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1) The league has a rich and fascinating history, and our perspectives on it differ from person to person. In 800 words or more, describe any significant non-playoffs moment in ISFL or DSFL history, whether you were around for it or not. Describe the context, the significant members, and the events. What exactly made this event so famous (or infamous) and why does it deserve to be remembered?
The S22 draft will go down as one for the ages. The context? The year 2020, before the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Sports were booming and the center of much online conversation. The league devised a strategy to recruit a ton of people from Reddit, with plans to hit the massive sub r/nfl. Nobody had guessed had well it would work. The influx of players following this recruitment push was staggering; they just kept coming at all hours of the day. Sim football had a ton of allure to avid fans of the game, it turned out. Just a few weeks after the Super Bowl, right as real life football was fizzling out, NFL lovers so were given something to turn their attention to. The prospect count for the S22 draft was over 200, enough to fill entire teams many times over.
The recruitment was so successful that word spread outside ISFL forums. People in SHL were talking about it; the biggest class any sim leagues like ours had ever seen. As the then Recruitment Head of SHL, I was intrigued to hear about such a successful recruiting campaign. I had to be a part of that class and see what it was all about. My old player, Wraiths wide receivers Tommy Helanen, was retired, and I was reborn amid a legendary draft class of epic proportions. Thomas Passmann, a S22 recreate, would be one name among the masses, a tiny part in a spectacular event. I imagine many recreates also created new players as I did, wanting to be written into sim league history. This wasn’t just a draft class, it was a movement, the beginning of a new era for the league. The massive growth would undoubtedly lead to major changes, we knew it then, and it has come to pass. We’re seeing the effects of such growth now, a few seasons later, with the league renaming and moving away from jcink. I think the case for S22 being the reason for this is compelling, if not 100% certain.
GMs were overwhelmed trying to scout all the new people before the draft, with mass messages sent out to the dozens of prospects. The refined personal touch of scouting that normally accompanied these sorts of messages was lost in the rollout; the sheer number of prospects required generic surveys. It would breathe new life into the DSFL though, new enthusiasm would surely follow a ton of new players. And with the growth in the number of users, and even more of them being retained that expected due to the amount of free time we all had when coronavirus lockdown shut everyone inside their homes with nothing to do in March, there had to be something done to make room for the new players. The ripple effects of it all just kept reaching further and further. The additions were obviously necessary, the problems with trying to fit so many new, young players on the existing franchises with limited spots were glaring. They were fixed by S22 NSFL expansion. The two new teams would provide additional space and accommodate this massive draft class, providing room for the upward mobility and swift progression that makes sim leagues enjoyable. This took place in April, 2 months from this initial recruitment, and it is evidence that the effects of this massive draft were seen for quite awhile to come.
It deserves to be remembered as the turning point for the league, the reason why it morphed into something more than it was. The driving factor behind a number of changes that altered the sim league experience in ways we never could have imagined, that made the league abound with vibrancy and new life, and that even would indirectly help the other affiliated leagues as the new ISFL players learned and read about other leagues like it. Quantifying all the effects or predicting what may continue to happen in the future will be impossible, but this draft will surely be the stuff of legend, a mythological take for seasons to come. I will be proud to say I was a part of it and recount was it was like to be there. It was bigger than me, bigger than any of us; it was one of the greatest drafts in sim league history. Actually, not just one of the greatest. In my mind, it was the greatest of all time. I do not see another draft having the perfect storm to be so monumental. No draft can compare to the wonder of S22.
Not every one of S22 stuck around, of course, but a great many S22 players are still here and making a difference. Perhaps in the future, we will deliberate if the S22 players drafted outside the top 100 who become surprise stars were the biggest steals of all time. In a draft so deep with so many rounds of viable players, people will surely talk and rate each team’s draft. They’ll muse about how the choices in S22 set some teams up for success, and how others stumble, ponder what could have been different, what might have been if things played out different. Time will clear up all mysteries, and in hindsight, we will see the full reach of the S22 draft.