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+---- Thread: (S29) Ultimus Week (/showthread.php?tid=33113)
RE: (S29) Ultimus Week - Fronk - 07-07-2021
15. I would first like to preface this post by saying that Disneyland is far less superior than its east coast counterpart, Walt Disney World. Next I would like to not write about the Ultimus Champion Most Valuable Player, but the Most Valuable Player of the Ultimini. This Most Valuable Player award winner will be going to the okay state of Florida to the best theme park around.
The Most Valuable Player of the Ultimini is defensive captain of the Minnesota Grey Ducks, David Frank! David Frank led the best defense in the DSFL to the first ever Ultimini shutout (blowout) with seven total tackles, one sack, one interception, and one forced fumble.
David Frank started his trip to Disney at EPCOT where he quickly went to drink around the world. He brought with him his fellow linebackers LaCarpetron Dukemarriot and Brooks Bane (although Brooks Bane showed up for a short time and disappeared). Frank and Dukemarriot held a contest to see who could go around the world the quickest in EPCOT and down any alcoholic drink they could find and then head to SOARIN and ride the entire ride without vomiting. Frank the Tank won in a landslide and Dukmarriot disappeared somewhere in Canada. Probably looking to see where Brooks Bane went off to.
Word Count: 214
17. It has just been announced that the Minnesota Grey Ducks will elect to build a new stadium in Duluth, Minnesota starting next year in the fall. Initial renderings have been made by prospective designers and I thought I would share my wishlist of what I would like to see out of the new Quack Shack.
The first thing I would like to see is from the building architecture itself. The stadium must be round and camouflage colored exterior to match the aesthetic of the nest of a Grey Duck. If the stadium could have a moat or some sort of faux-natural habitat around the exterior of the stadium as well, that would be ideal and could attract many waterfowl in the area.
For the interior of the stadium, there must be a zoo-like museum where visitors can go observe grey ducks and other local species. The Minnesota Grey Ducks team is very active in giving back to the community and a percentage of ticket sales will go towards habitat restoration and preservation. Many statues of grey ducks will be present around the concourse and even a couple of the rescued ducklings will be waddling around for the enjoyment of the fans.
Word Count: 201
18. The teammate on my team that just embodies every aspect of the ultimate team player is none other than my Minnesota Grey Duck teammate, IceBear (David Frank). IceBear has gone above and beyond to become one of the top TPE earners of the Season 29 ISFL draftees. In addition to being one of the best earners, he has quickly surpassed older players in total money earned. This is attributed to his constant production of media and graphics. He has gone out of his way to help newer players earn money (not Grey Ducks players…) through interviews and write ups. And of course, he was named defensive team captain. He has been a constant presence in the Minnesota Grey Ducks locker room on game days and has participated in extra team activities outside of ISFL official events. David Frank deserves more award recognition than he has received so far, but that was made up for through a second round pick as a first create and a first round pick by Honolulu in the Season 29 ISFL draft.
IceBear and I also have a partnership together as we explore the International Simulation Football League and visit different venues and stadiums to find the ULTIMATE FAN EXPERIENCE -ence -ence. I would not be able to earn as much as I have without him.
Word Count: 220
19. Oh! A television show prompt. Well I have the best idea for a show, but it does not star John Huntsman (my player). This is about a former teammate of mine in Minnesota. This special defensive back actually has a talent that not a heck of a lot of people have. This show would be an origin story about how this player overcame their struggles and distractions with heavy ~~drugs~~ brass instruments and became one of the best world champions at chess. This show is called GRAGG’S GAMBIT.
Gragg’s Gambit will be about Gragg from the Orange County Otters and will be played by several people throughout the character’s backstory. In Gragg’s early years, (portrayed by a young and handsome dukemarriot) the character will have a coming to age moment where they have the choice of choosing to either to pursue their dreams of bass trombone or focus on their newly found love of chess. Gragg in his later years (played by the very talented Icebear) manages to figure out how to juggle these two hidden talents while also becoming a top tier ISFL player for the Orange County Otters. It’s like someone tells him to choose to be a fan of this very good professional football team (KC) or another very good professional football team (IND) and he can’t make up his mind and chooses both somehow.
