(S27) Ultimus Week

[Drizzy]

10) The Sarasota Sailfish have been one of those teams over the last few seasons where they've always sort of been in the mix, but they've never quite been able to put together the kind of playoff run they'd like to in order to get themselves over the line and win their first Ultimus. The hope was that with the new sim that the league was using, a roster that was continuing to grow and improve season on season and GMs who've shown that they're more than capable of handling the strategic side of things and can handle the sim, that we would be in a good position this season. I think that we've shown that this absolutely is the case, as we stand on the day of the conference championships in the ISFL with the Sailfish possessing home field advantage and a good chance of going on to play in this season's Ultimus. The season started out for the team in an impressive fashion, as they went on the road and were able to beat one of the league's best, the Colorado Yeti, in their own back yard. From here, the team made a few blunders that cost them a couple of the games they played within the first 4 weeks of the season, but they were largely able to overcome them and move onto a 2-2 record through their opening stretch. Their loss in Week 4 would go on to inspire a three game winning streak, which moved them to 5-2 at the end of Week 7. A tough loss on the road to the Outlaws led the team to rally again, and they went on to win another 6 straight to take them to 11-3 before Week 15. The strong results they'd been able to achieve up to this point took a lot of the pressure on the final two weeks off as the team was in a nice spot in order to make the playoffs, but the fact that they were able to close out their season with a win meant that the Sailfish tied the Butchers for the best record in the conference and due to the tiebreaker, would finish in 1st place. It capped off a great season for the team, and as they prepare to play their first game in the playoffs with everything on the line, the team has shown on many occasions this season what it is they're capable of and why they think that they should be in with a chance this time around.

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19) Obviously the big news story that Jamie Nkiah has been involved in over the last few weeks is the fact that this season is officially going to be the last one that he plays in the ISFL. Having been a member of the Sarasota Sailfish for many seasons, Jamie announced a little while ago that he was going to be stepping away from the league and moving onto new endeavours outside the world of football. The retirement of one of the team's longer tenured players adds a bittersweet element to the season for the Sailfish, as they've gone on record saying that getting an Ultimus for their captain on his way out would be a huge motivator for the team. Jamie has enjoyed a strong career in the ISFL, participating in the league's Pro Bowl on more than one occasion, and he's given several interviews with the media in recent weeks, in which he's discussed a number of topics related to his career and achievements. There are always some regrets for a player when the day comes to call time, but if recent press coverage is to be believed, Jamie leaves the league full of gratitude and without regret for the way that his career panned out.

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Affiliate Task) SHL PT (username is dankoa)

10/10

[LancedJack]

10) 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?

It's been a fairly unusual season for Reginald Rusterford Rucker. Going from being an, at best, mediocre player at both Linebacker & Defensive End to being second in the league in sacks has been somewhat eye opening. Previously Rucker was known really only in Norfolk for having an above average DSFL season, but nothing record setting and nothing worthy of award or recognition. Best on the team isn't quite best in the league. Rucker also started this season as a Free agent which was incredibly eye opening. Going from fighting to actually get playing time to being in demand from several teams all vying for Ruckers services was actually revitalizing in terms of interest in the league. As you can probably imagine not seeing your player do anything or get any time is quite a quick way to drop any desire to do AC's/PT's etc. Those would probably be the lower points of the time prior to FA and moving to the Yeti. The Yeti however have been a breath of fresh air. The teams defense has been a stand out part of the season and it's been fantastic to be a part of a team building around that area. Watching the games, especially on the new sim, where the team is completely dominant on defense and you can see the effect your player is having whilst also being able to relate to the fellow members of the defense due to time spent in the DSFL is a fantastic feeling. As much as I enjoy the stats I think it's safe to say that the camraderie is what really makes the league worthwhile. In terms of things I could've or would've done differently I do often consider what could've happened had I have selected a different team in free agency. There were several teams interested and going to an alternate may have had a completely different trajectory for Rucker. Would I still be propping up the same stats? God only knows but it's interesting to think about. In terms of next season I'm thinking I'd like to build on what I've done, but given that I imagine I'm probably pushing for one or two awards I think what I'd like to see is my player just achieve some consistency. On top of that, mechanically, I'd really like to build toward another trait. Pass Rusher ideally, I think it's quite an interesting traits with quite pricey stat requirements.

