(S24) - Ultimus Week

[Daybe]

PBE AFFILATION - One task

9) Pick any position, and determine who in your view is the greatest player to ever suit up at that position. Why do you view them as the GOAT? What achievements, records, accolades, or statistics do they hold? How do they stack up against the other legends in their position, and why does your chosen candidate come out on top?

As a former quarterback I always think the title of GOAT QB is the hardest debate to make. So I will look at the three players I think are a cut above the rest and all deserve consideration for the GOAT argument.

Mike Boss | 42278 pass. yards (1st) | 292 pass. TD (1st) | 92.8 pass rat. (3rd)

Trophy Case:
3x Ultimus Champion
3x MVP
3x OPOY
5x QBotY
8x Pro Bowler

Mike Boss' career was dominant. He was more likely to win QBotY in a season than not, he won 3 MVPs, 3 straight championships, etc. By counting stats alone Boss would win the argument, no question. Certainly Boss was dominant, however the question remains - how much of the dynasty is really Boss? Is Boss a system quarterback? The early Orange County teams were loaded with some of the most talented rosters ever, and when you take into account the era he played in where quarterbacks would routinely finish over 4,000 yards, his argument begins to weaken.


Borkus Maximus III | 41739 pass. yards (2nd) | 251 pass. TD (2nd) | 84.2 pass rat. (12th)

Trophy Case:
2x Ultimus Champion
1x MVP
3x QBotY
5x Pro Bowler

Borkus had another incredible career, taking the mantle from Boss as the league's premier quarterback as Boss retired. The New Orleans Second Line were a fantastic team, assembling some of the best regular seasons ever with Borkus at the helm. Such longetivity at the quarterback is unprecedented, with a grand total of ten seasons playing for the Second Line. As far as career stats he sits only behind Mike Boss and got very close to catching him. It is safe to say that with two seasons more he would've broken both Boss' passing yards and touchdown records, and his case would look much more convincing.



Franklin Armstrong | 26129 pass. yards (14th) | 170 pass. TD (10th) | 89.4 pass. rat. (4th)

Trophy Case:
3x Ultimus Champion
3x MVP
2x QBotY
5x Pro Bowler

Franklin Armstrong is the most recent great QB to grace the league. Similarly to Borkus, he got his career on the ground after another legend at the position (Borkus) retired. Armstrong's numbers are suppressed by playing in a run heavy era, however his career accomplishments are nothing but insane. With undoubtedly the best quarterback season ever in S21, Armstrong was truly in a class of his own when comparing to the league and the environment he played in, becoming just the second three time MVP in league history.

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In the end I would rank them as:
1. Franklin Armstrong
2. Mike Boss
3. Borkus Maximus III

The reason for my ranking is Armstrong was more dominant than Boss. Not only was Armstrong able to secure three MVPs like Mike Boss, he was able to do so in a 12 team league, while facing the best players, while posting some of the most efficient numbers ever. Boss and Borkus had some of the best careers ever but their arguments are centered around counting stats, which are heavily dependent on era and winning in a less competitive league structure.

26) Select any player who was drafted in the back half of a DSFL or ISFL draft. Show how that player has outperformed their draft position, or how they will soon do so. You cannot write about your own player.

In the S13 ISFL draft, the Yellowknife Wraiths owned the #1 selection. And while the pick they made there was an absolute slam dunk and fantastic player in Johnny Snuggles, the real gem of the draft was former Luchadores receiver, Nate Swift. Early on in the Wraiths' scouting process, little was known about Swift. However, one of the big factors in the Wraiths' second round draft choice was Swift's friendship with Snuggles. As the #1 pick was announced, Snuggles recommended Swift to Wraiths management, and that was the deciding factor that brought Nate Swift to Yellowknife.

In Yellowknife, Swift was nothing short of spectacular, as BigRed quickly rose to the ranks of head GM after I stepped down, and became a leader in management for plenty of years. On the field, Swift and Cooter Bigsby formed an immediate connection, as Swift remained a huge contributor in both of Cooter's MVP runs. Swift was able to secure a championship with the squad, and is a potential future Hall of Famer as well as a future Wraiths retired number.

The Wraiths have a history of picking up draft steals, selecting longtime player Eric Kennedy at pick 93 in the S2 draft. However, Swift might have been the best of them all.

