"5. The league has a rich and fascinating history, and our perspectives on it differ from person to person. In 600 words or more, describe any significant moment in ISFL or DSFL history, whether you were around for it or not. Describe the context, the significant members, and the events. What exactly made this event so famous (or infamous) and why does it deserve to be remembered? Events might include championship wins, the inducting of players to the hall of fame, or even a league scandal."
The history of the ISFL is one that I’m proud to say I play a considerable part in. I joined the NSFL on May 22, 2017. I was in this league on the ground floor and I want to be here when it’s all over. I know I haven’t been active throughout the entire life-span of the league, but my players have made an impact. Before going into my history of the NSFL/ISFL, it might make sense to give a bit of context about my own sim league history. I joined my first sim league around March 2003. The World Baseball League used Out of the Park Baseball 5 as a sim engine, and I was lucky enough to be on the Yahoo Fantasy Baseball message boards when I saw an ad for the league. It talked about taking your own player and turning him into an all-time great. To me, this sounded like the best thing ever. Now that it’s 2022, it still sounds like a pretty cool idea to me. I can’t believe that almost 20 years later, there’s still a community so passionate about what we do. The most significant storyline that I was part of in the NSFL was, without question, the Orange County Otters QB room after the inaugural draft. The first draft in a league’s history is something that’s hard to describe to someone who’s never been there. There’s this sense of optimism that takes everyone under its spell. Every pick, every situation is seen with rose-colored glasses. Almost every interaction is covered with a varnish of kindness and good nature. Every team thinks that every pick they made was the right call and was the proper piece needed to be a champion. The reality of this sets in not too far in the future, but savoring that optimism on draft day is important. For me, personally, the optimism on draft day was short lived and filled with mixed signals. The Season 1 Draft saw a total of 12 QBs selected to 6 teams. The first QB off the board went to the Orange County Otters, #24 overall Ethan Hunt from Idaho State. Shortly thereafter, at pick #29 Baltimore selected Scrub Kyubee who starred at Michigan State. The next QB wasn’t taken for quite some time, and it would be #43 overall to the Arizona Outlaws, Vincent Draxel from South Carolina. At #48, Orange County took their second QB of the draft. That would be me – Mike Boss, QB from Boston College. I was the 7th future Hall of Famer selected in the Draft. Orange County went on to select QB Romeo Devitt from Washington at #85, QB Josh Bercovici from Arizona State at #96, and finally QB Cliff Hamilton at #109. The Otters in total had selected 5 QBs in the draft. I now had a 1/5 shot of being a starting QB. After the Draft had concluded, there was rampant media speculation as to who the starting QB was going to be in Orange County. It seemed like every sports radio station in Southern California attached themselves to one of us and just ran with it. The national media, to me, was even worse. I didn’t have the national appeal that some of the other guys had. Early word was that Bercovici was the favorite amongst team leadership to take the starting job. Every day I was peppered with questions about who the starter was going to be. I didn’t commit to an actual lease at an apartment in Orange County for months until I had my footing underneath me. There was a considerable period of time there where I thought that I wasn’t going to get the chance. I almost ran out of hope that the job would be mine, but I just kept showing up to team meetings and having the right attitude. While other guys would slip up here and there, I made it a point to be a perfectionist. If someone missed something in practice or on film, I made a point to do it better than them. Eventually, the good players separate themselves from the average players, or the pretenders. I’m proud to say that I came out of that QB room with the honor and prestige of being the top QB on the team. Training camp and the media was a nightmare, but I won the job. Looking back, while I wouldn’t change the experience I had winning the job over so many other QBs, it’s interesting to wonder what if. What if I went to Baltimore or Arizona? Those two teams took QBs before I was off the board. I very well could’ve ended up in a much different circumstance had either of those teams taken a chance on me. I can’t imagine having better WRs than I did in Orange County. Bradley Westfield and Robert Phelps were superstars, generational talents that I was lucky enough to come into the league with. On the management side of things, Angus Winchester played a crucial role in protecting me on and off the field. His guidance and friendship during my years in Orange County helped mold me into the player that I was. I didn’t accomplish all of these things myself. I had an incredible cast around me. I think my story is one of the best stories that the NSFL/ISFL has ever told. I can’t wait to be part of more stories this league creates in the future. WR- JAMAL SLICK JR.
