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hey grader spilt the money 50/50 ok?
Hey guys WildfireMicro here and I am here with a very special type of interview media: one based on league history! This is the first of what I am calling "Interview with the Vets" where I interview various long time veterans of the league about thier personal history with the league and some other opinions on the league. My first interview is with @124715 who has been here since season 2! Without any further ado let's begin!
Me: Now i understand you joined the league all the way back in S2. it must have all been really different back then compared to now, but what would you say is the biggest difference?
Numbers: Well you're definitely right that there are a ton of differences. The most notable to me, though, is just the sheer size of the league. When I joined near the end of S1 there were a total of 6 teams and no DSFL, so watching the number of teams nearly triple has been fascinating. The teams also have a lot more actives now than before. War rooms have transformed from a place where the team's GMs can just ask a few questions to the team's veterans into a headquarters, handling many aspects of team management that generally were forgotten in the earlier seasons, and people can spend years working in a war room before cracking the GM level.
Me: Who has been the best users you have worked with? (It took him a bit for this one)
Numbers: One of my favorite people on the site to work with has been Ahriman, who unfortunately has been inactive for a while. He also was initially inactive when he joined the league, too, but quickly became one of the best people on the Coyotes upon his return and earned a promotion to GM. He was a great GM, in fact he has taught me a lot of what I knew about DDSPF16. Most notably, however, he was the inventor of the "Fast Mustard" system that either plagued the league or benefitted it for almost 20 seasons. Unfortunately, we weren't able to stay a Coyotes GM partnership for long, as he was quickly promoted to the big leagues, then HO.
Another one of my favorite co-GMs was dropbear, another user who hasn't been around for a long time. I drafted his second player, Howard Miller, with the first overall DSFL draft pick, and it was still a steal. Miller had a great but short career in the ISFL, being the most recent WR to win the MVP award. But my most memorable experiences with him were GMing the Coyotes together. He was very creative in his depth chart arrangements - for instance, we finished a season strong by playing our two near-capped WRs at CB, a technique Miller used to win MVP and was later banned. Like Ahriman, he was quickly promoted to the big leagues, but the three seasons we shared together were a blast.
The last GMing partner I want to mention here is PSanchez, one of the best DSFL drafters I've ever seen, and the main architect of the very strong Armstrong-Cue mid S10s Pythons teams. We only technically were a GM pairing for one season, where we reached the Ultimini, but I played a role in the war room for two seasons prior. He was not just a fantastic drafter, but also great at getting people to update and keeping the team involved. He stepped down from his perch quickly after and hasn't been around much since
He apparently could do a whole list but is saving it for something else
Me: What are some weird ISFL moments you've seen? As in moments that make you step back and say "what just happened here?"
N: Well, the Er multi thing for instance
Me: I think I've heard about that if it's the one I'm thinking of
N: It was wild being on the Liberty, who'd kind of acquired a bad reputation as the whiners and conspiracy theorists of the league for our role in the multi scandal. For instance, adam2552, the founder and GM, was responsible behind the initial two articles depicting the situation. We all believed him, but people called him a conspiracy theorist hack
Me: Was it the one that "ISFL 30 for 30" podcast was on?
N: Hmm, I think so. Another moment was a lot more recent, with the whole soup-mori falling out that lead to the Philly restructure. At that time I'd spent almost 3 real life years as a Philadelphia Liberty player, so every time I heard people just casually say things like "god Philly is such a dumpster fire" it was painful (the even more painful thing is that they were right). And that was my last season on Philly, so it was even more bittersweet to be drafted elsewhere even though Honolulu has been even better than I could have hoped for.
Me:Ahh I see. Makes me appreciate Cody and Pat.
N: Tell them I said they're total cuties. It's so hard to be a good GM for a long time in this league. Like, if you lose interest it's hard to step down unless you've outlined a clear replacement plan for such a scenario. Sometimes if you're on a bad team you don't have a clear next in line and don't wanna burden your team even further by trying to trade for a replacement. And other times you just think of yourself as the GM and don't want to step down because, well, you've been doing the job for x seasons. So I hold no ill will to soup or anyone else involved in that fiasco.
Me: Alright then who in the league has been the best at media?
N: Scorp
Me: Yeah I can see that lol
N: Lol he made typos but he did promise to write a 10k article then actually did it.
Me: Laser is also a good one to me
N: Laser writes great stuff. juosu's media is also great, underappreciated imo. infinite writes great stuff. trying to not have recency bias here.
Me: Ok then who are the users you'd like to have a drink with?
N: One of the most fun people in this league to talk to in my opinion is TomHanks, aside from just generally being a cool guy he has a near perfect recollection of league history even stretching before his time which makes him tons of fun to just chat with since we're both league boomers.
Me: Ok then 2 more questions then we can sign off: what teams right now are rebuilding the right way?
N: Great question. I'm obsessed with the concept of the sim league rebuild, maybe because I like the draft, or maybe because I won an Ultimus on the tail end of the greatest rebuild in ISFL history (the Second Line from S6ish to S9). I think Baltimore could be a good team in the future, with the war chest of picks they've picked up. Five firsts in two seasons is pretty impressive. However, the thoroughness of their teardown means another 0-16 season may be in the cards, and so Frick and hall have their work cut out for them to keep the team involved and not become apathetic after potentially losing 33+ straight games. Another team is Berlin, who while technically aren't rebuilding, have still had to bring the roster from the ground up and have created a squad with very few weaknesses. I think they'll be a strong contender in just a handful of seasons.
Me: Yeah I wish the best for Frick and Hall. What about Philly?
N: Haha I think they've got a great roster but man with the roster construction they have they're basically betting their entire life savings on red, like half the roster is S25 and they're still 4 seasons away from their career peak... so if the Liberty can keep that massive cohort active for a long stretch of potentially rough seasons they'll be borderline unbeatable. Unfortunately they seem to have some bad inactivity luck and troubles keeping people max earning, so if they keep losing people they may never get to field a truly dominant team.
Me: Well I'll try my best to be a good player for them.
N: I will deffo be rooting for you guys.
Me: Ok actual last question: what advice would you give a new user? Like one that just got drafted or picked up on waivers in the DSFL?
N: Haha as a rookie mentor this is a fun question. I just advise everyone to find the aspect of this league that resonates with them! For instance, I love the analysis/history/data side of things and I've had a lot of fun looking at stuff like that.
Me: I found story telling and stats and recently league history.
N: Yeah some people love the story telling/backstory kind of thing which is always tons of fun to read.
Me: Thank you for doing this.
N: Sounds good bro! Was fun talking.
As you can see this interview was incredibly informative. I loved being able to talk about this crazy league with him and get his opinions on things. I hope to interview more people about stuff like this so if you're a really long time user and this interests you hit me up! Thank you for reading and I hope to see you all on the field.