6) Write 800 words or more on something that interests you. It could be related to statistics, to a league issue you take seriously, or a niche part of history that doesn’t fit neatly into either of the above categories. This must be directly related to the league, so don’t wax 800 words about your team’s Werewolf server. Be warned that freedom comes with risk, and this category will be judged especially stringently for anyone trying to spew complete nonsense.
This season has been an exciting one for me, as it's contained a few major events in my career (and those of others) so far. The first is that I'm actually decent now. It was disappointing to see Bruce Buckley/NTG get traded, but I understood why it happened (the difference in TPE between him and a bot guard meant that a team with less than 2 OL would always value his player more highly than 'Zona) and was happy to welcome Mathias Hanyadi/CLG into the locker room. My newfound success wasn't in fact, due to anything other than the sim smiling down on me. Sure, I'd been playing some guard before Buckley got traded, but it actually didn't really effect my pancake totals. Playing with two OL rather than three wasn't anything new, either, as I was paired with the IA Sylvester Berlin in the DSFL and had played opposite Buckley for the first part of my ISFL career before Julio Jones/Crayons got called up. There was burst of TPE earning, either. I'm fully aware of the fact that, for the 48th pick in the massive S22 class, I really haven't been a great earner. Consistently inconsistent would be a good way to put it. I was IA for part of one offseason, but otherwise I'm technically an active earner, if not a very good one. Unfortunately for me, the Fair Rubs movement is reaching its culmination, as almost all of the top OL in the league (pancake/sack-wise) are humans. It's been incredible to see how it's developed since I joined the league in S21/22 and knowing what it was like prior, but it does have the side effect of making my career year pretty average relative to my peers. It's also not a universal success, as my OL rival (built on us both sucking) Dorfus Jimbo Jr./Scorp has stayed remarkably consistent, keeping his production pretty on par with that of previous seasons. This was also the first season I made the playoffs as a player, which feels weird to think about. I was called up after my rookie DSFL season to join a young Outlaws squad that was going to need some development before we went anywhere. That same season, the Luchadores who I'd just left won the Ultimini against the London Royals, an event that I'm looking forward to a repeat of. It's not something I'm genuinely disappointed about, but I do look back on that from time to time. Regardless, it was my first playoff berth. For those that couldn't tell, I'm a Lions' fan. That means I have a great sense for when our lead is gonna disappear, and often I can predict how a game is going to end because I've seen it so many times in the past. This game was no different, once SJS started to cut into our lead I realized what was gonna happen, and especially once OT started. I did not, however, expect a Cue pick-six to be the reason we lost. Should I have known? Absolutely, the signs were all there. But I was too absorbed in the game to notice. We live by the Cue and, in this case, died by the Cue. The following "week" in the DSFL there was a very odd occurrence. YouTube was down, but a select few people were able to watch the Luchadores play the Bucs, and were nice enough not to spoil. Instead we got Tonzy to stream it for us in the LR, and watched the Luchadores pull off an OT comeback similar to that of the Sabercats while listening to Br's robotic coughs. It also was the opposite of last season, where after sweeping the Seawolves in the regular season they lost in the conference championship. This time, MB swept us in the regular season but we pulled off the conference championship upset to enter the Ultimini with an overall record of 7-7, having gone 2-5 at home but 5-2 on the road. Right now the rallying cry in Tijuana is "Make Mith blue" ("make Swanky blue" is also prevalent), as that's the color of "Tijuana Legends" in the LR. Current players are red, former players are pink, captains are green, GMs are orange, Ring of Honor players are yellow, Amigos (Dewalt and Bex I think?) are grey, and Ultimini winning GMs are blue. It's also an interesting situation because Mith was never a captain in the first place. After being sent down Ugarth won the defensive captain vote in S21 (offensive captain being yours truly), and Mith was called up after that season. Swanky won it the following year as a send down on offense, but Mith joined the war room for the draft as a scout and never ended up leaving, having replaced Jay after that. There's really no precedent for a non-captain GM not winning an Ultimini, so getting Mith this trophy answers a lot of questions regarding what he actually becomes once he eventually steps down.
