Tier 1, Task 1
I've been in the league for literal years now so almost everything that has happened to the league I've been around for firsthand unless it was during my few times of inactivity. I could easily talk about the scandals that we've seen or some of the toxic users we've had that hurt the league in some way or another. But I'm going to instead talk about something that I affected me personally and that is the creation of the offensive line bots that we still make use of today and were an absolutely necessary addition regardless of whether or not people still want to play the position.
I joined in S2 and I really wanted to make a WR. Anytime I played the whatever career mode in Madden or Heisman Chase in NCAA football that was the position I played. But as someone new to sim leagues I was kind of scared off by everyone saying how full the Offensive skill positions were and that I'd never get to play there blah blah blah. Literally the same things we say to new users now. Lo and behold I would have earned enough to be a damn good WR if I wanted to but I digress. So instead I opted for offensive line, hoping it would be the position with the quickest path to making an impact. You look at the guys that also we're making offensive linemen at the time and you'll see multiple Hall of Famers and GMs, it was a position that was just full of some of the best users in the league.
Pretty soon though, we'd realize that it was extremely brutal to be an Offensive Lineman, especially in those early seasons. Seriously go look at what defensive lineman were able to do in some of the early seasons of the league and it's just totally unrealistic but more importantly unbalanced. I remember watching one of the early Ultimus games that Arizona demolished in and they were easily getting multiple safeties in a championship game. It was exciting if you played for Arizona I guess but otherwise it was just kind of lame. It was really unfortunate to work very hard to max earn for your team and for your offensive line to still be garbage because the rest of the players on it were 50 tpe inactives. As an offensive lineman it definitely felt nice to be so wanted, I think more than half of the players taken in the first round of the S2 draft were OL. But at the same time, we had talked amongst ourselves that it would be nice to play something else too. Regardless of whether or not people wanted to continue to play the position, something had to be done. We had the fewest number of active players at the position group that requires the most to fill on a team.
Thus, the OL bots that we still use today were born (built?). It definitely took some time to tweak everything with them from how much of the cap teams should expect to spend to what the different types levels should be, but the people that put that effort together did an excellent job to try and balance everything while also tweaking archetypes and weight for DL as well to make sure everything worked out. As for the people that were playing OL at the time, everyone was able to use a free 100% tpe switch. People like Blocksdale and Akselsen switched to QB, Sharpei, Winchester and myself switched to LB, some people switched to DL. Basically most of us still switched to positions that our team still needed help at, which was why we had chosen to play OL in the first place.
The trajectory of the league was changed forever in the immediate introduction of superstars at a bunch of places across the league but more importantly in the way to build your team. There's a reason why now DL is such a huge need because of how much more difficult it is for teams to make an impact against OL bots without them. Additionally trying to balance the strength of your offensive line with the salary cap makes for some challenging decisions. But, as dramatic a shift as it was, I think it was absolutely necessary to bring balance to the league.
And don't get me wrong, I'm all about the fair rubs club and letting people play offensive line. You look at a league like EFL where they just have bots exclusively on both the offensive line and defensive line and it does help to just eliminate the issues we have had to work through. But I just think it adds a lot of character to have real people playing those positions as much as we can. And the OL brotherhood with its own discord and everything has been a great community. The bots are here not to try and take jobs from people, but to help supplement the position as best as possible and keep the league running smoothly. I'm very happy with where we are as a league in terms of how we handle offensive line and I think most people would agree.
I've been in the league for literal years now so almost everything that has happened to the league I've been around for firsthand unless it was during my few times of inactivity. I could easily talk about the scandals that we've seen or some of the toxic users we've had that hurt the league in some way or another. But I'm going to instead talk about something that I affected me personally and that is the creation of the offensive line bots that we still make use of today and were an absolutely necessary addition regardless of whether or not people still want to play the position.
I joined in S2 and I really wanted to make a WR. Anytime I played the whatever career mode in Madden or Heisman Chase in NCAA football that was the position I played. But as someone new to sim leagues I was kind of scared off by everyone saying how full the Offensive skill positions were and that I'd never get to play there blah blah blah. Literally the same things we say to new users now. Lo and behold I would have earned enough to be a damn good WR if I wanted to but I digress. So instead I opted for offensive line, hoping it would be the position with the quickest path to making an impact. You look at the guys that also we're making offensive linemen at the time and you'll see multiple Hall of Famers and GMs, it was a position that was just full of some of the best users in the league.
Pretty soon though, we'd realize that it was extremely brutal to be an Offensive Lineman, especially in those early seasons. Seriously go look at what defensive lineman were able to do in some of the early seasons of the league and it's just totally unrealistic but more importantly unbalanced. I remember watching one of the early Ultimus games that Arizona demolished in and they were easily getting multiple safeties in a championship game. It was exciting if you played for Arizona I guess but otherwise it was just kind of lame. It was really unfortunate to work very hard to max earn for your team and for your offensive line to still be garbage because the rest of the players on it were 50 tpe inactives. As an offensive lineman it definitely felt nice to be so wanted, I think more than half of the players taken in the first round of the S2 draft were OL. But at the same time, we had talked amongst ourselves that it would be nice to play something else too. Regardless of whether or not people wanted to continue to play the position, something had to be done. We had the fewest number of active players at the position group that requires the most to fill on a team.
Thus, the OL bots that we still use today were born (built?). It definitely took some time to tweak everything with them from how much of the cap teams should expect to spend to what the different types levels should be, but the people that put that effort together did an excellent job to try and balance everything while also tweaking archetypes and weight for DL as well to make sure everything worked out. As for the people that were playing OL at the time, everyone was able to use a free 100% tpe switch. People like Blocksdale and Akselsen switched to QB, Sharpei, Winchester and myself switched to LB, some people switched to DL. Basically most of us still switched to positions that our team still needed help at, which was why we had chosen to play OL in the first place.
The trajectory of the league was changed forever in the immediate introduction of superstars at a bunch of places across the league but more importantly in the way to build your team. There's a reason why now DL is such a huge need because of how much more difficult it is for teams to make an impact against OL bots without them. Additionally trying to balance the strength of your offensive line with the salary cap makes for some challenging decisions. But, as dramatic a shift as it was, I think it was absolutely necessary to bring balance to the league.
And don't get me wrong, I'm all about the fair rubs club and letting people play offensive line. You look at a league like EFL where they just have bots exclusively on both the offensive line and defensive line and it does help to just eliminate the issues we have had to work through. But I just think it adds a lot of character to have real people playing those positions as much as we can. And the OL brotherhood with its own discord and everything has been a great community. The bots are here not to try and take jobs from people, but to help supplement the position as best as possible and keep the league running smoothly. I'm very happy with where we are as a league in terms of how we handle offensive line and I think most people would agree.
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[OPTION]Regular Season Stats
[OPTION](S2) 14 Games Played
[OPTION](S3) 14 Games Played
[OPTION](S4) 14 Games Played
[OPTION](S5) 14 Games Played
[OPTION](S6) 14 Games Played
[OPTION](S7) 14 Games Played
[OPTION](S8) 14 Games Played
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[OPTION]Playoff Stats
[OPTION] 27839
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[OPTION]Trophy Case/Achievements:
[OPTION]Most Likely to Break the Team Bench When Sitting Down
[OPTION]Pumpkin Chuckin' Rally 2017 Semifinalist
[OPTION]Most Likely to Get Traded in S8 (T-1st)
[OPTION]Ultimus Champion S7, S8