(S29) Ultimus Week

[Ephenssta]

14. Describe your player and/or team’s journey through this latest season. What were the highlights? What were the lower points? What might you have done differently? What are your expectations for next season?

Compared to our performance in S28, the Yeti had a relatively successful season this time around. S28 was a frustrating affair. The team was good, but there were still some question marks. In general, we had some maturing to do before we really felt competitive, but there was hope that if a few things fell our way we might be able to surprise some people. Those plans got off to a rough start in week one, where we were dominated by Yellowknife. We knew a lot of how successful we were that season would rest on Caliban and that Yellowknife’s secondary is incredibly strong, but I don’t think we were fully prepared for Caliban to throw 3 interceptions and not have a single touchdown on the day. Our defense just could not keep up and we got routed. Even Baltimore made it close when we played them in week 3, although we did manage to pull off the win. By Week 6, we had lost to the three teams we knew would be our primary competition for the season. Losing to Chicago in week 13 really felt like the nail in the coffin, although that probably actually came when we lost to both Sarasota and Yellowknife late in the season. We finished at 8-8, which is not awful, but missing out on the playoffs to a Sarasota team that had a 10 win season. That feeling was not great, but we knew we were in a place to compete going forwards. Still, missing the playoffs sucks. But season 29 looked good for us. We had made some acquisitions to boost our depth and the team had grown a little bit. We knew we were in a really good place going into the season.
Things got off to a good start for us this time. Week one was a huge matchup against Sarasota, who had beaten us twice the previous season. We managed to win by a narrow three point margin. But then we immediately dropped the ball to Chicago, which feels like a real theme among the last couple seasons. Week three saw us win against Berlin. We now had two wins against playoff teams from last season in the first three weeks of the new season. We were encouraged. At one point, we were on a seven game winning streak before Berlin got some revenge in week 13. We finished the season by beating Chicago, finally, and pulling off the season sweep against the Sailfish in dominant fashion. After missing the playoffs the season before, we secured the #2 seed in the NSFC, falling short of the top seed by one game. Unfortunately, despite beating them twice in the regular season, we fell short against Sarasota in a blowout game to end the season. While it wasn’t the ending we hoped for, returning the playoffs was worth celebrating and the team is poised to be successful over the next several seasons. I look forward to getting underway in our next campaign, where I hope we will again be a top competitor in a tight division.

25. Imagine your current position was not available to be picked when you created your player. What other position would you have picked, and why?

The position I currently play did not even cross my mind when I recreated. Initially, I was thinking about creating at wide receiver and being one of those losers who runs after the ball that QBs somehow always manage to throw everywhere but right on target. But I was talked out of that by people who said that your stats would be inconsistent for a few seasons. In hindsight, I should not have let that persuade me. And there were reports that the new sim was going to shake things up. I created at defensive tackle because I thought that was a position that would allow me to still help a team even if my earning was nothing special. But when some need popped up in the secondary, I swapped over to cornerback to help the Yeti out. If I had it to do over again, I certainly would recreate on offense. The question is where? Perhaps I would have followed my original plan and created at wide receiver. I’m sure I could have put up with the inconsistent stats there just as well as I have at cornerback. I have no real need to be “the guy” so I could have been happy at WR2 or maybe even as a slot guy. But I think I would rather create at TE. Get to do a little bit of pass blocking and a little bit of ball catching, perhaps making my name as a redzone threat or the guy who sneakily gets open down the field…who knows. But I’ll probably go to TE when it’s time for my next create.

27. What team do you think has the best branding in the league? What team do you think could use a refresh? Why?
The best branding is obviously the Colorado Yeti. The logo is pretty genius. Infinite, I hope you’re reading this. It clearly makes the C, representing Colorado. It also uses the colors of the state flag in a nice tribute, and manages to feature the mascot in the middle of all that without it looking crowded. I think that is a pretty impressive feat of design. The look is iconic and I honestly see no need to even think about “freshening it up” anytime in the near future. Why change what is already literal perfection? I do think there are a few teams that could use some upgrading in the logo department. First amongst these teams are the Butchers. I have nothing against the colors, but the logo is basic at best and looks more like something you would see on a movie poster of some really bad slasher movie. In a league with this many skilled graphics people, I believe the Butchers could do better if they really tried. I also think the team could go in a whole new direction if they really wanted to. I know Baltimore is fresh off an update of their logo, but to be honest I am not convinced it’s enough of an upgrade to have been worth it. As someone pointed out to me the other die, it conjures images of friend chicken. Maye it’s the colors, I really don’t know. But again, I think the team could have done better. And speaking of fried chicken, it’s dinner time.

