(S49) Offseason Task

[AJW]

Long Task - #7 (600+ words on interests)

My name is AJW and I am a VHL affiliate. I joined the ISFL again just recently after the VHL announced that we would be creating an affiliate system in order to merge players into both leagues for easy TPE opportunities. I joined the ISFL in the late S30’s and won an Ultimini Cup with KC, I shortly left after. Since rejoining the league recently I have found there have been a lot of upgrades and changes that are in fact very interesting.

First and foremost is the TPE checklist. This is something that most might take for granted, but it is a massive tool for newer members like myself. I’ve actually seen this in the past and pitched the idea to VHL staff to implement on that forum. I think it’s great having a list of all the tasks you are eligible for right on the Home Screen when you log in. It’s amazing that each get crossed off too right when you do it. It’s a proper checklist and I’m really happy this league has it, it’s helped me a lot to know what I have to do.

Second thing that interests me is the communication and teamwork that the recruitment team and GMs put in to the development of the league. Draft class servers, very active GMs… it all adds up and makes the learning experience a lot more easier for new members. With so many resources and so many people helping out, it’s hard to get lost around here when all you need to do is reach out to the many willing to help. I was lucky enough to land in Tijuana my first season back, we had a strong team, we had a very strong GM in @CROney3, and of course we won the Ultimini which is the cherry on top. Croney even gifted me Discord nitro because he felt I “deserved” it. That’s probably the kindest gesture and gift any GM has done for me. Just goes to show that the people here with jobs actually care and want the best for everyone else.

Something else interesting is the fact that we can watch games lives, all streamed on YouTube and you can rewatch them. If I ever miss a game I’ll just turn my discord notification off until I watch the YouTube video. I LOVED that I was able to watch back the draft that my player was apart of. I was gone the weekend of and totally missed it, but I didn’t miss it after rewatching it back. In the VHL we are more statistical and don’t have visuals for our sims, so being able to watch my player live in game is really cool to me.

Lastly I do think it’s interesting that this is a money league. I feel the idea of a money league turned me away the first time I created a player, this time around I have a different perspective on it. You don’t need a lot of cash to do weekly trainings after earning contract money, Discord money, media money, etc. Before typing this off season task up I wrote a short 200 word media which took little to no time to do. Over time these short medias add up almost as if they were passive income. I feel like if I strategize the way I earn my money then it won’t be hard to have a good balance to sit on.

Finally what is interesting about the ISFL is the wiki pages. I’ve never made one before until I got here. Once I learned how the stats tables worked (copy, paste, fill in… easy) I was flying through my page. Having to update it once a season for 5 TPE is great too. 5 TPE each season to keep track of my player’s history and stats is something I’m so okay with doing.

That’s all, thank you ISFL for being interesting, I’m enjoying my return a lot.

[nunccoepi]

Long Task - #6 (600+ words on league history)

I can't believe I haven't told this story before in one of these Ultimus week prompts. But it tends to come up from time to time, so I want to tell you about why Immanuel Blackstone is a Honolulu legend. This was two players ago for me, circa S25 or so. Immanuel Blackstone rose quickly through the ranks on a HOF track as a DE for the Colorado Yeti. At the time was another DL on the team with a similar sounding name. Ismael something. Well I was in the Colorado war room at the time, so I knew as much as anyone that Colorado and Honolulu were talking trades. Ismael was to go to Honolulu in return for the controverisal Big Ed. But here's the catch-- the Colorado GM at the time accidentally put Immanuel on the trade message instead of Ismael. Nothing against the rest of these players, but the way our careers were going, this was an extremely lopsided trade. So, of course, Honolulu quickly accepted.

Over in real life I was out at an event and couldn't be on my phone. I would try to check in from time to time because I knew we had some trades in the works, but everything seemed routine, so I wasn't concerned. But suddenly my phone starts blowing up. I get on and a bunch of the notifications were ghost pings because I had actually been kicked out of the war room. I was distracted with irl so I couldn't figure out what was going on. Next thing you know, I get a message from someone on the team saying they were ready to retire and quit the league entirely because of how horribly I'd been treated! I told them not to, of course, and tried to get to the bottom of it.

