01-14-2023, 05:35 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-18-2023, 06:04 PM by Aneeqs. Edited 2 times in total.)
When I first seriously considered recreating, I began planning this article. I retired my player in April 2022 – the end of S34 – and I’ve since tweaked and reworded this article a few times as I weighed up recreating. When I look at the list of DSFL GMs I see a handful of names I don’t know, so I thought I’d introduce myself to those GMs and their war rooms through this article as well as publicising my recreation a bit so that all the lovely people who do know me see this and leave some nice replies or send me some cute DMs.
In the earlier versions of this article, I reminisced about my first player (Brandon Booker, for those newer readers) and whether he might be inducted into the Hall of Fame – that question has since been answered after I was encouraged to tune into the most recent Awards/Hall of Fame stream, during which Kotasa even leaked my recreating! At the time of writing, I’m planning to write two further articles connected to this one – one reminiscing about Booker and his achievements now that that chapter has closed, and one about my new player.
To start from the very beginning: I joined what was the National Simulation Football League as part of the S22 class, I was part of the 284 user r/NFL draft class that joined at the beginning of the pandemic. Most people call me Mori, save the few who are devious enough to click my discord profile and see what my actual name is. I didn’t leave my house except to buy groceries for the first six months or so after I joined the league, so I became one of the league’s most active members during my first player’s career. I made a post after one year on the site and counted (on my fingers) that at that point I’d written 39,963 words of media – a mixture of in-depth analytical pieces covering drafts or the sim, as well as a few more personal pieces. I’ve sent well over 50,000 discord messages across league servers and when I hit regression, my player had the 4th-most TPE of any player all-time with 1515 – unfortunately those darn expansion teams made it possible to earn more TPE from predictions and I’ve been knocked off the top 25 list. I think, seeing as I’ll have joined the site 3 years ago next month, that I’m allowed to start yelling at clouds.
The answer to the question why I left, and the answer to the question why I came back, are essentially the same. I don’t like to do anything at less than 100% effort. To put that into context, I still remember how many TPE opportunities I missed in Booker’s eight pre-regression seasons: it was four, because each missed task really bugged me at the time. I used to do my weekly predictions and decided my update path based on sim test results rather than copying someone or going with my gut. Basically, I chose not to recreate because I took Booker the full 13 ISFL seasons (see this incredible piece of media) – more than 2 years IRL – and I didn’t feel like I could commit to max earning for another 2 years at that moment. I’m a bit of a perfectionist and the thought of recreating and possibly-not-max earning just didn’t appeal to me.
At the time, I was more in love with WSBL (the league’s affiliate basketball league) than I was with ISFL. I was Seattle Orcas co-GM with the wonderful Blasoon, and at the point the league folded I was sim head, a rookie mentor and a backup updater as well. It was there that I’d invested the time I used to invest in ISFL – designing spreadsheets for every player on our team that predicted the most efficient upgrade path based on past shooting locations and doing the majority of our sim testing in addition to running the sim department and generally doing my best to keep the league running for as long as was practical. I loved the shiny newness of WSBL, the ability to do things slightly differently to the way they were done in other leagues, and the feeling of creating history that you don’t necessarily get when joining ISFL in S22 or SHL in S59. I also had some relatively minor gripes with ISFL. I didn’t particularly enjoy the new sim, though I think much of that was due to my player performing worse than I hoped. Additionally, as I mentioned above I wrote almost 40,000 words in my first year in the league, and around 60,000 total. I also spent five seasons as a GM, and spent a cumulative c. 10-12 seasons on the respective media grading, recruitment and rookie mentor teams – and when I retired I had less than $20m in my league bank account, despite writing more words in the ISFL Media section than I wrote to get my university degree. I lost money every season I GM’d. In my experience, league jobs don’t pay well enough to allow you to survive for any significant time after the end of your tenure.
I knew that if I was to recreate, I needed to start writing again and regularly dedicate a few hours each week or each month to it. However, since I wrote that retirement post I submitted my dissertation (one of my longer media articles), WSBL folded (if you know any online retailers that accept WSBL dollars as payment then please let me know), I graduated university and everything’s settled down a bit. I’ve spoken to several of you about recreating and I’ve been tweaking these articles whenever I get the itch, ready to hit send when the time is right.
