(S51) Offseason Task

[swoosh]

OT Pass

[Mooty99]

OT Pass

[zaynzk]

OT Pass

[SabaDonutMan]

19) To any DSFL team that is thinking about drafting me, I promise that I will bring two things: athleticism and effort. I show up to each game fully committed to winning and I'll do anything to make that happen. Being a defensive lineman can be extremely frustrating at times and whether it’s pursuing the ball carrier, pressuring the quarterback, or shedding blocks, Benji Raga can promise that he will always give 100% effort.  Besides just my character, I bring extraordinary physical ability to any team's defensive line. I have a unique combination of strength and speed, using power to hold the line and burst off the snap to disrupt plays in the backfield. I like to rely on my strength to shed blockers quickly, but I also have the agility to move laterally and close in on ball carriers or the quarterback with my speed which allows me to be effective in both run-stopping situations and in pressuring the opposing passer.

27) If Benji Raga wasn't a defensive lineman in the DSFL there is only one other thing he could be, a professional chef. Both of his parents worked in the culinary industry and he was taught many of their techniques and secret recipes, and while in college at Oregon, Benji mastered the art of making the perfect chicken parmesan. While these skills have proven to be invaluable in helping with his nutrition and meal planning as a football player, they would also help serve him well in his new career as a chef. The biggest challenge in this career is his size, being a defensive lineman can make him feel like an elephant in a china shop whenever he’s in the kitchen. But with the same intensity he brings to the field, Benji Raga would tackle any culinary challenge he's presented with, and who knows? Maybe his athleticism might give him the edge in handling the fast-paced restaurant environment.

30) This question is extremely hard for me to answer because my two favorites are both ones that I was involved in creating. First, we have the best team in league history, the Arizona Outlaws. When I was first drafted by the team in season seventeen we had a completely different logo, but the problem was that we didn't own the asset and we ultimately it was time that we made a change. As such the general manager reached out to a graphic designer and asked them to make a logo for us, and they returned with the one we all know and love today. It's truly an amazing logo, the colour scheme is fantastic, and the Outlaw is a menacing reminder of the team's dominance. However, the other branding I would have to consider is the Portland Pythons. Since I was drafted to the team in season sixteen there have been three logos, the black and yellow python badge (honestly my favourite due to nostalgia), the poop snek, and the green python of today. This logo was created as a response to the poop snek logo just not turning out very well, and it ended up looking fantastic. But at the end of the day, I can only have one favorite, and that honor goes to the Arizona Outlaws.

37) SSL Affiliate

[lordcoolcats]

OT Pass

[Megsychan]

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.

I think it goes without saying that the sim that we use is jank. Utterly, borderline unusably, stinky-ass jank. I think the only reason we continue to use Draft Day is inertia at this point, because I can't find anyone who actually likes the game. I think the only real reason we haven't ditched it for another game is simply because there's no other suitable replacement for it. American football just doesn't attract the same kind of attention for Football Manager-esque games as say, soccer, due to Electronic Arts' suffocating monopoly on the NFL license.

But what if there was a suitable replacement?

Some people on discord might remember my mostly sarcastic jokes about replacing the simulation with the 1991 Nintendo Entertainment System megahit Tecmo Super Bowl. The key operative word here is mostly sarcastic. There's a kernel of truth, buried in my frustrations over the sim, that I think at the very least that Tecmo Super Bowl could work as an engine for a sim league, and I think it'd even lead to, maybe if not better, at least more fun, product. The Tecmo Bowl duology are honestly some of the best sports games ever made, and I think a large part of it is that it focuses more on the verisimilitude of professional football moreso than trying to be a quote unquote simulation. When the entire game has to fit on a 200 kilobyte cartridge, concessions have to be made to strict realism. But you'd be surprised by what they were able to cram into such a small file size, and how much of it holds up to this day as a game.

So, one of the big things that defines TSB over its contemporaries, which would make it perfect for the league, was its licensing deals with the NFLPA. The original Tecmo Bowl was one of the first games released to actually use the names of then-contemporary players. You weren't just playing as a nameless blob, you were actually playing as Lawrence Taylor, and he had different stats compared to Carl Banks. That is to say, yes, there are meaningful stat differences between players on the same team, and we could easily transfer a lot of the TPE system into the league. We'd have to completely redo archetypes, due to the different stats that exist, and the lack of traits, but there is a start where we could actually do transfers. For reference, here is a website that shows off the stats for every player featured in Tecmo Super Bowl. You might notice the site cautions that some stats are broken or otherwise not used. There are mods that fix that, but I'll get to that later. The point I want to focus is, again, that making players that feel different would totally be possible. Take QBs for example: QB Eagles (aka Randall Cunningham) is broken as fuck due to his high movement speed, but he was intended to be only competent in passing (pass accuracy not working definitely made him overpeform in practice though). Meanwhile, Dan Marino is a statue on the field, but his balls practically teleport to the receiver. Elway was intended to be the super accurate passer if you look at his stats, but since every QB's accuracy was accidentally set to be the same, he's not actually that much better in that role without modding the game. But boom, three QB archtypes right there, roughly analogues with our current scrambler, pocket passer/gunslinger, and field general, respectively.

