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(S31) Ultimus Week - Printable Version

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RE: (S31) Ultimus Week - Number 82 - 10-24-2021

20. Make a scouting report for any of the ISFL or DSFL draftees. Show their stats, abilities, TPE, or highlights. Written or graphic option available.
Pasta the Turtle Scouting Graphic
[Image: 8STkRlz.png]

23. Create a billboard, magazine cover, unique trading card, or video game cover depicting a one of the league's stars.
Mark Walker Receiving Yards Leader Card

[Image: CjPEUkb.png]

28. Choose one existing award. Tell us why you think a certain player should win that award this season. Stats, or anything else possible should be used to support your case.
It's that time again to discuss awards and take a look at Kicker of the Year. A starting point for looking at who is in contention for the award would typically be looking at the extra point percentages this season. In what has been quite a good season all round for extra point conversions we have an impressive eight kickers who have made it 16 games without a miss. More than 50% of kickers went perfect, a pretty great showing from kickers this season.

With extra points narrowing the list down to eight, it's time to move on to field goal percentages. Similar to extra points' we're just going to look for the top performer in that category. One kicker managed to go perfect this season and that was Jacob Small. The Season 22 player converted all 36 attempts over course of the season. As one of the eight players that went perfect in extra points, it's clear that Jacob Small is the Kicker of the Year in Season 31. Small joins an exclusive club of kickers who have managed a perfect season, a great accomplishment for kickers. What makes this especially impressive is that the next highest field goal percentage was under 90%. Small was didn't have it easy either, having attempted the third most field goals with 16 of the 36 attempts being from 40+ yards.

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31. Affiliate PT from either SHL/PBE/WSBL. The Weeks must match with the timeframe of this UW. And you may only use a max of 1.
WSBL Affiliate

RE: (S31) Ultimus Week - 209tacos - 10-24-2021

31. pbe affiliate 

RE: (S31) Ultimus Week - slate - 10-24-2021

Quote:2. Tell us about your draft class. Is there anything that makes it special in comparison to other classes? Where did your fellow draftees land, how are they doing? Did anyone turn out to be an unexpected steal of that draft based on what you know today? Do you think anyone in your draft class will become a hall of famer? If you’re new to the league, how do you think your class will do? Where do you think people will get drafted to?

With the Season 25 ISFL draft class entering regression this offseason, it seems like a great time to do a retrospective on our class at this point. The S25 class is up there alongside some of the all-time greatest classes of the ISFL with such storied classes as S22 and maybe some other ones that I don’t really know about because they’re all geezers, and by the looks of things it may end up being one of the last truly outstanding classes for quite a while as recruiting numbers trend down. There were originally 141 players who created as part of the class and were entered into the DSFL draft, the second largest class of all time after only the gargantuan S22 class. With so many great users and players to come out of the class, I wanted to take a look at how this class has situated itself in league history (strictly looking at on-field performances) as it reaches its peak.

Of these 141 initial creates, a newly passed rule during the previous season before the S25 ISFL draft meant that only 115 players who met the >57 TPE cutoff criterion were entered into the eligible ISFL draft pool. While it resulted in the tragic loss of some great player names like Lugolor Gulogor, D’Brickashaw Minshew Sr., and Regius Goliathus, it was certainly a good change to preserve the sanity of the ISFL general managers. With the two newly added expansion teams in New York and Berlin, this resulted in a 9 round draft (8 full rounds + 3 picks in the 9th round).

Working backwards from the end of the draft, only one player taken in the 7th, 8th, or 9th rounds ended up making an ISFL roster at any point - King Tutankhamun (taken 109th overall) ended up playing for Baltimore during their winless S27 season and amassed a grand total of 9 yards on 4 carries.

Aside from one short stint on a bad team, the first major contributors can be found in the 6th round. There were in fact several hits this late in the draft, demonstrating the tremendous depth of the draft. CB-turned-RB Elijah Torres (82nd overall) amassed 350 total yards for New York in S28 in backup work to Captain Rogers. Anders Christiansen (74th overall) has spent 5 seasons serving as part of RB committees on Colorado and Philadelphia has amassed almost 3000 rushing yards and 28 TDs. Another 4 players (!) in the 6th round have made at least one Pro Bowl during their careers - Marlon Alexander (80th), Owen Isaac (76th), Brent Silva (73rd), and Buster Bawlls (71st). Bawlls and Alexander have had incredibly successful careers, with Bawlls definitively the best fullback in the league for most of his career and Marlon Alexander, who has sadly finished out his career, amassing 3 selections to All-Pro teams in his short career. New York definitely excelled at getting talent from the later portions of the S25 draft.