Word Count: 228
RE: (S29) Ultimus Week - LB3737 - 07-07-2021
29. PBE PT
28. When looking at safeties in the International Simulation Football League this season, I personally don't think that there are many that can compare to the Sarasota Sailfishes Cuco Clemente. At the time of writing this piece the nominees have been announced and they consist of Jeremiah Zelos from the Baltimore Hawks, Brendan Lanier from the Sarasota Sailfish, Damian Blackfyre from the Chicago butchers, Joel Drake from the Colorado Yeti and of course our man, the main focus of this Ultimus Week piece, Cuco Clemente from the Sarasota Sailfish themselves. When you look at the stats of each individual player I feel they speak for themselves, in Clementes favour. He has 70 tackles, second in all of the nominees only behind Jeremiah Zelohs ridiculous 89 Tackles, only 1 of these tackles was for a loss however this can be ignored, as the only other safety on the list of nominees who holds more than this is once again Jeremiah Zelos. Next up Clemente has 4 combined Forced fumbles and fumble recoveries, once again second, this time behind yhe hardest hitting safety in the league, Damian Blackfyre, despite this being Blackfyres only redeeming stat on the list. The biggest statistic in favour of Clemente would of course have to be his huge interception numbers, leading not only safeties, but all players in the league with a whopping 7 picks on the year, 2 ahead of the next best player on the ballot, Joel drake. I feel all these stats put together clearly show why Clemente is, and will be, a deserving safety of the year winner
RE: (S29) Ultimus Week - Tomen - 07-07-2021
16. This task is exclusive to recreate/non-recreate rookies of the S30 class and later. The season is over and the draft is coming up. What do you bring to a team, and why should a team choose to take a chance on you next season?
Konstantin Selich has a few interesting things that should make him a desirable draft choice during the S30 ISFL Entry draft. He has the advantage of already having some experience about how a ISFL career looks like because his father was the Linebacker Alex Selich who made the ISFL Hall of Fame. Konstantin also already has a decently sized bank account which should be able to sustain him for a while as he is using these funds to buy the best equipment available as well as get the best weekly training available. His #1 goal is to set a new career record this desire should be able to keep him motivated at all times to work on his own to be the best football player he can be. Konstantin also doesn't mind signing a very low contract being effectively the minimum he could sign for so that his team can spend more cap space on other players to put together the best team possible to strive towards a better team performance which hopefully will translate into more wins. Konstantin also thinks he will never be a negatitive distraction to the team lockerroom wise as he is known to be able to fit in almost every lockerroom and is overall quite the friendly guy that shys away from confrontations.
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?
Konstantin most likely would have been a defensive end then if he couldn't have created as a defensive Tackle. Konstantin was used all over the defensive line during his college career at Florida Atlantic University so playing as an End wouldn't have been totally foreign to him. It would allow him to put more pressure routinely onto the opposing Quarterback. Stats are basically the biggest driving factor for Konstantin in regards to keeping the fire in him alive to be the best at his task. He wants to show the ISFL world that he won't always stay in the shadow of his father Alex Selich and be able to set a career record himself. This is also another reason he would have most likely been a defensive line player because he didn't want to be a Linebacker like his own father and make a name for himself. In the case that Konstantin wouldn't have been able to play as a defensive player at all he would tried his luck as a Wide Receiver in the ISFL due to his big height. He always had a certain feeling of fondness towards that specific skill position as one of the players he loved to watch as younger child was Randy Moss.