I do have some goals and plans for my new player and I’ll go into those while continuing to throw in some information about my sim league resume in a really smooth, humble manner. I want to be a top ten pick in the ISFL Draft again, and ideally beat my spot from last time. I’ve been picked in the first round of every majors draft I’ve entered (once each in ISFL, SHL and WSBL) and was picked first overall in the S59 SHL Draft. With the ISFL being my first league and my main league (at least from 2020-2021) it feels like a shame that SHL is the league I went first overall. My ISFL and WSBL draft classes were both the biggest in each league’s history, so I’m not disappointed at going a lowly(!) 4th and 14th overall respectively but as (I assume) this won’t be a monster class I like to think I’ve got a shot at going as high or higher this time around in ISFL.
My last player was a cornerback, and this time I’ve created a wide receiver. I’ve come at this from both an individual and team perspective. I want to play a high-impact position that gets meaningful stats, because as I’ve GM’d in this league and elsewhere (and have a mid-earning, team-first SHL player) I’ve tended to put the team above my own player’s success and made decisions according to what benefits overall win%. I’ve justified being a little bit more selfish than I have been in the past by appealing to the teambuilding concept that you want your best players in the positions to make the most impact. You don’t really want a 1500 TPE kicker or fullback and a 750 TPE wide receiver (though I was actually tempted by the idea of a kicker or offensive lineman), you’d much rather have the 1500 TPE player at the more valuable position. On this sim (I have to try really hard not to refer to it as the ‘new’ sim) wide receiver seems to be the most impactful non-QB position on the offensive side of the ball, and it looks like S39 was more like the time to make a QB – though I did still consider it. Players like William Lim got to play the ‘fun’ positions while clearly contributing a lot to their team’s overall success and so drafting me should have the dual benefit of giving me an opportunity to aim for some more records and career leaderboard marks if I go 13 seasons again while hopefully setting you up at that position for what will probably be your entire tenure as GM unless your username starts with “ckroyal” and ends with “92”.
I kinda hinted at it by selling myself above, but I’m not going to force myself to any my former teams. I’ll leave a more detailed discussion about draft destinations for a future article, though – I’m just excited to experience a draft again.
When I was Orange County GM I quit my other league jobs to focus on it, so while I’ve got more than enough money to tide me through my rookie season you can expect the two other articles I referenced and then possibly some draft content. There’s plenty of time between now and the draft and that seems like a good way to refamiliarise myself with things. Between now and then please scout me, DM me/tag me on discord telling me how much you missed me, etc. Looking forward to speaking to you all and thanks for reading. <3
In the earlier versions of this article, I reminisced about my first player (Brandon Booker, for those newer readers) and whether he might be inducted into the Hall of Fame – that question has since been answered after I was encouraged to tune into the most recent Awards/Hall of Fame stream, during which Kotasa even leaked my recreating! At the time of writing, I’m planning to write two further articles connected to this one – one reminiscing about Booker and his achievements now that that chapter has closed, and one about my new player.
To start from the very beginning: I joined what was the National Simulation Football League as part of the S22 class, I was part of the 284 user r/NFL draft class that joined at the beginning of the pandemic. Most people call me Mori, save the few who are devious enough to click my discord profile and see what my actual name is. I didn’t leave my house except to buy groceries for the first six months or so after I joined the league, so I became one of the league’s most active members during my first player’s career. I made a post after one year on the site and counted (on my fingers) that at that point I’d written 39,963 words of media – a mixture of in-depth analytical pieces covering drafts or the sim, as well as a few more personal pieces. I’ve sent well over 50,000 discord messages across league servers and when I hit regression, my player had the 4th-most TPE of any player all-time with 1515 – unfortunately those darn expansion teams made it possible to earn more TPE from predictions and I’ve been knocked off the top 25 list. I think, seeing as I’ll have joined the site 3 years ago next month, that I’m allowed to start yelling at clouds.
The answer to the question why I left, and the answer to the question why I came back, are essentially the same. I don’t like to do anything at less than 100% effort. To put that into context, I still remember how many TPE opportunities I missed in Booker’s eight pre-regression seasons: it was four, because each missed task really bugged me at the time. I used to do my weekly predictions and decided my update path based on sim test results rather than copying someone or going with my gut. Basically, I chose not to recreate because I took Booker the full 13 ISFL seasons (see this incredible piece of media) – more than 2 years IRL – and I didn’t feel like I could commit to max earning for another 2 years at that moment. I’m a bit of a perfectionist and the thought of recreating and possibly-not-max earning just didn’t appeal to me.
