Offseason Point Task - 25th Anniversary Special

[DApolloS]

I have just finished my first season in the DSFL and as someone who is new to Sim Sports, I can say, it was fantastic. I would have loved to say my favorite memory was hoisting the Ultimini Trophy with my teammates, but alas, we were defeated. Instead, I'll go to what is now my favorite moment. The moment I learned I was drafted to the London Royals in the DSFL. I didn't think I'd find the group that i did. They are more than just a group of guys I watch dots smash each other with on a screen. They are a family. And they welcomed me into their family. It's crazy to think I could find this in an online league. Who would have thought I would have enjoyed myself this much after clicking a link on Reddit looking for people who may be interested in joining this thing called a Simulation Football League. It's a crazy thought. But I had plenty of time on my hands with this Pandemic shutting everything down and starting everything back up just to shut it all back down again. So why not. Man, I have zero regrets. And now I'm drafted into the ISFL, so that's going to be another crazy adventure that I can't wait to start, whether it's next season or 2 seasons from now. Thank you to everyone who puts all their effort into this league, running it and making it as fun as it is. I think I speak for everyone when I say we all appreciate what you do for us.

I'm glad to be here and I can see myself having a hard time picking my favorite moment from all the memories I'm going to make when we do this again for S50, the Half Century mark.

[Mojojojo]

I will start out by saying that I am really sad to see the player wiki page update task removed. As a new player in the league, I found the player wiki pages a great way to learn more about the league’s history and they were helpful in completing many of the point tasks.

And when I first read this prompt, I was even less thrilled. I didn’t feel like I knew too much about the league and therefore it was hard to write about its history or to know how it might evolve into the future. But as I went through my first ISFL draft and heard my player’s name called third overall, it brought back so many positive memories of my first offseason in the league (close to two real-world months ago). The DSFL offseason is difficult. While there is excitement from getting invited to different locker rooms and just learning all of the different tasks that you have to do, the wait until the draft is long and sometimes the anticipation is crushing. But there is one very bright spot during the long, dark wait: and that is the Prospect Bowl!

I think the Prospect Bowl remains an undervalued experience in the DSFL/ISFL despite the fact that many remember it fondly. I feel like it is often thrown together last minute, kind of as an afterthought to keep the rookies occupied. And sandwiched between the ISFL and DSFL drafts, it is easy to overlook. But seeing the Prospect Bowl teams announced for this year, I am nostalgic for my time as a wide-eyed rookie on the S25 Mars Explorers. While I had already seen my player’s dot on the field (having played the end of S24 on waiver), many of my teammates were hitting the field for the first time. And their excitement was infectious. We knew everyone was given a level playing field since all players were defaulted to their 50 TPE build. While I was a little sad that meant my earnings thus far wouldn’t be seen on the field, I also realized that this meant any team could win it. It was just utter chaos and it was beautiful. Now, anyone who knows the Mars Explorers knows that our Prospect Bowl was one heart attack moment after another. We had three of our four games go to overtime and lost out on making the playoffs with a tiebreaker. But despite finishing with the worst record in the league, this was one of the first times that I felt like I was helping to create something bigger. It reminded me that this league is built completely on volunteer time, from HO down through all of the league jobbers to each individual player. The culture of the league and of each team is built on the kindness, quirkiness, and mutual nerdiness of the users in this league. And I hope that every year the Prospect Bowl continues to remind me of how wonderful this crazy online community of people who love watching dots on a screen really is.

My word count: 512

[Doomraider]

Since joining the league almost half a year ago I have so much fun and met so many cool people along the way. When I started I had planned on playing in the league along side a friend and competing with him. He has since moved on from the league but my commitment to the league never wavered. That is because of one particular team, the London Royals. When I first got to the Royals locker room I was stunned at the amount of people in there and the warm welcomes I received. As the first week of my first regular season game approached I gradually became more attached and committed to the league, and still continue to do so. I would feel awful to let down so many people by not constantly accruing TPE and updating my character. And this was rewarded when we got to an ultimini. It was then that I knew how much this league meant to me. The roller coaster of emotions during the season and playoffs, and the sheer excitement when we won showed that this was more than just some people RPing as athletes, it was a community of competitors giving it their all each week to win games and support the team and league. Each new season I feel like I want to give more and more to the league so that I can support the people that have gotten me this far. From the GMs to everyone else with league jobs and everyone on the teams. I feel more committed to this league than my actual rec leagues. But most importantly to myself this is a means for me to express my creativity with character creation. Creating a character and their backstory was so much fun when entering the league. Watching them get drafted and then experiencing the higher highs and lowest lows each week is a blast. And then being able to update their wiki page and expand their history each season makes it feel so real. I have already begun thinking up my recreate and further recreates after that. I want see how far I can go in this league and remain committed to my teammates. I only hope that I never let them down. This league is a community and the ups and downs only make it stronger. I want to watch it evolve and help as well because it continue to mean so much more to me every passing season.

