Task 6
Let us talk about rebrands. They provide one of the most divisive parts of any sports league both real and fake at any level. The ISFL and rebranding have an interesting history together where you can see the same sort of reactions to new logos that real teams receive. Instead of talking about the most recent rebrand of the Philadelphia Liberty into the Cape Town Crush, a story about another team’s rebrand when down on their luck will be my focus, the Las Vegas Legion. Most members now do not understand the craziness of the Legion and probably have never heard of them unless there is a league historian in their locker room. Las Vegas was one of the first expansion teams in the league back in S2 along with the Philadelphia Liberty but were far worse off than the Liberty in almost every facet of the game. Both teams started with losing records in their first seasons, but by S3 it was obvious just how far the talent level was between the Liberty and the Legion as the Liberty went 8-5-1 with the Legion sitting at 2-12. People talk about the Philly Curse being something that infected the team for many seasons after their lack of playoff wins and especially their lack of Ultimuses when other teams could at least make it to the game somewhat regularly. The Legion on the other hand were finding even wins to be far from their grasp. It did not take long for Las Vegas to be replaced with their own rebrand in the New Orleans Second Line and the team has been seen as a fairly strong team since with upper end success from players and managers. When you look back at the short life of the Las Vegas Legion, the first question that comes to mind is, “What went wrong?”
Although nowadays, team building has been put to a science, Las Vegas never seemed to successfully put together a team that was solid from top to bottom. The sim’s rating is usually a good indicator of how well a team is put together and having more players with higher overalls ends up making better teams. Anyone that has played a sports game understands that part of teambuilding. Ignoring the multis, the Ultimus champion Arizona Outlaws had a total of six players with at least an 80 overall in S2 while the Las Vegas Legion had just two. With their first impression season being a rather rough one, the team never made it out on the right foot to begin. They would add more and more players higher than 80 overall but never enough in offensive skill positions to create the team that they desired. As some media points out back in the day, the Legion never had consistency in roster building or putting the best players in the right positions. As a former ISFL GM that has had the same issue, it can cripple your team and then your image which quickly turns your hopeful tenure into a nightmare. The founding manager of the team, RavensFanFromOntario stated as much, “I'd love to build a contending roster” but relied more on free agency to try building the team. Without any sort of connections and in a small league, the plan from the beginning ended up falling flat on its face. In the end, the Legion did not go out with a large party, they didn’t have some middle of the night rebrand, they posted the now infamous article “Legion Retires Many” where plenty of players had gone forever. To erase the bad taste in everyone’s mouth, the Legion moved across the country to New Orleans. The response to the rebrand was seen as a success.
Let us talk about rebrands. They provide one of the most divisive parts of any sports league both real and fake at any level. The ISFL and rebranding have an interesting history together where you can see the same sort of reactions to new logos that real teams receive. Instead of talking about the most recent rebrand of the Philadelphia Liberty into the Cape Town Crush, a story about another team’s rebrand when down on their luck will be my focus, the Las Vegas Legion. Most members now do not understand the craziness of the Legion and probably have never heard of them unless there is a league historian in their locker room. Las Vegas was one of the first expansion teams in the league back in S2 along with the Philadelphia Liberty but were far worse off than the Liberty in almost every facet of the game. Both teams started with losing records in their first seasons, but by S3 it was obvious just how far the talent level was between the Liberty and the Legion as the Liberty went 8-5-1 with the Legion sitting at 2-12. People talk about the Philly Curse being something that infected the team for many seasons after their lack of playoff wins and especially their lack of Ultimuses when other teams could at least make it to the game somewhat regularly. The Legion on the other hand were finding even wins to be far from their grasp. It did not take long for Las Vegas to be replaced with their own rebrand in the New Orleans Second Line and the team has been seen as a fairly strong team since with upper end success from players and managers. When you look back at the short life of the Las Vegas Legion, the first question that comes to mind is, “What went wrong?”
Although nowadays, team building has been put to a science, Las Vegas never seemed to successfully put together a team that was solid from top to bottom. The sim’s rating is usually a good indicator of how well a team is put together and having more players with higher overalls ends up making better teams. Anyone that has played a sports game understands that part of teambuilding. Ignoring the multis, the Ultimus champion Arizona Outlaws had a total of six players with at least an 80 overall in S2 while the Las Vegas Legion had just two. With their first impression season being a rather rough one, the team never made it out on the right foot to begin. They would add more and more players higher than 80 overall but never enough in offensive skill positions to create the team that they desired. As some media points out back in the day, the Legion never had consistency in roster building or putting the best players in the right positions. As a former ISFL GM that has had the same issue, it can cripple your team and then your image which quickly turns your hopeful tenure into a nightmare. The founding manager of the team, RavensFanFromOntario stated as much, “I'd love to build a contending roster” but relied more on free agency to try building the team. Without any sort of connections and in a small league, the plan from the beginning ended up falling flat on its face. In the end, the Legion did not go out with a large party, they didn’t have some middle of the night rebrand, they posted the now infamous article “Legion Retires Many” where plenty of players had gone forever. To erase the bad taste in everyone’s mouth, the Legion moved across the country to New Orleans. The response to the rebrand was seen as a success.