This season for Carlito Crush began with some very lofty expectations. My first season into regression, I knew that my time as one of the top wide receivers in the NSFL is running short. Honestly, I felt like this was the last season I’d truly have to replicate my MVP season before I became a pretty damn good role player for a season or two. The NSFL murders players in regression, almost a little bit too unfairly to be honest. But regression didn’t hit me that hard the first time around. I felt good about my chances to tear up the league one last time, as Gus T. T. Showbiz was rounding into form. He was becoming a stud, and the stars were aligning to have the Orange County Otters challenge for an Ultimus.
I’ll admit I got excited. Too excited, probably. The season came, and Crush started off really well in Week 1 against the Yeti, going 5 catches for 103 yards and a touchdown. That’s not a bad start, you know? And then the wheels fell off, and they fell off HARD. Week 2 against Philadelphia? 4 catches, 31 yards, 1 touchdown. Week 3 at Baltimore saw him go 7 for 85 yards. Week 4 at San Jose wasn’t much better as the Crush train rolled through to an Earth shattering 3 catches for 48 yards. Naturally, my frustration was at an all time high. Anyone who knows me is well aware of the fact that I expect to perform well, always. Week 5 against New Orleans? 3 catches, 20 yards, 1 touchdown. Things were getting worse! This sim sucks and is clearly the problem. Week 6 gave me zero glimmers of hope as the Otters walked into Yellowknife and Crush got a lousy 4 catches for 49 yards. That MVP season was shot, for sure. After a Week 7 tussle with the Outlaws in Arizona, where Carlito amassed 6 catches for 52 yards, my dreams of that amazing season were gone.
I limped into the halfway point of the season with 32 catches for 388 yards and 3 touchdowns. I did better as a tight end with those garbage Colorado teams I was stuck on in the beginning of my career. The problem for me, of course, was that the Otters were simply on fire. We were 6-1, and clearly had a shot at the Ultimus. The playoffs were almost a certainty at this point. I tried my best to stay positive for the team. Why be the negative Nancy when the team is so damn good? Ricky Adams was an absolute beast. I didn’t want to really sour anyone else’s good time. We should be happy! I give speculadora a lot of credit here. He took the time to talk to me, figuring I was being a bum. He said the test sims all showed Crush doing amazing things, and that he didn’t have an answer for the awful season I was having. I wasn’t thrilled with a 64 catch, 776 yard, 6 touchdown season pace. That’s great numbers for a tight end on a shitty team. Not Carlito Crush. This was not I was expecting to go out.
However, I tried to stay positive. How can you not with the team rolling the rest of the league? And to be honest, the Ultimus was still the main goal of mine. I hadn’t won one, and that’s something I really wanted to experience here in the NSFL.
The second half of the season was fucking incredible. This season is truly a Dr. Jekyell and Mr. Hyde scenario. The season I envisioned Crush to be having finally clicked. It all started in Colorado, because of course it did. Crush racked up 6 catches for 115 yards. The first time he cracked 100 yards in seven weeks when the Otters played, well, Colorado. For a second I thought maybe I just was lucky against the Yeti. Aren’t we all? Week 9 we traveled to the Liberty’s home stadium and Crush was running away from defenders like he was always meant to do. 4 catches and 102 yards later, I started to realize there was something brewing here. Week 10 had the Hawks come to Orange County, and Crush broke the 100 yard barrier yet again, going 6 receptions for 107 yards. But even better, against San Jose in Week 11, Crush exploded for 131 yards and a touchdown on 6 catches. This was the Carlito Crush I had envisioned terrorizing the league all season! Week 12 we went to New Orleans and Crush had 4 catches for 138 yards, which would be his highest total of the regular season. Week 13 was the rematch with Yellowknife, and Crush went 4 for 94 yards, ending his 100 yard game streak at 5 straight. The last game of the season was at Arizona, and Crush wouldn’t break 100 again, getting only 87 yards on 4 more receptions.
