(S25) - Ultimus Week

[Troen]

8) Awards season is a big part of the offseason festivities. Take the stand, in 400 words or more, for one or more players that are not your own, and argue why they should receive awards glory. They can be your teammates or anyone in the league. How did their stats and on the field contribution contribute to their case this year?

Austin's Zoe Watts should easily be the slam dunk winner for offensive rookie for the year. Watts as a rookie was 3rd in the league in rushing yards with 1202 and a 4.1/attempt average, tied for third in TDs with 11, and also managed to get 8 pancakes plus 275 receiving yards and 2 receiving TDs. The rushing numbers are good enough to be in contention for RB of the year and so I think that Watts should clearly win.
Watts has two top competitors, one RB and one WR. At RB, Berlin's Danny King also had a good rushing season. King's line of 1068 yards for a 4.2 average was goof for 4th in the league. However, with only 6 rushing TDs and 148 receiving yards with 2 receiving TDs are in my opinion definitely a step below Watts' line. With inferior stats in pretty much every area except yards per attempt, I can't see any reason to vote for King over Watts even if efficiency is really important to a voter.
Looking to receiver, though, Baltimore's Dough Howlett is a more serious contender. Howlett led the league in receptions at 102 as one of two players to break 100 catches with a good 600 more yards than second place Heath Evans. Howlett also led in receiving yards at 1646 with 203 more than second place Yeti William Lim. For TDs, though, Howlett was tied for 6th at 11, 4 behind the 15 caught by the 3-way tie for first. The great yard and reception numbers should be good enough to get some votes for sure. For me, though, the tiebreaker is touches. Watts had 337 touches more than 3 times as many as Howlett's catches. I feel that the disparity in touches reflects that Watts' contributions to the team are more important overall.
A last consideration could also be team success - the Hawks finished 8-8 and 4th in the NSFC while Austin ended up 7-9 and 5th in the ASFC. Seeing as neither team made the playoffs, I don't think either player has an argument for being that element to have pushed the team over the edge into the playoffs. King's Salamanders were also out of the playoffs, finishing last in the NSFC. In fact, Orange County's QB Ramza was the only rookie leader in passing/rushing/receiving from the 6 playoff teams (and there's probably a deeper thread there).
Taken together, I think Watts' case for offensive rookie of the year is clear. Howlett's year was good enough that I wouldn't do anything crazy if the voters go with him instead, but I do think Watts has the edge.

9) It’s always important to look forward to the future. Examine your team, and in 400 words or more, talk about how they can improve themselves to get a stab at trophy contention next year. Are you loaded with draft capital for the next draft? Do you have plenty of cap space to sign free agents? Go through the roster and note the different strengths and weaknesses, and how you think those will change over the next few seasons. How should your team adapt?

Looking at the Copperheads' season, there's an argument that the best thing we need to do is to be luckier. Our record this year was 7-9 despite having a +46 point differential, better than 4 of the other 6 teams in our conference. The point differential is a fairly good reflection of our overall offense and defense with our total yards, rushing yards, and passing yards all being top 3 in our conference. We were only 4th in points per game, though, and I think the main cause is our turnovers. Looking at the raw numbers (20 turnovers, +1 differential) might not be so bad, but there were only 5 games where we had a positive differential. The totals look way better than the normal case on the back of our week 14 game against Arizona where we managed to get 3 interceptions and to recover a fumble while not turning the ball over ourselves. Our overall turnovers, though, seemed to be a lot of drives where we got yards but then had a turnover after getting a few first downs. I think improving there will be important if we want to be looking at the playoffs next year.
Penalties are also an area that I think we want to try and improve - we had an average of 3.5 penalties for just over 26 yards per game. Giving up a free quarter of the field per game isn't good. The game stats don't show how many of those led to first downs for the other team, but I can tell you that it sure felt like it was about all of them during the game.
As far as actual moves, it's clear that QB is going to need to be improved in the near future with Cole only getting deeper into regression. The presumed heir is S25 Daytona, but I don't know if he'll be called up next year or if we'll be trying to get one more year out of Cole. The rest of the offense outside of fellow S16 TE Larson is pretty young after the loss of S18 WR Gaines to retirement. OL is a bit lacking with a pair of players under 250 TPE - I'd expect us to try and improve in that area. The defense is mostly also younger with S16 CB Lavelle Jr. and S17 LB Edmond as the two vets. I'd expect that we'll be wanting to find replacements for them in the near future but I also think we could plausibly get by with them next season. The relatively few needs is important seeing as we don't have a first or third round pick in the S26 draft. As of right now we have a bit over $24 million of cap space prior to any OL bots. We do have S25 OL Quigley at 273 TPE in the DSFL, so I'd expect to see a promotion there for next season. That also leaves a likely $10+m of space to try and sign 1-2 big FAs - I haven't looked at the class to see who is out there for options, but I could see making the attempt.