Moving into the 5th round, finding unsuccessful picks becomes more difficult than finding successful ones. 8 of 14 picks in the 5th round ended up reaching at least one Pro Bowl with additional strong careers put up by Terry Yaki, Adam Spencer, and Jeeeeroy Lenkins surely making for one of the highest performing 5th rounds of all time. The 4th round was a bit of a low point for the class, with “only” 4 Pro Bowlers. The 3rd round once again had 8 Pro Bowlers, the second round 5, and finally 11 of the first 14 picks of the draft having reached at least one Pro Bowl. A huge portion of picks in the draft even all the way down to the 5th and 6th rounds have wound up having their impact felt in the ISFL.

For those keeping track, that’s 40 players from the draft who have made at least one ISFL Pro Bowl. Looking at the SFWG All-Pro Teams, which started after the S28 season, we see that 31 players have made it onto these even more selective rosters a total of 50 times across the 4 seasons they’ve existed. Looking at the players who have made it, we can see that the class stands out especially at particular positions - FB (Buster Bawlls and Ben Alexander-Arnold have taken 7 of the 8 possible FB slots across all the teams), OL (7 players with 11 total appearances), DT (3 players with 6 total appearances including 3 1st team appearances by Honky-Tonk Haywood), and CB (8 different players with 13 total appearances).

Moving on from the high-level statistics, I want to make some early predictions at who from the class might end up having the best shots at Hall of Fame careers. These are always difficult to predict even sometimes with the hindsight of a player’s entire career behind them, but I think there are some cases that are more likely than others.

My pick for the best shot in the entire class is Yellowknife wide receiver Mark Walker (user @deadlunatic ). After an immediate callus, the first 7 seasons of his career have resulted in 5 consecutive 1,000 yard seasons (plus a in-hindsight-tragic 962 yard season in S26), amassing 8,224 total receiving yards and 55 total TDs, both in the top 40 all time. Not only that but he has 2 Ultimus trophies to his name. With several seasons remaining ahead of him, he has a great shot at attaining some very impressive career numbers even at a competitive position like WR, especially considering how recent seasons have been his best with an astonishing S31 almost certainly ensuring him his first WRotY award.

There are a few more players who I think are more likely than not to make it if their career trajectories continue to be kind. CB Rich Triplet (user @Kotasa ) currently ranks 5th all time in passes defensed with 186 and has averaged 35 per season since the sim transfer. With his plans for a long career ahead of him, he has the potential to continue to increase that number substantially, but relatively low turnover and TD numbers, a lack of playoff success, failure to win positional awards, and increased PD numbers across the board provide just enough uncertainty for me to avoid calling it yet. OL Adam Mellott (user @GuitarMaster116 ) appeared to be a lock with 2 OLotY awards and 2 unanimous 1st team all-pro selections, but his selfless abdication of the coveted LT position and reduced pancakes might reduce his all-time career stats at the end of his career.

Finally there are a few outstanding players who face a difficult road because they play at less-than-flashy positions. Honky-Tonk Haywood (user @jzajenius36 ), as mentioned before, has 3 1st-team All Pro teams to his name as well as the S30 DTotY award, yet his career stats don’t flash off the page due to the difficulties of playing at DT - only 26 sacks and 25 TFL at this point is hard to envision as a HOF candidate. Looking at his contemporaries in the post-sim-transfer era makes him look better but that depends on the committee considering those softer accomplishments. Finally, I have to mention the GOAT Buster Bawlls (user @ryd029aird13 or something). FBs don’t have a positional award, but he’s been the 1st team All-Pro FB selection 3 of 4 seasons that’s been possible and the 2nd team selection the other season. Bawlls has had a truly excellent career at potentially the least important position in football, and it will be really interesting to see how the HOF committee evaluates that.

