Rookie Guide (START HERE)

[SwagSloth]

Welcome to the International Simulation Football League!

If you haven’t already, please join our league discord here!

Our Rookie Discord is here and should be your first stop for any questions, our Rookie Mentor team are eager to help you learn!

Table of Contents

League Overview

Creating your Player

Improving & Updating your Player

Earning TPE

Earning & Spending League Cash

Position & Archetype Swapping

Player Retirement

Important Links

FAQs

Tutorials


We have a wide variety of alternative rookie guide materials available, if you find the written guide challenging, you may prefer the guide in a video format, CLICK HERE for our YouTube new players playlist. If you prefer your guides in an visual format, CLICK HERE for our series of image based guides.

[TeyonSchavari]

League Overview

The ISFL is a player-based sim league. Each team is comprised of players created by real people, who have complete control of their skills, player type, and career choices. Each season, these teams face off in competition. The games are simulated using Draft Day Sports Pro Football 2021 and broadcast on Youtube.

Once a player is created, they will have the opportunity to rise from rookie status to become a veteran superstar. Your player will start off in our development league, the DSFL, and have a chance to prove themselves before being drafted by one of the 14 existing ISFL teams. Once drafted by an ISFL team, the player will have the chance to negotiate their contract, playing for up to three seasons, before getting the opportunity to continue with their original team, or signing with a new one. Just like the NFL, ISFL players negotiate with interested teams and can participate in Free Agency. For more information about contracts and our rules, please refer to our Official ISFL Rulebook.

If you need any assistance or have any questions while going through this process, please feel free to contact one of our Rookie Mentors for help.

[TeyonSchavari]

Creating a Player

1. Head to the Create a Player section and select “Create a Player Tool" to begin your journey. You can learn more about each position and archetype HERE

NOTE: If you’d like, take a moment and check out the Position Tracker so that you can see which positions are in high demand. You are granted 1 free position switch in your rookie season (DSFL , so don’t stress too much over your choice.

2. Fill out the top portion of the creation tool with your players First and Last name, their birthplace, college, jersey number and more. If you're unsure which Archetype to pick check out the Which Archetype Should I Pick page! 

The Recruited By field is asking who or how you heard about the league? If a user in the league convinced you to join, you can put their username here. If you heard about the league via a recruitment post on a discord server, subreddit etc, you can also put that here. Notice that Recruited By and Discord Name are NOT required fields. While they are helpful for us to have, you can leave them blank and still complete your character creation. (If you list a specific user for your Recruited By, they will get some rewards as you progress in TPE!)

3. Each new player is given 50 TPE (Training Points Earned) to start out with. You cannot lower any of the starting values of your stats when creating a player. The ISFL uses TPE to track the points you earn to improve your player. The creation tool will update with how much TPE you have left to spend as you apply it. Check out the scale and what it might look like below:

4. Your Birthplace will determine your World Football Championship region. Find out more HERE.

5. Once you're ready, press Submit! This now becomes your player page, where you will update and improve your player throughout your career! After posting, a Rookie Mentor will let you know if you need to fix anything. If it looks good, they will send you an approval message outlining the next steps that you should take, and from that point you’ll be able to earn more TPE!

Some extra notes:

• Your college (or school) can be real or imaginary.
  
• Your name can only be 22 characters long.
  

Here are helpful resources for creating a player page:

TPE Scale:

0-50 - costs 1 TPE to go up 1 point

51-70 - costs 2 TPE to go up 1 point

71-80 - costs 5 TPE to go up 1 point

81-90 - costs 10 TPE to go up 1 point

91-95 - costs 15 TPE to go up 1 point

96-100 - costs 25 TPE to go up 1 point

• Create a Player Tool - Use this to create your player
  
• World Football Championship Information - check for information about your birthplace region
  
• Archetype Information - All of our templates and archetypes for each position
  
• Position Tracker - See how many players are currently created and active at each position
  

NOTE:

Quarterbacks: While some positions can use multiple players at the same position (LB and OL for example), each team only needs one QB, so players at this position will need an extremely high level of dedication and activity to earn/keep a starting job. If you are not experienced in sim leagues like this one, you may not fully understand the level of activity a starting QB is required to have.

