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+---- Thread: (S27) Ultimus Week (/showthread.php?tid=30475)
RE: (S27) Ultimus Week - Moodles - 03-18-2021
#16:
This was easy – I would take out 3 million in real dollars to donate to animals with less fortunate horns than my own. I’m talking about RHINOS. These beautiful bashful beasts have been hunted for far too long for their majestic ivory. Whether people hunt them for sport or to sell their horns as an aphrodisiac, the ends do not justify the means of wiping out an entire species! In only the past 10 years, we have lost over 9 thousand African rhinos to poaching. Although these numbers have been declining since 2015, we still lose more than one rhino a day. I want my money to support rhino conservationists by enabling them to train new rangers and equip them with whatever tools they need to stop poaching. I hope that, through my donation, organizations like Save the Rhino can purchase more drones to aid in monitoring crashes (groups) of rhinos and tracking of the animals. Or perhaps the funding can go toward improving IVF to accelerate repopulation of the more endangered species of rhinos. All these campaigns about saving the whales and the bees are good too, but I relate more to the rhinos. We’re both big, have sensitive feet, and our farts smell like sulfur. I just can’t help but want to protect their horns…
#26:
Moonlight – Will Pan: Most of my pump up music is rap music, but I realized most of my favorite rappers are form VA. But I gotta rep my home state, WV, so I googled “rappers from West Virginia” and the Wikipedia page is literally two entries long: DJ Cocoa Chanelle and this guy. It does kinda slap though.
Children’s Crusade – Sting: a wistful song about the horrors of WWI really gets an OL like me in the mood to go to work in the trenches
American Pie: I am 6’3 315 pounds. And like pie.
Here Comes the Boom – Nelly: Really brings me back to middle school football season, about four concussions ago and when my body felt young. I think it will really get the guys going. Also the longest yard is a motivaing moving so theres that
Motivational Speech from the movie Independence Day: Every day, when I need something to remind me that I’m playing not just myself or my team, I put on this monologue. It reminds me that I am fighting alongside my teammates for something bigger and more important than that. I’m playing for the fans, for the league, for a championship.
Body – Megan Thee Stalion: No explaination needed on this one. You can’t hear this song and not get hype. Try it.
It’s Coming Home – Baddiel, Skinner & Lightning Seeds: It may be the wrong sport, but if we’re the London Royals we gotta blast this one. LETS BRING IT HOME BOYS!
RE: (S27) Ultimus Week - Tayjay - 03-18-2021
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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.I have a couple different topics I'd like to touch on for this Ultimus topic. So the first thing I want to talk about is the move to the new sim engine. Results may have been varied on the new sim, or so I hear, but I really like the new archetypes and the work that went into it. I loved the transparency around the 12 days of christmas theme for showcasing the new archetypes and though that it was very cool how the league balance team acknowledged some things about certain positions not seeing stats where they thought they would be. They wrote an announcement about changes taking place in the offseason. The transparency has been great and I think it is something the ISFL has done better than the other two leagues. Now speaking about the update scale and the new archetypes I think the different traits are a really cool idea and glad they are a part of the new sim. It makes builds very different and a single trait could put you right over the edge for a possible award or maybe some more production. I know I have been trying to rush the speed rusher trait and am looking forward to the day when I can afford it. I think it's something new that other sim leagues don't have. The addition of the competitiveness trait/attribute is neat. All in all I think the change to the new sim and the changes associated with it were pretty awesome. I don't know how the transition was on the updater or Head Office side but I loved the different resources that were available when I was changing positions and picking a new archetype. Moving on to a similar topic, the actual sims. I joined the ISFL last out of all of the simulation leagues despite loving football. I just didn't think the sims were that "fun" to watch. My tune has changed over time and I actually think the presentation is a big part of that. The new sim looks great and I think the way the bubbles look and move has given me more interest in watching them. I can't remember if the older sims had such good looking fields, or if they were even customizable but something about seeing my Wraiths play a home game in Yellowknife is pretty awesome. The presentation around the drafts and other games such as the pro bowl or even the prospect games are great and I loved them when I was a new prospect. Enough about the sim engine and more about the transactions, or lack of visibility around them. As a GM in the PBE, and just someone that is a fan of determining value in trades and transaction across major sports, I wish that the signing of users and trades were more visible. I'm not sure if this is something that can be put on the front page instead of behind a couple different threads but it seems like in the PBE you can easily navigate to the transactions and signings thread and it shows up pretty easily. My brother Zak and I did a podcast and we had no idea of all of the Baltimore trades that were going on and even in the offseason it is hard to keep track of who signs where. I couldn't even tell you who the major free agents are or where they will end up signing. I don't see a channel in the ISFL discord but maybe if there was some channel in there that pushed all major transactions and trades it would help bring some attention to the moves that teams make. The offseason is an exciting time and I think it should be highlighted in the league. Would also help with users when they pick their fantasy teams. I believe there is only the google document that looks at each team's roster and free agents, draft picks, and shows trades there but I wish it was on the front page of the website. The last thing I'll touch on, and another thing I have really enjoyed about the ISFL, is the quality of media and podcasts. While we don't see a lot of pertaining to player's stories, I think there is a lot of media regarding team outlooks and the latest double media session regarding. A lot of the articles were great to read and a lot of research went into them it seemed. I have enjoyed writing media over here more than I do in the SHL, partly due to the pay scale. I'm always looking to get more out of my writing or look for ways to add more to my articles so that I can get a larger bonus. It always make my team outlooks or playoff previews fun because I can kind of just go crazy and use the media google document to see what my pay is. So if anyone is actually paying attention to this: media bonuses are good, transparency and new sim are good, please make transactions more visible somehow.
