I bought the pass get this out my checklist!
14. Expansion Expansion Expansion! Tell us why you think the league should expand / not expand or include any ideas (in words) for team branding ideas you have or team locations. (300 words)
From a logical perspective, the league likely shouldn't expand. And there's a whole host of reasons for that, from there being too much crowding in the divisions to having too much work for the sim team to not having the players to support it. The first thing that would have to happen is the creation of new divisions, probably going to 4 divisions of 4 teams assuming a 2 team expansion window. That means a change-up in scheduling and determining what teams outside their division a given team would play in a season and how many times, since there would be 12 teams to play outside the division but only 10 games to fill. There's also the issue of not enough players to support such an expansion, but that likely will solve itself within another year or so assuming strong results to recruitment campaigns. So, let's say that the league waits to expand until the player base is there to support it. Where do the new teams come from? Right now, South America and Asia are the underrepresented regions between the ISFL and DSFL so ultimately a team from each area would be ideal. From South America, it makes sense to expand a franchise into Brazil. The team colors could be any 2 of the 3 colors on the national flag, but I'd personally vote Green and Yellow. The team would probably play in Rio de Janeiro given the infrastructure and existing stadiums. From Asia, I think Japan makes the most sense as there is a decent American Football following there already, with a Japanese national league in place. Red and White would be the team colors, and the team could be based out of a number of cities, with Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto being the most obvious. But I think locating the team in Hokkaido is an attractive option, given the more moderate climate and greater space to build out a stadium and training facilities. 23. What are your thoughts on the sim engine? What sort of improvements would you make to the sim engine if given the opportunity? (150 words) The sim is what the sim is, at the end of the day: Football played with dots, coached by AI that makes at times baffling decisions. Obviously the first big improvement would be graphically. As exciting as it is to watch our dots move around on the screen, having 3d grahpics would really make the entire ordeal more exciting. From a game planning perspective, I wish game planning was more granular. Being able to specify what players blitz in what formations, as an example, or being able to create your own play designs and implement a true team playbook. This would also open up individual player choices more, as taking certain attributes or traits becomes more attractive based on the types of plays your GMs/coaches design. Finally, having more control over the in-game decision making for when to punt vs kick a FG vs go for it on 4th down. These types of plays are so often overlooked by casual fans as unimportant when in reality they are often the driving decision behind a game's result. 27. Imagine your current position was not available to be picked when you created your player. What other position would you have picked, and why? (150 words) I picked Offensive Line primarily because I figured it would be the most available/least competitive position in the league. And ultimately, I was right seeing as most teams are still using OL bots for many of their 5 OL positions. But if for some reason I couldn't have made an OL, there are a handful of positions I'm interested in otherwise. First would probably be K/P, because as a player you can be the most impactful with the least amount of outside influence. You don't have to worry about interceptions or sacks (generally), it's entirely about whether or not you built your player right to nail the kicks. Second would be a Defensive Line role, probably Defensive Tackle, because it's another of the "support" type positions that I love to play, where they aren't as flashy and don't individually rack up statistics but often put their teammates in better positions to succeed, whether it be through run stopping or getting up the middle pressure on the QB.
1The Season 42 Ultimus and Ultimini have officially come to an end. Congratulations to the the Norfolk Seawolves and Arizona Outlaws for each winning their respective championships. How did each of the finalists in either the Ultimus or Ultimini arrive at the playoffs?