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11) What is it that keeps you interested in the league? Is it your love of dot football, your locker room, a specific job or role you play, or something else? What do you like most about it? What could be improved?

One of the things it's taken me quite a while to really understand about myself and the league and dot football in general is that I'm quite focused on stats. The camaraderie is fun and the locker rooms can be a great place, but without some stone cold numbers that you can point to and go "I am X much better than Y" then I don't enjoy it nearly as much as I could. As an aside to that it's really what helps me plan my recreate as well, as I imagine I'll be aiming at an offensive skill based player to try and accumulate stats. With that in mind yardage and touchdowns are certainly a quicker moniker to apply weight to than tackles, sacks & ints (Not that I have any of those) Also with that in mind with regards to statistics the wiki and a complete history section are really helpful and a fun aspect of the community that some people really aren't enamoured with. What it allows, for me, is a comprehensive overview of what people who have played before have accomplished. It's a great sense of trajectory, purpose and planning that you can achieve with the historical sections of the wiki. Knowing where you stand versus great records lets you think about your builds. In terms of what could be improved I would like to see a drive toward having players update their wiki. If people can figure out how to bold sections of their post or hyperlink a signature then they can figure out how to update a wiki. I think the +5TPE previously offered was a nice little off season incentive. I know for me I'll always update my players wiki regardless of reward because I think it's a great retrospective on a career. I'd love to see some kind of award based on that aspect of the league, perhaps a league historian award or something to that effect. Rewarding people for their ability to stay update and stay invested in the league could solve some of our acquisition and retention issues. Overall though the statistics aspect and the activity aspect of a locker room will always keep me coming back. When you have a community of people who are all interested in roughly the same things and who are able to have a respectful and worthwhile discussion with one another it's impossible not to enjoy the league. Also stats, I love stats and I want a million sacks every year from now until the day I retire.

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[OrbitingDeath]

Task 15 - 5 tpe



My main league is the VHL, the Victory Hockey League. The league is now going into it’s 77th season and I have been a part of it since season 30. As I always was more a hockey fan then a football fan growing up, this sport attracted me more, I found the league after only doing yahoo fantasy hockey dynasty leagues, and it opened a whole new world of sim sports to me. Love dit so much that 9 years later i’m still doing them.

The one thing I love most that the VHL implemented, is it’s automated portal. This allows us to do direct updates, each seperate update goes into an update queue and once processed by one of the updaters, you can use your attributes directly.  The nice part of this system is not just that it is automated, it also avoids the issue of people not knowing how to update properly, saves you from struggling with forum formatting and all. And you will not have to think about how much points you need to apply to get to your next stat point.



This also eliminates the chance of user error of people applying to little or too much tpe. For the simmers the system is also done nicely, as the ratings file can be downloaded directly from the portal and imported in their sim, no more manual work on the simfiles, so I believe this would also be a great option for the ISFL.



All the stats and career stats are also visible on the portal, so while we currently only see the stats for a single season you open, you can actually see the career stats with the click of a button. When I was invited over to the ISFL, I also asked Opera Phantom if there were plans for a portal, he promised me there were, but unfortunately I haven’t seen once since.  Having a portal opens up a lot of time saving opportunities, you can also include contracts and all in it, elminating the need of tracking everything in excel sheets. It will make everything more streamlined and organized, and especially for when looking at Hall of Fame numbers, it would be easy to see career comparisons.



Having a portal would definitly be a step in the good direction fort he ISFL and I certainly hope this idea will one day make it in this league. It’s the next logical step in sim league evolution after all these years of manual updates.



(Words: 418)


Task 16 - 2,5 tpe

So every dollar in the ISFL translates to half a dollar in real life money? Talk about getting rich easily. I would just keep pumping out graphics to make sure i have enough for my training money and equipment money, but the rest will be cashed out instantly. Having around 240 million gives me 120 million of real life money, so there no longer will be struggles for money. This sounds indeed like a dream coming true. I would start off with buying a nice house with an extra appartment nearby the house so my mother in law can live in it. She is close to her retirement and we are looking to move her towards us anyway so she can be closer to her grandchildren. So if we have that kind of money, we can make sure she has a nice place to live as well.

