(S48) Offseason Task

[caleb.grim]

7. Write 600 words or more on something about anything in the league that interests you. It could be related to statistics, a league issue that you take seriously, or a niche part of history that doesn’t fit neatly into either of the above categories. This must be directly related to the league, so don’t wax 600 words about your team’s participation on a Werewolf server or something.

Let's take a look back at my preseason predictions for S47 that you can find here.

 Colorado Yeti  (1 - 15)
My prediction for the Yeti was a record of 4-12 and finishing last place in the NSFC. The community viewed the Yeti similarly and also predicted them to finish last. With only one victory on the season, the performance of the Yeti was somehow even worse than expected. Hopefully with a good draft, the Yeti can make a quick turnaround.

Prediction Score: Off 3

 Berlin Fire Salamanders  (6-10)
My prediction for the Fire Salamanders was for just 5 wins and a sixth place finish in the NSFC. This again agreed with the community placement of the Fire Salamanders. So the season went about as expected. I count this one as a prediction win!

Prediction Score: Off 1 (4 Total)

 Honolulu Hahalua  (2-14)
I was a little more optimistic about the Hahalua's chances this season as I predicted 5 wins with a last place finish, matching the community's prediction. The first team to begin a full scale rebuild last season, it will be another season or two before Honolulu starts to see an improvement.

Prediction Score: Off 3 (7 Total)

 Chicago Butchers  (11-5)
One of my worst predictions of the season, I had the Butchers with only 7 wins and in 5th place in the NSFC for the season. This actually feel in line with most of the community as well but call it "Sim Luck" or misjudgment or whatever, Chicago outperformed expectation in a major way!

Prediction Score: Off 4 (11 Total)

 New York Silverbacks  (6-10)
With a preseason prediction of 7 wins for 6th place in the ultra competitive ASFC, I feel like this one is a win as well. The community gets this win as well though with the 6th place prediction.

Prediction Score: Off 1 (12 Total)

 Sarasota Sailfish  (7-9)
I predicted them with 8 wins and a 4th place finish. They ended up in 5th place but the win total was close. While the community didn't have a consensus ranking, they were rated 4th highest. So maybe a slight underperformance for the Sailfish.

Prediction Score: Off 1 (13 Total)

 Yellowknife Wraiths  (8-8)
I predicted an 8-8 finish (spot on!) but thought that would be good enough for 3rd place in the NSFC. The community was split between a 3rd and 4th place finish. Overall, just as expected again.

Prediction Score: EXACT (Off 13 Total)

 Austin Copperheads  (6-10)
The Copperheads underperformed based upon my predictions as I had them at 8 wins. However, the 5th place finish was as expected which also matched the community think tank.

Prediction Score: Off 2 (15 Total)

 Cape Town Crash  (9-7)
Another perfect win total prediction for me! However, the Crash ended up in 3rd place whereas I predicted a 2nd place finish like many members of the community. However, the Crash were able to make it to the Ultimus so I count that as a season well played!

Prediction Score: EXACT (Off 15 Total)

 Baltimore Hawks  (10-6)
Another prediction spot on! It's like my player is part of the NSFC or something! However, I still couldn't account for Chicago's success so the 2nd place finish was different than both my and the communities prediction of the Hawks topping the NSFC. One of these days, the Hawks will win a playoff game again too.

Prediction Score: EXACT (Off 15 Total)

 Arizona Outlaws  (12-4)
So I was off on this one. I did predict a good season with 10 wins, but I also claimed that would not be good enough for a playoff spot. Not only did Arizona make the playoffs, but a second consecutive Ultimus proved me wrong. The community expected this to happen though with many picking Arizona as the top team in the ISFL.

Prediction Score: Off 2 (17 Total)

 New Orleans Secondline  (11-5)
I feel good about this prediction. I had only 10 wins with a 3rd place finish. That almost lined up perfectly. The community was very split on New Orleans this season but it averaged out to a 3rd place finish so another expected outcome.