[xtitanxmvpx]

UW S30

#10: (422 words via Google Docs)
Xavier Walls had one of the best debut seasons by a linebacker in recent years. He was at the top or near the top all year long for tackles and was no stranger to making key stops and bigs plays. The Liberty front office has been extremely satisfied with their #4 pick from the S28 class and in year 2 he looks to do nothing but go up. As a pure blitzing linebacker, Walls has surprised people in his DSFL seasons and in his rookie ISFL season as being very adept at getting into the pass lanes and breaking up passes and picking some balls off. These traits have really created the sense that Walls is going to be a universal linebacker that is able to scream at the quarterback off the edge or drop into coverage and not be a weakness there. Incredibly, his addition has created a very well balanced linebacking corp for the Liberty and in the coming years they could very well be the team feared by opposing running backs. Even through this year, the Liberty have been very good at halting some of the top running games and as Lucid Dreams is brought up and develops along with the rest of the young Philly core teams will definitely feel the effects. Walls is also coming into the last year of his rookie contract and word has not been heard whether he is resigning for sure or not. The Liberty Front Office will likely do whatever they can to keep him on, but most believe Walls will be staying with the team due to his loyalty to the community and some of the players within the organization. The Liberty will definitely be in a balancing act as key rookie contracts come to an end this next season, but they have all the tools and pieces to have a dynasty in the coming years as other high caliber teams regress and have players retire. CJ Sonjack, Romulus Roman, Lucid Dreams, Lonnie Jackson, and Rudy Gray make up an incredible young lineup on both sides of the ball and Lonnie, CJ, and Romulus have already shown starting caliber play throughout the season. Tsuyu Asui is also another piece that will be taking on more of a prominent role as well with Flash Panda likely to retire either this off-season or next. The Cardiac Bells are coming and being led by young players looking to bully their way into the league. Watch out ya’ll, the bells are ringin’.

#14: (463 words via Google Docs)
The Philadelphia season was a culmination of promise, disappointment, and growth. The Liberty are young and everyone knows that they are coming to the end of their rebuild. This season I think really proved that as Philly hung close with the top teams in all but one game out of the season. The losses that Philly did suffer were not blow outs, but games they fought hard through and even held some of the top offenses to very little through the majority of the quarters. With such a young core, Philly really showed a lot of growth from last year even if having a worse record.

The highlight of the Philadelphia season came against the New York Silverbacks. The Silverbacks struggled to put points up until the late game and Philly also struggled, but the defenses were really hardnosing it. New York did end up pulling out ahead 27 -16 late in the 4th, but the Cardiac Bells weren’t done. In patented Flash Panda style, the aging receiver took one to the house to bring the game close with 3 minutes or so left. Then Jake Fencik managed to kick a beautiful onside kick the Liberty recovered which then led to a San Lorenzo, 52 yard touchdown from Ryan Negs to seal the game in Philly’s favor. As we know, New York was an Ultimus team this year and for a young team like the Liberty to come away with a game like that is truly impressive.
The lowlight of the season came against the Yeti early on and it was the one game that was a true blowout loss for the Liberty. The offense struggled against a terrifying blitzing team like the Yeti and they just couldn’t manage anything down the stretch of the game. Likewise, the defense was not able to keep the Caliban-Lim connection under wraps and they sliced and diced them like a holiday ham. A great learning experience for a young team, but still disappointing. It’s hard to judge them on that game too harshly though as many other top notch games came down to the wire and Philly lost or won in the last seconds in equally impressive fashions.
I foresee the Liberty to open up the game a bit more next season as Ryan Negs has shown he’s capable when the games matter. Tsuyu Asui and Killian Chambers are going to combine as a fearsome duo in the receiving game, while Lonnie Jackson and Anders Christiansen will continue to one-two punch teams with their flash and burn methods of running the ball. An improvement to the offensive line is a key part of the off-season for the Liberty and once that’s taken care of this team’s offense will be one of the best in the league.