What happened was Honolulu noticed the discrepancy but was holding Colorado to it. In other words, Immanuel Blacksone was stuck on a flight over the Pacific Ocean and Colorado needed to provide adequate compensation if they wanted to get him back. That also meant that I couldn't be in the Colorado war room since I was no longer on the team. That explained my confusion and why I wasn't getting much from the team. They couldn't even reach out to me because of the tampering rules! I know Colorado was also reaching out to Head Office to get the trade reversed but that was going to be a long shot because the Colorado had sent the original message and Honolulu had confirmed. Open and shut.

Anyway, as it turned out, the Honolulu GMs were not only aware of the mistake but also were also just playing along as a prank. They weren't really looking to fleece Colorado, just give them a hard time. Of course, it made me think I was getting stealth fired or something. But at the end of the day Honolulu made good about it and fixed the trade without much fanfare. There was only one stipulation: I had to add the incident to Blackstone's wiki page. So of course, I did.

The whole incident lasted a matter of a few hours, but it was one of my fondest memories in the league. Since then there have been many jokes and references to it. For example, Honolulu sent me a sig about Blacksone re-signing a contract. And in a weird twist of fate, I believe Colorado and Honolulu met the season following the trade in the Ultimus. So that championship game became known as the Blackstone Bowl. In theory, he could have earned himself a ring regardless of which team had one!

[xenosthelegend]

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.

Its offseason PT time! Time to talk about Zenzeroni Xystarch II again!

At this point I think its indisputable that Xystarch is on an insane pace as a punter. He currently holds 4th on the all time leaders for career punt average, and 5th for the all time inside 20 rate leaders. The best anyone else has is a spot in the top 5, and the other at 10. Now despite this, Xystarch is a statistical anomaly for a completely different reason, and has joined a club very, very few are a part of.

Throughout the entire history of the ISFL, there have been a relative very few instances of punters getting the same amount of punts inside the 20 at least 2 seasons in a row. I was looking through the index and noticed Zenzeroni Xystarch II had the same amount of punts inside the 20 in his last 3 seasons, and I got curious about players who have had seasons consecutive seasons with the same amount of punts inside the 20. I hastily threw together a program to find such seasons. The result is two lists that I don't believe have ever been compiled before.

Here is the exclusive club of punters that have managed to get 2 such consecutive seasons:
Booter McGavin - S42, S42 - 33 punts inside the 20
Bradley Madlad - S9, S10 - 15 punts inside the 20
Christiano Ronaldo - S3, S4 - 20 punts inside the 20
Dean Jackson - S5, S6 - 15 punts inside the 20
Dougie Smalls - S27, S28 - 39 punts inside the 20
Herbert Prohaska - S21, S22 - 10 punts inside the 20
Ian Cole III - S36, S37 - 37 punts inside the 20
Jeremy Crouse Jr. - S39, S40 - 29 punts inside the 20
Master Chief - S46, S47 - 27 punts inside the 20
Matthew McDairmid - S25, S26 - 13 punts inside the 20
Mike Makmur - S42, S43 - 27 punts inside the 20
Sam Sidekick - S30, S31 - 34 punts inside the 20
Stephen Harris - S7, S8 - 12 punts inside the 20
Stephen Harris Jr - S15, S16 - 14 punts inside the 20
Swantavius King* - S37, S38 - 34 punts inside the 20
Swantavius King* - S40, S41 - 29 punts inside the 20
Taipan Pete - S33, S34 - 35 punts inside the 20
Turk Turkleton** - S10, S11 - 14 punts inside the 20

*Swantavius King is the only player to achieve 2 separate same streaks that lasted 2 seasons each

And now a far more exclusive club, the punters who managed to get 3 such seasons consecutively:
Alex Frost - S17, S18, S19 - 11 punts inside the 20
Iyah Blewitt - S2, S3, S4 - 20 punts inside the 20
Turk Turkleton** - S4, S5, S6 - 13 punts inside the 20
Zenzeroni Xystarch II - S46, S47, S48 - 34 punts inside the 20

**Turk Turkleton is the only player to be a member of both clubs

It has been nearly 30 seasons since the 3 consecutive same punting season club has gained a new member. The wildest part about the newest member is that he completely blows everyone else out of the water in terms of how many of his punts landed inside the 20. But that likely isn't even the wildest stat I uncovered while working on this project.