At the time, I was more in love with WSBL (the league’s affiliate basketball league) than I was with ISFL. I was Seattle Orcas co-GM with the wonderful Blasoon, and at the point the league folded I was sim head, a rookie mentor and a backup updater as well. It was there that I’d invested the time I used to invest in ISFL – designing spreadsheets for every player on our team that predicted the most efficient upgrade path based on past shooting locations and doing the majority of our sim testing in addition to running the sim department and generally doing my best to keep the league running for as long as was practical. I loved the shiny newness of WSBL, the ability to do things slightly differently to the way they were done in other leagues, and the feeling of creating history that you don’t necessarily get when joining ISFL in S22 or SHL in S59. I also had some relatively minor gripes with ISFL. I didn’t particularly enjoy the new sim, though I think much of that was due to my player performing worse than I hoped. Additionally, as I mentioned above I wrote almost 40,000 words in my first year in the league, and around 60,000 total. I also spent five seasons as a GM, and spent a cumulative c. 10-12 seasons on the respective media grading, recruitment and rookie mentor teams – and when I retired I had less than $20m in my league bank account, despite writing more words in the ISFL Media section than I wrote to get my university degree. I lost money every season I GM’d. In my experience, league jobs don’t pay well enough to allow you to survive for any significant time after the end of your tenure.
I knew that if I was to recreate, I needed to start writing again and regularly dedicate a few hours each week or each month to it. However, since I wrote that retirement post I submitted my dissertation (one of my longer media articles), WSBL folded (if you know any online retailers that accept WSBL dollars as payment then please let me know), I graduated university and everything’s settled down a bit. I’ve spoken to several of you about recreating and I’ve been tweaking these articles whenever I get the itch, ready to hit send when the time is right.
I do have some goals and plans for my new player and I’ll go into those while continuing to throw in some information about my sim league resume in a really smooth, humble manner. I want to be a top ten pick in the ISFL Draft again, and ideally beat my spot from last time. I’ve been picked in the first round of every majors draft I’ve entered (once each in ISFL, SHL and WSBL) and was picked first overall in the S59 SHL Draft. With the ISFL being my first league and my main league (at least from 2020-2021) it feels like a shame that SHL is the league I went first overall. My ISFL and WSBL draft classes were both the biggest in each league’s history, so I’m not disappointed at going a lowly(!) 4th and 14th overall respectively but as (I assume) this won’t be a monster class I like to think I’ve got a shot at going as high or higher this time around in ISFL.
My last player was a cornerback, and this time I’ve created a wide receiver. I’ve come at this from both an individual and team perspective. I want to play a high-impact position that gets meaningful stats, because as I’ve GM’d in this league and elsewhere (and have a mid-earning, team-first SHL player) I’ve tended to put the team above my own player’s success and made decisions according to what benefits overall win%. I’ve justified being a little bit more selfish than I have been in the past by appealing to the teambuilding concept that you want your best players in the positions to make the most impact. You don’t really want a 1500 TPE kicker or fullback and a 750 TPE wide receiver (though I was actually tempted by the idea of a kicker or offensive lineman), you’d much rather have the 1500 TPE player at the more valuable position. On this sim (I have to try really hard not to refer to it as the ‘new’ sim) wide receiver seems to be the most impactful non-QB position on the offensive side of the ball, and it looks like S39 was more like the time to make a QB – though I did still consider it. Players like William Lim got to play the ‘fun’ positions while clearly contributing a lot to their team’s overall success and so drafting me should have the dual benefit of giving me an opportunity to aim for some more records and career leaderboard marks if I go 13 seasons again while hopefully setting you up at that position for what will probably be your entire tenure as GM unless your username starts with “ckroyal” and ends with “92”.
I kinda hinted at it by selling myself above, but I’m not going to force myself to any my former teams. I’ll leave a more detailed discussion about draft destinations for a future article, though – I’m just excited to experience a draft again.