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RE: (S27) Ultimus Week - Daybe - 03-18-2021
Something in the league that interests me is the concept of player agency in a for all intents and purposes big way. However, player agency itself is different from an actual agency that aids players. Why specifically is that, contrary to popular belief. Well, in my opinion, player agency refers to players taking ownership of their players, their careers, their storylines, whereas the other type of agency serves as an actual liaison between the GM and the player, which is fairly significant. I for all intents and purposes am going to really talk about the first type, player agency, for my Ultimus Week point task, contrary to popular belief. Now, more than ever, players literally are taking minimum contracts virtually everywhere. Why in a big way. Because frankly, for a good portion of the league, contract money is useless. This is because there specifically are so pretty many ways to kind of earn money nowadays in a kind of big way. Many league vets don''t have a need for the definitely extra contract money because they for all intents and purposes have other sources of income, which specifically is fairly significant. Whether this be from league jobs held, from media, from podcasts, from graphics, from particularly other contractual work, to actually many players, the very minimum is sufficient in order to essentially sustain max earning, which costs roughly $21,000,000 per season in a subtle way. This trend will sort of likely continue in a definitely major way. The problem kind of is there isn\'t one fairly simple solution that HO can for the most part implement right now and for all intents and purposes have the money problem just disappear, which kind of is fairly significant. Some users have proposed the idea of raising the cap. Theoretically, with the cap higher, teams will for all intents and purposes be more generous with their spending money, teams will really have for all intents and purposes more wiggle room, and players might not for the most part be so hesitant to ask for that extra cheddar on really top of their minimum particularly deal. However, even this idea is not a comprehensive solution, which is fairly significant. It actually fails to address the trend previously described - most of the league doesn\'t need the extra contract money anyway, and regardless of where the cap is, this won\'t change anything. What I forsee happening is maybe some players will receive larger contracts than before, but for the majority of instances, teams will simply divert the particularly extra funds towards purchasing offensive lineman bots, as the Draft Day Sports Pro Football 21 transition specifically has made actually offensive line so sort of much more important in a basically big way. Again, it for all intents and purposes is difficult to literally envision one definitely easy solution to this pressing issue in a generally major way. Because this really is an Ultimus Week point task, I essentially am going to instead focus on definitely other aspects of player agency in a actually big way. Player roles essentially are difficult to kind of come by in the league right now. There are only 14 WR1 spots in the league, only 14 RB1 spots, only 14 CB1 spots, etc, which for the most part is quite significant. Therefore, getting those coveted spots to basically maximize your stat kind of potential generally is already quite difficult. Many players will not essentially reach this status until they are at very much the least at 800 TPE, if not pretty much more. Obviously each user in the league has different values, whether they actually prefer stats, whether they\'d rather see their team win, of course, or so they thought. Personally, I particularly am biased towards statistics because I essentially want my player, Jackson Kingston, to be the for all intents and purposes best version of himself in a definitely major way. With the amount of time I particularly have generally spent updating my player and grinding in the league, I literally want to generally see my player mostly pay it back with on the field performance in a major way. My pretty personal solution for this issue is to simply create fairly more roster spots. In the for all intents and purposes past couple of seasons, expansion mostly has been a hot topic in a very major way. With league expansion, the league could open at least two, maybe even pretty much more #1 roster spots at each position, creating more opportunity for both generally young players who find themselves drafted to these new expansion teams. Additionally, these expansion teams would generally have a leg up on some established squads in terms of offering stats in a particularly big way. A regressing 800 TPE fairly wide receiver might be offered a WR2/3 role on their fairly current team, and they may be unhappy with that role in a sort of major way. However, on an expansion team, they could potentially kind of be offered WR1, giving them a chance to extend their prime and perform at a much higher level for longer in a kind of big way.