Today I will be looking at the two Ultimus finalists and we have two very interesting and teams that had pretty much have opposite stories. I'll start with the arizona outlaws. The outlaws have been good for what seems like forever now and have been absurdly dominant, with this being their 6th ultimus appearance in a row. No other team has ever made more than 4 in a row before and the outlaws have had a 76% winning percentage over that same span. But focusing on the team this year, its mostly familar faces with a few new ones. The biggest change was long time QB Wendell Sailor retiring and being replaced by Donovan Winters the 3rd, who had an impressive year. Winters had low volume, being bottom 6 in passing yards for a starter, but he made up for it with high consistency as he finished first in passer rating with 27 TD's to only 9 INT's. These impressive stats landed Winters rookie of the year and massively helped the outlaws. Even with good QB play, the real star of the show was Danny Nedelko who led the the league with an absurd 1896 rushing yards on 4.4 YPC for 17 touchdowns. These incredible stats led to Nedelko winning OPY and MOP. Winters also had some studs to throw to in Billy Stinkwater and Louis Blondin who both finished with over 1000 yards with Blondin finished 5th in yards with 1300 and 10 touchdowns. All of these factors led to the outlaws having the number 1 offense in the ISFL. The defense (especially the pass rush) were no slackers either with Akaki Akarye and Leonardo Mcturtle both having at least 15 sacks as they both finished top 5 in that category. Raphael Mcturtle also finished top 5 in sacks from the DT spot with 10. L. Mcturtle also finished 5th in the league in TFL's with 11. The secondary was pretty good too with Vincent-Vega and O'Dopaliscious having 4 interceptions. The special teams was good too with Jay-Jamison being perfect on XP's and 3rd in the league in field goal percentage. All of these factors led to AZ having the number 1 defense and being a death star of a team. The other ultimus team was a bit less predictable as the berlin fire salamander only went 5-11 last year. But the salamanders were not as bad as they looked last season and proved it this year. The team was led by Roque Santa-Cruz at QB, who finished top ten in passing yards and passer rating, ending up being a good well rounded QB. Like the outlaws, the fire salamanders also had a good running back Armor Queen who finished with 1292 on 4.3 YPC and 13 touchdowns. The fire salamanders also had a really good WR in Zanye Dangle who who had over 100 yards and 4 TD's. One of the biggest additions to the team was a late season trade for Sconnie Mcsix, who helped power the offense as he finished the year with over 1100 yards and 6 TD's. Overall, this a solid but well rounded offense that finished with the number 10 offense and the worst offense in NSFC. The defense is where the salamanders really shined though, with Fred Edison leading the pass rush with 14 sacks and over 115 tackles. Edison also led the league in TFL's, with 17 and 3 more than the next person. Kevin McThumper was also good with 101 tackles and 11 sacks as well. The coverage was also good with as Diggs Sideline-Touchdown finished with 4 picks while Laszlo Forty-Two finished with 6 sacks and 70 tackles from safety. This was an impressive unit that finished 4th in the league and allowed the salamanders to sneak into the playoffs at 9-7 after winning 4 of their last 6. The outlaws (as expected) steamrolled their way through the playoffs with two blowouts to make the ultimus. The fire salamaders on the other hand, upset the defending champs crash by 3 in the divisional and also upset the hawks in the confrence championship to make a shocking ultimus run. Sadly, the cinderella ran out of gas, and the outlaws won in a blowout 38-14. SAVE THE WIKI!
OT Pass
S42 Ultimini Champ
S42 DSFL MOP, DSFL MVP, DSFL ALL-PRO
S44 Ultimus Champ
S48 Top Returner
3x ISFL ALL-PRO
08-01-2023, 02:45 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-01-2023, 02:45 PM by Bazooka_Joe. Edited 1 time in total.)
8. This task is exclusive to non-recreate rookies of the S42 class and later. In 300 words or more, how has your experience been in the league? Who have you met that has made your time here more fun, friendly, and exciting? Have you been satisfied with your player’s early start? What was it like being drafted for the first time? Do you have any comments or suggestions for the entire league that you think should be implemented?
