I was curious whether any user has been on the losing side in the Ultimus more times than me. I suspected a few names might have been, off the top of my head, and... well... if you've been around the league for a while, you'll notice a pattern in the list when I get to it.
So the reason I was thinking about this is because I often joke about how my sim league players often lose championship games. Like, it doesn't matter what league this is. Off the top of my head, I've been on the losing side of a championship game five times here, five or six in SHL (counting IIHF), and a few in PBE. Across those three leagues, I have won precisely four championships, of which, only two are the actual main championship (1x ISFL Ultimus, 1x PBE World Series).
My methodology here is admittedly not ideal because the index is not necessarily to be trusted... but we work with what we've got. I copied the rosters of every team that lost the Ultimus from season one through twenty-four, into googledocs. Then I cross-referenced the names with the Player Index we have for wiki stuff (it contains every player ever drafted) and marked off all the bot players I could identify. There were a handful of names I couldn't find -- some of these are renamed players, which I updated, leaving only players that are either non-obvious bots, or never appeared to have existed in the league. Possibly stock players in the sim that weren't removed. Who knows?
From there, I could match every player to a user. There's a possibility that some of these names did not match up accurately to the correct ID -- this is a work in progress, as some initial + surname combinations are duplicated in the index. For example, K. Hendrix could refer to either Kurt Hendrix, the linebacker-turned-defensive lineman operated by HENDRIX, or a wide receiver (who we now retconned the name of in tracking files to be Kendrick Hendrixx) created by the lesser known user deadendpath27
It probably looks like I'm padding out my word count at this point but I'm explaining the process in case someone wants to replicate it (and possibly correct errors), or maybe there's a better way I have overlooked. Either way I want to track this moving forward, along with Ultimus winners, and the same two lists for the Ultimini. Possibly even conference championships. Partly for my own amusement, and partly because it will help when I clean up the categories on the wiki (there are categories for players who have won each of these competitions, by the way).
Anyway, those of you who know your league history may have an idea of who is top of the list. The trick here is to consider the teams that have lost the Ultimus Bowl each season. I have compiled this list for you, in case you didn't know:
6x losses
Baltimore Hawks: 2, 3, 9, 11, 12, 17
Yellowknife Wraiths: 4, 5, 18, 19, 20, 21
3x losses
Colorado Yeti: 1, 13, 24
Philadelphia Liberty: 6, 14, 16
2x losses
Orange County Otters: 7, 22
New Orleans Second Line: 8, 10
1x loss
San Jose Sabercats: 15
Austin Copperheads: 23
As an aside, it is notable that the Arizona Outlaws are the only team to have played in an Ultimus but never lost one. Every other team has either never played in the Ultimus, or has lost at least once. It is also notable that the Otters have won eight out of the ten Ultimus Bowls they have contested. A list of "Possibly Blessed Users" would likely be dominated by Orange County lifers... which leads me to my next point.
As we can see from the list above, two teams have apparently consistently lost the big game. They have four Ultimus wins between them in their history (two each), but also twelve defeats. Amusingly, as they can never face each other in the Ultimus, it is unclear who is "possibly more cursed"; though they have (collectively) been bested by the Otters in five of their twelve Ultimus defeats. Both Otters defeats in the Ultimus came at the hands of other NSFC teams (Philadelphia in season 7, and Colorado in season 22, if you're wondering). The delineation between ASFC and NSFC, or perhaps blessed and cursed, has no clearer indicator than this one.
Now, the astute among you will have tried to think of users who have had players on both the Hawks and Wraiths at this point. The particularly astute will have focused your attention on Baltimore seasons 9 to 11, and Wraiths seasons 18 to 21, perhaps.
The actual leaderboard looks something like this:
5 Ultimus Losses
37thchamber, timeconsumer, iamslm22, evryday, TheWoZy, HENDRIX, Beaver
Of these names, I should point out that four of them would have been present for most, if not all, of the Hawks' losses up to season 12 (which was the fifth occasion). Antoine Delacour (37thchamber) was there for three of them (seasons 2, 3, and 9); Avon Blocksdale (iamslm22) was there for four (seasons 2, 3, 9 and 11);
Two others were present for the Wraiths' terrible streak of four consecutive losses between seasons 18 and 21. Notably, timeconsumer's first Ultimus loss occurred with Angus Winchester in season seven, when the Otters lost to the Liberty; something of a collector's item really. The other four came with Cooter Bigsby at the Wraiths.
Beaver is an interesting case, in that his first player Blackford Oakes, would have played in every Ultimus from season 8 through to season 13 (8-10 with NOLA, 11-12 with Baltimore, and 13 with Colorado), losing four of the six attempts. The fifth defeat came with Edmond Beaver-Dantes and the Austin Copperheads in season 23.
