(S25) - Ultimus Week

[Booger]

8) 
There's one who stands tall above the rest of the players from not only Sarasota specifically, but also the league overall: Dexter Banks II. Coming off of his offensive player of the year award last season, Banks only got better in his third season at QB. He improved in almost every single QB category listed, with only his passing yards decreasing from S24. His completion percentage increased from 53.9% to 57.5%, his long increased from 73 to 79 yards, he threw one more total touchdown giving him a total of 33, all the while throwing 9 fewer interceptions, from 19 down to 10. This all resulted in a QB ratio increase of more than 12.5 points, from 84.7 to a whopping 97.5!! And, Banks ended up having 60 fewer attempts as well. One aspect of his game that Banks failed to improve on from S24 to S25 was his rushing attack. Banks ended up with about 300 fewer yards on the ground and fell from an incredible 5.4 yards per carry to "only" 3.7 yards per carry. Both S24 Banks and S25 Banks ended with three touchdowns however, so there's still a lot to brag about when it comes to Banks running the football. The offense as a whole wasn't entirely reliant on Banks like they were in S24, which allowed him to find tremendous success with a wide variety of players. This is to say that I believe Banks is absolutely the frontrunner for awards like MVP, QBoTY, O(Performance)oTY, and even OPoTY (if he were to somehow lose MVP). The one knock on his resume from this past season would have to be the overall lack of success from the team, despite their 11-5 record. The Sailfish were unfortunately knocked out of the playoff race by the Chicago Butchers in the first round, which left a sour taste in the mouths of Sarasota players and fans alike, as they knew Banks wouldn't be taking the field again. Had Banks and the Sailfish managed to survive the Butchers and eventually win the Ultimus, this award could have been presented at the trophy ceremony. Banks' main competition at the QB position is Colorado's Wolfie McDummy. Despite not having Banks' stats, McDummy does boast more overall team success, given that the Yeti were able to reach the Ultimus for the second time in two years. Overall though, the MVP award in my opinion easily goes to Sarasota's own, Dexter Banks. 

29)
I wouldn't say Sarasota's kicker/punter, Jacob Small, is underappreciated, at least not in the locker room, but he deserves even more attention than what he's getting at the moment. Let's go back all the way to the beginning, shall we? Small was selected in the 10th round of the S22 ISFL draft with a whopping 74 total TPE. Frost and Raindelay felt they needed to fill the void at kicker/punter on their newly created expansion team, and thought that Small was the right guy for that. And I'm happy to report that they were 100% correct. Small has been a great earner since being drafted in S22 and has gradually gotten better every season he's been in the league. This season, he was awarded with his first-ever awards nomination! As Sarasota's kicker, Small had the league's highest number of extra-point attempts and made the most in the league as well. He had a 92.7 extra point percentage, and a 93.5 field goal percentage, along with being 100% on field goals inside the 40-yard line. As a punter, Small had his greatest season yet. With a total of 4460 punt yards and an average distance of 46 yards, Small consistently gave Sarasota the edge in field position battles. Small also led the league in punts inside the 20, with a total of 25! This was enough to get Small on the ballot for punter of the year, and while he didn't end up winning the award, I'm sure he'll keep getting better in the seasons to come. 

30) 

I'll start out by talking about the Berlin Fire Salamanders. The Fire Salamanders were, based on record alone, the worse of the two expansion teams this season, but I believe they've got a bright future to look forward to. The Fire Salamanders have an up and coming QB in Nick Kaepercolin, who sits at 943 TPE at the moment. Kaepercolin has some pretty good weapons as well in Clark Boyd ( :( ), Joseph Petrongolo, and Susan Cash Jr. They've also got a defense held up by Mario Von Pebbles, Asher Quinn, Matt Krause, and Claude Miller. This represents a solid core that should allow the Fire Salamanders to be contenders in their conference within the next few seasons. 

Now for the New York Silverbacks, who finished at 4-12 this season. The Silverbacks are led in TPE by the regressing Bubba Thumper, who should have a few solid seasons left in him. The Silverback defense also boasts linebacker Jack Banks, who is well on his way to becoming a star in the league. On offense, the Silverbacks are led at TE by Leon McDavid. S25's running back of the year, Ashley Owens, is also present on the offensive side of the ball. Then there's wide receivers Jackson Kingston and Sean Snyder, who are both getting the ball from quarterback Sam Howitzer. Overall the Silverbacks also have quite a few solid players who will greatly help them in their rise to prominence in the seasons to come.