RE: (S27) Ultimus Week - ComebackZak - 03-18-2021
PBE Affiliate
18. I would love to cast the San Jose Sabercats wide receiver locker room as Batman characters from the DC Universe. It can be a voice acting gig where Ty Hood plays Batman himself. Our most valuable member of the wide receiver room is the star of the show! He's always ready to fight and beat the brakes off of bad guys! Especially with his high TPE amount that he has accumulated over time! Every star has his sidekick, however in this show he is going to get two! We'll be delving into Batman lore a little bit as the next member of the wide receiver room is the number two wideout for the San Jose Sabercat, Zach Crossley. If you're familiar with Batman at all, you know who Zach is getting cast as... if you aren't familiar then allow me to introduce you to Nightwing! Formerly Robin but now branched out from Batman to be his own stand alone hero with solid earning and second highest TPE in the wide receiver room. Lastly, is Tugg Speedman and the newcomer/youngster has been taken under Ty Hood's wing and will be the NEW Robin of the wide receiver room. Tugg is the eventual predecessor of Ty/Batman and as one of the highest earners of his class - the future is bright!
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220 words20. The San Jose Sasbercats are a very talented team in the International Simulation Football League. However, if injuries were to overcome this team and the general managers were desperate in moving some players around, I think Tugg Speedman would be the perfect player for this. As a dynamic player and former two way player who excelled at multiple positions, Tugg could take over running back duties if Jamar Lackson was to succumb to terrible turf toe. Tugg would be a speed back and an exceptional pass catcher out of the back field and could really fill in as a temporary replacement. Maybe even a possible future replacement if it called for it. Another position that Tugg could come in and play is cornerback. With very good hands, exceptional speed, and high agility Tugg could step in as a cornerback #1 or #2 and help this defense out when it comes to pesky slot receivers. As a slot receiver himself, Tugg understands how much of a dynamic speedster you need to be and maybe he could even be given a slight boost or edge as a cornerback with slot receiver trait. Does it make complete sense? No, but it would be fun to test out and see if he would produce a high number of picks or broken up passes.
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219 words26. One of my favorite things is curating a playlist of my favorite songs to get the team hyped up before a huge playoff game. So this playlist will consist of 5 or so songs ranging in genre and will work its way up to the perfect high point to send your Sabercats to the field with. Here we go:
1. Hurricane by Thrice. Honestly, and maybe I am biased, but this is such a great set starter. The slow acoustic beginning that transitions into an absolute banger of a track is the perfect way to start this thing off with.
2. Voices by Saosin. Yes this is going to contain emo music but this song builds on the previous momentum and further carries it into the next track.
3. What It Is to Burn by Finch. This is a classsic early 2000's banger that will continue the hype of going onto the field before the game. Some lockers will not survive.
4. Betrayed By the Game by Dance Gavin Dance. Okay so this is a straight up emo playlist, you have caught me. This song goes hard in the paint will lead into our final song but this is a strong enough track to end on if you're short on time before heading out.
5. New Noise by Refused. I will just say it... this songs fucks. It's build up is insane and it keeps the intensity going and by the time it ends you're ready to take on the entire team by yourself.
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254 wordsRE: (S27) Ultimus Week - moonlight - 03-18-2021
19. Big Slammu is a star in this league and has had gained a lot of attention this season for his 11 sack seasons as he came off his rookie season of 0 sacks. But this has come with a lot great things off the field, like how it has helped Big Slammu's love life. He has so many woman that are looking forward to spend time with him. But he has chosen the most public way of dealing with the attention; he has decided to start his own dating show sponsored by the Bachelor. The show is called "Shark Looking for Love". He has a preference for his fellow shark ladies but all in all he is down for all types of woman and is very open minded. Some are calling this a positive as this is a much more inclusive dating show as opposed to the Bachelor. Also, another big point is that Big Slammu is actually looking for a wifey and is very serious about finding love. This has led to a lot of teasing from the Wraiths locker room as this is seen as yet another zany thing Big Slammu is doing during the offseason. But there are many intrigued to see if this show actually helps Big Slammu finally find love. We shall see?