[AW13]

1. PBE PT

Code:

13. Expansion Expansion Expansion! The league seems to love talking about it, but it has still not happened. Tell us why it should happen / should not happen soon?

Expansion is always something exciting as is mentioned in this very prompt that people love talking about it and you always see a ton of media about potential locations or people trying to become GMs and giving reasons or something like projecting who would be available in expansion or just anything else revolving around that. Now, the other side of expansion is the GM side and as someone who has been a GM in multiple leagues that have gone through expansion, it is never a fun time because you expect to lose some solid players and users, usually those who have been around your franchise for a long time or potentially young guys who you had bright hopes for. It is something that the regular user will love but the GM side will hate. Then there is the third side which is the management or head office side of things which have both love and hate. Expansion means the league is going well and there are so many active users that you need more teams but coming up with expansion rules, choosing GMs and other related timing issues and such are all difficult things.

Now, should the ISFL expand? The short answer is I do not know. I would not claim to be an expert on league health being mainly involved in the PBE and the EFL but it does seem like the ISFL has booms at times and what not. However, unlike the PBE, the ISFL's sim is not super friendly in terms of changing the format and the schedule and such which sometimes there are issues figuring out number of scheduled games, divisions, and other stuff. It could get to the point where it is not possible to expand by just 2 teams and there could be a forced 4 team expansion. From experience, I am not a huge fan of a full 4-team expansion because it displaces a lot of users and you have to fill up a whole 4 teams so generally I would say sticking with 2 team expansions is likely the best and only way to go. I would have to go into DDSPF21 and check out the schedule options to determine how it should succeed. I think in general the league is in a fine place though so my initial thought would be to wait and see and don't expand right now. I think I would be safe from expansion at least being a young QB on a young team so expand if you must, maybe it will accelerate the Honolulu rebuild!

Code:

25. Imagine your current position was not available to be picked when you created your player. What other position would you have picked, and why?

I told myself that this would be my last quarterback in the ISFL and I almost did not go quarterback so I can definitely talk about this topic!

Kicker/Punter:
The position I was actually planning on making first after I had Deondre Thomas Fox was to make a kicker. I made a twitter and everything and were preparing for a long, solid career with my new kicker. I wanted to be a kicker and punter because it is one of my favorite positions in football and one that I have dabbled in in real life and I also can analyze punters and punting stats as well from my experience doing it in the EFL. I think the ability to put out some great media pieces along with not needing to be a super max earner would be a huge draw to create a kicker.

OLine or DLine:
This one is similar to the above in that it would be nice to have a solid player and not have to be a super max earner which is something I don't plan on being with future players at least that is my thinking right now. The one position or two I guess positions they do not allow in the EFL is the linemen so I would be able to experience something different than I do in one of my main leagues by choosing this. I think Oline is kind of boring in general sim wise but it might not be the worst idea since I don't always pay attention. Dline is something that would be more fun and I have never made a defensive position in the ISFL. I have made 2 QBs and a QB turned WR so making a big guy on either side of the ball is likely where the AW agency dabbles into next.

[Donkey]