The final member of this group is Symmetrik, who has the odd distinction of suffering all five of his Ultimus defeats with a single player at multiple teams. Luke Smyles tasted defeat twice with the Liberty (seasons 14 and 16) before being on that horribly unfortunate Wraiths team that lost four in a row for three of those games (seasons 18 to 20).
However, I should also point out that these totals may be incorrect in some cases. For example, Erasmo Broadway (evryday's original Hawks player) is listed as having suffered five Ultimus defeats. This doesn't appear to be possible, though, since his second player, Shannon Hobbs, was drafted to the Outlaws in season 10. This would suggest that Broadway actually only appeared in three Ultimus defeats. Similarly, Kurt Hendrix is listed on the Baltimore Hawks season 12 roster, though he appears in the "auto-retired" list for season 12 meaning he would not have taken part in that season. Indeed, he does not appear in the defensive stats list for the season at all, and it is unlikely that he played every game that season without appearing in the box score for any of them.
6 Ultimus losses
Raven, nunccoepi
Ah, now straight away I can tell you that Raven suffered every single one of those five aforementioned Hawks Ultimus losses with Turk Turkleton, who retired at the end of season 12. The sixth came with Corvo Havran, also with the Hawks (season 17). For nunc, his losses are split between Hawks legend Verso L'Alto (five times; seasons 9, 11, 12, 13, and 17), and Yeti defensive lineman Immanuel Blackstone (just the once, in season 24).
...and now, the top of the list. If you've been paying attention, you've guessed who it is already, I suspect.
9 Ultimus losses
manicmav36
Man... my boy manic got the sim god shaft here. After five losses with Owen Taylor in Balitmore, he recreates with Johnny Snuggles. One of a select handful of players to be drafted first overall in the DSFL and ISFL ... and then loses four straight Ultimuses (Ultimi?) with the Wraiths. Brutal.
Now I'm not saying manic is cursed but it would explain a lot, considering he's been a max-earner or near enough with both players, and is the only guy to have unfortunately somehow landed on both of the two most unlucky teams in the league. Upside? At least he has two rings. A 25% win rate in the big game isn't great, but it sure beats having no rings. Or just the one ... *sobs quietly*
If you're curious about the full list of users' Ultimus losses (and the players they had in those games), you can see it here
So the reason I was thinking about this is because I often joke about how my sim league players often lose championship games. Like, it doesn't matter what league this is. Off the top of my head, I've been on the losing side of a championship game five times here, five or six in SHL (counting IIHF), and a few in PBE. Across those three leagues, I have won precisely four championships, of which, only two are the actual main championship (1x ISFL Ultimus, 1x PBE World Series).
My methodology here is admittedly not ideal because the index is not necessarily to be trusted... but we work with what we've got. I copied the rosters of every team that lost the Ultimus from season one through twenty-four, into googledocs. Then I cross-referenced the names with the Player Index we have for wiki stuff (it contains every player ever drafted) and marked off all the bot players I could identify. There were a handful of names I couldn't find -- some of these are renamed players, which I updated, leaving only players that are either non-obvious bots, or never appeared to have existed in the league. Possibly stock players in the sim that weren't removed. Who knows?
From there, I could match every player to a user. There's a possibility that some of these names did not match up accurately to the correct ID -- this is a work in progress, as some initial + surname combinations are duplicated in the index. For example, K. Hendrix could refer to either Kurt Hendrix, the linebacker-turned-defensive lineman operated by HENDRIX, or a wide receiver (who we now retconned the name of in tracking files to be Kendrick Hendrixx) created by the lesser known user deadendpath27
It probably looks like I'm padding out my word count at this point but I'm explaining the process in case someone wants to replicate it (and possibly correct errors), or maybe there's a better way I have overlooked. Either way I want to track this moving forward, along with Ultimus winners, and the same two lists for the Ultimini. Possibly even conference championships. Partly for my own amusement, and partly because it will help when I clean up the categories on the wiki (there are categories for players who have won each of these competitions, by the way).
Anyway, those of you who know your league history may have an idea of who is top of the list. The trick here is to consider the teams that have lost the Ultimus Bowl each season. I have compiled this list for you, in case you didn't know:
6x losses
Baltimore Hawks: 2, 3, 9, 11, 12, 17
Yellowknife Wraiths: 4, 5, 18, 19, 20, 21
3x losses
Colorado Yeti: 1, 13, 24
Philadelphia Liberty: 6, 14, 16
2x losses
Orange County Otters: 7, 22
New Orleans Second Line: 8, 10
1x loss
San Jose Sabercats: 15
Austin Copperheads: 23
As an aside, it is notable that the Arizona Outlaws are the only team to have played in an Ultimus but never lost one. Every other team has either never played in the Ultimus, or has lost at least once. It is also notable that the Otters have won eight out of the ten Ultimus Bowls they have contested. A list of "Possibly Blessed Users" would likely be dominated by Orange County lifers... which leads me to my next point.
