Write about a potential new recruitment strategy for the league. How can we attract more new players, and what can we do to retain them better?
Unfortunately, the majority of my ideas for recruitment have probably already been explored. Reddit and social media marketing are probably two of the major things that have already been proposed, explored, attempted already, and/or exhausted. Therefore, while I don't think I can add anything new off the top of my head for recruitment, I do have input from the standpoint of "retention." We need to provide a paradigm that provides a clearly defined role for casual earners. Previously, this was done by having a sim structure where certain positions (such as DT, K, TE, and OL) could have *very* viable builds at low TPE levels. A player would not need to max earn to be a starter and provide value to a championship caliber team. Even at a casual earning level, they could have a decent career length partially because they could be called up to the ISFL earlier (since low TPE levels are more viable). Currently, all of the new archetypes each require at well over 1000 TPE to "cap out." This means that positions where we could use lower earning players now are not nearly as viable and are - in fact - built that way. Consequently, it isn't an unrealistic occurrence for an ISFL team to have late round drafts picks that are not inactive, but are only marginally active so much as that they would have minimal usefulness at the conclusion of their DSFL eligibility. Especially in the age of "big plays" in the new sim, even a rotational position could generate a large team vulnerability. Given that history has shown a fair amount of active players will eventually go IA, ISFL teams are placed in a position where you can *usually* find an IA player with higher TPE than a late round draft pick. This is inherently unfair to players as it creates a paradigm where there are minimal alternatives to max earning. Because we don't have injuries and because we do not have cap space to stock up on "relief players" or a "second string" to cover injuries, GMs are put in the difficult position to choose between "player experience" and "team experience." Therefore, I propose that the league explore and re-work the structure to create a clearer role to casual earners. This will allow teams to include more new, drafted players in starting positions sooner, and it also allows "hardcore" max earners who may be feeling burned out a chance to recover from their burn out while still being an active player in the league. The combination of allowing max earners to "stick around" if they need a break and getting maximum value out of players we have already "captured" by allowing them to still have starting positions without being detrimental to the team will increase league growth by a statistically significant number. If we don't do something, any future recruitment efforts are instantly less effective because we are inadvertently only targeting the upper echelons of the new players we enroll on the site. If we find a way to allow alternative pathways to league participation without compromising the competitive ideals of the league, it would be equivalent to finding a new recruitment pool. I believe that it is more manageable than it appears to balance competition and casual earning because veteran league members can easily identify what positions either have 1) less appeal, or 2) less stats. Given that max earners would likely be turned off by some of these positions due to max earning but still getting minimal stats compared to other positions anyway, we would only be providing potential upside to players that otherwise would be unhappy at their position. While I know the goal of the league is to make "every position viable," that does not necessarily mean that the same scale should be applied to every position. Otherwise we are limiting our target demographic which indirectly hurts the league -- how many times will you hear comments on draft streams in later rounds along the lines of "Team drafts.... Person. Not a great earner, but hopefully Team can get them back on track." It is indicative that we are not supportive of people with busy lifestyles. Something like my proposal is a potential solution to that.
The bank now accepts ISFL currency in exchange for real money – every ISFL dollar counts as $0.50 in the real world. How much money would you exchange, and what would you spend it on?
This is going to be a very boring answer. Anyone who doesn't say "I will cash every dime out" is a lying liar who lies. However, to make this more interesting, lets assume that this can only be done once per character. If so, I would cash every dime out at the conclusion of my ISFL career and hand it to my financial advisor. The millions of dollars would be invested and would serve as the capital that I would later use to pay off my very sizeable student loan balance which would otherwise haunt me for decades to come. The rest I would use to shore up retirement savings and financial flexibility. Afterwards, I would use the money to go some some amazing vacations. Although I have been blessed enough to have traveled a lot already, I would travel more and I would travel in style! First class everything, presidential suites, 5 star restaurants, and more! It has always looked like it would be cool to charter a yacht. Not a boat. A yacht. I would then proceed to buy an Aston Martin and other toys. Eventually, one has enough toys and money invested for a lifetime, I turn my efforts to philanthropic work.
Your player or team made big headlines in the news this week. What did they do, and why did it garner so much attention?
This one is a no brainer. Honolulu has been in the league since S22 and never had a winning season. Plagued by premium draft picks going inactive, a founding GM going inactive, and other setbacks, Honolulu did not have as graceful of an entrance into professional football as its predecessors. However, in last season, Honolulu got its first winning season! We had previously recorded a even season in Season 24 at 8-8, but never crossed over that threshold. This included exciting wins over behemoths such as the Orange County Otters and Yellowknife Wraiths, both historically talented teams that were penciled in to a playoff spot in Week 1. Although this internally was a major headline for the team internally, the narrative that the outside league saw was that Honolulu had found itself atop the conference after going 3-13 the season prior. If that wasn't enough, Honolulu also secured its first ever playoff appearance. And, if *that* was not exciting enough, it was as a first seed with a first round bye competing in the conference championship for its first appearance in the Ultimus. While we were excited at the possibility of having a Honolulu/Sarasota Ultimus match-up (named "The Fishbowl"), we were happy to see an expansion team win it all, even if it was not us.
