Offseason Point Task - 25th Anniversary Special

[Pat]

It's an interesting question: what does the ISFL mean to me? Honestly, this place has become like a second home to me.

Story time: Years ago, I was part of an online community centered around Call of Duty. I joined it back in 2011 after being directed there through a Google search on Call of Duty: Black Ops. The community was great. I would hang out there daily chatting with people and writing posts. I've made friends there that I still talk to to this day - in fact, two were even guests at my wedding! Over time the community became less active due to people just not have an interest in Call of Duty anymore, and eventually the entire forums site went away when no one wanted to step up and pay for hosting fees. We had moved to a Discord community but it just wasn't the same.

When I saw the recruitment post in the NFL subreddit, my first thought was to tell my friend Cody about it. As I was writing him a message I received one from him with a link to the recruitment post. As we talked about it the general theme seemed to be, "It sounds fun, let's give it a shot. Who knows maybe we'll like it."

Neither of us had ever done a sim league like this before, but we've been playing sports games together for over a decade, exclusively playing modes that let us run franchises.

After joining the league, I was honestly a little overwhelmed at first. It felt like there was just so much to do and I didn't know how to do it. At first I wondered if I would really stick around or if this was a place for me.

Now, roughly four months later, I'm absolutely hooked. The ISFL has provided me with a whole new group of people to meet and to be friends with. One of the first things I do every day is check into Discord to see what's going on and see how everyone is doing. I've enjoyed being in the league and have become so invested that it didn't take long for me to get into sim testing, which then led me to being invited to Tijuana's and Arizona's War Rooms, and now eventually being named the General Manager of the Philadelphia Liberty.

I've absolutely loved my time here. I've had nothing but fun and I want to make sure that this league continues to be what it should be: a place where people can go to get away from real life for a little while. Having an escape is important, especially in 2020 when so much of the world looks like a disaster film.