Offseason Point Task - 25th Anniversary Special

[UberBJ]

What does this league mean to me? Jack shit. J/k. But the users I’ve befriended and enjoyed the company of mean the world. During a year in real life sponsored by COVID 19 and the nonsense of 2020 in general, this has been a welcome retreat from reality. I’ve been allowed (for free!) to escape to a place where only the sim can and will hurt me weekly, but it’s a welcome pain. It gives me something to look forward to a few nights a week to see if the RNG gods will favor me or not. Not just the sim itself though, the media I get to read and the magnificent graphics I’ve seen created are inspiring. I see guys like Noka pumping out professional calibur work on a whim, and it’s made me want to learn a new skill in PS. I even dabbled in animation with gifs. Hell, I went as far as to look at some online digital classes for formal education on stuff like that. So this league has inspired me in ways beyond a weekly sim league. It’s driven me to explore a creative passion I didn’t even know I had. That’s not even to mention the fun events I’ve been a part of since I joined in late July 2020. Ah, where to start. Let’s do this chronologically I guess. 

July 2020 – What the hell is this link on reddit? Sim football? Well I’m bored and don’t even know if the NFL will happen this year, so lets check it out. I go on to make a character, drinking some whiskey, ending up with a completely moronic name and then an amazingly bad idea of a render. I never thought this would last long, why would it matter? I get invited to some LRs and met some pretty cool dudes. Pretty much everyone in the BB (RIP MB) LR has been an enjoyable interaction. I had a blast in the LDN and KC ones too. Norfolk is weird being closed, you know you are. Anyways, got drafted, way later than expected, but went to my preferred destination. That moment had me hyped, the first draft here for me, and I got to go where I wanted. It was a good night.

September – Had a decent rookie campaign, got a good bit of pancakes as a TE. Didn’t get any awards but got in pole position to be setup for next season. Got to watch Spec’s QB/WR experiment first time, that shit was hilarious.

October -  Ah ISFL draft night. That was a cool night, not just because I was projected as a late 1st, early 2nd rounder, but because I knew I would probably go to one of the teams I enjoyed the scouting process with due to their draft position. Eventually, I got selected at 15 OA, and went to YK. It was one of 2 destinations I really wanted to go to, so I was stoked. And then I got surprised by an awesome gif/gfx put together by their team and that just made it even better. I know YK Canada isn’t the coolest place to be (lol pun), but the guys there and the GM’s/WR really give a damn about their users and foster some great LR activity. I can’t praise them enough.

November – My 2nd DSFL season was with a LOADED offense. We were Ultimini favorites. We had potential award winners at almost every position. We posted a great season record in route to the crushing playoff loss. But what stood out was seeing our players recognized with awards and the probowl. Seeing Daytona bring home THREE awards, our defense pick up several, and seeing Bloomey robbed of PotY was great fun. And I won TEotY which I did not expect given Michel’s TD receptions. 

I’m excited for the rest of my players career and potentially a recreate down the line. I appreciate the release this league gives me and the effort that goes on by the users to make it function and be fun. I hope to be here for a while and enjoy more fun memories. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. #FrostSuxLMAP


~750 Words

[moonlight]

It is the 25th anniversary of the ISFL and what a great 25 seasons it has been. I joined this league about halfway through at S13. I was a young buck, one month into my Pro Baseball Experience career when I heard about this sister sim league based around football. It’s hard to remember what I was doing before sim leagues but this has been one of my favorite hobbies the past couple of seasons. It’s fun to look back at the frustration I had in my early days of sim football. I was a waiver pick up then fell in the subsequent draft to the 11th round. I felt unwanted and disrespected. It wasn’t long before I realized the sim loved me. I won a lot in my Pythons career as Franklin Armstrong, and then I won a whole lot when I was drafted to the Otters. The vast majority of my memories of this league belong to the Otters. Franklin Armstrong became one of the more popular players in sim league history as he won three straight MVPs, three straight Ultimus championships on the road and went to 6 straight Pro Bowls. To commemorate Armstrong’s place in history, he was voted to First Team on the 25th Anniversary Team, along with so many other great players and users who’ve contributed to this league. Now people call Armstrong the GOAT, and considering this is a sim league, it feels a whole lot better than it should hilariously enough. I’ve been a part of a few locker rooms long term over the course of my sim history in this league. The Pythons, the Otters, and the Birddogs and I’ve been really appreciative of all the people I’ve met over the course of these 12ish seasons.