[cho1325]

12. The new additions of the ISFL is always a great thing to see. It means our brand of football is growing and that always is a good thing. Playoff seeding will probably change with the addition of these teams as two more teams will more than likely have the chance to enter the playoffs. Currently 3 teams from each division goes in but with these two teams being added in I believe there will be an additional team in each division giving more teams a chance at the Ultimus trophy.  Now there may be some fans who do not agree with adding more teams into the playoff’s but it does add some excitement. Now for team building, which there are many many options to choose from. It all depends on your philosophy of which should be stronger. The offense or the defense. I personally believe defense wins games so if I were in charge of a new expansion team hands down we go defense. I prefer a 4-3 base defense that focuses on defensive backs as the stars to give coverage sacks to the defensive lineman. Yes building back to front in my opinion is the best defensive strategy. Defensive backs give you the opportunity for coverage sacks, sacks off of blitzes, and even picks. This can allow the defense to score too even if the offense might be having an off day. That means elite cornerbacks and safeties. I cannot stress this enough that the defensive backs must be able to do their jobs  to the T. Then you put some emphasis on the linebacker core. Since we prefer a 4-3 defense we want linebackers that can play coverage. After that we want some stout defensive ends and some big boy defensive tackles. With a championship defense there is no way theoretically that teams could score more than 3 touchdowns. Then we can move to the offense. Of course since most of our resources are pumped into the defense we have to pray and hope that we get a star quarterback in the draft or find a free agent quarterback that we can afford because at this point we need the best player on the offense to obviously be the quarterback. After that we need some offensive lineman that can at least hold a block for 2 seconds. Running back and receivers are plentiful and can easily be drafted with rookies and be built on. Of course this would only work in a perfect scenario and of course it doesn’t work like that so you just do what you can and get the best players for their position during the time of what your needs are.

23. If the ISFL and DSFL adopted the pro-bowls skill challenges it would be a great addition. The fan and the players I believe would have a great time and it would be an awesome time to showcase a lot of the player’s talents in other sports besides just football. For instance have the players play basketball or soccer that players might play during the off-season. Another idea that we could add to the pro-bowl challenge could be position switches. Have all offensive players play on the defensive side and vice versa for the defensive players. Of course this would be absolutely just for fun and should have no negative impact on the players who do enter this challenge. But this would be an interesting challenge because it would give I believe the players an opportunity to see how difficult the defensive or offensive side of the position can truly be. Also it would just be complete chaos and chaos is always fun to watch. If allowed even eating or drinking competitions would be fun to watch. Just see who can eat the most or drink the most but of course we don’t want them playing after doing that. This would probably have to be after the game so the players are truly hungry.

27. Today I will be talking about my fellow teammate and offensive lineman Lazlo Forty-Two. This is Laz’s final season in the ISFL and I do believe he will be retiring and I wish the best to him and his recreate. Lazlo came to the Yellowknife team I believe my second year in the ISFL through free agency and added a huge difference to our offensive line but also our locker room. Lazlo finished the season this year with 92 pancakes and a stunning 0 sacks allowed. If offensive lineman could win awards or had high chances of getting into the hall of fame Lazlo should most definitely be nominated. His presence in the locker room is always felt. He always chimes in randomly and on game days but man is he funny and straight to the point. If there was a game where he didn’t perform well he would straight out just say it in the locker room. But he would also boast of how well he performed and how he deserves to be in the hall of fame due to all the pancakes he has accrued over the seasons. Overall is he a great guy and will be missed in our Yellowknife team and locker room. I bid you farewell and hope that one day we can see you again either on the team or on the field with your recreate. Best of luck to you.

[Jo3fish5]

5. Unless you have been living under a rock for the last month or so, have been IA, are blind, or have a smooth brain like net in Among Us, the chances are pretty high that you’ve heard of the International Simulation Football League’s hottest new addition, and no I’m not talking about the expansion teams, I’m talking about everyone’s favorite online only trading cards, Dotts! From my experience, I’d say about 95 percent of users in the league love Dotts, but the other 5 percent ~~are stupid~~ usually have three specific complaints that they use every time. The fact that the website doesn’t work on Google Chrome, the fact that there isn’t trading between players allowed, and they think the packs are too expensive.

First of all, I’d like to say that the Dotts website not being compatible with Google Chrome is a very legitimate complaint. I’m sure Google Chrome is the most used browser by people in the league, since it is very popular. From what I heard, the website was compatible with Google Chrome for most of testing, and then a few days before release, an problem occurred and they were unable to fix it before the release. So they let it roll out without Google Chrome, because let's be honest Dotts is better than no Dotts, even if some of us had to go download Firefox or something. And I believe that by the time the newest season of cards rolls out in a few days, the problem will have been fixed and we can all delete ugly Firefox.

Now, the complaint that there is no trading available at this point is also a pretty good complaint. They aren’t called trading cards for nothing. I mean, right now they are but NOT FOR LONG! Of course, one of the things the Dotts team is working on is introducing trading to the system, since it is one of the most requested features by the league. I think this will help increase the purchasing of cards, however not by much since most people will just buy one pack and then trade for their own player’s card. Personally, I’m going to trade for the ebic Nicholas Ayers Rookie of the Year card, because he’s cute and we all know he’s gonna win. But mostly because he’s cute. And if I don’t manage to pull my own card, which I probably won’t because I’m super unlucky, I’ll trade for that too. I’m not sure if the trading feature will be available this month, but I’m sure the team is working hard to get it out to the masses as soon as they can.