[Sermokala]

Task 6I'm going to talk about the "ben waiver abuse" drama that came about a few seasons ago and how it spun out of control wildly from what I really thought at the time was just small potatoes hostage situation to ending up as a  culturally defining event for the DSFL as a whole in the past eddy of DSFL culture. I want to be clear from the onset that I don't think anyone needed to be punished for this but that the whole thing was a series of failures outside of peoples intentions piling up until something had to happen to send a message over the whole deal.
I want to roll back the clock to a season before this happened actually. When I created Alejandro Chainbreaker it was right at the trade deadline, as max earners tend to do, and being in the Minnesota Grey ducks war room obviously, I wanted to go there. However, on waivers I was taken by Dallas first and when they realized that they claimed someone who wanted to be in a different team and that they weren't losing much they were more than happy to just let me go. There has been much bad blood between Dallas and Minnesota but when the chips are down they've always acted with class and are an example for anyone else in the league. there was never talk about what Dallas was losing or how Minnesota gained from me wanting to be there.
Fast forward to ben and him being in roughly the same spot. However, he had decided to recreate much later and decided to create after the draft deadline so he would go on waivers. Being in the Lucha war room and wanting to go to there for his DSFL days he mentioned when I scouted him for after draft waiver claims that he wasn't interested in going anywhere else. I put it on the spreadsheet and because thundertitan was really more interesting to us the whole time we went with him as we were going to do anyway. However other people in the war room asked and I'm pretty sure this is where the rumor mill went into overdrive. Myrtle beach was next in the waiver priority and picked up ben despite him not wanting to be in MB and the implication was that he would hold out otherwise. This is where the play unraveled and things got messy. If any other team other than Myrtle beach was there to claim him it would have been resolved easily in my opinion. But they did and frankly, they weren't out of line for doing it. Because now we have to go back further in time to the original myrtle beach drama.
When MB came into the league they didn't just come to take part, they came to take over. They had a really great culture for success in the DSFL and it showed out with them making a super team basically and running away with the ultimini right out of the gate. That awards however they didn't get a single award for the voting, and no one was really that surprised. They made a place where people really wanted to be there and managed to get someone who was inactive but was known from another league to come back. But this person's inactive creation was on a different team and he had no interest in playing for any other team other than. Naturally, this team thought they were owed something for a player that effectively left the team and started earning and being relevant for another team despite them spending draft capital on them. I don't have nearly enough reference on the subject to say what really went down but a lot of bad blood was started, the GM's lose their pay, but went on to manage an ISFL expansion team in the Sarisota Sailfish. So forgive them for thinking now that the shoe was on the other foot MB said they wanted just compensation for their waiver claim and used the precedent of their punishment to demand an investigation.
Again I don't have the reference to say exactly what went down after this. I know for certain that I wasn't contacted about this at the very least and I know even with the old SA-TIJ rivalry it could have easily been handled behind closed doors if I didn't disqualify him from our waiver claim and tried to get something out of TIJ. The thing is that hostage situations like this are proposed everywhere in the league and they happen a dozen or more times without anyone knowing anything. Even that draft we were one or two picks away from participating in a hostage situation ourselves.
In the end the TIJ GM's lost their pay for that season and a lot of face in the leauge. Ben has lost the most in all this by making his friends lose money and could do nothing but watch the stink move from MB to TIJ in the DSFL. Really this was a case of something that happens regularly going wrong and things spinning out of control. What the team needs isn't hard rules on this sort of thing but a section on "established guidelines for sensitive situations". Beacuse hostage situations happen and will continue to happen. Most of the time they get resolved quickly and with class, even with teams that nominally don't get along. But when they get messy things get messy fast and hard, so providing at least some guidance or maybe even arbitration would help. I don't know I'm not the answers guy I'm just a sometimes idea guy.

[SlurmsMckenzie]

Tier 2 #15
Just to preface this, I never imagined I would end up in a simulation football league. I honestly do not even watch football (have not seen an entire NFL game all season). But here I am and, overall, the experience has been relatively positive. I went to the Dallas Birddogs for my first season in the DSFL and my experience was great. The locker room was extremely active, much more active than any other locker room I have experienced (which to be fair is not many). Everyone was very friendly, and I really felt the team experience even though this is not in person (or real).