[hotdog]

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You may use a PBE, SHL, and GOMHL PT as credit for a maximum of 1 TIER 3 TASK here. If your username is different on your affiliate task, you must provide the correct name in your response.

SHL PT - 2.5 TPE

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It’s always important to look forward to the future. Examine your team, and in 400 words or more, talk about how they can improve themselves to get a stab at trophy contention next year. Are you loaded with draft capital for the next draft? Do you have plenty of cap space to sign free agents? Go through the roster and note the different strengths and weaknesses, and how you think those will change over the next few seasons. How should your team adapt?

I think Arizona has done an amazing job with drafting since I've been in the league and paying attention, and it really has seemed like the majority of our team is young and improving. We're starting to get to the point where our top players are hitting regression, but we've really still got a pretty young team overall. Running back was identified as a position of need during the season, as evidenced by the trade made for Mathias Hanyadi, but with Gunner Thorbjornsen improving steadily I think we'll have a realiable RB there for seasons to come, and he should be ready to be good enough this season already. We've also demonstrated depth at WR, with Passmann stepping into the limelight as the top dog this season with Saba Donut's regression. Taro Raimon is next up to fill in at WR, Rigby Raccoon is next up to fill in at TE, and when my beloved outlaw Jay Cue finally hangs up the cleats, we'll have Charlemagne Cortez ready to step in. So on offense, we've built the depth necessary to keep up. On defense we see a slightly different story - not the same depth, but no glaring holes needing replacement either. The defense overall has been exceptionally young since I've been around, and the unit has done a lot of growing together. if you look at the roster, you can see a lot of similar years - Galf Wilf and Desmond Scarlett at S20, "Plop" Miller at S21, Maj's player (not typing that lol) and Zamir and Ryeu at S22, Jadakiss at S23. That's all three levels (d line, linebackers, secondary) who, if they stick together for a while, will anchor the defense for a few seasons to come. I do think there are a couple of holes that could be filled, though with a strong DT prospect and another LB prospect joining already-up safety Crunk, I think we'll be good for a bit! Assembling a stacked roster does seem to be the easy part around here, however, and getting over that sim hump will be the toughest hurdle. Our defense is still getting better so I really think we'll be fine long term on that end, I think our focus now should be on retaining free agents and keeping that core together. Free Agency seems much more active here than in other leagues so I really hope we can keep as many players in this core around and together for as long as we can to maximize chances at an Ultimus. I think it's coming the season after next!

429 words - 5 TPE

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Reflect on the two expansion teams. How did their first seasons go? What were their key strengths and weaknesses, and how are they poised to improve in seasons to come?

I was definitely impressed with the way New York performed this season. It wasn't necessarily a powerhouse season for them, as the Silverbacks still finished last in the division with four wins, but those four wins are much more than others were predicting for them at the start of the season, so props to them! In addition, they had some standout individual performances from Jackson Kingston, Ashley Owens, and Thor Kirkby, among others. I can't quite remember why I thought it at the time, but I do recall thinking that Berlin would be more likely to have early success than New York this season, but New York had a better season and, for my money, a more impressive showing. I expect New York to continue improving alongside their franchise QB Sam Howitzer; he's still low in TPE so as he continues to improve his game I think the New York offense will rise with it. They should focus on building up that defense to go along with it, and I have no doubts they'll be eventually successful in that effort. Berlin should also be attending to bolstering the defensive side of the ball, as their 465 points allowed ranked worst in the league this season. They also had the fewest points scored so maybe attend to both sides lol. Not a diss, I know it's super hard to start from scratch as an expansion team.

235 words - 2.5 TPE

[Ry_]

18) Choose your favorite non-playoffs game of this season, whether your own team or another. Explain what was so special and why the winner ultimately came out victorious, including key players and moments.

