1. Any piece of written media published during Season 41 is eligible for an award. This runs from the end of Ultimus 40 to the end of Ultimus 41, or from March 31 to May 26. Pressers also qualify, although the nature of this type of article leaves it unlikely to contend. Graphics and podcasts do not qualify; I know nothing about the former and do not have enough time for the latter.
   
2. There are four award categories: Best Article (Limited), Best Article (Series), Best Author, and Best New Author. Best Article (Limited) and Best Author have ten nominees, while Best Article (Series) and Best New Author have five. For another season, the Best New Author category will have ten nominees this time around.
   
3. An article can only be considered for one of the two relevant categories. Any article published as part of an ongoing series, regardless of whether that series was started in Season 41, is only eligible for the latter category. The exception is any article intended to start a series that so far is the only entry.
   
4. Articles published by groups (for example, the SFWG) are not eligible for awards. Articles that are just lists of statistics or players with no added contribution by the author are also ineligible. Finally, my own articles are ineligible for the obvious conflict of interest.
   
5. Any author can qualify for Best Author. Quality as well as quantity of work is heavily rewarded. Only authors who joined the league in the last three draft classes (for this year, the S41, S42, and S43 classes) and who have never won Best Author or Best New Author before are eligible for Best New Author.
   
6. Remember that this is all one gal's opinion. Every piece of media has creative value and brings something new to the table.
   

• Last season’s Best Author winner is back again producing excellent original content. Her article covers an excellent niche historical topic, tracing her own trade ancestry all the way back to Season 21 with superbly clear formatting and a writing style that explores every nook and cranny of the subject. I may be biased, but trade trees get me excited.
  

• CROney’s comprehensive overview of every team’s draft displays obvious effort and thoroughness. Considering team needs, draftee TPE and positional fit, and moves made during the draft, the article is a great resource for anyone wanting to understand the S41 Draft outcomes and get a preview into the futures of each franchise.
  

• Sometimes an article that catches the zeitgeist also happens to be exceptionally good. This piece simultaneously performs a fascinating exploration of how a real interleague exchange would have to be set up considering relative currency values and shines a light on some systematic issues in the ISFL economy. The tables and explanations are precise, easy to understand, and incredibly feasible for future implementation - a rare quality in many popularly-suggested features.
  

• A spiritual successor to their earlier article on the Silverbacks and Fire Salamanders (which is also worth a read), this comparison of the S22 expansion teams by Martin.Bachman is longer, more thorough, and weaves an interesting narrative chock-full of detailed contrasts. If ever you’ve wondered which fish franchise is superior (the Hahalua), this is the article for you.
  

• Since this Part 1 of a series currently exists without a published Part 2, we will have to do with this excellently humorous dive into our robot companions in the trenches for one half of the league. Mojojojo covers the wide range of philosophies governing how team management names their linemen, those that coordinate and those that don’t, and provides fun explanations of the contexts behind these names.
  

• Despite the problems in this analysis – the systematic bias towards new sim players and the lack of any awards – it remains an engaging read. Shrub’s analysis is well-formatted, well-researched, and clear in its parameters, shining a light on the exceptional linebackers of the modern era. Plus, the colorful number graphics brings me unadulterated joy.
  

• Speaking of another article that catches fire, slate’s article is by far the most engaging of the PSA copycats and entirely outstrips the minor hullabaloo that sparked it. Especially for those unfamiliar with the sim, slate’s article does an excellent job defusing fears of a mass-testing renaissance by explaining the differences between sim engines and why DDSPF16 created so many more problems than currently possible. Mad props.
  

• Data! Statistics! Math! This article by somecoach not only creates a new statistic with which to analyze wide receiver performances but also discusses the potential effects of TPE and player build on specific outcomes. The presentation here is a big star, presenting reams of data in an accessible fashion and including both tables and graphs as vehicles for exploration.
  

• Despite the name, this is actually a grab bag of a variety of mini-articles vaguely linked by thematic threads. All of them are wonderful reads. While the interview and overview of New York’s recent draft class were well-written and pleasant, the star of the show is the title segment, which peruses options for media writers with a mix of earnest advice and increasingly manic energy. (For the record, I use Word for everything except the Gemini Awards, which are on Docs for who knows what reason.)
  

