting experience and see if you can open them up or find some common interest to break the ice. Situations change in this league all the time and maybe they'd been super busy or under a lot of outside stress. Make them feel valuable and desired, and see what comes next!
Scouting Faux Pas:
There are a number of things to avoid when scouting or being scouted. Below is a list of 3 major ones.
1. Questionnaires
The ISFL seems to have gotten away from these but as a new user there was nothing worse than seeing a discord ping and opening up to a wall of text. (example below)
Hi! I'm ___ and I'm a scout for the ____ ____.
Can you please answer the below questions when you get the chance.
What are your goals?
Are you open to switching?
If so what positions?
Are you more focussed on team or individual success?
How active will you be on discord?
On a scale of 1-10 how much TPE will you earn?
What are you looking for in a contract?
How do you plan on earning money?
Is there anyone you don't want to play alongside?
Do you find your mother attractive?
Do you have any questions about our team?
It can be semi-effective if used to get all the questions out of the way to allow you to shoot the shit afterwards but, most of the time, these lead to one or two word answers followed by a quick back and forth. This may be helpful to get through quickly if there’s a high number of prospects, but it really doesn't allow for that personal scouting touch. If you have the manpower to avoid it, try to. As a prospect, I was mostly put off by teams who employed this strategy, especially after one particular case where the scout didn't bother getting back to me after I spent 20 minutes crafting a reply. A prospect is going to appreciate, and often reciprocate, the effort you put in. If you put in 0, you'll almost always get 0 back. Will you always get a gung-ho convo going with each user? No. But this is a pretty sure way to start off in a bad spot.
2. False Promises
We've all been there, you get on really well with a prospect and you're really enjoying shooting the breeze with them. You want them to be excited at the idea of coming to your team. However, they want to be competing straight away and you are at the beginning of a rebuild. You may be tempted to tell a little white lie, "Yes! We'll be in the mix for playoffs next year, for sure". The conversation finishes and the prospect confirms they'd love if you picked them. On draft day you call their name, they're excited as all get out. However, by the end of a dismal 1-15 season they're dejected and asking for a trade. If you'd been up front with them at the start you would have been able to tell the fit wasn't there, instead it's a wasted draft pick. This is why point 4 from above is so important. Additionally, this isn't limited to team performance. Don't promise stats you can't guarantee, don't offer a contract the team can't afford, don't guarantee playing time if the space isn't there. So on and so forth.
3. The TPE Trap
This is a nice short one. It's very easy to sort your draft board by overall TPE and just pick the highest earner in each round. You may do okay in some drafts, but you’ll whiff on the majority. The problem with this technique is you don't get to know the person behind the player. You could pick 3 absolute bona-fide studs at TPE earning but they may all clash personality-wise with your locker room or even with each other. The TPE they've earned won't help you at all if they sign a one year contract then take it with them in free agency.
Something else to keep in mind is that past earning doesn't necessarily equate to future earning. A career in this league is very much a marathon, not a sprint. Anyone can go inactive at any time, so try to bring in those people who will fit your team’s vibe over those who may earn an extra 20 TPE a season. At the end of the day we use DDSPF. Everything is random and the stats barely matter - so what's an extra 150 TPE over the length of a career?
Rookie Corner (Please read if you’re a rookie this season or thinking about joining the league soon)
Being a prospect is one of the most exciting times of your career, but it can also be daunting for someone fresh into sim leagues. You’ve just seen the reddit post advertising the league and taken a couple of hours to navigate a tricky forum and submit a player for review, then finally joined a couple of discord servers, only to get trolled by a guy called Edd.
Just as you are starting to get to know your fellow prospects, your DMs start flashing as scouts begin to hit you up. You get asked what feels like hundreds of questions about things that you know little to nothing about as you have just joined the league.
Does this sound familiar? Are you about to be drafted to the ISFL? This section is for you. Here's a short guide to help navigate scouts.
