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+---- Thread: (S25) - Ultimus Week (/showthread.php?tid=27221)
RE: (S25) - Ultimus Week - The_Kidd - 11-18-2020
Tier 2: #14
This topic is meant to address teams that learned and grew via trial by fire, and no team better fits the proverbial phrase better than the Chicago Butchers. The Butchers history hit more rises and falls than Six Flags rollercoasters on a hot summer night. I entered the league 4 seasons ago and at that point the Butchers were the joke of the league. The Butchers were littered with inactive and low-earning players and did not have a full General Manager staff in place. The toxicity around Chicago were at peak Chernobyl levels ---- the Head Office had to enforce their own coup d'état on the team, players were demanding no trade clauses in their contracts to specifically avoid just Chicago, and even veteran players from yesteryear that had popped in to see the league's progression were either amazed at 'How far Chicago had fallen' or amused at 'Chicago still being a dump'.
This New York Jets-esque stigma that magnetized and orbited around the Butchers definitely created a negative aspect in the new, purebred rookies players around my era(season 21 - season 23). When I first entered the league, I tried to give every team a fair shot, but all I would hear is negativity whenever Chicago became the topic of discussion. By some transitive property, I briefly inherited the same jaded perspective without properly learning the league and allowing other's opinions to kidnap and usurp my own. But over the course of the 4 seasons, I chose to open my eyes and judge for myself. The change in me started when the Butchers drafted my Royals teammate: sim-extraordinaire Juan Domine. Ever since, I have changed my thoughts on the Butchers, as if this piece I am penning isn't evidence enough.
But I decided to dig deeper and see exactly what went wrong before the turnaround to explain and reinforce how much of a huge turnaround this has been for Chicago. Chicago started their franchise in season 16 with a win-now approach, trading away extra depth picks for veteran active players. Their debut season saw breakout seasons from rookies Lightsout Lewis and Sam Torenson, the latter winning Offensive Rookie of the Year. Chicago finished tied for 1st in their conference but lost to Philly in the Conference Finals. The Butchers entered the season 17 draft with only ONE draft pick(in the 3rd round too) and without any big additions, saw the rest of the division catch up to them and push them to 3rd before being quickly dismantled in the wildcard round. The flashy, fast start quickly crumbled as the Butchers saw internal turmoil with personnel decisions, leading to star running back Torenson being traded in the offseason and star receiver Oles being shipped off while Chicago spent most of the season with a fractured war room and sending players off for draft capital.
Despite all the dumps, Chicago only had one pick in the first 3 rounds of the season 18 draft(only in the 2nd round). From season 19 to season 22, Chicago slid to the bottom of the league, plagued by trade demands, inactivity spikes, and GM turnover. The low point came when the Butchers had to let the league push out their old regime of GM's who were burying the team into a seemingly inescapable hole --- creating enemies around the league and scaring off new prospects. Season 22 spelled the start of Chicago's rebirth, with dedicated users, Muford and Bayley willing to take charge and clean up the radioactive waste left behind. Kudos goes to other dedicated players such as O'Leary and O'Donnell for weathering the storm until the new crop of talent with McAndrew, Hayes, Bayley Jr, Shields, and Tiritidiwajaja arrived in season 22. Chicago has been able to add solid talent throughout the roster, through draft and free agency, and have become a dark horse conference championship contender. Hopefully the BC(before covid) era Butchers can become a simple blip on what looks to be a bright future for the team.
Tier 2: #9
Unlike the Butchers, their expansion counterparts: the Austin Copperheads, decided for a more traditional approach to building their team. The Copperheads took a slow, deeper intrinsic build to their team, resulting in a season 20 Ultimus title while Chicago crashed to the pits. Austin has been a steady thorn into everyone's side after their initial ascension from shaking the new expansion team smell. Unfortunately for Austin, despite carrying a solid roster for several seasons, they were continuously snake-bitten(or "self-bitten) in the playoffs. Austin chose to keep their core together as long as possible and trade off extra picks to secure highly active players.
