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+---- Thread: (S26) Ultimus Week (/showthread.php?tid=28681)
RE: (S26) Ultimus Week - LimJahey - 01-14-2021
1) This week will see the S26 Ultimus and Ultimini races begin in earnest. How did each team arrive at the playoffs? Were there any dark horse teams that went unexpectedly far, or any presumptive favorites that fell flat? Who do you think will win the final? If you’re writing this after the finals were decided, were you surprised by the outcome?
The S26 season in the ISFL went off without a hitch, which usually means that S27 is going to be fucked to hell and back. To start with my team the Butchers, I'd say we met expectations, but there's that hunger for that championship that is not going away any time soon. The next teams I want to talk about are the two newest teams, the Fire Salamanders and Silverbacks, who would be coming into the season with their improved rosters, hoping that their offseason additions would provide a much needed boost to last season's records. The second season of an expansion team in the ISFL seems to be the telling sign of how they'll perform for the next few seasons, so it was important for both of them to perform. In the hotly contested ASFC, there ended up being a 5 team pile up at 9-7, creating one of the most insane and confusing end season results of all time. The Copperheads and Outlaws were the unlucky two to get launched out of the playoffs, leaving the Otters, Second Line, and Silverbacks in on the ASFC side. The Silverbacks made it in off of the back of their solid defense, who had a bend don't break attitude, giving up the second lowest amount of points. Making it into the playoffs as an expansion team is hard enough on its own, but the Silverbacks were able to somehow get the number one seed as well. Unfortunately our wonderful sim had different ideas as to how the playoffs would go. The Second Line wound up the second best team in the ASFC, off of their strong defense and run game. When they would beat the Otters in the first round of the playoffs, they would end up getting the seeding over the Silverbacks, getting that immensly valuable home field advantage. The Otters who also made the playoffs once again, were on the verge of missing them for the first time in the franchise's history. Over on the NSFC, the Wraiths ended up as kings of the castle, boasting a league best 13-3 record, and hosting the best defense in the league by quite a margin. They gave up the fewest points and yards out of all the teams in the league. Behind them was the two seed, the Butchers, who made it to the playoffs for the third time in a row. After the chaotic S20-23 seasons for the Butchers, they have hit a stride, and are looking more and more likely to win the coveted Ultimus. For third place in the conference, there was a tie between the S23 champion Yeti, and the S22 expansion Sailfish. The Yeti were the odd men out and ended up spending the playoffs on the couch. Some other notable teams were the Berlin Fire Salamanders, who were projected at the top of the power rankings before the season started, but ended up finishing 5th in the division. The playoffs got underway and the first round had two incredibly close games. The SecondLine beat the Otters 24-15, moving on to face the Silverbacks at home. In the NSFC the second place Butchers had a bad stroke of luck, and ended up losing 24-23, thanks to a last second touchdown from Raphtilia Chan. In the second round of the playoffs, there were two more hotly contested matches, with the Wraiths beating the Sailfish 24-22, and the SecondLine beating the Silverbacks 43-37. With the Wraiths holding the homefield advantage, they were the favorites to win the Ultimus. With the expectations of winning, the Wraiths didn't disappoint, running through the SecondLine 49-17. The season is over now. The season had some surprises, but the expectations for most teams seemed to match what everyone thought. The teams that had their expected results were teams like the Hawks or Liberty, who were expected to have down years. The Hawks lost key pieces on defense and didn't gain much on the offensive side of the ball. The Liberty were coming off of a season where their GM abandoned them, but not before ruining their reputation thanks to the Brandon Booker fiasco. With such a young roster as well, the Liberty had a mediocre 4-12 season. The real surprise of the season was the Hahalua, who ended up going 3-13 after sniffing the playoffs one season earlier. There really isn't any answer as to why the Hahalua fell flat this season either, but they'll be more than happy to use that first overall pick in this upcoming draft. The S26 season of the ISFL was a fun season to be a part of and to watch. It had its many ups and downs, which is the best part of the league. Each season there is someone new knocking at the Ultimus' door, and with the next season around the corner, I'm sure that there will be many more surprises for us all.