I entered the league already knowing many people. Amidships, Kyamprac, Southpaw, Tonzy, and Attopax to name a few. But after being in the league for just a week I felt very comfortable, I was welcomed into the Dallas Birddogs locker room with open arms. They immediately helped me by answering any questions I had and invited me to many out-of-league interactions like Minecraft and Among Us, interactions that could only be described as wholesome and hilarious! I cannot stress enough how positive an experience I had at Dallas; it really solidified my dedication to this community. It was not only my friends that I knew in advance that helped me out either, but I also cannot think of anyone in Dallas who I disliked or felt was rude in any way.

Being drafted for the first time was cool but also eh…for me that is not the end all be all. I could care less about stats; I just want to have a good team experience and do my part to help the team be successful. The way I see it, is it is a sim league, so it really does not matter. In my short time here, I have witnessed scandal after scandal. One in particular that I can think of had a player sub out someone who was better just so they could get some stats, I think that’s pathetic and I hope I never end up on a team like that. What kind of management does that? That is one hundred percent using your position to your advantage and that is a huge turn off for me. If I continue to see things happen like that, I am not sure how much longer I will be around, but if the experience stays positive, then so will I!

If there are any rules that should be put into place, they should protect players from bonehead GM’s like mentioned in the last paragraph. Establish some regulations that have some teeth, so people will not break the rules. In other words, the head office should have a little backbone.

Tier 2 #13

Three seasons from now this league may look entirely different. It all depends on where recruitment takes place! By establishing teams around the world, it may be possible to generate interest from individuals who may not have had their curiosity piqued before. I mean let us be real here, who wants to play for a team from Alabama when they could play for Albania (they got a sweet flag, check it out). As far as DSFL teams go, I would have to say the Dallas Birddogs will make a comeback in three seasons. Plagued by call-ups which have robbed the team of it is starting talent, the Birddogs always make smart picks of relatively dedicated players that could potentially set them up for a few trips to the Ultimini in the future. Right now, they may have a lot more bark than bite, but I never really try to test that out with dogs!

As far as expansions go, the league may or may not expand. I would like to see it grow, but it must do everything it can to recruit on all fronts. Maintaining a relationship on reddit is great, but there must be other avenues. Simply pulling recruits from Reddit is not enough to sustain this league, it will eventually die as people lose interest over the years or go to other leagues that don’t try to force game shows down your throat (game shows where the people creating them award themselves with TPE…sounds like a hefty pat on the back for such a GREAT idea.)

It would not be a bad idea to continue expanding into Europe, head office should try to be a little less biased though. I mean Fire Salamanders? What the hell kind of name is that? There is much better names that could’ve been thought of! How about the Berlin Brewmeisters? (I literally just came up with this on the spot, it is not hard, even has alliteration in it) I mean what the hell seriously? Fire Salamanders?!? That would be like me founding a team in Omaha and calling them the “Grape Farmers”, who the hell grows grapes in Nebraska!?

Beyond Europe, I think it would be interesting to have a team on each continent (barring Antarctica unless someone wants to go for it). It may attract more players if they are able to play for a team in their region potentially. Maybe add one more European team and two Asian teams next time, the opportunities are endless!

[caltroit_red_flames]

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16) Create an argument for your own player, or for someone else on your team, as to why they should be nominated for awards. Lay out their stats or compare them to other contenders. Make a convincing case.

(207 words)I think that Givussafare Rubbe should be nominated for the OL of the year award. To start with he was playing on a team with some somewhat subpar running backs and a quarter back that is regressing pretty hard. That means he needs to work extra hard to create space for the running backs and give the quarter back more time to make a play. In addition he was playing alongside the offensive linemen who has had one of the worst seasons in all of offensive linemen history with a total of 12 sacks given up in a single season. That's an insane amount for a human OL.

This season Givussafare Rubbe didn't give up a single sack and manage to make his way to getting over 80 pancakes. That easily puts him in the top 2. The other OL in the top 2 would be Douglas Quail who was playing on a much better team that Rubbe was. He had easier blocks to make and better RBs but still the New Orleans Second Line had more yards per carry on the season as a whole than Quail's team. I think it's pretty clear that Rubbe deserves the Offensive Lineman of the Year Award based on that.

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22) Make a scouting report for any of the ISFL or DSFL draftees. Show their stats, abilities, TPE, highlights, or totally fraudulent mail-in ballots. Whatever rookies get up to these days.