In season 23, after finally upending fierce rival Orange County, Austin fell flat to Ultimus-starved Yellowknife. At this point started to shift into a "competitive transition phase". Acquiring younger, hungry players to eventually replace the old guard of players that cultivated the positive Austin culture. Austin has ensured that most positions have some type of successor and limit gaps in the depth chart. Since the start of Season 24, the Copperheads have acquired Amidships, Tonzy, RDBSouthpaw, and PseudoQB in trades. The team picked up some extremely valuable players, as Amidships has become a GM for the team and Tonzy's war room expertise has earned him a GM role in Tijuana. The expense to these acquisitions is about 5 draft picks for the season 24-27 drafts. Combined with Austin's aggressive draft-day approach has left them with 6 season 26 picks(no 1st or 3rd) and 9 season 27 picks(no 1st). Entering the next two drafts without a first round pick is risky, especially since a miss in the 1st round still leads to a mid-level earner.
But, Austin's new Gm's, Amid and Kyle(who had to retire his high earning #1OA player only 6 seasons in) have a solid base to work with. The biggest challenge starts at Quarterback, needing to craft a regression and proper gameplan to maximize Easton Cole's last season before Jackie Daytona leaves Australia(after leaving South Carolina) for Texas. Star running back Zoe Watts(who also cost some draft capital) will hold down the backfield for several seasons, but having a solid #2 behind her is key to running a truly efficient offense a la San Jose, Chicago, Colorado. However, I feel the Copperheads are not prioritizing a true rbbc approach in the immediate future.
The wide receivers are poised to become one of the most lethal groups for the next 2-3 seasons. Eddie Jeeta and Videl-San are becoming a dangerous 1-2 combo, but it never hurts to have an extra receiver in the DSFL ready to step in and keep the transitions seamless if a trade possibility arises. On offense though, the two biggest weakness are TE and OL, Austin is harvesting bots and regressing corpses at this point. Collecting some active players to furter strengthen the offense can only raise the floor of the offense, and the team itself.
On defense, the Copperheads were one of the best units last season, statistically, and it started with their defensive line. With Kyle, Slinky, Troen, and Amid, the Copperheads possessed one of the best defensive lines in recent memory. However, with Kyle becoming GM, he retired Carolina BBQ is 2nd Best behind Texas, leaving a huge hole based on the magnitude of the player, but d-line is the one area built to withstand the loss of a quality player. The secondary was strong in its own right, integrating 3 new players over a season and a half. With Snake legend Dermot Lavelle Jr assigned to lead the youngster unit, the Copperheads secondary did their best to keep the team in every game, but the youth(and a diminished Lavelle) led to some untimely lapses in coverage.
The secondary will miss Lavelle's leadership as he heads to Baltimore, but his departure(along with Kyle's player retirement) allows the Copperheads to test some different formations and improve their shaky run defense. The Copperheads definitely need some linebacker help as Griffin Porter and a cast of mid-tier inactives manned the middle of the defense. Austin felt it necessary to address this ASAP as they sent a S27 first round pick to Yellowknife for DSFL standout Brach Thomslacher to team up with Porter. However, none of this works until Austin gets their star defender and war room guru, Colt Mendoza back on the team. Without him, the team will reel closer to the clutch of mediocrity. A dream come true would be Austin being able to re-sign Mendoza and somehow managing to snag star cornerback Brandon Booker to pair up with each other while budding star Lesean Crooks plays 3rd fiddle in the holy trinity of elite cornerbacks. With Lavelle Jr and Arianlacher's(traded to YKW in the Thomslacer deal) 5 mil cap hits off the books, Austin has some room to sign a premier free agent and accelerate their path back to the playoffs.
