(S25) - Ultimus Week

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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?

When looking at the actual roster of the Honolulu Hahalua the first thing that jumps to your mind immediately is, that the team is really young. There is no player on the team who will regress in the offseason. The first one who will be hit by his age is the star wide receiver Jed Podolak after season 26. After that there are still only two players on the roster right now, who will be affected by that. Those players are an inactive Wide Receiver Jacoby Clay who i doubt will then still be on the team as of my evaluation right now. The other one is the best kicker of the league Venus Powers. He is the second best earner of the S20 draft class and has a ton of seasons yet to play as for kickers there are not that many attributes to be maxed to be a dependable kicker for the forseeable future.
Skywalker is about to enter his prime seasons and is still far from regression. If he can maintain his earning rate he will be a sure leader for us.
If we can get a high earning wide receiver that would be a great addition to our offense as we then aren't as dependant on the Skywalker / Podolak connection. It also wouldn't hurt to get a human offensive lineman or two, it would be great for maintaining cap space and allow to maybe add free agents to get the team over the hump.
The biggest need though i would see at the defensive side of the ball. Right now we are pretty good set at LB and good to go for seasons to come. The secondary is just getting started. They also are very young still and are only getting better. Shawn Dawkins and Davriel Lavigne will be two of the top safeties of the league. The cornerback duo consisting of RayRay Jackson and Jim Waters are also peaking in a season or two. The holes to fill are at the denfensive line. At DT we currently have 2 inactive players with Bane Ka'ana'ana and Big Edd. They both are around 500 TPE so this is usable, but not what you would call superstar-ish. If we are able to sure up the defensive line, we can really make a push at a championship.
All around there are not that many holes to fill but if we really want to make a real title run we need every bit of help we can get as the other teams in the league also won't slack off. 

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29) Some positions are still under appreciated. Talk about the offensive linemen and/or special teamers on your squad. Show how they have contributed to the team, both on and off the field, and why they deserve recognition.

I want to take the chance here to write about a player on the team that is often taken for granted. Every team needs a dependable, reliable player on that position. It might not be the most sought after position in a simulation league but is vital for every franchise. I am writing about the non-football players. I am writing about the kickers. The one kicker i am writing about is Venus Powers. He is currently the undisputed best kicker in the whole league. He is one of the most efficient kickers to ever play in the ISFL/NSFL. In the last 2 seasons he just missed 1 field goal and was perfect on extra point attempts. With that performance you never get the feeling that he could miss a PAT, you just know that he always is on point and the moment is never too big for him.
Additionally he is on pace to become one of the kickers with the highest volume in his career. 86 games in into his career he has 156 Field goal attempts and has missed just 8 of them. This are really staggering numbers. If he keeps up his pace he will definitely become a threat for the record holders. In terms of extra points his record is as impressive. Until now he has made 180 of 183 PATs. He is and will be the best kicker for seasons to come.

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Reflect on the two expansion teams. How did their first seasons go? What were their key strengths and weaknesses, and how are they poised to improve in seasons to come?

With the growth in users in the ISFL we saw another expansion coming along in season 25. The New York Silverbacks and the Berlin Fire Salamanders joined the league. As expected it proved to be a difficult one for the expansion teams. How could it not be challenging? The best players of the league certainly got protected from the expansion draft so they had to pick their player material out of the rest of them.
The season started with a direct face off. In the first week of the regular season they played against each other. The Fire Salamanders had the better end and won 30-27. They also looked better the first few weeks of the season. After 4 weeks they were 2-2 and looked ahead to a promising season. But after that they lost 3 games in a row and after a close win against SJS at home they went on a 8 game losing streak to end out the season 3-13.
After losing to the expansion rival the first half of the season was really awful for New York losing 10 straight games. It was really looking dire for the silverbacks. At the end of the season however they got hot and collected 3 wins in a row and closed out the season on a high note with a 27-13 win over San Jose ending up with a 4-12 record.