The second half of the season was a lot of fun, and almost unexpected after the first half was so atrocious. Crush’s second half numbers were 34 catches (similar to the 32 in the first half) for 774 yards, nearly doubling his output for the first half of the season. He only had the one touchdown, but there’s a lot of factors that go into touchdowns, so I’ll never be too upset if I don’t score a whole bunch. Had Crush played the first half of the season how he played the second half, he’d have been on a season pace of 68 catches for 1,548 yards and well, 2 touchdowns but like I said those are random. A 1548 yard season would’ve put him in second place for the season behind the amazing Vlad Fyodo in New Orleans. Crush was averaging 22.8 yards per catch, and with those numbers there’s a good chance he’d have challenged Fyodo for WR of the year. It’s an incredible shame that the first half didn’t really shape up the way I’d envisioned for sure.
Now onto the fun part, the playoffs. Even though I have next to no control over how my players do in the sims across all of my leagues, I still get lucky and they tend to be post-season difference makers. Well, let me tell you that Carlito continued his hot play in the playoffs. In the Conference Final against San Jose (Who Crush had 131 yards against last game), he got right back to it and almost duplicated his output against them, going 6 catches for 133 yards and a touchdown. A two yard improvement, but a great game nonetheless.
And then finally, the Ultimus. The sim championship that always seemed to get away from me. I couldn’t wait to play it. Crush started out pretty well, as his first catch of the game with about 7 minutes left in the first quarter brought the Otters to the Hawks’ 15 yard line. A few plays later and Orange County had a 7-0 lead. His next reception, with the Otters on their own 8 yard line, down 14-7, was a 44 yard catch and run that got Orange County out of a jam. Four plays later, Showbiz would find Crush again as he evaded would be tacklers and scampered into the endzone to almost tie the game. I say almost since they missed the extra point! Crush wouldn’t touch the ball again until midway through the third quarter, when he had a 24 yard catch from the Baltimore 48 yard line. Ricky Adams would score on the next play. Crush would have one more catch for 12 yards in the fourth quarter, which would have him go 5 receptions for 148 yards and a touchdown, his best game of the season. Talk about saving the best for last.
But more importantly: THE OTTERS WON! A 48-24 beatdown of a fantastic Baltimore team who has been so good for so long was just the sweetest feeling. I had such a huge smile on my face as I watched the twitch feed. I know people in general aren’t huge Otters fans because of the whole “winning a lot with 50 multis” thing, and I understand that sentiment. But my long NSFL journey brought me on this crazy path to this Orange team. Getting drafted first overall in S5, suffering through two straight winless seasons, dealing with that garbage quarterback, finally asking for a trade because I couldn’t take it anymore in Colorado, having the Otters trade for me, losing the Ultimus with them, having them trade me to New Orleans in S9 (I think) to chase a title while we had a down year and losing that one, to getting paid a lot of money from OCO to stay each season while we competed and Showbiz grew. All of that was worth this moment. It’s even better because I got to experience this victory with sapp2013, Andre Bly Jr. He went second overall in the S5 draft and we suffered in Colorado together. To get this championship with him, even if it wasn’t with the Yeti, made it all the more sweeter.
So what happens to Crush now? Well, regression just punched me in the face, dropping me from 1100 TPE to 841, as of press time. I don’t think there’s any reason to get my hopes up again in terms of battling for the MVP awards. It’s just not plausible for someone under 900 TPE to really kill it out there, you know? Either way, I’m resigning in Orange County. Shocker, I know. The only thing better than winning a championship is getting to defend it, and I can’t do that anywhere else. I’ll have one more season with Showbiz to feed me the ball. I really think we’ll have an excellent shot to repeat. Why?
Gus T.T. Showbiz – Our quarterback might be the best QB in the league. He’s gotten more than enough TPE to show how much he can sling the ball around. He finished second in the league with 4427 yards and tied for the league lead with 28 touchdowns. He’s only going to get better as he gains more TPE, and he’ll be in line to have a record setting season this upcoming season.