[TeyonSchavari]

Improving & Updating your Player

Over the course of your career, your player will receive a resource known as TPE (Training Points Earned), which is used to increase your attributes over time, or buy traits. You can spend that TPE on your Player Page (created automatically when you create your player).

As your attributes increase, though, they will require more TPE to upgrade. Refer to the update scale below to see how much TPE you must spend to upgrade an attribute.

0-50 - costs 1 TPE to go up 1 point

51-70 - costs 2 TPE to go up 1 point

71-80 - costs 5 TPE to go up 1 point

  81-90 - costs 10 TPE to go up 1 point

  91-95 - costs 15 TPE to go up 1 point

    96-100 - costs 25 TPE to go up 1 point

For example, let’s say you want to increase your player’s Agility. It’s currently at 40. Increasing it to 50 only requires 10 TPE. However, if you then wanted to increase it to 60, the next 10 points would cost 20 TPE. These diminishing returns represent the difficulty required to continue to increase these stats over time. Much like real life, it’s easier to improve at something early on, but it gets tougher over time. The best players in each attribute category work hard to reach that level and tend to stand out because of it. Click HERE for a more detailed explanation of all of our attributes and what they do!

Your player can also work toward earning special traits depending upon their archetype. These traits might offer bonuses such as reducing the chance to cause a penalty or increasing your ability to get interceptions and more. Traits have minimum attribute requirements before they can be purchased - which makes them a great goal for a player’s mid or late career. Check out the list of traits and what they do HERE. Figure out the cost of these traits at the bottom of your player template, or this link HERE.

In order to increase your attributes and buy traits, you will use TPE you earn from doing tasks throughout the weeks. Once those tasks are complete, you will go through the process of Updating your player by "Claiming" those tasks on your Player Page each week. 

There are 2 different categories when it comes to CLAIMING your TPE from completed tasks; Instant Claims and using the Claim Thread (there is one posted for each season that has all the tasks grouped together by week for that season). 

Every task will specify if you can claim it instantly (example: Activity Check) or if you need to wait for it to be posted in the Claim Thread (example: Game Predictions). In either case, you will use the handy CLAIM button located in the top right of the post. For Instant Claims, you will link to your EXACT REPLY in that thread via the CLAIM button. It will prompt you to name the task and tell it how much TPE it is worth, then it will give you the formatted link to copy and paste into your update for that week! For tasks that require you to use the Claim Thread, find either the specific task or the combined claim for the week which contains the task in the Claim Thread, and then follow the same process with the CLAIM button. The Claim Thread for the current season is always pinned in the POINT TASK SUBFORUM.

INSTANT CLAIM


CLAIM THREAD


Each week, our team of Updaters will go through players' claims to verify them and will create a reply on their Player Page. Until an Updater has done so, you can edit your current update post with new links or change around how you want to spend your TPE. You DO NOT need to make a new reply for each new claim you want to add to your Player Page (you can continue to edit until your update is processed for the week).
ONCE AN UPDATER HAS REPLIED, TO CONTINUE UPDATING, YOU WILL POST A NEW REPLY ON YOUR PLAYER PAGE. DO NOT EDIT AN UPDATE REPLY THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN PROCESSED. 
The most common troubles users have with updating are editing an already processed update, and posting a new reply in their Update Page for every new TPE link they add. If you are unsure how to proceed, always feel free to ping a Rookie Mentor! 

Linking your roster page to your profile

Go to your 'User CP' (you can also see where your links will show up once you complete this task)


Once in your user CP, scroll down and click on 'Edit Profile'


Once in your profile you will find where to enter your roster page links


Note: add '&action=lastpost' (without the quotes) to the end of your roster page link and it can be used as your update page link to always take you to the most recent post. You could also use this as a customisable link to take you to any page on the forums. (Update threads are now depreceated and a part of your roster page instead)

To find your roster page links, click on your user name in the top right, and then 'find all threads'
Your roster page is the page where you created your player

The next section of the guide will detail the different tasks you can complete to earn TPE!