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220 words21. There's a lot of great branding in this league, and actually much better than the other sim league I'm in, the Pro Baseball Experience, in my opinion. As a long time Otters, I'm quite partial to the Orange, White and Brown, not to mention the cutest mascot in the league, a little Otter. I also like the Season 27 Ultimus Championship winners, the Sarasota Sailfish. I like the colors, the logo and the uniform. Mostly because it's very unique and easy on the eyes. I also really like my current team's Yellowknife Wraiths uniforms, the white and black and light blue looks really good. It fits so well with the Northern Canadian team who plays in the frozen tundra of Burial Grounds field, an open roof stadium. And of course the logo is a Wraith, a ghost like raider that is wanting to cause damage. Another cool branding is the Arizona Outlaws, and it fits so well with the image of an outlaw travelling through the southern states. I am eager to see all the new branding in this league in the upcoming seasons, as this league continues to grow in size. But I'm confident there will be so many more great branding ideas cause there a lot of creative people in this league.
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214 words25. Big Slammu was an Ultimus Champion just last season. He had a wild time after winning the Ultimus in his rookie season, something that just doesn't happen in this league. The Wraiths were delirious in joy as they were a franchise who had won yet another Ultimus Championship. The way they celebrated first was a long dog sledding tour around Yellowknife. The team was all on dog sleds, with one sled carrying the Ultimus Trophy. Ultimus MVP Colby Jack was at the head of the parade as the Ultimus Bow's Player of the Game. But the life of the party was Big Slammu, the half shark kid from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Big Slammu has always been the life of the party. The team had an ice fishing contest with some fans who won the contest to participate. People were shocked to see Big Slammu jump right in to the fishing pit in the ice and come back with armfuls and mouthfuls of fish. He won the competition easily and without much fanfare. The Wraiths also decided to tour the entire country of Canada. The Wraiths are the only Canadian teams in the ISFL and they felt the whole country were behind them. So they spent the next month going to every province and territory in Canada.
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218 words28. Season 27 marked the end of the use for the last sim used by the ISFL. I can't remember what it was called, but I think it was the 16th edition of the game. But the one we upgraded to was the 21st edition which was the modern edition. There are some visual improvements like the ball flying through the air. There is also a new index that I feel is much more robust. Like I really like how players can have their career page with all their career stats. I think that is a great edition. Though I think that's where it ends for the positives. At the end of the day, this is just a new sim engine and a lot of what made this sim great revolves around the locker rooms and the league culture and not the football dots we see moving around on the screen. I'm sure there has been new challenges when it came to GMing, game planning, and even roster management but a lot of that flew over my head. I'm not in the managing sphere and I just update my player. One negative about the index though is that you can't choose a custom facegen that you can keep permanently. It's just a new random generated sig after every sim upload. That could be improved.
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225 wordsRE: (S27) Ultimus Week - Fitted2106 - 03-18-2021
6. This league seems very diverse between player types and the positions players pick, it's nice seeing not everyone be like hey ima qb and so am I and so am I. It's a reason i chose d end many players want the highlight reel and scoring touchdowns but for me it's much more tantalizing to be the guy in the trenches where the games are won and lost. Playing in this league with my brother fitted cuddles makes it much better for me and I hope to play with him in this league for a long time to come. Seeing so many shl faces also makes this league very in my wheelhouse as many users here know about fitted media and will enjoy now reading it in 2 diffrent places cant beat that. I'm curious to see how gameplsnning works here and how gms build there teams since injurys are turned off, I didnt know yinz actually used a sim engine that I play as I do play the game we use to sim. Looking at the history of the league I hope o go to a lesser team as it seems some real dynastys have owned this league with one team winning like 10 championships. Getting drafted is gonna be fun I remember being drafted in the shl and pbe and in the shl in particular I was a late bloomer I went 39th overall and am now 15th in my class not to shabby for a third round pick. I'm also curious to see how the minors work here in the shl we get capped at 425 and its gonna be diffrent here I'm sure especially with the diffrence in update scales. I also noticed the toe packages you can purchase which look really neat I'm intrigued to see how they work. All in all I honestly cant wait to get started here there is so much to learn so much history and so many familiar shl faces here that I'm pretty juiced to get going on my new team. My goal is to play with my brother fitted cuddles we also play together in the shl hes even my gm. I eventually have goals for my player like to be the sack leader maybe and make a few all star teams, I dont wanna go down as just another guy but as an impact player, the hall of fame really doesnt matter to me but to at least be remembered would be nice. So far though everyone on site has been extremly helpful and many scouts and gms have reached out to me helping me every step of the way with the somewhat difficult wiki page I made for my player. I'm even in a few locker rooms getting a chance to feel the cultures