Ricky Adams – The best running back in the league. No, he’s not the guy who gets fed the ball too much. But he had a league high 5.2 yards per carry. His 842 rushing yards and 9 rushing touchdowns are complimented by what he does in the passing game. Adams finished 9th in receiving yards with 1004 yards, giving him 1846 all purpose yards. He added 9 receiving touchdowns to give him 18 total touchdowns. He’s another player that’s actually only going to get better.
Carlito Crush – Okay, I’ll name myself here too. To be honest, I’ll still be a good #1 receiving option. Tegan Atwell is retiring, so it’ll be mostly myself and Sunnycursed getting the WR reps. Regression didn’t affect any of the most important stats yet, and I’ll be gaining TPE to replace what was lost, hopefully. With Showbiz getting better, and Crush still not dead yet, they’ll be a nice duo this season.
Sunnycursed – He’s ready to have a breakout season as the Otter’s #2 wide receiver. While Crush and Adams will get the bulk of the receptions, Sunnycursed will be an excellent compliment on his own, and may take touches away as the season goes on. The trade of Tommy Helanen (who should’ve stayed in the DSFL one more season) will keep the better players on the field more this season, meaning more opportunities for everyone on the offense.
Mason Brown – This kid LOVES to tackle. He’s been a standout player for a few seasons now, and as the heart and soul of the Otters’ defense, he’ll be back to wreak more havoc on the opposition. He’s been more of a pass rusher this last season, and his nine sacks show that.
Ricky Ramero – The NSFL’s leading tackler from a season ago. He should be back (I could be wrong here, I’m not a doctor) and if so, the Otters have a top defense in the league yet again.
Andre Bly Jr. – The No Bly Zone was picked up from Yellowknife this season, and that trade has already paid dividends for the Otters, in the form of the Ultimus championship. Bly had 6 picks last season, and had a decent amount of tackles and pass deflections in the playoffs. Teams just don’t throw at him, and they’ll continue to not do so in S13.
Marc Spector – The up and coming cornerback tends to deal with more passes as teams avoid Bly. It didn’t matter. Spector was up for the challenge, and with that experience, he’s only getting better as time goes on. Look for a breakout season this year from him.
Danny Grithead – The Otters’ secret weapon on defense. A much quieter name than his teammates, Grithead managed to rack up 95 tackles and an impressive 12 pass deflections this season. He’s, yet again, ANOTHER player that’s younger and racking up the TPE.
The Otters are just getting better and better, and with today’s trade they have two more first round picks that will just add to the longevity of this current team’s run. It wouldn’t be going out on a limb to say that the Otters should be the favorites to repeat as Ultimus champions. Of course, there’s going to be a lot of other people on this site that know a lot better than I do on who will be the favorites, and I’m looking forward to them telling me why I’m wrong.
Crush’s future is shorter than ever, as I guess you can say that about everything and everyone. This 25% regression hit took me down to 825 TPE. I gained about 150 TPE last season, so that will get me to about 975 before next season’s regression, which is a 30% hit. That’d be 293 TPE lost. Sheesh. That’s got me at about 682 TPE, which will be serviceable for sure. Quick mafs say that the end of that season is 832 TPE, and that 40% hit will drop me to 500 TPE even. I think its fair to say that that might be time to say goodbye to Carlito Crush. The NSFL Regression system is still pretty stupid. It KILLS players too fast, with the exception of Angus Winchester of course. I understand the idea behind the rough regression, but it stinks to have to work hard to get so much TPE just to watch it go away so fast. Anyway, based off the above calculations, it seems like we’ll have Carlito for three more seasons for sure, maybe 4 if earn some more unexpected things along the way. I don’t fully know what constitutes a Hall of Fame player in the NSFL, but hopefully the things I’ve done as a receiver have been enough when all is said and done.
With all of that, I bid you adieu. I’m so excited to finally win the Ultimus championship, and even with the regression monster munching away on Carlito Crush, I’m excited to see how the end of his career plays out. I’ve done some thinking and right now I’m torn between making my next player a Quarterback or be a Wide Receiver from the start. I think with my reputation and TPE production, whichever one I choose will end up, hopefully, being a star in the NSFL. My past in the NSFL may have been rocky at times, but my present is currently awesome, and my future just feels so bright.
