Offseason Point Task - 25th Anniversary Special

[209tacos]

My favorite thing about the INternational Simulation Football League is the discord locker rooms. I've had a blast memeing it up in the Tijuana Lucha Lucha locker room and within the Philly Bells Locker rooms.  The two have kind of blended together recently with the promotion of Pat to GM for Liberty. Love Pat; he's my homie and was super active in the Luchadore lockerroom and has carried over that energy to Philly.

But I guess you can boil that down to the people. I really just enjoy the people that are in the International Simulation Football League. Everyone has been outstanding, and they're always fun.

Another thing I like about the International Simulation Football League is graphics grading. Now I don't always agree with the grading ( I mean, come on, everything I do should be a seven, right?), but for five-hundred thousand, I'm not going to complain about it. Ok, well, I will complain but not loud enough to have anything change.  But having that grading system in place has forced me to try to do better on my graphics just to get the bragging rights to be like, "yeh brah I got sevens on mah graphics, brah."

[CalvinGolladay]

Since I joined in the massive Reddit class of S22, this league has meant a ton to me. I haven't been the most active or a max earner or anything like that, but I've still loved my time here. Things were pretty confusing joining the league, but the rookie tasks gave me a direction to go in, and I was able to get started in the league. I picked OL just because I figured teams would need the position, and figured if I didn't like it I could just swap positions. Well, I ended up loving it, in large part due to the Fair Rub Club, and haven't looked back (except when I'm writing responses like these). Jay Doctor was the first GM to reach out to me (at least I think), and convinced me that Tijuana was going to be the best destination for me. Bagel also followed up, making them the only team I had multiple conversations with. I think two teams didn't reach out, and two had DMs on the forums I missed (sorry KC and Dallas!), but in the end it worked out great. Tijuana drafted me with the 60th pick, where I joined my Rambler teammates Sid and Mith. Winning the prospect bowl was a fun memory since it was my first league experience, and the draft would be likewise had the draft not buffered just before my selection was announced. We kinda didn't do awesome that first season, but it's still one of my favorite league memories interacting with my Luchadore teammates. Getting picked by Arizona was another fun time (I recently learned that I was the 40th pick, not the 48th as I'd always thought, which was a shock), except I missed that one on the stream as well. Regardless, I've had a good time with the Outlaws as well, even though my activity has waned. I plan to finish my career there, and even though we haven't had a ton of success we've drafted well and improved every year. Outside of my player, I've also enjoyed my limited experience with my shallow amount of "behind the scenes" stuff. I've scouted and dabbled with sim testing (I'll still claim all the credit for Tijuana's 8th Ultimini), and technically held a league job as part of the awards committee for one season in the DSFL and two (maybe?) in the ISFL. I might even be returning this season, which will be fun. Overall I'm very glad I ended up joining the league, and I'm excited for my first playoff win this upcoming season!

A little over 400 words

[Rise of Smitty]

Since joining the ISFL back in season 1 I have been in and out of the league with many failed players and a couple successful ones. I had failed before because the ISFL was created at the time the Elite Football League was new and I was a GM there on my way to a championship in season one. Once I left that league and took a break I decided to return to the ISFL from my mini retirement. I joined with a player named Vander Jones and had a lot of successful seasons with the Philadelphia Liberty. I had even reached the point of General Manager for them but it was short lived as my personal life took a toll and stepped down not only in ISFL as a GM but also the PBE as a GM. Since then I have been on a break from the ISFL but now I have a good momentum going with my newest player, a wide receiver for Sarasota. So far I am having a lot of fun playing for Sarasota and am really enjoying the ISFL again. It has been a hot and cold relationship, usually out of personal reasoning, but right now it's hot and I am thankful to be back in the ISFL and enjoying it again. I have made a lot of good friends in the ISFL that I talk to daily and I also get to continue playing with one of my best friends not only in sim leagues but we've become great friends outside of sim leagues in Mike Boss. Like many people, I don't have a lot of interaction with friends in my real life, as most of us have separated and moved on since school ended. Having the ability to make connections via the virtual world which turns into real life friendships makes sim leagues like the ISFL all the more worthwhile. I have gone through personal injuries in my real life where I was bed ridden for weeks and the people I know through the ISFL helped me get through that by interacting with me in the discord locker room and providing an escape from my pain while I worked my way through it. If I didn't have this as an outlet I don't know how it would of gone and how I would of been able to get through it as easily as I was able to having this as an escape. The ISFL has definitely been a big, recent, part of my life and I hope I am able to continue for here for a long time and have a lot of fun on and off the field.

