Pack Opening Review. Episode Eight. Ultimus Edition, part 1. Let's do this!
This was long overdue. I still have a backlog that keeps growing. I just need something to get my writing juices flowing. Some good pulls in this one may do the trick. Eight Ultimus packs to open. Four in this episode, and four on the next one. These packs have triple the chance of pulling an Ultimus card. According to my pulls, which you will see below, we got 3.57% chance. According to the official drop rates for Ultimus packs, the chance is 2% flat. Let's see though.
Before we begin yet another episode, let's see where we stand from the last episode:
Total cards opened: 84
Hall of Fame: 0 - 0%
Ultimus: 1 - 1.19%
Awards: 1 - 1.19%
Legend (Blue/Sapphire): 1 - 1.19%
All-Pro (Red/Ruby): 2 - 2.38%
Star (Gold): 8 - 9.52%
Starter (Silver): 22 - 26.19%
Backup (Bronze): 49 - 58.33%
Duplicates: 6 - 7.14%
Old school vibes from the pack wrap. It says there is a stick of bubble gum in the pack, along with the cards. I hope the stick is wrapped, so it does not mess my cards up. But rumor has it Dotts cards covered with bubble gum sell for insane amounts of money in the black market. We are going to test that rumor as well! We get to the bottom of the case here!
Let's open the first pack though. The first card of this episode is Starter wide receiver, from season 21, Red Arrow, from the Colorado Yeti. He is still young. And with his rarity being a starter, he seems to at least be a casual earner. Unless I am that big of an idiot and he has gone inactive. How big of a shot on the foot would that be. Yikes.
The second card is All-Pro defensive end, from season 4, Haruki Ishigawa. Pull game strong in this one, not gonna lie. He reached his peak while playing for the Colorado Yeti.
Next up is another All-Pro, this time one of the most frequently selected fantasy wide receivers, Jed Podolak, currently playing for the Honolulu Hahalua. He was drafted in the International Simulation Football League in season 19. I have absolutely no clue on who his render is, but man, that stache is dope. Podolak was drafted in the season 18 DSFL draft by the Tijuana Lucahdores, and in the season 19 ISFL draft by the New Orleans Second Line, before he was chosen by Honolulu in the season 22 Expansion Draft.
Next, we got backup defensive end Ismael Sanchez, part of the biggest class to ever grace the league, Season 22. The class that led to expansion in both the development and the professional tier of the league. The expansion that shook the league up its boots. Dallas and London joined the development league in season 21, while Honolulu and Sarasota joined the major league in the following season. I know next to nothing about Sanchez. The fact he went inactive fairly quickly may be the reason. Or I need to follow who is in the league a bit more. It could also be both.
Second to last card of the first pack is Corvo Havran's successor in Honolulu, Star quarterback, Luke Skywalker, another member of the season 22 class. He started his career in the DSFL and the Norfolk Seawolves, while a slightly regressing Havran was under center for the Hahalua. He eventually got the starting job during season 23, and with how young the Hahalua roster is, Skywalker has all the tools around him to lead his team to an Ultimus, and why not win it.
Last card of the pack is a new addition to the collection, the Baltimore Hawks logo card. I like the idea behind this. The Hawks are one of the founding teams of the league, part of the National Simulation Football Conference. The hold the record for the lest points allowed in an Ultimus Bowl, holding the San Jose SaberCats to ZERO(!!) points in Ultimus Bowl XIV, while dropping a whooping 49 points on the poor kitties. They are now in a rebuilding phase, building up around quarterback Chika Fujiwara. Bomb it Chika!
No sight of an Ultimus card yet, but we got another three packs to open in this one so let's get down to it. BY THE WAY! There was no bubble gum! I call bogus! I want my money back!
Anyway, I hated gum anyway. First card of the second pack for today is backup running back from season 23, Otter Keynel McZeal. I think he still resides in the DSFL, either to develop, of because he went inactive. A search in the forums will clear it up, give me a moment.