27. What team do you think has the best branding in the league? What team do you think could use a refresh? Why?
I actually don't have a single clear favorite but rather a top 2 in regards to brandings in this league. It's the Austin Copperheads and the Honolulu Hahalua. I really like the color scheme that the Copperheads have since I would say they are rather rarely used colors for a football team at least from my point of view. The snake is also done nicely in comparison to the snake of the Portland Pythons as it shows a more aggressive side. What I really like about the Hahalua branding in itself is just the choice of name and the corresponding animal or the manta ray with it. The manta ray is just such an unusual animal branding you can see anywhere in the sports world. The flowers in the logo plus the really vibrant colors or blue and yellow give the logo itself a nice composition. A branding that I would like to see get a refresh would actually be the San Jose Sabercats. Currently you can only see the outline of it on the logo so I think if an artist would be able to actually get a Sabercat logo done the branding would be more aestathically pleasing to the eye compared to the curren version.
29. SHL PT
RE: (S29) Ultimus Week - SwankyPants31 - 07-07-2021
9. Unlike what I expect to be a lot of people in this league there are actually relatively few things I would change if I were named commissioner for a day. The number one priority and biggest thing I would do though is use my absolute unchecked power as commissioner to abolish all awards forever and always. I’ve complained about awards here before, so my hatred for them might be well documented, but this postseason has been especially enraging for me completely because of shenanigans going on with the award process. First off, people are always incredibly toxic about awards. So many people throw fits, not only because they or their friends didn’t make it onto the awards ballot, but also for insane reasons beyond that. Whether it be from people who didn’t make the ballot, people who made the ballot but didn’t win, or people who won the award but didn’t win it by as much as they thought they should somebody is always complaining. I remember vaguely a situation recently where somebody won an award (though I don’t remember which award) and almost the very first thing they did was immediately complain that they didn’t win it unanimously. It’s really exhausting to me seeing people act like this season after season to the point where I usually don’t even watch the stream or pay any attention whatsoever once award season rolls around. The other issue I have with awards, which may come across as hypocritical based on my previous points, is that I’m not a fan of the way that the awards committee works. It makes sense on paper that each team would send a representative to try and get their guys on the ballot, but what ends up happening every season is the criteria people use to determine award eligibility changes every year based on whichever specific player the representatives are trying to get on the ballot. This year was the most egregious since I joined the league, with the award committee representatives for some reason deciding that catch rate was suddenly the most important metric for both receivers and defenders. The result of which was a rookie wide receiver with 1,400 yards being completely left off the ballot because he had a low catch rate, and runningbacks with sub 4 yards per carry and half his yards being included instead, and a player making it on defensive rookie of the year with basically no stats outside of tackles and a low catch rate. Stuff like this makes me question the choice of stats to put emphasis on and why there is no consistency from season to season.
10. I figured the biography topic seems to be a reasonable one for me, given that I plan on S30 being the final season of Richard Gilbert’s career. I created back in February of 2020 during the Reddit recruitment drive that yielded the largest draft class in ISFL (then NSFL) history. I knew it would be hard to set myself apart in such a large class, especially with running back being known as an oversaturated position at that point in the league, but I wanted to stick to it and prove I could do it. Admittedly, my activity slipped a bit as the draft drew closer as I wasn’t particularly active in public locker rooms and the like, but I earned well and Gilbert ended up being drafted by the Tijuana Luchadores at the 97th overall pick, just barely breaking the top 100 picks in a class of almost 300. Gilbert enjoyed his time in Tijuana greatly, and although he never was the top RB he was consistently a “pretty good” running back. Even his first season playing as a backup to Ed Barker he put up respectable stats. The crowning moment in Gilbert’s DSFL career though is scoring the sole touchdown in the S22 Ultimini which would win the Luchadores the game. That would also end up being his final season in the DSFL, as he would be called up afterwards to play for the Colorado Yeti, who had taken him 77th overall in the ISFL draft. Gilbert’s first season on Colorado was more or less a wash. He was buried at 3rd on the depth chart behind Ashley Owens and Michael Vincent, playing as more of a role player and actually lining up more at Tight End and Fullback than Running Back. He was happy to do this though, as it helped the team and he wasn’t in a rush to get into the starting job. A couple seasons into his career though, Vincent retired and Owens was traded to the expansion New York Silverbacks in their first season. Ordinarily this would have meant Gilbert now held the starting job, but instead he gave the GMs at the time his blessing to pursue another running back, Darrell Williams in free agency instead, despite the fact it would push him back to second string longer. Behind Williams, the Yeti made it to back to back Ultimus games, however ended up losing both to the San Jose Sabercats. Since then, Gilbert has taken the leading rusher role in the Yeti and has been a consistently good, but not great runningback, making multiple pro bowls and being nominated for running back of the year multiple times but never winning.