[TeyonSchavari]

Earning TPE

Earning TPE is how you improve your player, so there are a lot of different ways for you to earn TPE to improve your player too! Here are some of the more common ways of how to earn TPE:

• Activity Checks - These are posted weekly, just post in the thread and instantly claim 2 TPE (link directly to your AC post in your Update)
   
• Weekly Training - First time users to the ISFL get their first training for free! To do this (or for weeks following your first, once you have some money (doing the rookie point task is a great way for new players to earn some cash!)) you can purchase training once per week from the BANK PORTAL. There are two different training options available: 3 TPE for $500k or 5 TPE for $1m. You cannot purchase both types of training in the same week.This can be claimed instantly (link directly to your purchase post in your update thread).
   
  
• Point Tasks - During the season there are short prompts that you can respond to by writing 150 words or creating a graphic option to fit the theme. You’ll have one week to respond and then responses are graded and posted once a week as a combined post to the Claim Thread. This TPE can be claimed when graded - please link the post in the Claim Thread in your Update by using the claim tool.
   
  
• Predictions - There are many different prediction options. Season predictions are opened before the season starts and close before Week 1 sims. Weekly predictions are posted at the beginning of the league week and close 15 minutes before the stream airs. Playoff predictions and First Rounders predictions are posted during playoff and offseason time. Make your predictions in the thread and then wait for them to be graded and posted on the claim thread. This TPE can be claimed when graded - please link the post in the claim thread to the specific point task on your Update.
    
  
• Wiki Creation Page - Use the template provided to create a wiki page for your player. Filling out all of the text sections and adding a picture will net you a cool 10 TPE. This TPE can be claimed when graded - please link to your post in the wiki thread after it has been graded. There is also a seasonal task to update your wiki worth 5 TPE which can only be completed if the original creation task has been done.
   
  
• Training Camps - Each offseason your player has the ability to participate in training camp. A thread will be created and all you have to do is post your player's name and season to instantly claim your TPE! 
   
  
• Equipment - Players may purchase up to 6 tiers of equipment each season. You may upgrade this throughout the season by paying the difference in money and you will earn the difference in TPE. This is purchased through the Bank Portal as well. You can instantly claim your TPE (link directly to your purchase post in your Update).
  

Tier 1 Equipment - 5 TPE - $2,000,000

Tier 2 Equipment - 10 TPE - $4,000,000

Tier 3 Equipment - 15 TPE - $6,000,000

Tier 4 Equipment - 20 TPE - $8,500,000

Tier 5 Equipment - 25 TPE - $11,000,000

Tier 6 Equipment - 30 TPE - $13,500,000

[TeyonSchavari]

Earning & Spending League Cash

The league allows users to earn and spend cash to help improve their attributes (along with other fun uses for money!). This is not to be confused with real money, only in-game cash (No Micro-transactions in the ISFL). The ISFL is completely free to play!

Earning Money:

When your player is signed to a team (at both the DSFL and ISFL level) you will receive a contract payment at the start of each season. In addition to that, there are also several other ways to earn money:

• Performing a league job (Official Job List)
  
• Writing articles and/or completing pressers (Q&As) in the Media Section
  
• Recording podcasts in the Podcast Section
  
• Creating graphics for yourself and other players in the Graphics Section
  
• Talking in the league discord servers (Both Rookie and Main servers if you're in your first three seasons!)
  

The best way to earn money is to produce media or graphics at a consistent pace. Talking in discord daily will almost earn enough money to cover your weekly costs in the league, and is a great way to subsidize your contracts.

Once you’ve found a way to earn some money, it will get automatically deposited into your bank account with the ISFL Bank! The ISFL bank is located HERE. All deposits are made directly (you won’t need to post anywhere to claim your money). All deposits are also made available so that everything can be easily tracked and verified.

Spending Money:

The most common use for money earned in the league is weekly training, which allows you to spend money to earn additional TPE. Your player can only participate in training once each week. You may spend $500,000 to add 3 TPE or $1,000,000 to add 5 TPE. First time users are gifted 1M into their accounts upon creation to use for their First Weekly Training!