The favorite non-playoffs game that I have this season is the Week 4 matchup between the Colorado Yeti and the Baltimore Hawks. After five seasons as one of the top backs and players on the Hawks, Darrel Williams officially made his return to Baltimore in what ended up being a great game and also a great game for Darrel. But at the start, it didn't look so great for the Yeti. In the first quarter, their offense struggled, and on the last play of the quarter, Baltimore scored a big touchdown, putting them up 10-0 in the crucial home game against the Yeti. But it didn't take long for Darrel to find his peak self deep inside, and he began to surge. After field goals were traded, Darrel was able to get consistent gains on the Hawks and score his first touchdown home. Infamously, Darrel flashed the peace sign at the opposing Baltimore fans(which some missaw as a middle finger), and the boos were enormous after consistent cheers. The game remained close, with the Yeti taking back the lead in the third quarter. On the last drive of the game, with the Hawks down one, a last second hail mary actually was completed, and after gaining thirty-six yards, there was hope of the last second comeback. But, the time ran out and the Yeti won.

229 words

[yonggarius]

6)
I have had a pleasure of experiencing various perspectives in this league ever since I joined in February. Apart from being an user to a player like every other users do, I am a part of both ISFL and DSFL war rooms, hold a league job as a rookie mentor, and had the pleasure of GMing the Dallas Birddogs. That's not something most of the users here get to experience.

And while I am extremely thankful that I had the chance to enjoy this league even more through thise multiple perspectives, that doesn't mean there hadn't been things that frustrate me both as a normal user, and a person who is bit more involved than that. The most prominent among those 'things' is the presence of unwritten rules. I am quite confident that I know the rulebook reasonbly well, but I got into several troubles regarding the rules because of the presence of thise undocumented rules. Said 'rules', which are usually case by case precedents of past HO decisions, usually tend to randomly pop out when a somewhat obscure case pops out, frustrating many league job holders- especially newer people like me- to no end.

Why are they so frustrating, you might ask. Case by case decision and unwritten rules are kind of common in other communities, after all. Well, the first and most important problem is that there is no way a newer user can learn the 'rule' until it becomes an agenda to a specific situation. Unwritten rules are exactly that, unwritten. So you won't find it however hard you ransack the rulebook. And usually there's almost no chance of finding the precedent it is based since those decisions are usually made very quietly and tend to be buried by forum or discord traffics.
And also, they generate a sense of unfairness from the newer users, as they tend to take disadvantages because of their ignorance to those rules, while older users get into less trouble of the same sorts due to their experience and knowledge of those precedents.

To show that how much frustration and confusion can be generated from those unwritten rules, I'll use a recent situation from the Birddogs as an example. The Birddogs almost lost a capped CB- their number 1 at that- to auto retirement, as the user recreated while the player was still in the DSFL, therefore violating the rule that no user was allowed to have 2 players in the DSFL at once. The problem was, there was no rule actually prohibiting that in the rule books, and the rule HO provided as the reason was meant and worded for a completely different situation. That generated a ton of confusion between the GMs (who had no idea why their LCB was taken away, further damaging their weak roster), and the rookie mentors (who never had any idea that the player was not fit to be approved, at all). And naturally that led to a half a day long argument against the HO, who wanted the player gone from the DC as per the 'rule'. Fortunately for us, the situation ended when the appeals team reversed the decision and advised the HO to actually add that to the rules, but there are many other cases that didn't end up in a happy ending like mine.

Then, what can be the solution to this? My suggestion is to make a new judicial committee. We can make a resonably big temporary task force consisting of relevant parties like the HO, some GMs and department heads and maybe some experienced users to gather up all the unwritten rules and procedures and either get them n the rule book or abolish them altogether through the rule summit votes, and then replace the task force with a smaller but permanent judicial committee who will be tasked with repeating the process with new unwritten rules that pop up down the line, as well as improving the clarifying the rule books, since it needs a lot of work in that department too, as it can be quite confusing sometimes especially to newer users, as it is somewhat not reader friendly due to a lot of newer rules thrown in Misc section instead of the places they actually belong in. The rules committee will be consisted of hired volunteers and a few liasons from both the ISFL and DSFL HOs, and I believe that they will do a lot of good in alleviating the confusion and frustration caused because of the rules- both written and unwritten- compared to current practices where HO holds the sole authority in interpreting and exercising the rules, as that will allow more transparency and general public's input into the process of making and interpreting the rules, which most certainly affects everyone in this community. The committee will create more job openings for eager new users, which is a great side benefit.