Next card is, ugh, Starter defensive end, playing for the Philadelphia Liberty, ILove Gimmy. How did the cult of Gimmy even catch up in the first place? How was this meme blown so much out of proportion? Anyway, Gimmy's cultists are wild, and they will definitely come after me if I keep going with this, so I will stop there. ILove Gimmy was drafted in the ISFL in season 18.
Next, backup defensive end Joey Sachs. Drafted in Season 12, peaked in the Colorado Yeti. I guess he went inactive early. The retention rate in the earlier seasons of the league was abysmal, hanging around 20-25% in a best case scenario, something unknown and hard to conceive today, where retention has skyrocketed to 55-60%, in a worst case scenario.
Next up is a duplicate, Backup wide receiver from Season 1, from Las Vegas Legion, Devon Speed. I talked about him in the last episode, which you will find in the "Graded Media" section of the forums. Shameless plug, I do not care.
YESSIR! One of my partners in crime, fighting in the trenches, Ultimus edition defensive end, James Cho. He only had one tackle in that Ultimus game, but being part of our awesome team was more than enough for him to get his own Ultimus card. He has been a staple in the Yellowknife since he was drafted there in season 22. He is an Ultimus winner from his second season. I hope he leads the defensive line during their transition from Cooter to Colby.
Which begs the question. Where is the Ultimus Edition Kroustis card? Did the Dotts team put a decreased drop rate in the card, due to my awesomeness? In case you did notice already, my ego is big. And so is my sense of humour. So take it as you want.
And the last card of the pack is... oh boy I really like that one, just because I like the user behind the player. The last pull of this pack is Star kicker, from the reigning champions, the San Jose SaberCats, Matthew McDairmid. Another member from the season 22 class. I guess that, once I am done with opening the packs, I will do a count of how many players I have from each season, relative to the size of their draft class and how many from said class are included in the pull pool. Pun 100% not intended, it just happened. McDairmid is one of the top kickers in the league. Matty, the user, is a pretty chill and laid back person. I haven't had much interaction with him, but he seems pretty cool.
One Ultimus card and 2 All-Pro cards after 12 flips. 25% rare pull rate. Not bad really. Let's see if the last two packs are more of the same.
First card of the third pack, is a very good pull. Lady Luck is smiling brightly today. Legend linebacker Quenton Bode. From the New Orleans Second Line. A high pick in the Season 15 ISFL Draft, a first rounder if I remember correctly, that did not disappoint. One of the highest earners of the class, and the user, terriblehippo, served as a member of the league's head office, before he voluntarily stepped down after some awards voting controversy, aka he was witchhunted out of his position. Rightfully, wrongfully, do we really know? Will we ever know? I guess not.
Moving on, backup safety Caleb McCoy, from season 13. He reached his peak while playing for the Colorado Yeti. Another old player whose TPE peak was low, so I will assume he went inactive fairly early.
Ah yes! I love this one a lot. Star quarterback Colby Jack. I think I got both Jack brothers now, let me see. I do not. I only got Colby. But, in my heart, Colby will always be the better of the Jack brothers. I may be biased, since I know Fly from our common days in Yellowknife, but it is what it is. Colby was drafted in the season 21 DSFL Draft by the London Royals, as their first ever player. What I can't remember is if he went 1OA or his brother, Monterrey, who was drafted by the Dallas Birddogs, as their first ever player, as well. Help me out with this one please! Thanks. Colby was then drafted in the second round of the following season's ISFL draft, yes the Jack brothers were part of the season 22 class, by the Yellowknife Wraiths, due to Fly being the Yellowknife GM.
Uhm, how many YKW players am I going to pull in this pack? Not that I am sad about it, quite the opposite I'd say. Backup offensive lineman Matt James, who entered the league in Season 2. I guess he was one of the many players that either were not high earners back in that day, or he went inactive. Let's admit something, sim leagues are a big niche, and at that point, there were a few scandals across the ISFL, and people leaving the league makes sense. Not that it is better now, but there are not as many scandals now that things are, in theory at least, better regulated.
