Quote:11) What is it that keeps you interested in the league? Is it your love of dot football, your locker room, a specific job or role you play, or something else? What do you like most about it? What could be improved?
Okay so, anyone who knows me knows that my primary driver in this league has always been that I like to create characters, narratives, stories. Right now, I have connected my characters in multiple sim leagues to the point that I could start my own "Sim League Cinematic Universe" (or SLCU for short) and probably be somewhere close to a max-earner in 4 or 5 leagues just by writing about the interconnecting plots.
It's one thing knowing that I can call upon basically any character I have created in any sim league to play a part in whatever task I want to write for in the ISFL, or just to churn out a piece of media that is essentially a short character piece (no really, look at my past media, most of it will involve some character I have created, and will give you some insight into their personality). This is literally why the wiki exists (you're welcome), because I wanted somewhere to put all these connections I had.
Just working within my own creations? That's fun enough. But when I get to combine with others? Oh man, that's the best. Ask Raven (or any of the OG Hawks dudes) about the Outlaw Killer movies. Or "Sim League League Simulator". Or "Three Dicks" (not the wide receiver, the finance guy). When HENDRIX left unexpectedly, we got it, and so we wrote tongue-in-cheek media tributes (as an aside, I'm glad he's back; I probably wouldn't have stayed past season one if he hadn't taken over the Hawks back then). When one of our guys was found to have incorrect TPE, I rewrote a classic rap track to lampoon the situation. These are little in-jokes that kinda just spiralled into something else out of the locker room because it was just funny. That's why we're here right? To have fun.
With the Yeti now, I'm already joking about a new movie series (The Abominables, because.. Yeti... geddit?) and there are several in-jokes in the locker room that I'm already thinking about making into media pieces ("the other other white meat" is definitely on my list; though that one won't even make sense to my teammates just yet probably). I just need to find the time. But having those kinds of collaborative jokes and narratives to work with is why I'm still here after roughly three and a half years of complaining about this place (lol, no really).
I joined because I'm a nerd who also likes sports. Immediately, I picked up that this league is basically "D&D but make it sports"... I like D&D, I like sports, I like writing. What's not to like? Now break down what D&D really is... it's just collaborative storytelling. So that's what we're doing here. Collaborative storytelling about sports. So I think if I leave, it will be because I no longer feel like I can make collaborative stories with people here, and I've told all the ones I want to. With that in mind... keep facilitating collaborative storytelling. Encourage it, even. There's not really a community if people aren't coming together to enrich the universe we're building here.
Quote:12) Write a short biography or story about your player. This could include background about how they came to the ISFL and how they’ve done so far, a story about their role in an exciting game, or anything else related to their experience in the league.
I have in the past made mention of the fact that Raphael Delacour grew up around professional athletes. Being the son of an ISFL Hall of Famer turned sports agent will do that, right? I've also mentioned the story of how young Raphael got into football, but I don't think I ever really went into any detail. So here we go.
Set the scene first. The Delacour family are living in Reisterstown, because if you had ISFL money, majority stakeholder in two multi-million dollar companies money... would you choose to live in East Baltimore? Neither would Antoine Delacour. Sure, he moved there when he signed his rookie deal, to be close to his workplace, The Aviary... but it was never the plan to stay there. Anyway I digress. Young Raphael had grown up in Reisterstown, a pretty nice town not far from the City of Baltimore. He attended a public school, as did both of his older sisters, but until middle school, didn't care much for football. That was dad's thing, and Raphael never thought "yeah I'm gonna do what dad did, but better". Why would he? His dad was in the freaking Hall of Fame. His parents had hoped he'd pick up soccer since it's far less violent and dangerous, but Raph saw that as more of a thing Sophia -- his oldest sister -- did. Their parents focused a lot on getting her into the best soccer teams and so on, but Raphael didn't care for soccer, so he just ran track. It was the only thing he could focus on where he might be able to beat his dad.
In middle school, it was accidental that he ended up doing trials for the football team, really. It started when he went along with his father to The Aviary, and got to meet some of the players on the Hawks team. Growing up a Hawks fan (naturally), he was a huge fan of Errol Maddox, the Hawks' standout receiver at the time. Being the son of a club legend, he actually got to have a short workout with Maddox, throwing a few passes in the direction of the future Wing of Honor inductee and two-time ISFL Wide Receiver of the Year. Maddox, being the nice guy that he is, encouraged young Raphael to take up football, but he still wasn't really convinced. It's understandable, Raphael has never been a big guy, and at the time, was more of a stringy teenager a little below average height. But that exchange definitely sparked something. He began asking his father about the struggles of being a "little dude" in pro ball. To his father's ear, this was only serving to cement the reality that Raphael Delacour was probably never going to follow in his father's footsteps.
The breakthrough came months later. After tagging along with a friend to a training session for the school football team to provide moral support, Raphael started assessing the players on the field. With a little urging from other friends ("you're so fast though dude, you'd probably kill it" and so on) he figured it was worth a shot. Excelling in speed and agility drills, the coach offered him a place on the special teams unit, initially as a gunner. "You're quick enough that you'd be able to hit the returner as soon as the ball drops, son," his coach told him. He said he'd think about it. That night, he spoke to his father about it. Upon hearing that this is exactly how Antoine Delacour's football journey started, Raphael made a decision.
"Coach, I've thought about it," he said the next day. "What if I was the returner?"
In a scrimmage that same day, Raphael returned a punt for 65 yards and a touchdown, and a love affair began. Over the years, he would develop his skills, and refine his aims. Not only was he going to be better than his father, he was going to do it in a position his father was considered "not good enough" to play. Years and years of intense training, specifically focused on overcoming any perceived shortcomings would follow. Now, he's a scrappy, undersized receiver playing out of the slot. He just completed his first 1k yard season. People were (rightly) asking questions up until the start of last season, and he has already done a lot to completely disabuse many of them, picking up Offensive Breakout Player of the Year to mark his first award in year two of his career. That's one thing he's beaten dad at already. It took Antoine six.
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