All in all, I really hope that the ISFL community become a better experience for all, by resolving the problems we have along the way with peaceful and creative methods. (847)

[Mooty99]

8) When offered the chance to talk about wards I have certainly taken it the reason for this is so that I am able to talk about myself. By myself I of course mean the amazing quarterback Jackie Daytona. My 2nd season with the Myrtle BayBuccaneers Which wall ended with a disappointing playoff loss put up some amazing stats and I am absolutely look Into the Woods to the award season coming. The 1st award that I am guaranteed to win has to be quarterback of the year the reason I believe this is a near guarantee is simply because of my stats compared to the other quarterbacks. I have the highest passer rating mine is 82 and the next nearest 77.  I have the most touchdowns which is 19 and the least interceptions just 7 the next best results is the quarterback of the 16 touchdowns and 9 interceptions.  I have the most passing yards by quite some way I passed for 2972 and the next nearest is nearly 500 yards less the my totals. Why all this is impressive you might say hang on a minute or any of the other quarterbacks good at rushing with the bowl the simple answer to this is not really I have the 2nd most rushing yards as well. With quarterback of the year in the bag the next world I think I should win is performance of the year. In week 14 I lead my team to beat tiawana 44 points to 9 but in this game I scored 5 touchdowns which was a DSFL record for most touchdowns in a game, if that shouldn't win performance of the year I don't know what should.  The other awards I believe the honour and should win or league most valuable player and offensive player of the year. While it harder to judge players a cross positions I think that my stats Are excellent And that when you add the boys that is normally given to quarterbacks for these awards as after all quarterbacks of the most important players on the pitch he certainly believe I should win.  No wide receivers are really close to winning Yser of the supports the nearest one is my own wide receiver crossley He put up 1000 yd but did only score 3 touchdowns. My only real competition is from a running back Roch Burns ran for nearly 1500 yd and scored 11 touchdowns which while hes pretty good it's not a spectacular it does not break all get close 20 records unlike some of my numbers and therefore I believe that the most important award should Be mineMy only real competition is from a running back Roch Burns ran for nearly 1500 yd and scored 11 touchdowns which while hes pretty good it's not a spectacular it does not break all get close 20 records unlike some of my numbers and therefore I believe that the most important award should Be mine.


WC 495


9) As you can imagine I am now gonna spend this time writing about the Austin copperheads As you can imagine I am now gonna spend this time writing about the Austin Copperheads. While I am no longer the general manager of Austin I am still very heavily involved in the planning for the future after all I will be the future quarterback forced in and so it is in my best interest to ensure that I have the best team available around me as long as physically possible. Next season will be a funny one the Austin most of the team is improving and they should be improving to a level that really stepped up from the season. However the one person with notting truthing is the most important person on the pitch it is the Austin quarterback, Cole will be going in to this very long season the Austin and age is certainly showing with his performance being a lot worse level I am on shore with the team will really be able to compete despite the improvements all over the field from a young players were just now coming in to there stride. But do not fear do not worry wall season 26 next season might not be the best time for Austin season 27 will be the start of austins push for a title and this push should last a number of seasons. In season 27 are improving players will be improved even further and would be at the very pinnacle of their ability what is more we will have a new quarterback myself Jack Daytona who will be a step up from the old coal that we have currently. And so with the right Drafting strategy and 1 or 2 good free agent pick up from season 27 Austin will be a proper  Play off contender not just for that season but from many seasons to come. The aim of course is to win a title however if we are able to do that quite early I believe that we may have a chance of winning multiple titles and create a lot worse tting dynasty which will be feared throughout the league. All this talk of future plans for my team that I love the best is a very very exciting All this talk of future plans for my team that I love the best is a very very exciting. The reason I have such confidence is because we have an excellent group of players already what is more we have a superb leadership team this leadership group is more than just 2 general managers it is a core of viney intelligent  The reason I have such confidence is because we have an excellent group of players already what is more we have a superb leadership team this leadership group is more than just 2 general managers it is a core of highly intelligent highly loyal highly passionate people know what all driving in the same direction for austins highly loyal highly passionate people know what all driving in the same direction for the success of Austin.


WC 522

[The_Mediocre_Pigeon]

Task 15: (425 Words)
My experience in this league has been great. It has been really fun to be involved in the locker rooms and to watch the games. The Myrtle Beach GMs have been really helpful and informative. It's been very cool to meet other people and establish relationships with people I would have otherwise never met. It is definitely a unique experience to go online and grow a football player to see what could have been. I've never played organized football, but it is definitely fun to play around in your imagination and wonder what could have been potentially had I entered that realm of sports. One of my favorite parts so far were the pre-draft interviews. I enjoyed the concept of "trying out" for a team. It was fun to watch the draft and just wait and see when I got picked. When I got drafted it was interesting to say the least. I remember the words that were said right before. "The pick that nobody wanted." Now I'm still not sure if that's talking about the pick or the player, but at least they all said that I had the best render. Although I would have liked to be picked sooner, I used that as just motivation to try and do better with updates and being smarter about how to disperse TPE within my player. This first season has been pretty good for me statistically. Hats off to the Myrtle Beach management for putting in a two RB system that has seemed to give us both pretty good years and stats. I've been told that if our starter does get called up this off season, which is apparently pretty likely, I will be the main back for next season. I've really enjoyed my experience to this point, however, one thing that I do wish the DSFL had was commentators. I understand why they don't it's just kinda boring to watch the games. I guess I'm just spoiled from PBE though. Although, after playing JV baseball, I definitely understand why not to give the lower league too much spotlight. It's important for these players to look up at the ISFL and say I gotta work to get up there so I can hear my name called! For that reason, i'm grateful for the way the league handles sims. Throughout my first season, it's been really fun to see everyone come together to make a concept that was erected from the ground up. Great job by the HO to make things as smooth as they have been!