RE: (S26) Ultimus Week - bigbluex02 - 01-14-2021
TASK 26:
My player, Thomas Rose, definitely has a couple New Years resolutions that he is hoping to accomplish within the next twelve months. The first resolution he has, is continuing to be engaging and active in his locker room off the field. Last year he was kind of wishy washy, but thankfully GM Pat brought him back into the swing of things and he has been active and engaged ever since. Thomas Rose has been enjoying his time with the Philadelphia Liberty, recently signing a contract extension, and plans to continue being around for his teammates, and just having a blast on, and off, the field. His second resolution is eating healthier! Now that he has switched from a balanced linebacker, to a pass rushing linebacker, he feels as though he needs to make sure his diet is up to par; if he feels in any way sluggish, it throws him off his game. By eating better foods, and increasing his cardio work in the gym, Thomas Rose believes it will make him a much faster pass rusher when it comes game time. After transitioning his archtype, he put a lot of his off season training into getting his speed into tip top shape. His third resolution, is becoming more of a hustler and acquiring more money on the side. Thomas Rose has a pretty mehh bank account and this year he is looking to expand his off season work and dabble into creating graphics for people around the league. With more money, he can purchase better equipment to truly up his game and take his play to the next level. 270 WORDS
TASK 20:
If long term, or short term, injuries were a legit thing and the GM's of the Philadelphia Liberty needed me to sub in out of position, I would think that I could perform as an awesome defensive end if needed. Standing at 6'5" and 265 pounds, Thomas Rose has the similar body composition as Myles Garrett, one of the best defensive ends in the National Football League. With his monstrous size, I think Thomas Rose would already have an edge over a lot of the offensive lineman he would go up against because he is more agile, and quick on his feet than a lot of edge rushers now. He is built like a brick house, and with him being a pass rushing linebacker, he is FAST, therefore he would be very difficult to block on the edge. To go along with his speed, Thomas Rose comes equipped with a very high intelligence rating, meaning he will know when to utilize his swim, finesse, etc. moves, as well as boasting an above average strength rating. Size alone would make him a beast as an edge rusher, but mix in his build now and his athletics, and I think that Thomas Rose could become a very good defensive end of the Liberty ever have one of their starters go down with injury. 220 WORDS
TASK 18:
I am one of those people in the ISFL that is also in numerous amounts of other sim leagues: PBE, SHL, SCFSL, etc. because apparently a lot of us cannot get enough sim league satisfaction (or drama) in our lives. However, my first love of sim leagues came with PBE because of how much there is to like over there which, thankfully, a lot translates over to ISFL and SHL! Before I ever joined PBE, SHL, ISFL, any of the forum sim leagues, I was very hesitant because it all looked so intimidating and very time consuming. I thought that I would have to write lengthy posts every day, updating and the PT's looked like A LOT of work, and everything just seemed like I would fall behind pretty quickly if I joined PBE. However, from the moment I signed up, something just clicked and I dove head first and have never regretted it one bit. I think the feeling of creating a fictional player, and watching them develop and go through their entire careers, is SO satisfying and a blast. Plus, the community in PBE, ISFL, and SHL is just so wholesome, helpful, and an overall great group of dynamic, diverse people. I have developed so many friendships that it makes me excited to log into my LR's every day and talk with all of my teammates across the league. Although I have not started making gfx for ISFL yet, creating sigs for other people in PBE has been so much fun because of the excitement and positive reactions I have received back. From the people, the twitch streams, the community events, and just having this "virtual" career, is all super exciting and I am glad I took the leap to sign up. 294 WORDS
TASK 21:
One of my favorite parts in any of these sim leagues, is the creative ideas that come into play in regards to team brandings and logo design. In SHL, the Calgary Dragons and Atlanta Inferno have top tier branding, in PBE the Cancun Toros and New York Voyagers have top tier branding, but when it comes to the ISFL, I believe that the Berlin Fire Salamanders and the Honolulu Hahalua have the best branding in the entire league. The Yellowknife Wraiths are a VERY close second behind those two, but ultimately it came down to Berlin and Honolulu just having branding that is very unique. These two teams have a great combination of team colors, team location, and amazing logos that really draw my attention. I loved the Fire Salamanders and their logo from the jump, I think the colors blend well and the location is one that you do not see often. While the Honolulu Hahalua have a branding that is very unique, as well as not many sim leagues have a Hawaiian based team. I could be a little biased here because I am also Hawaiian, but I think the team name being Hawaiian, the colors that blend very well, and the logo that is very fun, makes their entire team branding a win. Now on the other side of things, I personally think that Sarasota has the worst branding in the league. The logo is not very appealing, the location is played out, and I think the colors are a bad mix. The green is a terrible shade and when you mix it with the blue they use, it just looks like a hot mess. 278 WORDS
RE: (S26) Ultimus Week - Rufio_NZ - 01-14-2021
Design a ticket stub or promotional poster for a playoff game or the final. Graphics only.