The third complaint, that the Dotts cards are too expensive, I really don’t agree with. Currently, the packs sit at $500k per pack, each pack has six cards in it, which puts each card at about 83 thousand ISFL dollars each. With the current media system, 400 words pays out 580k. So if you write 70 words per card drawn, that's 420 total words, which pays out at least 600k, a more than 100 thousand dollar profit, per day. Using this strategy, combined with maximum weekly Twitter payouts will earn you $1.4M per week, more than enough to get weekly training each week and have some left over. If you still think the Dotts cards are too expensive, then you probably also think the equipment is too expensive. And you’re just wrong. It’s easy to make up the money lost, and you get cool cards for it too.

Dotts’ main goal is to take money out of the economy. Take it out of the players’ bank accounts and put it… somewhere. And Dotts has been successful in this goal. According to mithrandir, someone who actually is part of the Dotts team, four hundred and sixty three MILLION dollars have been spent on Dotts packs, which is a lot more than I expected it to be when I asked mith about it. Not including free packs given away like on the one day when there was a free pack available and the buy one get one free day that happened recently, 926 Dotts packs have been sold to excited players around the league. Including the free packs given away, over 1000 packs have been opened by players. That’s over 6000 cards in less than a month of being operational. This number doesn’t even count the free packs in the buy one get one free event, since that happened so recently. This means there is a good chance that over 6500 cards have been drawn by players, or 1084 packs.

Although Dotts has, in my opinion, been wildly successful already, I believe it will continue to grow. Two of the three biggest complaints that people have about it are being fixed sometime soon, and the third one isn’t even good, it’s probably just people who already buy the cards that want them to be cheaper. Additionally, with a new wave of cards on the way I believe we will see a new wave of buyers alongside it.

[Jay_Doctor]

In just a couple of weeks, I will be eclipsing the one-year mark of joining this sim league. During that time, a lot of things have come and gone. Of all the amazing things that this has had to offer, though, the DSFL has been my absolute favorite. There are a lot of things that have gone into that equation for me personally. I’ve said it in other PTs before, but there is nothing like the draft. Having various teams reach out and actually scout you is probably the single coolest thing in any sim league. Getting a chance to know the GMs and learn about their team/the league was an awesome experience. I’m excluding the teams that do stupid google forms and don’t follow up though. Let’s be honest for a second and all agree that it’s about as impersonal as can be. Some teams at least follow up after the google form and have a conversation, so this isn’t directed at them. Outside of the scouting, there is a ton of media the week leading up to the draft. Players trying to make their case on when they will be the next great. People trying to predict who will go where and when with mock drafts. In real life, the draft is my favorite thing, so it was an awesome experience to get that same feel here.

The day of the draft, the nerves are real. I’m sure most players are just excited to get on their new team, but most of us tend to have that team or two that we want to be on more than others. When the draft stream gets rolling, it feels like everything happens so fast. One minute you are waiting to hear where you will be getting drafted to and the next you see your player name and card up on the stream. People are giving their congratulations in the chat and the announcers are hopefully saying something other than you being an absolute steal at your pick. To be fair, I do not think I was labeled as a steal in any of my three drafts (I’m including the contraction draft as my third draft). Bex had nothing but nice things to say about me as a user though which was way better than be the 8th steal in a row.

Shortly after you are picked to your team, the locker room discord invite from your new GM comes in. Of course, they are stoked to have you and welcome you to your new squad. Once you enter the locker room, all your new teammates are hyped to have you and start making predictions of how your team will easily win the next three championships. I’ve become more and more inactive these past couple of months truth be told, but I still love the feeling of draft day for both the DSFL and the ISFL. All the memories of my own draft come flooding back and I get those jitters again. I also think that the draft and the following few days tend to be the peak of locker room activity outside of big game days or those lucky few who are part of a championship.

The last element of the draft that I truly love is getting be on the other side of things. Between my 3 seasons as GM for the Luchadores and the season prior when I became a team captain, I played a large role in our team’s scouting. Above everything else, my goal was to be welcoming to all the new players. I remember how many questions I had when I first joined and can honestly say I wouldn’t be here today without the help of the community. Any time I got the chance to pay that forward, I took it. Outside of answering league questions, I geared my scouting mostly towards personal side of things. Some people would be short in conversation, so those tended to be brief and only sim related. For those who could keep a conversation, I found that the conversation could lead to anything. Those were always my favorite. Just start a conversation and see where things would end up. In a perfect world, the players you wanted to draft were max earners who fit your locker room culture. While I was fortunate to grab the miths and tonzy’s of the league, the ultimate goal was to get good people. If you were easy-going and could keep a conversation going, that was way more valuable than the abrasive general chat guy who was clearly a max earner but a dick. Then there are always those picks that turned out to be complete gems. Sometimes you get a tirtwidjajajajaja well into the 200s who ends up being a great earner and an even better user. For as much as people like to complain about everything (and I do mean literally everything), we have a really solid community here. Events like the draft (hopefully) bring out the best in us and keep those good times rolling.

[AdamS]

Task 5

I believe there are several changes that can be made around the league that would benefit everyone. Well, I guess I should say they'd benefit everyone that's not currently enjoying the advantages of the things I'm about to list. 