(209 words) Richard Littlewood is an offensive lineman who played Guard for the Myrtle Beach Buccaneers this season. Standing at a massive 6'6" and weighing in at 340 pounds he is a total athletic freak with the frame and muscle to really become a premiere offensive lineman in the ISFL some day. At this point you're somewhat drafting for potential but it definitely doesn't hurt that he was the top rookie offensive lineman in the DSFL this season! With 48 pancakes and only 1 sack allowed he really showed that he has what it takes to be a professional football player, the question is really about whether or not he'll be able to become a star player on his future team. His strengths are his strength and his run blocking. He's going to need to work on his pass blocking quite a bit as well as his endurance if he wants to be able to move to the tackle position and stop the pass rushers that are really playing at the elite level some day in the ISFL. My projection for him is that he'll be a top tier elite offensive lineman by the time he reaches the ISFL. Any team that passes on him in the draft is absolutely nuts.

[Jonny2x]

1- 16) Create an argument for your own player, or for someone else on your team, as to why they should be nominated for awards. Lay out their stats or compare them to other contenders. Make a convincing case.

Sam Torenson stands on the brink of the all-time rushing record in the International Football Simulation League.  He is a two time running back of the year, top 3 multiple other seasons and was recently named to the 25th Anniversary team.  He should break the record rather easily this season which should set him up nicely for the Hall of Fame.  He is nearing retirement with one decent season and one running back 2 or 3 season left in him.  The only thing missing from his resume is a championship.  He has carried teams before, including his rookie season with a rookie quarterback when he led the league in rushing and carried the Chicago Butchers offense to the best record in the league in their inaugural season.  With a little over 440 yards needed to become the all-time league leader he stands to sit in a good position.  However, sadly, it looks like if he finishes his career in Philadelphia, barring an absolutely miraculous season the championship will have eluded him his entire career.  That is not to say his hall of fame nomination should be affected in any way as has already been explained.  His idol has always been Barry Sanders and it looks to be a similar career fate for Sam.


2- Affiliate PBE PT

[deadlunatic]

8) Awards season is a big part of the offseason festivities. Take the stand, in 400 words or more, for one or more players that are not your own, and argue why they should receive awards glory. They can be your teammates or anyone in the league. How did their stats and on the field contribution contribute to their case this year?

I will argue why Doug Howlett should win wide receiver of the year, offensive rookie of the year and maybe offensive player of the year. The fact that he is a rookie while leading the entire league in receiving yards is pretty crazy. He was the top receiver on the Baltimore Hawks, who went eight and eight on the season. The team did throw for the second most in the season trailing only the Sarasota Sailfish. Doug Howlett managed one hundred and two catches in sixteen games with a total of 1646 yards (203 yards more than the second place receiver), averaging sixteen point one yards a reception. That 16.1 is good for sixteenth overall, which is very impressive while maintaining the yardage lead. He also managed to haul in eleven touchdowns, which is tied for sixth most on the season. His longest catch of the season was a sixty six yard completion. He put up these stats with the second wide out on the team going for seventy three catches for 1186 yards and seven touchdowns. He started his first pro game with seven catches for one hundred twenty nine yards. That is a heck of a debut. He followed that up with another seven catch game with one hundred and fifteen yards. Well, there goes that theory of the first game being a fluke performance. His single game best performance came in week twelve against the Orange County Otters with eight catches for 114 yards, two touchdowns and a long of twenty four yards. His highest receptions in a single game was nine in week eleven against the Yellowknife Wraiths. He was consistently the top receiver on the team, all of that while drawing the top cover guy from the other team. Nobody could stop him, and this is knowing that the Hawks were a pass first team, they ranked second to last in rushing as a team, with only the Sarasota Sailfish finishing lower than them. At this point, there is no denying he should win wide receiver of the year, (the only thing you could argue is he was not top touchdown guy, but come on), the next question would be offensive rookie of the year. Well there are really only two contenders here, and neither of them is leading their positional group overall. While Zoe Watts had an amazing rookie year as a running back, Zoe finished third overall in rushing yards, tied for third in touchdowns. Again very impressive, but Howlett was the number one overall wide receiver, despite being a rookie. The only other person you could try to argue for would be Ramza at the quarterback position. He finished fourth over all in the quarterback race. While very impressive for a rookie at that position, he still finished behind three other qbs. Offensive player of the year is harder to argue, as there were other very impressive performances. My argument for him is that he is WR1 as a rookie.