As we can see from the list above, two teams have apparently consistently lost the big game. They have four Ultimus wins between them in their history (two each), but also twelve defeats. Amusingly, as they can never face each other in the Ultimus, it is unclear who is "possibly more cursed"; though they have (collectively) been bested by the Otters in five of their twelve Ultimus defeats. Both Otters defeats in the Ultimus came at the hands of other NSFC teams (Philadelphia in season 7, and Colorado in season 22, if you're wondering). The delineation between ASFC and NSFC, or perhaps blessed and cursed, has no clearer indicator than this one.
Now, the astute among you will have tried to think of users who have had players on both the Hawks and Wraiths at this point. The particularly astute will have focused your attention on Baltimore seasons 9 to 11, and Wraiths seasons 18 to 21, perhaps.
The actual leaderboard looks something like this:
5 Ultimus Losses
37thchamber, timeconsumer, iamslm22, evryday, TheWoZy, HENDRIX, Beaver
Of these names, I should point out that four of them would have been present for most, if not all, of the Hawks' losses up to season 12 (which was the fifth occasion). Antoine Delacour (37thchamber) was there for three of them (seasons 2, 3, and 9); Avon Blocksdale (iamslm22) was there for four (seasons 2, 3, 9 and 11);
Two others were present for the Wraiths' terrible streak of four consecutive losses between seasons 18 and 21. Notably, timeconsumer's first Ultimus loss occurred with Angus Winchester in season seven, when the Otters lost to the Liberty; something of a collector's item really. The other four came with Cooter Bigsby at the Wraiths.
Beaver is an interesting case, in that his first player Blackford Oakes, would have played in every Ultimus from season 8 through to season 13 (8-10 with NOLA, 11-12 with Baltimore, and 13 with Colorado), losing four of the six attempts. The fifth defeat came with Edmond Beaver-Dantes and the Austin Copperheads in season 23.
The final member of this group is Symmetrik, who has the odd distinction of suffering all five of his Ultimus defeats with a single player at multiple teams. Luke Smyles tasted defeat twice with the Liberty (seasons 14 and 16) before being on that horribly unfortunate Wraiths team that lost four in a row for three of those games (seasons 18 to 20).
However, I should also point out that these totals may be incorrect in some cases. For example, Erasmo Broadway (evryday's original Hawks player) is listed as having suffered five Ultimus defeats. This doesn't appear to be possible, though, since his second player, Shannon Hobbs, was drafted to the Outlaws in season 10. This would suggest that Broadway actually only appeared in three Ultimus defeats. Similarly, Kurt Hendrix is listed on the Baltimore Hawks season 12 roster, though he appears in the "auto-retired" list for season 12 meaning he would not have taken part in that season. Indeed, he does not appear in the defensive stats list for the season at all, and it is unlikely that he played every game that season without appearing in the box score for any of them.
6 Ultimus losses
Raven, nunccoepi
Ah, now straight away I can tell you that Raven suffered every single one of those five aforementioned Hawks Ultimus losses with Turk Turkleton, who retired at the end of season 12. The sixth came with Corvo Havran, also with the Hawks (season 17). For nunc, his losses are split between Hawks legend Verso L'Alto (five times; seasons 9, 11, 12, 13, and 17), and Yeti defensive lineman Immanuel Blackstone (just the once, in season 24).
...and now, the top of the list. If you've been paying attention, you've guessed who it is already, I suspect.
9 Ultimus losses
manicmav36
Man... my boy manic got the sim god shaft here. After five losses with Owen Taylor in Balitmore, he recreates with Johnny Snuggles. One of a select handful of players to be drafted first overall in the DSFL and ISFL ... and then loses four straight Ultimuses (Ultimi?) with the Wraiths. Brutal.
Now I'm not saying manic is cursed but it would explain a lot, considering he's been a max-earner or near enough with both players, and is the only guy to have unfortunately somehow landed on both of the two most unlucky teams in the league. Upside? At least he has two rings. A 25% win rate in the big game isn't great, but it sure beats having no rings. Or just the one ... *sobs quietly*
If you're curious about the full list of users' Ultimus losses (and the players they had in those games), you can see it here
I impersonate a programmer for a living
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