This will be a shortish media for me to try and take me back up to 15 mil or so for that tier 6 equipment buffer for the offseason because who knows when JKortesi and FlyEaglesFly will get the job pay in :eyes:.
This media piece will be a quick overview on how each of the first 2 rounds of draft picks are doing from the S25 draft class (you know my favourite thing to write media about). I'm not critiquing the picks or looking into too much depth and it won't be uniform. Just me my phone and my thumbs writing whatever shit comes to my head.
So without further ado let's have a look at them draft picks.
1OA: The big uno. Number one. The Berlin firesalamanders kicked us off by selecting... Swantavious Jones. Now, this was not the consensus draft position for Swanty though clearly there were those people in the know mocking him here. Most people had Fields and Patterson as the consensus 1 and 2 but that's what you get for going with the crowd in mock drafts.
Swanty has been a very worthy 1OA having won the most dedicated new league member that year, Swanty has been working hard for the league since. Currently a dab hand at laying the ban hammer on bot accounts. 50TPE behind the TPE lead is nothing to be embarrassed by for Swanty - he's still trucking away at earning and has been a very worthy 1OA.
Sidenote: Somehow a scrub on the team by the name of Jeeeeroy Lenkins managed to get defensive captain for the Salamanders over Jones... Apparently they had to throw the glue eater a bone somehow and they'd already ran out of crayons to feed him.
2OA: The Yellowknife wraiths traded up to this pick to select... Dan Foster the CB out of Portland. 2 picks in, 2 CB off the board already. DB clearly a massive cause for concern on a lot of ISFL teams.
This is another strong pick TPE wise, Foster is under 50 points behind the lead but rather strangely isn't even the highest TPE S25 CB on the Wraiths at the moment. Would you consider that to be a wasted pick?
I wouldn't, a consistent earner at a position of need! A mighty fine pick by the Wraiths.
3OA: With the 3rd overall pick Philadelphia Liberty shored up their defensive line picking up... Tex Wrecks from the Tijuana Luchadores. At draft time Wrecks was neck and neck with Goat Tank for the TPE lead but Wrecks appears to have fallen off the pace a bit now sitting at 5th highest TPE in the class. He's still the highest TPE from the top 3 picks sitting at a lofty 611 - 21 more than Foster before him. Once the highest TPE DE in the class by a long way, Wrecks is now 3rd. Will the Liberty feel like they picked the wrong Defensive End? I doubt it. He's still performing very well for them and in the grand scheme of things it's all about fit as opposed to TPE. Assuming Wrecks fits the locker room vibe then that's all that matters.
4OA: Thanks to a mid-Season trade the S24 champions found themselves with the Austin Copperheads 1st rounder. A very early first rounder for such a strong squad.
Thanks to expansion their star DE had just had to retire to avoid using a roster space on himself, meaning with only 2 or 3 strong DEs left on the board, it was a no brainer to pick one here. Much to my fortune it was... Raylan Crowder of the Dallas Birddogs. And if I do say so myself what a mighty fine pick that has turned out to be.
Crowder fits in very well with the locker room (I think) and has slotted in at a position of need. Although his stats have been shockingly bad this year, it doesn't matter as he's helped win an Ultimus already with a ripping 1 tackle in the grand final (bow down to his greatness). His second year has been very unforgettable with barely any tackles and minimal sacks/TFLs Crowder has instead been making do with helping out in the LR, adding some banging tunes to the teams playlist.
Unfortunately this season Asked Madden missed out a prediction thread for week 8 forever marking him as a bust.
Wasted pick by San Jose here.
5OA: And with the 5th overall pick the Yeti traded up to land the final of what was originally the big 3 DE in the class - Albert Ruschmann. Easily one of the most likeable katarn22 was a well deserved 5th pick and definitely worth trading up for by the Colorado Yeti.
The Yeti were sitting with the 13th OA pick but came to the decision their man wouldn't have been there when they picked. Most likely correct as Katarn was definitely a highly sought after prospect and was always going to be a 1st rounder.
Once again Crowder and Ruschmann went back to back in a draft our fates intertwined. It's been a while since I've spoken to Katarn now we don't share any mutual Locker rooms *shakes fist at yeti for privatising* but I'm sure he is still plugging away and killing it in the sim and from a social aspect as well. Sorry we beat you in the finals man. I'm sure it will be your turn this year!
6OA: With the 6th overall pick in the draft the Baltimore Hawks selected... Felix Archstone and everyone's favourite user Glims. It's fair to say Glims has jumped straight into sim football with 2 feet, straight into the DSFL gm job of the Kansas City Coyotes, it definitely wasn't a simple takeover with Glims getting fined very early on in his tenure.
With Butters getting the Baltimore GM job it wasnt a matter of which team and more a matter of which round Glims would go in. And on this one the consensus was very much correct. Nearly every mock had Glims going at 6OA to the hawks and would you look at that. Nearly every mock was correct. Glims continues to be a fantastic contributor to the league and was a great pick up by the Hawks... Did I hear somebody say future Baltimore GM :eyes:
7OA: Midway through the first round and Honolulu Hahalua get the steal of the draft. Can someone be steal of the draft in the first round?? Yes I believe they can and Guy Fields certainly makes his case for steal of the draft.