"THE NEW ERA"
MR 8X ULTIMUS CHAMPION
QB Mike Boss - HOF TE Johnny Blaze - HOF QB Mike Boss Jr WR Johnny Blaze Jr
Tier 1: Long Form Tasks (Must be 600+ words)
Choose ONE for 10 TPE 3. For any team, certain players and users have gone above and beyond, shaping the legacy of the franchise. Choose any ISFL or DSFL team and create a Mount Rushmore for that team. Who in your mind are the four most noteworthy figures of the team’s history? Why does each one of your included figures deserve that recognition, and how did each of them make their mark? In Ernest Lover’s first season on the Sarasota Sailfish, I created a Defensive Mount Rushmore for the still young franchise that included Cuco Clemente (Safety), Jamie Nkiah (Safety), Haha Mango-Panda (Linebacker) and Fawn Dillmiballs (Defensive Tackle). These veterans helped Lover find his home on the Sarasota defense and passed on invaluable knowledge of game planning, positioning and conditioning. While Lover only played with many of these historic players for a few seasons, they helped Lover make the transition from Defensive End to Linebacker and then passed the mantle on. As Lover enters his final season on the Sarasota Sailfish, it’s time to revisit this exercise and suggest some updates to the team’s Defensive Mount Rushmore. This is a trip down memory lane for Lover, who will be adding teammates with whom he had the pleasure of sharing much of his career and two Ultimus championships. Cuco Clemente (Safety) remains one of Sarasota’s all-time defensive greats, so he is the only of the original four Mount Rushmore players to remain. The other three are: Harrison Andrews (Cornerback), David Moyes (Defensive End), and Son Goku (Defensive End) Harrison Andrews was the team’s primary cornerback almost from his rookie season through his retirement. He holds multiple franchise career records, including first for Passes Defended (at 216) and for interceptions (at 34) and second for tackles (with 873) and defensive touchdowns (with 7; only one behind Clemente’s 8). He also holds many single season records for the franchise, including first for 137 tackles in his rookie season (S25), first for interceptions (netting 9 in S28), first for defensive TDs (3 in S28), and locking down both first and second for single season PDs (35 in S33 and 31 in S28). Harrison Andrews replaces previous Mount Rushmore member Jamie Nkiah. David Moyes was a bit of a late bloomer in his role at defensive end. But continued hard work even into his veteran years has set him up to hold franchise records for many seasons to come, even as he looks towards retirement. Moyes may not hold many single season or game records, but his career records show his cumulative impact on the franchise over his long and steady career. Moyes relentlessly pushed past the line of scrimmage for loss-making plays. Moyes holds the Sailfish career record of 105 sacks with still one more season to play and is second in tackles for loss with 65. Moyes has also slowly accumulated many turnovers. He is second in franchise history in forced fumbles with 19 and unlike other players, like Ernest Lover, manages to fall to ground to recover many of these fumbles. He leads the team with 14 career fumble recoveries. This eclipses the previous Sarasota great FF/FR specialist, Haha Mango-Panda who registered 15 forced fumbles and 9 fumble recoveries in his career. The last spot on the Sarasota Defensive Mount Rushmore could go to Ernest Lover himself, but he prefers to recognize the unsung efforts of another career Sailfish: defensive end Son Goku. Goku was a stalwart member of the defensive line. No matter what offenses threw at him, he could not be moved off the line of scrimmage. He had a knack for making his way to the quarterback (third in career sacks with 92) and holds the franchise record and single season record for Safeties. His strongest claim to the Mount comes with his career record of 79 TFLs (a full 12 more than Moyes in second place!). While Goku’s place on the Mount may be replaced in time, at this moment in history he deserves to have his defensive contributions to the team memorialized. He edges out former Mount Rushmore member and defensive tackle Fawn Dillmiballs.
08-14-2022, 07:32 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-14-2022, 10:52 PM by Dindog. Edited 9 times in total.)
