Tier 1 - Choice 6
One of the more interesting things to me about the ISFL in my time here is just how much different is to be a GM now than it was, say, ten seasons ago. It’s not surprising that things have changed dramatically, but with the addition of 6 new franchises in the last ten seasons, coupled with a ridiculous influx of players, the truth is that being a GM in the ISFL nowadays is just easier. It’s almost kind of a joke how much so.
Before the great player boon in the ISFL, it took *work* (or a lot of Er multis) to be a successful GM in the league. Not every GM in the league sim tested like crazy people. Not every GM scouted very well. The ones who did the work were rewarded. (See: Otters, Orange County). And the ones that didn’t? Well, that’s how the Colorado Yeti went winless one season and constantly got murdered. The good GMs rose to the top and the power structure of the league stayed pretty similar for a time there. Other GMs just didn’t put in the work needed to succeed. Take San Jose, who’s largely had the same management for forever, and when being a GM was much more difficult, the Sabercats were mostly terrible, routinely missing the playoffs, save for the one random Ultimus win. Now? They’re magically in the Ultimus again after remaining largely unchanged structurally.
How does this happen? Well like I said, it’s just simply easy to be a GM nowadays. How come? Well, the influx of talent to the league brought us a LOT of nerds. I don’t say that to be negative, but it happened. People who came in and loved the league so much they did incredible amounts of sim testing on their own, and essentially broke down our already potato-y sim into tiny bits. All of a sudden it was clear that having a QB with 79 speed was the way to go. All of a sudden, people realized how important having good backups were instead of just spending next to nothing on a garbage IA. Basically, the playbook for being a good GM was written from multiple sources and just thrown out there for the world to see. With so many overachievers wanted to help their teams out, most every team’s war room became littered with people looking to help test sim, scout, help with the budget, etc.
Scouting is a big one here. One of the things that kept the bad teams bad and the good teams good “back in the day” was that the good teams went hard in scouting and they found the diamonds in the rough in round 2 or 3. The bad teams would find themselves drafting bust after bust. But in today’s ISFL, we have so many great users who are addicted to the site that, even with the 6 extra expansion teams, you can hit on your first 4-5 draft picks without even trying. We’ve become so oversaturated with talent that GMs literally can’t fuck it up. Missing on a first rounder ten seasons ago could’ve been disastrous to a franchise. In today’s league, you can miss on your first rounder, but still get first round production out of your fourth rounder, so it doesn’t hurt you.
In essence, the playing field is just leveled across the entire league. Everyone knows the ins and outs of the sim, so no matter how well you sim test, everyone does the same things. And because we have such a terrible sim, it doesn’t matter if you test at 85.6% win rates, because on game day, the sim does what it wants to anyway and those teams that should have no business winning with a 14.4% rate tend to do so a lot more often than they should. You can’t gain a tactical advantage over your opponent how you used to. It’s pretty much just hoping you’re on the right side of this RNG nowadays. Budgets are easy, because just about everyone takes minimum as it is. You can’t gain an advantage too much in wooing a free agent to a team because you can pay them more when it seems like you’re not going to win the Ultimus. They’d rather go to an OCO or COL, take minimum, and feel good about it.
As a result, we’ve seen a lot of GM turnover lately. The main reason being is that the only thing that is NOT even across the board is how well GMs can cultivate a locker room culture that makes people want to be there. Some of our franchises absolutely nail it, and they’re consistently the ones that win more often than not. And then there are the ones that just absolutely suck at being a people person. They make the experience shitty for the players and as a result people bail often. You see it Baltimore. You see it in Arizona for sure. Now you’re seeing it in Philadelphia as well. This is the only way to truly establish who’s a “good” GM and who isn’t. The ones that can maintain a quality culture and keep it fun for all of their players.
And that’s a problem. I don’t know how to fix it exactly. Perhaps switching to a much better sim will help that, because GM’s can maybe then find themselves a way to stand out once again in a sim that people haven’t been given the entire playbook on? (It won’t matter, the league will break it down again eventually anyway). Another problem that was recently shored up by HO was that teams just named who the new GMs were when one stepped down. That didn’t mean those people were qualified or should be in that power position in the league. Now HO can proceed to choose who gets these prestigious positions so that they can indeed place competent people who won’t alienate their franchises with their (lack of) personality.
And that’s my interesting topic for the league that’s been on my mind lately. Being a GM in the ISFL isn’t hard anymore. It isn’t “work”. Everyone is mostly on a level playing field, and as a result, nobody really stands out anymore unless they’re causing drama. I don’t know the fix for this, like I said, but hopefully we can figure something out. We shouldn’t be a league where the GM’s are not much more than locker room babysitters. (1078)
One of the more interesting things to me about the ISFL in my time here is just how much different is to be a GM now than it was, say, ten seasons ago. It’s not surprising that things have changed dramatically, but with the addition of 6 new franchises in the last ten seasons, coupled with a ridiculous influx of players, the truth is that being a GM in the ISFL nowadays is just easier. It’s almost kind of a joke how much so.