of diffrent teams and how those doffrent indiviual interact especially the shl players i see here in isfl. I'm really hoping to establish myself as a real staple here in this league and become the kind of name i am in the shl, my junior team in the shl even named an award after me which i find to be pretty fucking sweet. There is alot to unpack here like when we live sim I hope eventually at least for playoff games the sim team let's coaches and gms do live play calling in those games as I think it will be awesome to watch some real chess match games go on and see some true grudge matches form. More over getting to be apart of something bigger than myself like this league I find really fun getting to make my own simulated football player and find my role on a team and be a huge factor in the locker room excited me alot and I'm really looking foreward to the draft and I'm gonna try to be a huge sleeper. I'm trying to find a way to make league money here as shl media really takes it out of me to max earn, was maybe gonna do a podcast with my boy trelski but right now timing is everything and it's not always so easy to do. I think if I can even earn a modest amount here that I will get even more into league and try much harder. Possibly I could do small writing for my team covering players and highlights as that can get me small amounts of money here and there and maybe add up to getting coaching. Coaching here I'm hoping is easier to earn than in the shl where it takes me quite a bit of media to max earn. Pretty much I'm geeked to be here and I really hope I enjoy my time everyone has been friendly and helpful to the max so far this league gets glowing reviews from me and I'm happy to be here all heres to jimmy slothface my hero and member of the hall of fame.
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RE: (S27) Ultimus Week - Attopax - 03-18-2021
Write about a potential new recruitment strategy for the league. How can we attract more new players, and what can we do to retain them better?
Unfortunately, the majority of my ideas for recruitment have probably already been explored. Reddit and social media marketing are probably two of the major things that have already been proposed, explored, attempted already, and/or exhausted. Therefore, while I don't think I can add anything new off the top of my head for recruitment, I do have input from the standpoint of "retention." We need to provide a paradigm that provides a clearly defined role for casual earners. Previously, this was done by having a sim structure where certain positions (such as DT, K, TE, and OL) could have *very* viable builds at low TPE levels. A player would not need to max earn to be a starter and provide value to a championship caliber team. Even at a casual earning level, they could have a decent career length partially because they could be called up to the ISFL earlier (since low TPE levels are more viable). Currently, all of the new archetypes each require at well over 1000 TPE to "cap out." This means that positions where we could use lower earning players now are not nearly as viable and are - in fact - built that way. Consequently, it isn't an unrealistic occurrence for an ISFL team to have late round drafts picks that are not inactive, but are only marginally active so much as that they would have minimal usefulness at the conclusion of their DSFL eligibility. Especially in the age of "big plays" in the new sim, even a rotational position could generate a large team vulnerability. Given that history has shown a fair amount of active players will eventually go IA, ISFL teams are placed in a position where you can *usually* find an IA player with higher TPE than a late round draft pick. This is inherently unfair to players as it creates a paradigm where there are minimal alternatives to max earning. Because we don't have injuries and because we do not have cap space to stock up on "relief players" or a "second string" to cover injuries, GMs are put in the difficult position to choose between "player experience" and "team experience." Therefore, I propose that the league explore and re-work the structure to create a clearer role to casual earners. This will allow teams to include more new, drafted players in starting positions sooner, and it also allows "hardcore" max earners who may be feeling burned out a chance to recover from their burn out while still being an active player in the league. The combination of allowing max earners to "stick around" if they need a break and getting maximum value out of players we have already "captured" by allowing them to still have starting positions without being detrimental to the team will increase league growth by a statistically significant number. If we don't do something, any future recruitment efforts are instantly less effective because we are inadvertently only targeting the upper echelons of the new players we enroll on the site. If we find a way to allow alternative pathways to league participation without compromising the competitive ideals of the league, it would be equivalent to finding a new recruitment pool. I believe that it is more manageable than it appears to balance competition and casual earning because veteran league members can easily identify what positions either have 1) less appeal, or 2) less stats. Given that max earners would likely be turned off by some of these positions due to max earning but still getting minimal stats compared to other positions anyway, we would only be providing potential upside to players that otherwise would be unhappy at their position. While I know the goal of the league is to make "every position viable," that does not necessarily mean that the same scale should be applied to every position. Otherwise we are limiting our target demographic which indirectly hurts the league -- how many times will you hear comments on draft streams in later rounds along the lines of "Team drafts.... Person. Not a great earner, but hopefully Team can get them back on track." It is indicative that we are not supportive of people with busy lifestyles. Something like my proposal is a potential solution to that.