RE: (S25) - Ultimus Week - Naosu - 11-19-2020
SHL Affiliate
RE: (S25) - Ultimus Week - Jo3fish5 - 11-19-2020
9. It's pretty clear that the Berlin Fire Salamanders weren't exactly good this season. They finished the season with three wins and thirteen losses, earning them the top pick in the upcoming ISFL draft. It didn't really surprise anyone that they were this bad either. The Fire Salamanders are an expansion team in their first year of existence. This means they have the second youngest team in the league right now. They have holes pretty much everywhere. On the offensive side of the ball and the defensive side, they were dead last in point totals. That stat basically sums up their entire season. Their offense couldn't make it to the end zone and their defense couldn't keep the opposition out. The one bright spot, in m completely unbiased opinion, is their running backs. Berlin's runningbacks Danny King and Joseph Petrongolo combined for the most rush yards per game in their conference (second most in the league), with the help of course of their quarterback Nick Kaepercolin. Neither of those two hit regression any time soon, so if they can continue to progress and perform they'll be even better, maybe even good enough to have the best ground game in the league. All the Berlin Fire Salamanders need to do for now is wait for their players to get stronger, more experienced, and faster, AND draft active rookies for the longer term future. Next season I definitely see them being on the verge of making the playoffs, fourth in the conference, maybe even getting third and making it, depending on how the rest of the conference performs. I'm predicting six or seven wins from them. The team is so young that nobody is retiring from it this offseason, and I don't think anyone is next season either. They're just playing the waiting game now, waiting to get better and waiting to win games. In five seasons or so, I see the Fire Salamanders being unstoppable, rivaled maybe by the other expansion team, the New York Silverbacks, though they made a few win now trades before they ever played a game that might cost them. The season before all their season 23 players hit regression is going to be an easy Ultimus win, or at least it would be if the sim didn't sim. The rookie drafts before then are important to build a roster of young rookies that are ready to take over when the current starters get too old and start declining in performance. If Berlin can draft smart and make sure they don't have any massive holes then, I can see them being the league's next powerhouse team.
18. My favorite non playoffs game of this season came early on, in week one Specifically, the matchup between the Berlin Fire Salamanders and the New York Silverbacks. This was the first game that either of the expansion teams played in, and I am glad to say that Berlin ended up winning it, with a final score of 30-27, making Berlin an undefeated franchise, if just for one game. Berlin scored first in the game, more specifically the Berlin defense, with an Asher Quinn pick six less than five minutes in. New York quickly came back, and lead at halftime by one point, before scoring first in the second half, putting them up by a touchdown. This game really was a nail biter, and Karmichael Hunt ended up winning the game for the Fire Salamanders with a 33 yard game winning field goal with only 41 seconds left on the clock. This game also included my player, Joseph Petrongolo's first ever touchdown on a team not from America, a three yard run in the fourth quarter which gave Berlin a late lead over their expansion counterparts. It's a shame they couldn't continue this success, they only won two games other than this matchup, one in week four at the Philadelphia Libery, and one at home against the San Jose Sabercats, which is Berlin's only franchise home win.
30. The two expansions teams first ever seasons in the ISFL were... not great. They finished with a combined record of just 7 wins and a whopping 25 losses. But this was exactly what people expected from them. They're expansion teams. The only people that had either of them doing better than fifth in their respective conferences are either delusional, on one of the expansion teams, or both. The New York Silverbacks started their season 0-10, and it looked like they would easily get the first pick of the upcoming rookie draft, but they ended up winning four of their last six games,including their final game of the season against the San Jose Sabercats, bumping them up in the standings but down in the draft. The brightest spot on their team this season was their passing defense, which was 6th best in the league giving up only 253.4 yards per game. For Berlin, the bright spot was the run game. They averaged 148.3 rush yards per game, which was second in the league, not bad for an expansion team. In the future, I see both of these teams consistently making the playoffs. Both teams are so young right now, they are only slightly better than DSFL teams. Given time to grow and strong leaderships, both of them should blossom into fully functioning, above .500 teams.
RE: (S25) - Ultimus Week - Thiath - 11-19-2020
6) Another season, another ultimus week. This time around, after a great deal of thought. I’ve decided to talk about something more personally linked to my experience in the International Simulation Football League. Of course what I’m referring to is my newly returned desire to be a GM. More specifically a GM for my own expansion franchise. While I could go one about this for hours on end. I’ll make my best effort to go over everything in a timely fashion.
To begin with, I want to talk about what draws me to being a GM. While the question is simple enough, the answer is a lot more complicated. At its core, I think my drive to become a GM comes from my love of solving complicated problems. I like a challenge, I like taking the time to build something. I don’t think there’s any bigger challenge in the International Simulation Football League. Than building an expansion franchise. After witnessing two separate expansions by the league. I’ve slowly grown more and more interested in it.
I’d really enjoy building a new franchise. I’ve made an attempt at each expansion to get a team to no avail. I’ve recently prepared a new franchise pitch for the next one. Whenever that is. Of course, the next part of my plan for an expansion franchise is the most difficult part. As it relies on other people. I’d have to get into someone’s war room but I don’t know when or if that would happen.
