03-28-2020, 07:41 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-28-2020, 09:28 PM by thevoicelesscreator.)
[div align=\\\"center\\\"]Inside the Butcher’s Shop
Reporting and Writing done by Michael Magic[/div]
It has not been a pretty year for the Chicago Butchers. Near the bottom of the NSFC, with no real chance of making anything of this season – the year has really fallen apart for the franchise from the windy city. However, to really understand where this started to collapse, we must go back just a little bit, to the beginning of Season 20.
GM @ValorX77 brings in Co-GM @`steelsound` to be his trusted compatriot on the road to Ultimus glory. The two immediately embark on an ambition warpath to gear the squad up, with the goal of competing in the Ultimus. In the span of two season, they would trade away 11 draft picks – leveraging the future of their team, for some immediate gain. The results? A 4-9 finish to Season 20 and Season 21 set to go in a very similar direction.
Needless to say, they haven’t come out on top of these moves. Over the last two seasons, resentment has been mounting within the organization. In the last few days leading into and past the trade deadline, there has been an explosion of transparency. Mounting discontent within in the locker room, and in the war room had lead to several key members of the Chicago organization lashing out – primarily star running back Ryan Leaf Jr. and prospect quarterback Zach Vega.
It all started out with a scathing press conferance by Mr. Vega, who announced his intention to change position at the end of the season. He made his intentions plain and clear: “I want Chicago to trade me or just release me at the end of the year. I don’t want to play here anymore”. Vega, who had just resigned at the beginning of the year, caught most people completely of guard with this announcement.
In his interview, Vega claimed to have been misled by the management team at Chicago during negotiations, and had lost trust in the team’s leadership. However, for Vega, it wasn’t just the team’s decision to go all in that frustrated him, it was their inability to listen to criticism. Vega was one of the few people who had direct access to the inner workings of the Chicago organization - a member of the fabled War Room.
Despite being a member of the exclusive department, Vega was disappointed to discover that it didn’t matter. Any attempts to question management was frowned up. “They’ve created this bubble — or an echo chamber — of players on the team that [trades are] a good move,” Vega revealed during his presser. “They (management) consistently denied that the moves they made were wrong and when presented with basic facts that proved them wrong. They would look them dead in the eyes and deny it. It’s like arguing with a brick wall”.
In order to combat Vega’s damning press conference, the Butcher’s organization (or Mr. @`steelsound` in particular) released their own message, albeit rather confusing and contradictory. In his statement, which was meant to be a transparency PR move, Steelsound revealed that he was hired into the role of Co-GM, despite having no prior experience with anything related to the role – seemingly placing the blame of his involvement on those who chose to bring him on (ie. Mr. @ValorX77).
In his first week at the co-helm, there was a lot to fix. According to Steelsound, “Our budget and forum pages were not up-to-date, and we risked being audited and fined. We had an incomplete roster and were starting bots.” Once again piling the mismanagement of the team on the prior regime.
Steelsound then goes to publicly explain every single move that he has made since becoming Co-GM, which I won’t get into here as it truly is extensive. It’s towards the end that it really gets interesting. Where most GM’s simply deal away with distraught players, Mr. Steelsound took a different approach, and chose to berate Mr. Vega – publicly.
“You [say] this as if it's fact (alluding to Vega’s comment about the echo-chamber-like atmosphere), as if what you're saying is anything more than the [opinionated] repetitions of your own echo chamber that says all the moves we make are bad. I explained (in great detail) almost every move we were planning to make... I provided results from hours of testing… I asked, repeatedly, for suggestions. You made no reply when I asked for input on this, you made no reply when I asked for input on my position change, you made no reply until after the trade was made. So how exactly are we making decisions in an echo chamber, if you're not going to be the dissenting voice in our 5-person War Room”.
Leaving aside my personal opinion on how that conversation was had, and the tone of said conversation, we can see that communication is a consistent issue between both sides. There were continued spats between the two camps on public channels, but we’ll stick to the facts here.