RE: (S29) Ultimus Week - CementHands - 07-07-2021
SHL PT Claim
RE: (S29) Ultimus Week - j00 - 07-07-2021
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?
Oh I probably would've played either Safety or Wide Receiver. I'm a natural ball hawk, so give me the opportunities to play the ball in the air and I'll reward you. I'd probably prefer playing safety over wide receiver though, just because being paired with a shitty quarterback and/or offensive coordinator fuckin' sucks, especially when you're the only good receiver on your team, and the only balls coming to you are hospital balls. Shit is wack! I've done my time in high school already and I'm done with that. Done with getting hit late by dirty ass linebackers or defensive backs. Done with having to run streaks just to clear out a corner for another receiver to catch a 10 yard ball. I hate running and conditioning, and I hate dealing with these shit talkin' DBs who think they're the shit just 'cause my quarterback can't get me the ball properly. Mothafucka you didn't do shit! You know?
I played a bit of safety and I love it, but I feel it is so much harder than corner. I don't have the unwavering reliability of the sideline to play with. My "sidelines" are moving parts made by linebackers and defensive backs. I'm also kind of a shitty tackler, which is why I didn't cut it at safety after high school. Ay man, open space tackling is hard as fuck.
27. What team do you think has the best branding in the league? What team do you think could use a refresh? Why?
Worst branding in the DSFL has to be the Booty Bay Buccaneers, especially their field. Whoever designed that oughta be fired and never be given access to any graphic design tools ever again, not even Paint. I think they should cut the pink/purple from their colors. I would recommend replacing it with a deep wooden brown, the color of wooden pirate ships. I feel it would also complement the green and gold really well.
I think the London Royals have one of the better brandings in the DSFL. The gold and dark grey contrast really well. Their logo could use some tweaking in terms of symmetry though, which I had fixed in my field mockups, but I doubt they noticed or cared. Even though I'm a Lucha for life, red and green are two shades that just really don't go well together. Damn Mexican flag.
As for the ISFL, I like the Arizona Outlaws the most. I think I'm just a big fan of dark red hues. It is one of my favorite colors after all. Their logo is also solid and overall the theme has a lot of attitude. Very nice.
The worst in the ISFL? Hmmm, can't say which is the absolute worst, but I've never been a fan of the Sailfish's colors. Skyblue and lime green? Ugh. The Copperheads logo could also use a rework. The hell is up with that cut up snake? I know they were going for a kind of 3D effect, but it just doesn't work for me. I also think the Copperheads should make the copper brown their primary, and maybe even run the copperhead skin pattern on their jerseys, like how the Bengals used to have stripes all over. Might be very cool if done right. I mean, overall I think the ISFL has fairly shitty branding, but I'm also not a skilled enough graphic designer to offer rebranding ideas, so it kinda just sounds like I'm talking shit, lmao.
26. Football is a game that has been going on for a while, loved by fans all over. But what if you were able to make some rule changes? Talk us through your new version of football, and what would be different and why?