![[Image: Ultimus_week_Playoff.png]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/798677679024242708/799448088536285234/Ultimus_week_Playoff.png)
22) Your player has been paid to endorse a product/service. What is it? How do you endorse it?
![[Image: Ultimus_week_2.png]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/714651699209437225/799453569061355530/Ultimus_week_2.png)
27) Create a billboard, magazine cover, unique trading card, or video game cover depicting a superstar of the league. Graphics only.
![[Image: doug_howllerr.png]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/714651699209437225/799465032345714698/doug_howllerr.png)
29) Awards season will soon be upon us. If you could create an award for anything in the league that doesn’t already exist, what would it be? Who do you think should get it?
![[Image: Ultimus.png]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/714651699209437225/799472648286371880/Ultimus.png)
RE: (S26) Ultimus Week - xenosthelegend - 01-14-2021
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.
My last 2 Ultimus Week tasks were about doing interesting things with kickers, this time I will determine the most effective punters in the league. The main stat categories I will be looking at to determine this are: average air yards, average net yards, touchback percent, inside 20 percent, return percent, and average opponent starting field position. By using these factors we can determine two things, who was the best punter at each category, and who was the best punter in the NSFC, in the first half of the season.
Our first statistical category is air yards. Air yards will be calculated by the average amount of yards a punt went down the field in the air. If the the punt was a touchback, it will have traveled the distance to the end zone, if the punt was returned, data is gathered at the point the ball was caught. If the punt was blocked, it counts as a 0 yard punt.
In first place we have Berlin Fire Salamanders punter, Karmichael Hunt. Hunt was able to average 47.24 air yards/punt during the first half of the season, more than 0.3 yards greater than second place.
In second place, Baltimore Hawks punter, Datsum PhastBawls. PhastBawls averaged 46.89 air yards/punt.
In third, Chicago Butchers punter, Sam Sidekick. Sidekick averaged 46.45 air yards/punt.
In the middle of the pack at fourth, Colorado Yeti punter, Silver Banana. Banana was very close to being 3rd, as he averaged 46.42 air yards/punt during the first half of the season.
After fourth, there is a major drop off in performance.
At fifth, Sarasota Sailfish punter, Jacob Small. Small averaged 45.48 air yards/punt during the first half of the season.
At sixth, Yellowknife Wraiths punter, Blago Kokot. Kokot averaged 44.12 air yards/punt.
In last place at 7th, Philadelphia Liberty punter, Jake Fencik. Fencik averaged 43.11 air yards/punt.
Going one layer further into a more important stat, average net yards/punt. Net yards/punt is calculated by the final position of the punt relative to where the punt started. For example, if a punt was a touchback, the net yards would be the distance to the end zone minus 20.
With the highest average net yards/punt, Sarasota Sailfish punter Jacob Small wins this category. Small averaged 38.08 net yards/punt during the first half of the season, over an entire yard more than second place.
In second place, Berlin Fire Salamanders punter, Karmichael Hunt. Hunt averaged 36.78 net yards/punt during the first half of the season.
After the top 2, there is a drop off in performance.
In third, Baltimore Hawks punter, Datsum PhastBawls. PhastBawls averaged 35.96 net yards/punt.
In fourth, Colorado Yeti punter, Silver Banana. Banana averaged 35.36 net yards/punt.
In fifth, Yellowknife Wraiths punter, Blago Kokot. Kokot averaged 34.28 net yards/punt during the first half of the season.
In sixth, Philadelphia Liberty punter, Jake Fencik. Fencik averaged 33.47 net yards/punt during the first half of the season.
In last place at 7th, Chicago Butchers punter, Sam Sidekick. Sidekick averaged 32.25 net yards/punt.
The third statistical category to be examined is touchback percent. This category is more important later for average opponent starting field position, it will help us see whose stats are propped up by having a large amount of touchbacks.
In first place, Philadelphia Liberty punter, Jake Fencik. Fencik averaged a touchback percent of 26.42% during the first half of the season.