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[BRNXB0MBERS]

I don't even remember how I got recruited. I think it was on reddit, but my class was small. It must have been on a smaller sub. Anyway, I wasn't sure If I would stick around, but it never hurts to try something. It started off a little slow with trying to figure out the forums and joining Discord. However, it quickly picked up speed, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here.

I started my career in Myrtle Beach, where Frost and Cory ran a fantastic team and locker room. It was always active and full of jokes. I enjoyed making a background for my player and completing point tasks in pirate talk. I spent the next season in Norfolk where scorp provided some great advice. It was not as active, but the league kept my interest with the general discord, Myrtle Beach discord, and the media section on the forum. I even got involved with some league jobs, including twitter and data mining. Aside from the nice pay, that also created some new relationships and produced some great memories.

I was lucky enough to be drafted by Arizona, where I was called up immediately. They were in a rebuild, but everyone bought it. I quickly meshed with the locker room and joined the war room at the end of the season. Everybody from unicorn to cue to moose to saba and everyone in between has made this league very enjoyable over the past 11 months. We have a great time in the Arizona locker room. If we are not making fun of cue’s interceptions, we are yelling at saba for forgetting the donuts yet again. Maybe we are congratulating moose on another phenomenal season for Galf Wilf or trying to keep Zamir in line. We've drafted great players and users, so we are constantly meeting friends and having fun together. The new leadership team has already made some changes, and I know the locker room is going to be full of fun for seasons to come.

All of that to say: I've really enjoyed my time in this league. It's fun to hang out and chat with the guys, play games on the side, and, of course, play simulation football during the week. This league is great during regular times, but it's even better given all of the coronavirus induced restrictions recently. There is always someone online to hang, chat, or play a game.

Code:

406 words

[KingSean]

It may be too early for me to claim too much meaning for this league at this moment since I joined the league only about two months ago. Most of the time, I just tried to claim TPEs, develop my player, and watch the game. I was relatively quiet in the locker room. But even so, I could find important meanings of the league for me.
    It is an important virtual world, distracting me from the gloomy COIVD pandemic. As everyone knows, the pandemic overwhelmed the whole US in the summer until now. When you are self-quarantined at home all the time, some distraction from regular work is really critical to keep my physical and mental health. The league indeed helped with my health. Compared to other sports broadcasts, the sim game is more engaging since your own player is participating. The wins and losses directly connect to my emotions, creating nervousness, expectations, and frustrations. Games are exciting since they are partially controlled and partially random. While I hate the randomness when it is against my team, it sometimes does help with our wins. Even frustrations and disappointments are healthy emotions at this moment, since they can clean my mind and let me temporarily forget about the raging pandemic and the boring and never-ending self-quarantine.
    I always enjoy strategy games, data analysis, and competitive stuff, and this sim platform just neatly ties these things together. True confession - I nearly knew nothing about American football before joining the league. But I always relish soccer games (well, you should be able to tell it from my player’s name), and my daily work of extracting great insights through data and advanced technology. Nobody has seen my data analytical skills yet, but I promise they will seep into some news articles. Anyway, the league is like another world to play my own strength and enjoy my life. Meanwhile, I can learn new things about American football and football strategies in the league. I love intelligent strategies, but I also love brutal sports where only muscles matter without a brain. Is this combination self-conflicting? No. If anyone thinks this combination is impossible. Please be a more creative thinker or just go f*** yourself.
    The league also means friendship. I was invited by my friends to join the league, and it is a great platform to keep talking to friends (slate and Mojojojo) during the COVID time. I really appreciate their help, since some seemingly trivial things could frustrate you and lead to players’ quitting a great platform. For example, yesterday I tried to upload some graphs to the GFX forum, and I found that it was very difficult to upload images through Dropbox (anyone knows what is the problem with it?). Anyway, slate told me that he addressed this problem by using Imgur. After I adopted his approach, the problem was resolved immediately. Thank you, slate ; ). Well, it might be seen as a tiny small thing, but the accumulation of many tiny frustrations has led to the bankruptcy of great companies/platforms. It is a great experience to play with good friends. As to making new friends in the league, I admit that I am generally quiet. I am not from the US, so sometimes it is hard for me to keep track of all the talks (with many acronyms) in the locker room. It will take me time to get used to the quick exchanges in the locker room. I can sense that people are generally nice and devoted to the league. Hopefully, I can make many new friends in the future.