In response to the scathing accusations his fellow, Head GM @ValorX77 announced his resignation from the team citing personal reasons for his departure. Following that, Ryan Leaf Jr – the team’s star running back and arguably best member of their roster, demanded a move from the team. Perhaps Leaf Jr. could see the walls falling apart around him, and simply wanted to be rid of the mess before it collapsed inwards. Or perhaps he had some personal ties to Mr. Vega’s unhappiness? When asked, a source within the Butcher’s organization stated that the club believed the two issues to be separate.
A couple of days later the inevitable occurred – Zach Vega was released by the Butchers organization, and free to pursue new interests. In a private statement I received from a source within the Butcher’s organization, it was revealed that management was less than pleased with Vega’s rate of progression but were still looking to move forward with him as the future of their team. However, management believed that a position change was necessary to fulfill his potential.
Nonetheless, a contract extension was agreed upon at the start of season 21. Sources from the Butchers organization revealed that the consideration of a position change was the keystone in the extension. However, sources from the Vega camp vehemently deny that – claiming that it was promised that Vega would be the QB of the future for the Butchers.
Shortly after the extension, trade opportunities were looked at to potentially maximize on what was a poor situation. It is reported by my source that opportunities to move Mr. Vega were promising. And then the press conference happened, where it was revealed that Vega was very upset with the way things were being run at the Butchers. After that, all trade talks dried up, and they were forced to release him for no returns.
Since then, the Butchers have failed to (or refuse to) move Ryan Leaf Jr. and are likely slated to lose him to the expansion draft at the end of the year. Or risk keeping an obviously dissatisfied player on the squad, and risk him polluting the locker room environment…
The result of all of this? Zach Vega is a free agent with suitors that will likely risk taking him onto their team in the coming season (after his transition to wide receiver). Ryan Leaf Jr. will be leaving the Butcher’s organization, through the expansion draft, or through free agency, and the Chicago Butchers are once again set for years of mediocrity. It’s hard to say when the Butchers will be able to once again reach the heights, they have obviously all dreamt about. But I feel safe saying that it won’t be anytime soon.
Word Count: 1284 words
Reporting and Writing done by Michael Magic[/div]
It has not been a pretty year for the Chicago Butchers. Near the bottom of the NSFC, with no real chance of making anything of this season – the year has really fallen apart for the franchise from the windy city. However, to really understand where this started to collapse, we must go back just a little bit, to the beginning of Season 20.
GM @ValorX77 brings in Co-GM @`steelsound` to be his trusted compatriot on the road to Ultimus glory. The two immediately embark on an ambition warpath to gear the squad up, with the goal of competing in the Ultimus. In the span of two season, they would trade away 11 draft picks – leveraging the future of their team, for some immediate gain. The results? A 4-9 finish to Season 20 and Season 21 set to go in a very similar direction.
Needless to say, they haven’t come out on top of these moves. Over the last two seasons, resentment has been mounting within the organization. In the last few days leading into and past the trade deadline, there has been an explosion of transparency. Mounting discontent within in the locker room, and in the war room had lead to several key members of the Chicago organization lashing out – primarily star running back Ryan Leaf Jr. and prospect quarterback Zach Vega.
It all started out with a scathing press conferance by Mr. Vega, who announced his intention to change position at the end of the season. He made his intentions plain and clear: “I want Chicago to trade me or just release me at the end of the year. I don’t want to play here anymore”. Vega, who had just resigned at the beginning of the year, caught most people completely of guard with this announcement.
In his interview, Vega claimed to have been misled by the management team at Chicago during negotiations, and had lost trust in the team’s leadership. However, for Vega, it wasn’t just the team’s decision to go all in that frustrated him, it was their inability to listen to criticism. Vega was one of the few people who had direct access to the inner workings of the Chicago organization - a member of the fabled War Room.
Despite being a member of the exclusive department, Vega was disappointed to discover that it didn’t matter. Any attempts to question management was frowned up. “They’ve created this bubble — or an echo chamber — of players on the team that [trades are] a good move,” Vega revealed during his presser. “They (management) consistently denied that the moves they made were wrong and when presented with basic facts that proved them wrong. They would look them dead in the eyes and deny it. It’s like arguing with a brick wall”.