Next to that I would payoff my debts and mortgage and add a substantial amount of money to my childrens bank accounts, so they also won’t have to worry about a thing. I wouldn’t really spend it on anything extravagant, I really don’t care that much for luxury, I just want to make sure my wife and kids will be happy, but with that amount of money, I’m sure they will be!

(Words: 219)


Task 28 -  2,5 tpe

The sim change worked well for our team, the Honolulu Hahalua clinched their first playoff spot in franchise history, and after having some 8-8 seasons, they also got a winning record for the first time in franchise history. Of course this is not only because of the sim change, last seasons 3-13 was a fluke as we actually sim tested positive for most of our games. The main change to our line up this season was me coming up, allowing Gucci his long named player to move to Defensive End, one of our biggest holes in our line up. With him there ‘The Reef’, as we call our defense, grow stronger instantly, allowing us to fight for the playoffs. Now lets hope we can get our first two playoff wins this season, this should be great.

What needs  to change though is the output for running backs, my player can run for shit anymore as a RB2, so we would need to see how RBBC can be fixed properly, as I don’t think a simple bug fix in the sim will be enough to do the trick. The fact I got 1 rushing and 7 receiving touchdowns should show that there is something really wrong with running. So really hope we will see some changes there.

(Words: 216)

[Frick_Nasty]

SHL Affiliate +2.5

16. Wow this is what ive been waiting for my time wasting away in sim leagues will now benefit my life outside of here. Well I think i have currently 20 million international simulation football league dollars and if that is half to 10 million united states dollars you best believe I am pretty much set. I am having my house fully paid off. Car paid off and I am getting a tesla one of the nice ones that fits my large family. My two sons have a college or trade school fund ready to go. I might quit my job cause i can go do something part time to make money or just write media for the international simulation football league if money starts to get tight. Can this really be a thing, @infinitempg would be able to help his homies out as well too I would be doing as many updater backup jobs. I will even sell my soul to simming if need be to make some sweet cash. I know this is so silly but i think this is the best prompt ever cause of much some of us could change our entire lives with the dedication we have put into this league and have been paid for it.

19. I do not think there is a day that goes by when gimmy jarappolo jr does not make the headlines. The international simulation football league future star is a heart throbe. The ladies love him and the men want to be him. So you know if the young handsome fellow decides to go on a date you best believe the press is there to get a picture. Recently it was rumored that that the former new orleans second line running back Marcella Tōriki was seen with the young heart throb entering a texas roudhouse together. Are the two a couple now. It was rumored that Marcella Tōriki was infatuated with Gimmy Jaroppolo Jr's father Gimmy Jaroppolo back in the day. Maybe the son is younger and twice the better to look at. We do not know. It is also rumored that Gimmy Jaroppolo Jr has been working out with Chika Fujiwara as well. Is this just a professional work out or is there more going on there. TMZ took pictures of Chika Fujiwara helping Gimmy Jaroppolo Jr with his mechanics by placing her hands on him to have his arms and footwork in the right places. Is it professional or more to it. We might never know.

21. One of if not the best branding in the league is the new york silverbacks. One i love apes so a big ole monke is awesome. I have often thought about an expansion team of my own to Omaha and i thought of the name Omaha Rage with an angry gorilla in reference to the Omaha henry doorly zoo which is the best zoo in the world and i will die on that hill and fight anyone who disagrees with me. I even told woelkers about this and that is when he showed me his initial drawing of the branding and I could not be anymore exited for him and his new team. Now moving on to who i think could use a refresher would be my own Baltimore hawks. I would not move the team because its a staple of the international simulation football league but i do thing the logo could be redesigned. No one likes to hear of their logo being referenced as a banana hawk. So maybe we might see a new baltimore hawks logo in the near future. Never know. Bonus round i do think another great branding will always be the yeti my first love of this sim league.

[Opera_Phantom]

10) 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?

