Alright! We are well underway in Season 27 and with the unveiling of the new simulation engine! With that, I must say that the new sim is very...interesting to say the least. To begin with, the new sim looks crisp in terms of visuals and overall presentation that is a welcome upgrade to the previous sim of the past few seasons. However, the annoying "upset" glitch is there again where certain teams that should not win against great teams somehow find ways to beat them. With that being said, in regards to NOLA, this season has been a bit of an annoying struggle for us, despite being the Season 26 Ultimus runner ups. We had an upset loss to Honolulu at home who we are definitely better than on paper and we lost at home to OCO on a last second fluky FG drive. It is annoying because I feel that the sim is still having fluky moments decide games instead of determining the games through each team's talent. It is not all bad, however, as we seem to be returning to contention form as we defeated Austin on the road with a great all around offensive performance and a few clutch defensive stops and plays. Thus, I believe we should be able to contend for the Ultimus again.
For context of this article, I am a fresh rookie playing on the Defensive line for the Portland Pythons. The new season has been quite an interesting experience, with quite a lot of highs and lows already. Initially I joined the league not really knowing what to expect from the visual side of the sims, but I'll be honest, I was not expecting a bunch of energetic dots. From what I've seen of the sim so far, it seems to do a decent job of being able to simulate a football game. There are definitely flaws, like a complete lack of clock management, absurd play calling like running on a 4th and 9, and kicking a punt from the opposing 31-yard line. Overall, however, the game seems to do a well enough job managing all the pieces to get an acceptable end result, even if the quarterback is able to throw past the first down line.
On the subject of my players performance, well it has been rather dreadful to open up the year. So far, I believe I may have a max of four tackles on the season, and besides a stop on a 4th and 2, the effectiveness of my character has been negligible. Most of the time my character is running three yards forward to hug the offensive tackle while the ball gets throw over the middle immediately for a four-yard gain, but on those rare occasions where I break free from my block and get a free lane at the quarterback, the safety beats me to him. Now this isn’t a knock at positions that are gathering stats, and for the most part it’s a team effort, I could go the whole game without stats and be satisfied if we walk away with the W, but considering this is a league where you can create your own character and guide them through professional footballs ranks, it can be disappointing waiting for your guy to finally make that big play only to feel like it won’t come. So, here’s hoping to that game coming next week is the big one for me and the boys!