TL;DR S25 GOATED

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RE: (S31) Ultimus Week - ajtigger - 10-24-2021

With all of us heading into our first season of regression, I think this is a perfect time to talk about the S25 draft class. This class was a special one as it was a major recruitment from r/nfl. The draft had many first time users and famous recreates and has really shaped up to be possibly one of the best classes in ISFL history. Given the recruitment began at the height of the pandemic, this class was extremely large and has some interesting stories to tell. I feel that the most interesting part of any draft is discussing who was drafted too high or too low. I do not like to be a negative person so I am not going to call out players that may have ended up being picked earlier than their production would indicate. Instead I am going to focus on three of the major steals from the S25 draft and how each has made some major contributions to their orgainzations.

To start I want to call out the man I consider the biggest steal, Jake Fencik. Jake was a kicker selected by the Philadelphia Liberty in the 5th round with the 59th overall pick. Jake took over head kicking duties early in his career for Philadelphia. In the 2042 season he hit over 97% of his extra points and field goals including a staggering five for five from over fifty yards. Jake had quickly established himself as one of the top kickers in the league. Jake's career took an interesting turn when before the 2046 season he declared himself to be changing position to WR. Many were skeptical of the kickers ability to make this change, but he has proved them all wrong. Jake had an amazing season amassing nearly 1500 yards and 12 touchdowns. He wound up being one of the best receivers in the whole league in his first year making everyone excited to see what he can possibly have in store for next year. Jake being a top level player in two separate positions makes him the clear choice of steal of the draft.

My next pick for a steal is L'gazzy Burfict. Burfict was picked by the Arizona Outlaws with the 36th overall pick in the 3rd round of the S25 draft. Burfict has been a standout linebacker for the Outlaws since he was drafted. He has been an absolute force in run stopping, increasing his tackle numbers year after year including finally breaking the 100 tackle mark this season. Running backs fear seeing Burfict in the hole on every down. The impact does not stop with just the run game however. Burfict also is a menace when it comes to attacking the quarterback in the passing game. Burfict picked up 15 sacks in the 2045 season and another 14 in 2043. He has amassed double digit sacks in each of the last four seasons. Burfict is a fantastic player and leader for the Outlaws and considering he was picked 36th overall, has to be considered a big time steal for the team.

The last player I want to dive into is Cmon Skiuuup. Skiuup is a player who entered the league in the 5th round with the 69th overall pick (nice). Berlin was excited to pick up the tight end in this spot and could not have imagined the player he would turn in to. Skiuuup was originally selected as a TE but has slimmed out a bit during his time in the ISFL and is now a wide receiver. Skiuuup has been a revelation for the Berlin Firesalamanders, with over 1100 yards in each of the previous 3 seasons, with a career high of 1517 yards during the 2044 season. That season saw Skiuuup set a career high in touchdowns as well as he crossed the goal line a staggering 15 times in the season. Skiuuup has been just an absolute stud for Berlin and does not look like he is going to slow down. Berlin has found a true competitor and one that makes the fanbase happy. Picks this late don't normally turn out, but Berlin found a true diamond in the rough.

So there you have it, my top three steals of the S25 draft, Jake Fencik, L'gazzy Burfict, and Cmon Skiuuup. There are many other players that would likely be worthy of the "steal label" but I felt that these three were the most worthy. Each player has contributed so much to their respective franchises and have truly become cornerstones of their teams. With an upcoming draft this week, these steals reiterate the importance of a good scouting effort by each team. Obviously all of these teams did their job when it came to scouting and were able to land some real steals. Perhaps this can be your team in the future and someone will be writing about your player at that time.

RE: (S31) Ultimus Week - Patey - 10-24-2021

9. Through a random lottery drawing, you have been named the league's new commisioner for a day. Congrats! What improvements would you make to the league if you had the power to do whatever you wanted?


If I won the lottery to make any changes I wanted to the league, there would be one main thing that would make my enjoyment for the league over the top that most leagues around the world already do on a consistent basis. When watching Youtube videos of ISFL and DSFL games at 1000x speed on an IPad because that’s what it seems like when I’m watching, it is almost impossible to be able to enjoy anything about it other than seeing who has points. It’s to the point where I have to pause the video to be able to see what stats my player has during different parts of the game. You can not tell who is catching the passes, can not tell who is running the ball, can not tell who is tackling the offensive player. Now as a lottery winner, usually you can buy the things that you want and what you are probably thinking from reading this is just put it on 0.5x speed, that’s not the point. The point is that in almost every league in this world there are commentators that are talking about the game, talking about the players and talking about the big plays that are happening every down.