In second place, Sarasota Sailfish punter, Jacob Small. Small averaged a touchback percentage of 27.08% during the first half of the season.
Fencik and Small are statistical anomalies here, no one else was below 34% during the first half of the season.
In third place, Yellowknife Wraiths punter, Blago Kokot. Kokot averaged a touchback percentage of 34%.
In fourth place, Baltimore Hawks punter, Datsum PhastBawls. PhastBawls averaged a touchback percentage of 38.3%.
In fifth place, Chicago Butchers punter, Sam Sidekick. Sidekick averaged a touchback percentage of 39.29%.
In sixth place, Berlin Fire Salamanders punter, Karmichael Hunt. Hunt averaged a touchback percentage of 40.82%.
In last place, Colorado Yeti punter, Silver Banana. Banana averaged a touchback percentage of 44%.
The fourth statistical category is inside 20 percent. In combination with with average air yards/punt, this can tell us if the punter had a long or short field to work with most of the time.
In first place, Sarasota Sailfish punter, Jacob Small. Small averaged an inside 20 percentage of 25%.
In second place, Philadelphia Liberty punter, Jake Fencik. Fencik averaged an inside 20 percentage of 22.64%.
In third place, Berlin Fire Salamanders punter, Karmichael Hunt. Hunt averaged an inside 20 percentage of 20.41%.
In fourth place, Baltimore Hawks punter, Datsum PhastBawls. PhastBawls averaged an inside 20 percentage of 17.02%.
In fifth place, Colorado Yeti punter, Silver Banana. Banana averaged an inside 20 percentage of 16%.
In sixth place, Yellowknife Wraiths punter, Blago Kokot. Kokot averaged an inside 20 percentage of 14%.
In seventh place, Chicago Butchers punter, Sam Sidekick. Sidekick averaged in inside 20 percentage of 5.36%.
The fifth statistical category is return percent. In combination with average opponent starting field position we can determine how good a punter is a directional punting.
In first place, Sarasota Sailfish punter, Jacob Small. Small's opponents returned his punts 20.83% of the time during the first half of the season.
In second place, Berlin Fire Salamanders punter, Karmichael Hunt. Hunt's opponents returned his punts 26.53% of the time during the first half of the season.
In third place, Yellowknife Wraiths punter, Blago Kokot. Kokot's opponents returned his punts 28% of the time.
In fourth place, Baltimore Hawks punter, Datsum PhastBawls. PhastBawls' opponents returned his punts 31.91% of the time.
In fifth place, Colorado Yeti punter, Silver Banana. Banana's opponents returned his punts 34% of the time.
In sixth place, Philadelphia Liberty punter, Jake Fencik. Fencik's opponents returned his punts 39.62% of the time.
In seventh place, Chicago Butchers punter, Sam Sidekick. Sidekick's opponents returned his punts 46.43% of the time.
The final statistical category is also the most important for determining many things, average opponent starting field position.
In first place, Berlin Fire Salamanders punter, Karmichael Hunt. Hunt pinned opponents to their 24.34 yard line during the first half of the season.
In second place, Colorado Yeti punter, Silver Banana. Banana pinned opponents to their 24.8 yard line during the first half of the season.
In third place, Sarasota Sailfish punter, Jacob Small. Small pinned opponents to their 26.81 yard line.
In fourth place, Baltimore Hawks punter, Datsum PhastBawls. PhastBawls pinned opponents to their 27.26 yard line.
In fifth place, Yellowknife Wraiths punter, Blago Kokot. Kokot pinned opponents to their 27.68 yard line.
In sixth place, Philadelphia Liberty punter, Jake Fencik. Fencik pinned opponents to their 27.79 yard line.
In seventh place, Chicago Butchers punter, Sam Sidekick. Sidekick pinned opponents to their 29.32 yard line.
Punter rankings after the first half of the season in the NSFC:
1. Jacob Small
2. Karmichael Hunt
3. Datsum PhastBawls
4. Jake Fencik
5. Blago Kokot
6. Silver Banana
7. Sam Sidekick
A link to the stats can be found here.
RE: (S26) Ultimus Week - Sermokala - 01-14-2021
One of the things I really like in the International Simulation football league and the Developmental football league is how it uses everything it can about the sim. Its one thing to collate everything that the sim spits out into the some sort of table but the League does a great job at sorting out all of the data and archives it in a way thats acessable but also isn't bogged down by the rats nest of different analytics that you see in Real sports. The streams are on youtube and go off at 7 central standard time, every time and is labeled with a standard thats simple to understand. Finaly even through all the years its never taken much to find everything once you learn the system.