This season has been an exciting one for me, as it's contained a few major events in my career (and those of others) so far. The first is that I'm actually decent now. It was disappointing to see Bruce Buckley/NTG get traded, but I understood why it happened (the difference in TPE between him and a bot guard meant that a team with less than 2 OL would always value his player more highly than 'Zona) and was happy to welcome Mathias Hanyadi/CLG into the locker room. My newfound success wasn't in fact, due to anything other than the sim smiling down on me. Sure, I'd been playing some guard before Buckley got traded, but it actually didn't really effect my pancake totals. Playing with two OL rather than three wasn't anything new, either, as I was paired with the IA Sylvester Berlin in the DSFL and had played opposite Buckley for the first part of my ISFL career before Julio Jones/Crayons got called up. There was burst of TPE earning, either. I'm fully aware of the fact that, for the 48th pick in the massive S22 class, I really haven't been a great earner. Consistently inconsistent would be a good way to put it. I was IA for part of one offseason, but otherwise I'm technically an active earner, if not a very good one. Unfortunately for me, the Fair Rubs movement is reaching its culmination, as almost all of the top OL in the league (pancake/sack-wise) are humans. It's been incredible to see how it's developed since I joined the league in S21/22 and knowing what it was like prior, but it does have the side effect of making my career year pretty average relative to my peers. It's also not a universal success, as my OL rival (built on us both sucking) Dorfus Jimbo Jr./Scorp has stayed remarkably consistent, keeping his production pretty on par with that of previous seasons. This was also the first season I made the playoffs as a player, which feels weird to think about. I was called up after my rookie DSFL season to join a young Outlaws squad that was going to need some development before we went anywhere. That same season, the Luchadores who I'd just left won the Ultimini against the London Royals, an event that I'm looking forward to a repeat of. It's not something I'm genuinely disappointed about, but I do look back on that from time to time. Regardless, it was my first playoff berth. For those that couldn't tell, I'm a Lions' fan. That means I have a great sense for when our lead is gonna disappear, and often I can predict how a game is going to end because I've seen it so many times in the past. This game was no different, once SJS started to cut into our lead I realized what was gonna happen, and especially once OT started. I did not, however, expect a Cue pick-six to be the reason we lost. Should I have known? Absolutely, the signs were all there. But I was too absorbed in the game to notice. We live by the Cue and, in this case, died by the Cue. The following "week" in the DSFL there was a very odd occurrence. YouTube was down, but a select few people were able to watch the Luchadores play the Bucs, and were nice enough not to spoil. Instead we got Tonzy to stream it for us in the LR, and watched the Luchadores pull off an OT comeback similar to that of the Sabercats while listening to Br's robotic coughs. It also was the opposite of last season, where after sweeping the Seawolves in the regular season they lost in the conference championship. This time, MB swept us in the regular season but we pulled off the conference championship upset to enter the Ultimini with an overall record of 7-7, having gone 2-5 at home but 5-2 on the road. Right now the rallying cry in Tijuana is "Make Mith blue" ("make Swanky blue" is also prevalent), as that's the color of "Tijuana Legends" in the LR. Current players are red, former players are pink, captains are green, GMs are orange, Ring of Honor players are yellow, Amigos (Dewalt and Bex I think?) are grey, and Ultimini winning GMs are blue. It's also an interesting situation because Mith was never a captain in the first place. After being sent down Ugarth won the defensive captain vote in S21 (offensive captain being yours truly), and Mith was called up after that season. Swanky won it the following year as a send down on offense, but Mith joined the war room for the draft as a scout and never ended up leaving, having replaced Jay after that. There's really no precedent for a non-captain GM not winning an Ultimini, so getting Mith this trophy answers a lot of questions regarding what he actually becomes once he eventually steps down.