I’ve had a lot of ideas when it comes to what I’d want a locker room to look like. I’ve come to find a new found understanding. Trying to balance the ideas you have for a team, and building a functional locker room. I’d love to be able to incorporate all of my ideas, but I also fear that it could make for a very clustered user experience. I’ve been working on an idea to combine what I’ve really enjoyed from some of the other locker rooms I’ve been in. Most of which include some of the bots I’ve seen around the league. Like the casino and pokemon bots everyone seems to have now.
Though the crux of my plan revolves around having more accessible player resources. Making it easier for players to find things like the TPE tracker, the player transactions thread, fantasy, etc. Which is something I personally have found difficult in my tenure. Which of course leads me to a slightly unrelated note. I personally find it baffling that these things are such a pain to find that they pretty much have to be pinned to a discord server by default.
Another thing I’d want to focus on, is giving people league experience. I want to make sure everyone on my team that wants to be a bigger part of the league is given the opportunity to do so. I’d give my team captains actual responsibilities. Such as keeping rookies up to date. Or adding them as simmers in my war room. Something that allows them to experience other parts of the league beyond updating and watching streams. Because let’s be honest, the streams are about 5% of the league’s activities.
Another difficulty I’ve run into while trying to win an expansion team. Is trying to find someone who wants to jump on as my Co-GM. Of course, I haven’t been looking for one in a long time, but back in S22 I only found a co at nearly the last minute. Of course, with the sim being switched over to DDSPF21 it will likely only become more difficult to find someone to go into expansion with. As at least an attempt to counteract that. I’ve recently made an attempt to get more familiar with the new sim. Though I’m still unsure how often I’d be spending with it. Excel sheets are still my kryptonite after all. Hopefully when S30 comes around and expansion comes back around I’ll figure it out by then. As I understand it, with the new sim, there won’t be as much need to have such massive sim tests. Though I’ve only spent about an hour with the new sim, so I’m not sure if that’s the case.
Finally, I’d like to talk about branding. With the league changing its name to International Simulation Football League. I’ve focused more on international brands. With the S24 expansion, I made a pitch for a team in Queensland. Even though that was less serious. My current expansion idea is based in Barcelona. I think a team in spain would work really well for the ISFL. I haven’t settled on a name just yet, I figure I have some time yet before I need to take it too seriously. At the end of the day, I’m glad to be back in the league again to an extent where I can once again enjoy theory crafting new team ideas.
RE: (S25) - Ultimus Week - Vainknight13 - 11-19-2020
Ultimus task
Task 9: ultimately i don't think the Yellowknife Wraiths are that far off from a championship. We have almost all the pieces we need. The offense produces well, but there are problems on the offensive side of the ball. The team seems to focus on an air it out at all costs attack. There is nothing wrong with that, but there were plenty of times during the season where we were throwing it on third and short, only to give up an easy interception. The problems seem to be mainly strategy from my point of view. There are two running backs on the team who would love to get the chance to run the ball on third and short and to extend drives. Now in the scheme Acura Skyline tends to act more like a wide receiver. A role that they have also kind of started to push Jameson Vermillion into, although Jameson would prefer to run the ball early and often. I think trusting the running game would go a long way to making drives last longer and picking up more first down with more chances to score. We would at least get less incompletions or interceptions on third down. Incorporating the running game more and giving the two stud running backs more carries would be a good start, but I will always recommend improving the offensive line. It is already one of the better offensive lines, but if we add a couple more pieces it would really protect the quarterback a little more and definitely allow us to implement the running game plan in a more controlled manner. Now the defensive side of the ball is a little more tricky. Middle of the pack is probably a fair statement on that side of the ball. Definite lack of true pass rushing skills, so we could benefit from adding in that area. It looked to me like one of our weaker areas, not because we don't have playmakers there, but because we don't have a lot of depth in those positions. Linebacker wasn't an issue for us last season but with a loss there, it may need a little attention. The secondary is pretty good but another piece or two could really push it to the next level. Now all that being said we could really use a lot of work on special teams. I don't have all the answers there, but I assume we need quick players on special teams, because we for sure gave up the most kick return touchdowns of any team in the league. That was a phase of the game we just didn't have an answer for, kind of embarrassing really.