The bank now accepts ISFL currency in exchange for real money – every ISFL dollar counts as $0.50 in the real world. How much money would you exchange, and what would you spend it on?
This is going to be a very boring answer. Anyone who doesn't say "I will cash every dime out" is a lying liar who lies. However, to make this more interesting, lets assume that this can only be done once per character. If so, I would cash every dime out at the conclusion of my ISFL career and hand it to my financial advisor. The millions of dollars would be invested and would serve as the capital that I would later use to pay off my very sizeable student loan balance which would otherwise haunt me for decades to come. The rest I would use to shore up retirement savings and financial flexibility. Afterwards, I would use the money to go some some amazing vacations. Although I have been blessed enough to have traveled a lot already, I would travel more and I would travel in style! First class everything, presidential suites, 5 star restaurants, and more! It has always looked like it would be cool to charter a yacht. Not a boat. A yacht. I would then proceed to buy an Aston Martin and other toys. Eventually, one has enough toys and money invested for a lifetime, I turn my efforts to philanthropic work.
Your player or team made big headlines in the news this week. What did they do, and why did it garner so much attention?
This one is a no brainer. Honolulu has been in the league since S22 and never had a winning season. Plagued by premium draft picks going inactive, a founding GM going inactive, and other setbacks, Honolulu did not have as graceful of an entrance into professional football as its predecessors. However, in last season, Honolulu got its first winning season! We had previously recorded a even season in Season 24 at 8-8, but never crossed over that threshold. This included exciting wins over behemoths such as the Orange County Otters and Yellowknife Wraiths, both historically talented teams that were penciled in to a playoff spot in Week 1. Although this internally was a major headline for the team internally, the narrative that the outside league saw was that Honolulu had found itself atop the conference after going 3-13 the season prior. If that wasn't enough, Honolulu also secured its first ever playoff appearance. And, if *that* was not exciting enough, it was as a first seed with a first round bye competing in the conference championship for its first appearance in the Ultimus. While we were excited at the possibility of having a Honolulu/Sarasota Ultimus match-up (named "The Fishbowl"), we were happy to see an expansion team win it all, even if it was not us.
RE: (S27) Ultimus Week - GoonerBear - 03-18-2021
11) What is it that keeps you interested in the league? Is it your love of dot football, your locker room, a specific job or role you play, or something else? What do you like most about it? What could be improved?
The competitive aspects of the league plus the mutual excitement of being able to keep track of these games together with teammates keeps me interested in this. Plus, the locker room I've been part of the past three years has been pretty great as well - the SaberCats have been good to me across two different players now. I like that it can be a place for some faster-paced seasons of football. I had been part of a different sim league that, while I loved competing there as well, being in a bad season or a bad situation all season long was a six-month drag. After four seasons there across two years, it was too much. Here, have a bad season, oh, well, it happens, next one starts in two months and I can be patient and develop my player until then. And if I were to ever enter free agency, it would be for some actual incentive and I'd have a bit more choice dependent on that and pay isn't tied to skill or attribute levels.
I like most that it's forged a locker room where we can sweat out close wins together, bemoan losses together, and complain very loudly about getting simmed hard every season. What could be improved, in the gameplay perspective, is to hopefully, one day, find a sim engine that feels like it resembles modern football that humans play. There's only so much that can be done with dots on a screen, though it's kinda tough the dots don't seem to have a sense of clock management or going out of bounds and that things have to be tuned so finely. What is a timeout? What is a pass when the situation calls for it? What is proper aggression and calling up 4th down plays when the timing makes sense? It gets frustrating sometimes for me as an armchair playcaller to watch a team like the SaberCats try to run their way down the field when they have neither the time, the proximity to the lead, nor the timeouts, especially when we have a decently capable QB. Or in any case, the situation would call for passing. Though, that would be something Wolverine Studios would take care of. If any such program existed and could provide the same game and season pace, that would be great. I'd also appreciate a few more options to make a little cash here and there. I'm not big onto Twitter and I've seen things like community game nights in PBE that have been fun and add on $500k per event. Not a game-changer, but it buoys the bank account. The saddest thing about multiple affiliate sim leagues is that cash isn't transferrable.
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15) Write about another sim league you are in and which parts of it you enjoy. If you are only in the ISFL, write about your ideas for a sim league with another sport.