Task 10 - 5 TPE

Donkey grew up with a poor family. He was raised by a single parent because his dad left for the military and never went back to see him. He was born in California but moved many times to states including Florida, Texas, Arizona, Georgia and many more as his mom looked for job opportunities for money. Donkey never had many friends no matter where he moved, other than the people he played basketball with at a park. Despite all this moving, one thing stuck. Donkey was stronger, faster and could jump higher than everyone around his age and he maintained this skill to this day. It wasn't until Donkey moved to Texas, a recruit at Allen High School saw him playing basketball. He saw his speed, strength, vertical and convinced him to play football and attend Allen High School. In Donkey's junior year, he made the football team and put up astonishing numbers. Donkey was the state's number 1 tight end and was ranked by ESPN. All eyes were on Donkey in his senior year and he didn't disappoint, putting up another excellent season. After this successfull senior season, most people called him the nickname "Donkey" instead of his actual first name due to his insane athleticism. Donkey's dream turned from getting a decently successful job to make money for his family to making the DSFL then the ISFL and hopefully make some noise there and earn some money for his family there. Donkey received many scholarships from big name schools such as Clemson, USC, Iowa, LSU and many others but wanted to return to his hometown in California so he decided to commit to UCLA, where he played football and track. Donkey was benched his first 2 years at college but after the original starting tight end graduated, he was able to get the starting spot in his 3rd season, and he didn't disappoint, putting up big numbers and making major noise once again. Donkey decided to play one last season for UCLA to try to raise his draft stock, and it worked as Donkey played even better than he did the year prior. On June 28th, the 6'1, 220 pound machine was approved to join and declare for the DSFL draft which is where he is today, waiting for his name to be called on the big stage and hoping his dream of making the DSFL and soon ISFL, comes true.

Task 20 - 2.5 TPE

Donkey is a big 6'1 220 pound tight end declaring for the DSFL draft. He earns the nickname "Donkey" due to the athletic and physical abilities he has which can lead to him being a hall of famer and ISFL great one day. He has the speed and foot work to get past or burn the defender for his Quarterback to find and has the Strength, Vertical and Physicality to go up and get the deep 50 50 balls his quarterback throws at him. His extraordinary strength allows him to break free from tackles and get some extra yards after the catch. His route running and speed allows him to get past Linebackers yet his size and strength allows his Quarterback to trust him agaisnt Linebackers. He has great hands and has the ability to catch any ball at him whether there's a defender there or not. His run and pass blocking could use some work but with his strength and physicality, he can definitely improve at that. He's competitive and determined to do whatever it takes to get better and help his team win. Off the field, Donkey seems to always be in the training room,, working out to be a better player. He is actively in the locker room and a fun guy to hang out with. He's a great teammate to have and an overall great player on and off the field.

[JKortesi81]

Task 1, Long Form, 800 words. Option #6.

Lately, the ISFL Head Office has been under scrutiny because Zamir reared his ugly head again. He basically showed the entire league that he could be a multi, make a whole new persona, get into Head Office as an intern, and appear to be a decent human being. Naturally, that couldn’t last and he made his “big reveal”. Yet again, the entire community of the ISFL leans towards showing little to no faith in the powers that be. Time and time again, Head Office has given awful, awful punishments. How do I know this? Well, I’m on the appeals team. We’re at the point where just about any punishment or suspension is handled so poorly by Head Office that they appeal. Most of the time, we agree with HO and just tell them to go away, not overturning any decisions. But sometimes, they’re just straight up wrong. And that’s okay, nobody is perfect.

However, we’ve gotten to the point where people literally consider retiring and leaving the league simply because of who is running it. Clearly, that’s the opposite of what we would want to be happening here. Player retention is always our number one goal – without players, we have no league. And I’m not talking about fringe players, or new players who just don’t care that much. I’m talking about invested players. People who have, or still are, GMing teams. People who have won awards and been in jobs. Really, really good members of the community. This isn’t okay.

Now, does that mean HO is doing something wrong? To a degree yes, of course. I don’t think it’s intentional though. I’ve been in two Head Offices in my sim careers – PBE and SHL. Let me tell you something: being a member of Head Office is a thankless job. You get next to nothing in terms of support, and people only give a damn about you when you “mess up” in their eyes. Far too often, across many leagues, I’ve seen good players and members of the community take a step back after a stint in Head Office just sapped their enjoyment of the league. I felt the same thing, especially in PBE.

“Back in my day”, we didn’t pay HO. It was a volunteer system of people who love the league doing their best to donate time and effort to help it run and survive. Clearly, we’ve realized that getting paid for this time with money and/or a PT pass is the way to go. I agree. But, here’s the thing. People check out when they’re in Head Office. They get burned out, but the allure of doing minimal work for the league while getting a fat paycheck and PT pass is too much for many to walk away from. Our current HO is focused on things like a “competition committee” instead of making sure people aren’t multi-ing and everything else. This HO loves to micromanage all facets of the league, and that makes it less fun. Believe me, as Media Head I get some intern coming up to me to ask me the absolutely worst questions every offseason. I don’t need that, and neither do the other Job Heads who are good at what they do. All we need from HO is to dole out fair punishments (and this includes members excusing themselves when they have a personal connection to the player/person involved), keep an eye out for cheating, and make sure our sim is as balanced and as fair as possible.

