(S36) Offseason Task

[KingOfTheOzone]

7. Simulation football was brand new to me when I joined as a rookie in season 36.  A friend of mine, @ came across an “ad” for the ISFL on a football related subreddit and asked if I’d be interested.  I had no idea what to expect but I am football junkie, real teams and fantasy, and had nothing to obsess over in the spring.  So I figured I would give it a shot. 
    To this point I’ve had a good time! I enjoy watching the dots run around the screen much more than I thought I would.  It’s fun meeting new people through scouting and joining teams in the discord channels.  @Kotasa and @dude_man were super helpful after getting drafted to the Luchadores.  They gave me some tips on some point tasks, helping on update issues, and vouching for me with ISFL GMs. Almost all the GMs I’ve talked to, both DSFL and ISFL, have seemed genuine in offering guidance and help with anything I’ve come across. 
    I’ve also taken advantage of the opportunity to learn some more graphics editing skills in GIMP.  It’s something I’ve dabbled with before but having a purpose and standing to benefit from getting better at it through league pay has been a good motivator. 
I wish I had more time to commit to working on my player and/or for the league.  Obviously the more TPE and money a user can gain, the better and more valuable their player will be.  So in a perfect world, I would like to spend a few hours every week either doing graphics, writing media, or doing a league job.  But I also appreciate the fact that there is a lane for people like me to at least do the minimum participation (activity checks, weekly training, etc) and still be able to contribute to a team, even though my player will probably never be a hall of famer. 
As for changes, the only major problem I’ve come across is finding the information I’m looking for like schedules, stats, or help forums.  This may just be an issue of spending more time in the forum and discord to find what is where as I’ve had less issues lately, but it was pretty overwhelming in the beginning.

[KingOfTheOzone]

10. Walter McKinley was born in Gary, Indiana into a traditional Amish family. Walter is the second born in his family that totaled 4 brothers and 3 sisters, all born to loving parents, Jebediah and Mary McKinley. Growing up Amish in an urban environment such as Gary, drew certain attention to Walter and his siblings. Between the necessity of fending of bullies of his younger siblings and day to day farm work, Walter began growing into quite the physical specimen at a young age. A rumor spread around his hometown suggested that McKinley was able to bench press his state fair prize winning hog by the age of 9. Being home-schooled most of his early days, McKinley did not have much of an interest in organized sports until fate arrived at his doorstep. In 2041, a recruiter from The Ohio State University was visiting Gary, Indiana to scout talent at the nearby city school district. From the school's field, the scout saw from a distance what looked to be a grown man chase down and tackle an escaped full grown steer, quite the attention grabber in that city. Upon further investigation, the scout found that Walter, just 13 at the time, had quite the natural skill set for football. From there, the recruiter arranged a meeting with Walter's parents and persuaded them into allowing Walter to attend an official high school. The terms of this agreement required Walter to attend Seymour Cox Boys Academy, rather than the "worldly and wicked" local city schools.
McKinley was a standout athlete and continued to develop his skillset while playing football and tennis at SCBA.
McKinley had no hesitation when deciding where he wanted to attend college and play football. From the first encounter in Gary with the recruiter from Ohio State, Walter knew that if his grades stayed up to par, he would attend The Ohio State University. So he enrolled in the fall of 2046. College was a gateway of opportunity for McKinley. His sheltered upbringing hid a lot of the college lifestyle away from him and during his sophomore season slipped a bit too deep into the party scene for a stint. His grades began to suffer and he was missing practices, causing his already limited play time to dwindle. In the summer of 2047, after that sophomore season, McKinley was informed that as the result of a one night stand the prior fall, he now had a son. Determined to provide a good life for his child, McKinley rekindled his old work habits and focused on football greater than ever before. In the 2048 season, McKinley earned a starting position and led the Big Ten in Tackles for Loss. McKinley was a finalist for the Butkus–Fitzgerald Linebacker of the Year award. McKinley originally intended to attend all four years of college but with the financial responsibility of a child and an opportunity to be drafted, McKinley decided to leave college one year early to pursue a professional football career.
McKinley was drafted in the 4th round, 41st overall in the 2049 DSFL draft to the Tijuana Luchadores. Tijuana already had a solid LB lineup but was intrigued by McKinley's potential and natural instinct at the position. McKinley was able to contribute throughout the Tijuana's season with consistency and sprinkling in some critical splash plays at the right time. The Luchadores went on to earn an 11-3 record in the regular season before eventually falling to the Norfolk Seawolves in the DSFL South Championship. Following the 2049 season, McKinley entered the ISFL draft. Due to a mix up in player updates, McKinley's rating did not appear as high as it should have to the ISFL GMs. This, along with a lack of stellar defensive statistics, caused McKinley to fall in the ISFL draft. The Chicago Butchers eventually traded up into the 5th round to select McKinley with the 59th overall pick.