I've been part of the Simulation Hockey League for three years now. I first joined the league when someone had recruited me out of a small EA NHL-based league. Right away, I took to it and the challenge of playing, building a player, and trying to navigate and understand deeper the hockey world, plus connect with more hockey fans online since there's a...distinct lack of such fans out my way. There are some, though since we're losing our local hockey team now, that's thinning out. I made up a completely new character on the spot and away we went. I found it interesting as it played into two interests I'd had for as long as I can remember - sports and roleplaying. Getting into a character felt easy enough, but it was the out of character interactions with the people behind the players and GMs that drew my real interest, especially at a time when I was otherwise seeking employment in a tough market.
I enjoy things there similar to what I enjoy here. I love the communities I've fallen in with, the teams I've been drafted to, and found a place to anchor in where I made my first player a lifer there. I've made some pretty good friends there, as good as online friends can be. They've provided a place where we can shoot whatever shit's on our minds. We give each other a ton of crap come NHL time, and I got a good back and forth with our GM when the Stars and Avalanche played each other. Plus another when the Stars advanced to play the Lightning for the Stanley Cup. And every jab opportunity to comment on the absolute STATE of the Ottawa Senators, courtesy of Eugene Melnyk. We've been part of each other's big life moments - highs and lows. Getting to be part of our GM starting a family. Seeing others take a step back from the game as he started one. Navigating school and work.
Plus, having a good on-ice team during the actual play is fun, though it didn't have to be that way to be enjoyable. I was part of the Rage's rebuild under its then-new GM, JayWhy. It took until my player's 11th season with the club to win the championship, and when we got there and took it, it was a thrill ride all the way. We still ride that title a real year later. Even though we can't win it all every year, we can still rally around those defeats and setbacks. We can enjoy each other's company. We can share about a ton of interests. And we keep each other whipped up, hyped, and going on development, even if it gets to be a slow slog later on in our careers.
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RE: (S27) Ultimus Week - Lime - 03-18-2021
Affiliate: SHL PT
15) Write about another sim league you are in and which parts of it you enjoy. If you are only in the ISFL, write about your ideas for a sim league with another sport.
My first and favorite sim league is the SHL. Maybe its just because it was my first, or because its much older, but the SHL feels much more important to me. It has tons of history, and it feels bigger than me. I came in and instantly wanted to put my name up with the greats of the past, players that existed 10 years ago but are still talked about today. I liked the branding of the league and the teams much better than the other 2 leagues I've tried. I had the privilege of being in an amazing class, S53, and a lot of my love for the SHL definitely came from that bunch of idiots. Definitely the most important part of my sim league experience is the Newfoundland Berserkers locker room. It is there that I found the minors to be just as important to the majors in sim leagues. I definitely like FHM better than DDSPF and enjoy the actual sim experience a lot more. There are some things I found the ISFL to do better, but they've been remedied since I joined. ISFL always had really good presentation with the draft and such, but the new events team has made the SHL look a lot cooler. Then I helped start trading cards here which was sorely missed in SHL, but now I'm helping start trading cards there so its cool. I guess I just never got into the history of the ISFL. When I think about trading cards here I don't know who the heck anybody is so it doesn't mean much to me. I don't know anybody on Yellowknife so I don't really understand what it means when they win. But I've spent a lot of time with the good people of the SHL and its fun to know the ins and outs of a league like that. I can get a trading card for some player before I was born and be like hey I've heard of that guy he's a Hall of Famer or whatever. One thing I will say that is definitely better in the SHL objectively is the banking system. If the ISFL had something like that it would be SO nice. And the VHL has a cool updating system I think both SHL and ISFL could look into in the future. Both sim leagues get better every day but I don't think I will ever love the ISFL quite like the SHL.
18) If you could cast your team in a video game or TV show, what would that look like? Would they be voice actors in a game or cartoon, actors in a funny sitcom, or maybe key players in a reality tv show?
I think you could easily have a very funny sitcom with the Orange County Otters. A lot of the players are from different animes so theres a lot of dynamics at play there. Not to mention people with funny names like Ne Mo, Richard Leaking, Eugene Smoothie, and GOAT TANK. It would definitely be worth it to see this TV show just so we could get Idris Elba to play Richard Leaking. There are a lot of funny guys in the OCO LR too that could write for the show. Definitely jeffie43 because he's a clown and everyone laughs at him already. There might be some licensing issues though with the abomination that is Garfield Despacito Jr. Not only do we need approval from Family Guy and Garfield, we also need them to agree to combine their IPs into that utter monstrosity. This may prove challenging. Ultimately the show would get one season and be a financial failure while becoming a cult classic at some point.