I would make sure I create new jobs for people to create a stream for the league to broadcast a few times a week. On top of this, a stats team could be created as well for some streams and be able to keep the listeners active during the game. Currently every time I watch, the viewer count seems to be low and the only people that seem to be watching are the people from that team, not many people stick around for all the games because there is no incentive.

Like some other leagues, putting an incentive in to watch the games will be able to build this community to something even bigger instead of 2 videos 10 minutes each week then discussing it in a locker room for a bit and waiting the rest of the week. I’m not sure what the incentive would be but if I was the creator, it would be a money incentive. With some people in this league that are invested into the game but may not be invested into the league side of things, being able to be paid by being a part of the league and commenting during streams or what not would really grow the league together as a community instead of just seeing people in your LR.

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17. Your team has announced that they will be laying ground on a new stadium next season. What additions would you like to see included in it. No graphics option available here.



If I were able to decide what additions got added to the new ground of our playing field, it would be a massive Seattle Seahawk logo directly in the middle of the field. Now you’re wondering why a Seahawk logo. Well in my first ever playoff appearance as a player in this league, I truly got simmed, not like one of those complaints ‘oh we got simmed’. NO we actually got simmed. In the final minute of our game against the Birddogs in the conference championship, the sim made us throw the ball near the goal line instead of running the clock down or running into the end zone. I’m sure you can guess what happened next, yep an interception. That eventual interception brought our game to overtime which we ended up losing, ending our season in a crushing fashion.

So as a reminder to our team and the sim gods, maybe seeing this Seahawks logo after a failed championship will push our players to do the right thing during the final minutes of our games. It will most likely not do anything other than make us salty and remind us of defeat but if it brings us to a victory at the end of the season to make a championship game, I’ll suffer through the saltiness of remembering last season's playoffs.

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19. If your player had a show starring them, what would the plot be? Graphic Option: Create the cover art for your player’s show


If I had a brand new TV show starring my player, the only concept that would suit my player who is super competitive would be something with lots of mini games in a survivor style like elimination. It would be made up of different teams with the contestants playing anything sport related like a mini sticks competition, hitting targets with a football, wiffle ball home run derby. Once the preliminary competitions are done, these players have to go into a final battle each time which is a random sport pulled from a hat. Whoever loses this final battle has to kick a member off their team.

As your team gets smaller, the teams do not get condensed, you just lose team members so going into the next final sport battle with a member down could be a massive disadvantage if a sport like soccer gets picked but could be advantageous if something like bowling is picked and they were terrible at the sport.

Once there are 6 players remaining from the 30 that were originally chosen, the preliminary and final battles come down to 1v1 no matter what sport gets picked out of the hat. Whoever is the final member of the games that has not been eliminated, they will win the game show.

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RE: (S31) Ultimus Week - ToastCharger - 10-24-2021