My personal pick for 1OA and this is no slight on any of the people taken before him but just an indictment on how good user r0tz is for the league. He single handedly does all of Dallas's testing, helps bail out the sim team when they find themselves in another shocking pickle and has also taken up the (tiring) position of head office member. I can only assume he helps honolulu in some way off the field as well as on but it's fair to say this Guy is a certifiable stud.
It also helps that he has the world's most adorable dog and grumpy looking cat so even when he's just kicking about he can make your day just by posting Finns cute as a button face.
Great pick up here by Honolulu. It's just a shame he's not got the best TPE in the class!
8OA: The Arizona Outlaws select another DB here this time its Safety Tayshawn Crunk. Crunk may well have been the draft pick who's made the biggest splash in his new team so far and it pains me to say it.
In his first year playing for the Outlaws Crunk had a very solid rookie performance making a splash on and off the field. Not only did he score 2 defensive touchdowns he also got drafted in to act as Co-gm alongside Z-Whiz. Arizona are right in the hunt for a playoff spot just needing a couple of key results from the final 2 games and they'll get a good shot at giving Cue another run at a playoff win.
9OA: the Chicago Butchers are up and yup you guessed it, another DB. Reflecting on this pick the butchers appear to have made a bit of a cock up. James Gath was the pick, and at the time a lot of people felt he was a total steal as at one point he was locked in as a top two pick.
How times have changed, this once proud member has become very flaccid. Topping out at a rather limp 377 TPE having been up with the leaders around draft time.
His last post was midway through November so you never know, life may just have gotten in the way of Gath. Or maybe he's just lost his love of the sim league. Either way, Chicago will wish they could have this pick back a thousand times with their first pick of the draft likely to never set foot on their team. What a shame.
10OA: I said it before and I'll say it again. This was up their with the most telegraphed picks in the draft. New Orleans picked up the Medicinal Toblerone here, in a shock to absolutely no one. User Ju0so has spent an awful lot of time in NOLA and made it abundantly clear she would want back in either now or after her contract ended. Nola picked her up here and it was agreed that a switch to defensive end would be the best use of her. Meaning she was the 4th DE to come off the board in the first round.
She's still nailing TPE gains currently sitting in the top 3 of the class so NOLA should be very happy with how the pick turned out here.
11OA: The rich get richer with this pick. Goat Tank got picked up here by the perennial contenders Orange County. Everyone expected Goat Tank to be a top 5 pick so to see him fall outside of the top 10 was a huge shock amongst mock drafters. We'll never hear what scouts saw in Goat Tank to pass up on him or if whether it was just a lack of need at DT for teams but either way, the otters were rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of picking up the TPE leader and instant impact maker - Goat Tank when he fell to them. I doubt there was much deliberation in the war room over that pick.
Goat Tank has continued to be the strongest earner in the class, currently 18 ahead of Ju0so its unlikely he'll be getting caught any time soon unless he ups and pulls a Gath.
Great pick here for the Otters and I'm sure Goat Tank will be enjoying the sun in orange County.
12OA: After a fantastic season where they fell slightly short, the Sarasota Sailfish will have been gleeful to get this calibre of user at the tail end of the first. Peter Patterson aka power user and we'll loved guy - Slate fell into the laps of the sailfish when he was still available at 12. Slate (with a help from a number of the class) put together a piece of code to help with sim testing and released it to the whole league in what was an thinly veiled shot at another little sausage in this draft class. I loved slates release media as it oozed class and showed fantastic values and behaviours whilst sticking the middle finger up at someone else.
Annoyingly that other person got drafted before slate. But we'll leave it at that.
Patterson has been a great lick for Sarasota. I'm sure hell be helping them sim test and I have no doubt in my mind that he'll be in he war room helping to scout future fishes. If he's not, frost needs to pull his finger out and get him in.
13OA: With the 13th pick un the draft, the New York Silverbacks make their franchises first ever pick. And boy was it a corker. Hank Winchester is the latest player for ISFL royalty - timeconsumer. TC has been here from the very start, creating his first player - Angus Winchester in season 1. The fact that he put out media in 2017 about Hank Winchester being born is astounding. TC has clearly been in this for the long haul.
I don't think you could build a franchise around a better choice than this sort of sim royalty. This was a fantastic pick by the silverbacks. It's just a shame they ruined all that by using a later round pick on zayn. The most toxic person in the league.
14OA: And last but not least to wrap up the first round the Sabercats were back on the clock to pick their second player in the first round (how the champs managed to get 2 first rounders in the very draft after they won the league is beyond me. The fact it's a reddit draft makes it even more astounding. But I am not complaining.)
Anyway with this pick the Sabercats picked up a fantastic player and user in Tijuana CB Rich Triplet. The 6th DB off the board in the draft and the Sabercats have got themselves a stud pickup. TPE gains from a number of recruits has seen Kotasa skyrocket up the TPE leader board and land in at 3rd just behind Ju0so and just slightly ahead of myself.
He's growing into his role in the LR and has been brought into the cats WR to cast a fresh eye over sim testing and to help out with the scouting process. Kotasa if you read this, please drop a few TPE. I still haven't ever hit 3rd in the class!