Penultimate card of the pack is Star safety Johnny Hellzapoppin. Another Wraith. Another member of the season 22 draft class. I guess it is fate that I pull so many players I didn't get to draft while being the co-GM of the Portland Pythons in the season 21 prospect draft, where the season 22 players were drafted in the DSFL. Again, I will talk about the person behind the player here. Colabear is now a ISFL Head Office member, yes DSFL has its own Head Office and Commissioner now, in case you were living under a rock. He also served as the league's streamer, working in the DSFL stream in season 22 and the ISFL stream in seasons 23 and 24. I can only imagine how hard it was for him to not tell us we had won the Ultimus in season 23. Thank you for your service Cola!
The last card of the pack is backup cornerback Victor Moreno. He is now playing for the Honolulu Hahalua. Since he is low on TPE, I assume he ended up there as an inactive free agent. Because if memory serves me right, season 20 players were protected in the season 22 expansion draft, when the Honolulu Hahalua and the Sarasota Sailfish were choosing their first players.
To be honest, I love the pulls so far. Even the Star cards. People I know, people I have interacted with, and in general, names we see stand out in games, awards and the like. Let's see what the last pack holds for us. I hope it is another Ultimus card. Even better, a Kroustis card. Any of the three. Let's open it.
First up, we got Johnson Cox III, backup cornerback, from the season 11 class. He reached his TPE peak in Philadelphia, playing for the Liberty. I guess another victim of the "slow" pace of the league that went inactive. Granted, there is something to watch every weekday, but if you join during the offseason, while the GMs are working on the drafts behind the scenes, it can be slow as hell, to a point of you getting bored, not log in the forums for a few days and then forget about it. But it is what it is. Hopefully, having the prospect bowl as a recurring offseason event will help with retaining users. And not cancelling the scheduled community events will also help. Just saying...
The next two cards are Victor Moreno and Johnny Hellzapoppin. I opened those two guys in the previous pack. Read a bit back if you want to read about them once more. Ugh, duplicates... Whatever man, duplicates are part of the system. At least there are no duplicates in the same pack. It looks like this was fixed. And trading and support for Chrome and Safari is around the corner. At least I hope so...
The last three cards are some league dinosaurs. First up, backup offensive lineman, from the very first season of the league, Otter Cliff Hamilton. As with most season 1 players, his rarity does not surprise me one bit. A league still in its infant stage, with not so many members, so I assume the lack of activity drove many people away. Or the activity demands. I don't know. But many season 1 players are of the lowest rarity, and that tells a lot about the state of the league back then and how big of a scandal Noble's TPE tampering and Er's Multi cases were. The fact the league managed to deal with them and reach the success (sic) levels it enjoys now is impressive, to say the least.
The second dinosaur is a starter defensive tackle, who joined the league in season 5. Otter Ryan Sierra. At least the Orange County Otters were the team he was playing for when he reached his TPE cap. There is too little information about old players in the forum, and the wiki is not fully up to date, considering players are responsible for maintaining their wiki pages. Whatever, it is what it is.
And the last card for today is another Yellowknife Wraith. This time it is a starter defensive end, Zach Skinner. Skinner joined the league in season 6, in the DSFL draft, and was drafted in the majors in season 7.
Total cards opened: 108
Hall of Fame: 0 - 0%
Ultimus: 2 - 1.85%
Awards: 1 - 0.93%
Legend (Blue/Sapphire): 2 - 1.85%
All-Pro (Red/Ruby): 4 - 3.70%
Star (Gold): 13 - 12.04%
Starter (Silver): 26 - 24.07%
Backup (Bronze): 59 - 54.63%
Team: 1 - 0.93%
Duplicates: 9 - 8.33%
Yeah, I guess the 2% drop for the Ultimus cards is realistic. One Ultimus card out of 24. That's a bit over 4%, but the sample size is quite small, so the non-Ultimus drop rate of 0.67% is realistic indeed. But we will see about that when we open more cards and have a pretty respectable sample size. I presume that we will see the realistic drop rates at 300 cards, which is a total of 50 packs. I have only opened 18, with 16 in the bank. We will get there I promise. Next episode soon. I hope tomorrow.