I'm a fan of removing kickoffs and replacing them with a 4th & 15 from your own 30 or whatever that the NFL had been experimenting with. I feel kickoffs add very little to the game, and the only bad part is that games no longer start with a "kickoff", but rather a punt (probably). If we're talking player safety, it is probably the most dangerous play and really adds nothing for what it offers. Especially now when they just keep moving the tee up and up and half of kickoffs are just touchbacks. Onside kicks are getting harder as well with the "no running start" change. So just make a 4th & 15. The better your passing offense, the more reasonable chance you can convert, and it's actual football.
The second think I'd get rid of is all of the "automatic 1st down" penalties. I would change it to "regain a down". So for example if it is 3rd & 15, and the defense commits a defensive holding penalty, instead of a 5 yard penalty and automatic 1st down, it would now be 2nd & 10. It is still quite a heavy penalty for the defense, but it doesn't automatically nullify everything the defense has done up until that point. It is disgusting to watch like a 3rd or 4th & long situation be given an automatic 1st down, especially when the penalty is like a super light hold or quick hands to the face, or whatever. Super dumb. And of course, if the penalty yards goes past the 1st down marker, it still grants the 1st down. e.g. 3rd & 5, defensive hold, would be a 5 yard penalty for a 1st down.
Aside from that, can't think of anything else I would immediately change, rule-wise.
17. Your team has announced that they will be laying ground on a new stadium next season. What additions would you like to see included in it. No graphics option available here.
Man, it's the fucking future. Let's futurize this shit! Imagine if fans were given like these special glasses that augmented the stadium/field, like Google Glass or whatever. And you can then see things like the blue line of scrimmage and yellow 1st down line that is visible on TV broadcasts, but now as a fan in the stadium! Expand upon this and the Glasses can be controlled with an app of sorts (or brain interface, 'cause it's the god damn future) and you can select individual players or whatever and see their various stats or things like that.
These Glasses would also come with earphones so you don't go deaf, and maybe offer things like the announcer's audio feed if you wish to listen to that. Maybe you can also select different camera views, like the Skycam or press box cam, etc., for when the field position is far away from you. The glasses would also have like binoculars built in so you can zoom in if you're sitting particularly far.
Actually, I'm pretty sure that in 2043 or whatever everyone has their own version of these glasses, so they should just be able to log into the stadium wifi using a QR code on their ticket and gain these bonus experiences free of charge. Also it would be cool as hell to get a feed of what the players are saying on the field. All the sounds of the game, the shit talking. Put that on a cable broadcast if needed. Hell, I'd pay!
And the default broadcast angle needs to be from the Skycam, offering a Madden-like camera angle. Equip it with a properly wide camera lens. FFS are we still watching the default broadcast angle in 2043? FML as a football fan.
RE: (S29) Ultimus Week - firstfray - 07-07-2021
17. With a new stadium for the historic Kansas City Coyotes I would like for the team to splash out and build the best stadium in the league. The stadium should be the tallest stadium in the world to represent the mountains that the coyotes live in. Then on the north side ends one, they should build the “wolf den”. This den would look like a cave with some exclusive VIP seating equipped with a full bar and a restaurant featuring some of Kansas City’s most iconic food. On top of this cave would be a huge Coyote statue that would howl at key moments of the game like kickoff, a touchdown, or an opposing 3rd or 4th down. The stadium will also be designed to amplify the crowd noises (obviously within league regulations) and to maximize seating for a total capacity of 120,000. The stadium will also feature a small zoo of various Coyotes. These Coyotes will be provided with a luxurious and spacious area and fed with live animals. Finally, the stadium will also house a large dog park to let the dogs bring their inner coyote out. The dogs will be able to weave through the forest, climb rocks, and chase after squirrels.
25. If my current position of LB was not available, I would probably switch over to the offensive side of the ball. With the switch, I would still like to be as involved in the offense as a LB is on defense. A LB is often the heart of the defense and is tasked with various roles. Whether that be dropping down into zone coverage, going man to man on a tight end or slot receiver, staying home waiting for the running back to secure the tackle, or even rushing in to try to get the sack or tackle for a loss. The versatility and leadership aspects of the LB position would probably have me inclined to be a QB if it was not available. The QB is the natural leader of the offense and is a position that could rack up various stats. All passing goes through the QB and as a mobile QB, the running game could also depend heavily on the QB. So with this in mind, I would opt to be a mobile QB able to speed past defensive linemen especially in the DSFL where some mobile QBs can get 80+ yard rushes but also accurate enough to thread the ball through tight windows.