Prediction Score: Off 1 (18 Total)

 San Jose SaberCats  (13-3)
The regular season champions were the discounted team by the community as they were predicted to finish in 4th. My prediction had them in 2nd place with 10 wins though so I feel like I am bit vindicated with this one. Though in the end, neither prediction was all the accurate.

Prediction Score: Off 3 (21 Total)

 Orange County Otters  (10-6)
For the second season in a row, I thought the Otters would be able to put it all together and lead the ISFL. The result of missing the playoffs entirely was not expected by me or the community. While they were kind of close to the 12 wins I predicted for them, it still comes out as a loss on my end.

Prediction Score: Off 2 (23 Total)

So how did I do? Well, I managed to get win totals within less than 2 games on average with 3 teams being guessed spot on. How good is this? Not sure but maybe this could be a competition going forward! That could be fun!

[Eldorian]

PBE Affiliate

[Argonisi]

2. 

I’m new to the league so I’ll answer the latter part of the question. How do I think the draft class will do? Well, considering I went 46th in the draft, I think the draft was very deep indeed. How often do you get a future hall of famer in the last 10 minutes of the stream. Hopefully you all can smell my optimism from a mile away, but I think the Berlin Fire Salamanders had a steal of a draft, and that this will catapult them into dynasty status right away. Who was the steal of the draft overall? Clearly, Kurt Wagner! He was the 2nd of three tight ends taken in the draft, Goto Imnegs.net going earliest, at pick 27 in round two. The other hasn’t cracked 100 tpe yet and was taken in the same round as Kurt, In fact, many of the fourth rounders seemed to be much lower in attribute scaling than Wagner, which goes to show how much Tight End positioning hurts your draft stock. When your peers are kickers, you know something is up. Rick Van Vale was taken two spots *before* Kurt Wagner, and he hadn’t cracked 100!  Will anyone become a hall of famer from the season 48 draft clas? Besides Kurt Wagner, I sure as heckfire do! It would be pretty lonely otherwise! But in all seriousness, and because I don’t think it’s appropriate to use this media to submit conjecture about a user’s future activity, I will be analyzing the sample size that was handed to me on a plate by the draft media’s TPE earnings.

The first 9 picks are all over 200 TPE earned, with most but for Warren Peace being well on their way to the 300 mark. I don’t know at what TPE count does a player become useful to an ISFL team, and of course it all comes down to positional weaknesses when determining the speed of call-up times, but it must be done because I don’t care what league or sim league you are in, those counting stats matter to the Hall of Fame Committee. They like to see so-and-so had so many catches, and will forgive early seasons of mediocrity, often pinning the blame onto the GM crew for throwing a rookie into too deep of a pool. After Caleb TheGeicoCamel went 10th, the 11th through 19th picks were all of the same draft caliber for TPE. That is just ridiculous. These must all be well-established users with deep pockets for expensive trainings and fancy equipments. And that will help. No one is putting asterisks next to Canton shrines for if their career was funded off the backs of older players after all! (One thing I found interesting was how Adolin Collins, same position as Robot Sunfish and only a single TPE behind both Sunfish and ZigZag ZigStep, was taken 16 and 17 spots behind them. I’d submit Adolin as another steal of the draft. And what the heck happened with Mr. Irrelevant, Gusztav Farkas? Raven had the most earnings in the whole draft!

29 of the 53 players taken in the draft crossed that 200 TPE threshold, and 15 of them were above or at 225. Given that those who have already max earned are likely to continue that max earning, but factoring in that the sim probably favors certain careers over others in a frustratingly arbitrary manner, I will surmise that there will be 12 Hall of Famers from this class. Not all of these max earners will make it, an unjust result I fear, but there will be some blessed careers as well. And that is what makes for good football!

Oh and by the way, I was put in a mock draft as going eighth overall. Was that crazy or did I fall for good reason?


639 words

[jreed12]

2. Tell us about your draft class. Is there anything that makes it special in comparison to other classes? Where did your fellow draftees land, how are they doing? Did anyone turn out to be an unexpected steal of that draft based on what you know today? Do you think anyone in your draft class will become a hall of famer? If you’re new to the league, how do you think your class will do? Where do you think people will get drafted to?