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[LewisMelville]

I am writing this purely for the TPE. Now I do not have a great history in this league as I a only entering my third season. I've spent my first two years in this league with the Minnesota Grey Ducks (which is the team I wanted to be drafted to). I have found in my short time in the league so far it is much more fun when you're winning (pretty much like everything else you do in life). In the beginning I was not sure I would stick around long enough to see my player degress. Saying that now the league and Jeeeeroy Lenkins have become a part of my day to day life and I'm now eager to do point tasks at every opportunity to help my player get better and help my team win.

Personally I feel like folk take this far to serious and need to take a step back and realise that at the end of the day it is just a bit of fun and is something we use to get away from reality. My two biggest highlights of my time in the league game in season 2. I was awarded my first ever game ball by the Grey Ducks in week one of an intense season. I recorded 7 tackles, and defended 1 pass. It was a great achievement as we didn't allow a single reception over 16 yards against the Tijuana Luchadores. Which is even more impressive when you take into account that they beat the London Royals by 26 points to clinch the Ultimini.

My favourite highlight of my time so far was a make or break week 12 game against our division rivals the Portland Pythons, that had massive playoff implications. A loss for us meant that we would not have control of our playoff push and meant we would have to rely on results going our way. A victory meant that all we needed to do was beat the Kansas City Coyotes and we were in. We were curising to victory against Portland coming towards the end of the 3rd quarter having scored our 3rd touchdown of the game. When our kicker Maximus missed the PAT. Portland swiftly marched down the filed and were a score within minutes of the 4th quarter starting. To make matters worse our offence then went 3 and out. The Pythons are running down the clock now whilst entering our red zone  with less than 4 minutes on the clock. This is where I grab the spotlight and catch an interception and return it 82 yards for my first touchdown. We are now 10 points clear and pretty much guaranteed the win when I catch my 2nd interception of the game with the dying seconds to secure the win. Sadly we didn't win the Ultimini as we had hoped but it was still successful on a personal note. I am enjoying the league and I am already planning my recreate. My recreate will not be a Royal (apologies if whoever is grading this is a Royal but I'm 0-5 v you and I detest the Royal Family).

[Thor]

I've been here for 9 months or so now (boy does time fly), and in that time I've become very involved and invested in the league. I first discovered the NSFL like so many others through a fateful reddit recruitment post in S22, while spending the winter living in Canada. I had a lot of free time, as I was not on a working visa - so if I wasn't out skiing or spending time with friends, I had plenty of spare time to play a pretend football league. The first season I was in this league I met a lot of people, many of them now friends, who helped me understand the sim and larger league. 

After having to leave Canada early and finding myself arriving home during a global pandemic, I discovered I was once again going to have a lot of time spare to be able to contribute to the league and I continued to search for ways I could do that. I knew early on that I would want to be that same kind of person I met in my early sim league days and ended up in a rookie mentor role as my first league job. This job is probably the most meaningful to me, because above all else I like helping out users that are new to the league.

 I began a DSFL co-GM and eventually GM role with Myrtle Beach, giving me even more opportunity to help new people out while also enjoying a loosely competitve side to the management of a team. Being the GM of a developmental team also gives me the ability to help other players see that back end of the team, bringing new players into the war room and having them be involved with running the team as well. I won't lie and say I'll miss sim testing if it disappears from the league though. Recently NTG and myself with the approval of the ex-GMs moved the Buccaneers to from Myrtle Beach to Bondi Beach, bringing football to Australia and expanding the international aspect of the international simulation football league, which despite some criticisms I am quite proud of.

Now that I'm starting a new job and going back to working full time, with a new house to look after and maintain - who knows how much spare time I'll have going forward. I don't think my earning habits with Heath will change, but my next player might be something more casual - maybe I'll spend a few seasons in the DSFL before creating something more serious again, or I may create a less demanding position. The third and seemingly most likely alternative based on how everything else has gone, is that I stay on the way I have been and continue max earning with a new player after Heath.

[24redcrayons]

To this day in the league, I would have to say that my favorite part of the league is absolutely and will probably always be the userbase. Specifically, I am intrigued by the different people who hail from different parts of the world who come from all walks of life in order to watch a couple of dots on a screen move and to read a couple of numbers. That in and of itself is a marvel for me. However, another thing that I really did not expect and have come to love is some of my teammates. I absolutely did not expect to get to know or become close to some of the people that I have met through this league, and have to say that I am very glad it happened.