Task 31
PBE Affiliation

RE: (S31) Ultimus Week - LB3737 - 10-24-2021

PBE Affiliate

14) Season 31 of the International Simulation Football League was one filled with ups and downs for both Demon Jaxson and the Sarasota Sailfish. The first week of the season started off swimmingly for both parties as the Sailfish took home a 38-20 victory against their conference rivals, the Yellowknife Wraiths, a game which Jaxson took home his first sack of the season along with a tackle. Unfortunately for the team, the Sailfish, they lost their next game, one which was again against a conference rival, this time the Berlin Fire Salamanders, by a scoreline of 28-20. This would be a slightly successful game for Jaxson as he would notch 5 tackles, 1 for a loss but no sack. Another loss would come Sarasotas way in Week 3 against the Colorado Yeti, where our budding superstar Jaxson picked up his second sack of the season. The team managed to even up their record the following week with an emphatic 34-13 win in Chicago against the Butchers in which Jaxson had a monster game, recording a sack, a forced fumble and fumble recovery, and also his first ever regular season Defensive Touchdown, earning himself the Defensive Player of the Game award for that game. A 33-10 victory over the Liberty in which Jaxson recorded his fourth sack of the season meant the Sailfish were to be up to a short lived winning record as they would lose by 3 points to the Baltimore Hawks the following week with Jaxson recording another sack, plus forced fumble, fumble recovery combo. In weeks 7 and 8 the Sailfish would record back to back wins against strong opposition, the Arizona Outlaws in 7 and the Orange County Otters in 8, with Jaxson recording a sack in the game against the Otters. These 2 wins would leave the fish sitting at a solid 5-3. Back to back losses the following two weeks would push the Sailfishes record back down to .500, but they would follow those two losses up with back to back wins. The teams final loss of the season came in Week 13 against the Colorado Yeti, 28-24, as the Sailfish beat the Liberty 27-19 in Week 15 and the Baltimore Hawks 35-29 in Week 16, with Jaxson recording his 7th and final sack of the season in the Hawks victory. Unfortunately for both parties, Sarasota and Jaxson, they would crash out of the playoffs in the first round as they lost to the Chicago Butchers.

RE: (S31) Ultimus Week - unconfident - 10-24-2021

Task 24

I think for my team, I would need to build a great team that could contend for an ultimus, whatever happens in the playoffs happens but I think a team like this one would be able to make it very deep into the playoffs. Starting off, our starting quarterback would be a maxed out quarterback in his peak season, like Jackie Daytona. At running back you could have an elite tandem of Zoe Watts and Jim the Vampire, who both can rush and be threats in the receiving game. Then at wide receiver we could run a trio of Videl-San, Bayley Cowabunga and Norm Burton, 3 receivers in different parts of their careers but theyre still all great. Then at tight end, you could run the great Travis Scott, who can both get you yards and block, as evidenced by his perfect blocking season. Then at offensive line you can get players like Connor Quigley, Felix Archstone, Gluteus Maximus, Moe Skeeter and Slurms Mckenzie. These great offensive lineman would give Jackie Daytona plenty of time to progress through his reads and be able to get throws off to the many weapons of the team without any pressure from defensive players, which overall would definitely be an ultimus contending team.

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Task 25 

I think the last time I did this question I said that I would have cornerback, but I now have some more experience in the league so I now have an idea of what positions are actually fun or enjoyable to play, and which ones maybe are not so fun or enjoyable. I think with this new wisdom of mine, I would have chosen running back. Now, I probably wont switch to it or anything because I am way too far behind my class leader in TPE at this point so thats kind of pointless so I'll stick at tight end, but I think that is a position I would consider when going for my re-create. Being able to generate my own yardage by rushing sounds a lot more enjoyable than having to rely on my quarterback to get me the ball, even after I do all the work. So thats why I wouldn't pick receiver. Another potential position of choice could be linebacker since linebackers apparently get all the stats, and I would like to get all the stats. Getting both sacks and interceptions sounds like great fun, so I think I would choose to play the linebacker position if I were to recreate after retiring my tight end.

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Task 30 

When the world football championships were first introduced I will not lie, I did not care for them at all, mainly because my player would not be high enough tpe to find my way onto any team. However, now that I have found my way into general managing a team for the world football championship, more specifically team europe, I will have to re-evaluate my perspective on this tournament now. After looking into it, I like the idea a lot. This tournament allows people who normally aren't teammates to team up together around beating other regions of the world into submission, which is what we all want to do really. I think this season should be even better than last season considering that i am now involved and I wasnt involved last season, which makes it much different as I will bring new life to this tournament and especially for team europe, which is very exciting. I do wonder why we need to have this though because this is the kind of thing they do in hockey, soccer, baseball, basketball, really every other sport but not football. this doesnt happen irl so i wonder why we're doing it here considering the sport of football doesnt really support this kind of format.

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Task 31 WSBL Affiliate +2.5 TPE

RE: (S31) Ultimus Week - DrChops - 10-24-2021

11. Write about your team’s biggest rivalry and what makes it so fierce. Is the competition founded in statistics and the team’s recent performance, or is it a rivalry that developed over time during the team’s history that would exist regardless of statistics?