So having read back over that first round I've noticed I'm being far too nice about everyone. I'll try to be a bit more critical of teams picks in the 2nd round but it's difficult when the whole class was so good!
15OA: with the 15th pick of the draft, Yellowknife managed to pry this pick away from the Salamanders (or was it the silverbacks?) and used it for a chunky offensive player in Big tight end Djibutee McJimmerson. McJimmerson didn't stay that chunky TE for long though as YKW have already filled that position with the surprising comeuppance of Zee Rechs.
McJimmerson has instead position swapped to... You guessed it - Cornerback.
McJimmerson was a big mover in the draft going a lot higher than he went in the DSFL draft and it's well deserved. He has since been honing his GFX skills and nailing down Jersey swaps (though my personal favourite is the laughing Sabercat from the Ultimus). Another great pick here by the wraiths. (Poor old Zee Rechs alone in the TE room again).
16OA: with the 16th overall pick traded to the Outlaws they looked to bring in a player happy to position switch. And here they have definitely picked a high quality user. I'm not gonna lie, I was under the impression Zeagle1 had been here for years and not joined at the exact same time as me but here we are.
Chuck Roth was originally an Olineman and hasn't had to move too far or change much about himself. Instead of keeping his QB on his feet, Roth is now plugging running lanes and busting QBs from the DT spot.
DT wasn't a particularly deep position this draft but here arizona have managed to bag a top DT in the second round. Had Zeagle created as DT there is a rather large chance he'd have been snagged in the first.
Great user, great pick. I can only hope he has a great career outside of any game he plays against San Jose.
17OA: At 17 we have philidelphia liberty back on the clock and they looked to strengthen their offense with this going to the Grey Ducks High flying receiver Killian Chambers (and I believe GM at the time unless I'm completely wrong??)
Charlit the user has been decently active throughout the last year and appears to be in the same boat as me - make your cash then sit on your laurels until you see an opportunity to make a large media and post that at a point where you can get bonus cash.
I don't remember Charlit getting the Philly GM job and I'm super confused at the timeline of what's been going on so everything I've said above could be wrong. I hope Charlit has been enjoying his time in the league since giving up on the GM job, fingers crossed they stick around for years to come to really shore up that offense!
18OA: It's Baltimore Hawks with the 18th pick and surprise surprise they went back to the fruitful Kansas City well but this time to pick up one of my recruits - Tony Yeboah aka Frazzle14. I'm not going to lie, I was surprised to see Frazzle going so high considering how late in the day he created. Having not shared a locker room with him at all I had no idea how engrained into the Coyotes (and assuming now the hawks as well) system he was.
Frazzle has bagged himself a job as a Rookie Mentor (not at all jealous. Nu-uh not me).
Someone I assumed would be a quick route to 5 TPE ended up going early in the 2nd and I couldn't be happier. It looks like I've created a sim league monster as from my understanding he has joined SHL, PBE & Super Casual as well. That's more than I can handle so fair play to him.
The question I have though... Would Yeboah still have been there in the third? Was he on anyone else's radar? Who knows!
19OA: with the 19th pick in the draft New Orleans selected OLineman and all around chunky boy - Adam Mellott straight from the Luchadores lineup. Unlike the first round pick of Toblerone they have kept this big son of a gun as an Oline. Protecting their aging quarterback from the likes of yours truly.
The user GuitarMaster is fantastic I believe like Frazzle he is also a member of the Rookie Mentor team and appears to be fantastic at authorising newbies, quick as a flash.
I don't think you could ask for a better RM, and I feel NOLA have completely nailed this pick!
20OA: with the 20th pick in the draft the orange County Otters sealed their fate. They will never go to another ultimus as long as the hold the biggest jinx in the league on their team.
I'm joking of course, Rev is hands down the most well loved person in this draft class. You name the server, he's probably on it being his lovely self. The otters took him here as there was no chance of him falling to the third as any one of the remaining teams would likely have taken him.
Richard Leaking has the best twitter in the league at the moment and I highly recommend a follow. Every day is a new otter gif. Every one cuter than the last. The man lives and breathes the otters so I assume they'll be more than happy with this pick here.
21OA: At 21 we have the Hahalua's first pick of 2 in the second round. With their GM at the time being in this draft they were locked into taking Ravens player Davril Lavigne here. Raven stepped down from Honolulu shortly after being drafted so the Hahalua just got a steal of a safety in the second round where (judging by earlier picks) he could very well have gone higher.
Definitely a good pick up fir honolulu even if his GM term came to a close in the next season.
Another person I've not had a huge amount if any dealings with but seems to be rather respected in the league so definitely a good person to bring back in on the cheap.
22OA: This has been a very strong class for Arizona so far and with their second pick in the second round they pick yet another person who went on to to become a GM. Unfortunately for them that was with another team. That players name at time of draft was Vance Slattery - User Punter715. Since then Punter has changed his players name to "Doy Fieri" who has the tiniest face on a render I've seen.
