SHL PT
12. Choose a team or player to write about that isn’t your own. What did they do well in the last season? Have they shown any drastic improvements from previous years? What could they do better?
I tend to be fascinated by expansion teams so I'll go back to the imo coolest of the most recent expansion teams in the Berlin Fire Salamanders and track their progress through the league recently. So their first season in the league was back in S25. They were pretty clearly the worst team in the league - nothing against them and it certainly stacks the deck against you to start as an expansion team, but having the worst record, fewest points for, and most points against is pretty damning. They made a solid improvement moving into S26, now finishing 7-9 and ahead of 2 other teams in their conference plus the Hahalua over in the ASFC. On the other hand, they still weren't great and were overshadowed by their fellow expansion team the Silverbacks who had finished 9-7. Berlin would go on to take another step back in on-field performance in S27, dropping back down to a 6-10 record. However, there were signs of improvement to come at the time, as their point differential was only -17 on the season indicating some close games and likely just bad luck in a few occasions. Only bad luck couldn't explain the massive jump into the current season of S28 though. They dominated the conference in finishing 12-4 as the number 1 seed, scoring more than 100 points more than they allowed and in particular jumping out of the gate by winning their first 6 contests all in a row. Additionally, their 4 losses were by a total of 13 points, so they were truly competitive all the way through the schedule. They are currently scheduled to play in the conference championship game against the Yellowknife Wraiths, and have to be considered the favorites to move on to represent the NSFC in the Ultimus. So what changed that led to this new franchise rising from the dregs of the league to winning 12 games in just 4 seasons? They certainly have a similar player quality as many of the other competitors around the league, but they aren't in the top 3 in either Total TPE or Average TPE, sitting right on the edge of the top 5 in both instead. I think a lot of the cause of this whole process of theirs was the decision to build through a core group of S22 players who are all theoretically at their peak right now before starting to regress next season. With 8 players from this season at or very close to 1000 TPE, clearly they were able to successfully identify and acquire such a core, and it's paying off right now. They have no players older than this, indicating that they'll likely remain competitive for several more seasons before the S22 folks die off.
26. Imagine your current position was not available to be picked when you created your player. What other position would you have picked, and why?
In the darkest timeline of the ISFL, fair rubs were never given to human offensive linemen and it would not have been possible for myself to enter the draft with such a noble and prestigious position. If this were the case, I would have instead entered the draft as a tight end, which from my understanding is basically just a smaller offensive lineman but with a great butt. Admittedly this part of the timeline isn't that bad, but as a whole we'd either have way too many tight ends from all of my fellow linemen doing the same thing, or just a bunch of large dudes sitting around not getting to play football. Anyways, back to my personal gig as a tight end, assuming there were still enough jobs available for me I would obviously be a blocking tight end. Sure I would suck for fantasy football purposes and not put up those flashy stats that earn accolades and big contracts, but at least I would be a man of principle and continue to smash the living daylights out of defenders. I am not entirely sure how well the game engine would handle such a player but that's not my problem, it's you guys that got rid of my position for no reason and now y'all gotta deal with the consequences. It would be pretty exciting to catch a touchdown the one time it would happen in my career though, I won't lie.
12. Choose a team or player to write about that isn’t your own. What did they do well in the last season? Have they shown any drastic improvements from previous years? What could they do better?
I tend to be fascinated by expansion teams so I'll go back to the imo coolest of the most recent expansion teams in the Berlin Fire Salamanders and track their progress through the league recently. So their first season in the league was back in S25. They were pretty clearly the worst team in the league - nothing against them and it certainly stacks the deck against you to start as an expansion team, but having the worst record, fewest points for, and most points against is pretty damning. They made a solid improvement moving into S26, now finishing 7-9 and ahead of 2 other teams in their conference plus the Hahalua over in the ASFC. On the other hand, they still weren't great and were overshadowed by their fellow expansion team the Silverbacks who had finished 9-7. Berlin would go on to take another step back in on-field performance in S27, dropping back down to a 6-10 record. However, there were signs of improvement to come at the time, as their point differential was only -17 on the season indicating some close games and likely just bad luck in a few occasions. Only bad luck couldn't explain the massive jump into the current season of S28 though. They dominated the conference in finishing 12-4 as the number 1 seed, scoring more than 100 points more than they allowed and in particular jumping out of the gate by winning their first 6 contests all in a row. Additionally, their 4 losses were by a total of 13 points, so they were truly competitive all the way through the schedule. They are currently scheduled to play in the conference championship game against the Yellowknife Wraiths, and have to be considered the favorites to move on to represent the NSFC in the Ultimus. So what changed that led to this new franchise rising from the dregs of the league to winning 12 games in just 4 seasons? They certainly have a similar player quality as many of the other competitors around the league, but they aren't in the top 3 in either Total TPE or Average TPE, sitting right on the edge of the top 5 in both instead. I think a lot of the cause of this whole process of theirs was the decision to build through a core group of S22 players who are all theoretically at their peak right now before starting to regress next season. With 8 players from this season at or very close to 1000 TPE, clearly they were able to successfully identify and acquire such a core, and it's paying off right now. They have no players older than this, indicating that they'll likely remain competitive for several more seasons before the S22 folks die off.
26. Imagine your current position was not available to be picked when you created your player. What other position would you have picked, and why?
In the darkest timeline of the ISFL, fair rubs were never given to human offensive linemen and it would not have been possible for myself to enter the draft with such a noble and prestigious position. If this were the case, I would have instead entered the draft as a tight end, which from my understanding is basically just a smaller offensive lineman but with a great butt. Admittedly this part of the timeline isn't that bad, but as a whole we'd either have way too many tight ends from all of my fellow linemen doing the same thing, or just a bunch of large dudes sitting around not getting to play football. Anyways, back to my personal gig as a tight end, assuming there were still enough jobs available for me I would obviously be a blocking tight end. Sure I would suck for fantasy football purposes and not put up those flashy stats that earn accolades and big contracts, but at least I would be a man of principle and continue to smash the living daylights out of defenders. I am not entirely sure how well the game engine would handle such a player but that's not my problem, it's you guys that got rid of my position for no reason and now y'all gotta deal with the consequences. It would be pretty exciting to catch a touchdown the one time it would happen in my career though, I won't lie.
![[Image: reposte.png?width=1050&height=534]](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/716823545174425650/741340235748868157/reposte.png?width=1050&height=534)
![[Image: 2gqV8ts.png]](https://i.imgur.com/2gqV8ts.png)