I like Ballbase and I think moneyball is a new interesting way to function in the modern world of sports. What I don't like about it is how it sometimes slips into madness with the amount of new numbers it tries to make to justify why a player is good or not from a wholely machine perspective. Wins above replacement, or WAR, is a fairly easy way to judge the measure of a player and how much they contribute to a teams success with their on field actions. What I don't like about it is how nebulous and diluted it is for the very real actions that players take both on the field and off the field. A very common refrain when it comes to awards time is that no one cares about tackles for Loss or TFL's. They care even less about regular tackles. But those for their faults are straight stats and would lean into a player with more tackles being more involved with what's going on the field. A very tech savy and internet-focused league would be tempted to churn all the collected data into a derivative stat to collate defensive value. The furthest I've seen the league go down this route was an attempt to nail down what real value a Tackle for loss vs a sack was (Tackles for loss being worth stopping the average running play while a sack being worth stopping the average passing play) which was abandoned in order to not get bogged down in further aspects of data such as incomplete or intercepted passes or how many yards were lost per Tackle for loss vs how many were lost per sack.
I remember the old days when the National Simulation Football League at the time was using Twitch for all of its streams and the season that it shifted over to using youtube for all its streaming and video hosting needs. The improvements in production quality in the 20's has been incredible but the biggest change out of all of that, even moving to the new sim, I think would have to be the switch to youtube. I still see how tom sofa was drafted in the S22 draft when I surf my youtubes Pro baseball experience still uses twitch and even with the efforts they've made I don't think its nearly as good as what the International football league has been doing with youtube these past seasons. Commentary for the stream was has proven to be either impractical or disastrous, in the great sweetwater scandel, but the impact that the teams were able to customize the art on their end zones and their logos has made up for a rather basic and ugly User Interface. From what I've seen from the new sim I'm hopeing that a few things can be shaken out as its used more, mostly the stats that people are able to watch side by side with the game, but I have every confidence that overtime it will exceed even what was being done at the end of the last sims use.
There are mountains of things that people use every week for the league and even more that they use every month. Its incredibly hard to even imagine how you're "suppose to" sort out where to put everything. The rookie tasks don't do nearly enough I think at helping people find things but I think if they really had to find the ISFL budget and draft spreadsheets on their own that it would scare away more people than it would help. But after a month you're carved out of wood at the game and can find almost everything with little effort. Whether its knowing that player purchases are found after clicking on the bank section or actually maximizing the screen and finding the links on the top right that they want to you find easily. Trying to navigate the various tabs and sub tabs is fairly daunting at first but most of the time if you just look directly at the screen and the things near the thing you're looking for you can find what you are really looking for pretty easily I don't think the forum migration changed the basic structure of the forums but that whole process was more than needed and has resulted in a better experience overall, at least the ones who don't use light mode.
RE: (S26) Ultimus Week - Daybe - 01-14-2021
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.
Ight whats up fellas its Jackson Kingston here the best receiver in the league checking in. For the first part of this point task I wanted to look at some places the league could use improvement and maybe one solution each on how to fix them.
1) Free agency/minimum contracts
So it's no secret that there isn't very much movement in free agency outside of a few top earners who switch teams every year. One way I would combat this solution is by reducing the money one can make from media/graphics/jobs. The reason I believe the ISFL should make this change is because it is not uncommon for players to earn so much money in a few season's time that they are set for the rest of their career. Really, there is no incentive to take anything above the minimum contract at that point if you realize your bank account is stacked and then you chilling. At this point the minimum contract is considered the "expectation" when it comes to signing contracts, so maybe if you're a player who doesn't have 200 Ms in your bank account then you'd feel guilty over taking a bigger contract, idk
2) League history/player recognition
Imo GMs should be doing a better job of publicly recognizing their great users. I could be completely off on this take since I don't really check media frequently anymore but I can't remember the last player to have their jersey number retired. One of the coolest part of sim leagues like these imo is learning about the rich history of each team, the league, etc. Obviously I'd hope GMs are doing these things in private/LRs by default but just by making the announcements and whatever public would go a long way. These great players deserve the respect they earned, and by putting out media/commemorative stuff it would help the younger players in the league learn a bit about the deep history we have in 25+ seasons now
3) Improved portals/database
The current roster/update system feels clunky imo. We have a wonderful group of users who are very knowledgeable in coding and developing tools, with this knowledge we might be able to overhaul the updating/roster page system. I know the SBA for example has a portal where all the roster pages are, and players can submit their updates in a certain form that they can go back and keep editing. The benefits of this system would be the forums would look cleaner and also updates, sim changes, etc. might be made easier with a standardized database for everybody to use. I don't know if we have the infrastructure to accomplish this so for me this would be more of a luxury than anything but I think it would go a long way to helping us improve the forums.
