1) Playoff Predictions, Reviews:
Written: Give a short write up of one or multiple playoff matches. If completed before the airing of the sims, give your predictions; if it is afterwards, give a review of the game.
My prediction for the Ultimus championship is that the Yellowknife Wraiths will beat the Austin Copperheads 27 - 10. The Wraiths have been absolutely steamrolling their way through the playoffs on their way to the Ultimus trophy, and I don’t think that the Copperheads will be able to stop them in their quest for the ‘chip. I think that the main factor in this victory will be the battle in the trenches. The Copperheads, while having the most pancakes in the league, are also allowing the most sacks in the league at 34, with the next closest team only having 20 sacks allowed. Meanwhile, the Wraiths are 4th in the league in sacks with 38, just behind the Copperheads who have 41 sacks. I think that a key player for the Wraiths will be D. Grithead, their starting linebacker. Grithead is leading the Wraiths with 11 sacks this season, tied for 4th most in the league for a player. Grithead is also a solid tackler, racking up 88 tackles this season. Another facet of Yellowknife’s game that I predict will lead them to victory is their rushing game. The Wraiths currently have 2002 rushing yards this year, the 2nd most in the league. They also top the charts in rushing touchdowns with 21. Meanwhile, the Copperheads are bottom 3 in the league for both of those categories, with their 8 rushing touchdowns being tied for dead last in the league.
6) Expansion
Written: There have been a lot of new players entering the league recently. If you were in charge of a new expansion team for the NSFL or DSFL, how would you go about it?
I’ve actually discussed this topic at length in one of my previous media posts around current teams’ media markets and good prospective locations for new ones! I think that going about this with 1. Input from the sim league community as a whole and 2. A dash of realism would make for a successful expansion. I think that there is a lot of talent and dedication in this league that could lead to some awesome new ideas for expansion teams. There are a lot of people who are really into making graphics (myself included) that could probably come up with cool jersey and logo designs for a new team that would be unique and interesting. Additionally, I think engaging the league in this decision, possibly through a vote or a poll, would allow for members to feel much more engaged in the decision making process of the league. I think that promoting this transparency and participation would be a great look for the league. From the realism perspective, I think that picking a location that has a large irl population and an interesting history would be a good idea for expansion. I’m personally a fan of choosing a location like Havana, Cuba as our expansion location. Havana has a huge population and a really interesting history that could make for great logos, jerseys, and media pieces.
9) Brotherly Love
Written: We always talk about what teams and players are our rivals. This season, give me what team or player you have a soft spot for.
I would definitely say that I have a soft spot for the Tijuana Luchadores. When I joined this league at the end of December last year, I was picked up by the Luchadores at the end of their regular season as they were about to begin their playoff run for the Ultimini. I was welcomed into the locker room by many of my fellow teammates, as well as my coaches and GMs. I felt instantly part of a team. I’d never been in a sim league before, but this was a great introduction to them as a whole for me. Even though I didn’t have really any TPE to my name, I was still lucky enough to have the sim rule in my favor, racking up a few sacks, a fair number of tackles, and some tackles for loss ( I won’t mention the one or two games where I failed to register a stat). I felt like I was able to help the team get to the Ultimini, and although we did end up losing the championship game to the Grey Ducks I enjoyed the entire process. Although I would eventually go on to be acquired by the Portland Pythons, I’ll always look back on my time in Tijuana as a great introduction and opportunity.
10) Reform
Written: If you were in charge of managing the league, what changes would you make to make it better run?
This probably isn’t what anybody would be looking for as a response to this question, but I see it as my soapbox anyway: I think that graphics, particularly high quality graphics, need to be a better source of income for players. While I don’t have an exact mapping of time to dollars for a media post vs. a graphics post, I think that they are vastly different with media posts being way faster and easier to make money than graphics. The fact that users are allowed to create train of thought media posts that are essentially users typing anything and everything that comes to their mind is a great indicator of this. This isn’t a slight at the moderators of those posts as I’m sure they take the time and effort to weed out the worst of these, but this isn’t something that would pass the gavel of the media folks in my opinion. Additionally, the amount of time and effort that goes into a 5/5 graphic is worth much more than what is allowed to be paid out. More specifically, 5/5 trading cards or jersey posts are effectively a waste of time if the purpose is to make money. For a trading card to be 5/5 you still have to do a jersey swap, which is quite time consuming if you want things to be high quality. You also have to do a great job of either making a realistic border for a card or manipulating an existing card to fit your render. These tasks could easily take an hour or two, which would be millions of more dollars gained if you were to write a stream of consciousness media piece in that same timeframe.