As alluded to earlier Punter has managed to bag himself a GM position. With both GM positions being taken in Arizona Punter and user SchnarllyDude (another S25 member) have taken over the running of Philadelphia Liberty. Its worth mentioning here that I absolutely hate Punters render for his GM character "Lip Chap" it might be the most hideous signature in the league!
23OA: I feel this pick can be the first one that I get to openly slate. With the 23rd overall pick in the draft Honolulu picked up Rusty Rucker - a Line backer from the SeaWolves. In a vacuum this is a great pick. Rucker had been nailing his TPE, working on Wiki and generally putting himself about the forums as much as he Could. In a vacuum you could almost call it a steal to get a player of this caliber in the second.
Alas, the problem with this pick is the fit.
Honolulu had already drafted fields in the first, and already have a star LB in Kackpoo, meaning there really isn't much room left over for our second Horseman to fill. This lead to a poor rookie season playing a rotational role with Fields leaving neither to play to their full potential, and this season has seen Rucker squander his talents at DE. Looking at some of the other names left on the board here, Honolulu had holes elsewhere they could have filled.
We'll see how it all plays out but I feel this was a bit of a swing and a miss at this point in the draft.
24OA: 3 of the last 5 picks in the second round were used on recreating GMs. The first of these was Duckburg Quackstack. Quite possibly the most outlandish render in the full draft. If I'm remembering correctly Quackstack is made up of burgers has a beak and I want to say has wheels instead of legs but I could be wrong on that one!
Bwestfield is also the only of the remaining GMs who is actually still a GM. It feels a bit like the rest may just be utilising the GM in the second round rule to bag a steak before getting them to retire as gm and pass it on to the next person from that team recreating.
Quackstack is not only building himself a fantastic team in the Silverbacks, he is leading the way in TPE from their draft class. Really leading from the front. This is an absolutely solid pick and without the GM rule Quackstack would've no doubt ended up a first rounder.
25OA: Another quickfire GM, this time comes in he form of Austin first pick in the draft and it's one for the future - Jackie Daytona. Just before the draft I released a mock draft slating the copperheads for needing to take a lower TPE QB in the 2nd round. Welp they've made me look foolish here as Mooty has of course been earning strongly throughout his tenure at Bondi Beach and is now sitting at exactly 25th in the class for TPE (having been a later recreate). Meaning Austin didn't lose any of the value I said they would be.
With Austins aging current QB coming to the end of his playing cycle we may well see Daytona stepping up this coming season. Mooty has since stepped down as GM and Austin is now being run by a couple of scrubs in Amidships and Kyle. No doubt they will run this team into the ground and poor Daytona will be doomed to life on a team held together by scotch tape and glue. (They are of course actually looking very strong for the coming years).
26OA: We've made it to 26 overall and have come across only our second complete and utter miss fire. This comes from Sarasotas pickup of Olineman Clay Stallworth. Stallworth had been absolutely killing it and looked to be a great pickup at 26 however something mustve happened and on the 31st of October user GravTx decided for whatever reason to not sign back on ever again. No idea what happened here as up until that point Grav had a super high media output and looked to only keep that going making this ghosting even more strange!
Whether it's sarasota or Kansas City, I hope someone is able to reach out to Grav and nget him back as Stallworth was one of the coolest motherfuckers in the league and I for one would love to see him back.
27OA: With the penultimate pick in the second round the Yeti had to pick up their GM at the time - Frick Nasty and his player Dave Batista. Batista line up in the TE position and is up there inside the top 10 earners in the class. However following on from a couple of ultimus losses in a row at the hands of the Sabercats, Frick appears to have fallen out of love with the Yeti (and rumour has it, fallen out of love with Batista) and hung up his management boots in favour of focusing on his player.
He has instead been staded for pennies on the dollar to the Philadelphia Liberty for nothing other than an S28 5th rounder. It's not often you see people voluntarily leaving the Yeti but this seems to have been the wishes of Frick so it will be interesting to see what happens. If Frick hangs around longer than a couple of seasons this could be a fantastic deal for Philly. If he Jacks it in within the next season or two this could be a poor investment especially considering S28 is slated to be an r/nfl draft. Round 5 tends to be the round "controversial" recreates go during nfl classes of this class is anything to go by. So at the end of the day, the Yeti could be laughing with their very own Air Crou...
28OA: And finally, last but by no means least we have the Sabercats 3rd pick in the draft, and they fly in with a big pick up from Norfolk Seawolves - Xmus Flaxon Jaxon-Waxon at safety. Jaxon-Waxon had been making waves pre-draft with his rookie card series, earning a lot of bunce and building up a very healthy bank account.
Connor is another one of my recruits and another I was shocked to see go so high at the time (again nothing to do with Connor I just though gained TPE had a lot more to do with it). So far though Xmus has (like Crowder) had a fairly lacklustre season in the Sabercats Ultimus hangover season. Getting a number of tackles but not really doing much else. Connor will be hoping with the new sim on the horizon the changes to archetypes will hopefully see him doing a bit more, and fingers crossed, he'll start performing and help the Derpcats bring home another ultimus!
So that's that. This was a pile of unadulterated shite so, sorry to Mojojojo/Tesla/Pigsnout/Evok. Hopefully you only skimmed it and didn't feel like reading the full length of this shameless cash grab. I love all of you so sorry to have wasted your time and effort!
