The Norfolk Experiment was created based on a large influx of players for the S21 Draft that all came from baseball backgrounds. Baseball was full and prospects were leaping off the flaming wreck to board the football train after Mahones showed it could be done. At that time there was an idea, to attempt to bring together a team of extraordinary people, to stay active and win the Ultimini. Did it work? I’ll cover a few criteria, activity, success being the main ones. Even though I am a member of Norfolk I will attempt to come at this as unbiased as possible.
Activity
Messages week by week:
Week Count
1 23,860
2 3,075
3 2,257
4 1,125
5 715
Oof
Ok so, yeah that’s pretty telling. I’ll talk about why this happened but from a quick glance it’s clear there was a large dropoff from the first week. Personally the first week was crazy hectic, and then it slowly drifted down as more people left and the few of us that remained just didn’t have a lot to say. I think it stems from the obvious problem of reviving a bot team, taking a dead clubhouse and trying to bring it back to life can be rough. So here’s what I think affected it all.
First off, the problems it took for us to get to the sim. In the start there were so many players that were super hype, and keeping them on the hook can be hard. Unfortunately there were issues starting the preseason due to multiple circumstances. Because of this the preseason games were simmed but not streamed and a delay of Weeks one and Two was soon to follow. Because of this it took over a week to get to the first games, and I know a few of my teammates at Norfolk were unhappy with the pace of play and left.
Next, the drama that happened at the start of the season. I think this was an unfortunate hiccup, I haven’t dug into it and I don’t care to address it more than this but I will say I know of a couple players this kind of scared away. They were just uncomfortable with the business in main so they instead opted just to leave the league. I miss them but I understand their decision. Unfortunately things like this can happen and people all have their freedom. I just wish it never happened.
As you can see those were two main culprits that took a super active clubhouse and killed it with fire. There were a few folks who I had less expectations to continue the league due to the difference from the baseball leagues they came from but they were all active prospects who I hoped would join me in the bigs. I think it’s really just unfortunate that these happened along with the team being a rebuild that caused people to leave, if it was only one or the others things might be different in my opinion. However we can’t change the past and I hope in the future I can help the team activity stay up!
Results
Norfolk at one point in the season held a 6-4 record and was tied for the lead of the SFC. We would go on to lose 4 in a row and finish the season at 6-8, not very gucci. I think this is tied to our activity. We had a bunch of people earning at the start of the season, however after people started to leave there was a drop in how often even the active people were updating. Our defense suffered and after Cal left we had issues moving the ball up the field as well.
There were some waiver claims made during the season that were able to help us plug some holes, however there was only so much they could help as they came in with a disadvantage of having less TPE than the rest of us. After the halfway point in the season we had lost a lot of our top earners activity and then you can see how our defense suffered. I can think of multiple games in a row we gave up multiple 30+ yard passes. Not very cash money of us. The offense was limited even with the holes plugged and we just didn’t score more than 10 points more than once after week 10, with the exception being a heartbreaking 20-23 loss to Minnesota. At the end of the season we only had 5 players with more than 150 TPE. (also only one Cornerback with more than 50 TPE)
However we still made the playoffs! Only to be beaten soundle by Myrtle beach. But you can’t win them all. I think all in all the team performed beyond what a lot of us expected with our best players making really standout performances but just being unable to close the gap left behind. Moving forward I think the next draft class will be able to help immensely, especially if some of the bigger players are sent back down Norfolk due to full rosters. I have high hopes for this new class and the prospects being from a more football based background is going to be very beneficial to the team.
Conclusion: (I did a bad job at staying unbiased) I am very happy with how we did as a team, and I hope in the future Norfolk continues to succeed. Despite the rough end of the season I enjoyed my time there and I wouldn’t mind if I got to play there again if I don’t make the NSFL this next upcoming season. People discounted us because we were a rebuild, but I think people now realize that we have the potential to do great things. I hope I didn't hurt anyone's feelings. I just wanted to take a look at the team and take a dive into what might have happened. If I did I'm sorry I can take this down. I have high hopes but I understand.
Activity
Messages week by week:
Week Count
1 23,860
2 3,075
3 2,257
4 1,125
5 715
Oof
Ok so, yeah that’s pretty telling. I’ll talk about why this happened but from a quick glance it’s clear there was a large dropoff from the first week. Personally the first week was crazy hectic, and then it slowly drifted down as more people left and the few of us that remained just didn’t have a lot to say. I think it stems from the obvious problem of reviving a bot team, taking a dead clubhouse and trying to bring it back to life can be rough. So here’s what I think affected it all.
First off, the problems it took for us to get to the sim. In the start there were so many players that were super hype, and keeping them on the hook can be hard. Unfortunately there were issues starting the preseason due to multiple circumstances. Because of this the preseason games were simmed but not streamed and a delay of Weeks one and Two was soon to follow. Because of this it took over a week to get to the first games, and I know a few of my teammates at Norfolk were unhappy with the pace of play and left.
Next, the drama that happened at the start of the season. I think this was an unfortunate hiccup, I haven’t dug into it and I don’t care to address it more than this but I will say I know of a couple players this kind of scared away. They were just uncomfortable with the business in main so they instead opted just to leave the league. I miss them but I understand their decision. Unfortunately things like this can happen and people all have their freedom. I just wish it never happened.
As you can see those were two main culprits that took a super active clubhouse and killed it with fire. There were a few folks who I had less expectations to continue the league due to the difference from the baseball leagues they came from but they were all active prospects who I hoped would join me in the bigs. I think it’s really just unfortunate that these happened along with the team being a rebuild that caused people to leave, if it was only one or the others things might be different in my opinion. However we can’t change the past and I hope in the future I can help the team activity stay up!
Results
Norfolk at one point in the season held a 6-4 record and was tied for the lead of the SFC. We would go on to lose 4 in a row and finish the season at 6-8, not very gucci. I think this is tied to our activity. We had a bunch of people earning at the start of the season, however after people started to leave there was a drop in how often even the active people were updating. Our defense suffered and after Cal left we had issues moving the ball up the field as well.
There were some waiver claims made during the season that were able to help us plug some holes, however there was only so much they could help as they came in with a disadvantage of having less TPE than the rest of us. After the halfway point in the season we had lost a lot of our top earners activity and then you can see how our defense suffered. I can think of multiple games in a row we gave up multiple 30+ yard passes. Not very cash money of us. The offense was limited even with the holes plugged and we just didn’t score more than 10 points more than once after week 10, with the exception being a heartbreaking 20-23 loss to Minnesota. At the end of the season we only had 5 players with more than 150 TPE. (also only one Cornerback with more than 50 TPE)
However we still made the playoffs! Only to be beaten soundle by Myrtle beach. But you can’t win them all. I think all in all the team performed beyond what a lot of us expected with our best players making really standout performances but just being unable to close the gap left behind. Moving forward I think the next draft class will be able to help immensely, especially if some of the bigger players are sent back down Norfolk due to full rosters. I have high hopes for this new class and the prospects being from a more football based background is going to be very beneficial to the team.
Conclusion: (I did a bad job at staying unbiased) I am very happy with how we did as a team, and I hope in the future Norfolk continues to succeed. Despite the rough end of the season I enjoyed my time there and I wouldn’t mind if I got to play there again if I don’t make the NSFL this next upcoming season. People discounted us because we were a rebuild, but I think people now realize that we have the potential to do great things. I hope I didn't hurt anyone's feelings. I just wanted to take a look at the team and take a dive into what might have happened. If I did I'm sorry I can take this down. I have high hopes but I understand.