9. As the new commissioner of the ISFL, there would be quite a few improvements or general changes that I would make. I believe that the most important aspect for this league is new user retainment. Often times in the DSFL draft the first few rounds are made up of active users with the rest of the players already being inactive. Then throughout even just the first season a decent amount of players will go inactive. The first offseason and season for these new users are very important for retainment and if the league wants to continue to thrive, a lot of effort should be directed towards this. For these changes I would like to talk about my own experiences in how I felt when I first joined the league and what changes I felt would be necessary. When I joined the ISFL, I was very new to the whole sim league idea. I had joined another sim league, the EFL, just a few days prior and ended up joining the super casual football league later on, so to me, the concept of earning TPE and updating was quite foreign to me. This change that I would like to propose would be a tall task and I wouldn’t be able to implement this change in the day I had as commissioner but I believe that having a programmed interface where you could increase your ratings based on the tpe you had would increase new user retainment. This would hopefully make it easier to update (would only need to submit the point task links to the program and then apply your rating changes) for both new and veteran users. This would eliminate the need for updator jobs (would still need auditors) so hopefully more spots in other departments could open up. My next act as commissioner would be to possible open a job up for commentators for the games. This would be another way to keep users engaged during the season and hopefully get more people to watch the streams. It would hopefully add another level of depth to the game streams and make it seem more like a real sports game! Commentary that talks about the play by plays, potential off the field troubles for the team or teams that are looking to rank/contend would definitely keep me interested! Finally, this would also open up more jobs for those looking to get more money to pay for training!
RE: (S29) Ultimus Week - 37thchamber - 07-07-2021
Long Form Task 5
Gather round, kids. Today, Uncle Chamber will tell you the tale of Carmel “Roidson” Gibson. No, I won’t be rapping it (again), but I will tell you about the scandal, the fallout, and how it perhaps accidentally led, eventually, to one of the most successful periods in franchise history for one of the league’s founding teams.
So, the story begins at the 2017 ISFL Draft. Actually no, back that up. The story actually begins early in the 2016 season. See, the Baltimore Hawks were struggling after the team’s management went A.W.O.L. on an overseas flight. The details are hazy to this day, but the team were effectively without leadership for a while, and some players simply stopped showing up to training, content to collect a paycheck for effectively making token appearances on game days. This all culminated in the eventual appointment of Gordon Gekko as Hawks general manager, and the task of the league’s first “rebuild”.
And that brings us to the 2017 draft. The Hawks drafted wisely in a deep class, picking up two future Hall of Famers in Owen Taylor and Avon Blocksdale, a bellcow running back in Darlane Farlane (more on him later), some much needed support for Antoine Delacour in the secondary, and completely restocking the offensive line. Carmel Gibson is also selected, with the fifty-eighth pick overall, by the Baltimore Hawks. Ostensibly as a potential replacement for the underperforming Gabriel Tenzini (the Hawks’ first round pick from the previous year).
Gibson was a quiet guy, who literally never showed up to training according to everyone involved with the Baltimore Hawks at the time, and yet somehow, he wound up being one of the best tight ends in the league in the 2017 season. What I mean by this is that despite being suspended for the final three games of the season (again, we’ll get to that), he still finished fourth among tight ends for receiving yards, and led the group in touchdowns. For some of you younger folk, that probably doesn’t mean much. However, let me tell you that other tight ends in the league at that time include Ricky Maddox, George Wright Jr, and Hall of Famer Paul DiMirio. They were the only three tight ends to outperform Gibson that season. Despite him playing three games fewer than everyone else.