Madden out.
This media piece will be a quick overview on how each of the first 2 rounds of draft picks are doing from the S25 draft class (you know my favourite thing to write media about). I'm not critiquing the picks or looking into too much depth and it won't be uniform. Just me my phone and my thumbs writing whatever shit comes to my head.
So without further ado let's have a look at them draft picks.
1OA: The big uno. Number one. The Berlin firesalamanders kicked us off by selecting... Swantavious Jones. Now, this was not the consensus draft position for Swanty though clearly there were those people in the know mocking him here. Most people had Fields and Patterson as the consensus 1 and 2 but that's what you get for going with the crowd in mock drafts.
Swanty has been a very worthy 1OA having won the most dedicated new league member that year, Swanty has been working hard for the league since. Currently a dab hand at laying the ban hammer on bot accounts. 50TPE behind the TPE lead is nothing to be embarrassed by for Swanty - he's still trucking away at earning and has been a very worthy 1OA.
Sidenote: Somehow a scrub on the team by the name of Jeeeeroy Lenkins managed to get defensive captain for the Salamanders over Jones... Apparently they had to throw the glue eater a bone somehow and they'd already ran out of crayons to feed him.
2OA: The Yellowknife wraiths traded up to this pick to select... Dan Foster the CB out of Portland. 2 picks in, 2 CB off the board already. DB clearly a massive cause for concern on a lot of ISFL teams.
This is another strong pick TPE wise, Foster is under 50 points behind the lead but rather strangely isn't even the highest TPE S25 CB on the Wraiths at the moment. Would you consider that to be a wasted pick?
I wouldn't, a consistent earner at a position of need! A mighty fine pick by the Wraiths.
3OA: With the 3rd overall pick Philadelphia Liberty shored up their defensive line picking up... Tex Wrecks from the Tijuana Luchadores. At draft time Wrecks was neck and neck with Goat Tank for the TPE lead but Wrecks appears to have fallen off the pace a bit now sitting at 5th highest TPE in the class. He's still the highest TPE from the top 3 picks sitting at a lofty 611 - 21 more than Foster before him. Once the highest TPE DE in the class by a long way, Wrecks is now 3rd. Will the Liberty feel like they picked the wrong Defensive End? I doubt it. He's still performing very well for them and in the grand scheme of things it's all about fit as opposed to TPE. Assuming Wrecks fits the locker room vibe then that's all that matters.
4OA: Thanks to a mid-Season trade the S24 champions found themselves with the Austin Copperheads 1st rounder. A very early first rounder for such a strong squad.
Thanks to expansion their star DE had just had to retire to avoid using a roster space on himself, meaning with only 2 or 3 strong DEs left on the board, it was a no brainer to pick one here. Much to my fortune it was... Raylan Crowder of the Dallas Birddogs. And if I do say so myself what a mighty fine pick that has turned out to be.
Crowder fits in very well with the locker room (I think) and has slotted in at a position of need. Although his stats have been shockingly bad this year, it doesn't matter as he's helped win an Ultimus already with a ripping 1 tackle in the grand final (bow down to his greatness). His second year has been very unforgettable with barely any tackles and minimal sacks/TFLs Crowder has instead been making do with helping out in the LR, adding some banging tunes to the teams playlist.
Unfortunately this season Asked Madden missed out a prediction thread for week 8 forever marking him as a bust.
Wasted pick by San Jose here.
5OA: And with the 5th overall pick the Yeti traded up to land the final of what was originally the big 3 DE in the class - Albert Ruschmann. Easily one of the most likeable katarn22 was a well deserved 5th pick and definitely worth trading up for by the Colorado Yeti.
The Yeti were sitting with the 13th OA pick but came to the decision their man wouldn't have been there when they picked. Most likely correct as Katarn was definitely a highly sought after prospect and was always going to be a 1st rounder.
Once again Crowder and Ruschmann went back to back in a draft our fates intertwined. It's been a while since I've spoken to Katarn now we don't share any mutual Locker rooms *shakes fist at yeti for privatising* but I'm sure he is still plugging away and killing it in the sim and from a social aspect as well. Sorry we beat you in the finals man. I'm sure it will be your turn this year!
6OA: With the 6th overall pick in the draft the Baltimore Hawks selected... Felix Archstone and everyone's favourite user Glims. It's fair to say Glims has jumped straight into sim football with 2 feet, straight into the DSFL gm job of the Kansas City Coyotes, it definitely wasn't a simple takeover with Glims getting fined very early on in his tenure.
With Butters getting the Baltimore GM job it wasnt a matter of which team and more a matter of which round Glims would go in. And on this one the consensus was very much correct. Nearly every mock had Glims going at 6OA to the hawks and would you look at that. Nearly every mock was correct. Glims continues to be a fantastic contributor to the league and was a great pick up by the Hawks... Did I hear somebody say future Baltimore GM :eyes:
7OA: Midway through the first round and Honolulu Hahalua get the steal of the draft. Can someone be steal of the draft in the first round?? Yes I believe they can and Guy Fields certainly makes his case for steal of the draft.