While this originally was intended to be a post proclaiming the greatness of Zenzeroni Xystarch, I instead uncovered what I believe to be the two most exclusive clubs for punters, and uncovered possibly one of the wildest stats ever. Turk Turkleton is the only player in ISFL history to have 2 consecutive seasons of the same amount of punts inside the 20, and an entirely separate streak of 3 consecutive seasons of the same amount of punts inside the 20.

[Beck]

Prompt: 5. “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 have chosen the “Sim gonna Sim” prompt to write about for my offseason task. This is one that I have felt very personally, especially when I was one of the General Managers of the Orange County Otters. I have heard many times how the sim is unpredictable and how no game is a guarantee. Those words have never rang more true than my last two seasons as the general manager in Orange County.

Both seasons referenced, we had the highest total TPE in the league, along with the highest effective TPE, and average TPE etc. I assumed that in both seasons, we were title contenders, and many users across the league felt similarly. When it came to doing season projections, both seasons, many users picked us to make the playoffs, and also come in first place.

As managers, myself and Cord went all in when it felt like we had some holes we could fill. We felt great about the composition of our roster, and knew that we’d try to capitalize on a few seasons, and then look at a multi season tear down and rebuild.

Fast forward into the season, and the sim gods really began showing their lack of favoritism for Orange County. I was shocked, and Cord was as well. Not only were we losing tons of games that we should have been winning, but we began falling out of the playoff picture all together. After the first season of this “peak” that I am referencing, we completely fell flat and missed the playoffs. I am not sure if there has ever been a team as high TPE as us miss the playoffs in league history.

Fast forward to the next season and it was more of the same. Huge leads in TPE, but a lack of results on the field. The top of our conference was very competitive, while the other few teams on the bottom were all in rebuilding stages. The Sim gonna Sim was something we felt whole heartedly, as we lost every game to each good team we played that particular season. At the end of the season, we once again missed out on the playoffs, and for me, I decided it was the best time for me to step down and let someone else take over who would hopefully do a better job.

During this time, it felt very much like Arizona was sim blessed. They had an amazing team and did a great job of putting it together. But it felt like they won every game they should win, and at worst split the competitive games. They were our perceived biggest competition and ended up winning the Ultimus in one of those seasons.

Yellowknife is a team in the opposite conference as us, but at the time, also had a good luck streak when it came to sim results. They were the benefactors of a weaker conference, but even with low tpe, managed to put on one of the most impressive seasons that I can remember. It led them all the way to the Ultimus, to where, if I remember correctly, they ended up losing to the Arizona Outlaws.

During this time, the New Orleans Secondline were a team who was on the up and up, but seemed to be in a similar boat as us, where the sim did not show too much favoritism. Occasionally their former General Manager, Mobi, would have public meltdowns due to this.

Overall, even with good strategies for games that come from solid testing, no game is ever a sure thing. In some cases, teams like Yellowknife are able to ride momentum into a near championship season. On the other hand, you have teams like the ones I finished with, who vastly underachieve and leave you thinking about “What if.” (636 Words)

[WildfireMicro]

Task 14:
 Personally I am not entirely sure if the league is ready for expansion right now, as I don't keep track of the league user numbers. On one hand, the league has gotten a new crop of users over the past few seasons that would probably make pretty good expansion GMs. On the other hand, some seasons ago we almost contracted the DSFL because I think we didn't have enough users. Then again that was a very long time ago, at least a year or so I think. I think the league that property could use expansion is ironically the DSFL, but that's more out of parity then anything else.

 That all being said, I do have a few ideas for expansion branding that could be used. The first one is a team in Jamaica, which is a part of the world that has been underutilized in sim leagues. It provides plenty of branding ideas, and the colors of black and green haven't been used by themselves aren't being used by an ISFL or DSFL team as of now, though it might cause issues with BBB. A Japanese team has already been taken by the Osaka Kaiju, but perhaps a South Korean team could also be cool. If we were to stay in the USA, a team in Ohio could also be cool, perhaps in Canton where the Pro Football Hall of Fame is?