—My draft class, S46, is not known for being particularly notable, especially since it was a smaller one (not even 3 rounds) and there were a markedly lower number of new creates. Furthermore, it seems like the majority of the picks below me at 21OA have gone IA, meaning a very low amount of profitability from this draft. I want to focus on how Berlin (future S50 Ultimus Champs) picks have fared in particular. Berlin had 4 picks total across three rounds, including two picks in the first round. As we will see, they have generally fared pretty well.

Reference: https://wiki.sim-football.com/view/Season_46_ISFL_Draft

R1, 5OA: Devin Jones  CB, LON — Obviously this pick was a no brainer as Drizzy is an absolute stud as a player and a very active user. I believe he has had multiple recreates over the years and is an OG in the ISFL, and currently has over 640 TPE at the time of writing this. This was a very safe pick and he has been reliably producing stats, including an absolutely explosive sophomore season on the Salamanders where he doubled, in some cases, tripled, stats in every category. The picks who came before Jones were all remarkable and are having solid careers thus far, but BER needing to rebuild its secondary definitely knocked this pick out of the park.

R1, 13OA: Peepee Poop-Eater JR S, MIN — This is another valuable active user who earns consistently and another cornerstone of our rebuilding defense. I believe this is user Nathan’s second player in the ISFL so another recreate, so this player was another safe pick. I do not believe that we have called this player up yet but they’ve had decent stats on MIN as well as handling special teams duties. With my fellow Weekly Mirror co-conspirator griis off the board, this was definitely the next best pick.

R2, 21OA: D’Jasper Probincrux IV DE, DAL — As a new create, I was definitely more of an unknown, and I have been decently active but I am admittedly only like 80–90% of a max earner sitting at 525 TPE currently, however I believe that since I contribute in war room, scouting, and general shit stirring, I have made up more than my worth in value especially sliding into the second round. I believe that BER also traded up to get this pick, so it was imperative that I prove my worth right away. However, I did go through a sophomore slump statistically this past season, so I need to focus on earning a little better. But, on the flipside, I was the only DE in this draft who still remained a DE on their ISFL team (Sergei Nunkanblok is currently listed as a corner), so I also made up for it by providing high positional rarity value and got called up right away. I believe actually that I am the only S46 DE in the league currently.

R3, 36OA: Stephen Murphy TE, LON — This player updated once and was never heard from again, so this pick is obviously a bust. But what can you do with one of the last picks in the draft. Any other player that came after this one is out of the league at this point and all are IA. I can’t find any of them listed on the current TPE tracker or anywhere on a roster. From my limited statistical sleuthing, I also am under the impression that Murphy didn’t even play a snap in the DSFL after achieving 77 TPE on day one, so this one was really a “we have to pick somebody” type scenario.

[nunccoepi]

10. Through a random lottery drawing, you have been named the league's new commissioner for a day. Congrats! What improvements would you make to the league if you had the power to do whatever you wanted?

Ok, well this one isn't that hard to imagine because I have actually been the commissioner for a day. For a lot of days actually, although it was for the DSFL and not the ISFL. Despite being there for so long, there are still some changes that I kind of felt I left on the table because we only had some much time and political willpower to make things work. For me, I always tended to approach issues from the top down, working first at the level of policy and institutionalism and then tailoring down as the rules, traditions, and circumstances allowed to come out with a fair result. If that sounds heady, its because it is, and that is a reason we never got to the changes I'm about to describe. Generally, the changes involve checks on Head Office power which, incidentally, isn't really as much of a factor in terms of barrier to enactment as the average person might think. Head Office members are generally happy enough to surrender decision making responsibility once they've been around long enough to see a thing or two. Ok, so the change I would enact would be to limit Head Office power to three general realms: enforcement of the rulebook provisions through monitoring compliance, levying fair punishments for violations of the league rules, and administrative tasks. The reason I would limit it to just those three areas, as astute readers might notice, is that it limits HO's ability to make up new rules out of whole cloth. This is an ongoing temptation for HO members because it is often the quickest way to get to what seems like a fair result. But it also is the quickest way to run afoul of procedural mechanisms or fair notice that make the league a more equitable and enjoyable place for all. HO is still free to add new rules through the usual rules summit process, of course, and HO is free to clarify ambiguous rules and add rules to the rulebook that have always (or nearly always) been in place but should have been added. But each of those situations are different from HO choosing to make up a new rule or way of doing something--absent pure procedure--that would otherwise obviate the need for a rules summit and tample upon the rights of the GMs and other voters at the rules summit.