Task 13:
Three years from now we are going to have a completely different league. The season twenty two players will be at their peak, all of the great young players from the reddit class of season twenty five will be really hitting their stride and there will have been another reddit class presumedly pouring a huge influx of new players into the league thus necessitating an expansion that I will talk more about in just a little bit. Possibly the most important thing that will happen in the next three years will be the league beginning to use a new sim. I predict a lot of changes that will occur because of the sim, purely based on speculation of course and what I have been told about the new sim so far. The fall of sim testing will dramatically skew the learning process of the league. We are going to quickly see a lot of rule changes and possibly stat and archetype changes as the league at large works through the changing environment. With a lot of war room sim testers quickly losing their value, the war room becomes about debaters. Different archetypes rise to prominence as people learn the new sim is more balanced and realistic. Game plans become more varied as more options really open up playboys. We will see old rules repealed as they don't make sense anymore. We will see really bad rules made as some of the more controlling members of the league panic and try to limit each others advantages. We will lose a lot of old members who simply can not handle the stress of such a huge overhaul, but they will be more than made up for with the influx of the next reddit class. As the season twenty two players near closer to recreation and retirement and the prospect of future reddit classes hangs above everyone's head a dsfl expansion is considered but ultimately refused. The isfl expansion goes through the year after the next reddit class. One team ends up being exceptionally generic much like the New York Silverbacks, while I finally take charge of my life and career and rise up from nowhere to bring the Helsinki Hellfighters into existence. This ends up being an extremely popular team and we all live happily ever after. Also in that three years a player's union arises. This provides a system of checks and balances on head office and the general managers, head office tries to put down this "rebellion" but it ends up being incredibly popular and rather than lose half the players they allow it and it ends up making everyone happy but the uppity gm's.
RE: (S25) - Ultimus Week - Legally_Blind_Gamer - 11-19-2020
Tier 1: Long Form Tasks (800+ words)
Choose ONE for 10 TPE.
6) Write 800 words or more on something that interests you.
Something that interests me quite a bit about this league is in its differences to other sim leagues that are out there. Coming from the Pro Baseball Experience to this league, I have noticed a lot of things that are quite different with how things are run. Since this is my first season here, I felt that this particular topic would suit me best to write about.
This article will be about what I have experienced since joining the league, and hopefully offer some insight into what I think sets the ISFL apart from other simulation leagues, and why I am enjoying my time here so far.
From the very first day I created my player, there were several things that interested me. The first was in the fact I was waiver claimed within a day by the Kansas City Coyotes. But from the get go I was told that this was only temporary. That as soon as the season was over, I would be entering the DSFL draft and start all over trying to get signed by a team, even though I was already on one. Within a few days after joining, I started getting direct messaged in Discord by several DSFL GMs who had heard about my reputation elsewhere, and were very interested in what my thoughts were about joining their team, how I was enjoying the league so far, if I needed help or had any questions and so forth.
This was completely new to me. Here I was already ona team, and working to possibly be signed by another team. It really got my competitive juices flowing, and I enjoyed being courted by several teams, invited to their Discords, and getting to meet so many new faces, as well as some familiar ones.
When the DSFL draft finally happened, out of all the things that could have happened, I was drafted by my original team, the Kansas City Coyotes. Glims and Simo did a great job helping me get a roadmap going for what I should be working on for my player’s skills. It was an eye opening experience, learning what stats I should work on, which would help me most as a safety, and what I could expect once the season started.
I created my player thinking I would be helping in the backfield, putting pressure on receivers, causing incomplete passes, getting tackles, and hopefully a few interceptions along the way. What I did not expect was that I would soon be one of the primary people rushing the quarterback doing safety blitzes. Pretty soon I got my first tackle for a loss, my first interception, my first forced fumble, and best of all, my sack! It was glorious! Not only was I helping deep on coverage, but I was making a difference behind the line of scrimmage as well!
But then the real fun happened when I was switched to become our team’s punt returner. Within a couple of games, I had run back a punt return for a touchdown. And that led me to win the Coyote’s Player of the Week award. My first ISFL award! I couldn’t believe it!
Before the playoffs started, my player was already maxed out at 250 TPE. I had done what I thought would take 2 seasons in just 1. When I created my player, I did so a week after new draft class eligibility, but that did not stop me from getting point tasks done week in and week out.