This Head Office misses the mark a lot. So, the real question here is: “How do we fix it?”. I think the real answer here is simple: Term Limits. I think a stint in HO should last 2-3 seasons. That’s more than enough time to understand the job, make a difference, and not grow too despondent over time. After your time is up, you’re able to put yourself up for “re-election” once. After that, you’re done for a minimum of 5 seasons. That means the maximum for being in HO will be 4-6 seasons. That’s more than enough time to be in HO, but also enough time to get out before burnout and complacency creeps in. There really isn’t a good way to get someone out of Head Office currently. Being able to vote them out empowers the league, and prevents real long term issues. We can have an HO spot up for grabs every offseason, and people who want to be in Head Office can apply. To prevent the stupid league from electing meme HO members, which WILL happen, the “member” vote will only count for a small percentage of the decision. You can have the rest of HO, the appeals committee, and the commissioner vote as well.

And about the Commissioner. It takes a special person to give up part of their life to run a sim league. Anyone that is named Commissioner is NOT subjected to elections, and they’re in the position until they step down (or needs to be forcibly removed for some heinous act).

Giving the HO term limits means more fresh blood and new ideas will keep constantly filtering in. It prevents stagnation by members just in it for the paycheck. It prevents members of HO to push their own interests and narratives. And most importantly, it prevents the league from growing tired of the same ol’ HO. You can’t be mad at them when they’re changing every so often. (918)

[Oles]

Tier 1: League History

So, I have been in the league a long time, practically since it was created at this point. I have seen everything there is to see when it comes to scandals and situations no one expected. Noble, the cross boys, and a whole bunch of other nonsense including Zamir and Faded most recently. It is hard to pick a favorite scandal (although Noble’s stealing of TPE is certainly one of the most hectic times I can remember for me, as DSFL had just been created and I thought they were going to acquire and call up my QB.) but I have to say the ER multi scandal is still one of the most baffling things that could have ever happened. Not many people had a view like I did with it either, a lot of people were bystanders and did not quite have full knowledge until everything was posted. So, for my Ultimus post, I am going to go back to a time where I was a young member of the league, a bit overwhelmed by the stuff I would be sent regarding Er.

Before we get to all that, I have to get you back to the beginning though, right when I join, I become really interested, and there was a sea of new people all trying to make a name for themselves. I posted plenty of articles, including a mock draft for the expansion teams, and a mock draft for the league. Immediately I hit it off with Adam2552, the GM of the Liberty, who would eventually draft me, I start to really get into the idea of going to the team, and it just becomes a natural fit. Draft comes around, and exactly what I thought would happen happens, they draft me, rest is history. Season 3 rolls around, DSFL becomes a thing, and the whole Noble situation happens, I had created the SeaWolves and drafted arguably the most NSFL (at the time it was called that so I will be calling it NSFL) ready QB, but he was low activity, so he never really got a shot in the early league. Noble happens, chaos in the DSFL ensues, and that’s history as well. Now, unbeknownst to no one except himself, Er is well into the multi scene, having created several multis and many of which directly helped his team, with his most famous one being Tim Pest. I will not go into details about how many I think there were or that he had, as that is not really the nature of what I want to show here.

Adam, who has now been GM for several seasons, has appointed me as his Co-GM, since the old one, Silver Fox, has stepped down. At this time is when Adam really starts honing in on these multis, partly because he feels like Er was rigging the league to get better stats plus make the Outlaws a better team (they had just won 3 straight Ultimus titles in the first 3 seasons), and ultimately this became a running topic between us. We would talk about how something just seemed off, and we were both believing that he was rigging the league in some way. Never did it cross my mind that multis could be a factor until Adam brought it up, at which point I thought he was crazy. Adam becomes obsessed with this, to the point where he steps down as GM (something he had been planning to do, I realized he had been grooming me as his replacement since he drafted me). He planned to step down, but he focused on investigating this specifically, and honestly at this point I didn’t really believe multis were in play and I thought he was reaching hard.