PBE Affiliate Introduction PT: (760 Words)
Big Chungus began his story on a submarine in the Pacific Ocean. Both of his parents were Naval officers who insisted on going on a tour during their pregnancy. Although the Chungus family would settle down and become more normal, nothing about Big Chungus was normal.

Chungus' Early Life
Chungus was a three-sport athlete early on in his life. Being 80 pounds at 8 years old, he was a force in every sport. Insane D-lineman for football, An issue on the basketball court, and a slugger for baseball. He loved playing sports and began to gain college attention entering middle school

Middle School Career
Upon starting middle school, Chungus chose to give up basketball and pursue football and baseball. Standing at 5'11" 120 pounds for his eight grade year, He averaged 6 sacks a game for football and hit 16 home runs for baseball. He had begun to be heavily recruited by some lower-tier D1 schools. However, Chungus had one major issue in this time, his grades. About to enter high school, Chungus didn't have higher than a 72 in any of his classes. His father, a decorated military officer, was not very happy about this. After Chungus was forced to miss high school baseball and football tryouts due to grades, he finally got his rear in gear and got his grades up to B's and high C's. He then had to do the daunting task of trying to find a way to convince the coaches to let him try out for sports.

High School Career
After begging the local high school baseball and football coaches to give him a tryout, he finally got is chnce. One of the football team's starting defensive tackles had gotten hurt, opening a spot on the roster. The problem, there were only 3 days until the first game. However, the coaches decided they'd give this kid a chance to see what he can do. So, Chungus dressed with the team that night and played 38% of defensive snaps. Of those snaps, 7 of them were pass plays. Chungus finished the game with 5 sacks. Needless to say, freshman Chungus was given a permanent spot on the team and granted a baseball tryout. In his first scrimmage with the baseball team, he went 3-3 with two home runs, a double, and a walk. He also had a couple of glove gems at third base. Now officially a two-sport athlete, Chungus kept putting in work. He would get up at 5 am every morning to go get a workout in before school. After practice, he would go to tutoring for his classes, then back to the gym one more time for the night. His freshman year of baseball he hit .307 with 12 home runs and 36 RBIs. He also had a .902 fielding percentage. He would only improve. His sophomore year, he hit.452 with 21 home runs and 64 RBIs. His defense remained stagnant, though, at a .899 fielding percentage. Regardless of that, the scholarship offers were picking up steam. He was a three-star prospect with 7 D1 offers. His success in baseball forced Chungus to make one of, if not the most difficult decisions in his life. Chungus shocked everyone when he made the decision to give up football to solely focus on baseball. Due to this development, his numbers shot up. Chungus hit .570 the next year with 29 home runs and 81 RBIs and a state championship. His defense also got better with a .946 fielding percentage. His big year gave him 27 more scholarship offers and made him a 5-star prospect. However, hi best was yet to come. His senior year, already a legend in the town, Chungus performed very well. Hitting .602 with 31 home runs and 77 RBIs. His defense also eclipsed the .950 mark. After high school, Chungus decided to attend a prestige baseball academy to prepare for the MLPBE draft instead of college. With this personalized training, Chungus hopes to be able to make noise fairly quickly in the PBE regardless of who he is playing for.

Although Chungus' life is full of ups and downs, his supportive parents have gotten all of the credit. He is thankful for their military backgrounds because, even though they were tough, they taught him that hard work really does pay off. Chungus is a walking example of that and has already been an example to many people and only hopes to become even more of a role model that parents are okay with allowing their kids to look up to.

[JKortesi81]

Tier 1 - Choice 6

One of the more interesting things to me about the ISFL in my time here is just how much different is to be a GM now than it was, say, ten seasons ago. It’s not surprising that things have changed dramatically, but with the addition of 6 new franchises in the last ten seasons, coupled with a ridiculous influx of players, the truth is that being a GM in the ISFL nowadays is just easier. It’s almost kind of a joke how much so.

