Tier 1, Task 3
Mount Rushmore is an American landmark, so it's slightly odd to consider it for the London Royals. I don't really know much about the big hill heady things except that those guys were important presidents, so please excuse me if I have somehow missed the point. Anyway, four names, four explanations, lots of mad war room members in London:
DeadlyPlayer (user)
The first name on the list is the easiest choice. Deadly is the founder of the London Royals, the user behind their current starting tight end Frank Michell and the beating heart of the (absolutely fantastic) Royals locker room to this day.
Deadly is, to put it mildly, not unfamiliar to controversy. He is the only ISFL user I have met to tell me to fuck myself and then declare his undying love for me in the space of about 3 minutes. As a rookie who knew nothing, when he first referred to his colossal $8 million fine, I found myself incapable of the smallest amount of surprise. This, however, is the charm of Deadly. You really don't know what you are getting from minute to minute, and that makes him so much fun to have on your team. It would be easy to use the incredibly English idiom "he's not everybody's cup of tea", but that's flat out wrong. If you don't love Deadly, you haven't been in the locker room with him enough.
Being the team founder alone isn't why he's here. It's the fact that he is the absolute epitome of a locker room guy who lives and dies the games like the proud father of many mischievous dots. I guess we are all, in a way, his children.
Every team deserves to have a DeadlyPlayer, but unfortunately the rest of you can't have him. He's ours.
Sylphreni (user)
Syl took over the co-General Manager spot when Deadly stepped down, in the most like-for-like swap that you could possibly imagine...
...God I'm funny. Syl couldn't be much more different from Deadly if he tried, but what a job he did in London. His fingerprints were all over the Season 23 DSFL Draft, where London managed to select three true rookie players who would go on to be taken in the top six picks of the Season 24 ISFL Draft, two of whom would go on to be General Managers themselves.
Sylphreni's recruitment nous, people skills and easy professionalism (even his avatar is a suit) provided a yin to the prominent DeadlyPlayer yang and helped create the culture of learning over winning, rookies over recreates and - ultimately - increased engagement that is at the heart of the current London Royals team. He also drafted a great crop of rookies in the Season 24 DSFL draft to contribute to this culture, but there'll be more on that soon. His idea of a sim school (I assume this is true, he mentions it enough) was a masterstroke in user development, and will no doubt continue for many seasons to come.
His player, Greedy Sly, was a two year starter for London and selected first overall by the Colorado Yeti, a great achievement in itself, but sadly the lure of the Yeti was to prove too much, as Syl stepped down to take over the co-GM role there.
Though he may have left us for the big leagues, if the London Royals achieve success this season nobody will deserve more credit than Sylphreni.
Maglubiyet (user) / Juan Domine (player)
To start with - Juan Domine. In his time in London he has managed 248 tackles, 9 tackles for loss, 2 forced fumbles, 14 sacks, 2 interceptions and 14 passes defended - those are just regular season stats, and he hasn't even finished his second season on the Royals yet. When the Chicago Butchers drafted him first overall, they knew exactly what they were getting - a defensive machine.
Let's just consider that word for a moment - "machine". As a user, Mag has a reputation for being productive to the point that people question whether he's actually human. The General Manager spot was a natural fit for him when Sylphreni left, and he took it. As a teammate/fellow war room member/underling of Mag, I feel about 80% confident that he does actually breathe and dream like the rest of us, but in a way that streamlines processes beyond the powers of our comprehension.
Legend has it that Mag tackled the task of scouting Season 24 DSFL draft class almost single-handedly, a superhuman feat of dedication and patience. The fruit of his labour was a class of Season 25 rookies with five members who will hit the 250 TPE DSFL cap by their ISFL draft date, the last of whom was drafted in the tenth round. While this wasn't entirely his work, he had a disproportionately large hand in it, and he deserves a lot of recognition when two Royals (possibly more, we shall see) are selected in the first round of the upcoming ISFL draft.
Spot #4 - Blank
No, this isn't a cop-out. Let me explain my reasoning.
At least three users currently have a claim to this spot. Modern Duke (founder, former GM, savant on all things sim), Highhaschdi (former GM) and abh89 (current GM) all have, or will soon undoubtedly have, great cases to make.
A number of players currently have good cases to make, Colby Jack and Acura Skyline being two of them.
It feels like London's Rushmore should be balanced out by one more player up there. Here's the thing though - London haven't won an Ultimini yet. A player can't be up there on regular season stats alone, that just feels wrong to me. Also, the Royals currently have arguably the best team they have ever assembled, and a great shot to make the postseason.
So let's just keep all that lovely mountainside scaffolding in place and see what pans out over the course of the playoffs. The beauty of the current London team is that it doesn't rely too much on one individual, so I won't even bother listing potential candidates here. Just check our roster page - an iconic playoff moment could come from anybody there...
...and if it does, everyone involved in the London Royals organisation will happily help carve that head.