I've been in this league for five whole days. But I have to admit my experience thus far has been lights out. I originally come from the PBE and the amount of people I have seen that are in both leagues has been quite a surprise. Just a small little community that seems to keep both leagues going. I put down in my player page that I was recruited by Zodiac.EXE but I will admit it was a whole bunch of users that suggested it in the end. So far it seems I missed the cut off for the draft, which is no big deal, but TylerTokeSome has reached out and is interested in claiming me as their number one waiver wire add. Time will tell after the draft. Other than that, I have been fielding questions from users and just trying to jump into the conversation and getting help. Fantasy football is a real fun add and seems to get my name out there to meet new people. I have no idea who to draft but I have been reading medias and asking questions on who is going through regressions and who would you grab in this round? Since I joined late, I actually get to be in the prospect league on the final sim, so I am excited to see how I'm used since I technically signed up as a fullback. If only the triple option was still popular, probably not in this SIM league. For the league and if there are any suggestions I would say no at this time. I'm still digesting everything, and discord seems to be popping off like crazy. Learning that you can gain money from commenting on discord was a new aspect and a great way to keep people involved. So, shoutout to whoever thought of that and is paying for that perk. -311 words 11. Write a short biography or story about your player. This could include background about how they came to the ISFL and how they’ve done so far, a story about their role in an exciting game, or anything else related to their experience in the league. Some of this might end up on my Wiki page but hold on tight with me here. Joe Bazooka comes from a small town in Ireland named Tullamore. Just about 60 miles west of Dublin the city is not well known by tourist. It does have a unique whiskey company named Tullamore Dew though and has been gaining popularity since it's return in 2014. When Bazooka was a young lad Ireland did not have many football options as Rugby was popular back in the day. Joe excelled in rugby and landed on Offaly counties official team. County Offaly ended up winning with Bazooka as one of their main stars. Still, Bazooka wanted to experience more. He had one offer to play football come in and that was from the great continent of Antartica. I know what you're thinking, there is no college in Antartica and you're absolutely wrong. The Antartica University Union was opened a year before that, and they offered six colleges that all played football. The continent has no cities, but they had bases. The first team that came to call was the McMurdo Station Mountaineers, so Joe joined them. At first Joe was a little in shock with how cold it was, and the population of McMurdo Station was only 93. How could this league stay afloat with nobody watching. But people were watching. It was being broadcasted on every continent on the world. In his time their Bazooka ran for over 6,500 yards and 40 touchdowns in just two seasons. He was named MVP for both seasons and ended up being the poster boy for more kids to come and play college football down in the frigid cold in Antartica. Needless to say, the ISFL came ringing very quickly after his second year. Unfortunately, the season down south did not end in time for Bazooka to throw his name into the draft pool. So, the waiver wire came calling. -323 words 10 TPE
14. Expansion Expansion Expansion! Tell us why you think the league should expand / not expand or include any ideas (in words) for team branding ideas you have or team locations.
(66 words) Personally, I think that expansion should not be a main concern right now for the ISFL as adding one or two more teams piecemeal would offset the conferences and divisions and either force more expansion teams for a balance to be found, a very awkward and complicated schedule, or for it to fail altogether and set the league back a few seasons. The league is not yet in a place where it can handle so many teams without half or more of the rosters being filled with bots which wouldn’t be in the spirit of the league. Player recruitment to meet those quotas would have to be unrealistically high or other options, such as allowing multis for the first time, would be unpopular and/or bad in general. However, I still do think that plans for any eventual expansion should be made, as the league is constantly growing and I am of the belief we should be prepared should an abnormally large class appear (such as a Reddit class comparable in size to S36 or S41 + lots of recreates). Not only that, giving representation to some other places of the world, while of course nothing more than just symbolic, would still be a nice touch. I will be the first to admit I am a big advocate for my home country of Perú to appear in as many media as possible so I will give some ideas for possible teams: The Ucayali Dinosaurs (The political borders of the Ucayali department look like a dinosaur and I will die on this hill), the Tacna Patriots (Tacna resisted integration into Chile and returned to the country after the War of the Pacific (not the WW2 one)), the Cajamarca/Yanacocha Goldens (the Yanacocha mine in Cajamarca is the biggest gold mine in all of South America), the Paracas Parihuanas (the origin myth of the colour of the peruvian flag is that José de San Martín saw some Parihuana birds while he was resting in the town of Paracas. The bird’s colours are red on the wings and a white body), the Caral Ancients (the oldest human settlement in the Americas is found in Caral), the Cuzco/Titicaca Incas (Cuzco is self-explanatory as the ancient homeland of the Incas and where Macchu Picchu is, but one of their origin myths says that the first Incas emerged from Lake Titicaca), and many others. And as always, if you actually want to create one, I’d love for you to give me a call ? 