You know how graphics for PTs say you have to put some sort of effort into them? Well, that wasn’t always the case, you’d have many times where graphics were simply putting a single item into a picture and calling it a day. Very easy way to earn TPE. Well, this is how Er had been doing PTs for his multis, he would make very simple graphics that would get his multis TPE and would allow him to upgrade them. Adam pointed out to me that quite a few of these graphics had similar layouts and looks, which ended up being from the multis. This is where I personally thought this had gone full blown witch hunt and that he needed to stop. Eventually, something big is found in the form of one multi posting a fantasy pick for another multi. This is huge because it’s the smoking gun that was needed to confirm that these multis were a thing and is what really changed the investigation as a whole. There was a huge post way back when by a person named Sherlock, that laid out all of the details and called out Er as a multi mastermind. From here, it’s a simple case of laying down the law and banning those multis and punishing Er, who at this point had been a simmer and had been a major part of the league for several seasons. It was a wild ride from start to finish, and even though I did very little to help besides bounce ideas and suggest things, and listen to Adam ramble, it was just so different since I knew when everything would happen especially regarding Sherlock, I had suggested the anonymous post because at this point people saw Adam as some crazy dude who would do anything to damn Er and get rid of him. Even if people saw through the poster, I do think they finally took it seriously and figured out that it may not have been just a crazy person’s ramblings. I know not many were around for that and not many had this perspective, and even if my memory isn’t as fresh it’s still one of the weirdest and craziest times in the league that almost led to me leaving the league because of how big of a scandal it was and how draining it was to experience like I did.

(1030 words)

[Dagumpa]

 Task 8:
So if we're just talking awards that I could probably win, I have a few. I know there is probably several potential nominees for this award, but I think I have a good chance at least active LR presence as a max earner. I never missed a PT in this league (save for a few predictions) and I kinda pride myself on that. But that seems to come at the expense of my locker room activity for my teams. As a GM though, which is the main reason why I'm not active in ISFL locker rooms, I understand the value of having a max earner over a active LR presence. I've had plenty of very active LR presences who are rather skimpy in their earning. Like, if you're gonna be one of the most active people in a chat, then you better back it up by doing at least some of the PTs. People are gonna look up to you if you have the loudest voice and it's best to lead by example. I have the quietest voice and I'm a max earner. Does that set any sort of example? I don't think so....but it works for me. I deserve that award.

The next award I could easily win is most tangents. It's not exactly an award as much as it is a milestone for leading the sim league in tangents during conversations. The same applies to my writing. Go read any of my PTs and find one that doesn't sound like the ramblings of a madman. I know for sure this PT is gonna sound insane. Because that's all I know how to do. This shit's tough to write. I have to go on tangents in order to increase the word count. I'm gonna assume I'm at, at least, 300 right now? Oooo, 303. Alright, one more award.

The last award I could win is best name squandered on a mediocre player. I remember wanting to save the name "Dex Kennedy" for a real superstar player. Dex wasn't bad, that DPOTY season was one of the best of any player's career. But he only made the playoffs (outside of the DSFL) once in seven seasons. I've already ranted enough about him. He's dead now. I do plan on using generic names from here on out. My SBA player was named "Phil Hill" and he went on to have an equally boring career. I honestly forgot what this PT was about. I really hope I get credit. If not, I'm sorry. I'll make a gif with the struggle bus next time. Is there an award for being sexy? Because Dex could definitely win that. What about an award for least amount of pancakes eaten at IHOP? I've won that award several times. Is this supposed to be about me or Dex? Is there a difference? Does it matter? Have I completely lost the point of this PT? The answer to all of those questions...will be revealed after these messages. 

