Tier 2:
10. Write a short biography or story about your player. This could include background about how they came to the ISFL and how they’ve done so far, a story about their role in an exciting game, or anything else related to their experience in the league (500 words)
Andy Fantuz has recently just joined the Developmental Simulation Football League and landed with the London Royals on their quest and success in winning the Ultimini. While this is a big step in his career thus far, it is also important to consider some of the earlier events in his career and backstory that led to him being in this situation and opportunity. Andy Fantuz was first introduced to football in his early days watching some of the legends of the International Simulation Football League such as Joilet Christ or Franklin Armstrong tear up the league at the quarterback position. While Andy Fantuz initially wanted to play at the quarterback position, he found more success at the wide receiver position due to his rock steady hands that rarely ever dropped many passes. While Andy Fantuz may not be the fastest player around, he has the skills to become a dominant 3rd down guy or even for the redzone due to his ability to find the open spots in the defense and his glue like hands. Andy Fantuz continued to play football into high school where he then stopped playing the other sports that he loved such as hockey and basketball, this allowed for him to solely focus on becoming the best wide receiver on his team and the city. While football in Canada is certainly different than the game played in the United States of America, it still has the same fundamentals and core skills to develop. Andy Fantuz initially did not receive much playing time in his early years at his high school due to their already being a number of great receivers on the team but this did allow for him to start to hone his skills on special teams as both a gunner and the returner. When Andy Fantuz got his shot to shine in his junior year of high school he did not disappoint as he broke the school record for receiving yards and touchdowns and led the team to the provincial championship game. In his senior year though Andy Fantuz was faced with a gruesome leg injury that cut his season short after just the first half and led to him only receiving one offer from the States to play college football for the Maryland Terrapins. Andy Fantuz ended up being redshirted his freshman year of college which allowed for him to acclimate to both the college environment as well as America as he had never visited before his acceptance to Maryland. Andy Fantuz after his redshirt never really popped off like both he and the team had hoped but he continued to be a reliable option for both the quarterback and the team as he finished his college career with zero drops in total before he declared for the DSFL draft and wound up on the London Royals before their Ultimini winning season where he was able to contribute a few catches per game for them. Fantuz has already received a number of scouting calls and looks forward to be taken in the DSFL draft so that he can continue to improve his skills and prepare for the jump ahead to the ISFL game because he already has decided he will not be sent down after his required season in the DSFL. (548)
13. Expansion Expansion Expansion! The league seems to love talking about it, but it has still not happened. Tell us why it should happen / should not happen soon?
Expansion is crucial to both the league's short and long term success as a simulation league. Expansion allows for a higher amount of users to be starting and gaining playing time which is one of the most sought after parts of any simulation league. While the league has continued to ignore an element such as injuries within in the league, this forces the hand of expansion as the only option towards continuing the growth of the league. One of the issues that arises from this though is that you'll need to keep all of this members active and raise the floor for it to continue and any mass retirement or players leaving due to whatever issue such as a Bachelorette, commissioner tampering, or a variety of questionable choices. Expansion also allows for new and interesting places to have a shot at hosting a team such as Sarasota which was in the recent expansion. Another element that expansion allows for is for older players who might have been pushed out and forced to retire with a new opportunity to play and help shape a new locker room and interact with users they wouldn't have before. One of the issues to consider for expansion is having quality GMs for the team as people can see with situations such as Baltimore or Chicago in the past who struggled to find any success or consistency with the team and creat an environment that is not fun for individuals and could drive them away so ensuring you have the correct candidates is crucial to the success of the expansion. Another knock against expansion that I can think of includes the terribly long stream set ups for the games that needs to change before even considering a potential expansion. Most of these streams are pushing an hour and a half and are painful to watch if you're one of the last teams so in order to fix something like this you'd need to either split the ISFL games into different time slots or just upload the games as a preloaded video rather than live so that people can pick and choose the games that they want to watch. If the league can iron out some of these issues that arise with expansion, I think that expansion could definitely be beneficial to all the different parties involved with the league but if they can't figure out the solutions to some of the issues that I have raised than I believe that expansion would ultimately be detrimental to the league and some of its users rather than beneficial.