While the Berlin Fire Salamanders do not have as long of a history as other, older teams, they still have had enough time to develop several bitter rivalries. The Salamander's first season in the league was Season 25 and since then they have had a quite a bit of success, as they have won the NSFC 2 of 7 seasons and made it to the Ultimus game once. This has generate a bit of friction in the NSFC with teams like the Yeti, Sailfish, Butchers and the Wraith. Of those teams, the most hated would have to be the Yellowknife Wraiths. The regular season matchups have gone back and fourth, but the real rivalry spurs from the upset the Wraiths pulled in the season 28 conference championship game. The Wraiths defeated the Salamanders, who were the regular season champions and favored to win the Ultimus. That lose stung and was the deepest blow any division rival has struck against the Salamanders. 

However, the Salamander's biggest rival has to be the New York Silverbacks. The silverbacks started in the league the exact same year as the Salamanders, making them natural rivals. Since their beginning, the Salamanders have played the Silverbacks every since in either the regular season or in the playoffs. As of now, the regular season series is even at 3 and 3, with both teams winning three games against each other. Only two of these games were decided by more than four points, meaning all the games played were decided by one score. The two blowouts were both won by the Silverbacks, which gives the Silverbacks the advantage in matchup points. 

The rivalry reached new heights the one regular season in which the Salamanders did not face each other in the regular season; instead, the two faced off in the Ultimus. Speaking as a Fire Salamanders fan, that game was awful and was pretty much over at the end of the third quarter. The Salamanders scored a field goal midway through the first quarter, but soon fell behind as the Silverbacks scored 24 of the next 31 points, to lead 24 to 10 at the half. The Silverbacks poured it on in the third, taking advantage of a few Salamander turnovers to improve to 34 to 10 to begin the 4th quarter. The game was well out of hand at that point, as the Salamanders were able to put up a few points in garbage time to lose 40-20. Turnovers were the story of the game, as the Salamanders had 3 while the Silverbacks had 0. This game puts the 'fire' in Fire Salamanders, as we really want to avenge this lose and get an Ultimus title of our own. 

13. Expansion Expansion Expansion! The league seems to love talking about it, but it has still not happened. Tell us why it should happen / should not happen soon?

Expansion is awesome. Everything about expansion in the ISFL is great: the expansion draft, the new team(s) logo(s), the new rivalry. It is all great. So, in this writeup, I am going to give a few reasons why expansion should happen as soon as possible.

1. 14 teams is just strange. 14 is just an odd number of teams to stick with. Having 7 teams in each conference just feels off as the divisions are very big. Adding two more teams to bring the total to 16 feels to be ideal because the conferences could be spilt in two to make 4 team divisions, similar to how it is in the NFL. This way, the winner of each of the divisions will make the playoff with a few different wildcard spots to the team with the best record who did not win their conference. I would hope the ISFL would allow more teams into the playoff, maybe 4 teams in each conference. It is important to give the regular season champions some advantage in the playoff though and adding another team would remove the bye week. Maybe give the 1st place team in the conference a double bye, the 2nd team a single bye and have the 3rd and 4th teams play in the first round. Winner then plays the 2nd place team and that winner places the 1st place team.
2. Adding more teams adds more completive spice. I love rivalries with personality, and adding teams provides an additional chance for more compelling matchup between teams. Nobody wants to lose to the new kids, so they immediately have a target on their back once they walk in the door.
3. More people can play positions that they want to play. Adding two more teams adds 2 more starting QB spots and more available spots for other popular positions like linebacker. While this would also increase the amount of spots for less popular positions, the league could consider allowing teams to add bots to spots that they can not fill with a human player, like they already do with the offensive line.
3. Having more teams would prevent some of the strange end of season results like Season 26 in the ASFC where 5 teams ended the year with a 9-7 record. This could happen because having more teams might spread out of the talent pool a bit more, making the difference between good teams and okay teams more noticeable.
4. The expansion draft is the best part of the ISFL. I am pretty sure GMs hate the expansion draft as they feel like they have to abandon some of their players. However, this makes the expansion draft very dramatic, as all the teams have to make gut wrenching decisions about who stays and who goes. This makes it a lot of fun to follow and shakes up ISFL teams way more than any other event. The other drafts are fun, but they lack the drama because in the expansion draft, you are drafting a player off an opposing team who may not be expecting to be drafted. It is chaos but it is a lot of fun!