Expectations were definitely high in the Arizona Outlaws locker room coming into this season. With their veteran Quarterback, portuguese phenom and sensation, Jay Cue somewhat surprisingly making the transition from QB to offensive lineman, to allow rookie quarterback Charlemagne Cortez to lead the team into the future, the team knew how strong they were coming out of the gates. With the rest of their roster mainly unchanged regarding names, but a lot better if we looked at the TPE levels, many assumed this year that the Texan team was one of the strongest ones in the league.
Unfortunately for them, the season started on a downward spiral. 2 straight losses, close ones, but that does not make it any batter, at home against the San Jose Sabercats (20 - 23) and away at Austin, with the Copperheads (31 - 32). Both off these teams would finish the regular season outside the conference playoff spots, so we can feel that these game should have been won by the Outlaws, coming to bite them in the ass later on, so they have proved to be very costly losses.

But, after the awful season start, things changed and they went on a freaking roll, managing 9 straight wins. If we look at this period, they beat 3 of the 4 teams currently alive on the playoffs, with the only team missing being the Colorado Yeti, a team they were not scheduled to play in season 27. With a 9 - 2 record at this point, they were on the driving seat in both the conference, and the league, putting them in prime position to get that elusive home field advantage every team wants for their playoff run. But from week 12 to 16, they went 2 - 3, and that meant that they would finish #2 in the ASFC, behind the winners Honolulu Hahalua. Now you see why those 2 losses at the start were very costly.

This meant no playoff bye for the Outlaws, who would face the New Orleans Secondline, a team that can be considered a big hurdle for them for years. And this time was no different, in a game they never seem to get a hold off, ending in 24 - 34 and their hopes of a Ultimus run completely crushed.

Next season will probably bring more of the same, even though they will lose Jay Cue to retirement, the roster is set to be competitive for years to come. Free agency will probably bring some reinforcements also, making them even better. Can't wait to see how they perform.

(426 words)

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11) What is it that keeps you interested in the league? Is it your love of dot football, your locker room, a specific job or role you play, or something else? What do you like most about it? What could be improved?

Ever since i created an account on the International Simulation Football League that it is a part of my routine to regularly check the forums and discord channels. More out of habit i would say, i know that by the time i wake up most days there is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary to check, but still, i do it just in case. But every once in a while there is that day there as soon as i get to discord, i can tell something happened due to the amount of messages i see were written during the night and if i get lucky, the red dots i see and direct messages people sent me while i was asleep.

I keep coming back every day and one thing i know for sure, it is not because of my undying love of dot football, because these damn dots already burned me a billion times. And the new sim did not make it any better. And besides, i know absolutely nothing about the testing and schemes and strats and whatever General Managers do related to the game part of this. I think i keep coming back because i enjoy the community part of the game, its social part. I really like to talk about random people that i only know its discord username about stupid and serious subjects and try to learn a little bit. Besides, while i feel like i have a very good english level, writing and understanding, the fact that i have to express myself in english at all times or nobody will understand what the heck i am saying also helps me improve on a personal level.

Another thing that gives me great pleasure (ok, do not get kinky with me now) to work in the Bank and on the player progression team. In game money and TPE, the stuff that everybody wants and needs to be a player in this league. So this means i have a lot of power here, i would go ahead and even say that i am probably the most powerful user in this league, so that is probably what makes me come back every single day. Some would say that i might be "drunk with power", and to you i say "NOT TODAY BUDDY, NOT TODAY". Unless i can be drunk drunk, with alcohol you know, and with power at the same time. If it is possible, sure, you are absolutely right.

(411 words)

[IsaStarcrossed]

6) Write 800 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 800 words about your team’s participation on a Werewolf server or something.

With everything that has led to the Colorado Yeti making it to the conference championship game, I just knew I had to talk about what got us to this point. The story actually starts last season where we thought we had a solid roster after making a few free agent acquisitions that we thought would get us over the hump. Unfortunately, our quarterback was in his rookie season and we highly underestimated how much his youth would hurt the team as a whole through the season. After making it to the Ultimus in back to back seasons, we missed the playoffs entirely as we managed to only string together eight wins and lost out on the opportunity due to tie breakers against Sarasota. We knew then that things needed to change for this team if we were going to make it back to the promised land, so we started looking at how to shore up our team so that we could overcome the difficulty of Caliban's youth.