The first thing on the list is the infamous QB 79 Speed exploit. Now, first let's take some things into account. No one but the Game Manager archetype will really use the exploit. Pocket Passer and Gunslinger have a speed cap of 75. Mobile can go all the way to 90. Now I don't recall if 90 speed would outdo the 79 exploit (or if there is an 89 exploit) but I do know that if it doesn't, there's no point in taking the worse throwing stats. If it does, they'd just go to 90 and bypass it. So really it all comes back to Game Manager. Thus, I think we should move the Speed cap down to 75 for this archetype. It will unfortunately take away one of the unique advantages of that build and adjusting the throwing stats would then get a bit wonky compared to other builds. So, I think that to create a continued unique build, we could take that 5 from Speed and put it in Agility. The archetype current has a cap of 80 in Agility just as Pocket Passer and Gunslinger do and bumping that to 85 would create a QB who avoids sacks a bit better than those two. Mobile has an Agility cap of 90 for the record. Couple this with the existing 80 cap on Strength (the best of any archetype), and Game Manager will be slightly shifted to being the hands down hardest archetype to sack while still clearly being a superior runner than the non-Mobile archetypes and a better passer than the Mobile archetype. And worse in reverse. It would retain a unique feel and still hold its current place while removing the exploit. At least until someone discovered that 84 Agility exactly stops 90% of all tackles or something. 

The second change I'd like to talk about the current rule that someone on a rookie contract who only completes two seasons may not sign a full term contract at the end. Now originally this was one for those rookies who's contract finished after one season but it was expanded to two because well, quite frankly, GMs didn't like it and GMs make up 75% of the rule writing and voting body. That's factual information. I could go into opinion on why they don't like it but that's best saved for another time. The thing is, I don't believe this to be fair to rookies really. Or players in general. So there are a couple of ideas I can propose here that I think could help. The first is to get rid of it entirely and go back to the original setup that only a one season rookie contract was penalized this way. I'm gonna guess this one is unlikely for the already stated reasons. The second idea would be to apply this same ruling to all contracts and not just rookies. Fair is fair. I would be surprised if this one went through though. Players tend be a bit more vocal when it affects everyone. The third idea would be to differentiate. A rookie contract of two years that was written that way would not be penalized and said rookie could sign a full 3 year contract at the end of their deal. On the other hand, a 3 year rookie contract with player options exercised before the 3rd year (with original team) would still fall under this current restriction. Ie, if you signed for2 and left after 2 the current rule doesn't affect you. If you signed for 3 but left after two, it still applies to you. If you signed for 3, were moved to a new team and opted out before 3, it would NOT affect you. I think this would provide a balance and better handle the differing situations that may occur to create a scenario where a rookie contract ends after 2 seasons. 

The third and final change I'd like to stump for here is one I've championed several times. Public results of votes. Award votes, punishment votes (when one is handed out), and rules votes are some of the more important things we encounter and as of yet we rarely if ever know who actually votes for what. There is a tremendous amount of power wielded with each vote and as we saw with startling clarity during a recent award voting recap, the hidden nature of these votes allows for blatant corruption (and also hides when people often accused of bias are not, for whatever that may be worth). Now obviously certain drawbacks come with this. People will go from generically blaming groups and people they assume were involved for results they dislike to blaming the correct individuals. That 100% has the chance to go badly at some point. As we've all seen, there are times when people don't get what they want and the result is quite bad. And while there may currently be an entity who is fully resigned to playing the role as the bad guy boogeyman and target of people's wrath, that doesn't mean it's the best solution. This is mostly focused on the punishment aspect though, as that's where the bitterest arguments seem to take place. Awards are of course next in line as we have existing examples of that exposing something specific. Rules voting though, that's where I think you'd see the most enlightening results. Being able to see what your GMs support and don't would be another facet for the average league member to express their own views. Free agents especially so. Gee, I wonder why it's never garnered much support as a proposal. 



Anyway, these are my current ideas. Thank you for reading these, grader person.

[muse316]

7. (421 words, 5 TPE)
Nick Ayers of the Honolulu Hahaluas deserves rookie of the year for his amazing first season. After spending his DSFL career with the Myrtle Beach Buccaneers, Nick moved up to the ISFL to post 10 touchdowns in his first season, coming in 3rd overall for number of touchdowns by a running back. A great run option to the Hahalua’s rookie QB Luke Skywalker, Ayers played consistently well throughout the S24 season.
Ayers started his ISFL career with a bang, scoring a TD in the first quarter against the Arizona Outlaws. He ran 64 yards in that first game alone, averaging 4.6 yards per game, and he scored again in Week 2, rushing for 50 yards. This feat was repeated again in Week 3 against the S24 Ultimus winners the San Jose Sabercats, and finally again in Week 4 against the Orange County Otters.  Four weeks, 4 touchdowns, +50 yards per game. Nick Ayers had proven himself as a consistent, high performing player in the eyes of any ISFL fan.
Although it is true that Ayers did not run another touchdown for the next 5 weeks, Ayers never ran under 50 yards in any of these 5 games.
Nick Ayers came back with a vengeance in Week 10 against the Arizona Butchers, posting his first +100 yard game and securing another touchdown. Unfortunately, the game ended with a Hahalua loss, yet the loss seemed to just fuel Ayers even more. Week 11 against the Sarasota Sailfish would have Ayers rushing for TWO touchdowns, averaging 5.8 yards per run, running 76 yards, no small feat for any running back let alone a rookie. Week 12 was another 100+ yard game, where Ayers ran 111 yards with 1 touchdown to again help secure Honolulu Hahaluas the win.
Ayers scored two more touchdowns for the remainder of the season, once in Week 14 against the San Jose Sabercats (repeating his amazing running and juking route in Week 3), and then again in Week 15 against the Orange County Otters.
This Ayer supporting does admit that Nick Ayer’s last week of the season did end on a sour note, but this loss was a reflection on the team and not on Ayers himself. Ayers was only given 2 attempts, posting 1 yard only. This game should not be considered when judging Ayer’s abilities or his contribution to the team.
Nick Ayers is the best candidate for Rookie of the Year. His consistency, dedication, 10+ TDs, and overall stats dictate that he should earn that prize.