[Ulaire]

#14
Portland Pythons in season 35 started really well. No one actually believed in us, if we count DSFL predictions. While DSFL is hard to predict we were the lowest team in the league by TPE count, so a lot of people had doubts about our success. Well, right of the gate we proved some doubters wrong by going 2-0 against Ducks and Coyotes. The ducks game went down to the wire with my player defending 2 points conversion, which end up the game difference. We went through the first week undefeated to meet with heavy favorites - Tijuana next week. Well, out of two last undefeated teams they got the better of us in the close game. We immediately bounced back with a huge win over Dallas, 55-14. Next came the game at London which also was an authoritative win. Home game at Norfolk was important for us to prove that we are second best team aside After Tijuana. It all went well until they got two return TDs in one quarter. I'm still pretty salty about this sim moment. So, first half of the season we finished at 5-2 which was good result, first in the conference. Defense was the key to our good performance. But right at the start of second half it was pretty improbable loss to Grey Ducks in which our offense just seamed to give up. We immediately bounced back against Kansas, completely dominating at defense and causing 5 turnovers in a game. The most important game that was left for us was against Tijuana, to prove a point, Sadly, this one we lost too in a really close game. By that time all doubters got proved wrong, and we went to win out the rest of season, clinching the first place in the conference. In conference championship our luck went to the drain again with Kansas completing pretty incredible comeback. Overall for me this season felt great, aside from it's ending.

#25
That should be pretty easy task for me, cause when I first wanted to create a player it was actually a tight end, not linebacker. Tight end just seemed like an overall underrated position for me, even if at the time I actually had no idea how sim works and that good tight ends are a deficit in the league. Overall I feel that tight ends are more universal players that are important both to passing and running game. Also NFL had some run of superstar tight ends lately, some of them capable of carrying their teams offense - Gronk, Kelce, Kittle. But even some work-horse tight ends become more important in todays game, even if it isn't reflected in their salary. This season ISFL buffed tight ends in fantasy, probably to engage their users to become more active or to create more tight ends. I honestly hope it works and maybe we will see some two-TE offenses in ISFL future. After I complete my first career here I'll probably recreate as a TE next time.

#27
The team I want to talk about the most is Yellowknife Wraiths. While I like their branding more than some teams I still think that they can use some changes for the better. I think their logo can get some slight modernization with a more nasty looking grim reaper or whatever that thing supposed to mean. It can also be some image of indigenous mythological beings, to reflect it's namesake better. Also their colors can change to aurora borealis colors representing their unique location, that is close to arctic circle. Saying all that, I think that they are probably fine without all that, cause there are teams whose branding works worse for me. Sorry, Baltimore Hawks and their fans but they are just bland I think. First of all, there is already team in Baltimore and it also has a bird as name and logo! And there is a Hawks team in NBA too. But all of that will need much more radical rework then just branding.

[Kyamprac]

OT Pass

[moonlight]

Pass

[y2bobman]

PBE link

[3lewsers]

4. “Sim gonna sim” is a popular expression in the league. Write about teams that have been graced by the sim gods and had amazing performances despite statistical odds, and/or about teams that were considered favorites but may have dealt with some bad sim luck that hampered their efforts. How much of an impact did it have on their season(s)?