Code:

499 Words

Task 25:
When I decided to recreate, I wanted to stay on defense. Linebacker is, in my opinion, the most fun position in this league. It allows you to rack up pretty much every kind of defensive stat. But I did not want to go with two linebackers in a row, so I looked elsewhere. Ultimately, I decided that there really isn't any defensive position that puts up stats as well as linebacker. So I looked offensively and I chose wide receiver. If wide receiver wasn't available, which considering all of the WR creates/recreates may ring true, I probably would've gone with safety. It is really the only position that rivals linebacker stat-wise. It also would have allowed me to have a Harrison Smith render. Although, Harrison Smith is one of the most popular renders in this league. Buck Thornton was my teammate on the Minnesota Grey Ducks when I first came into the league. In S22, he was absolutely dominant on a team that I still remember very fondly. He racked up a ton of interceptions, sacks, forced fumbles, TFLs even. He was just straight up beasting out there for what became the #1 defense in the league. Who knows? I might end up switching because there are way too many good WRs out there in the prospect pool. I have a slim-to-no chance of going in the 1st round, which is all I was looking forward to with a recreate. Well, that's life. I've always sucked in this league. 

Code:

250 Words

Task 29

[majesiu]

affiulaition https://probaseballexperience.jcink.net/...t&p=333185

[JuOSu]

Tier 1, topic 2

My draft class is pretty special in terms of just size and activity. We were one of the bigger classes I can remember with 115 picks, 68 of which are still on an ISFL roster right now. 33 of our players are already over 1000 TPE as well and with another off-season coming more will join. We had some really great steals, some busts and more. Let's talk about it in detail. 

Right now, Kotasa is in the TPE lead with his player Rich Triplet for the Arizona Outlaws. Triplet was originally drafted 14th overall, so he has outdone his draft position. Interestingly he was drafted originally by the San Jose Sabercats but is no longer part of that team now. In second place, my own player Medicine Toblerone is there. I was drafted in 10th overall to the New Orleans Second line. I may have gone higher up but I was very clear that I wanted to return to the Second Line and fell to tenth because of it. I am pleased with my TPE earning since then and have done really well so far. I am still with the Second Line as well.

After this, Tayshawn Crunk, Raylan Crowder and Goat Tank round up the top five. All of them went in the first round but none of them went higher than 4th overall. Which makes you wonder, how did the best draft picks do? First overall Swantavius Jones is currently 14th in TPE, so he fell quite a bit but has still been great as well. Dan Foster went 2nd overall and he is now 12th in TPE. And Tex Wrecks was the 3rd overall pick and he is now 28th. He definitely fell quite a bit but is still doing quite well on the field.

This draft also had some really notable recreates that managed to fell a long time. Guys like Spec and AdamS really fell far, just due to the huge nature of incredible new players in this draft. Both did really well but maybe weren't as big of a steal as many imagined they could be. Still I think the teams are happy with how they did.

We also had some pretty big names from other leagues join. We already talked about Tex Wrecks who sadly disappointed a bit. We also had another famous Sloth in bjbren, my coGM from the PBE, who ended up falling quite far and also hasn't been active. Still, a cool part of this draft class as well.

What makes this group interesting in terms of their result is our timeline when it comes to the sim changes. We had a couple seasons in the old sim before switching to the new one. While some may have still mostly been in the minors, most will have had at least one or two seasons with the old sim still. My own player was absolutely killing it for two seasons in the old sim and has never really been quite the same since then, despite earning so well. I imagine many players may have chosen a different position if they had known how the new sim worked. I wonder how this group of recreates will do in the future when they come back for their next player. But it definitely interests me to see how our group did with this change in sims coming somewhat in the middle of our careers. I am quite sad the new sim didn't do so fondly towards the D-line. 

In terms of close friendships or rivalries, I can't say too much about that. I was never really one to look too closely at my rivals. I always knew if I out-earned them, I would have a pretty good career and it looks like I was at least good with earning compared to most, but it is still awesome to see how many of us have earned really well. I may be in second place but I am far from comfortable in that spot and missing a few TPE would easily lead to some toppled spots in the future.

My main rivals were always my fellow Sloths and both didn't really end up sticking with this league as much as I have. Though I have to say, Tex Wrecks, while not out-earning me, has certainly out played me in the field seemingly at times. So it can still be frustrating. 

I wonder how this draft class will continue down the road, with more years coming and obviously the better earners will be able to do longer careers and do well that way. When all is said and done, it will be interesting to look back and see how many hall of famers this draft class produced, since so many earned well and ought to have a shot at it. But who knows! I am still proud to be a part of this group.