14. (204 words, 2.5 TPE)
Luke Skywalker deserves a Performance of the Year for the Honolulu Hahalua vs San Jose Sabercats game in week 3. Not only did Skywalker throw 2 touchdowns, he threw for 230 yards in that game alone, and earned a passer rating of 125.3, an impressive showing for any quarterback, let alone a rookie.
Venus Powers also deserves Player of the Year. The kicker for the Honolulu Hahaluas, Powers left every other kicker far behind in stats alone. She didn’t miss a single kick all season, making 100% of her 29 field goals, 3 of which were +50 yards. This accolade can only be given to one other kicker. While others may have the record for longest kick this season (Hunt with 57 yards), Powers was only 3 yards behind at 54 yards. Additionally, in extra point attempts, Powers also made 100% of her kicks. This prestige is shared with a different kicker, Crisco, meaning that Powers and Powers alone completed 100% of her extra point kicks AND 100% of her field goal attempts. Such precision surely deserves all of the awards that the DSFL has to offer. (Okay, maybe not the defense awards, or the passer awards, but any award that kickers can get!)


25. (278 words, 2.5 TPE)
“NSFL?” asked middle-schooler Luke Skywalker. “Like, not safe for life? Is it because of the injuries?”
“Nono,” said Luke’s dad. “NSFL. Like the National Simulated Football League.”
“Oh,” said Luke, his head crinkling in concentration. “They should really change their name.”
“Wait,” interrupted Luke’s mom. “How do you even know what NSFL stands for?”
“Dad just told me,” said Luke, all innocent.
“No,” said Luke’s mom, rolling her eyes. “How do you know that NSFL means not safe for life? Where did you even learn that?”
“Uh…” said Luke, looking nervously at his mom. “It’s common knowledge, right? I mean, everyone knows that.”
“That’s it,” said Luke’s mom. “You got around the filter AGAIN, didn’t you? How do you keep doing that?”
---------
“NSFL?” asked Luke’s roommate. Luke had just started college at Michigan, and he had been paired with a roommate from a different country. “What is that? Not safe for life?”
“No,” sighed Luke. “It’s the National Simulated Football League. It’s what I’m trying to be part of after I graduate.”
“Oh,” said Luke’s roommate. “You know, they should really change that name.”
------
“NSFL?” asked Luke. “They’re getting rid of NSFL?”
“Yep,” said Luke’s teammate. “I guess they’re tired of everyone confusing NSFL for not safe for life. I mean, when you google NSFL, you’re doing it at your own risk.”
“Well, what are they going to call it?” asked Luke.
“Well, you know how we got teams in London now?”
“Yeah…”
“It’s ISFL now, buddy. ISFL. International Simulated Football League.”
“ISFL,” said Luke, letting the letters roll off of his tongue. “ISFL. You know that’s not bad. ISFL. Yeah, ISFL is just fine.”

[yonggarius]