I don't believe in the theory of "sim gonna sim". It is just a way of ignoring the problems with your team. Can you have bad luck once in awhile, of course. Just like it happens in real life football. It doesn't always go according to script. But just because the script falls on the cutting room floor once in awhile does not mean its the ghost sims out to get you. It's too easy an excuse to blame a below average sim engine on your teams flaws. Can a bad bounce here and some bad coding there happen on occasion, sure. But when it's consistent, it goes much deeper. Perhaps a team has the wrong combination of players. Maybe the management hasn't done enough testing. Perhaps the users didn't update that week, and maybe just maybe the team just isn't that great. Almost every user thinks their player is better than they really are, so it's no surprise that they like to blame the game. I prefer the idea of looking deeper than a simple "it's the sims fault" excuse. That is way too thin and to easy of an out when there are much bigger problems. I have been a part of numerous teams that just weren't good enough, and many times the locker room cry was sim gonna sim. It gets real old real quick. When a superior team loses to a total underdog, that is more likely bad sim luck, but that happened in real life too. Sometimes a team is just better on that particular day. But when an average team on paper ends up with an average season, that isn't bad luck, that is just a fact. That is the definition of "we are who we thought they were". If an average team overachieves, that is more likely sim gonna sim in your favor, not necessarily because you are really that good. It is tough to have it both ways as a user. All you can d is update your players, and trust in management that they have the right mix of players together. It is not always the highest TPE wins. That's not how it works in the game and that is not how it works in real life. There are good days and bad days. A great team can put out a real stinker, and a bad team can have an amazing performance. These are the outliers as opposed to the norm. All of the above being said, please understand that I am in no way, shape, or form a proponent of Draft Day Sports. I have owned their products since their inception, and I would say they are about average at best. The game has plenty of flaws, and too many bugs to count. Does that factor into the issues addressed above? Sure it does, but the game is bad for everyone so you have to take that out of the equation for the most part and just focus on the rosters more than blaming an inferior sim product. That is the easy way out. If I was a GM, I would blame myself, no one else for any shortcomings on the team. Perhaps I should have had a better free agency, or perhaps I signed high TPE players but not the right players. At the end of the day, you need as many play makers as you can get or you will not have continues success. Luck only takes you so far in this game, and so far isn't far enough. Sometimes it going up again st the right team at the right time, and sometimes it is the exact opposite. It isn't sim gonna sim, I say its GM gonna GM.

[Dindog]

6.

Hands down one of the best most exciting and my personal favorite times in the league has to be the off season. When all the scouting happens and the drafts and trades and of course fantasy football which is just as if not more exciting than nfl fantasy football. I’m mainly going to focus on scouting and the draft because it’s something I fell in love with in this league. I just finished my second season scouting for the ducks and for the copperheads, I started scouting and spending time in the war rooms towards the end of my second season. The league was fun before but really getting involved with a team makes the experience a million times better. It really does feel like the franchise mode madden has been needing for a long long time. One of the super unique things about scouting at the DSFL level is that it’s not all about the stats or earning the biggest thing is definitely the person you message the player you are scouting and you just have a normal conversation with them. Of course activity in the league and interest is important but I think also finding people who seem a little interested in the league drafting them late and showing them how rad this league is is awesome. That’s what happened to me actually lol.  At the ISFL level it’s a little different, you kind of have an idea of everyone’s activity and who they are after a season in the DSFL so now earning and activity are much more important factors. Same thing goes for team need and looking at who’s regressing and where you need to build for you future. So that’s scouting and that has to be one of my favorite aspects of the league, next part of the off season is the draft. That’s when all the magic happens, where teams futures are either built or destroyed. After all the prep and discussions war rooms have it’s time to make choices. It’s a lot of fun to take part in a draft, seeing people you really want to take isn’t though. That’s what makes it fun though you never know what’s going to happen and you don’t know how you’re going to adjust your strategy to pick players and what not. Even when it comes down to the In active players there’s strategy and actual scouting that has to get done. Looking for any user with any sign of life or that are still in the discord lol. The next greatest part of the unique off season that the ISFL offers has to be the fantasy fantasy football. There is really nothing like it in any other sim league. Even affiliate sim leagues that have fantasy leagues do not run it as well as this one does and that’s a big part of what makes it great. The media that comes out right before the fantasy draft is always top notch and os a great guide for even the newest user to use and win their group. That’s actually how I won in my first season. I followed that guide to a tee and actually ended coming top 10 in the league if I remember correctly. I think I even held some space in the top 5 too. And that’s it, that’s what makes this league really unique and unlike others. It has such an engaging off season I promise you won’t find anything like it anywhere else. Even in other sim leagues that I’ve been apart of. The off season has always felt like it was missing something.  (604)