Armstrong has since retired and I’m just waiting for his HOF induction in S28. In the meantime, I’ve recreated for my next sim character by the name of Big Slammu. I’ve kept up with the theme of putting some of my favorite cartoon characters into the sim world. I was hoping to be a LB who got a lot of sacks but we’ll see. I plan to max earn with him as well so I hope the league is still thriving when we’re on Season 35+. I can’t wait to see what the next 25 seasons in this great league will bring, all the new teams, all the new Hall of Famers, and eventually the ISFL 50th anniversary team.

Code:

414 words

[Beebob]

If you had told me over one year ago when I had first joined the league and created my account after the S15 r/nfl recruitment drive that over a year later I'd still be around. And not only that, but that I'd also be in 2 entirely different sim leagues as well, there's no possible way that I would've believed you. Granted, over a year ago I wouldn't have believed half the things that happened this year so far but regardless, I think my introduction to sim leagues has been pretty interesting. So reflecting back on the year that I have invested somewhat into sim leagues, I think I can thoroughly day that there is nothing I would've taken back. Not to say the thought has never came to my mind. If anyone that has been around in sim leagues for over 3 months tells you that they've never once considered that all their time and effort has been a giant waste, they are lying to you. Though I do think that there are some intangible qualities I have gained from this. Honestly, my creative writing has definitely been improved. If you want any idea on my creativity before joining the league, just know my original player, Farley Hank, the player that has shared the same name throughout all the sim leagues I've been in. Was created in a random name generator. Besides just that I've also ended up meeting some great dudes as well, though my position in the sim leagues I'm in means that I'm always at an interesting spot. What's that position you may ask? Well, I am in fact, the resident lurker. I have in my own mind, crowned the art of lurking in LRs. Which ends up putting me in an unusual spot, as I usually end up knowing a person well before actually ever speaking to them. Though moving away from being an idiot in LRs and not talking, I may be one of the most irrelevant members in the entire league. Well, at least one of the most irrelevant active members, that has also been around for over an year. I also have gained some great memories to be honest. Most of them, involve discord to some degree but one large exception is the Philadelphia Liberty loss in the Ulitimus. With the very obvious highlight of Vander Jones just being a few yards short of giving Liberty the win. So thanks to everyone running the league, and holding league jobs. You make up the backbone of the league. Though I will also thank everyone I've met for being pretty chill and just all-around nice.

Code:

441 Words

[frazzle14]

When I first heard about this league, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. A friend recruited me and three other friends to join at the same time. Joining with friends helped keep me active in the beginning. I’d never been a part of a sim league before so I wasn’t sure what to expect but I decided to give it a go and I’m really glad I did.

The first few weeks were a whirlwind of creating a player, getting drafted to the coyotes where none of my friends had been drafted and trying to find my feet within a community that I wasn’t sure what to make of at first. Once I got a bit more active on discord and involved within the league I really started to see what kept people involved. The community and the people in it.

To get from where I started with struggling to make a update page, taking ages to write media articles, the team that drafted me forgetting to scout me to being a KCC team captain, a 2nd round pick in the ISFL draft and a rookie mentor within a short space of time is definitely thanks to the league community.

From the KCC GM’s who drafted me Butters and Matty, to the ones that replaced them Glims and Simo, to the current partnership of Glims and WhatAmUs, I seem to have been lucky with having awesome GM’s for the coyotes and now playing with Baltimore I have another awesome pair of GM’s Butters (again) and Star. They’ve always kept me motivated to keep earning and get as involved in the league as I can.

To my fellow S25 KCC draftees, Glims, Slate and WhatAmUs you guys are definitely three of the best dudes I’ve met since I’ve joined the league. Although we couldn’t even make the playoffs during our two seasons together with the coyotes it was an awesome time. I hope we can all be on another team together at some point and hopefully make the playoffs! Hopefully even win a title together so we can hear one of the rarest things in the world, Glims swearing!

Simo, mate your a good cunt.

I didn’t think this league would take up as much of my time as it does. Joining this league had led me to join four other sim leagues which is crazy. I’d have to say I’m really glad that it does and long may it continue. Hopefully with a team I’m on actually getting to the playoffs for once and hopefully a long career for Yeboah.


Just want to say thanks to the folks who’ve made this league such a fun place to be!