RE: (S31) Ultimus Week - JKortesi81 - 10-24-2021

Well, the most recent Ultimus is behind us, and in one of the most shocking Ultimus winners in a while, the Honolulu Hahalua are the champions. Honolulu wasn’t very good at all during the regular season, and they qualified for the playoffs because, well, everyone else kind of sucks too. But more on that later. Honolulu proceeded to defeat the Arizona Outlaws in the first round. Arizona was the “preseason favorite” to be the champion, but they fell on hard times themselves this time around. Next, Honolulu had a horseshow up their asses when they shockingly defeated the Austin Copperheads 30-27, despite being large favorites. After that, they went up against another team who were heavy favorites in the finals, the Colorado Yeti, and once again the Hahalua pulled a 30-27 upset in the Ultimus.

In a popular preseason testing round, Honolulu never once won the Ultimus. It was spread out between 5-6 other teams, never Honolulu. So, how did this happen? Well, our very lame, imperfect sim is the biggest reasoning behind it. No, if you simmed the Honolulu matches against Austin 10 times, chances are Austin wins 9. And against Colorado? They’d win 8, at least. Honolulu just happened to be lucky enough to be living in the perfect timeline. But this isn’t about Honoulu. They’re full of great people and I’m happy for their big win. No, the real issue, as always is our sim.

It’s the most fantastic argument any sim league can have: is an imperfect sim a good thing or a bad thing? I don’t think anyone in the ISFL will argue you that our sim is a good one. But, is its unpredictability so bad? You’re right, on paper, Honolulu isn’t winning the Ultimus. But they did, and it was, for all intents and purposes, exciting! Having a cloud of mystery over the results of the playoffs is exciting just as much as it is annoying. On one hand, not ever being sure who the future champion is going to be makes the playoffs so much more fun to watch. No matter how much people ‘test’ and think they know that Team A has an 80% chance to win against Team B, nobody can ever be sure. That means a team that didn’t quite expect to walk away as champions can really have some hope. On the other hand, it’s incredibly frustrating as one of the “expected” championship contenders to fail miserably. Nothing makes a group of people more upset than working their asses off to gain as much TPE as possible with the common goal of being the absolute best team and win a title only to lose it to a significantly inferior team. It causes them to think “man, what’s the point of even trying if its just a crap shoot?” That line of thinking is horrible, but as someone who has been there before, I completely understand that feeling. Many times in my sim career, ive built or been a part of the “favorite” to win a title only to get upset by a team that we’d beat a lot more than not if we simmed 100 times. The result of getting a perceived “should have won” title taken away from you causes people to claim that the sim is “bullshit” and makes them want to quite. Of course it does. It’s a lot easier to blame other things when we fail.

The truth is, the sim isn’t the problem. There is literally no fun in getting a “perfect” sim that means the best teams always win. Look at the SHL. They went from a very imperfect sim in STHS that caused a lot of fun shenanigans where yes, the best teams didn’t always win to a sim that essentially awards the championship to whoever has the most TPE as a team. The SHL used to be fun and exciting with STHS, while yes, it was infuriating and heartbreaking to lose. But that made even the best teams want it even more, and the champions to appreciate winning a bit more. Now that we’ve moved to a more “perfect” sim, the SHL sucks ass. The same “best team” wins more often than not, and all you need to compete are high TPE players. There’s no real drama or surprises from a “Cinderella” story like Honolulu this season. There will never be a “shocking upset” in the playoffs, at least not for the championship. So while the ISFL sim is absolutely terrible at times, I think I’d much rather have the drama and suspense that comes along with it. Each time the Ultimus Playoffs roll around, we never actually know who will win the title. And that’s a good thing. Even when you’re on the “favorite” and you lose, it might suck and it definitely stings, but that makes for a much more awesome experience than the “this team will win” and they do. That isn’t fun.

So as much as the league may complain about how terrible this sim can be at times, I’m here to support it. Yes, it’s frustrating, but losing always is. But in a vacuum, each playoff every season is incredibly interesting and we almost always have a shocking upset or two along the way. Id much rather have suspense and unpredictability over getting the expected result 90% of the time. So thank you, ISFL sim, for making things constantly fun and keeps people on their toes. (911)