The ISFL games being perfect always is a great benefit, allowing us to mainly base it on the player's skills. However, with rain, heat or snow being taken into consideration the games would differ from our perfect weathered games. Colorado is a place where snowfall happens often. Snow does make an impact to games, it causes players who are not as accustomed to the freezing temperatures and snow to have a decrease in their ability to play as well. However this as in many games, can be countered by constant hand warmers and other warmth subjects. The balls can also be affected as leather balls tighten as the temperatures are low, making it hard to throw. It can also affect the probability of the kicker due to the shape of the ball. This would help and give advantages to certain teams as everyone seems to train in their "natural" environment. Implementing weather to our games would be fun and add another level of challenge to players, however it can also be more intense and complicated to the people working behind the scenes. There would be many other things that need to be taken into consideration.
Weather plays a huge role in the NFL were teams tend to be more conservative airing the ball out in windy conditions/snowy conditions. I suspect the same would be true here in the ISFL. Because places like Bondi Beach and Berlin would usually have good weather, my player wouldn't be greatly impacted when it comes to home games. At worst, stats might look better as if its rains, teams would tend to throw the call and it would mean more tackles.
However, places like Minnesota and Kansas City would cause chaos in the pass-happy DSFL. Teams would be forced to run the ball especially later in the season rather than being so gun happy with throwing. Kansas City would be greatly impacted as they are a pass-happy team, which would put a lot of pressure on their QB, especially in cold, and snowy games.
I would love to see weather be a tad bit more important and add more variability in strat planning, as teams would have to plan starts based on their current team structure, as well as keep the weather in mind.
Weather would have a massive impact on games in the league. Rain, first of all would greatly benefit the rushing attack offenses in the league. As the league transitions to more pass happy approaches, climates that saw significant rain in their stadiums would likely have to pivot to a more rush centered attack. Snow on the other hand would also benefit rushing attacks as teams would be slipping and sliding all over the test drain to maintain their balance. If a stadium happened to be located near a volcano, teams would likely have to wear protective clothing to stop the ash from burning them. Flooding would also be a factor in the more tropical ranges where teams will likely have to pilot canoes from sideline to sideline in order to substitute. Tornadoes would likely make it impossible to pass the ball, leaving teams to stay entirely stay on the ground for the entirety of games. All in all, weather would absolutely have a huge impact.
Well, the obvious result of league weather being more realistic is that you'd have to gameplan for the location you would be playing at. Places like Yellowknife would be a nightmare to play in the winter months. You might as well include Chicago and even Berlin on that list. Sarasota would definitely be interesting towards the of the summer when you would still be in hurricane season. You could be out there playing football in one hell of a thunderstorm. I believe this would lead certain teams that tend to run pass heavy offenses to lean more in the ground and pound direction for games in which inclement weather appeared. That also leads to an interesting question: would GMs know what the weather will be for the game in advance, or is it just luck of the draw? In that case, you might not be able to alter you strats unless you would introduce new gameplans input before games that you would run just in case there was rain, snow or strong winds.
If they had realistic weather in this league then I don't think the Yellowkinfe Wraiths would ever lose a game. Do people even know where Yellowknife is? Of course it is in Canada, but other than that I doubt most folks would be able to point it out on a map. Yellowknife is in the Northwest Territories and is one of the northernmost cities in Canada. To put things into perspective, it is more north than the tip of Greenland and more northern than Anchorage, Alaska. For more than half the year, there is at least an inch of snow on the ground and during the winter, there can be standing snow of at least a foot deep. In the winter months, its a general high of about 5 degrees Fahrenheit, with a low of negative fifteen degrees. And that's not even counting the wind, which you can imagine drops both those numbers significantly. So if the Yellowknife Wraiths were able to play say, the Orange County Otters at home in the winter, there would be some freeze dried Otters that would require thawing out when getting back home.
Football is a fall/winter sport and as weather gets colder or even snowy, games played in outdoor stadiums will be low-scoring with a lot of run plays and solid defensive stops.
Here are aspects of the game that are affected by frigid weather conditions.
Cold weather will have an impact on, the football itself. The air pressure of a football is reduced by 20% in cold weather. Many footballs are inflated indoors, then brought into the cold, so the pressure in those footballs may drop during the game.(deflategate)
The strength of a players grip can be cut in half in as little as 15 minutes of being exposed to freezing temperatures.This can result in to increases in drops and turnovers. According to a 2016 study by Brian Nemhauser of Hawk Blogger, “when the thermometer dips below 20 degrees, the effect is a 42 percent jump in turnovers. When below 10 degrees, add another 10 percent — nearly double that of the warm weather rate”
According to touchdownwire “Cold air irritates a player’s respiratory system, making it more difficult for him to catch his breath. It also stiffens the muscles, which makes it hard to stretch. Colder, stiffer muscles don’t work as efficiently and could lead to strains and, even worse, tears.”
The article also said “Reduced temperatures cause the body to burn glucose five times faster than usual. Cold zaps the stamina, which means it’s harder to expel the energy required for powerful plays. Reaction times can drop by 45 percent in freezing conditions” All this results in an average 5% combined yards gained decrease.
Adding weather to the simulations creates a whole new dimension for play callers to take advantage of. In the heat, defenses will often have the advantage going into the second half because the offensive line can get overheated and thus perform much more poorly compared to the lighter defensive ends. Numerically this would be represented by a pass blocking penalty for temperatures exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Similarly, wide receivers often discuss how playing in the heat makes them feel faster and more flexible, leading to better catching and route running ability.
In contrast, cold weather and precipitation can have disastrous effects on players ability to perform. In the cold, tackling becomes a miserable task where failing grip and frozen fingers betray would-be tacklers. This might be best represented by a tackling penalty for defensive players. In wet and/or snowy conditions common wisdom is that the passing game suffers. In reality, passing in cold weather is often the best thing to do. Receivers know their routes ahead of time, while defensive backs have to react to the receiver, giving a decided advantage to the offense. Defensive backs would take a coverage penalty in rainy or snowy weather.
Given the geographic diversity of the ISFL and DSFL, I think adding a weather-related mechanic is a fabulous way to celebrate the different locations we play in.
The city of Philadelphia isn't known for the best weather, it's generally a bitterly cold and windy place. The Philadelphia Liberty have had a very good record at home this season at 5 wins and 2 losses could have definitely benefited from some adverse weather in the City of Brotherly Love. I don't know how much difficulty the Colorado Yeti would have had in Philadelphia as Colorado has a similar climate to Philly, the only time it could have been beneficial was on the last strike 86 yard touchdown pass from Live Laughlove to Cole Maxwell.
The game in Philadelphia where the weather could have definitely played a factor was against the Sarasota Sailfish. The Sailfish hailing from the Sunshine State of Florida might have had some difficulty in the wind and the snow. It is well established that Carter Knight can't throw the ball well in winter games. This might have given Philadelphia the boost it needed to snatch a win out of the hands of Sarasota.