Even though the Coyotes slipped out of making it into the playoffs, I was very happy with how our team had done, and how my player had improved over the course of the season. Being able to access the DSFL index, and look at weekly player stats meant a lot to me. I could pour over the game summary, and even look at a play by play breakdown, to see exactly what impact my player had as the game went on.
And now my season is over, and I experienced another new thing. Being in the DSFL for an entire season before going into the ISFL draft. This was something brand new to me. And I can understand the reasoning behind it. If an ISFL team signed a brand new player who had not proven themself yet, that could spell disaster down the line if that player immediately went inactive. Better to let them spend a season in the DSFL, and then have some hard data points as to what the possible outcome a season of play would reveal.
And as we enter the Season 26 Draft tomorrow, I am hyped to offer my services to whatever team ends up signing me. My goal in this league though isn’t to max earn, even though I am close to doing just that since my player was created. My overall goal is to meet new people, make some friends along the way, and if we win it all in a Championship Game, all the better.
Thank you ISFL for allowing me to grow and learn about this wonderful league, and I hope the insight I have provided here as a new player will possibly help with what new players go through when they are brand new, and strive to make a name for themselves amongst the crowd.
Code:
889 words.RE: (S25) - Ultimus Week - timeconsumer - 11-19-2020
2) This week will see the S25 Ultimus and Ultimini races begin in earnest. In 800 words or more, recount any of the previous playoff cycles of either league. How did each team arrive at the playoffs? Were there any dark horse or Cinderella teams that went unexpectedly far, or any presumptive favorites that fell flat? How did the title game play out, and which players made their mark on the field? Tell the story of those playoffs as completely as you can. Do not simply recount your own experience in those playoffs or that of a singular team.
Listen I just first want to say how awesome it is that I can get longform Ultimus questions that are about league history. As one of the oldest members here who was heavily involved in the early seasons I have a ton of stories I love to share about the old days, and I've got a really great one here. Let me tell you about the most infamous play in Ultimus history, I'm talking about "The Garden Drop". But before I tell you about that play I have to tell you about that season. Picture it, Sicily....wait, nevermind.
Season 6! Yes it was season 6. The Orange County Otters had just won their second Ultimus. Arizona had been exposed for their multi scandal very recently. The New Orleans Secondline was in its infancy following the Mass Retirement of the Las Vegas Legion. San Jose was pretty good. Philadelphia was the season 2 expansion team that was taking the league by storm. Having made some great draft choices in recent rounds and done some clever position switching to get their star CB to move to QB (@to12413) the Liberty had a squad. They had traded for star inactive wide receiver Josh Garden. Great young players like Eli Kamaka were on their team along with some inactives that had low cap hits but very efficient builds like Perry Tucker. Oles threw for 5k yards that season, Boss threw for 5500 yards but lol Boss. Garden was third in receiving yards with over 1500 and 10 TDs. Philly's other legend Paul Dimirio was second as a tight end with 1597, what a beast. Philly ended up going 9-5, SJS and OCO were both 11-3. The Other playoff team Yellowknife went 7-7.
Get to the playoffs and the Liberty beat the Wraiths 31 - 21. This wasn't a huge surprise the Wraiths were good but still had some building to do. Meanwhile the Liberty were firing on all cylinders. The legend himself Josh Garden went for 113 yards. Oles and Akselsen didn't do fantastic for either one but in this Era of Nickel 75 defense the defenses were always pretty stifling so they did the best they could given the circumstances. Otters beat SJS in a very tight game 32-29. Boss had a rough game only going 20/50 and with a Passer Rating of 70. Yates did his typical Alvin Kamara thing and went for like 160 yards receiving on 6 catches cause the dude was a maniac that season. My own player Winchester got a sack and 3 PDs.
Then we get to the Ultimus. The game is close. OCO takes the early lead but Philly holds their own. It's a pretty low scoring event and by the end of the 1st half it's 13-10 OCO and there had been 3 FGs already. The third quarter saw no scoring at all, both teams had great defense, but Philly was in trouble because Boss was playing some good football and Yates and Westfield were on fire going for 15+ yards every target. Fourth Quarter the Otters get a TD to go up 20-10. Josh Garden runs back a kick 102 yards shortly after, Liberty down 3. with 7 minutes left in the game the Otters drive but stall and kick a FG, Liberty down 6. A couple more failed drives and punts by both teams and then Liberty gets the ball with 5 minutes left. They proceed to dink and dunk down the field. Then it happens. Fourth and Goal on the 1 yard line, 1:27 left in the game. This is for the win. Oles drops back, sees his man, unleashes a pass to Josh Garden in the endzone and.....Pass by Oles, T. to Garden, J. was dropped! Incomplete. Turnover on downs.