14. Expansion Expansion Expansion! Tell us why you think the league should expand / not expand or include any ideas (in words) for team branding ideas you have or team locations.

Expansion, the ever exciting and ever controversial topic. I can tell you with a unique perspective as a member of Head Office that this is not an easy topic to discuss and one that gives a lot of anxiety to leadership. Of course, contraction does that too and my time in Head Office saw more contraction discussions towards the end than expansion. But many of the same principles apply to WHETHER to expand as to whether to contract, and that goes to the heart of this prompt. I'm not very aware of the current league numbers regarding engagement and roster size and recreate percentage and average length of career and recruitment access and avenues, but I can assure you those are some of the basic topics that must be addressed--and more. That being said, from my stance as a now casual observer, it seems like things have held pretty steady in the last few seasons. The last r/NFL recruitment was good but not mind blowing. And DSFL rosters seem only half full with actives. In my mind, those are two reasons that we should not be expanding right now. Doing so would further deplete the DSFL roster and would almost certainly lead to the contraction of at least two of those teams. I don't know any HO members that are close to entertaining the possibility of expansion. That being said, its always fun to think about. I've always been an advocate for an expansion team in Michigan. It doesn't have to be in Detroit, but as a Michigan native myself I know that the residents there are loyal and battle tested. Its also a state with so much uniqueness. At this point I've thrown out ideas for Detroit teams and team generally related to the great lakes. But for this one I will propose one related to the Upper Peninsula. In Michigan, everything north of basically Pontiac, and certainly Saginaw, is known as "Up North" and the Upper Peninsula is known as just the "U.P." so those are both good location names. I would go with simply "U.P." There are a lot of things that could serve as mascots for the team's identity, but the first that will come to mind for many is the cold and snow as the UP tends to get more than even the northeast because it is surrounded by lakes. Thus, I would call the team the U.P. Blizzard. And I would choose green, white, and silver as the primary colors because of the snow, heavy forestry, and shining lakes.

[Muford]

33. 

While a lot of folks talk about needing a massive rebrand, or even update to their current branding, there is no other team I can think of then the Norfolk SeaWolves. I guess you could call me a hater, but I just am not a fan of how the logo presents itself and it just feels quite out of place for a sports league. I mean you can keep the team in Norfolk if you want, but the submarine is outdated and needs to be updated to fit a bit better. A close second for me would be the Portland Pythons, I know they recently redid the logo, but I am just really not a fan of how it looks and would not be mad to see another change, maybe switch up some colors for Portland as well to make it feel more at home in the DSFL North. Those would be my first two changes.

(157 words)

32.

Blacksmith Andre has finally partially understood that the world he comes from is a Video Game, and that he would talk about what it was like to live in a Video Game and how his attempts to go back thus far have gone nowhere. He would probably not get with some major cool celebrities, but he would stick with some of the folks he knows in San Jose. Blacksmith Andre would also talk about what it was like to be reborn multiple times and what it has always been like to craft and upgrade armor for those who need it. Blacksmith Andre would also discuss how he wants to get back into the game because that is where his home is and what he is used to and what he knows the best, and how hopefully one day he would like to get back into what he knows best because it is where he most comfortable.

(157 words)

30.

Honestly, while I hate to admit it, Josh Patterson is without a doubt my MVP for the ISFL this season. He had a 66.7 passer competition rating, to go along with 4159 yards and an astounding 41/9 TD to INT ratio. He was the best Quarterback overall, even though he didn’t have the most yards, it’s not always about that. Josh Patterson was efficient and effective whenever he touched the field. If there was a most improved player, he should win it as well, as he over doubled his amount of touchdowns from the previous season as well. Josh Patterson has shown the league that he has what it takes to be one of the best Quarterbacks in the league, and not giving him the award would be a shock. Josh Patterson also led the San Jose Sabercats to the best record they have ever had, sitting at a beautiful 13-3 this year.