16. Describe your player and/or team’s journey through this latest season. What were the highlights? What were the lower points? What might you have done differently? What are your expectations for next season? (484 words) Diego López de Castilla, having joined the league after the Trade Deadline, was signed by the Dallas Birddogs in order to bolster their extremely thin receiving core. It was only composed of La’Fluke Paris-Johnson, a rookie who hadn’t yet maxed out his player, and bots/low earning players. This immediately meant that he was thrust into the WR3 position despite having just created. As such, he wasn’t prepared to make an impact nor was he given the chance to do so because he wasn’t particularly high in the depth chart. Over the 4 games he played in, he got 198 yards and not TDs. He averaged 4.5 catches per game and 49.5 yards per game. Remarkably, despite his low numbers, he didn’t drop a single pass. His best game was against the Minnesota Grey Ducks, recording 65 receiving yards in a 16-20 loss. As for his team, the Dallas Birddogs, despite having a rather strong team, only managed to go 2-2 in Diego’s time with the team. When he joined, they almost looked a lock for the playoffs at 7-5 despite being in a very tough conference and being neck and neck with the Tijuana Luchadores for the final playoff spot in the division behind a very strong Norfolk that would eventually go on to win the Ultimini that season. However, as luck would have it, their 9-7 and 2-2 record over Diego’s 4 games was just short of what was needed, as they lost on a tiebreaker on points scored to the Luchadores. Despite the very strong team and season, they fell prey to a few things such as lacking a strong receiving core due to callups. While most of their 7 losses weren’t particularly close which means that they outcome likely doesn’t changes, 2 losses stand out: A W1 loss to the Luchadores 20-17, and a loss on DL’s debut 20-16 to the Grey Ducks. Had either of those gone their way, they would have made it to the playoffs and possibly gone all the way. But we’ll never know. Nevertheless, both team and player are gearing up for S43 as DL looks to make a splash in his true rookie season and Dallas will look to run it back. Quote:1. The Season 42 Ultimus and Ultimini have officially come to an end. Congratulations to the the Norfolk Seawolves and Arizona Outlaws for each winning their respective championships. How did each of the finalists in either the Ultimus or Ultimini arrive at the playoffs? Were there any teams that surprised or disappointed during the playoffs? Did the outcome of either championship game surprise you at all? Reader beware, this wall of text is just hiding the wall of salt behind it. Whining helps me hit the word count and that's all that counts. Don't take me too seriously. I'm not really certain that I can stomach writing a third tribute to an Arizona Outlaws championship in just five seasons since I came back to this league, but I'd rather suffer than look at anything related to the DSFL, and I'd rather look at anything related to the DSFL than write based on any of these other prompts. I guess I have a better understanding of how it felt back when Orange County wouldn't just fuck off and die. Sometimes there are teams or general managers who are just good at this stuff. And sometimes they get a max earning quarterback and wide receiver virtually for free because some people have a weird refusal to play for any team but one. Just kidding. Kind of. Really though, who am I to judge. Enjoy the league the way you want to. My mild irritation is not worth someone else's disliking the league. If you ask anyone but me, that is. Anyway, arguably the worst part about the Arizona Outlaws' victory is that their team name is two words, the lowest among all ISFL teams. Some may recall that I waxed poetic about the New Orleans Second Line last time around, even though they didn't win. Well that won't happen this time, that tactic is played out. This time I got a quarter of the way through just by bitching about how other people choose to go about their simulated player's simulated business. Anyway, let's look at Arizona's season. I don't know if the Outlaws new quarterback is a GM or someone else who forced their way there, but what a season it was for rookie QB Donovan Winters. A 66% completion rate, three times as many touchdowns as interceptions, and nearly 4,000 yards as a rookie. That's one of the better debuts I can remember, but I don't remember much that happened before S19. Definitely not a coping mechanism. Winters' spectacular debut was buoyed by wide receiver Louis Blondin, who I swear to god has been on Arizona longer than Aaron Craft was at Ohio State. Then you go look and they joined the Outlaws a handful of seasons ago after starting out with San Jose. Good on whoever that user is for giving San Jose a chance, unlike that one commissioner. I'm feeling spicy. We haven't even started with the team's Most Valuable Player yet. That honor goes to Danny Nedelko, because of course DDSPF would make running back the most important position in the offense (yeah, yeah, it's Quarterback. But the fact that running back might rank second tells you... not very much about this sim that you didn't already know). Anyway, fellow backfield member Sherwin Blue - who has like 1,200 TPE mind you, basically benched himself so Nedelko could get a billion yards or something. He certainly ruined my fantasy draft, I know that much. Anyway, Nedelko posted an absurd 17 touchdowns and nearly 1,900 yards. On the ground alone. As a receiver he added 48 catches for 351 yards and another touchdown. I