8) Coming off of a hearbreaking loss in Ultimus bowl 24 against the San Jose Sabercats, The Colorado Yeti is in a crossroad right now. Their franchise quarterback Wolfie McDummy is nearing the end of his career, and is repeatedly being hit with the unforgiving blows of regression. And while both their offense and defense are loaded with big name talents, many of them are also about to enter regression. And on top of them, the Yeti lost their star defensive tackle Bubba Thumper to expansion, and will lose another player at expansion draft. The Yeti will need to make some changes in their roster in order to prolong their championship window beyond the era of Wolfie McDummy.
Currently, Yeti roster screams 'contender'. The offense, featuring veterans wolfie McDummy, Ashley Owens and numerous young options such as William Lim, Richard Gilbert, Jackson Kingston and Leeroy Jenkins along many others, is now entering their prime years as a unit. And the defense, which has the balance between veterans like Tony Gabagool, Pete Parker and Lousiana Purchase and new blood like Rotticus Scott, Greedy Sly and Adélie de Pengu, is still a formidable unit despite the loss of Yeti GOAT Mo Berry.
Entering a tumultuous expansion offseason, the Yeti roster is about to undergo some change. Linebackers Warren Stephens, Tony Gabagool and runningback Thubba Bumper announced retirements while a lot of S18 players enter regression. To deal with that problem, the Yeti called up rookies Melvin Murder- Moose and Joel Drake, while moving in swiftly at the free agent market and signing former Hawks runningback Darrel Williams. Murder- Moose and Drake will fill the gaps in the defense, while Williams will act as an upgrade to now- retired Thubba Bumper. Entering the draft, the Yeti's primary goal should be to find some more defensive line help. Especially, they will need a good defensive tackle to fill in the big hole left by Bubba Thumper. And since this class- while being a decent size reddit class- is not particularly thick in defensive line depthx the Yeti will have to snipe one using one of their high picks. Also, the Yeti's other focuses should be wide receiverx since Jackson Kingston, one of Yeti's formidable receiver trio, is projected to be lost in expansion draft. Fortunately, this class is deep in good earning wide receivers, so it shouldn't be that hard to find one in mid roundsx especially since receivers tend to fall on drafts. When they get some help in those positions in the draft, and maybe sign some more players in free agency, the Yeti should be in a good position to contend for many seasons to come. (445)

12) This new expansion, featuring two new teams New York Silverbacks and Berlin Fire Salamanders, couldn't have come at a better time. The situation at DSFL is worse than situations in S22, when the league was forced to go through an unprecedented expansion due to a massive recruiting class. Now, the DSFL is totally clogged up mostly because of S22 and later players got sent down since there were no roster spots in the ISFL to accomodate them. This had lead to some problems, such as users being disheartened due to being 'DSFL lifers'. Expansion at this state will immensely help to alleviate the problems in the DSFL by providing more roster spots and more rooms for younger and lower TPE players. I personally think there will be more opportunities dor younger players than expansions of past, since targeting young players seems to be the trend for expansions nowadays, after the successes Sarasota Sailfish and Honolulu Hahalua- the last set of expansion teams- had after they followed this approach.

For both the Silverbacks and the Fire Salamanders, the first step towards building a good new franchise will be to have a good expansion draft. Before the drafts began, the Silverbacks have GM players DT Bubba Thumper and CB Duckburg Quackstack, While the Fore Salamanders got WRs Nick Kaepercolin and Asher Quinn as their GM players. Also, the Silverbacks acquired quarterback Sam Howitzer via a trade with the Yellowknife Wraiths, so they relieved themselves of the burden of having to find a franchise quarterbacks. So with this foundation, the two teams will need to take a fairly different approach. The Silverbacks will focus on getting best available young talent since they got cornerstones in both sides of the ball, while the Fire Salamanders might look for some veteran 'anchor' players in both sides of the ball to get the team going in their first season while looking for a quarterback (if there is a good one available) since all they got is two wide receivers.
After that, both teams are most likely to trade down in the draft. This is because they will need to accumulate as much active players as possible. Their drafts will be also more focused on the users than the players. As a new team, the Silverbacks and the Fire Salamanders will need good users to form the backbone of their team, especially people with special skills like simming or scouting. Users with strong locker room presence will also not go unnoticed, as both expansion teams will need those kinds of users desparately in order to build a good team culture from scratch.
(435)

[KamiCommie]

16) Choose your favorite non-playoffs game of this season, whether your own team or another. Explain what was so special and why the winner ultimately came out victorious, including key players and moments.  (2.5 TPE)

My favorite no playoff game of the season huh?  Well, for that I'll have to go with non other than the super spicy preseason game between the Sarasota Sailfish and the Yellowknife Wraiths.  Talk about excitement, this game had it all!  You had comedy, you had pain, you had agony, you had despair, you had good food, and you had good dotball. 

The game started simple enough with Yellowknife taking a meager 10-3 lead into halftime.  The third quarter appeared to be business as usual for the Yellowknife Wraiths, who were the reigning Ultimus Champions, entering the fourth quarter up 13-3.  But that's when everything changed.  It would appear that the game was just getting started.

Touchdowns were scored by both Sarasota and Yellowknife early on in the quarter, bringing it to 20-10, but Sarasota wasn't finished.  Sarasota scored their second touchdown of the quarter with almost 5 minutes remaining in the game.  At 20-16, Sarasota just needed to make one stop.  However, Yellowknife managed to make a field goal on their next possession, putting them up 23-16 with only 2:08 left in the game.  Surely that was the nail in the coffin.  BUT NO!  Despite their best efforts (and all the dry heaving from the commentators) Sarasota returned the ensuing kickoff 98 yards, all the way to Yellowknife's 2 yard line.  Sarasota scored on the next play and sent it into Overtime.  In the end, Yellowknife won it on a field goal on the first possession.