(154 words)

28.

I think one of the rules that I would change, to make sure that the game was a bit more fun and a better all around game is I would allow the defense to get away with a bit more holding, especially in the secondary. The secondary would be able to hold upwards of 5 of so yards and it would make the defense a lot more fun to watch instead of just watching teams put up 40+ points each per game, yeah, sure, people like scoring, but a great defensive matchup is something you just don’t really get to see anymore. I would love to see something like that pop up, to make the defenses actually be more respectable again and you would be able to actually stop these “high-powered” offenses because there are some rules that would actually allow the defenses to do more instead of looking at someone and getting a flag thrown at you.

(159 words)

[hotdog]

SHL PT

[DigDoug11]

Prompt 16 - 309 words 5 TPE

S47 for Corey Trevor was great from his point of view. To get called up to an amazing team and to be considered underdogs at the beginning of the season was a bit of shock, but I believe that just added fuel to the fire for the Chicago butchers because we ended up being the number one team in the conference, ending the season going 11-5, losing to CTC in the Conference finals was a bit rough but going from underdog to top of the league is an awesome feat. But even We came out of the gates hot, winning our 1st 3 games of the season vs some very good teams, lost the next 3 games, which was a reality check for the team, meaning if we wanted to win this season, we had to work for it, it wasn't going to come easy. after that we only lost 2 more games out of the 10 remaining.  For Corey Trevor, coming into this season as a rookie it was an amazing experience to be able to play in the playoffs, he was able to do that during his rookie season of the DSFL.  Going into this season, Corey was excited to share the back field with the famous Triceracop, He became a great mentor for Corey over the season.  I can't wait for the new season to start so we can show the league what were made of.  Going into this season, Corey plans to be more focus during the season, because during this past season he was distracted for a part of the season leading to a few blunders, but that's not going to be the case for this season.  Expectations are high for this upcoming season, after all, we need to do better than last season and I believe that is totally possible given our roster

36 - 2.5 TPE SHL Affliate

[Drizzy]

16. 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?

It's no secret to anyone in the league that the Berlin Fire Salamanders entered a bit of a rebuild phase in the last season or so and as such, expectations of what S47 might entail were a little bit lower than they normally would be for a team that prides itself on a level of success. Led by a deluge of new faces in the locker room, the team is looking to build strongly for the future with the young talent that they have and acquire significant draft capital to acquire future assets. What this means in the short term however is that results might not be the the strongest.

Despite this knowledge however, the fans expectations might have been a little unfairly skewed by the opening week result of the team, where they were able to score 5 touchdowns in a home victory over the Honolulu Hahalua. This success could unfortunately almost entirely be chalked down to the level of opposition that they faced, as the team would shortly embark on a four week losing streak, that would reach its apex with a complete drubbing against the Cape Town Crash where the team gave up 66 points and were thoroughly embarrassed. Sometimes it takes a game like this to light a fire under a team and remind them that they're not actually that bad, because the following week would see Berlin snap the streak and pick up a comfortable win against the Colorado Yeti which I would argue was the high point of the teams season in real terms. To be able to finally snap the losing streak and demonstrate that we were capable of putting up wins in this league despite the inexperience and youth of the team was an important moment for us and one that I don't think can be underestimated when it comes to building confidence for the future.

In terms of expectations for the team next season, its hard to say. I think if we're being realistic, we aren't going to have the firepower to compete with the big guns and push for a playoff spot, but I think we will be able to demonstrate some growth and at least give a better account of ourselves. In my mind, we're probably 3 seasons away from being able to really compete for an Ultimus, so the key measuring stick for me is that each season between now and then we show some improvement and push to get closer to that point at the end of the road.

Code:

422 words

5/10

[Drip]

OT Pass