Before the great player boon in the ISFL, it took *work* (or a lot of Er multis) to be a successful GM in the league. Not every GM in the league sim tested like crazy people. Not every GM scouted very well. The ones who did the work were rewarded. (See: Otters, Orange County). And the ones that didn’t? Well, that’s how the Colorado Yeti went winless one season and constantly got murdered. The good GMs rose to the top and the power structure of the league stayed pretty similar for a time there. Other GMs just didn’t put in the work needed to succeed. Take San Jose, who’s largely had the same management for forever, and when being a GM was much more difficult, the Sabercats were mostly terrible, routinely missing the playoffs, save for the one random Ultimus win. Now? They’re magically in the Ultimus again after remaining largely unchanged structurally.

How does this happen? Well like I said, it’s just simply easy to be a GM nowadays. How come? Well, the influx of talent to the league brought us a LOT of nerds. I don’t say that to be negative, but it happened. People who came in and loved the league so much they did incredible amounts of sim testing on their own, and essentially broke down our already potato-y sim into tiny bits. All of a sudden it was clear that having a QB with 79 speed was the way to go. All of a sudden, people realized how important having good backups were instead of just spending next to nothing on a garbage IA. Basically, the playbook for being a good GM was written from multiple sources and just thrown out there for the world to see. With so many overachievers wanted to help their teams out, most every team’s war room became littered with people looking to help test sim, scout, help with the budget, etc.

Scouting is a big one here. One of the things that kept the bad teams bad and the good teams good “back in the day” was that the good teams went hard in scouting and they found the diamonds in the rough in round 2 or 3. The bad teams would find themselves drafting bust after bust. But in today’s ISFL, we have so many great users who are addicted to the site that, even with the 6 extra expansion teams, you can hit on your first 4-5 draft picks without even trying. We’ve become so oversaturated with talent that GMs literally can’t fuck it up. Missing on a first rounder ten seasons ago could’ve been disastrous to a franchise. In today’s league, you can miss on your first rounder, but still get first round production out of your fourth rounder, so it doesn’t hurt you.

In essence, the playing field is just leveled across the entire league. Everyone knows the ins and outs of the sim, so no matter how well you sim test, everyone does the same things. And because we have such a terrible sim, it doesn’t matter if you test at 85.6% win rates, because on game day, the sim does what it wants to anyway and those teams that should have no business winning with a 14.4% rate tend to do so a lot more often than they should. You can’t gain a tactical advantage over your opponent how you used to. It’s pretty much just hoping you’re on the right side of this RNG nowadays. Budgets are easy, because just about everyone takes minimum as it is. You can’t gain an advantage too much in wooing a free agent to a team because you can pay them more when it seems like you’re not going to win the Ultimus. They’d rather go to an OCO or COL, take minimum, and feel good about it.

As a result, we’ve seen a lot of GM turnover lately. The main reason being is that the only thing that is NOT even across the board is how well GMs can cultivate a locker room culture that makes people want to be there. Some of our franchises absolutely nail it, and they’re consistently the ones that win more often than not. And then there are the ones that just absolutely suck at being a people person. They make the experience shitty for the players and as a result people bail often. You see it Baltimore. You see it in Arizona for sure. Now you’re seeing it in Philadelphia as well. This is the only way to truly establish who’s a “good” GM and who isn’t. The ones that can maintain a quality culture and keep it fun for all of their players.

And that’s a problem. I don’t know how to fix it exactly. Perhaps switching to a much better sim will help that, because GM’s can maybe then find themselves a way to stand out once again in a sim that people haven’t been given the entire playbook on? (It won’t matter, the league will break it down again eventually anyway). Another problem that was recently shored up by HO was that teams just named who the new GMs were when one stepped down. That didn’t mean those people were qualified or should be in that power position in the league. Now HO can proceed to choose who gets these prestigious positions so that they can indeed place competent people who won’t alienate their franchises with their (lack of) personality.