Okay now that I have finished my suggestion portion of my 800 words I'm going to do a little more rambling about the league, whether it be about my player, my friends, my teammates, my experience on the Silverbacks, etc. As of late I have gotten close with Rich "R-R-t" Triplet aka kotASSa @Kotasa because originally he joined the wiki server and he was cool so we talked more. This guy is a literal chicken nugget and has a cat with sunglasses in his discord PFP. Who does that lol. But yeah I share my muses with him and gomey dink @White Cornerback himself often. The old man from Ireland is holding onto his 73 speed CB1 status until the day they force him out of the league for being a RAT. Honestly I can't think of a user that I can thank as much as Dermot, not because he's nice or anything but he got me into Mac Miller who's pretty cool. His player never gets any interceptions since he sucks but that's alright with me. My mans @jeffie43 or as I call him: "jeffman", "jeffo", "jeffrey", "jeff", "jeffie" etcetera etcetera is a grade A goofy Raptors fan and mediocre safety. Nothing has pleased me more over the past season than beating his Otters twice. Not that I have any hard feelings towards them of course but I just like to dunk on Princess Veggietales like an Oreo.
Playing for the Silverbacks has been one of the cooler sim league opportunities I've had. The locker room is great, my player eats, and I get to be teammates with the one and only platanocat. Being a WR is the most fun i've had in this league because I like seeing my dot zoom by. The biggest thing I'm excited about for this new sim is seeing the improved visuals and gameplay mechanics. From my personal experience DDSPF21 is a big step up from 16 (duh it's like 5 years old) and I can't wait to see that big #12 toast some more defenders. The aspect of there being a sim that can't just be tested perfectly (yet, i wouldn't put it past these nerd gms to figure out a way) is very cool, I like having the fog of war aspect going on instead of just being able to boil everything down to a number.
Anyways, I know I'm over the 800 word count at this point so I just wanted to wrap this up by saying that @White Cornerback reeks of unwashed socks and ballsweat
RE: (S26) Ultimus Week - timeconsumer - 01-14-2021
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.
Hello friends and welcome back to TC's history lessons where I use Ultimus tasks to discuss some of the weird things in the early days of the league that I remember. You'll recall in previous editions we've discussed Legion Retires Many, the Garden Drop, and the OL Bot Power Shift of S4. So, in this season's edition what little tidbit of history do I have to tell you about? Well I figured I would change it up and discuss the DSFL this time, specifically the story of how a bot team won the Ultimini. That's right today we're going to talk about the Season 5 Solar Bears unlikely rise to the top.
We begin with a man we haven't heard from in a long, long time. @PoloPro aka Booter was a member of the league from very early on. He was well known for being a Polo player, which is a weird sport that involves horses and croquet. Rich people are into it. Anyways when HO asked for people willing to GM a bot team, Booter put in and won a bid. Why were they looking for a bot team GM? Because we didn't have enough people to support a 6 team DSFL, and that was the minimum teams for the sim, so we made fake teams with bots.
Booter's idea was simple, let's take this brand new bot team and try to win some games in really cheesy ways. Brilliant, it couldn't possibly backfire. So, what's the first step to stealing games with only 100 TPE bots against teams that had real player with 200+ TPE? Easy, bring someone into the circle who has stupid ideas. Enter....me (TC four haters later: lol this sounds dirty). Booter reaches out to me and tells me his silly idea, and asks what sort of weird archetypes, builds, and play designs we can come up with. So we came up with some really dumb ideas.
