Hello everyone, its your friendly neighborhood Teyon. I pose to you a simple question: is the age of the casual earner dead?
As the league expands and continues to grow, the number of highly active users continues to grow as well. In the past, before all the recruitment pushes, high activity numbers, and of course the new sim, it was easy to find casual earners getting comfortable in a starting spot on a team and cruising to a good if not great career, even sometimes winning awards in the process. But have those days come to an end?
Unfortunately it is nearly impossible to find historical TPE data on early seasons. However, it is not too large of a logical leap to assume that players in earlier seasons required much less TPE to be competitive, since there were less players to compete against. I'm more interested in comparing between, for example, season 20 and today.
Why Season 20? Well, simply, because S20 was the season happening one year ago from today. I will admit, it is a bit arbitrary, but it is certainly easier to find TPE data on players from that time through today, especially since TPE tracker only goes so far back. I'm choosing Season 20 as that is when the big class of S15 began to enter their prime, and included high profile S14 players as well as up and coming S18 players.
Lets start with QBs. I suspect that the difference between the two seasons will be minimal, since QB has never really been an option for the casual player.
QB
S27 Starting QBs
S20
S27 avg TPE: 1023 TPE
S20 avg TPE: 1061 TPE
The average TPE of users in S20 is actually higher for QBs than it is in S27, but there are higher variations in the data. Expanding to 14 teams from 10 has certainly made it so more lower-earning QBs are necessary, however half of S27 is over 1200 while only one is under 800, while 4 of S20 is over 1200 and 2 are below 800, with one in the 500's. I believe this to be a bit of a moot point, though, because no QB in the ISFL will ever be considered a casual earner.
Moving on to what used to be considered easier to be good at while being a casual earner, lets see how running backs stack up. I would suspect more of a difference in average TPE from S20 until S27 in favor of S27 backs having more TPE.
RB
S27 Running backs
S20
S27 Avg: 707 TPE
S20 Avg: 540 TPE
Holy discrepancies Batman! Look at the difference in running backs from just 8 seasons ago through today. Not only is the sheer number of running backs in the league much higher, but the quality of running backs is absolutely bonkers compared to just a short year ago. It is clear that this is no longer a position that can be played 'casually' considering the competition, and there are many, many more active users behind these running backs. There is not a single running back under 300 TPE today, while back then there were six! As well as only two backs earning over a thousand, while S27 features seven over the millennial mark, including Chan being up to nearly 1500 TPE!
For fun, lets also look at the stat lines for each season for comparison of stats vs TPE:
S27
S20
From these two statlines, it is easy to tell that higher TPE definitely correlates to better stats today, whereas in the past higher TPE did not mean better stats. Take a look at Tyerucker, for example, who was second in yards with 8 touchdowns at only 278 TPE in S20! Apollo Reed maxed out this same season at 809 TPE, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in S27. This goes to show that getting more TPE in this new sim is much more important than it was in the past, and that you didn't have to max earn to have a stellar, hall of fame career.
Is this a good thing for the league? Overall, I would say yes. More competition is great, and it is good to see that your TPE actually matters now, at least in the case of running backs. Although QB hasn't really changed in regards to TPE earning, RB has significantly changed and become very competitive. All this said, it appears to be a lot tougher to come into the league as a casual earner and to expect good stats at the same time. Will this be the case across all positions? And if so, is this a deterrent for prospective new members of this league? Let me know your thoughts. Next week I'll take a look at WR and TE.
Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day!
As the league expands and continues to grow, the number of highly active users continues to grow as well. In the past, before all the recruitment pushes, high activity numbers, and of course the new sim, it was easy to find casual earners getting comfortable in a starting spot on a team and cruising to a good if not great career, even sometimes winning awards in the process. But have those days come to an end?
Unfortunately it is nearly impossible to find historical TPE data on early seasons. However, it is not too large of a logical leap to assume that players in earlier seasons required much less TPE to be competitive, since there were less players to compete against. I'm more interested in comparing between, for example, season 20 and today.
Why Season 20? Well, simply, because S20 was the season happening one year ago from today. I will admit, it is a bit arbitrary, but it is certainly easier to find TPE data on players from that time through today, especially since TPE tracker only goes so far back. I'm choosing Season 20 as that is when the big class of S15 began to enter their prime, and included high profile S14 players as well as up and coming S18 players.
Lets start with QBs. I suspect that the difference between the two seasons will be minimal, since QB has never really been an option for the casual player.
QB
S27 Starting QBs
S20
S27 avg TPE: 1023 TPE
S20 avg TPE: 1061 TPE
The average TPE of users in S20 is actually higher for QBs than it is in S27, but there are higher variations in the data. Expanding to 14 teams from 10 has certainly made it so more lower-earning QBs are necessary, however half of S27 is over 1200 while only one is under 800, while 4 of S20 is over 1200 and 2 are below 800, with one in the 500's. I believe this to be a bit of a moot point, though, because no QB in the ISFL will ever be considered a casual earner.
Moving on to what used to be considered easier to be good at while being a casual earner, lets see how running backs stack up. I would suspect more of a difference in average TPE from S20 until S27 in favor of S27 backs having more TPE.
RB
S27 Running backs
S20
S27 Avg: 707 TPE
S20 Avg: 540 TPE
Holy discrepancies Batman! Look at the difference in running backs from just 8 seasons ago through today. Not only is the sheer number of running backs in the league much higher, but the quality of running backs is absolutely bonkers compared to just a short year ago. It is clear that this is no longer a position that can be played 'casually' considering the competition, and there are many, many more active users behind these running backs. There is not a single running back under 300 TPE today, while back then there were six! As well as only two backs earning over a thousand, while S27 features seven over the millennial mark, including Chan being up to nearly 1500 TPE!
For fun, lets also look at the stat lines for each season for comparison of stats vs TPE:
S27
S20
From these two statlines, it is easy to tell that higher TPE definitely correlates to better stats today, whereas in the past higher TPE did not mean better stats. Take a look at Tyerucker, for example, who was second in yards with 8 touchdowns at only 278 TPE in S20! Apollo Reed maxed out this same season at 809 TPE, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in S27. This goes to show that getting more TPE in this new sim is much more important than it was in the past, and that you didn't have to max earn to have a stellar, hall of fame career.
Is this a good thing for the league? Overall, I would say yes. More competition is great, and it is good to see that your TPE actually matters now, at least in the case of running backs. Although QB hasn't really changed in regards to TPE earning, RB has significantly changed and become very competitive. All this said, it appears to be a lot tougher to come into the league as a casual earner and to expect good stats at the same time. Will this be the case across all positions? And if so, is this a deterrent for prospective new members of this league? Let me know your thoughts. Next week I'll take a look at WR and TE.
Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day!