[Troen]

Write 800 words or more on something about anything in the league that interests you. It could be related to statistics, a league issue that you take seriously, or a niche part of history that doesn’t fit neatly into either of the above categories. This must be directly related to the league, so don’t wax 800 words about your team’s participation on a Werewolf server or something.

For one of the PTs this year we were asked to pick someone on the team to get the first status outside the stadium. To research my answer for that, I naturally went to the wiki to look up the Copperheads' best QB, Easton Cole, where I was surprised to see he has no page. Searching for his name right now gives 29 results but they're all references from other pages. One of the places he's mentioned is on Austin's franchise records where he's still mentioned as active. Looking at the page history, it hasn't been updated since November 2020, around 8 months ago.

Thinking back to that for the UW prompt, I have two thoughts. First, I'm sad at the loss of TPE incentives to update your player's wiki page in the offseason. I've still done it in past years because I like being able to see the different season results in one place, but what I've seen makes it look like most players create their page as part of the new player process and then never go back to update it. To help that out, I think there should be a specific incentive to include a season writeup for players. If the TPE is too problematic to add, maybe a fixed monetary amount? PBE has a weekly task that's framed as a journal where the reward is always $300k - so maybe something like that for the wiki page where basically anything of 100 words or longer gets you a small amount. It's possible the actual issue was more about grading availability in the offseason for whoever is reviewing the wiki and this might not help with that, but I still like it as a concept. And beyond my personal interest in being able to read about the league history, I'm sure that the hall of fame voters would enjoy having the full stats and history for all the players they're evaluating.

That gets to my second thought - can there be an automated export of player and team stats from the sim files to the wiki? I've never looked into what data is available in the actual sim (and haven't bought it either), but I have seen that the index now tracks player lifetime totals since the sim engine migration. I'm guessing that the data prior to that was not ported over, but it seems possible that at least for newer players there could be a program to copy the per-season and lifetime totals over to a wiki page. I haven't ever tried to write an automatic wiki updater of any sort, but I'm assuming it wouldn't be impossible to get it set up so that the program would be able to update the lifetime stats and add new season totals without overwriting any summaries written by a person. I have no idea if it would be easy or hard, but I would like to see it at least investigated. I think that creating the stats part of the wiki automatically would help get better coverage of the progressive history of players and flesh out the wiki greatly, even if a lot of the player pages would be stats with no seasonal writeup (which again could be helped out by my first line of thinking).
Going back to my note about the franchise records page - looking at all teams, it seems like there are a bunch which were updated last in November 2020, though at least the expansion teams have been updated since then. I'm guessing that there was a person who was doing that who since left or got bored (and looking at the edit history suggests it was Swanty/124715 for the last few changes). Could those be automated? Were those automated but the program broke with the sim change or the people involved left? I have no idea (and haven't looked into it before), but getting that restarted or fixed seems like it would be great to me. Additionally, I think that tying the wiki and the index together more tightly would be interesting - could we customize the index so that the various team/player pages there have a link to the wiki? Having an automatic tie between the two could be a good way to get generated basic information in place while making it easy for players to find where to add more - eg having a page per game with the score/play information but then allowing people to come in and write summaries like we have for the Ultimus games. Having a full cross link between the wiki and the index would be another of those things which makes it easier to look into the history of the league for hall of fame or yearly voting. I also saw there was a post for award voters which posted a spreadsheet containing information that the sim files have but that the index doesn't show - that kind of information sounds like great things to get added to the wiki if we could, and then having links to the wiki from the index would help minimize the need for a spreadsheet connected to neither.

Now, some of these plans might be infeasible given the actual amount of time it would take to do them or the lack of people with the skills needed to do so. While sad, I think wqe should still keep in mind what we would like the wiki and index to be and continue thinking about ways we can try to get it there, regardless of if it's a technical measure or putting incentives in player for people to do it for you. For example, what if we paid cash out for creating/updating another player's wiki page? Easier said than done (plus there would need to be a way to prevent someone working on your when you were also working on it), but it's another thing we could think about adding to the league if we think it will help create the outcomes we like.