30. PBE (mattyice971) https://probaseballexperience.jcink.net/...5&mobile=1
17.A new stadium would be so rad to have for the Austin copperheads. It’s also exactly what the team needs at this moment too. The team is currently in rebuild mode and is improving every season. They are pretty close to being playoff contenders in my opinion (that’s also a fact) so a brand new stadium to go along with it would be absolutely perfect. The first thing that would be needed there would be a whole gosh darn snake exhibit somewhere in the stadium or like a big snake terrarium in one of the team stores or hall of fame thing or something. The next thing that the stadium would need is a rad pool and a water slide. Texas is hot and so is Arizona so why not take a page out of their book and add a pool at the stadium also a cool snake looking water slide for the pool. (154) 25. If my position which Is defensive end wasn’t available I think I’d go back and pick a defensive back. Either a saftey or a corner back. No preference on which one I just think being a safety or a corner back would be pretty rad. Getting to track receivers and read quarter backs. Getting the chance to make picks and return them for touchdowns. Also getting a chance to do kick or punt returns would be fun. I also would consider the position on the other side of the ball which is Wide receiver. I actually originally created at wide receiver but saw how many there actually were in the league at the time and sow how little d line man there were and thought yeah why not change positions and get some more variety in this draft. Being a wide revive we would be fun just for the fact I’d pick myself in fantasy. (155) 26. Football is an old game now but as we all know some of the rules are well let’s just say it lightly….they suck. The first one I’d want to change well actually just flat out get rid of us that THE GROUND CANT CAUSE A FUNBLE. Like why not. Everything in everyone’s body screams yeah they fell and couldn’t hold on the the ball when they hit the ground that should be a fumble. Why isn’t it. If the ground can cause incompletions why can’t it cause fumbles. The next would be easily be the super dumb dumb tuck rule. Why would I want to get rid of it. Well because it’s dumb. So what if the arm is coming forward! If the line backer punches it out of your hand it should be a fumble but oh wait his hand and arm moved .5 centimeter its now a fumble. Dumb just plain dumb (155)
In 300 words or more, how has your experience been in the league? Who have you met that has made your time here more fun, friendly, and exciting? Have you been satisfied with your player’s early start? What was it like being drafted for the first time? Do you have any comments or suggestions for the entire league that you think should be implemented?
I had a couple of IRL friends that asked me if I wanted to join the league and described it as “Dungeons and Dragons, but football”. I knew the concept of it, but I hadn’t actually played it, but I figured what the heck, why not. So, this was all new to me and I feel like it took some time adjusting and learning where everything was at. Initially, I was a little overwhelmed with the forums page, then the Discords, and the index web site, and trying to remember where everything was. I’d see something once and then couldn’t remember where I saw it to go back to it. However, through the help of my IRL friends (soevil and reedyornot), and people from all over the league, I’ve finally caught on to everything, or at least most things. From the get go, people started reaching out (Repgnar, Artix, PugWalrus), wanting to learn more about my player, seeing if I needed help with anything, etc, which really caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting that level of interaction. Even after being traded from Portland to KCC, Gadget reached out to see if he could help in any way. I came in about halfway through the season and the DSFL draft had already been done, so I was put on waiver/FA. I was picked up quickly of the FA by Portland but then was traded within mintues to join Soevil and KCC. I didn’t get the drat experience until the ISFL draft, which was pretty legit. The anticipation of seeing my name come across the screen and being able to see where my teammates ended up. My player has caught some attention being a decently progressed OL which seem to be fairly rare in this league. Honestly, it is part of the reason why I wanted to do it, to be different than everyone else. I feel like my player has progressed a lot and I hope to be the sleeper of the draft. I don’t think anything needs changed. For me, the hardest part was just getting adapted to where everything is. Luckily, there are people, discord groups, and directions all over the place that can help, which makes the journey a little less overwhelming. Describe your player and/or team’s journey through this latest season. What were the highlights? What were the lower points? What might you have done differently? What are your expectations for next season? My player had quite the beginning in the DSFL. I came in about halfway through the season, and instead of going through being a prospect, talking with teams, and then being drafted, I was just put on the free agent list, and was run through the waiver wire process. I interacted with a handful of teams, people trying to gauge my interest in the league and expected activity levels, before picking me. Being an OL, I think this draws extra attention due to the small number of lineman in the league. I have a couple of IRL friends that were on the Coyotes and Royals, so teams asked if I wanted to be with them, which honestly, I didn’t have a preference. I was just trying to get adapted to the league. I was picked up Portland and then within minutes, I was traded to KCC to join my brother soevil in KCC. Here is where the journey really started. I quickly jumped in building TPE and developing my player. I was paired up with the best lineman in our draft class, Dusty Wilson, which was a great pairing. Highlight of season was the second to last week against the Birddogs. My player had a 6 sacks, no sacks allowed, and no penalties. It was by far the best game of the season. Finished the season with only 2 penalties for 11 yards and 3.5 pancakes a game. Sadly, my player averaged .6 sacks allowed a game. This is a stat that I am expecting to improve on next year. I’ll put some work in on the offseason to keep developing. As for the team, it seemed to be a rough season from the start, but it was a confusing one. We scored the second most points in the DSFL throughout the season, only 15 points behind the leaders, yet came in tied second to last with giving up the most points by 44 points! We led the leagues in pancakes and sacks allowed. We had the third fewest punts, which makes sense with the number of points scored. But we also had the most interceptions and one of the fewest in turnovers. There was a lot of good and bad, as you can tell by the stats. I think we have some good building blocks, but we also lost some talent with players being called up to the big leagues. Hopefully next year the Coyotes can rise to the Ultimini!