9) It’s always important to look forward to the future. Examine your team, and in 400 words or more, talk about how they can improve themselves to get a stab at trophy contention next year. Are you loaded with draft capital for the next draft? Do you have plenty of cap space to sign free agents? Go through the roster and note the different strengths and weaknesses, and how you think those will change over the next few seasons. How should your team adapt?

The Yellowknife Wraiths were in a bit of a rebuild this last season, being forced to start several true rookies their first year out of the DSFL. A starting cornerback, wide receiver and a running back. All started below the four hundred TPE mark for the season, with two of them ending slightly above four hundred and the other slightly below. The team still managed to finish with a seven and nine record, which is one win off third and fourth in the division. The two main issues seem to be at times struggling move the ball on offense. Our season low for points was nine points, which is by no means the lowest of all the teams, but it is hard to win games when you only score nine points total(we actually did win this game 9-3). We had way too many drives just stall out, due to dropped balls, interceptions, fumbles or just plan broken plays. We had the sixth most punts of any team with ninety nine total, going for forty six hundred yards. If you punt that much, you aren't going to score as many points as you would like. The thing is, our offense can score, we put up forty two points against the Berlin Fire Salamanders(I know, expansion team, doesn't count), but we also scored twenty seven against the Sarasota Sailfish. So offense needs to better, we could use some more time to get our young guys up to speed, and of course another quality offensive lineman next to Bruce Buckley and Maurice Virtanen to help give our quarterback and running back more time. 
Our second biggest issue was our ability to consistently stop the other team's offense. Granted if our offense spent more time on the field with the ball, it would automatically help out the defense. Less time on the field, less time getting tired, less points the other team can put up... In our worst game we gave up fifty five points to the Arizona Outlaws. Most likely not going to win many games giving up fifty five points to anyone. Our best defensive performance we held the Baltimore Hawks to three points, granted we only scored nine, but a win is a win. We gave up thirty or more in seven games this season, and that does not include the game we gave up twenty nine in. We lost every time we gave up twenty nine or more points. That is eight losses right there. We only lost one game where we held the team to less than twenty nine points... So again, if our offense could put up some more points, we had a shot at two extra wins, two of the games were one possession losses with it being less than a touchdown difference. The real answer is get our offense going, and get more consistent on defense. Draft some good quality players at offensive linemen and maybe another solid defensive tackle to finish the defense off.

[LewisMelville]

18) My favourite non playoff game of the season is an easy one to choose. A personal highlight where myself, Jeeeeroy Lenkins had a career day and managed to keep the Minnesota Grey Ducks playoff  hopes alive. It was a week 12 game and the second game of a double header and it was a rather cagey affair to say the least.  Grey Ducks stud rookie quarterback Ryan "Turnover" Negs throwing 2 interceptions in the second quarter, luckily for him the foundation of the  Grey Ducks success this season (the defence) held strong conceding zero points and forced a turnover of their own). We came towards the end of the third quarter with a 20-7 lead when momentum started to swing in the portland pythons favour due to Maximus missed PAT, they started to take control of the game and really pile the pressure.  They scored 10 unanswered points to make the game 20-17 with 7 minutes to go when they started marching back down a short field due to the offence going 3 and out and punting from deep in our own territory. With less than 4 minutes to and sitting within the Grey Ducks 20 yard line the Pythons came out with a passing play only for it to be picked off by Jeeeeroy Lenkins and returned 82 yards for the first touchdown of my career. I then picked off the Pythons qb again to secure the victory!

22) This will be the first and most probably the last time I will write anything remotely positive about Minesotta Grey Ducks quarterback Ryan "Turnover" Negs. With that being said what is not to love about the first overall pick from last year's DSFL Draft? His numbers may not be eye  popping with a measley 13 touchdowns (it could have been more) and 13 interceptions. He also threw for a very respectable 2477 yards. Like I said these numbers are not eye popping but I put that down solely to the fact he did not have the greatest wide receiving core. I cannot stress enough how great an addition I think the Negs would be to any locker room. Personally I hope this guy gets drafted by my team and leads the Berlin Fire Salamanders and leads us to glory. I have no doubt he will get at least 1 Ultimus ring during his career. You may ask why would I make such a claim? Its simple really hes a max earner and a real team player! He is only going to get better and as he improves so will the quality of player he plays with. I am even willing to go as far
as saying Ryan Negs has the potential to be the greatest QB to be drafted in ISFL history! He would be first off the board if I had the pick.