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[JBLAZE_THE_BOSS]

The ISFL celebrating 25 Seasons is a milestone that not even the most optimistic fan could’ve seen coming at the beginning. For those who may not know, I’ve began doing sim leagues off and on for 17+ years, so I’ve seen almost everything there is to see. If you asked me the day I registered for the NSFL forum if I thought the league would make it 25 seasons I would’ve said no way, but been happy with 5. The league blew my expectations out of the water. It was my reintegration into the sim league world, it rekindled my love for this hobby I’ve been doing since I was a kid. I’m thankful that I was in the right place at the right time to join this league right from the beginning. I wanted to try and make an impact early on in the league’s life, just in case it didn’t last. Once it became apparent that the league was not going anywhere, I began to take it for granted and not put in my best effort. I didn’t finish Boss Sr’s career strong, and I stopped trying on Blaze even earlier than that. I’m thankful for Timeconsumer for all of the…time he spent on me during those early Orange County years. I’m glad that I never really got all that close to leaving the Otters when everything was all said and done. My time going from one of several QBs drafted to being the starter to throwing 7 INT in one game to winning an Ultimus to winning an MVP and Offensive Player of the Year, and so on. Boss Sr was by far the most accomplished character in my sim league career, stretching dozens of leagues and as many characters over the years. While I absolutely despise watching colored dots move across the screen in a high-def version of Tecmo Football, I appreciate the hard work that goes into this league. Now, I can’t see any good reason that this league would stop. It seems like there are some core sim leagues in our little universe that have lasted for years in real life now that have become machines. I never thought there would be a day where several leagues no matter the sport lasted as long as these have, so I’m glad the ISFL has cemented itself in the upper echelon in the historical realm of sim football—it makes my team and player accomplishments really stand out. These days, I’m thankful for another chance to be a QB for an exciting team looking to make their mark on the league’s history books. I hope for the 50th Anniversary I can write about how successful the Boss Jr. era was in Sarasota. [456 words]

[Evok]

This league is a love hate relationship since the creation. I can imagine this is not exactly what the head office wants to hear, but it’s the truth. The reason is pretty simple. I have never liked football. I have little interest in the sport and I think it’s not a fun sport to watch, which mean I struggle to always find something to talk about when I have to do point tasks or championship weeks here. However, I always find myself coming back. I have three players so far in this league, and the current one is the longest living player. The first and second ones were abandoned due to lack of care, burned out of sim leagues. The third one is probably the perfect world for me. I have a position where there’s not a lot of expectation, that can run well with low TPE, there’s the league affiliation. There’s also the fact I ended up in the best locker room I could wish for. I don’t mean that the other locker rooms are not good, I’m sure there’s some amazing team and some very cancerous one, but the Chicago Butchers are where Sam Sidekick belong and will forever stay.
I managed to end up in a locker room with some amazing person I get along with. @Bayley and @Muford are managers that know what to expect of me and I have no problem being honest with them when I think I wont meet a deadline. I have amazing teammates in @caltroit_red_flames, @SwagSloth, @Leafer, @renojacksonHS, @Oles, @ForSucksFake, @IthicaHawk, @TheCC, @LimJahey, @enigmatic, @Aenir, @24redcrayons, @Maglubiyet, @Mavfatha, @ThunderTitan82, @37thchamber and probably others I forgot about. If it wasn’t of the nice locker room I have and that I can consider a lot of them like my friend, I might have dipped again two seasons ago. But now im doing better, and I can’t wait to push the team as far as we can this season. I’m looking forward to what this season will have to offer to the butchers and it’s actually rare that I am looking forward to something in the isfl. Right now, while this league remain 3rd in my priority list, it’s not something I am considering leaving anymore. I’ll push sidekick the furthest away I can and then look to come back with another player to try to have a chance to the hall of fame, if it doesn’t work with my kicker. One day I’ll reach it!

