Prompt Wrote: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 Yellowknife Wraiths won the S23 Ultimus and they have reddit and iStegosauruz to credit for that. Here's the story of the article that gave them that win.
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Starting with the absolutely huge recruitment class of S22, there has been a distinct revolution in the perception around having human players rather than bots as part of teams' offensive lines. This change was kicked off by the article from iStegosauruz showing that human tackles produce better stats than bots at lower TPE and additionally are way cheaper at any given TPE point. That and other similar studies came out at a time when creating at an offensive line position was specifically discouraged in the rookie creation guide and few teams (though notable including the S21 Ultimus-winning Second Line) had human players at any offensive line position.
In the off season the year after that article, we had the announcement of an expansion draft leading to the Honolulu Hahalua and Sarasota Sailfish. The results of that draft included Laszlo Forty-Two going to the Sailfish. After the draft, Forty-Two announced that he was switching to offensive line. That post showed a clear interest in being a great O-linesman but also mentioned a specific interest at getting a championship while playing oline as part of a 'win a championship at every position' personal goal. The Sailfish situation after draft was looking like they wouldn't be an immediate contender, leading to this post from Fort-Two asking that a team which was in contention for a championship trade for him so that he could accomplish said goal (and also making the point that long-term team-friendly contracts with no outs can lead to situations the player doesn't love). That post eventually resulted in this trade sending Forty-Two over to Yellowknife for the S22 season.
In the course of the season, that move looked great as the Wraiths finished up with a league-best 11-2 record and were the top seed entering the playoffs. The playoffs were slightly less good as the Wraiths lost their conference game to the eventual champion Yeti, but an 85 pancake run with no allowed sacks by Forty-Two was good enough to deliver the offensive lineman of the year award to Forty-Two. His play continued to be great in S23, with a league-high 84 pancakes and 1 sack allowed (albeit in 16 games vs. 13 in S22). The 10-6 Wraiths ended up as the top team in the NSFC again, though second overall seed to the 11-5 Otters. The lower seed ended up not mattering, however, after the lower-seeded Copperheads knocked off Orange County in the ASFC conference championship and became the away team for the Ultimus.
(As a brief digression for anyone newer to the league, the Wraiths have been known in recent years for being a great NSFC team, making it to the Ultimus, and then losing. They've had a great amount of overall success and yet haven't been able to make it to the final finish line in over a decade as mentioned in the Ultimus broadcast. So, making it back to the Ultimus and managing to get the win is something hugely important to the team after the years of getting so close.)
All of that background sets the stage for the season 23 Ultimus where Forty-Two delivered an incredible 13 pancakes with no sacks as part of a 157 yard rushing day for the Wraiths as they beat the Copperheads. The 3 rushing touchdowns weren't exactly the difference in a game they won by 25 points, but the overall rushing success was clearly important in a game where they had 2 more turnovers and yet still managed to win time of possession by a bit over 4 minutes. And to be fair, it's not like Forty-Two won the game by himself - Austin only converting on 4 of their 14 3rd downs shows that the Yellowknife defense was also an important factor. But, with only 1 sack given up as compared to Austin's 7, the offensive line was clearly an important factor in the effectiveness of the Wraiths, and Forty-Two was the best player on the offensive line on that day.
So, getting back to the prompt - I firmly believe that Yellowknife's biggest relative strength in the Ultimus was in the offensive line. Their offensive line was better due to having a player who I think will be the best O-lineman in the league two years in a row. He ended up in the position of changing teams due to the size of the reddit-sourced recuiting class leading to the expansion draft, but that didn't necessarily lead to a position swtich. Instead, I believe (but to be fair, didn't check directly) that he converted to the offensive line from wide receiver due in some part to the studies on the effectiveness of human oline players written by iStegosauruz, and so I believe that the article will end up being considered one of the most impactful in the history of the league. Can that hypothesis be verified? Not really, but I know that if I were a GM of the Wraiths, I'd be sending iStegosauruz a thank you cookie or something.
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