Another aspect of the league I really enjoy is how active and engaged people actually are. I really like the people actually are willing to take time out of their day and make things such as graphics and signatures and are willing to even take the time to run a twitter account for their player. I think that all of these things combined create the great environment has has allowed this league to grow at such a high rate for the past few seasons. I also think that another major thing and possibly the most important thing is the people. I think that the vast majority of people in the ISFL are very similar and are here just to have some fun and play some fake football. As such, I am really happy about how most people interact and are so nice to each other. However, there are a couple of bad apples that like to sow dissent. Despite this, I think that because it is so obvious that the vast majority of people here are here to have fun and ultimately do not take things too seriously, it is okay. I am also really glad that the coaches in this league are so dedicated to their teams. Specifically, in my experiences, all of the GMs that I have had are some of the best people I have ever met. I think the Dewalt has been super helpful, but i also really enjoyed having TVC and TheCC as well as Jamar as GMs. I also need to thank UNicorn because he has been great and super helpful. I hope that my new gms are able to reach the standards that these previous guys have set. I have high hopes. I think that everything is set up well for the league to have a bright future.

[TheCC]

What does this league mean to me? Man, it means more to me than I would have ever expected when I first saw that recruitment post on reddit back in February. It’s weird to think about how close it was to meaning nothing to me. I was basically inactive when I was drafted to the ISFL, so I almost never experienced the best parts of this league, which I got into later on after I was drafted.


So back to the question at hand, what does this league mean to me? It’s sort of hard to put into words, but I’ll give it my best shot. The number one most important thing that this league has given me is the lifelong friendships and bonds that I’ve formed with several users here. There are several people that I think I’d remain friends with even if one of us left the league, but the main friends that I’ve made here that I will definitely keep in touch with for years to come are ForSucksFake, Reaper11b, RussDrivesTheBus, and Dewalt27. There are so many more but I don’t want to just fill up all 400 words with people’s names. Those four are some of my best friends, even counting my IRL friends. Maybe that’s me romanticizing it because of the pandemic, but we get along really well and they’re hilarious. Truly some great guys. Speaking of the pandemic, we already have plans to meet up once everything starts getting back to normal in the future. So this league has given me some great friends that I plan to have for years.

What else has it given me? It’s given me a community that usually makes me feel like I belong, and always strives to be inclusive. I’m talking about the league community as a whole, but I’m especially referring to the Minnesota Grey Ducks, where I’ve been a member since S22, and am now one of the GMs there. Some people think we’re toxic, immature, whatever. We’re a close group of people and we care about each other. I couldn’t be happier with the group that we’ve assembled there, and I’m so excited to bring in the next class to be a part of our tight knit family. The Grey Ducks have taught me how to be a better leader, and they’ve given me so many hilarious moments that I will never forget for the rest of my life, and that’s why I love them so much. This league means more to me than I ever could have expected, and I hope that nothing happens to change my view on the league. Let’s keep making memories!

[LB3737]

Don’t expect too much coherence, as this is basically my rambling thoughts on the league typed into this PT

So basically, I joined this league back on the 30th of September, right before the beginning of Season 25 and was picked up on waivers by the Pythons, who I will get onto in a minute. I joined this league because, similarly to most of the other people who have joined this league recently, I was bored out of my mind during COVID and quarantine and all this shit, and just needed a hobby or pastime, something I could perhaps kill some time doing. So one day while browsing reddit, I saw an old post about this league and decided “You know what, why don’t I give this thing a shot, it looks like it could potentially be fun.” and since than I’ve been having a blast of a time.

Initially though, after joining, I found the interface slightly confusing and was maybe considering giving up at the time, until I got a dm from the Portland general manager, Southpaw, who was a great help and guided me through all of the different things you have to do when joining the league and creating a player, and eventually picked me up on waivers. Without him I probably would have quit the league after a day or two. As for the rest of the Pythons, they were all super kind and helpful too, and it’s been fun having chats with them in the Portland Locker Room, from discussing player builds to fantasy football team builds, and I am glad they were the first team I got to join coming into the league, even if my rookie season didn’t see much success.

After I joined the league I didn’t really know what to expect though, and the idea of watching some dots move around on a screen for 30 minutes every day of the week at 1 AM sounded somewhat trivial at the least, to a downright snooze fest at the worst, but there is something so addictive about watching those tiny dots, trying to figure out which one of the many is mine, and cheering them on with others in the YouTube chat. It is quite a unique experience, and I would go as far as to say there aren’t any others like that experience.

Speaking of unique experiences, being drafted to the big leagues was something crazy aswell. From the first moment I got the first scouting dm, there was just something cool about thinking and knowing a GM might want me (!) to come and play for their precious team. I’m glad Sarasota decided to take a chance on me in the first round, and hopefully I can do them all proud when I get called up in the next couple of seasons.


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