[Booger]

I joined the league back in February after scrolling through r/NFL and seeing an intriguing post about a football sim. I was really excited to join and figure out what the league was all about, so the next morning I made my account and created my player, Fawn Dillmiballs. Initially, I never would've thought the league would come to mean as much as it does now. I think a lot of that is thanks to my first DSFL season with the Kansas City Coyotes. I was selected 69th overall and became a part of a great team, full of active guys in the locker room and a couple of awesome GMs in Butters and Starboy. I almost immediately became hooked, and, thanks to the rona, had plenty of time to chat in the discord and learn to navigate the forums. Then, just as quickly as it had begun, I was moved away from Kansas City and landed in Sarasota on the newly formed Sailfish. Initially, it was a bit of a shock to my system, as I was used to this incredibly active server in KC and was thrown into one with only a handful of members. I didn't know it at the time, but my fellow S22 Sarasoatans and some of the expansion guys would come to mean so much to me. It has now been 9+ months since I joined, and not a morning goes by when I don't check in on discord to see what's going on. Some guys I'd especially like to point out are tmuse, frost, sakrosankt, billy, panda, trop, drizzy, and more recently Smitty, whos been keeping me up to date on his ever-growing signature/poster/funko collection! You guys have made this league so much fun for me, and I'm glad to still be playing in Sarasota with most of you. I think, as a whole, the league has become less of a way to experience what it would be like to have my own professional football career, and more of a way to just interact with everyone in the locker room. I'm still dutifully completing my tasks and updating weekly, but my primary focus isn't really the league anymore, and if that doesn't tell you something about how important the guys I've met in the past 9 months are, I don't know what will. So, as Fawn's career reaches its halfway point (roughly), all I can hope for is that the next few months in the league are filled with just as much fun as the last 9.

[slate]

Since joining as part of the giant Season 25 Reddit class, the International Simulation Football League (ISFL) has gained a special place in my heart as the best online community I have ever been a part of. While I've been active on internet message boards before, I have almost always been content to take the part of a lurker who reads the news and ideas that other people share. However, I have rarely felt comfortable putting myself and my thoughts out there to be judged by the anonymous readers who I don't know very well.

When I signed up to participate in this league after clicking through on the Reddit post, I thought I would likely play the same role in this league. I was excited to have my own player and see how well they could perform, but I wasn't sure to what extent I would interact with other users or participate myself in the discussion around the league. Honestly, if I didn't already have a Discord account that I barely used at the time, I might not have even opted to join the league Discord server. Fortunately, I did, and while I was overwhelmed by the chaos happening in gen chat, I was messaged by a very friendly Rookie Mentor who invited me to the DSFL server. In that much calmer space, the positivity and friendliness of the community immediately made it hard to stand back on the sidelines.

As I was still figuring things out, it was great to get help from the wonderful Rookie Mentor team about how to earn TPE for my player and just use the site functionality in general. Then, once I had figured out how to make my player's wiki page and posted it for the 10 TPE, I felt like I should share it back to the server to give back in some way to the people who had helped me figure it out. Talking about my wiki page got me noticed by Maglubiyet, one of the scouts for the London Royals, and before I knew it I had DMs scouting me for the upcoming DSFL draft. While I was very unsure about myself and how I might come across to teams, it was really exciting to be involved in an active way in the league and talking to other users extensively about my player, how I might fit on a team, what kind of things I wanted to accomplish, etc. At that point, I was hooked.

Since then, I have obviously gotten more and more comfortable participating to the point where now a significant chunk of my online time is spent hanging out on Discord with many leaguemates who I would consider good friends. So, a huge thanks to all of the wonderful people who make this such a great community to be a part of and such a welcoming place that made me feel comfortable putting myself out there virtually.

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491 words

[Vainknight13]

25th Anniversary PT

I suppose if I were to really boil it down the league means a lot of things to me. A month or two ago I would have said that the league is an escape from reality, a way to get outside of my own head and live in a different reality for a while, but now it can still be that way sometimes but its no longer an escape. I would describe it now as a community that I am happy to be a part of. There are people that I interact with here that I would never have met in real life. I have friends inside the league. I have roles and responsibilities. I have people I like and dislike, just like I do at work or in my expanded friend group.

The league always gives me something to look forward to. The community and the games, there is always something new to look discover or read or talk about every day. Always some new drama going on, a new controversy or scandal. That good gossip going on behind closed doors, the same shit I like about working in a factory really. I describe working in a factory as high school 2.0 . The league can be that way sometimes and in that way it gets you hooked. There are organic storylines and conflicts that arise naturally. The people that take this seriously and run through the full range of emotions involved with their players career really help to get you hooked and involved. You really get the feel that a lot of people get really involved and immersed in developing their character and getting involved with the community in general.