When I was Orange County GM I quit my other league jobs to focus on it, so while I’ve got more than enough money to tide me through my rookie season you can expect the two other articles I referenced and then possibly some draft content. There’s plenty of time between now and the draft and that seems like a good way to refamiliarise myself with things. Between now and then please scout me, DM me/tag me on discord telling me how much you missed me, etc. Looking forward to speaking to you all and thanks for reading. <3
Code:
I have this at 1561 words - and had to edit the post to remove a typo that must have been in this draft for about six months
[OPTION]S24 (PHI): 16 GP, 73 tackles, 1 TFL, 2 FF, 3 sacks, 5 INTs, 10 PDs, 2 TDs
[OPTION]S25 (PHI): 16 GP, 67 tackles, 4 INTs, 13 PDs, 1 TD
[OPTION]S26 (OCO): 16 GP, 68 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 sack, 2 INTs, 10 PDs
[OPTION]S27 (OCO): 16 GP, 116 tackles, 4 INTs, 23 PDs, 1 TD
[OPTION]S28 (OCO): 16 GP, 84 tackles, 1 FF, 1 FR, 3 INTs, 20 PDs, 1 TD
[OPTION]S29 (OCO): 16 GP, 99 tackles, 3 FF, 1 FR, 5 INTs, 23 PDs, 1 TD
[OPTION]=============================================================
[OPTION]ISFL Playoff Stats:
[OPTION]S23 (PHI): 1 GP, 2 tackles
[OPTION]S26 (OCO): 1 GP, 5 tackles, 2 PDs
[OPTION]=============================================================
[OPTION]Trophies and Achievements:
[OPTION]Drafted 35th Overall by Myrtle Beach in the S21 DSFL Draft
[OPTION]S21 Ultimini Champion
[OPTION]S21 DSFL Pro Bowl Selection
[OPTION]S21 DSFL Defensive Back of the Year Nominee
[OPTION]Drafted 4th Overall by Philadelphia in the S22 ISFL Draft
[OPTION]S23 ISFL Pro Bowl Selection
[OPTION]S23 ISFL Cornerback of the Year Nominee
[OPTION]S23 ISFL Defensive Performance of the Year Nominee
[OPTION]S24 ISFL Pro Bowl Selection
[OPTION]S24 ISFL Cornerback of the Year Nominee
[OPTION]S25 (PHI): 16 GP, 67 tackles, 4 INTs, 13 PDs, 1 TD
[OPTION]S26 (OCO): 16 GP, 68 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 sack, 2 INTs, 10 PDs
[OPTION]S27 (OCO): 16 GP, 116 tackles, 4 INTs, 23 PDs, 1 TD
[OPTION]S28 (OCO): 16 GP, 84 tackles, 1 FF, 1 FR, 3 INTs, 20 PDs, 1 TD
[OPTION]S29 (OCO): 16 GP, 99 tackles, 3 FF, 1 FR, 5 INTs, 23 PDs, 1 TD
[OPTION]=============================================================
[OPTION]ISFL Playoff Stats:
[OPTION]S23 (PHI): 1 GP, 2 tackles
[OPTION]S26 (OCO): 1 GP, 5 tackles, 2 PDs
[OPTION]=============================================================
[OPTION]Trophies and Achievements:
[OPTION]Drafted 35th Overall by Myrtle Beach in the S21 DSFL Draft
[OPTION]S21 Ultimini Champion
[OPTION]S21 DSFL Pro Bowl Selection
[OPTION]S21 DSFL Defensive Back of the Year Nominee
[OPTION]Drafted 4th Overall by Philadelphia in the S22 ISFL Draft
[OPTION]S23 ISFL Pro Bowl Selection
[OPTION]S23 ISFL Cornerback of the Year Nominee
[OPTION]S23 ISFL Defensive Performance of the Year Nominee
[OPTION]S24 ISFL Pro Bowl Selection
[OPTION]S24 ISFL Cornerback of the Year Nominee
[OPTION]S26 ISFL Pro Bowl Selection
[OPTION]S26 ISFL Returner of the Year Nominee
[OPTION]S29 ISFL Pro Bowl Selection
[OPTION]S29 ISFL Cornerback of the Year Nominee
[OPTION]=============================================================
Player | Update | Wiki | Twitter
[OPTION]S26 ISFL Returner of the Year Nominee
[OPTION]S29 ISFL Pro Bowl Selection
[OPTION]S29 ISFL Cornerback of the Year Nominee
[OPTION]=============================================================
Player | Update | Wiki | Twitter