First we used a QB with all of his TPE in speed as a wide receiver. The HO caught on after a few games and we got nerfed. No more QB at WR. Then we took that exact same QB and put him at running back. Lol they were really pissed at that move. Our bad. So we got a few games out of that clowning but that wasn't enough, we needed some really good defense. This is where the Run Stuffer DT DL came in. We had all four players on our DL as 360lb run stuffing DTs (that was the archetype weight then). You see very few teams had player OL and there were no bot OL. So OL were absolute trash in the DSFL. Facing off against our strong fat DL and our super fast LBs guess what happened? We led the league in sacks with 68. We also blocked 3 punts and got 3 safeties. Yeah that front 7 was nasty.
Booter gets most of the credit for this though because while some of the ideas were mine on what kind of bots to build and what kind of strategies to approach he really did the bulk of sim testing and whatnot say in and day out. I was very much the shadow GM behind the system that had the ideas but he did a ton. So let's not get that part of it twisted while I tell this story. He was the one to first think to try the broken QB build at RB and it really worked even better than the QB at WR did. Too bad we didn't abuse that one more.
By the end of the season we finished with an 8-5-1 record which was good enough to lead the conference. Portland meanwhile went 10-4. We beat the snot out of the Luchadores in the conf championship and faced off against the 10-4 Pythons in the Ultimus. Where the Solar Bears won 17-13 thanks to a great performance by our QB and idk some magic we must have found somewhere because we really kinda got creamed on the statsheet. But points win games and we had points! Too bad Booter isn't still around, and neither are the Solar Bears. But a bot team won the Ultimini one time.
Later on down the line a lot of changes had to come from this performance. Naturally they felt like they needed to overcompensate for this problem. So bot teams were nerfed from 100 TPE to 80 TPE which really hurt, because let's be honest we won by getting lucky a few games and also by having some abused builds that were already fixed like some of the QB builds. Then we take into consideration that we nerfed a lot of those DL changes the next season because that was a good example of how DL weight was really OP especially with those 360lb dudes. So yeah, that's the way that ended. I'm tired of typing and I hit my word count.
RE: (S26) Ultimus Week - jeffie43 - 01-14-2021
GM UW Pass
RE: (S26) Ultimus Week - ForSucksFake - 01-14-2021
PBE PT
20) Well, I am certainly glad injuries don't exist in the league. I assumed they did, for some reason, until my second or third season. I would probably be asked to play wide receiver for Chicago if injuries became a problem for the team. Before I was traded to Chicago, I was a wide receiver. In fact, people all around the league were asking why the team traded for me when they already had Sean O'Leary and had traded for Bender Rodriguez. In the DSFL, I was a two-time Pro Bowler and a two-time finalist for Wide Receiver of the Year. Even with the archetype change this offseason, I could have done it decently. My hands were really high before the change and they hadn't knocked off 10 speed from my attributes. Some of the position switches in the league have been puzzling to me. Mine was a good example because I went from a heavy, yet wiry wide receiver to a very heavy defensive tackle. My guess is that I would play somewhat like Jerome Bettis or William Perry with all that excess weight and mass down between the numbers on short slants. If I were coaching me at emergency wide receiver, I would put me in the slot for short-yardage situations.
26) My player's biggest New Years' resolution is probably winning Defensive Tackle of the Year. This was his best year to date, and if you consult with the stat sheet, the best year by any defensive tackle in the league this year. For whatever reason, 11 sacks (1 for DTs, tied for 2 in the league) doesn't get you hardware. So with a new archetype, new awards rules, and a fourth season in the Chicago system, this year is going to be crucial for my player. I've kind of cooled down on my trash talk since making it into the ISFL, but if I have a good year; you're going to hear all about it for me. I'd be lying if I said that not winning DToTY didn't bum me out. The biggest reason why was because of my archetype change, I'm not sure how effective I will be. I felt like this last season was my prom. I guess it's fitting because I did get screwed on prom night. If I get pregnant, I'm blaming the people who doctored the rules for awards. I'm getting pretty close to regression so it's going to be critical for me to get the best performance possible out of myself so I don't go home empty-handed. I know I'm not going to the hall of fame, so a personal award or two would go a long way.