• So many new rookies in the league express frustration and confusion over the scouting process; this is the article for them. Wizard explains exactly what GMs are angling for with each cliche question, gives relevant and specific tips on how to best answer them, and does so in a Q&A format that is easy to peruse both piecemeal and as a whole.
  

• There were a number of gambling-related article series this year, all of which are worth at least a cursory read. In my opinion, Lips’ Picks provided the best mixture of quality, consistency, and content among the options. Chicken Lips wrote his series entries with great analysis of picks past and present and clear, accessible structuring.
  

• It’s rate to honor a series with only one new entry; it’s rarer to see an entry as incredible as this one. Infinite follows up last year’s Best Article winner with another certified banger, building an analytics model from the ground-up to examine surrender punts, field goal decisions, and historical examples with aplomb. And any reader familiar with infinite’s work already knows his articles will be stuffed with visually stimulating graphs and presented at professional quality.
  

• Swoosh took a break from flooding the graphics scene to present this series of evolving mock drafts. It wasn’t just a sequence of randomly changing picks, either; each installment showed a clear improvement in the thoroughness of each selection’s justification, adding graphics to an already solid layout, and overall creating an experience that effectively prepares the reader for the draft.
  

• True rookies often get overlooked in awards consideration next to their more mature rookie peers; TheRake is here to give them their dues. The particular standout in this short series is the titular awards ceremony, where they combine counting stats, a fantasy metric, and their own opinion to create a sweeping shoutout of the rookie class. It is very nicely made, and I sincerely hope TheRake continues on this endeavor yearly.
  

• In the most expansive series published this season, ztarwarz undertook the ambitious task of surveying every franchise’s historical success and measuring them against one another. Although each entry could hardly be called enormous in individual scope, together ztarwarz paints natural comparisons in how different teams performed over the decades and pulls all their work together in the end for a satisfying conclusion.
  

• As ever, the work of aeonsjenni this season was inspiring. The nominated article on trade trees aside, she also furthered her Gemini-winning series on Expected Points, expanding not only to the current season but also to years past with vivid writing and charts galore.
  

• One of the most prolific efforts this season, Chicken Lips wrote an astounding volume of articles while incorporating thoroughly-researched analyses of the situation being discussed, whether it be the optimal casino gambles of the week, the development of the rookie tight end cohort, or just the best and funniest names among DSFL draftees.
  

• CROney continued their popular bets series, the inspiration for so many contemporary copycats, but their best work this year came in their solo articles. Both the nominated draft review and the fantasy football ADP analysis, which barely missed the cut, demonstrate clear understanding of the value of data presentation and add onto it an expressive writing style that pulls the reader in.
  

• From their first published article, Martin.Bachman showed a clear talent for condensing dense game and season summaries into interesting narratives. Their writing and formatting improved further with each media entry, taking readers through the prospect bowl games and through two in-depth comparisons of the recent expansion team pairs.
  

• Slate only wrote two articles this year, but both were fantastic enough to vault him into Best Author consideration. One was a follow-up to his collaboration with mojojojo last year, where they both repeated the combination of graphical analysis and presentational clarity that made the predecessor a Gemini nominee. The other, of course, was so good I contemplated splitting the Best Article award.
  

• My number one multi suspect unfortunately seems to have gone inactive; that's a shame, because their media output was so good I found it worthy of either serious scrutiny or incredible kudos. Their Gemini-nominated article on Season 40 receivers is one thing, but of comparable quality are their investigations of blocking tight ends, quarterback ANY/A, and receiving value history. I really hope they come back.
  

• Swoosh's largest contribution to the (written) media landscape this year came in their nominated series on the mock drafts; the later entries in that series are impressively polished. But their Dino Nuggets articles have value too, particularly the two discussing DSFL franchise landing spots, and all of their output is aesthetically pleasing.
  