8) My final article for the Ultimus week is going to be based on why my buddy and stalwart at safety Damian "Napalm" Blackfyre should have won the DSFL hat-trick! Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year and Safety of the Year.  You may be reading this and be thinking to yourself "is Jeeeeroy Lenkins serious?" or "I want some of whatever Jeeeeroy has been smoking". The short answer to this is yes, I am very f****** serious and now I will explain to you exactly why I am serious about this with some hard evidence. Firstly I will address the elephant in the room "a safety for the league's Most Valuable Player?" Easy it is a well known fact that defense wins championships. Did the Minnesota Grey Ducks win a championship? No but they did make the playoffs, by in large a huge contributing factor to this was Napalm covering the field and making plays when they mattered most. Secondly the Most Valuable Player award is a regular season award not post season.

Here is some stats from Napalms biggest games this past season:

Week 2
6 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, 1 pass defense, 1 interception

Week 11
Stats: 3 tackles, 1 sack, 1 pass defended, 1 interception

Week 14
Stats: 10 tackles, 1 interception, 1 blocked punt

The way playmakers make their name is by making plays when they are required the most. Its all fun and games padding stats when your team is running rampant or even piling up stats in garbage time. Blackfyres big plays came in big moments when he and his team's backs were against the wall. These plays from the defensive captain and team leader helped galvinate not only his defence but more importantly his whole team.

Damian Blackfyre's stats speak for themself. He made 67 tackles with 1 being for a loss in 14 games for the Grey Ducks. He defended 5 passes and made 5 interceptions, forced 3 fumbles and recovered 2 fumbles of his own. You add this and also take into account his blocked punt in week 14 that turned the game on its head which catapulted the Grey Ducks into the playoffs. All of this screams out the words "playmaker", "game changer", "elite", "generational talent". The only thing missing from Napalm's personal resume last season was a touchdown, regardless of this he had a fantastic year. Despite not picking up the accolades he deserved Blackfyre should not be disheartened. The sky really is the limit for him as far as I am concerned.

[Buttersqauch101]

Did podcast with Whatamus and Glims. I went second for a total of 23 minutes for task 1
https://soundcloud.com/user-955816441/th...timus-week

[furiousPanda]

6:

One niche that I think never gets talked about is recruitment. And it is something I would like to talk about to give some users insight of the inner workings in hope it will spark someone’s interest in the recruitment team. I have personal experience in this as I was the head of recruitment for a few seasons and now handed off to a good user Tylus, could speak about this. The way the league typically handles recruitment can become somewhat stale. For several seasons now, it has mostly been through Reddit recruitment. And it has been like that since the league was born. Now, the heads before myself have done a great job of laying the foundation of the recruitment team, I know that Tylus will take the helm and improve on it. But here is a little information on how everything functions.

First, the recruitment through Reddit. The primary focus of recruitment efforts and where a lot of time the team would spend time on. There are a few issues of recruiting through this medium. First, I cannot count the times I have been told to bug off and stop message mods. Sometimes, our team would plan around ten to thirty subs alone to try to get approved on a hand full of ones. A great example of this is the NFL team subs. A lot of them do not allow any posts of any kind. So just asking the mods could get you banned from the sub itself. In the team, a few people got their personal Reddit accounts banned for this. In addition, any ISFL account we create gets banned as well. Secondly, the hypocrisy of mods, where they will allow certain spam content but if we were to ask something along the same lines they would block or ban us from the sub. I have personally been banned from a few this way. Lastly, the mods can just straight up be unpredictable. The best example of this is just last season. I got approval for r/gaming, a 28 million subscriber sub, and come recruitment day, all the sudden the mods have a change of heart. This happened a few times as well with NFL subs. It becomes frustrating when some mods do not keep their word and change their minds at the last second. Ultimately, Reddit is a frustrating platform to try to recruit from. But there are a few positives with it.