Let’s get the biggest misconception out of the way first: DRAFT POSITION DOES NOT MATTER! It doesn't work like the NFL; you don't get a bigger contract for going in the first round. So, please don't put too much stock into getting drafted later than you hoped. Yes, you do get a cool Dotts™ trading card made, but other than that, draft position means very little. Answer the scouting questions as truthfully as you can and don't worry about trying to please the scouts just to get drafted earlier.
Contracts matter. It's no lie, your GMs and scouts will certainly want you to take as little money as possible, as excess money can be used elsewhere to bolster O-line bots or bring in free agents. However, if you know you aren't going to be able to commit to earning much league money, be upfront in the scouting conversation if the scout asks. There may be spare cap money to give to you if they know you need that help in advance.
Aside from money you can also have options and clauses built into your contract. Here's a list of clauses and what they do:
NTC - No Trade Clause - This is pretty self-explanatory but essentially it means the team can't trade you unless you waive it. This is useful if there is a team you absolutely wouldn't want to play for.
PO - Player Option - This gives the player the right to opt out of his or her contract any season you have this built into your contract. This gives you an out if your team starts going in a direction you don't agree with.
TO - Team Option - Much like the PO except the option lies with the team, so they can terminate your contract any season this is built in. This gives the team an out if you become inactive and stop earning, rather than letting you become a cap hindrance.
MO - Mutual Option - Basically, combine the 2 above. The team and the player both have the option to opt out of the contract any season the option is active.
Earlier, we mentioned money and how scouts will ask you about earning it. But, how do you even do that? This will be something every team is likely to ask you, so here is a quick rundown of the 5 ways to earn money:
Create a Twitter account - Twitter will pay up to 700k a week if you tweet daily and all you have to include is a message with #ISFLsim. This all but pays for your weekly training for the season.
Other than Twitter it entirely depends on where your wheelhouse is. There are 3 main media forms which you can submit pieces to for grading:
Written media - this can be anything at all related to the sim (pretty lenient). You get paid by the word and get a cool 400k bonus at the 2500 word mark. Writing media is also a great way to get noticed by teams. Some easy topics can be player backstory, "scout reports" of fellow Rookies or (once you've got time to know them) mock drafts of your class.
Graphics - No matter how good you are with photoshop, as long as you can show you've taken time over a graphic it will get paid out. The most common form of graphic is a signature card - creating these can really build up your bank quickly. The higher the quality, the higher the payout.
Podcasts - last but not least is the podcast. If you are an outgoing individual you have the option of submitting podcasts for grading. There are a few extra rules for these as they take a longer time to grade but. You get paid for up to an hour a week. 15 minutes = 1 million. So an hour can net you 4mil! However, if you have more than just yourself on the podcast the Payout is split between you (an hour podcast split between 2 people will get each person 2 mil).
Finally, the most ambitious way of making money is to grab a league job. There are tons of varying jobs available which range from very in depth, taking up a lot of time, to very hands off, maybe only needing looked in on once or twice a season.
Most teams will ping when a job is advertised so you know when they are available. But, it's worth mentioning, you should only apply for these if you plan on actually doing the job, a lot of these keep the league going so half-assing it won't only hurt you, but the league as a whole.
Conclusion:
Thank you so much for reading through this article! We sincerely hope you gained something from it, whether you’re, already a scout, thinking about becoming a scout for your ISFL team, or you’re a rookie going through this process right now! The weekend is coming up and the draft is right around the corner, so if you haven’t yet heard from some teams, know that it’s prime scouting time! As we mentioned at the top, we’d love to hear from you in the replies. Tell us about your scouting experiences, good or bad! Let us know if your team does something completely different. We’d love to hear it all! The Sabercats are all about user-experience, so we’re open to hearing anything that will help us make the league a fantastic place for everyone.
RE: San Jose Scouting Guide - Asked Madden - 10-16-2021
If we don't win (bloody hell honolulu) let us know so we can split the article cash fairly!
RE: San Jose Scouting Guide - Net - 10-16-2021
Wait you scouted me?