My personal pick for 1OA and this is no slight on any of the people taken before him but just an indictment on how good user r0tz is for the league. He single handedly does all of Dallas's testing, helps bail out the sim team when they find themselves in another shocking pickle and has also taken up the (tiring) position of head office member. I can only assume he helps honolulu in some way off the field as well as on but it's fair to say this Guy is a certifiable stud.
It also helps that he has the world's most adorable dog and grumpy looking cat so even when he's just kicking about he can make your day just by posting Finns cute as a button face.
Great pick up here by Honolulu. It's just a shame he's not got the best TPE in the class!
8OA: The Arizona Outlaws select another DB here this time its Safety Tayshawn Crunk. Crunk may well have been the draft pick who's made the biggest splash in his new team so far and it pains me to say it.
In his first year playing for the Outlaws Crunk had a very solid rookie performance making a splash on and off the field. Not only did he score 2 defensive touchdowns he also got drafted in to act as Co-gm alongside Z-Whiz. Arizona are right in the hunt for a playoff spot just needing a couple of key results from the final 2 games and they'll get a good shot at giving Cue another run at a playoff win.
9OA: the Chicago Butchers are up and yup you guessed it, another DB. Reflecting on this pick the butchers appear to have made a bit of a cock up. James Gath was the pick, and at the time a lot of people felt he was a total steal as at one point he was locked in as a top two pick.
How times have changed, this once proud member has become very flaccid. Topping out at a rather limp 377 TPE having been up with the leaders around draft time.
His last post was midway through November so you never know, life may just have gotten in the way of Gath. Or maybe he's just lost his love of the sim league. Either way, Chicago will wish they could have this pick back a thousand times with their first pick of the draft likely to never set foot on their team. What a shame.
10OA: I said it before and I'll say it again. This was up their with the most telegraphed picks in the draft. New Orleans picked up the Medicinal Toblerone here, in a shock to absolutely no one. User Ju0so has spent an awful lot of time in NOLA and made it abundantly clear she would want back in either now or after her contract ended. Nola picked her up here and it was agreed that a switch to defensive end would be the best use of her. Meaning she was the 4th DE to come off the board in the first round.
She's still nailing TPE gains currently sitting in the top 3 of the class so NOLA should be very happy with how the pick turned out here.
11OA: The rich get richer with this pick. Goat Tank got picked up here by the perennial contenders Orange County. Everyone expected Goat Tank to be a top 5 pick so to see him fall outside of the top 10 was a huge shock amongst mock drafters. We'll never hear what scouts saw in Goat Tank to pass up on him or if whether it was just a lack of need at DT for teams but either way, the otters were rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of picking up the TPE leader and instant impact maker - Goat Tank when he fell to them. I doubt there was much deliberation in the war room over that pick.
Goat Tank has continued to be the strongest earner in the class, currently 18 ahead of Ju0so its unlikely he'll be getting caught any time soon unless he ups and pulls a Gath.
Great pick here for the Otters and I'm sure Goat Tank will be enjoying the sun in orange County.
12OA: After a fantastic season where they fell slightly short, the Sarasota Sailfish will have been gleeful to get this calibre of user at the tail end of the first. Peter Patterson aka power user and we'll loved guy - Slate fell into the laps of the sailfish when he was still available at 12. Slate (with a help from a number of the class) put together a piece of code to help with sim testing and released it to the whole league in what was an thinly veiled shot at another little sausage in this draft class. I loved slates release media as it oozed class and showed fantastic values and behaviours whilst sticking the middle finger up at someone else.
Annoyingly that other person got drafted before slate. But we'll leave it at that.
Patterson has been a great lick for Sarasota. I'm sure hell be helping them sim test and I have no doubt in my mind that he'll be in he war room helping to scout future fishes. If he's not, frost needs to pull his finger out and get him in.
13OA: With the 13th pick un the draft, the New York Silverbacks make their franchises first ever pick. And boy was it a corker. Hank Winchester is the latest player for ISFL royalty - timeconsumer. TC has been here from the very start, creating his first player - Angus Winchester in season 1. The fact that he put out media in 2017 about Hank Winchester being born is astounding. TC has clearly been in this for the long haul.
I don't think you could build a franchise around a better choice than this sort of sim royalty. This was a fantastic pick by the silverbacks. It's just a shame they ruined all that by using a later round pick on zayn. The most toxic person in the league.
14OA: And last but not least to wrap up the first round the Sabercats were back on the clock to pick their second player in the first round (how the champs managed to get 2 first rounders in the very draft after they won the league is beyond me. The fact it's a reddit draft makes it even more astounding. But I am not complaining.)
Anyway with this pick the Sabercats picked up a fantastic player and user in Tijuana CB Rich Triplet. The 6th DB off the board in the draft and the Sabercats have got themselves a stud pickup. TPE gains from a number of recruits has seen Kotasa skyrocket up the TPE leader board and land in at 3rd just behind Ju0so and just slightly ahead of myself.
He's growing into his role in the LR and has been brought into the cats WR to cast a fresh eye over sim testing and to help out with the scouting process. Kotasa if you read this, please drop a few TPE. I still haven't ever hit 3rd in the class!