Before the great player boon in the ISFL, it took *work* (or a lot of Er multis) to be a successful GM in the league. Not every GM in the league sim tested like crazy people. Not every GM scouted very well. The ones who did the work were rewarded. (See: Otters, Orange County). And the ones that didn’t? Well, that’s how the Colorado Yeti went winless one season and constantly got murdered. The good GMs rose to the top and the power structure of the league stayed pretty similar for a time there. Other GMs just didn’t put in the work needed to succeed. Take San Jose, who’s largely had the same management for forever, and when being a GM was much more difficult, the Sabercats were mostly terrible, routinely missing the playoffs, save for the one random Ultimus win. Now? They’re magically in the Ultimus again after remaining largely unchanged structurally.
How does this happen? Well like I said, it’s just simply easy to be a GM nowadays. How come? Well, the influx of talent to the league brought us a LOT of nerds. I don’t say that to be negative, but it happened. People who came in and loved the league so much they did incredible amounts of sim testing on their own, and essentially broke down our already potato-y sim into tiny bits. All of a sudden it was clear that having a QB with 79 speed was the way to go. All of a sudden, people realized how important having good backups were instead of just spending next to nothing on a garbage IA. Basically, the playbook for being a good GM was written from multiple sources and just thrown out there for the world to see. With so many overachievers wanted to help their teams out, most every team’s war room became littered with people looking to help test sim, scout, help with the budget, etc.
Scouting is a big one here. One of the things that kept the bad teams bad and the good teams good “back in the day” was that the good teams went hard in scouting and they found the diamonds in the rough in round 2 or 3. The bad teams would find themselves drafting bust after bust. But in today’s ISFL, we have so many great users who are addicted to the site that, even with the 6 extra expansion teams, you can hit on your first 4-5 draft picks without even trying. We’ve become so oversaturated with talent that GMs literally can’t fuck it up. Missing on a first rounder ten seasons ago could’ve been disastrous to a franchise. In today’s league, you can miss on your first rounder, but still get first round production out of your fourth rounder, so it doesn’t hurt you.
In essence, the playing field is just leveled across the entire league. Everyone knows the ins and outs of the sim, so no matter how well you sim test, everyone does the same things. And because we have such a terrible sim, it doesn’t matter if you test at 85.6% win rates, because on game day, the sim does what it wants to anyway and those teams that should have no business winning with a 14.4% rate tend to do so a lot more often than they should. You can’t gain a tactical advantage over your opponent how you used to. It’s pretty much just hoping you’re on the right side of this RNG nowadays. Budgets are easy, because just about everyone takes minimum as it is. You can’t gain an advantage too much in wooing a free agent to a team because you can pay them more when it seems like you’re not going to win the Ultimus. They’d rather go to an OCO or COL, take minimum, and feel good about it.
As a result, we’ve seen a lot of GM turnover lately. The main reason being is that the only thing that is NOT even across the board is how well GMs can cultivate a locker room culture that makes people want to be there. Some of our franchises absolutely nail it, and they’re consistently the ones that win more often than not. And then there are the ones that just absolutely suck at being a people person. They make the experience shitty for the players and as a result people bail often. You see it Baltimore. You see it in Arizona for sure. Now you’re seeing it in Philadelphia as well. This is the only way to truly establish who’s a “good” GM and who isn’t. The ones that can maintain a quality culture and keep it fun for all of their players.
And that’s a problem. I don’t know how to fix it exactly. Perhaps switching to a much better sim will help that, because GM’s can maybe then find themselves a way to stand out once again in a sim that people haven’t been given the entire playbook on? (It won’t matter, the league will break it down again eventually anyway). Another problem that was recently shored up by HO was that teams just named who the new GMs were when one stepped down. That didn’t mean those people were qualified or should be in that power position in the league. Now HO can proceed to choose who gets these prestigious positions so that they can indeed place competent people who won’t alienate their franchises with their (lack of) personality.
And that’s my interesting topic for the league that’s been on my mind lately. Being a GM in the ISFL isn’t hard anymore. It isn’t “work”. Everyone is mostly on a level playing field, and as a result, nobody really stands out anymore unless they’re causing drama. I don’t know the fix for this, like I said, but hopefully we can figure something out. We shouldn’t be a league where the GM’s are not much more than locker room babysitters. (1078)
![[Image: tTMB4jP.jpg]](https://imgur.com/tTMB4jP.jpg)