And that’s my interesting topic for the league that’s been on my mind lately. Being a GM in the ISFL isn’t hard anymore. It isn’t “work”. Everyone is mostly on a level playing field, and as a result, nobody really stands out anymore unless they’re causing drama. I don’t know the fix for this, like I said, but hopefully we can figure something out. We shouldn’t be a league where the GM’s are not much more than locker room babysitters. (1078)

[TheCC]

Tier 2 Task 12
Hello children, it’s time to gather around the campfire so that grandpa CC can recount to you his all-time favorite league scandal. It’s known in some circles as...The Milkening. The Minnesota server has always been a bit of a rowdy place to hang out. It’s not for everyone, but it is our home. This day wasn’t much different than any other. There was shit posting, sexual innuendos, FSF was probably harassing people, you know, the usual. A long time debate had been taking place in Minnesota’s Discord server, and that was the debate between chocolate milk and strawberry milk. It actually started in the ISFL Twitter Discord server, where Dewalt and I would accost every new user to join the server until we found out their milk preference, and then a light hearted argument would break out every time. Anyway, this debate would get brought up occasionally in Minnesota’s server, and on this day, it was brought up again. Usually it would break down into name calling and maybe some mutes or a new role, but today was different. Yes, today everyone was feeling a bit livelier. The Milkening is infamous because it broke down into a spam war, where everyone was spamming “CHOCCY MILK”. This spam war started in the Minnesota Grey Ducks server, where an @everyone ping or three were thrown around in the already ensuing chaos. This rallied all of the troops from both sides, and it rallied those that chose no side. One little known fact about The Milkening is that it wasn’t even started by a Grey Duck player or war room member, or even an alumni! No, this was started by Joefish. After the @everyone pings, platanocat started counterspamming with an invite to the Royals LR. This was a grave mistake however, because this led to the spam war moving over into the Royals LR, where slowmode had to be activated. I believe a similar thing happened when a KCC server invitation was sent, along with a Sarasota server invitation. Some people that were affected thought that this was hilarious, while some thought that it was funny. One group that definitely did not think that it was even a little bit funny, was the PBE general server, who also got roped into this. I’m not sure how this was moved to the PBE server, but it resulted in several bans and some stern talking tos. I think that *most people* have learned to laugh at this, because it’s a truly absurd moment in ISFL history that some believe shouldn’t be taken as seriously as it was at the time. I think that we can all learn something from this notorious scandal in league history. (451 words)


Tier 2 Task 8
In all of my four seasons so far in the league, I don’t think that I have had as many people on my team make cases for awards as I had during this season. Two of them were absolutely incredible and I will be astonished if neither of them win their positional award. Those people are Tyler Oles Jr., and Osiris Firestorm-Fjord. They both play cornerback for the Chicago Butchers, where I am *clearly* the third wheel in the cornerback group haha. They both had outstanding seasons, where Tyler Oles Jr led the league (tied with five other players for the top spot) in interceptions with five and he was tied for second in the league with two other players in passes defended with 27. Those are crazy numbers for a cornerback, and I think they alone should catapult him to the top spot for a Cornerback of the Year award. Then to go along with those numbers, Tyler Oles Jr also ended the season with 68 tackles along with 1 forced fumble. The only person with more passes defended than him only has one interception, so I think he easily beats them. The likeliest competitor against Tyler Oles Jr for the Cornerback of the Year award is his and I’s own teammate, Osiris Firestorm-Fjord. He quietly had an absolutely dominant year on the opposite side of the defense. He led all cornerbacks in total turnovers created, with 3 interceptions, 3 fumbles forced, and 1 fumble recovered. That may depend on how you count forced fumbles and fumbles recovered, but I think that it pretty easily puts him at the number one spot for takeaways by a cornerback in my eyes. Along with those gaudy turnover numbers, he also defended 25 passes, barely coming up behind Tyler Oles Jr. Then in the most boring and possibly most irrelevant stat for cornerbacks, he had 78 tackles, which was more than Tyler Oles Jr ended up with. I think that these two being a couple of the favorites for the Cornerback of the Year award (and who knows, maybe even an even bigger award like Defensive Player of the Year, or less likely, an MVP award), along with me being a Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate a couple of seasons back may cement us as the best cornerback group in the league. And we don’t plan on going anywhere for quite a while, so the rest of the league had better get used to running the ball against us if they know what’s good for them. (425 words)

[Blasoon]

9) The Orange County Otters, after losing in shocking fashion to the San Jose Sabercats in the American Simulation Football Conference’s Conference Championship Game will be looking to finalise their push as an Ultimus Contender. After finishing with the best record in the American Simulation Football Conference it is likely that the Otters will be seeking to instead add the finishing touches to their team, as opposed to doing anything as drastic as a rebuild. To be able to push forward, it is likely that the Otters will have an active presence in this season’s free agent class, in particular looking to improve their offensive line position, which has allowed a great deal of damage to the Otters’ newest signal caller, Suleiman Ramza.