So having read back over that first round I've noticed I'm being far too nice about everyone. I'll try to be a bit more critical of teams picks in the 2nd round but it's difficult when the whole class was so good!
15OA: with the 15th pick of the draft, Yellowknife managed to pry this pick away from the Salamanders (or was it the silverbacks?) and used it for a chunky offensive player in Big tight end Djibutee McJimmerson. McJimmerson didn't stay that chunky TE for long though as YKW have already filled that position with the surprising comeuppance of Zee Rechs.
McJimmerson has instead position swapped to... You guessed it - Cornerback.
McJimmerson was a big mover in the draft going a lot higher than he went in the DSFL draft and it's well deserved. He has since been honing his GFX skills and nailing down Jersey swaps (though my personal favourite is the laughing Sabercat from the Ultimus). Another great pick here by the wraiths. (Poor old Zee Rechs alone in the TE room again).
16OA: with the 16th overall pick traded to the Outlaws they looked to bring in a player happy to position switch. And here they have definitely picked a high quality user. I'm not gonna lie, I was under the impression Zeagle1 had been here for years and not joined at the exact same time as me but here we are.
Chuck Roth was originally an Olineman and hasn't had to move too far or change much about himself. Instead of keeping his QB on his feet, Roth is now plugging running lanes and busting QBs from the DT spot.
DT wasn't a particularly deep position this draft but here arizona have managed to bag a top DT in the second round. Had Zeagle created as DT there is a rather large chance he'd have been snagged in the first.
Great user, great pick. I can only hope he has a great career outside of any game he plays against San Jose.
17OA: At 17 we have philidelphia liberty back on the clock and they looked to strengthen their offense with this going to the Grey Ducks High flying receiver Killian Chambers (and I believe GM at the time unless I'm completely wrong??)
Charlit the user has been decently active throughout the last year and appears to be in the same boat as me - make your cash then sit on your laurels until you see an opportunity to make a large media and post that at a point where you can get bonus cash.
I don't remember Charlit getting the Philly GM job and I'm super confused at the timeline of what's been going on so everything I've said above could be wrong. I hope Charlit has been enjoying his time in the league since giving up on the GM job, fingers crossed they stick around for years to come to really shore up that offense!
18OA: It's Baltimore Hawks with the 18th pick and surprise surprise they went back to the fruitful Kansas City well but this time to pick up one of my recruits - Tony Yeboah aka Frazzle14. I'm not going to lie, I was surprised to see Frazzle going so high considering how late in the day he created. Having not shared a locker room with him at all I had no idea how engrained into the Coyotes (and assuming now the hawks as well) system he was.
Frazzle has bagged himself a job as a Rookie Mentor (not at all jealous. Nu-uh not me).
Someone I assumed would be a quick route to 5 TPE ended up going early in the 2nd and I couldn't be happier. It looks like I've created a sim league monster as from my understanding he has joined SHL, PBE & Super Casual as well. That's more than I can handle so fair play to him.
The question I have though... Would Yeboah still have been there in the third? Was he on anyone else's radar? Who knows!
19OA: with the 19th pick in the draft New Orleans selected OLineman and all around chunky boy - Adam Mellott straight from the Luchadores lineup. Unlike the first round pick of Toblerone they have kept this big son of a gun as an Oline. Protecting their aging quarterback from the likes of yours truly.
The user GuitarMaster is fantastic I believe like Frazzle he is also a member of the Rookie Mentor team and appears to be fantastic at authorising newbies, quick as a flash.
I don't think you could ask for a better RM, and I feel NOLA have completely nailed this pick!
20OA: with the 20th pick in the draft the orange County Otters sealed their fate. They will never go to another ultimus as long as the hold the biggest jinx in the league on their team.
I'm joking of course, Rev is hands down the most well loved person in this draft class. You name the server, he's probably on it being his lovely self. The otters took him here as there was no chance of him falling to the third as any one of the remaining teams would likely have taken him.
Richard Leaking has the best twitter in the league at the moment and I highly recommend a follow. Every day is a new otter gif. Every one cuter than the last. The man lives and breathes the otters so I assume they'll be more than happy with this pick here.
21OA: At 21 we have the Hahalua's first pick of 2 in the second round. With their GM at the time being in this draft they were locked into taking Ravens player Davril Lavigne here. Raven stepped down from Honolulu shortly after being drafted so the Hahalua just got a steal of a safety in the second round where (judging by earlier picks) he could very well have gone higher.
Definitely a good pick up fir honolulu even if his GM term came to a close in the next season.
Another person I've not had a huge amount if any dealings with but seems to be rather respected in the league so definitely a good person to bring back in on the cheap.
22OA: This has been a very strong class for Arizona so far and with their second pick in the second round they pick yet another person who went on to to become a GM. Unfortunately for them that was with another team. That players name at time of draft was Vance Slattery - User Punter715. Since then Punter has changed his players name to "Doy Fieri" who has the tiniest face on a render I've seen.
As alluded to earlier Punter has managed to bag himself a GM position. With both GM positions being taken in Arizona Punter and user SchnarllyDude (another S25 member) have taken over the running of Philadelphia Liberty. Its worth mentioning here that I absolutely hate Punters render for his GM character "Lip Chap" it might be the most hideous signature in the league!