17) Oh, boy. You're gonna love this next act for the Ultimus Choccy Milk Halftime Show! Grant McDonald is a beloved country, pop, folk, and rock musician who we believe hails from Canada. Before the dawn of TikTok, Grant McDonald was the king of social media music. You can watch countless videos of streams being sniped with Grant McDonald's biggest hits such as "Ram Ranch," "Deep, Deep, Deep," "Prince Harry," "Love You Shawn," "Ram Ranch 3," "Ram Ranch 85," and "A Billion Bucks Raw." No Canadian artist can come close to rivaling the prolific song-writing and hit-making career of Grant McDonald. He's got one of the biggest followings in music. Nobody has a single bad thing to say about Grant. He is the Bob Dylan of the 2010s and 2020s. Do you want a spectacle? Grant packs it in gallons. Don't believe me? Where else can you see eighteen naked cowboys dancing on stage to the pounding metal riffs of Grant McDonald's golden records. Do you know why the game gets better after halftime? It's because the players were listening to the halftime show getting pumped up. After a Grant McDonald halftime show, don't be surprised to see ten touchdowns scored by each team. Even JuJu is going to be dancing on TikTok during this halftime show.
RE: (S26) Ultimus Week - Sabremike - 01-14-2021
8. Before Portland went to the DSFL finals this past season the team took some time to reflect on our season and the coaching staff had us tell stories about how far we came. Kita decided to tell his story about returning to his home country of Japan before the season and showed highlights of him in Dallas during his time on the waiver line. He went to his home town a suburb right outside of Osaka and showed his old friends some of the games he played. His friends thought he was the quarterback and not cornerback as they didn't really understand the positions at all and thought when he tipped a pass away from a wide receiver it was bad since he didn't come down with the ball. After showing them the three games he played in they got a basic understanding of the game, but said it was basically a slower version of rugby with forward passing. To show them closer he arranged a pickup game with more local people where Chiasa would officiate and everyone else would pick a position to play. After a full game of this pickup style some of the locals really enjoyed playing the game and they understood why some people enjoyed the game. Most still preferred Rugby to American Football but Chiasa sparked some interest in his community. Upon returning to the States for the start of the upcoming season Chiasa got a phone call from his best friends dad back in Osaka. Apparently the spark Chiasa generated got the kids excited and there were plans to start youth American Football league and when Chiasa retires from the ISFL they want him to come back and help set up some Japanese leagues to create an even bigger buzz. Many of the locals are watching the ISFL to see Kita's development and the few other Japanese players in the league, and some are eager to build some sort of league in Japan! When he arrived to the teams first training camp he told his coach that when he retires he already has opportunities to expand the reach of football into another country. The coach was extremely happy with the work Chiasa did but wanted him to begin focusing on the next season and put these aspirations aside until the offseason come around. However the coach said expanding the reach of football and expanding the player pool would be vital to expand the playerbase and eventually expand the league. The coach said he was eager to see what Chiasa would do internationally in the upcoming years.
18. I also control Michael Scotch in the SHL. Overall both the ISFL and SHL are great leagues but I enjoy different things from each of the leagues. For the SHL I enjoy the sheer amount of games that are played per week compared to the ISFL. This isn't an issue that can be fixed as its how the sport is but I love having 2-4 games a day that I can watch hoping to see my player put up (hopefully) amazing games. The ISFL the games are more suspenseful since there are only a couple a week and are more meaningful on your teams standings however I appreciate having the amount of content the SHL gives. Additionally I like that in the SHL junior players are usually down for 3-5 seasons as this adds some continuity to teams seasons. Its easier to tell who will be good as the players you have stay with the team and develop. In the ISFL a lot of the teams I feel are good due to only good drafting and less so development but I could be way off base. I see that most players stay in the DSFL for only 1-3 seasons which seems short to me but for some its probably exciting to get right into the action of the ISFL.
26. My players New Years Resolution is to win an Ultimus in his ISFL career and to lead his draft class in INT. I know he will be sticking with these goals as Kita is a competitive player by heart. No matter where he ends up in the ISFL he is going to win a championship and help that team in the regular season and playoffs become a championship contender. He will of course do all the training he can and do everything in his power to lock down Receivers, Tight Ends, or any Running Backs the QB plans to target. This will all begin with draft day and he will follow a strict workout plan and stick to it and follow the instructions of the trainers exactly. As for following his path for the most INT, this could be a tricky goal as if he improves as he intends to QBs may target the receiver he is covering less and less. Only type of training he can do for this is practicing picking off his own QB in set drills. Nevertheless this is a goal he will hold until he retires, a stretch goal and maybe unrealistic but he is planning to aim high and become the best he can be.