Naturally, there was a lot of suspicion about just how this guy was so good without training. It was a strange time for the league, with incidents of performance enhancer abuse (most notably overuse of so-called “Testosterone Production Enhancers”, or “TPE”; which the league encouraged use of, but only to certain levels) rife throughout the league. Other scandals would come to light later, but those aren’t the focus of this story. A particularly determined journalist would eventually find that Gibson had in fact, been playing the entire season on a much higher TPE dosage than the league allowed at the time.
The scandal was bad enough. Eleven games with a “roided up” tight end, whose performances had seemingly provided a clear benefit to the Hawks was a big problem for the league. But compounding the issue was the lack of clarity on how the problem wasn’t spotted sooner. Some suggested Gibson deliberately misled league officials, others suggested oversight by league officials, a few even suggested that the Hawks’ management team were aware of Gibson’s dosing and kept it quiet.
While various figures in the league and the media debated the situation, league head office discussed it quietly. They were quick to exonerate the Hawks’ management of blame, but still had to find a way to placate the many voices calling for punishment. One stance was effectively “they unfairly gained an advantage and should now be disadvantaged accordingly to balance it out”, and it was difficult to dispute such logic at the time.
The league’s leading analyst at the time later waded into the discussion to point out that while Gibson’s situation may have provided an advantage, it wasn’t going to be a “huge” one. When faced with opposition to such claims, he ran detailed simulations to show that the gain to the Hawks was roughly a tenth of a win. Further analysis suggested that the Hawks likely would have won the exact same number of games without Gibson’s involvement.
Ultimately, the league decided no punishment would be handed down to the Hawks, who went on to play in the Ultimus that year.
This sounds like it should be the end of the story, right? Nope.
You see, some people didn’t like this outcome. They would target the Baltimore Hawks organisation as a whole, harassing some players and staff repeatedly. When Gordon Gekko attempted to calm the situation down, he was punished by the league head office for overstepping his authority as a general manager. The continued hostility eventually led to promising running back Darlane Farlane refusing to travel to The Aviary for training, and ultimately killed his career. The knock on effect of this, was that Owen Taylor retrained as a running back in his stead, eventually becoming one of the greatest to play the position in league history. Similarly, several other players would begin to avoid attending training, with the Hawks organisation stuck for options on how to prevent this pseudo-exodus. Avon Blocksdale openly criticised head office at the time for their inaction, and the reception around the league was mixed.
The loss of players would hurt the Hawks in 2019, where they missed the playoffs owing partly to loss of talent, and the move of Blocksdale to quarterback, replacing Scrub Kyubee, who had begun attending training far less frequently in the wake of the harassment.
The difficulties faced by the Hawks would overspill onto the field around this time as well, as a rivalry of sorts began to develop with the Yellowknife Wraiths and Philadelphia Liberty. This would crystallise into the Hawks-Liberty rivalry when Kevin Cushing -- an outspoken linebacker/defensive back hybrid -- moved to Philadelphia, and his then-Wraith partner-in-crime, Francois Lamoreux, retired. The Hawks-Liberty rivalry is often cited as being the league’s first real rivalry, and the negativity persisted even beyond the retirement of some of the Liberty and Hawks’ key players from the 2019-2020 period, when the rivalry was at its most vitriolic, with Hawks legend Antoine Delacour clashing with his protege, Lennox Garnett, over the latter’s role with the Liberty.
All these events surrounding the Gibson incident, however, fostered a strong sense of camaraderie among the Hawks players and staff. After four seasons of mediocrity (between 2019 and 2023, the Hawks’ best record was 8-6), the team’s core players from those troublesome times (Blocksdale, Hendrix, Turkleton, Taylor, and Delacour) had formed strong bonds with new additions like Willie, L’Alto, Roenick, and Fletcher among others, and dominated the NSFC for the following four seasons, even when some of those veterans retired, making four straight Ultimus Bowls starting in 2024.