Even if the sim is jerk.
Thanks for reading, if anyone did. Go Otters!
I’ll admit I got excited. Too excited, probably. The season came, and Crush started off really well in Week 1 against the Yeti, going 5 catches for 103 yards and a touchdown. That’s not a bad start, you know? And then the wheels fell off, and they fell off HARD. Week 2 against Philadelphia? 4 catches, 31 yards, 1 touchdown. Week 3 at Baltimore saw him go 7 for 85 yards. Week 4 at San Jose wasn’t much better as the Crush train rolled through to an Earth shattering 3 catches for 48 yards. Naturally, my frustration was at an all time high. Anyone who knows me is well aware of the fact that I expect to perform well, always. Week 5 against New Orleans? 3 catches, 20 yards, 1 touchdown. Things were getting worse! This sim sucks and is clearly the problem. Week 6 gave me zero glimmers of hope as the Otters walked into Yellowknife and Crush got a lousy 4 catches for 49 yards. That MVP season was shot, for sure. After a Week 7 tussle with the Outlaws in Arizona, where Carlito amassed 6 catches for 52 yards, my dreams of that amazing season were gone.
I limped into the halfway point of the season with 32 catches for 388 yards and 3 touchdowns. I did better as a tight end with those garbage Colorado teams I was stuck on in the beginning of my career. The problem for me, of course, was that the Otters were simply on fire. We were 6-1, and clearly had a shot at the Ultimus. The playoffs were almost a certainty at this point. I tried my best to stay positive for the team. Why be the negative Nancy when the team is so damn good? Ricky Adams was an absolute beast. I didn’t want to really sour anyone else’s good time. We should be happy! I give speculadora a lot of credit here. He took the time to talk to me, figuring I was being a bum. He said the test sims all showed Crush doing amazing things, and that he didn’t have an answer for the awful season I was having. I wasn’t thrilled with a 64 catch, 776 yard, 6 touchdown season pace. That’s great numbers for a tight end on a shitty team. Not Carlito Crush. This was not I was expecting to go out.
However, I tried to stay positive. How can you not with the team rolling the rest of the league? And to be honest, the Ultimus was still the main goal of mine. I hadn’t won one, and that’s something I really wanted to experience here in the NSFL.
The second half of the season was fucking incredible. This season is truly a Dr. Jekyell and Mr. Hyde scenario. The season I envisioned Crush to be having finally clicked. It all started in Colorado, because of course it did. Crush racked up 6 catches for 115 yards. The first time he cracked 100 yards in seven weeks when the Otters played, well, Colorado. For a second I thought maybe I just was lucky against the Yeti. Aren’t we all? Week 9 we traveled to the Liberty’s home stadium and Crush was running away from defenders like he was always meant to do. 4 catches and 102 yards later, I started to realize there was something brewing here. Week 10 had the Hawks come to Orange County, and Crush broke the 100 yard barrier yet again, going 6 receptions for 107 yards. But even better, against San Jose in Week 11, Crush exploded for 131 yards and a touchdown on 6 catches. This was the Carlito Crush I had envisioned terrorizing the league all season! Week 12 we went to New Orleans and Crush had 4 catches for 138 yards, which would be his highest total of the regular season. Week 13 was the rematch with Yellowknife, and Crush went 4 for 94 yards, ending his 100 yard game streak at 5 straight. The last game of the season was at Arizona, and Crush wouldn’t break 100 again, getting only 87 yards on 4 more receptions.