[yesboom]

2 - Draft Class
With the S35 DSFL season in the books, the members of the S36 draft class were eagerly waiting to hear their names called by ISFL Gm's trying to find the next superstar. None of us having put foot on the field yet, it is hard to define someone as a bust or a late round gem. What we can do tho, is to try and define the reaches and steals. Granted we can not see the future, and in a few season, with the insight given by the year passed, these might change, but it is the best we can do right now. In this short essay I will pick one reach and one steal by position. I will have to base myself on TPE only as I haven't interviewed anyone.


QB) With only two QBs selected, in the 4th and 5 what's more, it is obviously hard to find either a reach or a steal. This ain't gonna stop us tho.
-Steal: Pete Zuh - 4.53 - Sarasota => The best QB on the board and 2nd best player available left
-Reach - Santa Cruz - 5.62 - Berlin => Average QB with way better players left on the board

RB) With 10 RB drafted, it is the 3rd most represented position. Surely we'll find something to be happy.
Steal - Bean Delphin - 4.46 - Honolulu =>The 3rd best RB in the 4th round? Sign me up
Reach - Udo Beaty - 4.56 - Bondi Beach => With multiple better running backs left, it is hard to understand this pick

WR) Tied for 1st with DT, there were 11 wide out drafted.
Steal - Mandrews McHollywood - 3.31 - NY => Imagine getting a 250+ TPE WR in the the 3rd? No need to imagine anymore, that's just what happened for NY
Reach -Zaphod Beeblox - 1.2 - Austin => In a class so deep in WR, one might wonder if they couldn't have waited a picked another, pretty much as good, WR in the 2nd round.

TE) The Tight ends. No one in the 1st. Only one in the 2nd. It wasn't a good draft to be a TE.
Steal - L F.T - 4.51 - Berlin => The 2nd best TE of the draft is picked in the 4th. Good job Berlin
Reach - Jasper Fontaine - 2.17 - Philly => In a draft where pretty much every tight-end fell to round 3 or more, it is hard to like picking the 3rd best TE at the beginning of the 2nd round

OL) The forgotten position. The one no one looks at.
Steal - Orland Doom - 5.57 - Colorado => The 2nd best OL is also the 2nd to last being picked. Due to the poor quality of the class, JT Kurbis was also a strong contender.
Reach - Pan Cakes - 4.52 - NY => It is hard to find a real reach in this class, but with Orland Doom still one the board picking Pan Cakes was a dubious choice.


DT) Tied with WR for the most drafted position, it seems like people loved our big boys.
Steal - Nathan Meagaer - 4.48 - Berlin => Possibly the steal of the draft all around, the best DT is picked in the 4th. Unbelievable and absolute Steal here by Berlin.
Reach - Fat Jack - 3.35 - San Jose => With multiple better DT still on the board, including Nathan Meager, this pick is puzzling.

DE) One of the deepest position of the draft, finding a steal was easy
Steal - Aqeel Steel - 3.33 - Sarasota => Falling due to the quality of the class, Steel is an amazing pick in the 3rd
Reach - Amadan Fool - 5.68 - NY => It is hard to call a 5th round a reach, yet that's exactly what we'll do here. With Mabel Pine still on the board, why would anyone pick a probably inactive DE ?