Written: Give a short write up of one or multiple playoff matches. If completed before the airing of the sims, give your predictions; if it is afterwards, give a review of the game.
My prediction for the Ultimus championship is that the Yellowknife Wraiths will beat the Austin Copperheads 27 - 10. The Wraiths have been absolutely steamrolling their way through the playoffs on their way to the Ultimus trophy, and I don’t think that the Copperheads will be able to stop them in their quest for the ‘chip. I think that the main factor in this victory will be the battle in the trenches. The Copperheads, while having the most pancakes in the league, are also allowing the most sacks in the league at 34, with the next closest team only having 20 sacks allowed. Meanwhile, the Wraiths are 4th in the league in sacks with 38, just behind the Copperheads who have 41 sacks. I think that a key player for the Wraiths will be D. Grithead, their starting linebacker. Grithead is leading the Wraiths with 11 sacks this season, tied for 4th most in the league for a player. Grithead is also a solid tackler, racking up 88 tackles this season. Another facet of Yellowknife’s game that I predict will lead them to victory is their rushing game. The Wraiths currently have 2002 rushing yards this year, the 2nd most in the league. They also top the charts in rushing touchdowns with 21. Meanwhile, the Copperheads are bottom 3 in the league for both of those categories, with their 8 rushing touchdowns being tied for dead last in the league.
6) Expansion
Written: There have been a lot of new players entering the league recently. If you were in charge of a new expansion team for the NSFL or DSFL, how would you go about it?
I’ve actually discussed this topic at length in one of my previous media posts around current teams’ media markets and good prospective locations for new ones! I think that going about this with 1. Input from the sim league community as a whole and 2. A dash of realism would make for a successful expansion. I think that there is a lot of talent and dedication in this league that could lead to some awesome new ideas for expansion teams. There are a lot of people who are really into making graphics (myself included) that could probably come up with cool jersey and logo designs for a new team that would be unique and interesting. Additionally, I think engaging the league in this decision, possibly through a vote or a poll, would allow for members to feel much more engaged in the decision making process of the league. I think that promoting this transparency and participation would be a great look for the league. From the realism perspective, I think that picking a location that has a large irl population and an interesting history would be a good idea for expansion. I’m personally a fan of choosing a location like Havana, Cuba as our expansion location. Havana has a huge population and a really interesting history that could make for great logos, jerseys, and media pieces.
9) Brotherly Love
Written: We always talk about what teams and players are our rivals. This season, give me what team or player you have a soft spot for.
I would definitely say that I have a soft spot for the Tijuana Luchadores. When I joined this league at the end of December last year, I was picked up by the Luchadores at the end of their regular season as they were about to begin their playoff run for the Ultimini. I was welcomed into the locker room by many of my fellow teammates, as well as my coaches and GMs. I felt instantly part of a team. I’d never been in a sim league before, but this was a great introduction to them as a whole for me. Even though I didn’t have really any TPE to my name, I was still lucky enough to have the sim rule in my favor, racking up a few sacks, a fair number of tackles, and some tackles for loss ( I won’t mention the one or two games where I failed to register a stat). I felt like I was able to help the team get to the Ultimini, and although we did end up losing the championship game to the Grey Ducks I enjoyed the entire process. Although I would eventually go on to be acquired by the Portland Pythons, I’ll always look back on my time in Tijuana as a great introduction and opportunity.
10) Reform
Written: If you were in charge of managing the league, what changes would you make to make it better run?
This probably isn’t what anybody would be looking for as a response to this question, but I see it as my soapbox anyway: I think that graphics, particularly high quality graphics, need to be a better source of income for players. While I don’t have an exact mapping of time to dollars for a media post vs. a graphics post, I think that they are vastly different with media posts being way faster and easier to make money than graphics. The fact that users are allowed to create train of thought media posts that are essentially users typing anything and everything that comes to their mind is a great indicator of this. This isn’t a slight at the moderators of those posts as I’m sure they take the time and effort to weed out the worst of these, but this isn’t something that would pass the gavel of the media folks in my opinion. Additionally, the amount of time and effort that goes into a 5/5 graphic is worth much more than what is allowed to be paid out. More specifically, 5/5 trading cards or jersey posts are effectively a waste of time if the purpose is to make money. For a trading card to be 5/5 you still have to do a jersey swap, which is quite time consuming if you want things to be high quality. You also have to do a great job of either making a realistic border for a card or manipulating an existing card to fit your render. These tasks could easily take an hour or two, which would be millions of more dollars gained if you were to write a stream of consciousness media piece in that same timeframe.
![[Image: 5fKn9dY.png]](https://i.imgur.com/5fKn9dY.png)