Mount Rushmore is an American landmark, so it's slightly odd to consider it for the London Royals. I don't really know much about the big hill heady things except that those guys were important presidents, so please excuse me if I have somehow missed the point. Anyway, four names, four explanations, lots of mad war room members in London:
DeadlyPlayer (user)
The first name on the list is the easiest choice. Deadly is the founder of the London Royals, the user behind their current starting tight end Frank Michell and the beating heart of the (absolutely fantastic) Royals locker room to this day.
Deadly is, to put it mildly, not unfamiliar to controversy. He is the only ISFL user I have met to tell me to fuck myself and then declare his undying love for me in the space of about 3 minutes. As a rookie who knew nothing, when he first referred to his colossal $8 million fine, I found myself incapable of the smallest amount of surprise. This, however, is the charm of Deadly. You really don't know what you are getting from minute to minute, and that makes him so much fun to have on your team. It would be easy to use the incredibly English idiom "he's not everybody's cup of tea", but that's flat out wrong. If you don't love Deadly, you haven't been in the locker room with him enough.
Being the team founder alone isn't why he's here. It's the fact that he is the absolute epitome of a locker room guy who lives and dies the games like the proud father of many mischievous dots. I guess we are all, in a way, his children.
Every team deserves to have a DeadlyPlayer, but unfortunately the rest of you can't have him. He's ours.
Sylphreni (user)
Syl took over the co-General Manager spot when Deadly stepped down, in the most like-for-like swap that you could possibly imagine...
...God I'm funny. Syl couldn't be much more different from Deadly if he tried, but what a job he did in London. His fingerprints were all over the Season 23 DSFL Draft, where London managed to select three true rookie players who would go on to be taken in the top six picks of the Season 24 ISFL Draft, two of whom would go on to be General Managers themselves.
Sylphreni's recruitment nous, people skills and easy professionalism (even his avatar is a suit) provided a yin to the prominent DeadlyPlayer yang and helped create the culture of learning over winning, rookies over recreates and - ultimately - increased engagement that is at the heart of the current London Royals team. He also drafted a great crop of rookies in the Season 24 DSFL draft to contribute to this culture, but there'll be more on that soon. His idea of a sim school (I assume this is true, he mentions it enough) was a masterstroke in user development, and will no doubt continue for many seasons to come.
His player, Greedy Sly, was a two year starter for London and selected first overall by the Colorado Yeti, a great achievement in itself, but sadly the lure of the Yeti was to prove too much, as Syl stepped down to take over the co-GM role there.
Though he may have left us for the big leagues, if the London Royals achieve success this season nobody will deserve more credit than Sylphreni.
Maglubiyet (user) / Juan Domine (player)
To start with - Juan Domine. In his time in London he has managed 248 tackles, 9 tackles for loss, 2 forced fumbles, 14 sacks, 2 interceptions and 14 passes defended - those are just regular season stats, and he hasn't even finished his second season on the Royals yet. When the Chicago Butchers drafted him first overall, they knew exactly what they were getting - a defensive machine.
Let's just consider that word for a moment - "machine". As a user, Mag has a reputation for being productive to the point that people question whether he's actually human. The General Manager spot was a natural fit for him when Sylphreni left, and he took it. As a teammate/fellow war room member/underling of Mag, I feel about 80% confident that he does actually breathe and dream like the rest of us, but in a way that streamlines processes beyond the powers of our comprehension.
Legend has it that Mag tackled the task of scouting Season 24 DSFL draft class almost single-handedly, a superhuman feat of dedication and patience. The fruit of his labour was a class of Season 25 rookies with five members who will hit the 250 TPE DSFL cap by their ISFL draft date, the last of whom was drafted in the tenth round. While this wasn't entirely his work, he had a disproportionately large hand in it, and he deserves a lot of recognition when two Royals (possibly more, we shall see) are selected in the first round of the upcoming ISFL draft.
Spot #4 - Blank
No, this isn't a cop-out. Let me explain my reasoning.
At least three users currently have a claim to this spot. Modern Duke (founder, former GM, savant on all things sim), Highhaschdi (former GM) and abh89 (current GM) all have, or will soon undoubtedly have, great cases to make.
A number of players currently have good cases to make, Colby Jack and Acura Skyline being two of them.
It feels like London's Rushmore should be balanced out by one more player up there. Here's the thing though - London haven't won an Ultimini yet. A player can't be up there on regular season stats alone, that just feels wrong to me. Also, the Royals currently have arguably the best team they have ever assembled, and a great shot to make the postseason.
So let's just keep all that lovely mountainside scaffolding in place and see what pans out over the course of the playoffs. The beauty of the current London team is that it doesn't rely too much on one individual, so I won't even bother listing potential candidates here. Just check our roster page - an iconic playoff moment could come from anybody there...
...and if it does, everyone involved in the London Royals organisation will happily help carve that head.
Code:
1040