We started off by looking to find Caliban some help. He had two fantastic receivers already, but they were both speedy deep threats who could really hit the home run play, but didn't offer much underneath. We went into the market to find a couple of those short range, reliable guys that could be a safety valve for Caliban. We started off by grabbing our new tight end, Frank Michell. We knew that he was a dynamic pass catcher coming in and that his blocking would need work, but with the kind of offense we were planning to run, we didn't think he'd need to block often. We wanted as many people on the field as possible to give Caliban a chance to find an open target no matter the coverage. That is why our next target was wide receiver Raphael Delacour. We brought him in the be our wide receiver three, the guy who would be out there to make the plays when we were going to full yeet it. Before the off season was over, he proved his ability to strive in the short game and make plays after the catch. He became our number two option instead and we knew he'd fill the role well. With Caliban's weapons expanded, we knew we'd done what was necessary to help our young quarterback succeed. So we took a look at our defense where we only needed to add a single player. Our front seven was already nearly elite with players like Blackstone, Big Edd, Melvin Murder-Moose, and Adelie de Pengu. We knew this was a team that could be dynamic and create a ton of pressure, we just needed to find the missing piece that would make our 3-4 defense absolutely terrifying. Enter linebacker Rusty Rucker. We knew he was a capable pass rusher and that he'd fit right in with our deadly front seven and help to make quarterback lives nightmares.

With our off season complete, we were ready to start the season and see if our changes had any real impact. At first, we couldn't be sure as we started off slow. After having an incredibly preseason, we thought we were ready to hit the ground running. Instead we started off by losing three of our first four games. We began to get concerned because all of our game planning told us we were supposed to be a better team. It wasn't showing up on the field just yet. We adjusted a few things, began to find some variety in our offense, and then finally we took off. After starting 1-3, we strung together five consecutive wins that brought us to 6-3 on the season and put us in range of contesting for playoffs. After our rough start we still had three teams ahead of us, but we knew we had a chance and that is all we wanted. The next few weeks we had some very tough games against top conference opponents, the Wraiths and the Butchers. We lost both. We won three easier games that brought us to 9-5. We had locked in a winning record on the season and had already improved on the 8-8 season we had before. We wanted to do better though. We wanted playoffs. Our final two games were against the two best teams in the league. The NSFC Conference leader and the ASFC conference leader. Our road to the playoffs looked bleak.

The first game was against Sarasota and it was one hell of a game. It was a wild back and forth where the two teams spent most of the game tied and neither could find an advantage over each other. Late in the fourth, Sarasota took the lead with a field goal. Colorado couldn't respond and had to punt. If Sarasota could have burned down some clock, they likely would have won. Instead they threw an interception that set up Colorado for a touchdown on the very next play. Sarasota got the ball back with 2:41 left on the clock. They immediately threw a massive 75 yard dagger that put them back in the lead and left only a minute to play. Everyone thought the game was over. The Colorado's Leeroy Jenkins got open over the middle and returned the favor to Sarasota for a 75 yard touchdown of his own. This sealed the game for Colorado and gave them a chance to make playoffs.

All Colorado needed was for the Wraiths to lose to one of the worst teams in the conference and for Colorado to tie or beat Honolulu. Another last minute 75 yard touchdown from Colorado let them walk out of Honolulu with a tie and Philadelphia absolutely trounced the Wraiths. Colorado had made it back to the playoffs. They immediately started off by getting revenge against Chicago and are now ready to march into the conference championship against Sarasota, a team they just beat three weeks ago. Will their journey end here? Who knows? What we do know is Colorado made the right moves to make it back to the playoffs. They made the right moves to give them a chance. And if their luck holds out, they could make their third Ultimus visit in just for seasons.

(1043 words)

[WildfireMicro]

Tier 9)
Yes another excuse to talk about my expansion idea the Louisville Spirits! Basically my idea for the Spirits would be to make a team of mostly young and active players I know from other teams. I won't be going over each position because we'd be here all day but still. Let's start with the quarterback, Ryan Negs. This guy will be my new quarterback for the Liberty when I get called up in the next season so keeping him close will be a good thing. Plus he is an amazing user I love talking with so I know I can trust him.