I mean this is all besides the fact that it is all based around one of my top two favorite sports. While I love the people and the interaction I don't think I would have been able to get hooked if it were baseball or hockey, football was really the only possibility there. My other favorite sport mixed martial arts likely wouldn't be very fun from a community expert. There would be no reason to interact with others, while people train in teams that is an individual sport. This is a team sport where it takes a whole team to be successful. Big teams in football really lends itself well to making good community spaces and having good interactions based around common goals.

So in essence this has become part of my life. It isn't an escape its another layer where I have other goals I am constantly looking forward to achieving.

[Naosu]

Although I'm only semi-active here as real life has taken over most of my time, I've had an enjoyable time with this league so far. Every league I'm in has a great community and this one is no different. I have a fun time softly trolling people here whether it be through discord, PTs, or media. I was surprised by how much attention my alphabetically challenged sim schedule post generated. I'm not malicious by any means, but pride myself in treading a fine line where people can't tell if I'm serious or not with what I'm saying. That post along with another media piece (that one for other reasons) made me continuously burst out in laughter as I read the comments. This league isn't my main focus but I'm happy I'm able to have some good honest fun with it.

I was tricked into creating a player by jeffie43 and he's a large reason I'm at where I am today. However, I'd like to give a huge thanks to the user @Frostbite. I'm not sure not if he was the final reason I got claimed to Myrtle Beach at the end of S21, or if it was jeffie, but Frost has played a huge part in my career. He drafted me knowing I had huge demands and was open about leaving my team if they weren't good. I've held him at gunpoint over contract negotiations and he's been fine giving me almost everything I've asked for. He's also done an exceptional job GMing, managing to turn an expansion team into contenders in a very short time frame, as well as having an amazing locker room. If I got drafted elsewhere it's highly likely I wouldn't be on my original team at this point. It's been a great experience so far and I hope we're able to win an Ultimus with the current group of people.

My player hasn't been the best lately but I'll always remember the DSFL S22 and ISFL S23 awards. Goku had an exceptional S22 season and won DLOTY. I missed out on DPOTY due to issues amongst the awards committee which was unfortunate. Although I still feel the same as I did when it initially happened. It's not a huge deal, and I just hope that they've corrected this so no one in the future misses out. Goku also had a great S23 season and managed to win DROTY. I was very happy as Goku can be argued as my most decorated sim player along with credit for an Ultimini in S21.

[DoIHaveTheSause]

What this league means to me is something I can not just put into a few words. This league has been a great pastime for me out of my normal day to day life. There are a couple of things that make these leagues so unique to anything else. The things that make this league different from other recreational activities are the community, the different operations that go to make this league run, and the overall experience of being in the international simulation football league.
An aspect that makes this league different from other recreational activities is the community. There are a wide variety of people you meet from all over the world. This allows you to experience conversations from different cultures. Throughout my time in the league, I’ve been in the Tijuana Luchadores locker room, the Portland Python locker room and the Sarasota Sailfish locker room. Each one of those locker rooms was unique and included individuals that brought something different to the great. Whether it be motivation, tips and tricks / updates, or just enjoyable memes, each one of these locker rooms have been a great time to be a part of. My overall time of being in the league has included meeting a great group of people and am looking forward to making more connections with others in this league.
Another great thing that this league has to offer is how fascinating the operations of the league are. From a macro outlook, the league is broken down into two parts, the international league, and the developmental league. The fact that the league is broken down into two separate leagues is great in my eyes to keep the league thriving. This allows players from all levels to not only enjoy the league by receiving some playing time, but it gives users the chance to learn the ropes and develop their player in the best way they can. But wait, there’s more. Not only are the players developing, but the scouts and the general managers are as well.  You can tell that this league is ever-evolving. It really is amazing!
A third aspect of the league I really appreciate is the experience of the website and discord that this league uses. I personally have only been in the league for a couple of seasons, but have seen how the website looked before it was updated. I’m amazed and proud of the work that the IT part of the league did to make the jump to overhaul the entire website to what it is now. It is an amazing update that makes directing through the league much more efficient. It's been such a blessing.
Overall, joining this league has been a great time and I’m looking for the future.