The second half of the season was a lot of fun, and almost unexpected after the first half was so atrocious. Crush’s second half numbers were 34 catches (similar to the 32 in the first half) for 774 yards, nearly doubling his output for the first half of the season. He only had the one touchdown, but there’s a lot of factors that go into touchdowns, so I’ll never be too upset if I don’t score a whole bunch. Had Crush played the first half of the season how he played the second half, he’d have been on a season pace of 68 catches for 1,548 yards and well, 2 touchdowns but like I said those are random. A 1548 yard season would’ve put him in second place for the season behind the amazing Vlad Fyodo in New Orleans. Crush was averaging 22.8 yards per catch, and with those numbers there’s a good chance he’d have challenged Fyodo for WR of the year. It’s an incredible shame that the first half didn’t really shape up the way I’d envisioned for sure.
Now onto the fun part, the playoffs. Even though I have next to no control over how my players do in the sims across all of my leagues, I still get lucky and they tend to be post-season difference makers. Well, let me tell you that Carlito continued his hot play in the playoffs. In the Conference Final against San Jose (Who Crush had 131 yards against last game), he got right back to it and almost duplicated his output against them, going 6 catches for 133 yards and a touchdown. A two yard improvement, but a great game nonetheless.
And then finally, the Ultimus. The sim championship that always seemed to get away from me. I couldn’t wait to play it. Crush started out pretty well, as his first catch of the game with about 7 minutes left in the first quarter brought the Otters to the Hawks’ 15 yard line. A few plays later and Orange County had a 7-0 lead. His next reception, with the Otters on their own 8 yard line, down 14-7, was a 44 yard catch and run that got Orange County out of a jam. Four plays later, Showbiz would find Crush again as he evaded would be tacklers and scampered into the endzone to almost tie the game. I say almost since they missed the extra point! Crush wouldn’t touch the ball again until midway through the third quarter, when he had a 24 yard catch from the Baltimore 48 yard line. Ricky Adams would score on the next play. Crush would have one more catch for 12 yards in the fourth quarter, which would have him go 5 receptions for 148 yards and a touchdown, his best game of the season. Talk about saving the best for last.
But more importantly: THE OTTERS WON! A 48-24 beatdown of a fantastic Baltimore team who has been so good for so long was just the sweetest feeling. I had such a huge smile on my face as I watched the twitch feed. I know people in general aren’t huge Otters fans because of the whole “winning a lot with 50 multis” thing, and I understand that sentiment. But my long NSFL journey brought me on this crazy path to this Orange team. Getting drafted first overall in S5, suffering through two straight winless seasons, dealing with that garbage quarterback, finally asking for a trade because I couldn’t take it anymore in Colorado, having the Otters trade for me, losing the Ultimus with them, having them trade me to New Orleans in S9 (I think) to chase a title while we had a down year and losing that one, to getting paid a lot of money from OCO to stay each season while we competed and Showbiz grew. All of that was worth this moment. It’s even better because I got to experience this victory with sapp2013, Andre Bly Jr. He went second overall in the S5 draft and we suffered in Colorado together. To get this championship with him, even if it wasn’t with the Yeti, made it all the more sweeter.
So what happens to Crush now? Well, regression just punched me in the face, dropping me from 1100 TPE to 841, as of press time. I don’t think there’s any reason to get my hopes up again in terms of battling for the MVP awards. It’s just not plausible for someone under 900 TPE to really kill it out there, you know? Either way, I’m resigning in Orange County. Shocker, I know. The only thing better than winning a championship is getting to defend it, and I can’t do that anywhere else. I’ll have one more season with Showbiz to feed me the ball. I really think we’ll have an excellent shot to repeat. Why?
Gus T.T. Showbiz – Our quarterback might be the best QB in the league. He’s gotten more than enough TPE to show how much he can sling the ball around. He finished second in the league with 4427 yards and tied for the league lead with 28 touchdowns. He’s only going to get better as he gains more TPE, and he’ll be in line to have a record setting season this upcoming season.
Ricky Adams – The best running back in the league. No, he’s not the guy who gets fed the ball too much. But he had a league high 5.2 yards per carry. His 842 rushing yards and 9 rushing touchdowns are complimented by what he does in the passing game. Adams finished 9th in receiving yards with 1004 yards, giving him 1846 all purpose yards. He added 9 receiving touchdowns to give him 18 total touchdowns. He’s another player that’s actually only going to get better.