(430)
10. Write a short biography or story about your player. This could include background about how they came to the ISFL and how they’ve done so far, a story about their role in an exciting game, or anything else related to their experience in the league (500 words)
Andy Fantuz has recently just joined the Developmental Simulation Football League and landed with the London Royals on their quest and success in winning the Ultimini. While this is a big step in his career thus far, it is also important to consider some of the earlier events in his career and backstory that led to him being in this situation and opportunity. Andy Fantuz was first introduced to football in his early days watching some of the legends of the International Simulation Football League such as Joilet Christ or Franklin Armstrong tear up the league at the quarterback position. While Andy Fantuz initially wanted to play at the quarterback position, he found more success at the wide receiver position due to his rock steady hands that rarely ever dropped many passes. While Andy Fantuz may not be the fastest player around, he has the skills to become a dominant 3rd down guy or even for the redzone due to his ability to find the open spots in the defense and his glue like hands. Andy Fantuz continued to play football into high school where he then stopped playing the other sports that he loved such as hockey and basketball, this allowed for him to solely focus on becoming the best wide receiver on his team and the city. While football in Canada is certainly different than the game played in the United States of America, it still has the same fundamentals and core skills to develop. Andy Fantuz initially did not receive much playing time in his early years at his high school due to their already being a number of great receivers on the team but this did allow for him to start to hone his skills on special teams as both a gunner and the returner. When Andy Fantuz got his shot to shine in his junior year of high school he did not disappoint as he broke the school record for receiving yards and touchdowns and led the team to the provincial championship game. In his senior year though Andy Fantuz was faced with a gruesome leg injury that cut his season short after just the first half and led to him only receiving one offer from the States to play college football for the Maryland Terrapins. Andy Fantuz ended up being redshirted his freshman year of college which allowed for him to acclimate to both the college environment as well as America as he had never visited before his acceptance to Maryland. Andy Fantuz after his redshirt never really popped off like both he and the team had hoped but he continued to be a reliable option for both the quarterback and the team as he finished his college career with zero drops in total before he declared for the DSFL draft and wound up on the London Royals before their Ultimini winning season where he was able to contribute a few catches per game for them. Fantuz has already received a number of scouting calls and looks forward to be taken in the DSFL draft so that he can continue to improve his skills and prepare for the jump ahead to the ISFL game because he already has decided he will not be sent down after his required season in the DSFL. (548)
13. Expansion Expansion Expansion! The league seems to love talking about it, but it has still not happened. Tell us why it should happen / should not happen soon?
Expansion is crucial to both the league's short and long term success as a simulation league. Expansion allows for a higher amount of users to be starting and gaining playing time which is one of the most sought after parts of any simulation league. While the league has continued to ignore an element such as injuries within in the league, this forces the hand of expansion as the only option towards continuing the growth of the league. One of the issues that arises from this though is that you'll need to keep all of this members active and raise the floor for it to continue and any mass retirement or players leaving due to whatever issue such as a Bachelorette, commissioner tampering, or a variety of questionable choices. Expansion also allows for new and interesting places to have a shot at hosting a team such as Sarasota which was in the recent expansion. Another element that expansion allows for is for older players who might have been pushed out and forced to retire with a new opportunity to play and help shape a new locker room and interact with users they wouldn't have before. One of the issues to consider for expansion is having quality GMs for the team as people can see with situations such as Baltimore or Chicago in the past who struggled to find any success or consistency with the team and creat an environment that is not fun for individuals and could drive them away so ensuring you have the correct candidates is crucial to the success of the expansion. Another knock against expansion that I can think of includes the terribly long stream set ups for the games that needs to change before even considering a potential expansion. Most of these streams are pushing an hour and a half and are painful to watch if you're one of the last teams so in order to fix something like this you'd need to either split the ISFL games into different time slots or just upload the games as a preloaded video rather than live so that people can pick and choose the games that they want to watch. If the league can iron out some of these issues that arise with expansion, I think that expansion could definitely be beneficial to all the different parties involved with the league but if they can't figure out the solutions to some of the issues that I have raised than I believe that expansion would ultimately be detrimental to the league and some of its users rather than beneficial.
(430)