Well, the most recent Ultimus is behind us, and in one of the most shocking Ultimus winners in a while, the Honolulu Hahalua are the champions. Honolulu wasn’t very good at all during the regular season, and they qualified for the playoffs because, well, everyone else kind of sucks too. But more on that later. Honolulu proceeded to defeat the Arizona Outlaws in the first round. Arizona was the “preseason favorite” to be the champion, but they fell on hard times themselves this time around. Next, Honolulu had a horseshow up their asses when they shockingly defeated the Austin Copperheads 30-27, despite being large favorites. After that, they went up against another team who were heavy favorites in the finals, the Colorado Yeti, and once again the Hahalua pulled a 30-27 upset in the Ultimus.
In a popular preseason testing round, Honolulu never once won the Ultimus. It was spread out between 5-6 other teams, never Honolulu. So, how did this happen? Well, our very lame, imperfect sim is the biggest reasoning behind it. No, if you simmed the Honolulu matches against Austin 10 times, chances are Austin wins 9. And against Colorado? They’d win 8, at least. Honolulu just happened to be lucky enough to be living in the perfect timeline. But this isn’t about Honoulu. They’re full of great people and I’m happy for their big win. No, the real issue, as always is our sim.
It’s the most fantastic argument any sim league can have: is an imperfect sim a good thing or a bad thing? I don’t think anyone in the ISFL will argue you that our sim is a good one. But, is its unpredictability so bad? You’re right, on paper, Honolulu isn’t winning the Ultimus. But they did, and it was, for all intents and purposes, exciting! Having a cloud of mystery over the results of the playoffs is exciting just as much as it is annoying. On one hand, not ever being sure who the future champion is going to be makes the playoffs so much more fun to watch. No matter how much people ‘test’ and think they know that Team A has an 80% chance to win against Team B, nobody can ever be sure. That means a team that didn’t quite expect to walk away as champions can really have some hope. On the other hand, it’s incredibly frustrating as one of the “expected” championship contenders to fail miserably. Nothing makes a group of people more upset than working their asses off to gain as much TPE as possible with the common goal of being the absolute best team and win a title only to lose it to a significantly inferior team. It causes them to think “man, what’s the point of even trying if its just a crap shoot?” That line of thinking is horrible, but as someone who has been there before, I completely understand that feeling. Many times in my sim career, ive built or been a part of the “favorite” to win a title only to get upset by a team that we’d beat a lot more than not if we simmed 100 times. The result of getting a perceived “should have won” title taken away from you causes people to claim that the sim is “bullshit” and makes them want to quite. Of course it does. It’s a lot easier to blame other things when we fail.
The truth is, the sim isn’t the problem. There is literally no fun in getting a “perfect” sim that means the best teams always win. Look at the SHL. They went from a very imperfect sim in STHS that caused a lot of fun shenanigans where yes, the best teams didn’t always win to a sim that essentially awards the championship to whoever has the most TPE as a team. The SHL used to be fun and exciting with STHS, while yes, it was infuriating and heartbreaking to lose. But that made even the best teams want it even more, and the champions to appreciate winning a bit more. Now that we’ve moved to a more “perfect” sim, the SHL sucks ass. The same “best team” wins more often than not, and all you need to compete are high TPE players. There’s no real drama or surprises from a “Cinderella” story like Honolulu this season. There will never be a “shocking upset” in the playoffs, at least not for the championship. So while the ISFL sim is absolutely terrible at times, I think I’d much rather have the drama and suspense that comes along with it. Each time the Ultimus Playoffs roll around, we never actually know who will win the title. And that’s a good thing. Even when you’re on the “favorite” and you lose, it might suck and it definitely stings, but that makes for a much more awesome experience than the “this team will win” and they do. That isn’t fun.
So as much as the league may complain about how terrible this sim can be at times, I’m here to support it. Yes, it’s frustrating, but losing always is. But in a vacuum, each playoff every season is incredibly interesting and we almost always have a shocking upset or two along the way. Id much rather have suspense and unpredictability over getting the expected result 90% of the time. So thank you, ISFL sim, for making things constantly fun and keeps people on their toes. (911)
In a popular preseason testing round, Honolulu never once won the Ultimus. It was spread out between 5-6 other teams, never Honolulu. So, how did this happen? Well, our very lame, imperfect sim is the biggest reasoning behind it. No, if you simmed the Honolulu matches against Austin 10 times, chances are Austin wins 9. And against Colorado? They’d win 8, at least. Honolulu just happened to be lucky enough to be living in the perfect timeline. But this isn’t about Honoulu. They’re full of great people and I’m happy for their big win. No, the real issue, as always is our sim.
It’s the most fantastic argument any sim league can have: is an imperfect sim a good thing or a bad thing? I don’t think anyone in the ISFL will argue you that our sim is a good one. But, is its unpredictability so bad? You’re right, on paper, Honolulu isn’t winning the Ultimus. But they did, and it was, for all intents and purposes, exciting! Having a cloud of mystery over the results of the playoffs is exciting just as much as it is annoying. On one hand, not ever being sure who the future champion is going to be makes the playoffs so much more fun to watch. No matter how much people ‘test’ and think they know that Team A has an 80% chance to win against Team B, nobody can ever be sure. That means a team that didn’t quite expect to walk away as champions can really have some hope. On the other hand, it’s incredibly frustrating as one of the “expected” championship contenders to fail miserably. Nothing makes a group of people more upset than working their asses off to gain as much TPE as possible with the common goal of being the absolute best team and win a title only to lose it to a significantly inferior team. It causes them to think “man, what’s the point of even trying if its just a crap shoot?” That line of thinking is horrible, but as someone who has been there before, I completely understand that feeling. Many times in my sim career, ive built or been a part of the “favorite” to win a title only to get upset by a team that we’d beat a lot more than not if we simmed 100 times. The result of getting a perceived “should have won” title taken away from you causes people to claim that the sim is “bullshit” and makes them want to quite. Of course it does. It’s a lot easier to blame other things when we fail.
The truth is, the sim isn’t the problem. There is literally no fun in getting a “perfect” sim that means the best teams always win. Look at the SHL. They went from a very imperfect sim in STHS that caused a lot of fun shenanigans where yes, the best teams didn’t always win to a sim that essentially awards the championship to whoever has the most TPE as a team. The SHL used to be fun and exciting with STHS, while yes, it was infuriating and heartbreaking to lose. But that made even the best teams want it even more, and the champions to appreciate winning a bit more. Now that we’ve moved to a more “perfect” sim, the SHL sucks ass. The same “best team” wins more often than not, and all you need to compete are high TPE players. There’s no real drama or surprises from a “Cinderella” story like Honolulu this season. There will never be a “shocking upset” in the playoffs, at least not for the championship. So while the ISFL sim is absolutely terrible at times, I think I’d much rather have the drama and suspense that comes along with it. Each time the Ultimus Playoffs roll around, we never actually know who will win the title. And that’s a good thing. Even when you’re on the “favorite” and you lose, it might suck and it definitely stings, but that makes for a much more awesome experience than the “this team will win” and they do. That isn’t fun.
So as much as the league may complain about how terrible this sim can be at times, I’m here to support it. Yes, it’s frustrating, but losing always is. But in a vacuum, each playoff every season is incredibly interesting and we almost always have a shocking upset or two along the way. Id much rather have suspense and unpredictability over getting the expected result 90% of the time. So thank you, ISFL sim, for making things constantly fun and keeps people on their toes. (911)
![[Image: tTMB4jP.jpg]](https://imgur.com/tTMB4jP.jpg)
