(S30) PT 5 - What is the Meaning of...

[LeatherneckMike]

PBE PT afill claim

[KingSean]

Success always means many layers of goals. As a professional and competitive sports league, winning a championship is certainly one major goal. I joined the Sailfish about two seasons ago, and it was a bit unlucky that we did not win the championship in the past two seasons. However, as long as we keep a high standard and maintain the level of competitiveness, I believe we will win a championship (maybe just this season). Winning a championship requires many conditions, among which individual excellence is one. Each individual player needs to be responsible and be willing to train hard and grow. While each player may contribute to different degrees, a successful player can improve the TPEs in a consistent way and satisfy the expectation of the team. This is success at the individual level. Winning awards is a tricky thing. Individual excellence is only a necessary but not sufficient condition - the player needs to be in a great team to deliver great stats to win awards. I don't think having fun without any growing or winning goals can be a sufficient definition of success. The feeling is always self-deceptive. I can always tell myself that I have great fun with my teammates, even when everyone hates me. It is a lie. Only persistent winnings, awards, and growth can demonstrate success. (Words: 221)

[Vaelynn]

Success to Remus Roman has already been achieved. His background, his story is full of hardship and struggle, and to make it to the pro leagues and be able to sustain his family for future generations has already made him feel like he has achieved success. Growing up with a single mother in a difficult environment – if not for football and their ever dedicated mother, Remus and Romulus may have fallen in with the wrong crowd and never seen the level of success they have achieved so far. Anything additionally is a cherry on top for the brothers – both highly respected players in the ISFL now.

Do not get me wrong, Remus and Romulus will continue to work as hard as possible to achieve further success: awards, playoffs, and possibly an Ultimus, but for them the prospect of playing professionally in a sport they truly love is the success. Getting drafted early in both the DSFL and ISFL is a success. Seeing their mother move into a home with multiple bedrooms, living a comfortable lifestyle where she doesn’t have to slave away at three jobs… That is the real success for them. Remus and Romulus couldn’t be more happy with what they have achieved.

(204 words)

[Jerms]

It's quite obvious to say, but success is going to be defined differently by every player in the league. In fact, success will be defined differently by the same player in different seasons, or at different points throughout their career. For instance, Doc Holliday is currently a rookie about to head into his first postseason. Success at this point is winning every game and doing so at any cost. If you were to ask me what success was when I was in the first few weeks of the league, I would've said that success is me being satisfied with my performance at the end of the game, regardless of the result. That was my mindset after each game...did I play well? If I felt I could answer that question with a "yes", then I would say that I was successful in that game. Now, while I think that being satisfied with personal performance is always a measure of success for myself, it changes slightly now that we are in the playoffs. At this point, just doing well is not enough to say I am successful. Winning is all that matters in the postseason, and that's what takes precedent over individual accolades. I can be proud of myself for playing well, but I wouldn't call losing in the playoffs "success". This goes doubly so for championship games, and tenfold for the big game. So really, success is dependent on your current situation. Next season, success will be performing better than I did my rookie season...getting higher stats and making more of an impact on each game. But right he now, success is winning.

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[Vorshayla]

The meaning of success is exactly whatever you want it to be.  For me it started out as joke where I was just recruited to help me friend raindelay out with his recruitment TPE for the large s21 class.  I wasn't planning on doing anything with the league, just sign up and that was it.  However as I looked more into the league and talked with some of the members it started to dawn on me that this might be a community I want to partake in and get to know.  I'm glad my read wasn't wrong as this has been a good community with a lot of people taking time out of their day to help make it a success.

From off shoot games like werewolf and survivor, to gambling your fake money on outcomes based on a sim to having our own trading cards as players.  There are many successful instances in this league already just from getting the community together to do something good, like the charity drive or the NFL recruitment thread on reddit.  I think even though, there are multiple definitions of success and every person has their own version of what that looks like, the league as whole is extremely successful in this regard as the community is always what makes things great. 

219 words

[IceBear32]

I believe success in the league is determined by those around you and the war room and locker room itself. Each teams have different level of success, and those levels change from season to season. I can imagine teams want nothing short of an Ultimus, conference, or season championships, but others are shooting for different benchmarks. Some are shooting for playoff births and others like my season with Hon are shooting for an enjoyable season while making sure the Locker room and the young players are staying active and earning as much as possible. This doesn’t less our organization, but it is setting us up for the future. Having this mindset allows for players not to get discouraged and makes goal attainable. I know our locker room had a lot of fun betting on our over / under bet. This made a 4 win season something we were at least shooting for. The completion of our goal right around the halfway point of the season made for a nice little checkmark for completed in our locker room. I think this is why you see FA being a big part of the league and making sure the teams goals line up. Being apart of the HON future has me excited. I believe our 6-10 season was a very successful one as we set up for the future.