On the D-line I would want Marlon Brando by my side. Menace aka Blorgl on Discord is one of my favorite users in the London locker room and having him with me again would be amazing for me. Heck if he wants I could make him my co-GM to help lead this team to greatness because I think he would make a good one. Plus he is a pretty high earner who will continue to earn with me. As for wide receivers other then my player Tsuyu Asui who I plan to keep max earning with as long as I can I'd probably want Videl Valor as a maxed out receiver to help Negs have a good crew around him as he earns. Plus Videl and Tsuyu would be that anime duo that is ripe with media potential.

A CB I would want on my side is CJ Sonjack, aka Ace on Discord who is my SMJHL GM. He is a great person who I know I cam trust since he does a pretty good job at keeping me active as I can in the SHL. Another CB is Willie Miller aka Sebster on Discord. This guy is another great Royal who is a decently high earner who can definitely help our secondary. I have gotten along with these guys in the London locker room since they arrived and I would love to see them in the Spirits silver and black. Another Defensive End I'd want is Ernest Lover aka Mojojo on Discord. She is one of my good friends in London and when I visit the Sarasota locker room and a duo of Ernest and Marlon on that D-line would be extremely deadly.

As for kicker I would want Jake Fencik aka Xenos on Discord. This guy is no only a great user but he has been extremely clutch for the Liberty and would be extremely clutch for us I bet.


Tier 18)
Well I would cast the Liberty in a group cooking show called Liberty Cooking with Tsuyu Asui being the main host. She would have various Liberty players as guests and they would Cook and talk about the history of various different traditional dishes from around the world. Tsuyu's main cooking gimmick would be Japanese cooking she was taught when she was younger and she would always encourage everyone to try different ways of cooking. Cody Goodmann would have traditional American dishes like barbecue and Philly cheese steak and Doy Fieri would have more diner based food.

The hosts would often show how to combine thier traditional ways of cooking into new creations and would encourage the viewers to look beyond simple ways of cooking to see if they can find something new and unique that they like. At the end of each episode they would remind people that cooking isn't going to be the same for everyone and just because you cannot get a dish to work one way doesn't mean it would not work a different way. Tsuyu especially would be very passionate about this since her family loved to cook and passed on that love to her. In fact she would be the one to pitch the show to network executives.


Tier 22)
Very recently Tsuyu Asui has been asked to endorse the male body spray product Spring Water in a TV commercial. She was given some creative freedom for how she wanted to endorse it so she thought long and hard for a few days before coming up with an idea. The commercial starts up with a guy being outside and relaxing by a calm spring. He sees some women and sniffs himself and then realizes he doesn't smell good enough to go flirt with them. Then Tsuyu slowly comes out of the spring water with a lillypad on her head with a frog on it and gives him a bottle of the body spray.

"Try this." She says to him "just trust me I know this will work" He sprays it on himself and goes up to the ladies and they are very interested in him now. The commercial ends with him leaving with them on his arms and Tsuyu jumping into the frame "Spring Water body spray for men! Just trust me on it, I know how good spring water can smell" She then winks to the camera and the commercial ends. It ended up airing during the last game of the Liberty season and she got paid a good amount for it.

[SchwarzNarr]

11) What is it that keeps you interested in the league? Is it your love of dot football, your locker room, a specific job or role you play, or something else? What do you like most about it? What could be improved?

This league has been a lot of fun to be a part of for the past 8 months (holy cow, it’s been 8 months). While I first joined as a way to just spend time in the boredom of quarantine and my job having ended for the year … I grew to really love the people that I had started to spend time with. I used this league as an outlet for creativity, which was just enjoyable and fun, but as I spent more and more time in the league and in the locker rooms, I realized that was the big reason why I stayed. A few of my favorite pieces are the rookie mentor team, and the Yeti all together. Over the past few seasons the Rookie Mentor team has flourished and become a tight knit group. We’re able to help one another out, we take care of each other, and we work hard to make sure that rookie chat is the place that users want to be. We’ve added pieces there to make it more enjoyable and to just engage with the community.

