Task 6 -
I feel it's important that I start this by noting that I've been around sim leagues for a while. SHL is my primary league, GOMHL was my favorite league because it was so easy and had a hard cap of 500 tpe. I've done ISFL before, but went inactive pretty quick due to real life stuff. I've also done PBE. I want to note that the PBE index is by far my favorite, and it was possible to get lost in there for an hour or two of real time.
With all of that said, and I'm counting it in my 800 words because it's relevant, I think the thing that makes this league intriguing to me is that football is broken up into offensive and defensive positions. Yeah, in hockey you get people playing offense or defense, but they all have the same stat lines - Goals, assists, points, +/-, penalty minutes, etc etc. Baseball has far more stats but, aside from the pitcher, everyone has the same stat lines as well for the most part.
Then there's football. You've got offensive players, you've got defensive players, you've got a kicker and maybe a dedicated punter, you've got special teams. The roster size is so much larger, you've got to handle so many more people and their egos than the other leagues. One of the questions I've been asked by every scout is if I'd be willing to change position if the team needed me to. I've told them yes so far, but I think I'm going to change my answer to that. I'm a linebacker. I like to be on the defensive side of the ball. I want to go hit your quarterback. That's one of the thing sthat makes the league special. I was able to make a decision to have my player play on the defensive side of the ball, in a position where he's basically pretty limited in what he's going to be doing. He's not going to be making big interceptions, or pick up a clutch pick six. He's going to try to hit whoever has the ball at or behind the line of scrimmage. It's such a niche task, but it's so important. The guys who play corner are super important, the guys who play offensive line are super important. It's a league based on a sport that makes sure that every role is important. This isn't hockey where you're going to be a fourth line player, getting 3 minutes of ice time a game, and expect to see your name show up on the stat sheet. I mean, In Active finished the season with a blocked field goal. That, to me, is crazy and exciting to keep me motivated.
Another thing that I find really interesting about the league, and it's something I haven't really spent much time with to fully dive deep into it and explore, is the index. It took some looking at, but it's surprisingly clean and well organized. It's been awesome to see, as a rookie, just where my player ranks in comparison to the other players in the league. I don't know why, but I fully expected it to be more difficult to compare defensive players to each other. As much as I'm a hockey first guy, I think this index is going to be a big motivating factor in keeping me active in this league.
One of the other things that is a lot more exciting, and I guess agonizing, is the playoff structure in football compared to hockey and baseball. In hockey and baseball, you've got multiple chances to make it to the next round. It's kind of nice, knowing that if you lose a game, you have more games in the series to make it up. It lets you adjust for the next game if need be. Especially in a sim league, where there is no adjusting on the fly like you would be able to do in a real life game. Here, in football? This is it. You win, or you go home. I didn't get a chance to watch a lot of live sims, but I did get the chance to watch the Ultimini game. My heart was pounding the whole time, knowing that if we lost the game it would be over. I haven't felt that kind of rush watching a sim in any other league ever. I guess that boils down, again, to the whole offense versus defense really. You pretty much know if your defense is on the field, it's not likely you're going to see a touchdown - but it makes it a lot more exciting when it does happen. I feel like that really helped to bring a team together while watching the game in discord. You're so excited for your entire offense, or your entire defense. It really brings the team feeling into the game, compared to other leagues.
I know it was kind of rambling, but the more I thought while I was writing this the more I realized just how interesting the ISFL is compared to the other sim leagues that I've been in. I'm glad we got an influx of players in the SHL recently, I probably wouldn't have come back here if they hadn't talked me into it.
Task 29 - SHL PT - Throwing this in just in case I was a little too rambling in that last task
I feel it's important that I start this by noting that I've been around sim leagues for a while. SHL is my primary league, GOMHL was my favorite league because it was so easy and had a hard cap of 500 tpe. I've done ISFL before, but went inactive pretty quick due to real life stuff. I've also done PBE. I want to note that the PBE index is by far my favorite, and it was possible to get lost in there for an hour or two of real time.
With all of that said, and I'm counting it in my 800 words because it's relevant, I think the thing that makes this league intriguing to me is that football is broken up into offensive and defensive positions. Yeah, in hockey you get people playing offense or defense, but they all have the same stat lines - Goals, assists, points, +/-, penalty minutes, etc etc. Baseball has far more stats but, aside from the pitcher, everyone has the same stat lines as well for the most part.
Then there's football. You've got offensive players, you've got defensive players, you've got a kicker and maybe a dedicated punter, you've got special teams. The roster size is so much larger, you've got to handle so many more people and their egos than the other leagues. One of the questions I've been asked by every scout is if I'd be willing to change position if the team needed me to. I've told them yes so far, but I think I'm going to change my answer to that. I'm a linebacker. I like to be on the defensive side of the ball. I want to go hit your quarterback. That's one of the thing sthat makes the league special. I was able to make a decision to have my player play on the defensive side of the ball, in a position where he's basically pretty limited in what he's going to be doing. He's not going to be making big interceptions, or pick up a clutch pick six. He's going to try to hit whoever has the ball at or behind the line of scrimmage. It's such a niche task, but it's so important. The guys who play corner are super important, the guys who play offensive line are super important. It's a league based on a sport that makes sure that every role is important. This isn't hockey where you're going to be a fourth line player, getting 3 minutes of ice time a game, and expect to see your name show up on the stat sheet. I mean, In Active finished the season with a blocked field goal. That, to me, is crazy and exciting to keep me motivated.
Another thing that I find really interesting about the league, and it's something I haven't really spent much time with to fully dive deep into it and explore, is the index. It took some looking at, but it's surprisingly clean and well organized. It's been awesome to see, as a rookie, just where my player ranks in comparison to the other players in the league. I don't know why, but I fully expected it to be more difficult to compare defensive players to each other. As much as I'm a hockey first guy, I think this index is going to be a big motivating factor in keeping me active in this league.
One of the other things that is a lot more exciting, and I guess agonizing, is the playoff structure in football compared to hockey and baseball. In hockey and baseball, you've got multiple chances to make it to the next round. It's kind of nice, knowing that if you lose a game, you have more games in the series to make it up. It lets you adjust for the next game if need be. Especially in a sim league, where there is no adjusting on the fly like you would be able to do in a real life game. Here, in football? This is it. You win, or you go home. I didn't get a chance to watch a lot of live sims, but I did get the chance to watch the Ultimini game. My heart was pounding the whole time, knowing that if we lost the game it would be over. I haven't felt that kind of rush watching a sim in any other league ever. I guess that boils down, again, to the whole offense versus defense really. You pretty much know if your defense is on the field, it's not likely you're going to see a touchdown - but it makes it a lot more exciting when it does happen. I feel like that really helped to bring a team together while watching the game in discord. You're so excited for your entire offense, or your entire defense. It really brings the team feeling into the game, compared to other leagues.
I know it was kind of rambling, but the more I thought while I was writing this the more I realized just how interesting the ISFL is compared to the other sim leagues that I've been in. I'm glad we got an influx of players in the SHL recently, I probably wouldn't have come back here if they hadn't talked me into it.
Task 29 - SHL PT - Throwing this in just in case I was a little too rambling in that last task