Another common use for money is purchasing equipment. There are several different tiers of equipment available for purchase - with higher tiers offering more TPE for a steeper price. You can upgrade your equipment throughout the season, paying the difference in the cost between two tiers and earning the difference in TPE between two tiers. The maximum cost is $13,500,000 for 30 TPE for equipment. You may reach this maximum once per season.

To put in a request for training or equipment purchases (or any other transaction - like name changes and position swaps) your should use the Bank Portal (INFO HERE)

*Also note that the weekly training is a better cost per TPE than maxing your equipment. If you cannot afford to do both - it is recommended to make sure you at least have enough money for weekly training.

Other ways to spend money:

In addition to purchasing upgrades to your player, there are two other ways to spend your money in the league. The first is with the Casino! You can place bets against other users, or against the casino itself. Find more about the casino HERE.

We also have trading cards available for purchase. Players on ISFL rosters have Dotts cards made about them. There are also special series that are made each season including awards, rookie cards, hall of fame cards, and more. Check out more about Dotts HERE.

[TeyonSchavari]

Position & Archetype Swapping

 

1. Rookies may choose to switch positions or archetypes one time free of charge from the point of creation up to the Ultimus of their first season after the DSFL draft. This does not count as their one career position switch. They may reallocate 100% of their TPE in this switch with no penalty. 

2. One (1) time per career a player may choose to switch positions. If a player chooses to switch to a new position, they must have one of their ISFL GM's (or DSFL GM's if not yet drafted to the ISFL) post in their respective GM area that the player is officially switching positions. If a player chooses to switch positions, they or the team (from the team's salary cap if in the ISFL) must pay the proper listed amount to make the switch. The player and team can also split the fee in some way.  If a player changes positions, they will reallocate 100% of their total earned (minus the appropriate position switch penalty) TPE to new attributes or traits, regardless of if the TPE was already applied to an applicable attribute or trait. No attribute may go over the maximum value allowed with the new build, even if it was above it before the position switch. When processing a position switch, the player must provide both builds on their Update. Position switches may only take place during the offseason.

3. All position switches may move and reapply 100% of earned TPE minus a percentage based on the list below. The 'penalty' percentage will be rounded in the player's favor and will be denoted on the roster page as a secondary bank. Following one full season, the secondary bank will unlock and the player may apply that TPE however they see fit. In the case of a Tier 4 swap, 15% of the amount earned at the time of the switch will be placed in a secondary bank that will unlock after one season. The remaining 10% will be placed in a tertiary bank that will unlock after the second season. Swaps to QB will follow this format as well. A user may not switch to QB if they have already changed archetypes in their career.


4. One (1) time per career a player may choose to switch archetypes. If a player chooses to switch to a new archetype, they must post in their Update that the player is officially changing archetypes. If a player chooses to switch archetypes, they or the team (from the team's salary cap) must pay $4,000,000 to make the switch. The player and team can also split the fee in some way. If a player changes archetypes they will be allowed to move 100% of their earned TPE to new attributes. No attribute may go over the maximum value allowed with the new archetype, even if it was above that point before the archetype switch. Players must change their height and weight to that of their new archetype.

5. When a player position switches the ISFL and DSFL GMs that own the players rights must be tagged in the switch. After 48 hours the position switch is finalized. (This rule does not affect DSFL players in that year's draft class since they do not have ISFL GMs yet).

6. DSFL GMs may not suggest or encourage any send-down player under contract with an ISFL team to position switch without first obtaining permission from the send-down player's ISFL GM. Any violations of this rule are to punished at the discretion of the Head Office.

[SchwarzNarr]

Player Retirement

Retirement is a long way off, so if you’d like, you may skip this section.

 

Of course, regression is part of any athlete’s career. Some step down before it starts to show, but every athlete starts to show wear and tear at some point. In the ISFL, players start to lose TPE after the end of their 7th season. The first season that you are drafted by an ISFL team will count as your first season. (Your Player Page will state your ISFL draft season (e.g. S30 is drafted into the ISFL at the start of Season 30). At the start of the 8th season and onward, you will have to deduct a percentage of your total earned TPE from your existing total.