 Cincinnati could also be a cool place, as I have not seen many sim league teams use it. We could also go back to Pennsylvania with Pittsburgh, perhaps a name like the Pittsburgh Steel or Pittsburgh Hammers? We could also go crazy and put a team really out there like Mars, because hey PBE put a team on the Moon! Ether way, expansion is a dirty word in any league and personally I don't want to see it happen unless we are absolutely sure that it is time to do so.

Task 31:


Task 36:

PBE affiliate PT

[nickWilliams]

25. Create a billboard, magazine cover, unique trading card, or video game cover depicting a one of the league's stars. (Graphic Task) +2.5 TPE


26. if your player wasn't a professional in the ISFL/DSFL, what would they be doing instead? (Written Task or Graphic Task) +2.5 TPE


35. Create the front page of a newspaper celebrating the win or the Ultimus or Ultimini winner. (Graphic Option) +2.5 TPE

[Seven Arrows]

All four of the following will be Tier 3 tasks:

If your player wasn't a professional in the ISFL/DSFL, what would they be doing instead?

If my player, Golden Erickson, were not a professional in the DSFL/ISFL, I suppose he would continue his regimen of regular workouts to include strength training, flexibility, endurance (cardio), and balance control.  I believe these would be important to continue for a variety of reasons.  Regardless of what other sport my player would want to pursue, the above four pillars of training would provide him the tools to participate in any sport that interested him.  Baseball, in particular, would benefit from all of the above.  Golden  was offered out of high school to sign a major league contract but chose to attend college instead.  Perhaps, he could work with an agent to see if he could rekindle interest among some MLB teams again.  Then, again, Golden has recently taken up golf and is quite good at it.  He presently maintains a 2 handicap.  He thinks he could play scratch golf if he put some more time into the sport.  The bottom line is that Golden Erickson is a naturally gifted athlete and he could easily pursue some other professional or semi-professional sport. 

All that said, Golden also enjoys photography and has had many photos exhibited locally and regionally.  He also sells some of his work.  He could easily see himself becoming a professional photographer.


What are your thoughts on the sim engine? What sort of improvements would you make to the sim engine if given the opportunity? 

My thoughts on the sim engine?  It’s terrible.  No, worse than that, it absolutely sucks.  I don’t remember playing a sim game where the mechanics were as poor as this one.  There is no ball to follow, the play is incredibly fast along with the verbiage on the screen.  There is no play-by-play commentary (I’ve only seen the sim for the Prospect Bowl.  I’m told there is commentary for the regular season). I’m playing on PBE now and it’s currently using OOTP 23.  It’s not great compared to OOTP 25 but it’s tolerable.  You can see the players, and follow the ball, and it provides running stats throughout the game.  This is where the ISFL should be.  Now, I’m not familiar with all the other football sim platforms that are out there but there has to be something better than the existing product. 

The sim should show players with accurate numbers.  The speed should be reasonable so that you can follow the action.  Neither too slow nor too fast.  Finally, some mechanism should allow the individual stats to be seen throughout the game.  It can be located in the corner or to the side so that it does not block the play itself.  And how about some color instead of black and white?  And, speaking of color, I’d like to see color commentators along with play-by-play announcers on these sims. 

Maybe there is a sim engine that can do all this but there has to be something better than what we have here.


Your player has decided to start a podcast since it's what all the cool celebrities are doing these days. What would the name of your player's podcast be and what would they talk about/do on the podcast?

The name of my player’s podcast would be “The Golden Hour”.  The podcast would be eclectic in nature.  By that I mean it would obviously include the sport of football but it would also extend to other sports as well.  In fact, Golden would like the podcast to branch out even more than that.  He would include topics of a cultural nature such as cultural trends in music, film, books, and social media.  He would also like include fitness routines, nutrition tips, and general well-being.  Yeah, and let’s broaden even further:  Let’s include travel and food by sharing travel experiences, restaurant reviews, and culinary adventures.  We’d maybe even dive into some cool history that his listeners would enjoy.  Ultimately, it would be a forum for sharing experiences, challenges, and achievements.  Of course, to do that, it would be necessary to have fan interactions and Q&A so that Erickson could engage with his audience by answering their questions and discussing their suggested topics.  I think an hour once a week would be about right for my player.  He would be excited by the possibilities not to mention having a forum that allows for his brand to be enlarged.