• Not to be a spoiler, but TheRake's writing stands out even among the crowded class of rookies in this competition. The True Rookie awards (I'm not putting a trademark every time) were only the tip of the iceberg when also considering their great two-part article on draft needs and accuracy grades and the Free Agent Emporium (again, no trademark). TheRake shows a great understanding of how to structure their discussions and write in a breezy yet substantive manner.
  

• Can the Best New Author graduate to Best Author? Wizard's articles were just as detailed and just as immaculately put-together as before; two nominees lead the pack, buffered by everything from mock drafts and prospect bowl team follow-ups to Silverback stadium "rennovation" proposals. Unfortunately for wizard, I am not in a forgiving mood, and although that typo may be fixed now it is egregious enough to disqualify him entirely from contention.
  

• Ztarwarz officially won the "Nickyvmlp/Henry Ford Production Line Award" this year. Just kidding – that is an unfair comparison to ztarwarz, whose prolificness this year came from a variety of fun, unique historical articles, covering a number of unrelated topics with impressive depth and never repeating the same angle twice. The quality of their writing matches the quantity, with simple but effective formatting serving as a vehicle for the content.
  

• Best Author nominee? Best New Author nominee.
  

• Best Author nominee? Best New Author nominee.
  

• Finally, someone I can talk about! DangWookie posted an eclectic mix of articles this season, mainly covering game action from the Prospect Bowl and from a DSFL preseason match. Their most noteworthy contribution, though, took a bog-standard in-universe position switch article idea done to death and combined it with charming prose and a unique and creative newspaper graphic presentation. It grabs the reader from the jump.
  

• What jollyjiggs lacked in volume they made up for in excellence. The two articles (and one presser) they published gave wide-ranging surveys of the Norfolk and ISFL draft hauls, with a comprehensible and intuitive approach to the layout of each piece and obviously well-informed opinions on the values of the players involved. They said once that they are only writing for money, so I hope the siren call of money keeps them at it.
  

• Personality seeps through every pore of LHarm’s writing. Not to imply that they lack substance – on the contrary, their two mock drafts display obvious research and attention put into the accuracy of their predictions. But from the clean style and formatting to the easygoing, occasionally sardonic, often irreverent prose sprinkled into the analysis, their articles are a breeze to scan through and lighten the mood considerably even when covering otherwise drab or uninspiring topics.
  

• Best Author nominee? Best New Author nominee.
  

• Best Author nominee? Best New Author nominee.
  

• Best Author nominee? Best New Author nominee.
  

• Best Author nominee? Best New Author nominee.
  

• The final member of the big "casino bet article" trifecta, Ultimatedestroye's series technically ended up the longest of the bunch with thirteen installments. And his version brought some new things to the fold, like weekly and long-running table comparisons between the accuracy of each picker, to pair with a casual writing style and informed predicted outcomes on their future bets.
  

(05-28-2023, 09:32 AM)TwoSocks Wrote: Awesome as always! Perhaps we see something similar for graphics….

(05-28-2023, 07:57 AM)Baron1898 Wrote: ...The decision for this Gemini was agonizingly tough between this article and one other (can you guess which one?)...

(05-28-2023, 10:31 AM)aeonsjenni Wrote:

(05-28-2023, 07:57 AM)Baron1898 Wrote: ...The decision for this Gemini was agonizingly tough between this article and one other (can you guess which one?)...

Realistically you're probably referring to slate's PSA article, which was my personal favorite article of the year, but in my head I will imagine you are referring to mine.

As always I love that the Gemini exists! Thank you so much for the two nominations.

(05-28-2023, 10:34 AM)Baron1898 Wrote:

(05-28-2023, 10:31 AM)aeonsjenni Wrote:

(05-28-2023, 07:57 AM)Baron1898 Wrote: ...The decision for this Gemini was agonizingly tough between this article and one other (can you guess which one?)...

Realistically you're probably referring to slate's PSA article, which was my personal favorite article of the year, but in my head I will imagine you are referring to mine.

As always I love that the Gemini exists! Thank you so much for the two nominations.

The answer is spoiled later in the article, but I’ll let you believe whatever you want to