kind of expected the receiving numbers to be better when I started writing that sentence. Anyway, he had 480 touches this season. I'm pretty sure his brain is now porridge and he should be forced to retire. I am very unbiased. That dynamic trio of offensive superstars, one of whom belongs in a geriatric ward no matter what the index claims, propelled the Outlaws to the league's highest scoring offense and a top four offense in terms of yardage. What helped them succeed, however, was opportunity. And opportunity was provided by the handful thanks to Arizona's stingy defense, which allowed under 19 points per game to their opponents, and just 67 rushing yards. I guess that makes sense, since they probably led for a long time in most games. There are so many players with 100 overall ratings on that defense I don't know if I'm even going to bother writing about them as individuals. It would be too depressing. Are any of them even close to regressing or getting worse or anything? I guess it helps when you sign every free agent you want and don't have to spend any real draft capital on your best players, and nobody in the league's head office bothers to step in to veto the absolutely outrageously imbalanced trade that Mobiaus made when they let him flail about as the GM of the New Orleans Second Line (had to get another one in), and wah wah wah. This team is going anywhere, so I guess I should save some of the salt for next season when they win again. Should anyone from Arizona read this and make it this far, congrats. Truly. If the team wasn't well run none of my little complaints would be here because you wouldn't have won. Back answer the original question - it can be answered in a lot fewer words. Arizona built a juggernaut and it flattened everyone in its path. The end!
08-03-2023, 07:56 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-03-2023, 08:50 AM by Crunk. Edited 3 times in total.)
Code: 36. Affiliate PT from either SHL/SSL/PBE. The Weeks must match with the timeframe of this Offseason Task. And you may only use a max of 1. PBE PT Code: 23. What are your thoughts on the sim engine? What sort of improvements would you make to the sim engine if given the opportunity? (Written Task) Ah yes, my yearly fun time shitting on the sim engine. Generally speaking, I would make the sim a bit more deterministic and a bit less random. Any given game can fall within a 60-70 point differential range when simulated, which kinda feels like bullshit when you think about it. Obviously the median point differential is determined by the better team with the better strategies, but the fact that a game can literally go 70 points either way is a little bit silly. But it's king of inevitable when you consider how the game deals with individual situations, like a pass being completed. On the back of this, and on an entirely related note, the playcalling could and should be much more detailed and deterministic. A small part of this is the league limitations on strats, but they way it is put into the sim is ludicrous too. Do you really want your team running on 20% of 3rd/4th and long downs? Hell no. I would sort that out. Code: 28. Football is a game that has been going on for a while, loved by fans all over. But what if you were able to make some rule changes? Talk us through your new version of football, and what would be different and why? (Written Task) OK, firstly, we can get rid of helmets and protective equipment. It would put an end to the big hits, and the battle in the trenches would immediately resemble team sumo wrestling - and Lord it would require form tackling being taught from a young ages - but it would ensure that athletes at multiple positions are able to remember where they are beyond the age of 50. Brain health is real, folks. Take it seriously. Secondly, I would change the scoring system so that a touchdown is worth the number of points equivalent to the yardage of the play it was scored on. 7 yard run? 7 points. 36 yard pass? 36 points. Make field goals worth a flat 15. That would change a lot of the strategy involved with the game - kickoff returns would be a huge scoring opportunity, for example - but also lead to higher scores. And everyone loves higher scores, don't they? A 445 - 385 shootout? Yes please. Code: 30. Choose one existing award. Tell us why you think a certain player should win that award this season. Stats, or anything else possible should be used to support your case. (Written or Graphic Task) Well, given that the awards have been given out, it's time for me to tell you why people were wrong. I'm gonna give you two players, with headline numbers and all time context: Player 1 - QB Passing Yards - 4589 (All time - Outside Top 50) Passing Touchdowns - 38 (All time - Tied 25th) Player 2 - RB Rushing Yards - 1896 (All time - 4th) Rushing Touchdowns - 17 (All time - Tied 21st) Let's throw in there that the RB was the workhorse back on the Regular Season and Ultimus champions (the QB won his conference but fell in the Conference game). Player 1 is S42 MVP Preston Beatz and Player 2 was second place, Danny Nedelko. Yup, my player. Sigh. And yes, the sheer volume that Nedelko carried resulted in a 4.4 YPC which was presumably pointed to by the great and the good to indicate that it was an inefficient season. So Beatz was efficient, then? Nope. Eighth best completion % this season (forget all time), and a passer rating topped by a rookie (also not on the all time lists). But Crunk, 38-8 is an amazing TD-Int ratio! I would say 38 passing TDs are less impressive than 17 rushing TDs, just from historical numbers. As for the interceptions - they're just turnovers. Let me put this in the context of touches - turnovers Beatz - 666 touches/12 turnovers (8 INT/4 Fum Lost) Nedelko - 480 touches/1 turnover (1 Fum Lost) Efficiency, huh? I thought Outlaws were meant to be the ones doing the robbing.