23OA: I feel this pick can be the first one that I get to openly slate. With the 23rd overall pick in the draft Honolulu picked up Rusty Rucker - a Line backer from the SeaWolves. In a vacuum this is a great pick. Rucker had been nailing his TPE, working on Wiki and generally putting himself about the forums as much as he Could. In a vacuum you could almost call it a steal to get a player of this caliber in the second.
Alas, the problem with this pick is the fit.
Honolulu had already drafted fields in the first, and already have a star LB in Kackpoo, meaning there really isn't much room left over for our second Horseman to fill. This lead to a poor rookie season playing a rotational role with Fields leaving neither to play to their full potential, and this season has seen Rucker squander his talents at DE. Looking at some of the other names left on the board here, Honolulu had holes elsewhere they could have filled.
We'll see how it all plays out but I feel this was a bit of a swing and a miss at this point in the draft.
24OA: 3 of the last 5 picks in the second round were used on recreating GMs. The first of these was Duckburg Quackstack. Quite possibly the most outlandish render in the full draft. If I'm remembering correctly Quackstack is made up of burgers has a beak and I want to say has wheels instead of legs but I could be wrong on that one!
Bwestfield is also the only of the remaining GMs who is actually still a GM. It feels a bit like the rest may just be utilising the GM in the second round rule to bag a steak before getting them to retire as gm and pass it on to the next person from that team recreating.
Quackstack is not only building himself a fantastic team in the Silverbacks, he is leading the way in TPE from their draft class. Really leading from the front. This is an absolutely solid pick and without the GM rule Quackstack would've no doubt ended up a first rounder.
25OA: Another quickfire GM, this time comes in he form of Austin first pick in the draft and it's one for the future - Jackie Daytona. Just before the draft I released a mock draft slating the copperheads for needing to take a lower TPE QB in the 2nd round. Welp they've made me look foolish here as Mooty has of course been earning strongly throughout his tenure at Bondi Beach and is now sitting at exactly 25th in the class for TPE (having been a later recreate). Meaning Austin didn't lose any of the value I said they would be.
With Austins aging current QB coming to the end of his playing cycle we may well see Daytona stepping up this coming season. Mooty has since stepped down as GM and Austin is now being run by a couple of scrubs in Amidships and Kyle. No doubt they will run this team into the ground and poor Daytona will be doomed to life on a team held together by scotch tape and glue. (They are of course actually looking very strong for the coming years).
26OA: We've made it to 26 overall and have come across only our second complete and utter miss fire. This comes from Sarasotas pickup of Olineman Clay Stallworth. Stallworth had been absolutely killing it and looked to be a great pickup at 26 however something mustve happened and on the 31st of October user GravTx decided for whatever reason to not sign back on ever again. No idea what happened here as up until that point Grav had a super high media output and looked to only keep that going making this ghosting even more strange!
Whether it's sarasota or Kansas City, I hope someone is able to reach out to Grav and nget him back as Stallworth was one of the coolest motherfuckers in the league and I for one would love to see him back.
27OA: With the penultimate pick in the second round the Yeti had to pick up their GM at the time - Frick Nasty and his player Dave Batista. Batista line up in the TE position and is up there inside the top 10 earners in the class. However following on from a couple of ultimus losses in a row at the hands of the Sabercats, Frick appears to have fallen out of love with the Yeti (and rumour has it, fallen out of love with Batista) and hung up his management boots in favour of focusing on his player.
He has instead been staded for pennies on the dollar to the Philadelphia Liberty for nothing other than an S28 5th rounder. It's not often you see people voluntarily leaving the Yeti but this seems to have been the wishes of Frick so it will be interesting to see what happens. If Frick hangs around longer than a couple of seasons this could be a fantastic deal for Philly. If he Jacks it in within the next season or two this could be a poor investment especially considering S28 is slated to be an r/nfl draft. Round 5 tends to be the round "controversial" recreates go during nfl classes of this class is anything to go by. So at the end of the day, the Yeti could be laughing with their very own Air Crou...
28OA: And finally, last but by no means least we have the Sabercats 3rd pick in the draft, and they fly in with a big pick up from Norfolk Seawolves - Xmus Flaxon Jaxon-Waxon at safety. Jaxon-Waxon had been making waves pre-draft with his rookie card series, earning a lot of bunce and building up a very healthy bank account.
Connor is another one of my recruits and another I was shocked to see go so high at the time (again nothing to do with Connor I just though gained TPE had a lot more to do with it). So far though Xmus has (like Crowder) had a fairly lacklustre season in the Sabercats Ultimus hangover season. Getting a number of tackles but not really doing much else. Connor will be hoping with the new sim on the horizon the changes to archetypes will hopefully see him doing a bit more, and fingers crossed, he'll start performing and help the Derpcats bring home another ultimus!
So that's that. This was a pile of unadulterated shite so, sorry to Mojojojo/Tesla/Pigsnout/Evok. Hopefully you only skimmed it and didn't feel like reading the full length of this shameless cash grab. I love all of you so sorry to have wasted your time and effort!
Madden out.