Thoughts on Expansion
First of all, I’d like to preface this by saying that I think that the league expanding is a really good idea. Even if only half of the players who were created for the S15 draft stick around there will still be a need for many more spots than are currently available. I also think HO chose the right number of teams to add to the league, as 2 teams will fit about the number of people I expect to remain active, so cheers to HO for that.
As for the new teams, I think we’ll see some really great people running them, and I hope that those people realize that they have a chance to really shape how the league looks. I know most people around the league live in North America, and if the league was physical and real it would make sense to keep all the teams logistically close. But this is a sim league! There are no logistics whatsoever, so you can be super creative with places and names for your team! If you are more creative with places and names, then you can have much more interesting branding, and you can create some interesting lore behind your team. Look at Yellowknife; a lot of people don’t think there should be a team based in the snowy, sparsely populated Canadian north, but it certainly inspires some interesting discussions (especially with newer players), and they have the coolest stadium name in the league. Now I know most of the people applying for the GM roles will already have ideas in mind, but I hope they take a moment to think outside the box and who knows, they may just find something they like even more.
Another thing to think about for the people creating the teams: the colour scheme. I think we should try and be nice to the simmers and all the people who enjoy watching the games, and aim for some new primary colours for these teams. Current main colours are red (Outlaws, Yeti), dark green (Sabercats), light blue (Liberty), orange (Otters), black (Wraiths), purple (Second Line) and yellow (Hawks). There are a lot of other colours out there, and I would love to see the new teams look for something different than what is already on the field. Some fun examples: white, dark blue, pink, light green, grey and everyone’s favourite: brown. I can already picture all the shit puns that would come from that.
Next I’d like to discuss some things about expansion that will need clarification in the coming months.
First, will there be an expansion draft? I think that there will have to be, otherwise the teams coming into the league at S16 will have at most 12 active players, all with relatively low TPE. They also might not have enough total players to fill out their team, meaning a lot of bot buying. Obviously this draft wouldn’t occur until after S15 has completed, since players that are taken in the expansion draft need to be able to play in the NSFL the season after. The real problem with the draft is that it will likely involve any teams that are currently challenging for an Ultimus losing some of their players from the great S15 draft class, since they will be unable to protect those players while also protecting their high TPE starters. It would make the coming NSFL draft pretty much useless for many of the current best teams in the league. A clear line would be drawn between teams protecting mostly high TPE starters and teams protecting newer draft picks. The expansion teams would therefore end up with a strange mixture of players retiring in a couple of years, low TPE inactives and 350 TPE second-year players. I think HO will have to take a real look at how the expansion draft is going to run, and maybe introduce a couple of rules regarding it. Although I also think that if it is simply run the same way as past expansion drafts, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
The next question I have is regarding player contracts for expansion teams. We’ve already been notified that all draftees from these teams will be sent down to the DSFL next year (a great solution to a problem that also keeps the DSFL buzzing for another year). The question is: what are these players getting paid? They have been drafted by NSFL teams, but giving those NSFL teams a budget to spend on players would be a terrible idea. The expansion teams don’t have to buy OL bots plus they will only have around 12 players to pay after this next draft, with probably 7 being active. That means that all active players could sign on to 1-year, 14M deals, with 4M being paid for by the DSFL. That would be a ridiculous amount of money (although it could serve as an incentive for being drafted by these teams and HAVING to spend another year in the DSFL). Players making that amount of money would also mean that the media and graphics sections of the site would likely be pretty bare next year. The other solution is to simply give these players a standard salary for their send-down year. It should be higher than the initial DSFL salary, since most send-downs make more than that, but it shouldn’t be an exorbitant amount. Somewhere around 8M would be a reasonable amount in my mind.
Finally, I believe that with the expansion of the league, the NSFL playoffs should also be expanded. Currently 4 teams make the playoffs, but with the league expanding to 10 teams, I think that the ideal number of teams to make it should be 6. This means that the second and third seeds from each conference would play in the divisional round, followed by a conference championship against the first seed. If it isn’t possible for the sim to give a bye to the first seed, I would even advocate for 8 teams making the playoffs. The more teams there are in the playoffs, the more exciting they will be. Obviously not every team should make it, there needs to be some meaning to the regular season other than seeding. However, I do think that a larger playoff bracket will draw more of a crowd and get most of the league super excited for the end of the season.
Overall I think that the expansion of the NSFL is a great idea, and I hope that everyone is as excited as I am to see how it turns out.