After 7th season 20% TPE loss

After 8th season 25% TPE loss

After 9th season 30% TPE loss

After 10th season 40% TPE loss

After 11th season 50% TPE loss

After 12th season 60% TPE loss

After 13th season your player is auto-retired

While you do need to remove TPE from your player with regression, it doesn’t necessarily have to come from just your attributes. As you improve and purchase both an increase in attributes and specific traits for your archetype, you will be able to decide where you remove the TPE from during regression. TPE spent to acquire traits will count towards regression calculations, and during regression you can “sell back” traits. However, if regression would cause you to reduce your attributes to below the minimum thresholds required to purchase a trait, you are not required to sell back the traits. This means that later career players may still have an advantage on their younger counterparts.

When you are finally ready to retire, you will make a post in the Retirement Section. Players that retire can continue to play for their team until the end of the season. Once you retire a player, you may immediately create a new player and start a new career. You retain any League Cash when you retire, but any unspent TPE from the previous character does not move to the new character.

Please note that you are only allowed one player in the DSFL at any time. If you retire at the DSFL level, you will need to wait until the next season to create. Please see the Retirement Section of the Rulebook (IV.E.4) for more.

[124715]

Important Links

Activity Checks

Attributes and What They Do
Bank Portal
Create A Player Forum
Equipment Information
Prospect Player/Update Page Section
ISFL Youtube (Game Channel)
Official Job List
Official League Rules
Player Builder Form
Point Tasks
Position Tracker
Same IP Thread
TPE Tracker
Traits and What They Do
Update Tool - Credit to 37thChamber

[SchwarzNarr]

FAQs

Can I make more than one character?
- No. Only one player and account per person. More than one account is known as a “multi” and is against league rules.

What if I create a character during the season? Will I have to wait until next season to start playing?
- If your player is created after the DSFL draft for the current season has occurred, you will still be available to play and will be entered into the waiver system. When a team picks you up off of waivers, you will play for them and be entered into the ISFL draft in the following season.

Am I restricted to only playing my chosen position?
- Please note that selecting a position does not necessarily limit where you can play. The ISFL allows some players to play out of position (more information can be found in the rule book), but you will be limited by your archetype even if you are playing a different position. However, to maintain eligibility for awards, you must see a certain amount of playing time at a given position.

Can I claim TPE from an activity as soon as I complete it?
- Activity checks and training/equipment purchases can be claimed immediately. However, most tasks, such as the Point Tasks and Game Predictions, require a member of the Player Progression Team to grade and/or verify completion. The Player Progression Team regularly posts in a “Claim Thread”, awarding points to players for completing the associated task. Always wait for a claim thread to be posted before claiming the reward from that task. These are usually posted within a few days of the deadline to complete the Point Task.

Another player and I share an IP address, but we are different people. What can we do to make league officials aware of this, so one of us doesn’t appear to be a multi account?
- This can be common if you share a router with someone (roommate, family, etc.) or if you use the same network as another member (work, school, etc.). Fortunately, we have a thread for tracking shared IP addresses. Simply post HERE detailing who you share your IP address with, your connection to that person, and the scenario that causes you to share (We live together, work together, etc.). All users are expected to post here within the first week of account creation if you expect to share an IP address. Failure to post here if you are aware of a shared IP could lead to issues later and is not recommended.

For the purpose of “weekly” activities, when does the league week start and end?
- League weeks end on Sundays. At 12:01 AM EST on Monday a new league week starts. All Time-Zone usages otherwise shall be assumed to utilize the standard EST zone unless specifically specified in the given rule or definition.

How many pictures can I have in my sig?
- Users may not have more than 2 images or videos, vertically aligned as their forum signature. If you have more than 2, you will receive a warning and then a fine from the Head Office.

Can I change my user name? What about my player name?
- Forum usernames can be changed at the cost of $1,000,000. Please post the transaction in the bank and tag a member of head office.
- Player names may only be changed once - the cost to change the player name is $4,000,000 (unless the name change is requested prior to the player’s DSFL draft, in which case it’s free!).

Do I get anything special if I invite my friend to join the league?
- Yes! We offer an incentive for referring new players to the league. You will earn 2 TPE for recruiting a friend once they pass 100 TPE. An additional 3 TPE when they pass 250 TPE. Max of 5 recruits per player career. Not retroactive for previous recruits.