Imagine your current position was not available to be picked when you created your player. What other position would you have picked, and why?

If I was not able to choose the wide receiver position, I would most likely choose to be an edge rusher.  I liked playing defense in high school (I played on both sides of the line in high school) and getting after people and tackling was a great deal of fun.  I ike the fact that you can be a game changer.  Edge rushers can change the course of a game with a single play, such as a sack or forced fumble. They are pivotal in applying pressure on the quarterback, disrupting the offensive rhythm.  I like the fact too that edge rushers often move around the defensive line, allowing for varied assignments and strategies.  So, the position requires a good deal of skill, agility, strength, and intuitiveness.  The position is physically demanding and fast-paced.  I mean who doesn’t want that kind of adrenaline rush? Overpowering an opponent and making a big play is very  rewarding.  Hey, maybe I can even make a highlight reel with a big play like that.

[YetiTaz]

8. 8. I'm not going to lie. It was a rough start for me in the beginning. Coming over from PBE, I had a great grasp on the TPE system, and I enjoy these types of games immensely. However, the formatting and style used in the ISFL was like that old meme. They had us in the first half. They were a struggle to get used to. I even told the people scouting me I was probably going to discontinue my activity here. Several of the people who had contacted me encouraged me to stay and I am glad they did. I was able to start catching on to the different way the TPE is recorded as opposed to PBE and got involved in the Rookie Discord. That place is insane! We have had a great time, laughing about everything from Jerry Springer to me being the "old man" of the server. The GMs and mentors have had their hands full in the Discord. The trash talk has been entertaining and, for the most part, done in good fun. The chaperones, as I'll call them, have done a great job of making sure it never gets too personal. The mentors were also very good at teaching us other tricks to the game. Like how much willeh loves haiku. Good on willeh for being a good sport about it. Draft hype was also an enjoyable time. The GMs and mentors had us all excited about Draft Night. The only bad thing for me about Draft Night was being at work when it took place but that's just how the dice rolls sometimes. Watching the replay and hearing the Tijuana War Room wanted Civvy to make a fart joke on stream told me I am on the team I need to be on. Now that we are on our teams, I have to say, I'm gonna miss our crazy Rookie Class.

[Knif3yMan87]

Tier 1  - Option 7:

I came over from PBE to join the ISFL / DSFL, I work with data for my day job, and obviously I love baseball. That being said, you
can probably assume by now that I am a bit of a stat junkie weirdo. I am still learning how the ISFL simulation games and stat gathering works, however I am excited to compile stats from the games and use them in my articles.  The ISFL obviously has a pretty rich history and seems to be growing rather rapidly, so I think it would be really awesome to get involved in the stats and data tracking; either independently or perhaps as an official league job if something like that ever opens up. I still have a lot to learn about how all this works so any ideas or plans I have now may not be possible or make a lot of sense. I'm still fairly new in PBE all things considered but I think that a lot of those skills/resources should translate over as I learn and grow in both leagues.

My first thoughts go to whether we could put something together for the ISFL that's like the PBE's index, for stats/box scores and stuff like that. Like I said before, I am still brand new to ISFL so perhaps this stuff already exists and I just haven't seen it yet. I know for the Prospect Bowls we had to watch the streams and try to extract stats for ourselves from the video. I would assume there is something more automated for the primary league; that or there are people assigned as a job to extract that data, compile/prepare it, and make it servable to the rest of the league. If this doesn't exist yet, maybe its something we really need to have a conversation about. If something like this does exist, then I would be interested in joining that team and helping out.

I am guessing there is something in place already since the league already does the MVP awards and that sort of thing; so obviously they're already extracting the stats somehow they probably just don't do it for the Prospect Bowls. Regardless of how its done, I am interested and would enjoy being on that team or at least having access to that data for my own stuff.

I also co-host the streams a bit in the PBE, so maybe that is something else I could help out with in ISFL/DSFL? I don't really have any experience in calling football games but I think its something I could catch on to pretty quickly. I've not yet gotten into GM/Front Office stuff in any of my sim leagues, however this football league may be a good opportunity for me to get into management if it comes up. Learning the teams and players is usually the hardest part and just being around the league for a season or two should help solve that.