And that's it for this one, folks. Next episode coming in real soon! Peace!
This was long overdue. I still have a backlog that keeps growing. I just need something to get my writing juices flowing. Some good pulls in this one may do the trick. Eight Ultimus packs to open. Four in this episode, and four on the next one. These packs have triple the chance of pulling an Ultimus card. According to my pulls, which you will see below, we got 3.57% chance. According to the official drop rates for Ultimus packs, the chance is 2% flat. Let's see though.
Before we begin yet another episode, let's see where we stand from the last episode:
Total cards opened: 84
Hall of Fame: 0 - 0%
Ultimus: 1 - 1.19%
Awards: 1 - 1.19%
Legend (Blue/Sapphire): 1 - 1.19%
All-Pro (Red/Ruby): 2 - 2.38%
Star (Gold): 8 - 9.52%
Starter (Silver): 22 - 26.19%
Backup (Bronze): 49 - 58.33%
Duplicates: 6 - 7.14%
Old school vibes from the pack wrap. It says there is a stick of bubble gum in the pack, along with the cards. I hope the stick is wrapped, so it does not mess my cards up. But rumor has it Dotts cards covered with bubble gum sell for insane amounts of money in the black market. We are going to test that rumor as well! We get to the bottom of the case here!
Let's open the first pack though. The first card of this episode is Starter wide receiver, from season 21, Red Arrow, from the Colorado Yeti. He is still young. And with his rarity being a starter, he seems to at least be a casual earner. Unless I am that big of an idiot and he has gone inactive. How big of a shot on the foot would that be. Yikes.
The second card is All-Pro defensive end, from season 4, Haruki Ishigawa. Pull game strong in this one, not gonna lie. He reached his peak while playing for the Colorado Yeti.
Next up is another All-Pro, this time one of the most frequently selected fantasy wide receivers, Jed Podolak, currently playing for the Honolulu Hahalua. He was drafted in the International Simulation Football League in season 19. I have absolutely no clue on who his render is, but man, that stache is dope. Podolak was drafted in the season 18 DSFL draft by the Tijuana Lucahdores, and in the season 19 ISFL draft by the New Orleans Second Line, before he was chosen by Honolulu in the season 22 Expansion Draft.
Next, we got backup defensive end Ismael Sanchez, part of the biggest class to ever grace the league, Season 22. The class that led to expansion in both the development and the professional tier of the league. The expansion that shook the league up its boots. Dallas and London joined the development league in season 21, while Honolulu and Sarasota joined the major league in the following season. I know next to nothing about Sanchez. The fact he went inactive fairly quickly may be the reason. Or I need to follow who is in the league a bit more. It could also be both.
Second to last card of the first pack is Corvo Havran's successor in Honolulu, Star quarterback, Luke Skywalker, another member of the season 22 class. He started his career in the DSFL and the Norfolk Seawolves, while a slightly regressing Havran was under center for the Hahalua. He eventually got the starting job during season 23, and with how young the Hahalua roster is, Skywalker has all the tools around him to lead his team to an Ultimus, and why not win it.
Last card of the pack is a new addition to the collection, the Baltimore Hawks logo card. I like the idea behind this. The Hawks are one of the founding teams of the league, part of the National Simulation Football Conference. The hold the record for the lest points allowed in an Ultimus Bowl, holding the San Jose SaberCats to ZERO(!!) points in Ultimus Bowl XIV, while dropping a whooping 49 points on the poor kitties. They are now in a rebuilding phase, building up around quarterback Chika Fujiwara. Bomb it Chika!
No sight of an Ultimus card yet, but we got another three packs to open in this one so let's get down to it. BY THE WAY! There was no bubble gum! I call bogus! I want my money back!
Anyway, I hated gum anyway. First card of the second pack for today is backup running back from season 23, Otter Keynel McZeal. I think he still resides in the DSFL, either to develop, of because he went inactive. A search in the forums will clear it up, give me a moment.