Reddit as a whole has a ton of people using it. 11 million people log into the website a day. It can be a great tool when it comes to bringing in new recruits and users. One of the best parts of recruiting from Reddit, is the r/NFL class. The sub itself is huge too! Especially around the NFL season it can bring in 2 million users.Thanks to slm, he forged a great working relationship with the mods. It is because of him we can recruit from the sub. The numbers are great when it works, for example season 22 there are over 200 users recruited or even season 18 brought in over 100 people. Once again, thanks to slm, the schedule is usually done every 6 months. So if you have any questions about the next r/NFL class, ask yourself “Was it 6 months ago?”. Another positive of Reddit, is the league has its own sub. It has game thread posts or draft day threads. If we can have people subscribe to the r/simulationfootball - we can grow and we can become less dependent on other subs. This was one of my goals as head of recruitment.

Another great recruitment tool that is being used every year is the affiliated leagues. There are a lot of affiliate leagues from different kinds of sports. These are good places to tap into because the demographic is similar to the ISFL. Every recruitment season, the recruitment team would tap into these leagues. Some of them include: SHL, CFB, PBE and SCFSL. This recruitment helps the league maintain a good amount of users. Specifically usually, 20ish users from all the leagues. If other leagues stack against their sport subs like, r/hockey for SHL, positive feedback could happen and increase the amount of users in our league because of that. It is seen the other way when r/NFL joins the ISFL, the other leagues see a bump. We should always maintain a great relationship with the other leagues. This helps the simulation grow in general and there is a ton of overlap.
Lastly, what does the future hold for recruiting? Unfortunately, Reddit is here to stay for awhile, since it is a popular website and used widely. But, the league could benefit from other avenues. One that I tried getting going is using Youtube or Twitch. Some Madden streamers and creators could benefit from our user base and we could benefit from their reach. It is a matter of getting a working relationship. Second, I know I have thought about doing ads to some websites like Youtube, Facebook and Instagram. But that takes resources the league does not have right now. Hopefully some current users could get some insight on how recruiting works right now, and be inspired to join the team!

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882 words

[Rufio_NZ]

21.

23.


Imagine that the league’s Pro Bowl included a skills competition similar to the NFL. What sorts of games could you see being implemented? Which players do you think would perform the best in ultimate frisbee, dodgeball, or other games? Which conference would come out on top?

I could see the pro bowl doing skill challenges very similar to the NFL in a way that is awesome and unique to our league as a whole. First skills challenge id like to see would be the wide receiver / quarter back gauntlet receiving challenge where they have to catch the ball in a variety of different ways. That'd be cool to see on a stat sheet if somehow we could manipulate the way the ball is thrown in the sim and then run a bunch of tests and use the results as the results for the game. I think it'd be cool to actually chuck all the stats of all the players in the pro bowl teams into another sim and relatively cross play in a game of PBE or the hockey sim league and see how that went. I think overall the NSFC would win though because they have a bunch of awesome people and I like them a lot. Alternatively if it were just a play around game like dodgeball or something a long the lines of that i'd be interested to see all the players from the pro bowl play in a game of ultimate ninja warrior. Have different players at different stages of the course and representing each part of the conference. I really cool idea in my opinion.
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16) Create an argument for your own player, or for someone else on your team, as to why they should be nominated for awards. Lay out their stats or compare them to other contenders. Make a convincing case.

Doug Howlett, wide receiver for the Baltimore Hawks has had an impeccable season and I believe he should win Wide receiver of the year as well as Rookie of the year. It isn't as clear cut for Wide receiver of the year as he is facing tough competition in the likes of William Lim and Jackson Kingston. The primary reason I believe he should win Wide Receiver of the Year is because of his stats overall. Howlett corralled 102 receptions and had 1,646 receiving yards, placing him the highest in both categories, he did also have 11 touchdowns putting him tied 6th in the league. Lim and Kingston both had 15 touchdowns but on less receptions and less receiving yards which leads to the question of what you want from your receiver? Do you want them to reach the end zone or do you want them to catch the ball and be effective with it. In my opinion, touchdowns are a thing of luck and id much rather base my vote on the overall players stats rather than just one column which is why I think Howlett deserves the nomination and to win the WRoTY award, although I can understand an argument for a handful of other players as well. Offensive rookie of the year is a bit more clear cut in my opinion however, Doug Howlett entered this season as a rookie after playing 3 seasons in the DSFL. He also entered into an immediate WR1 role opening the records books right up for a chance for them to be broken. By the end of the season howlett had broken all rookie receiving records except for average yardage. This meant he beat the rookie receiving yard record, the rookie reception record and the rookie touchdowns record. An absolute monster at his position and truely deserving of this award.
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