All-in-all I am pretty excited to join the ISFL and really pumped to follow my player after getting drafted in the 3rd round by the Portland Pythons. I think I have a lot to offer the league so I will be keeping my eye open for any fitting job opportunities. If nothing else, I believe I should be a long-time member and be sure to keep my player as close to max earnings as I can. Looking forward to the season starting next week and seeing where things go from here. If anyone out there is on the stats team or the stream-hosting teams don't hesitate to reach out to me.

Thanks!

- Knif3y

Words: 600+

[TomHanks]

1. The Season 48 Ultimus and Ultimini have officially come to an end. Congratulations to the the Tijuana Luchadores and New Orleans Second Line for each winning their respective championships. How did each of the finalists in either the Ultimus or Ultimini arrive at the playoffs? Were there any teams that surprised or disappointed during the playoffs? Did the outcome of either championship game surprise you at all?

I will tell you one thing and one thing right now, and it is that I am not at all surprised at either outcome this season. While I was with the London Royals with this player, and they absolutely have a special place in my heart for helping bring me back to the league, I still have a lot of love for Tijuana. They're the first team that got me excited about the league, and it brings a smile to my face when they do well and have fun. However, the results of the DSFL Ultimini are not what I will be focusing on here today. Today, I will be looking at the long path that the New Orleans Second Line have had until they hoisted the Ultimus trophy this season. Prior to winning this trophy, the Second Line had not won an Ultimus in 27 long seasons. We had not appeared in the Ultimus in 21 longer seasons. And the longest seasons were S40-S46, a 7 season stretch where the team amassed only 21 total wins. Averaging 3 wins per season for an entire career prior regression setting in is a difficult thing to overcome. People don't often like playing for the worst team in any league, and at a certain point, NOLA was indisputably that. However, losing a whole heap of a lot comes with its own benefits as well in the form of excellent draft capital. Building through the draft can be a lot slower than building through free agency, but attracting free agents to a team that isn't showing its potential can be damn near impossible. However, as we got towards the end of the 7 season draught, things really were starting to look up. There was a tremendous amount of buy in within the locker room, people were having a ton of fun, earning TPE, and steadily improving all together. The growth of the young core of the team combined with a couple of big trades meant that going into S46, the Second Line were back in the type of form they hadn't seen since the S20s. Going into S47, the New Orleans Second Line looked to be the best team in the ISFL.

The season started off with a clanger of a four game stretch, with the Second Line facing the juggernaut Sabercats and the perennially dominant Outlaws on the road in back to back weeks, plus two home games also against divisional opponents. NOLA walked away from that 4-0, showing the league they did not come to play around. Some were suggesting that the team was so good, it would never lose again. Going undefeated is no easy task, and the Second Line would lose in weeks 5, 10 and 11 on the road. Winning the rest of the games to that point, New Orleans entered their final game of the season with a 12-3 record. They were faced against their bitter rivals the Outlaws, and playing at home, where they were 7-0 at for this season. Sadly, the Second Line would falter and fail to defend the home turf against the Outlaws. This would ultimately not matter other than for pride for the Second Line, as the team had clinched the first seed regardless. It would matter for seeding, however, as the Outlaws won themselves home field advantage for the wild card week. They took advantage of this opportunity and battered San Jose 26-6. For the second time in three weeks, they would travel to the House of the Rising Sun and attempt to beat the Second Line. New Orleans took the bye week to study their film of the week 16 loss to the Outlaws, and vowed to avoid making any of the same mistakes. A strong showing and a 27-6 win got the New Orleans Second Line their first trip to the Ultimus in 21 years.

The Ultimus game itself appeared to spell disaster for the Second Line. The miracle run seemed to be heading directly into a grave, and the rebuild showed signs of all being for not. The offence had scored a measly 10 points in over 3 quarters of gameplay, where the defense had allowed 27 points in the same time frame. Then, the Dooters came back from the dead. Storming the field and refusing to go quietly into the good night, the Second Line defense took a page out of Remember the Titans and would not give up an inch for the rest of the night. The offence had a fire lit under their ass and went buck wild, putting up 27 points of their own in just the fourth quarter. When the dust settled, New Orleans had secured another Ultimus trophy for the cabinet with a 10 point victory over the Baltimore Hawks.