Next card is, ugh, Starter defensive end, playing for the Philadelphia Liberty, ILove Gimmy. How did the cult of Gimmy even catch up in the first place? How was this meme blown so much out of proportion? Anyway, Gimmy's cultists are wild, and they will definitely come after me if I keep going with this, so I will stop there. ILove Gimmy was drafted in the ISFL in season 18.
Next, backup defensive end Joey Sachs. Drafted in Season 12, peaked in the Colorado Yeti. I guess he went inactive early. The retention rate in the earlier seasons of the league was abysmal, hanging around 20-25% in a best case scenario, something unknown and hard to conceive today, where retention has skyrocketed to 55-60%, in a worst case scenario.
Next up is a duplicate, Backup wide receiver from Season 1, from Las Vegas Legion, Devon Speed. I talked about him in the last episode, which you will find in the "Graded Media" section of the forums. Shameless plug, I do not care.
YESSIR! One of my partners in crime, fighting in the trenches, Ultimus edition defensive end, James Cho. He only had one tackle in that Ultimus game, but being part of our awesome team was more than enough for him to get his own Ultimus card. He has been a staple in the Yellowknife since he was drafted there in season 22. He is an Ultimus winner from his second season. I hope he leads the defensive line during their transition from Cooter to Colby.
Which begs the question. Where is the Ultimus Edition Kroustis card? Did the Dotts team put a decreased drop rate in the card, due to my awesomeness? In case you did notice already, my ego is big. And so is my sense of humour. So take it as you want.
And the last card of the pack is... oh boy I really like that one, just because I like the user behind the player. The last pull of this pack is Star kicker, from the reigning champions, the San Jose SaberCats, Matthew McDairmid. Another member from the season 22 class. I guess that, once I am done with opening the packs, I will do a count of how many players I have from each season, relative to the size of their draft class and how many from said class are included in the pull pool. Pun 100% not intended, it just happened. McDairmid is one of the top kickers in the league. Matty, the user, is a pretty chill and laid back person. I haven't had much interaction with him, but he seems pretty cool.
One Ultimus card and 2 All-Pro cards after 12 flips. 25% rare pull rate. Not bad really. Let's see if the last two packs are more of the same.
First card of the third pack, is a very good pull. Lady Luck is smiling brightly today. Legend linebacker Quenton Bode. From the New Orleans Second Line. A high pick in the Season 15 ISFL Draft, a first rounder if I remember correctly, that did not disappoint. One of the highest earners of the class, and the user, terriblehippo, served as a member of the league's head office, before he voluntarily stepped down after some awards voting controversy, aka he was witchhunted out of his position. Rightfully, wrongfully, do we really know? Will we ever know? I guess not.
Moving on, backup safety Caleb McCoy, from season 13. He reached his peak while playing for the Colorado Yeti. Another old player whose TPE peak was low, so I will assume he went inactive fairly early.
Ah yes! I love this one a lot. Star quarterback Colby Jack. I think I got both Jack brothers now, let me see. I do not. I only got Colby. But, in my heart, Colby will always be the better of the Jack brothers. I may be biased, since I know Fly from our common days in Yellowknife, but it is what it is. Colby was drafted in the season 21 DSFL Draft by the London Royals, as their first ever player. What I can't remember is if he went 1OA or his brother, Monterrey, who was drafted by the Dallas Birddogs, as their first ever player, as well. Help me out with this one please! Thanks. Colby was then drafted in the second round of the following season's ISFL draft, yes the Jack brothers were part of the season 22 class, by the Yellowknife Wraiths, due to Fly being the Yellowknife GM.
Uhm, how many YKW players am I going to pull in this pack? Not that I am sad about it, quite the opposite I'd say. Backup offensive lineman Matt James, who entered the league in Season 2. I guess he was one of the many players that either were not high earners back in that day, or he went inactive. Let's admit something, sim leagues are a big niche, and at that point, there were a few scandals across the ISFL, and people leaving the league makes sense. Not that it is better now, but there are not as many scandals now that things are, in theory at least, better regulated.