[TheMemeMaestro]

So I am in a relatively unique position of having been around the league during it's early days, rising up the ranks, and then having an absolute dumpster fire of a collapse. I then took a long hiatus from the league, attempted multiple comebacks (all of which have failed), and yet here I am, back once again to try and return to the league. I guess the best way to go over what this league means to me is to go back to the beginning, go over that rise and fall, and then why I decided to return here.

So, as some of you may know, I first entered the league in Season 2, a waiver pickup for the Colorado Yeti. This was well before the existence of the DSFL, so it was straight to the big leagues. When I arrived there it was a fun environment, a lot of great guys. I should also mention that I was incredibly young at the time, 13 or 14, and really immature my entire first go around with the league. I was also really excited about this new league and a little less excited about everything else going on in the real world at the time. So that led me to early on just invest everything I had into the league. In my first week I wrote a 5000 word article, pretty much the maximum anyone should under the pay scale at the time. That dedication led to me being the first overall pick by the Colorado Yeti in the S3 draft. It also led to me becoming the Yeti General Manager shortly after. Essentially right after I became GM, the Logan Noble fiasco went down, some old school drama that only the OG's know about. This led to me being forced to go get Nick Pierno, a guy going for a style of QB which just didn't work with the sim. But I thought it was interesting and didn't know any better, so I just let it happen, while trying to urge him to do other, more productive things with his TPE as well. The experiment failed, and the Yeti were the laughing stock of the league. This was the worst run any team had ever, and to the best of my knowledge, will ever have in the NSFL/ISFL. I was considered the worst GM in the league, and this escape became just another chore, just another thing to add weight onto my young shoulders. I slowly fell out of love with the league.

But the thing is, no one likes to just tear things down. The goal was always to tear down, to eventually build up. At the time it only felt like things were crumbling around me both here and in real life. So even though I was in no place to be running the team, I was not going to just let another thing be something that I destroyed. I lashed out, humiliated myself, was removed from the Yeti, and left the league. I would like to apologize to any HO members and members of the Yeti who I put any burden on in that time. In the time between then and now, things have gotten much better for me, and I feel ready to come back to the league. Because while I may have had a severe, whiplash level of ups and downs with this league, I still remember what it once was to me. I still value and cherish the people I met. Even when the Yeti sucked, the people in the locker room made it feel comforting, when a whole lot else wasn't. And upon my return, I have felt a similar energy. Maybe I'm chasing something that no linger exists. Maybe I'm like a junkie chasing the experience of their first high again. But on the chance this league feels like it once did, I am back. I will remember this league as a light in a dark time for me. And that is what it means to me.

(676 words, overkill I guess)

[GlimsTC]

Could have sworn this closed at the usual time, so I understand if this doesn't count anymore.

I've been in the league since the Reddit recruitment back in July, and honestly, I can't believe how much this league has given me in such a short amount of time. Though, going onto five months now, I suppose it really hasn't been that short of a time any longer. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when signing up, but I knew that I really wanted a place to talk Football if nothing else. I definitely got that with the ISFL, but I got a whole lot more too, which is an insane amount of great friends. Be it Butters and Star, Slate and Mojo, or Frazzle and WhatAmUs, or whoever, I've met so many wonderful people that I truly am glad to be friends with. And with their friendship has come a lot of fun opportunities that I couldn't have ever imagined having in this league. After only a week after being drafted, I was a Kansas City war room member and then turned into their GM before midseason, and then a round 1 pick in the ISFL S25 draft. I've been given every opportunity to really experience the most exciting and highest honors of the league, and there's still a ton more possibilities past this.

As GM, I'm just really thankful for the team I run. The Kansas City Coyotes are truly special to me, and I genuinely am glad I can etch my name into the team's history, no matter how temporary that history may be. It's always been a wonderful team to be a part of, and I have had one of the greatest groups of people to work with and talk with possible my entire time here. And with Kansas, almost every single member in the war room is a GM or is training to become a GM. To have such a committed and active group of people that pour just as much passion as I do, possibly even more, into something like this, is something truly special. My time in the ISFL is one that I'll treasure long after I finally decide to call it quits. Though, I plan on being here for quite a while and enjoying as much of the league as I possibly can. I'm only on my third season, so everything I've experienced so far is just the beginning, so I can only imagine what awaits me moving forward. I hope for nothing but the best for the league and hope that it continues to grow into something even more special than what it is already.

(430 words)