08-14-2022, 08:06 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-21-2022, 10:01 PM by slate. Edited 1 time in total.)
Quote:12. Choose a team or player to write about that isn’t your own. What did they do well in the last season? Have they shown any drastic improvements from previous years? What could they do better? While this is probably a very easy way to answer this question, I will write about the team that my former player spent their entire career on - the Sarasota Sailfish. In Season 35 of the International Simulation Football League (which astute readers may notice is the season before this most recent season), the Sailfish snapped an 11 season long playoff streak by losing the final four games of the season and finishing at 7-9, the second worst record in the NSFC. Given the large number of various unfortunate circumstances which coincided to result in this disappointing turn of events, I think that many teams would have felt deflated and let the end of the streak signal a transition for the team and need to change their approaches. The Sailfish, on the other hand, were resilient. Under the steady leadership of @abh89 and @Fronk and the positive and upbeat locker room environment that has come to characterize their Sailfish since their founding in Season 22, they took the bad luck in stride, grieved the loss of the streak, and then resolved and energized themselves to come back swinging in Season 37. The team's offense, already sparked by the addition of Nicholas Kaepercolin Jr. through a trade the previous season, quickly announced that it had taken another step forward as they put up 45 and 48 points in two of their first four games. The team ended up leading the league in both scoring offense and scoring defense, putting up 28.8 a game while allowing only 19.2. While they were unable to wrest the 1st seed away from Chicago, they were able to beat them away in a resounding 22-2 victory in the NSFCCG, shutting out the #2 scoring offense in the league on the road. While they ultimately fell 3 points short in the Ultimus to a stacked Honolulu team, the team made huge strides forward from the previous season and should be the team to beat in the NSFC just 2 seasons after their disappointing streak-ending season. Quite the turnaround! Code: 340 words Quote:28. Choose one existing award. Tell us why you think a certain player should win that award this season. Stats, or anything else possible should be used to support your case. (Written or Graphic Task) While positional awards have gone away this season in favor of the All-Pro teams, I think it is still an interesting conversation to have to recognize who is the singular best player at a given position. For some positions, that is obvious, but for others, there are several players one could make a case for. I would like to share my case for why Sarasota wide receiver Nicholas Kaepercolin Jr. was the best WR in the league in 2050. While he ranked only 5th in yardage, Kaepercolin Jr. set a league record for receiving TDs in a season with his 18 surpassing the previous record established in S9! To his detriment, he also saw a huge number of targets in the SAR Raid offense, with his 176 targets coming in 2nd to league receiving yard leader Johnny Patey. The huge number of targets also means that his advanced stats, like yards/target, aren't quite on par with some other receivers - notably, Bernd D. Brot, Cole Maxwell, and Vincent Sharpei Jr. all surpassed 10 yards per target, while NKJ lagged behind at 7.9. With all of that said, I think NKJ was still the most exceptional WR of the year thanks to his record-breaking performance. In addition, NKJ converting over 10% of his targets into TDs was well ahead of the pace of other top WRs, so it was not just that he was scoring lots of TDs thanks to the passing volume directed at him. And he passed the eye test as well, with NKJ frequently making important plays for the Sailfish despite his on-paper inefficiency. Code: 286 words Quote:30. Affiliate PT from either SHL/PBE/WSBL. The Weeks must match with the timeframe of this Offseason Task. And you may only use a max of 1. PBE Affiliate |
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