The Yeti, on the other hand, are truly my favorite people and is my favorite place in this league. From the minute I joined their locker room as a prospect ages ago, I had wondered about this team. They were quite the team filled with big personalities, lots of caring individuals, and a great sense of humor to be had. I wanted nothing more than to be a part of the team, and after the draft, I was. Since then, I’ve worked to try and love and build with my Yeti family every day. We play games together, minecraft, Valheim, league of legends and more. We chill in voice chat regularly, whether we’re gaming or just talking and watching the sims together. The Yeti are truly my family now, and I would do anything for them. Game days come with me wearing my Yeti Jersey. Draft talks and scouting notes are filled with users we just love for who they are. Every one of us came to the Yeti with goals for our players, but so many of us love the team that we will just shuffle around to make it fit. We want to get people that we love, and we’re willing to make personal sacrifices to make it happen.

Locker rooms in this league are incredibly special, and being able to find the one that I found home has held such a special place in my life. I didn’t expect to wind up as the GM, I didn’t expect to fall in love with the team the way I did, but I couldn’t be more thankful to continue building the locker room which Infinite, Woelkers, Frick, Syl, and TVC developed into one where people want to be.

15) Write about another sim league you are in and which parts of it you enjoy. If you are only in the ISFL, write about your ideas for a sim league with another sport.

The only other simulation league which I am a part of is the Super Casual Simulation Football League. This simulation league is run off of Axis Football, and while the streams are really nice in terms of the sim quality (it’s much more like watching football verses our adorable dots), it is an interesting league. The first big difference from the ISFL and this league is the fact that there’s really nothing else you need to do except log in for 5 minutes once a week. You don’t have to do any point tasks, you don’t need to earn any money, you sign on, do an activity check through a Google Form, and that’s it. There is no claiming of the TPE that needs to happen, it is all automated through Google Sheets. The second thing that makes this league so interesting is that your contract pay is not money, but instead, straight TPE. This means that a greedy player can make himself incredibly good, but can hamper the rest of the team by a lot because of his gaining lots of TPE. There is still a cap, after all, and since the cap directly relates to the ability of teams to have TPE for their players, it matters. The second piece that is interesting is there are no caps for stats, every stat for every archetype starts at 55, and you use the TPE scale to upgrade them. There are stats more relevant than others, but you’re able to get to 99 and max out the stats for your player. This means that players with lots of TPE can definitely have an edge on other players. If you have a bad team who is offering horrible contracts, it can totally hamper the team, especially if that high earning player - the one who has so much TPE now that they’re ahead of the pack, then leaves your team in Free Agency. They’ve suddenly become a monster after only one season, but are able to turn and use all of that TPE to help teams who may not have a lot of cap space. They don’t need a ton of TPE to improve at this point, and so they are willing to take a minimum contract, which means that they’re able to pay some of the rookies higher TPE. Everyone comes up to speed at the same time and the team is almost always able to be competitive. While the league is a lot of fun, there are definitely some clear biases against the good teams in the league, and as such, rules have been made (and attempted to be implemented literally during playoffs) to hamper one team in particular. It’s a weird league. I don’t know that I would stay if it wasn’t for Scorp.

[Void_DCXI]

7)

My experience in the league has been nothing short of fun. I have been having an amazing time interacting with teammates and GMs, watching those little dots play football on gameday, and talking trash with the opposing players. Starting my account and player during Ultimus week, I was confused on a lot of things. “How do player update threads work?”, “How do I earn TPE?”, and “When is the draft?” were all questions I was asking in the beginning. The friendly folks in the rookie discord server helped me a ton at first. That server is an amazing spot to ask questions about the league, and get to know some of the prospects getting drafted with you. The prospect bowl was fun too, even if I was mainly used as a goal line running back and nothing more. Nothing compares to the draft experience. As I am about to enter the ISFL draft, I cannot comment on the ISFL draft experience, although I am sure it is better than the DSFL counterpart. Nevertheless, the DSFL draft was still fun. I didn’t expect my player to fall to the 5th round, but that helped me realize that I was going to have to put in a little bit of work to be successful in the DSFL and ISFL. Scouting got repetitive at times, but joining every team’s locker room was a treat. Now is a good time to mention that Bondi Beach has been lovely. They have great players, extremely helpful alumni, and fantastic GMs. They have been incredibly supportive of me and I cannot thank them enough. While we underperformed in the regular season, the environment was so nice that it didn’t really matter to me. My season was up and down. On my best games I would get 100+ yards, but on my worst I would barely crack 10. I have been told that ISFL GMs don’t care about DSFL stats, but rather how much TPE you earn, and your personality. I personally cannot wait for the ISFL draft. Even if I go in the later rounds, it’s still a fun guessing game to see where you are going to land. I think I might go round 2 or 3, but I won’t know for sure until the day of the draft. I have joined a couple ISFL locker rooms, and they have been incredibly friendly as well. And at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter where you’re drafted, because as long as you put in the work you will eventually be good enough to be a starter. So that about sums up my experience in the league so far. I have had a great time, and I can’t wait for what’s next.