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248 Words

18) Choose any award from the past 23 offseasons that you think should’ve gone to a different contender. Why was your chosen candidate’s season superior to the actual winner? (2.5 TPE)

This one is a no brainer.  I'm going to have to go all the way back to season 21 in the DSFL and talk about the performance of the year award.  The nominees for this award were Quinn Hughes (Week 1) with the London Royals, Gregor Macgregor (Week 7) with the Portland Pythons, Magnus Valdyr (Week 7) with the Tijuana Luchadors, Acura Skyline (Week 6) with the London Royals, and Luke Skywalker (Week 4) with the Norfolk Seawolves.  Out of those five nominees, it was really only a three person race.

In the end, the awards committee shocked the ISFL community with a mind boggling decision.  They, in their infinite wisdom, thought a QB who only threw 11/15 for 97 yards, was worthy of winning this award.  Not a running back who rushed for 133 yards on 20 attempts, 6.6 yard average, with two touchdowns.  Not a safety who returned not one, BUT TWO interceptions for touchdowns, a total of 113 interception return yards, setting multiple franchise records in the process. 

The obvious winner here should have been Magnus Valdyr.  Pick sixes don't happen all that often, but to do it twice in one game is something special.  Something that has only happened three times in the history of the ISFL.  Totally not bitter about this at all...

Code:

219 Words

PBE PT (2.5 TPE)

[Jimi64]

Tier 2.

Task 8) After two straight Ultimus appearances and one win, something has to give over at Norfolk. The upcoming season will surely create some holes for the Seawolves. Most notably, Suleiman Ramza, our great leader and quarterback, will finally be given the reigns to the Otters offense. With no other options at quarterback, the Seawolves will have a couple of options. The first is to explore a trade with another team. A potential target could be Matt Peterson, who shared the quarterback role for the Minnesota Grey Ducks the previous season. His situation with the Grey Ducks seems to be up in the air at the moment, so he may find himself on another team next year, Norfolk or otherwise. If this option doesn’t work out, the Seawolves will simply have to look to quarterback prospects coming into this year’s DSFL draft. In addition, our kicker Melvin Murder Moose will most likely be called up to the Yeti, so this will also be a position that needs to be explored in the draft. As far as Norfolk’s wide receivers, Ramza’s favorite target, Dre Matthews, will be departing the team. However, the team has been grooming two fresh receivers to battle it out for the number one spot, so that position will be safe for the time being. However, early signs show a plethora of wide receiver creates in the upcoming draft. With both of our receivers no longer rookies next season, it could be wise to grab one in the draft in order to prepare for a much depleted wide receiver corps the year after next. In addition, it would especially benefit a rookie quarterback next season to have 3 human receivers to throw to, which could compensate for the quarterback’s lack of immediate skill and rookie mistakes. I’ll now look to the defensive side of the ball and my own position: linebacker. Norfolk did a good job picking both myself and Rusty Rucker in the previous draft, but the position does not have any depth going into the next season. With the ISFL draft looming, the potential that a team that needs a linebacker now may weaken the already thin linebacker corps even further. Seawolves management looked to improve their defense in the backend of the season with the two waiver additions of linebacker Erik Kirkland and safety Dogwood Maple, who provided some much needed depth at those positions. Norfolk would do well to target these players during the draft in order to solidify their defense for both now and the future. If Norfolk makes the mentioned moves, then with a little sim magic they will contend for championship next year.

(Word count: 440)

Tier 3.

Task 16) My favorite regular season game was easily the week 4 matchup between the Myrtle Beach Buccaneers at my Norfolk Seawolves. We were 3-0 heading into that game, and hype was bursting out of our locker room. However, us rookies feared the 79 speed fiend Owen Holloway at quarterback, who had not too long before made some insane scrambles in our progress bowl. As it would turn out, the Seawolves defense would put out easily it's best performance of the season. The Buccaneers recieved the ball first, and after just a few plays they proceeded to fumble and give the ball up at their own 12 yard line. This led to a quick touchdown from the classic Ramza-Matthews passing connection. This was followed by two straight three-and-out possesion by the Bucs and another touchdown added by the Seawolves. Afterwards, our fears about Holloway were realized, and he answered with a 56 yard streaking run to the endzone. Then a Ramza interception led to another easy score to tie the game. We knew we had to step up our play in the second half. The very first possession, Seawolves standout Rickie Vaughne intercepted Holloway and ran it back for a 26 yard pick six. The Bucs got the ball back and clearly did not learn from their mistakes. After a few plays, Holloway tossed another pick, this time to myself, which was returned 25 yards for a touchdown. Now two in a row is crazy, but what if I told you it almost happened 3 times in a row? This time, Myrtle Beach swapped out their quarterbacks, and Jackie Daytona tossed a pick to Dukburg Quakstak, which was returned for 56 yards, 1 yard shy of the endzone. Clearly dissatisfied with Daytona, Holloway was put back in, who promptly threw another pick to Vaughne, though this one was only returned to about midfield. So that makes four possessions and four straight interceptions, with 5 total forced turnovers in the game. A game tied at halftime ended as a 23 point blowout. I was immensely proud of our defense that day.

(Word count: 348)

Tier 3.