Carlito Crush – Okay, I’ll name myself here too. To be honest, I’ll still be a good #1 receiving option. Tegan Atwell is retiring, so it’ll be mostly myself and Sunnycursed getting the WR reps. Regression didn’t affect any of the most important stats yet, and I’ll be gaining TPE to replace what was lost, hopefully. With Showbiz getting better, and Crush still not dead yet, they’ll be a nice duo this season.
Sunnycursed – He’s ready to have a breakout season as the Otter’s #2 wide receiver. While Crush and Adams will get the bulk of the receptions, Sunnycursed will be an excellent compliment on his own, and may take touches away as the season goes on. The trade of Tommy Helanen (who should’ve stayed in the DSFL one more season) will keep the better players on the field more this season, meaning more opportunities for everyone on the offense.
Mason Brown – This kid LOVES to tackle. He’s been a standout player for a few seasons now, and as the heart and soul of the Otters’ defense, he’ll be back to wreak more havoc on the opposition. He’s been more of a pass rusher this last season, and his nine sacks show that.
Ricky Ramero – The NSFL’s leading tackler from a season ago. He should be back (I could be wrong here, I’m not a doctor) and if so, the Otters have a top defense in the league yet again.
Andre Bly Jr. – The No Bly Zone was picked up from Yellowknife this season, and that trade has already paid dividends for the Otters, in the form of the Ultimus championship. Bly had 6 picks last season, and had a decent amount of tackles and pass deflections in the playoffs. Teams just don’t throw at him, and they’ll continue to not do so in S13.
Marc Spector – The up and coming cornerback tends to deal with more passes as teams avoid Bly. It didn’t matter. Spector was up for the challenge, and with that experience, he’s only getting better as time goes on. Look for a breakout season this year from him.
Danny Grithead – The Otters’ secret weapon on defense. A much quieter name than his teammates, Grithead managed to rack up 95 tackles and an impressive 12 pass deflections this season. He’s, yet again, ANOTHER player that’s younger and racking up the TPE.
The Otters are just getting better and better, and with today’s trade they have two more first round picks that will just add to the longevity of this current team’s run. It wouldn’t be going out on a limb to say that the Otters should be the favorites to repeat as Ultimus champions. Of course, there’s going to be a lot of other people on this site that know a lot better than I do on who will be the favorites, and I’m looking forward to them telling me why I’m wrong.
Crush’s future is shorter than ever, as I guess you can say that about everything and everyone. This 25% regression hit took me down to 825 TPE. I gained about 150 TPE last season, so that will get me to about 975 before next season’s regression, which is a 30% hit. That’d be 293 TPE lost. Sheesh. That’s got me at about 682 TPE, which will be serviceable for sure. Quick mafs say that the end of that season is 832 TPE, and that 40% hit will drop me to 500 TPE even. I think its fair to say that that might be time to say goodbye to Carlito Crush. The NSFL Regression system is still pretty stupid. It KILLS players too fast, with the exception of Angus Winchester of course. I understand the idea behind the rough regression, but it stinks to have to work hard to get so much TPE just to watch it go away so fast. Anyway, based off the above calculations, it seems like we’ll have Carlito for three more seasons for sure, maybe 4 if earn some more unexpected things along the way. I don’t fully know what constitutes a Hall of Fame player in the NSFL, but hopefully the things I’ve done as a receiver have been enough when all is said and done.
With all of that, I bid you adieu. I’m so excited to finally win the Ultimus championship, and even with the regression monster munching away on Carlito Crush, I’m excited to see how the end of his career plays out. I’ve done some thinking and right now I’m torn between making my next player a Quarterback or be a Wide Receiver from the start. I think with my reputation and TPE production, whichever one I choose will end up, hopefully, being a star in the NSFL. My past in the NSFL may have been rocky at times, but my present is currently awesome, and my future just feels so bright.
Even if the sim is jerk.
Thanks for reading, if anyone did. Go Otters!
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