Josh Garden dropped the game winning touchdown pass in the endzone. OCO wins. Now I told you this story to tell you another story. I simmed that Ultimus game. The game I simmed was different. In fact it was a blowout win by OCO over Liberty. However at the time I didn't know how to access the Ultimus game if you had accidentally saved and closed. It wasn't a huge secret but I didn't know at the time. Instead I needed to go in and enter in people for the awards and then it would let me see the playoff results screen again so I could pull up the game and record or stream it. But I didn't know this so I had to sim again (I thought). This famous game, was technically a re-sim, although only me and @iamslm22 had ever seen the first one. If I had known what I was doing at the time one of the craziest and most exciting (and most heart breaking for some) Ultimus games in the history of the league would have been a boring frustrating blowout. But instead we got the drop heard round the world. You're welcome ISFL, you're welcome.
RE: (S25) - Ultimus Week - AdamS - 11-19-2020
Task 6 (800 words of Adam reflecting on random league shit)
The league finds itself passing through its silver anniversary and out the other side concurrently to my rookie season, which wasn't planned but is neat thematically. Getting to join an LR full of old friends and people I know well (plus meeting some new folks) is kind of the epitome of what a rookie season should be in my opinion. The league thrives on interaction and person to person relationships so being able to join an existing one that's operating at that level is awesome. It's the kind of result we want for every rookie. I'd really like to see us as a league get to a point where every possible rookie feels this way. Which is why I'll be looking into ways to bring rookie scouting outward a bit more going forward. It's time to bring back some fun surveys and give rookies more opportunities to show their personalities to help GMs make the right picks. And also, that means that going forward I'm going to committee to working with rookies more regularly on their own wants, needs, and goals.
This league also thrives on change and so I will announce here where one person will read it that I will be stepping down as head of the casino at the end of S26. I've built the groundwork and the systems, and laid foundation for the next person to build a mansion on top of. My replacement is already chosen and working closely with me this season to be ready. With my wife expecting, I want to be able to hand people the reigns and focus on league stuff that I'm having fun with for a bit. Sadly, I'm breaking my usual habit of finding some diamond in the rough and hiring a person who then goes on to be a GM, HO member, or both in the case of a few of them. This time I'm hiring an already experienced and familiar face. It should be good, even fi it's not creating my 8th or 9th future league star or whatever the hell the number is at now. I look forward to playing the casino as a regular whale, too. And throwing in a "back in my day" every now and then for shits and giggles.
And to continue with the theme of change, we as a league should too. That segue is there to prepare you for this. It's time to give human o-line a weight advantage all across the field. However that works, it's now time to not put an end to the cap of 2 human o-line players per team. And while some may say technically there's no cap, it functionally exists, even if it's not by rule. Let S26 be when we begin to embark on this journey toward the new stage of growth for what has become one of our most popular and important positions. I intend to make a push for it and campaign towards this end this year. This goes back to several seasons ago and being cautioned to wait until the time was right, and I believe that time is now.
In another focus, I want to put out a suggestion to our Hall of Fame Committee. Within the rules now exists the option that people who were denied the Hall at a previous time may be brought back and re-nominated later. I am not 100% sure if this applies to every wing, but hopefully if not, it will soon. This is good as a practice because sometimes career can slip through the cracks and only time reveals that they were better than initially thought. I also appreciate this because many seasons ago I fought for this to exist and was soundly defeated by the other voters of the time. I felt and still feel that specifically denying the future re-examining of a player (and now GM and user) was arrogant, short sighted, and bad for the league. With this issue repaired, I call on the Committee to take the next step and actually create within itself a subcommittee specifically for "senior" nominees to be looked at and potentially brought back. Creating a formal pathway for this possibility is a good move in my view and will be quite helpful if and when such a player, GM, or User is found.