Task 27) There is no doubt that the offensive line is the most underappreciated position in football, at least from a casual fan’s perspective. That’s why I’d like to talk about a fellow rookie of this past season, Ananda Adyan AKA TMosura (though a lot of us call him TMo). I first took notice of him as a prospect, and I immediately recognized his skill with graphics. We were both lucky enough to be drafted my Norfolk, and I’d say we’ve become good friends since then. He continued to contribute his graphics work to Norfolk, constantly showing us his hard work and progress on the various creative ideas that he had for graphics. He even designed a great secondary logo/patch for the team. Along with this, he has remained incredibly active on discord, constantly being a positive influence on everyone in the locker room. People like TMo are the ones that make the community aspect of this league so fun. His influence did not go unnoticed, and he was recently voted offensive team captain by his teammates. On the field, TMo was a brick wall. It took him until the very last game of the season for him to allow a single sack. In a league where high earning offensive lineman are not necessarily easy to find, he was a major piece of the success of our offense. A greatly appreciate what TMo has done for the team, and I’m happy that he’s my friend.

(Word count: 243)

[Modern_Duke]

Long Form Task: 3) Mount Rushmore

I would like to honor our newest Developmental Simulation Football League Season 24 Ultimini champion London Royals and some of the most important users and players who have gotten them to this point. As one of the co-founders of the team, and compiler of the team's record book, I feel I may be uniquely qualified to perform this task. However, when confronted with the idea of a Mount Rushmore, I struggled with how to separate user contributions from player contributions, so I'm going to take the coward's way out and do this a few different ways. the Mount Rushmore of users, the Mount Rushmore of players (single season) and the Mount Rushmore of players (career). I would try to make it four different lists, to make it a "Mount Rushmore of Mount Rushmores" but that would be a stretch. Anyway, let's get started with the first list.

Mount Rushmore of London Royals Users
DeadlyPlayer - By far the easiest decision in this whole process. Simply put, the team only exists because of Deadly. I may take claim as a co-founder, but London is Deadly's baby. He is the one who originally applied for expansion, wrote up the expansion bid by himself, created the locker room on discord, and commissioned the logo and branding. He then acted as general manager for two seasons, and has continued to be a huge locker room presence with his tight end recreate, Frank Michell, who is already climbing up franchise leaderboards.
Exilizer - Exi was the second player ever taken by the Royals and it was immediately clear that it was a home run decision. He established himself as a team leader and made his way into the war room right away. From there he acted as basically a de facto third general manager. By his second season, he had taken even more responsibility and took over the entirety of scouting for the season 23 class, because I was a bad and lazy GM. Even though HO rudely stole him away, his contributions to the war room in the early seasons make him a shoo-in for Mount Rushmore.
Highhaschdi - I stepped down from my general manager position in the middle of season 22. I had some personal stuff going on so I needed to step away from the league for a week or so, but in reality I was on my way out anyway (as noted above, I was bad at it) and had already internally announced my departure, which had been planned for season's end. However, with literally no direct advance notice, High jumped into the co-GM spot without complaint. The transition was seamless, as High basically did everything that I did as GM, but better. Better sim tester, better scouter, better locker room presence. High helped lead the team to where it is now and easily deserved his expansion bid. Not bad for a waiver pickup who we never even scouted.
Sylphreni - I would never tell him this to his face, but the Royals are in the position they are currently in (that would mean, Ultimini champions) because of Syl. Despite the fact that he never wanted to be a Royal, we took him first overall purely on Exi's recommendation (because again, I was a bad GM and wasn't scouting at all). It took less than a week for Syl to make his way into the war room, where he started to revolutionize how we scouted and engaged with the locker room. He was a natural choice to replace Deadly as GM, and created a strong culture and invented the sim school to teach rookies about the sim, which has lead to what I am confident in calling the most proficient group of sim testers in the league, full stop.

Mount Rushmore of London Royals Players (Career)
Colby Jack - 3 year starter at quarterback, career leader in well, basically everything. Passing yards, completions, attempts, passing touchdowns. S22 Quarterback of the Year (unofficial but I'm giving it to him).
Susan Cash, Jr. -  3 year starter at wide receiver, career leader in well, basically everything. Receptions, receiving yards, receiving touchdowns
Jacoby Batista - 4 year player at running back, career leader in well, basically everything (am I getting repetitive?). Carries, rushing yards, rushing touchdowns (tied for first). 3 times over 975 rushing yards
Juan Domine - Career leader in tackles, sacks (tied for first)

Mount Rushmore of London Royals Players (Single Season)
S24 Charlemegne Cortez - Most passing yards, completions, attempts, passing touchdowns. Awards TBD (MVP? Quarterback of the Year?)
S21 Acura Skyline - Most carries, most rushing yards (500+ yards over second most). Running Back of the Year. Offensive Rookie of the Year. Offensive Player of the Year. Most crowns in a season (our locker room "game ball" award)
S24 Gunner Thorbjornsson - Most receptions, most receiving yards, highest yards per reception
S21 Derred De Ville - Linebacker of the Year. Defensive Rookie of the Year. Defensive Player of the Year