[qWest]

I have spent a lot of time in the league considering what "success" is. For one, there's the outside perspective of what makes a successful team or player. You'd like to define that by the hardware, things like trophies, awards, pro bowls, etc. but I've been a bit disillusioned to the true value of those things. I've seen plenty of teams and players that, by many other metrics or opinions, should not be considered to be the best in their season but still bring home the hardware. While I think there's a lot we could do to improve the processes that lead up to giving out that hardware, I don't know that it'll ever be perfect.

Personal success can be pretty nebulous too. When I was being scouted for the ISFL draft I had an opinion on what I thought success or fulfillment in the league would be for me that I've seen a lot of other people project. I wanted to be a team player and I thought that I'd find success in playing my part in trying to build up a winning culture. A year and a half later, I've never won the big game and I gave up my spot on a perennial contender to try to chase statistical success and a potential HoF career. I've still found a lot of success because I've found ways to enjoy every game and every season to the best of my ability, so I'd say that's the best I can give as to what success means to me.

[r0tzbua]

Success in this league is hard to quantify. I do not think it is championships. Nor awards. So much in this league comes down to a random number generator that you can not simply say if you win an Ultimus as a player you did great. Of course it is SOME sort of success but it is not really dependent on the skill you show in this league. Also that means players that are sticking with their teams even when they are not on the road to an Ultimus are not successful which I think is simply wrong. Success is meeting the people in this league. Forming personal relationships, friendships and making some enemies along the way for me. Because if we look at the thing next to championships which is easily quantifiable we get Awards and come on, look at them. Awards are broken. The award voting is broken. And again, like championships, awards are also largely dependent on RNG. And where your teams play you of course. Do they play you where you are most helpful? That may not lead to the stats that award voters are looking for. In the end if you want to measure your own success in this league you have to decide what this success means to you. For me it is being together with people I like, have great conversations and give back to the teams that believed enough in me to draft me.

[Michiganonymous]

At the most basic level, to succeed means to achieve the goals that a person or organization has set for themselves. But how is success measured when you never had clear goals to begin with? I was an ISFL rookie who quite frankly had never anticipated that I would have a career in professional football. I didn't know what to expect; I didn't even know if I'd be able to make a roster. My goal was to put in as much time and effort as I could, and to be the best player that I could possibly be. But would my best be good enough? For most of the season, I wasn't so sure that it was. I was constantly a step or two behind the play, constantly out of position, looking lost in the game film. But I kept after it. I went hard on every rep in practice, and in these last few weeks I've really surprised myself with what I've been able to achieve. I still question sometimes whether this is real, or if I really belong. But with the ISFL Combine and Draft fast approaching, I think I'm finally playing well enough to draw some positive attention from the ISFL scouts. I'm trying to keep my expectations realistic and not to get too excited; there's a lot of really great players in this draft who'll be coming off the board ahead of me, and that's OK! I plan to just keep doing what I've been doing all along; focus on the job, work hard, and be the best version of myself every day. As long as I can succeed at those three things, I think all the other forms of success that are out there to be achieved might eventually come along with them.

There's always the kind of success that doesn't appear on the field too, the kind of success I've been blessed to enjoy with the Norfolk Seawolves in this my rookie season. We haven't won a lot; if we can put together another improbable win over the league-leading, defending champion Minnesota Grey Ducks, we'll finish with 4 wins on the year. More likely we'll finish with just 3 wins. But it was incredible to see this team pull together in the locker room. This group is relentlessly positive, always building each other up, even when we're getting mauled. We never stopped playing with fire and heart, whether we were up by two scores or down 35-0. But I think anyone in that locker room would tell you the season was a success. Even the losing had a role to play, since it brought us together and made us stronger as a team. Norfolk had a big rookie class this year, and we've all really grown together as players and people. There's a real sense that next year in Norfolk could be very special. But even if it's not, as long as we can keep up the energy and enthusiasm, we'll be a successful bunch!

[dude_man]

The meaning of success in this league should always be measured by the amount of fun you’re having with your team period. If you’re not having fun with the team or the league in general, it won’t last long and that is just a detriment to the league. For me, NOLA has been a great journey for me as of late just being able to talk and discuss with others about everything regarding the league but also different hobbies or activities. Without them, I may not be enjoying the ISFL as much, so I’m appreciative of what they do for me. I also believe Tijuana deserves a shoutout as they are integral to the activity of the league for me. Their success to developing players is amazing and should not be downplayed whatsoever. They have done so much for me in regards to the interest in the league as well and I can’t thank them enough. So how do I measure success with the ISFL? Activity with your teams to bluntly put it. If you’re not active, your love for the league will soon dwindle and I hope I never get to that point. I know that I really should keep my league to life balance in order, but I love the ISFL too much to just reduce my workload like that.