LB) The best position of the draft, and I'm saying this only because I'm a LB
Steal - Akaki Akayre 3.52 - Arizona Is it still considered a steal if a team trade a 1st to get you? The answer is yes, because I don't care about the fitir and only care about draft position.
Reach - Bruce Bruckley JR - 2.27 - Baltimore => With multiple LB with double the TPE of Buckley, this might be the strangest pick of the draft.

CB) If one of the CB picked in the 2nd could have been picked in the 4th we would have had a pretty much superb bell curve. Shame.
Steal - Mabel Pines - 5.69 - Baltimore => Surrounded by IA players, Mabel Pines and her 200+TPE sticks out clearly. In contention to be the biggest steal of the draft with Nathan Meager, we'd love to know what happened for her to fall this much.
Reach - Will Nightingale - 4.49 - San Jose => Hard to find a reach here, but with Mabel still on the Board this pick is the closest to a reach we can find

S) 4 safeties in the 1st round. Wow. Damn.
Steal - Kaiden King - 4.45 - NY => After a run in the 1st, pretty much no safeties were picked. Kaiden here is one of the best players left on the boards
Reach - Roma Amir Kani - 4.44 - Austin => With Kaiden King still on the board, this pick raises questions

K/P) Because they are people too
Steal - Patrick Cunningham - 6.78 - Philly => One of the last player on the board yet still good.
Reach - Savathun Witchqueen - 2.22 - Arizona => I might end up eaten by the witchqueen if she reads this, but picking an average kicker in the 2nd is NY Jets lvl of drafting.

950+ words

[Punk42AE]

PBE Affiliate + 2.5 TPE

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.

JR Frankenstero had a pretty good first season in the ISFL/DSFL league.  After getting a quick four game start of his career in London to get his feet wet, he got drafted in the DSFL draft to the Dallas Birddogs, and was able to officially begin the mark to the top league.  Being able to lace up for a team for a full season was an amazing time, even if the Birddogs had a down year, Dallas tied for last in the league at 3-11 overall, and lost the last three games of the season.  BUT for JR he was able to have a fairly good seasons.
Not only did JR cap out in the DSFL before the season was completed, he also had some pretty good overall numbers.  In his 14 games for the 2050 season he was able to gather up 64 tackles, 4 of them being for a loss, and 9 sacks.  He also missed 6 tackles as he is still learning how to stop everyone that comes his way, and didn't pickup any fumbles on the ground or force any.  It was a true learning season, and it should make this season even better being able to be at full strength for the entire season.  Hopefully he can propel the Birddogs to more wins, and help them make the playoffs.
As the hype of the playing season waned, it meant that the offseason ISFL draft party was just starting.  After multiple teams reached out to scout and see what Frankenstero was all about, he was able to hear his name called in the 1st round of the draft.  Although some of the Mock drafts had him going higher, he was able to become the 13th overall pick of the draft and get picked up by the New Orleans Second Lines in the ISFL.  Although this season will be down in the DSFL again, it should be a terrific time to grow as a team when New Orleans finally makes that call up to the top.

Code:

340 Words +5 TPE

17. Your team has announced that they will be laying ground on a new stadium next season. What additions would you like to see included in it.

I am really excited to see with the announcement of our new Stadium in Dallas, that they are including all of the new amenities that they are!  Those brand new Cryofreezers will for sure help out all of our sore muscles after the games, and even the practices as we will be trying to go hard after last years rough season.  The brand new mini-pool facilities will also be a giant help as we can now fit 40 players at a time in the room, sure it sounds like a ton of space, but since they are all 5 foot by 5 foot boxes with the current and able to be hot or cold, will again help us recover and get stronger.  But man just wait till they show everyone the new design of the weight room and everything that is in it.  Being a player they have already shown us everything with it, but next week everyone is going to be amazed at what you see.  The only words i'm going to say for right now without spoiling anything is... Tree Tops.

Code:

183 Words +2.5 TPE