In order to combat Vega’s damning press conference, the Butcher’s organization (or Mr. @`steelsound` in particular) released their own message, albeit rather confusing and contradictory. In his statement, which was meant to be a transparency PR move, Steelsound revealed that he was hired into the role of Co-GM, despite having no prior experience with anything related to the role – seemingly placing the blame of his involvement on those who chose to bring him on (ie. Mr. @ValorX77).
In his first week at the co-helm, there was a lot to fix. According to Steelsound, “Our budget and forum pages were not up-to-date, and we risked being audited and fined. We had an incomplete roster and were starting bots.” Once again piling the mismanagement of the team on the prior regime.
Steelsound then goes to publicly explain every single move that he has made since becoming Co-GM, which I won’t get into here as it truly is extensive. It’s towards the end that it really gets interesting. Where most GM’s simply deal away with distraught players, Mr. Steelsound took a different approach, and chose to berate Mr. Vega – publicly.
“You [say] this as if it's fact (alluding to Vega’s comment about the echo-chamber-like atmosphere), as if what you're saying is anything more than the [opinionated] repetitions of your own echo chamber that says all the moves we make are bad. I explained (in great detail) almost every move we were planning to make... I provided results from hours of testing… I asked, repeatedly, for suggestions. You made no reply when I asked for input on this, you made no reply when I asked for input on my position change, you made no reply until after the trade was made. So how exactly are we making decisions in an echo chamber, if you're not going to be the dissenting voice in our 5-person War Room”.
Leaving aside my personal opinion on how that conversation was had, and the tone of said conversation, we can see that communication is a consistent issue between both sides. There were continued spats between the two camps on public channels, but we’ll stick to the facts here.
In response to the scathing accusations his fellow, Head GM @ValorX77 announced his resignation from the team citing personal reasons for his departure. Following that, Ryan Leaf Jr – the team’s star running back and arguably best member of their roster, demanded a move from the team. Perhaps Leaf Jr. could see the walls falling apart around him, and simply wanted to be rid of the mess before it collapsed inwards. Or perhaps he had some personal ties to Mr. Vega’s unhappiness? When asked, a source within the Butcher’s organization stated that the club believed the two issues to be separate.
A couple of days later the inevitable occurred – Zach Vega was released by the Butchers organization, and free to pursue new interests. In a private statement I received from a source within the Butcher’s organization, it was revealed that management was less than pleased with Vega’s rate of progression but were still looking to move forward with him as the future of their team. However, management believed that a position change was necessary to fulfill his potential.
Nonetheless, a contract extension was agreed upon at the start of season 21. Sources from the Butchers organization revealed that the consideration of a position change was the keystone in the extension. However, sources from the Vega camp vehemently deny that – claiming that it was promised that Vega would be the QB of the future for the Butchers.
Shortly after the extension, trade opportunities were looked at to potentially maximize on what was a poor situation. It is reported by my source that opportunities to move Mr. Vega were promising. And then the press conference happened, where it was revealed that Vega was very upset with the way things were being run at the Butchers. After that, all trade talks dried up, and they were forced to release him for no returns.
Since then, the Butchers have failed to (or refuse to) move Ryan Leaf Jr. and are likely slated to lose him to the expansion draft at the end of the year. Or risk keeping an obviously dissatisfied player on the squad, and risk him polluting the locker room environment…
The result of all of this? Zach Vega is a free agent with suitors that will likely risk taking him onto their team in the coming season (after his transition to wide receiver). Ryan Leaf Jr. will be leaving the Butcher’s organization, through the expansion draft, or through free agency, and the Chicago Butchers are once again set for years of mediocrity. It’s hard to say when the Butchers will be able to once again reach the heights, they have obviously all dreamt about. But I feel safe saying that it won’t be anytime soon.
Word Count: 1284 words
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