Though this period would only yield one championship, those four straight appearances equalled a league record, jointly held by Orange County (2019-2022) and the New Orleans Second Line (2023-2026). Yellowknife would later equal this streak as well (2033-2036).
RE: (S29) Ultimus Week - JBLAZE_THE_BOSS - 07-07-2021
Task 17.:
A brand-new stadium in Sarasota? If there’s one thing I hope we do not add, hypothetically, would be actual sailfish. The Tampa Bay Rays did that for a while and then Steve Irwin died so it soured me on the whole experience. I think that if there were to be a brand-new stadium for the Fish, it would have to include things that make Florida so great. We could have freshly squeezed orange juice vendors. We could make sure our roof is made out of giant palm trees to provide us with natural shade. We would have a smoking section where there were people hand-rolling cigars for our high-tier fans. Imagine the luxurious experience of smoking fine American tobacco while watching America’s greatest game. What about the indoor smoking laws, you might ask? What about them. This is Florida. When things don’t go our way, what do we do? We change the rules and then ostracize anyone who disagrees with us from society. There won’t be any Mickey Mouse parties at this stadium, but you can sip on some fresh juice and burn down a stogie in the modern-day Garden of Eden. The most important feature would have to be enough space for all of our Ultimus banners that we have coming in our future.
Code:
215 wordsTask 21.:
This new sim engine is total garbage and needs to be addressed immediately if the league wants to maintain any sense of legitimacy. You cannot run a football league using an engine where a team late in the 4th quarter has no sense of clock management which results in a loss. You cannot run a football league where the validity of the engine you’re using is in doubt. Why bother putting in the hours of effort it takes to be a good player in this league if all it results in is a glitched, garbage sim engine? Why is it that other leagues 10 plus years ago could run legitimate leagues off of Madden engines, but now in the future of 2021, people can’t figure it out? It blows my mind that this sim engine even got past the testing phase. What benefits could there possibly have been to changing things? If DDSPF16 was so bad that it needed an upgrade, why didn’t they look around at other options that weren’t made by literally the same freaking company? These are common sense questions that there really aren’t any answers to. If things don’t change with the engine, people will leave the league. It might not be a mass-exodus but you’ll slowly see engagement dwindle and then all it will take is one more big multi or cheating scandal and this place will be as burnt as Jim Nantz wants his toast to be.
Code:
243 wordsTask 25.:
If the QB position wasn’t available when I decided to create, I would’ve gone with a WR or a RB. No matter how hard I try, I cannot engage myself with a defensive player. I need the fireworks. I would probably become a big time diva WR and bounce around from team to team as an offensive mercenary. Am I talking about what I would’ve done in hindsight, or am I just telling you what I plan to do after my current career is over? That’s for you to decide several months from now. What I do know is that if I were a WR, I would be a top option on almost any team out there and I know I could out work most of them in the weight room, in the film room, on the practice field, and on game day. The thought of being the focal point of an entire defense, being the one that they try to stop is something that intrigues me. I would drag my nuts across the face of any defensive back who tried to body me and make a play on the ball. I would talk so much smack at the line of scrimmage and through the media that it would make Deion Sanders look like he was an introvert. The world is lucky that QB was an option, otherwise it would’ve been Prime Time all over the place and nobody would be able to stop me.
Code:
245 wordsTask 29: https://probaseballexperience.jcink.net/index.php?act=ST&f=56&t=20324&hl=&view=findpost&p=333951
RE: (S29) Ultimus Week - HuddleHussy - 07-07-2021
Simmer Down : Prospect Grilled
20 min: Questions asked of prospects and my thoughts on them + some answers
T1
6. 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.
Podcasts can only be submitted for Tier 1 and 2 written tasks. A podcast must include 20 minutes of discussion for Tier 1 and 10 minutes of discussion for Tier 2 about the selected topic. If you make a podcast with someone else, it must be 20/10 minutes apiece.