An ISFL game would be fun though too tbh, but you could probably just mod Madden to include a bunch of shitty licensed characters and rename a team to Orange County Otters to get the full experience. Then turn the other team's sliders way up and yours way down so that you lose for no reason despite being the better team.
10 points baybee
RE: (S27) Ultimus Week - The_Kidd - 03-18-2021
Tier 1 Task 1
Season Twenty-Seven in the ISFL will be remembered as an iconic moment in the league history as it marks the first season in the DDPSF 21 era. This is only my 6th season but I learned some key trends from the old era: new teams struggled to maintain consistency, Orange County dominated, game manager quarterbacks were overpowered. However, the sim team worked hard in the offseason to ensure that there was more parity and balance among teams and individual player builds. The first season in the new era has proven to have worked as far as creating unpredictability and shredding the old stereotypes that made the league somewhat of a rail shooter where everyone follows the same path if they want to win. I know some war rooms must have hated having to toss their old tried and true strategies out the window whereas other teams were likely more excited to not have as much pressure to have perfect strategies and gamble a little with their playcalling.
With that all said, that’s not to say everyone saw a new twist of fate or a better outcome on the season, some teams suffered similar fates regardless of the sim. In the NSFC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Berlin, and Yellowknife missed the playoffs. Baltimore is enduring one of their roughest stretches in franchise history. Since the most recent expansion, Baltimore has bled talent worse than mid-table Bundesliga clubs. In the midst of another lost season, Baltimore saw both their GM’s leave, trade away multiple players, some who made the pro bowl, and essentially watch themselves enter the winless season bookmark. Philadelphia is a very young team, and their 6-10 record is reflective of that. But their acquisition of pro-bowl RB Darrel Williams kept the team competitive during their retooling phase. Philadelphia scored a big win in the season finale against Yellowknife that kept the Wraiths out the playoffs. Berlin, also young like Philly, seemed to be a sneaky pick for the playoffs as last season they had the most sim luck work against them. However, the team struggled to make the initial transition a competitive one, mainly from stud running back Joe Petrongolo who had a very down season compared to his standards. The Wraiths were a half game from making the playoffs, they went 10-6 despite having roster of either clearly regressed players or young studs on the verge of becoming superstars. If people had seen the brutal schedule the Wraiths would be dealt, I’m sure less people would have picked them to make a deep playoff run.
In the ASFC, the Austin Copperheads slugged along with another rebuilding year. A key miscalculation effectively wasted their first new sim year, but Austin definitely has a lot of talent on paper, which is why people were shocked at the down year Zoe Watts had. Orange County learned the hard way that the new sim will punish teams that have glaring holes in their roster. Their 27 season playoff streak snapped due to not having any stable running back and having to over rely on a young QB testing a new build. All streaks have to end, but I bet 10 seasons from now, we’ll be looking back at this season as the biggest anomaly. For New York, some people may discredit their 1st place season in season 26, but they played the games given to them and won what they needed. Then they add one of the best CB’s in the league in Colt Mendoza. However, as solid as the defense was all season, having one reliable receiving option(no matter how much of a stud Kingston has been) likely led to the Silverbacks fall out the playoffs, ending the season on a 5 game skid. San Jose, essentially had the same problem, as much of a stud Ty Hood has been, overreliance on one player with no solid second option will stall your offense. San Jose had plenty of talent to make another run but everyone not named Hood on offense had very erratic seasons.
For the playoff teams, the ASFC had three teams equipped with strong offensive units whereas the NSFC had three of the best defenses in the league. New Orleans outgunned Arizona in the desert behind their trademark stifling secondary and another scintillating performance by Sloethlisberger who would be my vote for QB of the year. Sloethlisberger again would eviscerate the upstart Honolulu who emerged as late season contenders after their mid-season acquisition of Chika Fujiwara. The veteran savvy from the bayou proved too much for the inexperienced islanders. On the flipside, Colorado and their loaded pro-bowl laden defense, sneaking in by half of a game, grinded out the Butchers in Chicago and took out the proverbial favorites to win the title. However, they ran into the titanium buzzsaw from Florida who used their mix of balance everywhere to carry a dominating unit to a victory over Colorado and then New Orleans(both proved to be nowhere near equal) en route to their first Ultimus. And the scary part is that Sarasota could have acquired een more talent during the season but turned it down last second after deep debilitations.