(S30) Ultimus Week

[krazko]

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Tier 2: Short Form Tasks (Each must be 400+ words)
9. Through a random lottery drawing, you have been named the league's new commisioner for a day. Congrats! What improvements would you make to the league if you had the power to do whatever you wanted?

If I was the commisioner for a day I would implement something that would change up the way contracts work and the money tied to contracts work.
Currently there is no real need for a lot of players to take anything but the minimum for contracts to help the team with the budget and to enable the team to get as many top players as possible to help gun for the title.
By adding some TPE and special attributes, for example: increased max stats, special talents that can only be bought with contract money, better equipment that gives more TPE than the current top tier.
The money would be tied to the player, so once a player is retired, that is it, the money is lost and every new player starts with 0 i contract money.
The new currency, would give the players that want to max earn and make their player as good as possible the opportunity to stand out by buying some traits, stats or other benefits that the average player will not be able to achieve. This would give us some true superstars that actually stand out compared to the rest.
This would also make the Free agency market more open and sought after, by chasing a bigger contract in the early days of your career to enable you to grow your player. At the end of the career, we would see the cap friendly contracts that we also see in real pro sports where a player wants to chase a ring.
Of course it would have to be regulated and capped, so you can't just rotate your players for each year by giving maximum to one or a few players every season. A cap that would be in relation to both the minimum salary on the team as well as the contract tier you are currently on.

The most expensive of the upgrades would not be obtainable after only 1 season with a good contract, you would have to save up over a few season to get the truly pro player attributes.

I feel that this would remove the risk of super teams we run now where everyone just takes minimum, as well as forcing General Managers and War room members to think about how to build the teams for each season.
Sure, a negative would be a lot of players would not be able to reach those levels, but that is the way in the real world as well. Additionally it would allow the truly dedicated players to really stand out and feel like their player is the hottest player on the market, making teams go after them if and when they would reach the Free Agency market.

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Tier 3: Written/Graphics Tasks (Each must be either 200+ words or a graphic)
30. The ISFL Players Association was established a few seasons back, and while it is not as prominent now, it was a very interesting idea. What are your thoughts on a player union to help vote on rule proposals?

As mentioned in the prompt this is a very interesting idea and one that should be explored further. While I understand we can't have everyone part of the decision process or nothing would ever get done. A player union would be a good way for the players that don't want to be part of Head Office or take on too many responsibilities bar the rules that will affect us all.
Going with a player union with fixed terms for everyone involved would be good to ensure it is not getting stale like Head Office is sometimes blamed of being. Giving the Head of the player union a max term of 5 seasons and the members a max term of 3 would ensure there's a constant turn over of players part of the union and get a chance to vote on the new rules.
If there is a lack of applications you would have to open it up for people to apply again, but to ensure the workload is light and many people apply it should be a relatively well paid job with very little time committment needed.
If the player union is done correctly I think it is a great opportunity for the average player to feel more involved in how the league is run and should remove some of the anti Head Office chat you often see thrown around

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Tier 3: Written/Graphics Tasks (Each must be either 200+ words or a graphic)
31. The World Football Association was established last season and is currently playing out for the first time. What do you think about the WFC as a whole and how it has been shaping out. Do you think it will end up a success?

I think this will be a great thing for the league, something for everyone to look forward to during the off season as well as for the players that have not made the playoffs or are knocked out early.
The format has great potential and should the league and the players embrace it and really put on a good show that will drive the engagement.
One thing I have noticed that took away from the engagement already was the lack of a centralized place for the rosters to be announced and posted, we have a section for the World Football Championships, if the rosters were published there for each team it would be easier for everyone to see if they were selected and also to see the teams overall and to have an idea on how each team will stack up.
As with most of the scheduling for streams, it is on a bad time for the Europeans, which does make it more difficult to be engaged and invovled in the tournament.
Adding a pre-match stream or talk show to hype up and have some discussion about the upcoming games would be a good idea to help people get involved and get the feel for each team in the tournament.
To conclude if it is a success or not, will fully depend on if it gets the exposure and attention it needs, both in the form of media and the streams!

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