Another innovation TSB had, which we take for granted now, but would be amazing for sim play is that, yes, you can just run an entire season with every team controlled by the CPU. And you can watch every single game played, to its completion. Perfect for streaming. Not only that, but playbooks for every team is customizable, on offense, and you can pick between four passing and four running plays that the AI will cycle through. I think the customizable playbooks would be very interesting for GMs: on one hand, there are elements of control that we'd simply have to give up due to it just not being customizable in TSB, such as run/pass ratios. At least, there's no way to set them in-game; there could be ways to edit that logic in the code of the AI itself-- this game is a lot more moddable than draft day is, so I wouldn't rule that out-- but there's no easy in-game section to say "run in this situation". However, on the other hand, ditching pre-made playbooks and letting GMs make their own, even if its limited to just eight plays, would be amazing to unleash the creativity of teams. Do you want a feature back that gets most of your carries? Or do you want to split running duties between two backs? You can even have a designed QB run, but that takes one of your four running slots, which can be a trade off (in the base game, only the Eagles had a designed QB run, it was one of their main gimmicks). And for passes, you can specialize in more short passes, long balls, and everything in between. Unfortunately, there's no real equilavent for defense here though: the game instead runs on a prediction system where the defense just tries to predict what play the offense is calling before the snap, and if they guess correctly, they get a huge statistical bonus which practically guarantees a sack, tackle for loss, or interception. Otherwise, calling a run play vs a pass play will change some ai logic, and either put defenders in the box or in coverage. The prediction mechanic is one of the things that makes T(S)B have kino multiplayer, but for sims... it doesn't really work. The AI will just randomly cycle through plays; you're not going to see the actual mind games happen in practice.

And yes, I alluded to it multiple times, but to reiterate, Tecmo Super Bowl has a thriving modding scene. People have been pushing this 200 kb game to its absolute limits, fixing all the bugs, adding additional teams into the game, changing season length and teams found in the playoffs, and even adding quality of life features that would be too numerous to mention. I'm more of a mod consumer than a mod maker, so I wouldn't really be the greatest source in talking about the technical side of things, but I know this game is far far easier to edit than draft day is. If modders managed to put 32 teams and four division conferences in a game that came out when there was only 28 teams and three division conferences, then I think they can handle removing content too.

Finally, I'd be remiss to add that I know there is at least one sim league that uses TSB, The Tecmo Fantasy Owners. It's not quite like the ISFL: the only position available to play is the GM/Owner, and all the players on the teams are made in a point buy system. But it goes to show, more than anything else, it is technically feasible. Custom teams, with custom logos and graphics, every game streamed and watchable, etc, etc. The ISFL could definitely follow in similar footsteps, if it wanted to.

[WALDO]

updated my wiki with the following:
- new data in data sheet
- description of his season
- changed his team as he is called up next season

https://wiki.sim-football.com/view/Zack_Vega_Jr.

[Yeenoghu]

0. Update your own players wiki page with a brief summary, 450 words minimum, of the most recent season, and Update your stats table to reflect your players career stats table to reflect the most recent season. Link your wiki page below along with a brief explanation of what was updated.

https://wiki.sim-football.com/view/Tua_Domine

Haven't touched the Wiki since creating it during my DSFL rookie season, so I added my ISFL draft info, a very brief summary of S49, and some random information here and there in addition to the 450+ words for S50. Stats table is also updated through S50.

[.HoshinoIchika]

they're talking about you

[parky]

Tier 3 Option 22: Victoire Absolue TV

In an effort to enhance his public image - advice given from his agent - Victoire Absolue decided to make an appearance on sesame street. His appearance did not go very well, as his competitive attitude towards everything kind of spilled over and even the editing team couldn't clean it all the way up. He angrily refused to tickle Elmo, lectured the Cookie Monster for not eating enough fruits and vegetables, and almost came to blows with Oscar the Grouch. Ultimately the only usable footage from his appearance came from a spontaneous game of hearts he engaged with involving the Count von Count and Big Bird. This initial appearance was supposed to be a test run to see if he had the makeup to star in his own kids show, but alas the results are in and the answer is: absolutely not. Absolue's future in film and television is strictly limited to playing drill sergeants and spirited warriors, and he should stay as far away from comedy as humanly possible.

Tier 3 Option 25: Halftime show!

I'm thinking this is actually a really good idea. I'd love to do a Jiminy Glick style in-character interview with a different star of the league every season. We spent so much time and effort building up our players and preparing to dominate on the pixelated field of play, now let's tear them down with a between two ferns style comedy interview. I embarked on this for the TPE but now I'm thinking this idea really has legs. It doesn't have to JUST be for the halftime show either, it can be a monthly feature and even streamed live in the VC. Work is beyond wild and crazy at the moment for me, so I'll have to revisit this when things calm down a bit, but I'd love to strap an engine to this idea and let er rip.

Tier 3 Option 28: Alternate position

Vic is a safety turned linebacker, and it's hard to imagine him as anything else, but if I HAD to play him on offense, I'm thinking he would be a blocking tight end. I think of Vic as being not particularly flashy on the field, so wide receiver and running back don't really make sense. As a blocking tight end, he would be able to focus intensely on his role and simply execute to the best of his ability on every play. His receiving stats would most likely be anemic, but the overall team offense would perform at an elevated level because of the pancakes he would be doling out on the daily. Thankfully, we don't have to live in a world very Vic has to play offense. He was truly born to strap on a helmet and pads, mark the ball carrier as quickly as possible, and tackle the ever-loving shit out of them before  they can make any kind of move towards the end zone. 

Tier 3 Option 29: Rule Change

This is not a popular opinion, but I think the NFL is broken. In the early days of football, they played with leather helmets. It was totally crazy. The game was slower then, the athletes not nearly so fine tuned by modern advances in training and nutrition. These days, the level of athleticism is so high that the collisions have reached a level of intensity that unfortunately has tainted the game for me. The frequency of injuries is out of control, particularly when it comes to concussions which I find the most concerning. I'd like to see football be entirely reimagined. Is the answer flag football? Some altered form of rugby? Surely we can find something to do on sunday that doesn't permanently impair quite so many young men. It's the best way that I can think of to honor the life and legacy of Junior Seau and many others.