First of all, I’d like to preface this by saying that I think that the league expanding is a really good idea. Even if only half of the players who were created for the S15 draft stick around there will still be a need for many more spots than are currently available. I also think HO chose the right number of teams to add to the league, as 2 teams will fit about the number of people I expect to remain active, so cheers to HO for that.
As for the new teams, I think we’ll see some really great people running them, and I hope that those people realize that they have a chance to really shape how the league looks. I know most people around the league live in North America, and if the league was physical and real it would make sense to keep all the teams logistically close. But this is a sim league! There are no logistics whatsoever, so you can be super creative with places and names for your team! If you are more creative with places and names, then you can have much more interesting branding, and you can create some interesting lore behind your team. Look at Yellowknife; a lot of people don’t think there should be a team based in the snowy, sparsely populated Canadian north, but it certainly inspires some interesting discussions (especially with newer players), and they have the coolest stadium name in the league. Now I know most of the people applying for the GM roles will already have ideas in mind, but I hope they take a moment to think outside the box and who knows, they may just find something they like even more.
Another thing to think about for the people creating the teams: the colour scheme. I think we should try and be nice to the simmers and all the people who enjoy watching the games, and aim for some new primary colours for these teams. Current main colours are red (Outlaws, Yeti), dark green (Sabercats), light blue (Liberty), orange (Otters), black (Wraiths), purple (Second Line) and yellow (Hawks). There are a lot of other colours out there, and I would love to see the new teams look for something different than what is already on the field. Some fun examples: white, dark blue, pink, light green, grey and everyone’s favourite: brown. I can already picture all the shit puns that would come from that.
Next I’d like to discuss some things about expansion that will need clarification in the coming months.
First, will there be an expansion draft? I think that there will have to be, otherwise the teams coming into the league at S16 will have at most 12 active players, all with relatively low TPE. They also might not have enough total players to fill out their team, meaning a lot of bot buying. Obviously this draft wouldn’t occur until after S15 has completed, since players that are taken in the expansion draft need to be able to play in the NSFL the season after. The real problem with the draft is that it will likely involve any teams that are currently challenging for an Ultimus losing some of their players from the great S15 draft class, since they will be unable to protect those players while also protecting their high TPE starters. It would make the coming NSFL draft pretty much useless for many of the current best teams in the league. A clear line would be drawn between teams protecting mostly high TPE starters and teams protecting newer draft picks. The expansion teams would therefore end up with a strange mixture of players retiring in a couple of years, low TPE inactives and 350 TPE second-year players. I think HO will have to take a real look at how the expansion draft is going to run, and maybe introduce a couple of rules regarding it. Although I also think that if it is simply run the same way as past expansion drafts, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
The next question I have is regarding player contracts for expansion teams. We’ve already been notified that all draftees from these teams will be sent down to the DSFL next year (a great solution to a problem that also keeps the DSFL buzzing for another year). The question is: what are these players getting paid? They have been drafted by NSFL teams, but giving those NSFL teams a budget to spend on players would be a terrible idea. The expansion teams don’t have to buy OL bots plus they will only have around 12 players to pay after this next draft, with probably 7 being active. That means that all active players could sign on to 1-year, 14M deals, with 4M being paid for by the DSFL. That would be a ridiculous amount of money (although it could serve as an incentive for being drafted by these teams and HAVING to spend another year in the DSFL). Players making that amount of money would also mean that the media and graphics sections of the site would likely be pretty bare next year. The other solution is to simply give these players a standard salary for their send-down year. It should be higher than the initial DSFL salary, since most send-downs make more than that, but it shouldn’t be an exorbitant amount. Somewhere around 8M would be a reasonable amount in my mind.
Finally, I believe that with the expansion of the league, the NSFL playoffs should also be expanded. Currently 4 teams make the playoffs, but with the league expanding to 10 teams, I think that the ideal number of teams to make it should be 6. This means that the second and third seeds from each conference would play in the divisional round, followed by a conference championship against the first seed. If it isn’t possible for the sim to give a bye to the first seed, I would even advocate for 8 teams making the playoffs. The more teams there are in the playoffs, the more exciting they will be. Obviously not every team should make it, there needs to be some meaning to the regular season other than seeding. However, I do think that a larger playoff bracket will draw more of a crowd and get most of the league super excited for the end of the season.
Overall I think that the expansion of the NSFL is a great idea, and I hope that everyone is as excited as I am to see how it turns out.
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