[Ace]

Tier 2 – Task 8
Recruitment into sim leagues has always been a fascinating exercise for me. I have a background in sales and marketing professionally, and far too often sim leagues fall back into the pattern of “oh it worked then, let’s just go back and do the same thing”. This results in the same subreddits getting spammed on a 6-month clock, yielding inconsistent results, and gradually infuriating the Reddit mods. In the SHL, we experienced a slap on the wrist a couple years back when Reddit itself shut down our post and sent every user involved a message threatening a ban if they caught us “vote manipulating” again.

I have suggested and applied to the SHL Recruitment team that we need to diversify our recruitment strategy, whether it is other social media channels such as Instagram or YouTube advertising, or Google Ads/Reddit Ads, or even perhaps Podcast advertisements with some of the larger hockey podcasts like Spittin’ Chiclets. We must diversify our recruiting sources so if we effectively lose access to one of them, we have a fallback well to lean on. It is critical for not just the SHL but the ISFL as well to have a degree of redundancy and these avenues would be applicable for the ISFL as well.

Retainment is a different animal entirely. Since I joined the ISFL I have been impressed with the league’s player progression system, having it unified under one team. The SHL has two separate teams, and it can be daunting and overwhelming for many new users to understand where to go and what tasks they can do. The one thing I would say about the ISFL progression team, is that they have a magnifying glass on the ISFL and often let the DSFL slip by the wayside. Asking a rookie with a rudimentary knowledge at best on the ISFL’s competitive landscape to predict a weeks’ worth of games is asking for a lack of engagement and employment the more efficient copy paste strategy that a user can find. I do not know the difference between the Honolulu Hahalua or the Sarasota Sailfish right now. Perhaps we could offer prediction tasks for the DSFL as well, so members can have PTs that are a bit more relevant to their daily site experience?

Other than that minor snafu, I feel that the ISFL has done a fantastic job at creating a community that is its own, and keeping members engaged. I look forward to this draft experience immensely and really absorbing the ISFL experience for the first time with CJ Sonjack.

Tier 2 – Task 10
My journey has been documented relatively well. CJ Sonjack declared for the DSFL draft later than most of his fellow prospects, and I had a well-deserved reputation of not exactly getting the most out of my players due to spending most of my time over in the SHL. When I retired Arik Eller, the plan was to do more with this player than what I had with my previous two. With Eller, I chased contracts due to a lack of motivation to earn money to max earn. That contract money was my lifeblood and the only thing that mattered to me. That was something I wanted to break away from with CJ Sonjack. During the DSFL scouting process, the LR that really spoke to me was the Royals. I was in there, and not even part of the team, and people like Blorgl, Wildfire, Slate, Katarn, RainbowDash, Deadly, all made me feel welcome. Being able to get drafted to my preferred destination was a treat and something that I treasured immensely.

Due to those perceptions that I outlined before, I slipped into the third round. I probably could have slipped further, but I think my intimate knowledge of the Star Wars Jedi Knight games secured my fate with Katarn. I joined the Royals and had something to prove.

The season was an absolute gem. It started off rocky when I did not even see my player playing CB. I think it may have been an Endurance issue, because once that was bumped up, I got a ton of time on the field. I even led the league in interceptions this season as a rookie, so I am hopeful that maybe I will be considered for some individual accolades and awards. The biggest disappointment about the season would have to be the fact that we fell short of making the postseason. Taking part in the playoffs would have been an absolute treat, but we had a young offense. I am hopeful that we will take last season as a learning experience. I maintain that to truly cherish what victory is, you must know the despair of defeat.
The Royals will be ready to bounce back and fight forward. We will not fall short of the postseason two seasons in a row. Our young offense will have a year under their belt, and they’ll be ready to punch opposing defenses right across their noses.