When looking at the draft, I believe the Otters would do well to begin looking to draft into their defensive line. With the retirement of Bobby Boucher, the weakness of Carl Wheezer and the presence of the still young and developing Goat Tank, now seems to be a great time to allow for another addition to Orange County’s defensive line, and to support the line’s stalwart, Rapid Otter. The Defensive Back position might be wise for the Otters to prepare for. Especially with the aging Korrin Abernathy and Tyrone Biggums. Despite their incredible play and leadership, one might argue for Orange County to start preparing for life without them now. One defensive position group where the Otters do not need to worry about, is their Linebackers group. Both Deshaun Jackson and Joseph Joestar are producing at an incredible rate and are becoming defensive anchors of the team. If there is one option for improvement here, it is probably the replacement of Inspectah Deck. However, the Otters did draft Richard Leaking in the last International Simulation Football League, so I would argue that the Otters are secured at this position for a long while.

Ultimately, the Otters will be looking to fine tune a squad that matched the regular season win streak of nine wins. Their offensive production will relate greatly to the improvement of the offensive line, and the continued development of Suleiman Ramza, and the rest of the Orange County Offence. The Orange County defence will likely look to adapt and mature, with both the draft and the free agency period being one of great importance to the future of the Otters. How these two periods go will likely be the catalyst for the next Orange County dynasty. (411 Words)


11) One of the greatest teams to never win a championship has to be the season ten New Orleans Second Line. This band of world beaters put up an incredible record of eleven wins and only three losses. This team from the Big Easy managed to steamroll most of their competition, only falling short in the big game itself. This team was stacked, on both offence and defence. When looking at the offence, they were led by league MVP Borkus Maximus III, who threw for over five thousand yards and forty touchdowns. In addition, they benefited greatly from also having the 2023 league MVP, Darren Smallwood as their running back. Maximus III and Smallwood were definitely the stars on offence, but they were by no means the only weapons for the Second Line. Wide receiver Charlie Law caught an incredible twelve touchdowns and was followed closely by Alexandre LeClair who caught eleven touchdowns over the season. Carlito Crush led the team in receiving yards as he went for one thousand four hundred and twenty-five yards through the air. On the defensive side, the second line’s secondary was strong, collecting nine interceptions over the season through the hands of Oakes, Harrison and Fyodorovich.

The Bayou’s premier sports organisation had an interesting start winning their first game against the Philadelphia Liberty handily with a score of forty-seven to twelve, and then promptly losing in Anaheim, against the Otters twenty-four to ten. After this up and down start, the Second Line would go on to win their next seven games, including revenge against the Otters in a demolishing sixty-one to seven win. Ultimately, the Second Line’s record would propel them to the top seed of the American Simulation Football Conference.  They would find themselves in a low scoring game against the Otters in the championship game, winning the rubber match ten to three. The one pitfall for this incredible New Orleans team would be the fact that they were playing in the same season as quite possibly the greatest team in league history: the thirteen and one Baltimore Hawks. This team steamrolled their opposition and had an even more impressive win streak than the Second Line. Their conference championship game against the Yeti was a shootout, with the Hawks increasing their incredible win streak with a thirty-seven to twenty-eight win. The Ultimus would be a close affair, with the Hawks ultimately taking the win twenty-nine to twenty-three. It is a crime that this team did not win the big one this season, especially because a lot of their components would win the season nine and season eleven Ultimuses. (434 Words)

[lespoils]

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https://simulationhockey.com/showthread....pid2934024

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16) Create an argument for your own player, or for someone else on your team, as to why they should be nominated for awards. Lay out their stats or compare them to other contenders. Make a convincing case.

What's this? I can make a case for myself? Well then, you bet your pretty ass that I'm going to make it. I, Marc Hamel, should win the DSFL Offensive Lineman of the Year award. I don't know the award's name, I don't even know if it actually has one. What I do know is that I should walk away from the awards ceremony with one more piece of hardware. I, playing on a line where I was surrounded by bots, finished second in the whole league in the Pancakes column, second only to an inactive that is thus not eligible for the award. All the other top-pancaking offensive linemen got there by playing on better lines, often with each other (be they bot or not). With only one sack allowed on the whole season, I don't think that this other statistic can really play against me. Every other guy at the top of the pancake column also has one or more, with the exception of C. Quigley who didn't allow a single sack. Still, I have 9 pancakes on him and he played on a line with F. Archstone who is also a top OL so it was way easier for him to not allow any sacks has the whole line didn't rest on his shoulders.

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21) Create a billboard, magazine cover, unique trading card, or video game cover depicting a superstar of the league. Graphics only.