S25 was probably my favorite rookie season I've had. Which is saying something because in 2 of my 4 rookie seasons I've won an Ultimus. It was a great recalibration time for me in the league, especially with all the world craziness that was 2020. I'm really excited to see what happens next season and what kind of changes might be made. We've had numerous GM changes throughout the league, the two expansion teams are gunning for a come-up, San Jose pulled the damn back to back miracle, and so many other crazy things. I mean...if you think about it, there 4 teams in this league for whom San Jose is factually the most successful team. That's a crazy thing to think of and shows one of the better aspects of what can happen in this league because no one saw it coming though I did avoid letting people bet on it the second time after losing $200 Million in S24. Guess I was more ready for San Jose than the NSFC was. S25 left a taste in my mouth that basically goes "what happens next". And that's a pretty nice feeling.
RE: (S25) - Ultimus Week - Slothman07 - 11-19-2020
Tier 3 #21: Video Game Cover
![[Image: eRV4Qe5.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/eRV4Qe5.jpg)
Tier 3: #23
![[Image: ZvHyqtU.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/ZvHyqtU.jpg)
RE: (S25) - Ultimus Week - TheDangaZone - 11-19-2020
16) Create an argument for your own player, or for someone else on your team, as to why they should be nominated for awards. Lay out their stats or compare them to other contenders. Make a convincing case.
So in a completely biased way I do think that my own player for the Sarasota Sailfish, Xavien Adams, should have been at least nominated for the Cornerback of the Year Award. I understand that he was probably not going to win the award when compared to some of the others but the fact he was not nominated at all was a shame. Tying for 2nd in the league with 27 pass defenses and having 2 interceptions I think is pretty decent. I think the awards team puts a lot more stock into the interceptions than anything else though as some players were nominated with 5 interceptions and less than 20 pass defenses. Adams also logged 86 tackles as a non slot corner back which is pretty solid compared to others who played on the outside and had similar interceptions and passes defended. In the end I guess the awards team has a different criteria that they do like to work on for the corner back of the year nominees and that is 100% understandable I just think that someone with almost 30 passes defended should at least get a little more credit than he did because he only had 2 interceptions instead of 5.
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18) Choose your favorite non-playoffs game of this season, whether your own team or another. Explain what was so special and why the winner ultimately came out victorious, including key players and moments.
My favorite non playoff game of the season was with the Tijuana Luchadores vs the Norfolk Seawolves in week 14 of the DSFL season. It is perhaps a little biased to be choosing this game in particular as I was in this game making only my 2nd start at WR. Getting to the stats in a minute the most important aspect of this game was Tijuana blowing out Norfolk and setting us up with back to back wins in weeks 14 and 15 to help us clinch the 2nd spot in the playoffs for the SFC side of the bracket. Thus setting us up to go on and win the entire thing. Now the defense was great in this game and more than likely the entire reason we were able to win however, it was a massive group effort and no one key player stands out there. To me the key players are on the offense with QB Mike Boss Jr throwing for 3 TDs, WR Q. McGrady nabbing 75 yards and 2 TDs, RB B. Mills getting 92 yards and 1 TD as well, and in a biased fashion WR Preston Parker (hey that's me!) nabbing his first TD of his career in a depth role to help Tijuana clinch the game.
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29) Some positions are still under appreciated. Talk about the offensive linemen and/or special teamers on your squad. Show how they have contributed to the team, both on and off the field, and why they deserve recognition.
So for this I have 2 key contributors I would like to talk about and pump up their tires for these stats. One for offensive line and one for our special teams in Tijuana. Up first is our star offensive lineman who was absolutely insane all season and crucial to us making a run in the playoffs as well as even giving us a chance to get there in the first place, A. Mellot. Mellot was a madman all season getting pancake blocks seemingly at will in every game and racked up an incredible 53 pancake blocks to really set the pass blocking and run blocking standard for our line. He had 1 mistake all season in allowing a sack but not everyone can be perfect as the top offensive lineman above him in stats also gave 1 up. For special teams I want to highlight our key returner in N. Footballleague. Being 3rd in the entire league in kick return yards at 654 and 3rd in the league in punt return yards at 278, he was a key piece in setting up our field position to be able to make short work on the offensive side of the ball. While he sadly was unable to score a TD this season he did have a 94 yard kick return that was stopped just short of going all the way and it's close enough in my book to count.
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SHL Championship Week - Claiming as affiliate. It was not due until November 15th so should fit the criteria.