7. Write 600 words or more on something about anything in the league that interests you. It could be related to statistics, a league issue that you take seriously, or a niche part of history that doesn’t fit neatly into either of the above categories. This must be directly related to the league, so don’t wax 600 words about your team’s participation on a Werewolf server or something.
Radical ISFL reformatting. Right, it's expansion time. Now should we expand? That’s a very very good Q. Given that a few seasons ago, it was looking like the DSFL was going to have to hit a contraction, with Bondi Beach and Portland the two unlucky teams that unfortunately were chosen to go. However since then there have been some great draft classes:
Clearly the reddit classes have the best uptake in new players / users. So anyway my idea, now this is radical, is to remove the DSFL from the league and create a ISFL league. The league would consist of 2 conferences made up of 2 divisions with 5 teams per division. Unfortunately two DSFL would be culled to make this work. So for me the divisions would be something like this. Central:
East:
West:
See below image for example standing after the season. The two new conferences would be made up of Western Conference (West & South) & Eastern Conference (Central & East). A season would be made up of the same 18 games a season, two more than are currently used. This would break down as 2 x 4, home & away games versus the division. 2 home and away games against the team from the other conference in your division. With four more games to be played against the a division in the other conference, again 2 home and away games. This would then lead to the playoffs which the top 3 teams in each division would make, the top team of each division would get a playoff bye, with Team 2 Vs Team 3 playing each other. Then this would lead into the Ultimus. Homefeild advantage would be given to the highest seed in the playoff match. See below for how the playoffs bracket might work based upon the results in the previous image. The season would take 5 real life weeks to finish, 4 games to be played each week. Monday, Wednesday & Friday. The Friday showing will be a double header, with one round of games being called the “International Series” which will be shown at a more reasonable time for the non-Americans among us. The next part of this shake-up to sort out will be the “Expansion draft”. So as of the start of S43, we have 325 players in the ISFL, 84 in the DSFL & 80 prospects in the draft, giving a total of 489. Each ISFL team will be required to put up 5 players they have on their roster in the expansion draft. They must include two players above 1000 TPE, with one being active & one being pre-regression [They can be the same player] Of the remaining three players, at least one must be active above 450 TPE. This should ensure that the old DSFL teams have a decent backbone to build their team upon but also not gutting current ISFL teams. This will create a draft of 70 ISFL players with the old DSFL team will pick 10 players from in a snake draft. The 10 players not selected go back to their original teams. For the main draft, this will go based upon last season's finishing positions with all the DSFL teams picking before any ISFL teams. The DSFL teams will get a second first round pick to be taken after the ISFL first round pick. With 80 prospects this will mean that the draft will end after the 4th round after the 14th pick, meaning that the best 6 ISFL from the previous seasons won’t get a fourth pick. Therefore by the end of the draft each DSFL should have 10 ISFL teams on their roster, plus 5 picks from the draft. Hopefully this is a good idea that people can look at and talk about, I will probably fill this out in more detail for a media piece down the line. (683 Words) |
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