Unfortunately, the majority of my ideas for recruitment have probably already been explored. Reddit and social media marketing are probably two of the major things that have already been proposed, explored, attempted already, and/or exhausted. Therefore, while I don't think I can add anything new off the top of my head for recruitment, I do have input from the standpoint of "retention." We need to provide a paradigm that provides a clearly defined role for casual earners. Previously, this was done by having a sim structure where certain positions (such as DT, K, TE, and OL) could have *very* viable builds at low TPE levels. A player would not need to max earn to be a starter and provide value to a championship caliber team. Even at a casual earning level, they could have a decent career length partially because they could be called up to the ISFL earlier (since low TPE levels are more viable). Currently, all of the new archetypes each require at well over 1000 TPE to "cap out." This means that positions where we could use lower earning players now are not nearly as viable and are - in fact - built that way. Consequently, it isn't an unrealistic occurrence for an ISFL team to have late round drafts picks that are not inactive, but are only marginally active so much as that they would have minimal usefulness at the conclusion of their DSFL eligibility. Especially in the age of "big plays" in the new sim, even a rotational position could generate a large team vulnerability. Given that history has shown a fair amount of active players will eventually go IA, ISFL teams are placed in a position where you can *usually* find an IA player with higher TPE than a late round draft pick. This is inherently unfair to players as it creates a paradigm where there are minimal alternatives to max earning. Because we don't have injuries and because we do not have cap space to stock up on "relief players" or a "second string" to cover injuries, GMs are put in the difficult position to choose between "player experience" and "team experience." Therefore, I propose that the league explore and re-work the structure to create a clearer role to casual earners. This will allow teams to include more new, drafted players in starting positions sooner, and it also allows "hardcore" max earners who may be feeling burned out a chance to recover from their burn out while still being an active player in the league. The combination of allowing max earners to "stick around" if they need a break and getting maximum value out of players we have already "captured" by allowing them to still have starting positions without being detrimental to the team will increase league growth by a statistically significant number. If we don't do something, any future recruitment efforts are instantly less effective because we are inadvertently only targeting the upper echelons of the new players we enroll on the site. If we find a way to allow alternative pathways to league participation without compromising the competitive ideals of the league, it would be equivalent to finding a new recruitment pool. I believe that it is more manageable than it appears to balance competition and casual earning because veteran league members can easily identify what positions either have 1) less appeal, or 2) less stats. Given that max earners would likely be turned off by some of these positions due to max earning but still getting minimal stats compared to other positions anyway, we would only be providing potential upside to players that otherwise would be unhappy at their position. While I know the goal of the league is to make "every position viable," that does not necessarily mean that the same scale should be applied to every position. Otherwise we are limiting our target demographic which indirectly hurts the league -- how many times will you hear comments on draft streams in later rounds along the lines of "Team drafts.... Person. Not a great earner, but hopefully Team can get them back on track." It is indicative that we are not supportive of people with busy lifestyles. Something like my proposal is a potential solution to that.
The bank now accepts ISFL currency in exchange for real money – every ISFL dollar counts as $0.50 in the real world. How much money would you exchange, and what would you spend it on?
This is going to be a very boring answer. Anyone who doesn't say "I will cash every dime out" is a lying liar who lies. However, to make this more interesting, lets assume that this can only be done once per character. If so, I would cash every dime out at the conclusion of my ISFL career and hand it to my financial advisor. The millions of dollars would be invested and would serve as the capital that I would later use to pay off my very sizeable student loan balance which would otherwise haunt me for decades to come. The rest I would use to shore up retirement savings and financial flexibility. Afterwards, I would use the money to go some some amazing vacations. Although I have been blessed enough to have traveled a lot already, I would travel more and I would travel in style! First class everything, presidential suites, 5 star restaurants, and more! It has always looked like it would be cool to charter a yacht. Not a boat. A yacht. I would then proceed to buy an Aston Martin and other toys. Eventually, one has enough toys and money invested for a lifetime, I turn my efforts to philanthropic work.
Your player or team made big headlines in the news this week. What did they do, and why did it garner so much attention?
This one is a no brainer. Honolulu has been in the league since S22 and never had a winning season. Plagued by premium draft picks going inactive, a founding GM going inactive, and other setbacks, Honolulu did not have as graceful of an entrance into professional football as its predecessors. However, in last season, Honolulu got its first winning season! We had previously recorded a even season in Season 24 at 8-8, but never crossed over that threshold. This included exciting wins over behemoths such as the Orange County Otters and Yellowknife Wraiths, both historically talented teams that were penciled in to a playoff spot in Week 1. Although this internally was a major headline for the team internally, the narrative that the outside league saw was that Honolulu had found itself atop the conference after going 3-13 the season prior. If that wasn't enough, Honolulu also secured its first ever playoff appearance. And, if *that* was not exciting enough, it was as a first seed with a first round bye competing in the conference championship for its first appearance in the Ultimus. While we were excited at the possibility of having a Honolulu/Sarasota Ultimus match-up (named "The Fishbowl"), we were happy to see an expansion team win it all, even if it was not us.