Penultimate card of the pack is Star safety Johnny Hellzapoppin. Another Wraith. Another member of the season 22 draft class. I guess it is fate that I pull so many players I didn't get to draft while being the co-GM of the Portland Pythons in the season 21 prospect draft, where the season 22 players were drafted in the DSFL. Again, I will talk about the person behind the player here. Colabear is now a ISFL Head Office member, yes DSFL has its own Head Office and Commissioner now, in case you were living under a rock. He also served as the league's streamer, working in the DSFL stream in season 22 and the ISFL stream in seasons 23 and 24. I can only imagine how hard it was for him to not tell us we had won the Ultimus in season 23. Thank you for your service Cola!
The last card of the pack is backup cornerback Victor Moreno. He is now playing for the Honolulu Hahalua. Since he is low on TPE, I assume he ended up there as an inactive free agent. Because if memory serves me right, season 20 players were protected in the season 22 expansion draft, when the Honolulu Hahalua and the Sarasota Sailfish were choosing their first players.
To be honest, I love the pulls so far. Even the Star cards. People I know, people I have interacted with, and in general, names we see stand out in games, awards and the like. Let's see what the last pack holds for us. I hope it is another Ultimus card. Even better, a Kroustis card. Any of the three. Let's open it.
First up, we got Johnson Cox III, backup cornerback, from the season 11 class. He reached his TPE peak in Philadelphia, playing for the Liberty. I guess another victim of the "slow" pace of the league that went inactive. Granted, there is something to watch every weekday, but if you join during the offseason, while the GMs are working on the drafts behind the scenes, it can be slow as hell, to a point of you getting bored, not log in the forums for a few days and then forget about it. But it is what it is. Hopefully, having the prospect bowl as a recurring offseason event will help with retaining users. And not cancelling the scheduled community events will also help. Just saying...
The next two cards are Victor Moreno and Johnny Hellzapoppin. I opened those two guys in the previous pack. Read a bit back if you want to read about them once more. Ugh, duplicates... Whatever man, duplicates are part of the system. At least there are no duplicates in the same pack. It looks like this was fixed. And trading and support for Chrome and Safari is around the corner. At least I hope so...
The last three cards are some league dinosaurs. First up, backup offensive lineman, from the very first season of the league, Otter Cliff Hamilton. As with most season 1 players, his rarity does not surprise me one bit. A league still in its infant stage, with not so many members, so I assume the lack of activity drove many people away. Or the activity demands. I don't know. But many season 1 players are of the lowest rarity, and that tells a lot about the state of the league back then and how big of a scandal Noble's TPE tampering and Er's Multi cases were. The fact the league managed to deal with them and reach the success (sic) levels it enjoys now is impressive, to say the least.
The second dinosaur is a starter defensive tackle, who joined the league in season 5. Otter Ryan Sierra. At least the Orange County Otters were the team he was playing for when he reached his TPE cap. There is too little information about old players in the forum, and the wiki is not fully up to date, considering players are responsible for maintaining their wiki pages. Whatever, it is what it is.
And the last card for today is another Yellowknife Wraith. This time it is a starter defensive end, Zach Skinner. Skinner joined the league in season 6, in the DSFL draft, and was drafted in the majors in season 7.
Total cards opened: 108
Hall of Fame: 0 - 0%
Ultimus: 2 - 1.85%
Awards: 1 - 0.93%
Legend (Blue/Sapphire): 2 - 1.85%
All-Pro (Red/Ruby): 4 - 3.70%
Star (Gold): 13 - 12.04%
Starter (Silver): 26 - 24.07%
Backup (Bronze): 59 - 54.63%
Team: 1 - 0.93%
Duplicates: 9 - 8.33%
Yeah, I guess the 2% drop for the Ultimus cards is realistic. One Ultimus card out of 24. That's a bit over 4%, but the sample size is quite small, so the non-Ultimus drop rate of 0.67% is realistic indeed. But we will see about that when we open more cards and have a pretty respectable sample size. I presume that we will see the realistic drop rates at 300 cards, which is a total of 50 packs. I have only opened 18, with 16 in the bank. We will get there I promise. Next episode soon. I hope tomorrow.
And that's it for this one, folks. Next episode coming in real soon! Peace!
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