(S7) - PT 2 - NS-if-L

[RedCydranth]

There's a lot of things that can change the course of a franchise. Sometimes, what can at first be seen as a negative, can actually be a positive. For the first 4 seasons, Orange County had a particular star at their Running Back position. One Otters legend known as, Leroy Jenkins. He had 3 great seasons and one less than stellar one. Leroy decided to hang up the cleats after Season 4, prompting the Otters to look elsewhere. Of course they had Erlich Burnsman who is a goal line vulture, but in between the 20s, he's about as useless as Spector is on defense. He is a liability. So, the retirement of Jenkins allowed the Otters to sign then free agent, and future MVP, Jordan Yates. Over the next 2 seasons, Yates would dominate the statlines and much of the Otters offensive success could be attributed to the amazing ability of Yates. There's the "if" laying out there that "if" Jenkins had not retired and they tried to use Leroy in that same role, that the Otters defense would lose a dramatic aspect of its dynamic high octane offense. It might be fair to say that if Jenkins had never retired, the Otters 3 peat very well might not have happened. Of course there's a lot of other factors at play. If Yates had not signed with the Otters, he might have signed with the Wraiths, or back with San Jose. Both of those teams have been on the precipice of Ultimus Glory themselves, so having that outstanding RB talent could have been the lynch pin to kick start their own dynasties. Of course, we will never know the true answer, because Yates is an Otter and a 2x Ultimus Champ.

[291 words]

[ItsJustBarry]

Let’s imagine its season 2 again. Things are going well in the league, the Baltimore Hawks have rebounded from an abysmal S1 and are now in the playoffs. Let’s imagine that Paul DiMirio isn’t some whiny ass that can just accept that he is inferior and that tight ends in general suck. Instead, we have the now notorious Carmel Gibson placed under scrutiny for erroneous performance enhancing (although proven to not really increase his production output) TPE. This caused league wide outrage towards the Baltimore Hawks despite being a clerical error overlooked by at least 3 NSFL members who are not affiliated with the Hawks in any way. I’ll skip over the expected Archon saga portion which may have singlehandedly made Baltimore a blacklisted destination for many players and here we are today. Despite having to rely solely on the draft to build their team, Baltimore has overcome the odds and remained a contender in a wild 3 team shootout in the NSFC making the playoffs in 3 of the last 5 seasons and 2 Ultimus appearances. While it is purely speculation, I would argue that the history of Baltimore would have been written differently if a few members, cough Noble, had done their due diligence. (206)

[iamslm22]

The biggest what if Avon Blocksdale wonders about is the position switch and OL position switch era after S3. Heading out of S3 Avon was considered one of the top 5 offensive linemen in the league (along side a multi and two other actual respected members of the community). Avon decided to come forward and talk about the issues of playing offensive line and lead by Angus Winchester the NSFL decided to invest in Offensive Line Bots to make up for the fact that no human was ever going to play offensive line again. Where Avon was going to move to was definitely something that the team had thought about. Hawks GM Gordon Gecko was unsure at first where to move Avon to. The Hawks at the time had a great defense and it was unlikely they would move Avon to that side of the ball, so it was really between RB and QB since the Hawks had a giant need at RB and a QB who was decent but not great. Avon wonders what the world of NSFL would look like if Kyubee was never moved to safety, Taylor was never moved to RB and Avon was the RB instead. It would certainly be very interesting and I think the Hawks would be in worse shape than they are today. 221

[HENDRIX]

It's entirely possible the Baltimore Hawks would have won the season 2 and season 3 Ultimus games if the Arizona Outlaws did not have the benefit of six very good multis. Sure, maybe the Outlaws still win those games but they would absolutely be a worse team. And there's also the chance the Orange County Otters make those Ultimus games instead, and perhaps they beat the Hawks. We will never know for certain. But if you look back on those Hawks teams they were very strong in the trenches. The defensive line was a monster led by Hendrix, Sandoval, Taylor, and Metas/Boom. At that period in the NSFL defensive lines were way more powerful than the offensive lines. The Hawks defense was top 2 in total sacks over those years by a large margin. Opponents had a nightmare of a time trying to block the Hawks line. Relative to the rest of the league, I think that's when the Hawks were at their strongest. Almost the entire defense was active along with about half of the offense. It's just a shame looking back in time knowing there's a very real possibility one or two championships eluded us due to the biggest scandal in league history. (205)

[DestaDanger]

What if’s are always interesting because they may not change a thing. However, one thing that certainly did change the course of my short career in the NSFL. I’m sure most of you can tell that the biggest curve ball of this draft was Mason Brown. MASON FUCKING BROWN. Top 5 talent. Number 1 overall mouth. This guy came in late and in about a months time became one of the top players in the DSFL. However, he decided to go on a tirade. One of the longest articles in the history of terrible draft stock moves. Mason Brown told the league that he refused to play for the Colorado Yeti due to previous issues with a GM. So many things could have been done. A private message probably would have done the trick. BUT HE GRABBED A MEGAPHONE AND TOLD THE LEAGUE TO FUCK THAT NOISE. The repercussions? He didn’t go to the Yeti where he likely would have. He slid down to the Otters at where he probably would have gone in the mid round. That surely opened a spot for Ryan Lefevre. Or perhaps WR Grau doesn’t go to the Yeti do the needs being shifted around. Who knows, that draft could have changed the careers for a few players. But alas, the world may never know. Now, we find Brown on the otters, Lefevre on the Yeti, and Mason Brown having one of the biggest personalities in the league.


Word Count 243

[ExemplaryChad]

I often wonder how things would be different for me had I been drafted by the Arizona Outlaws or Las Vegas Legion instead of the Colorado Yeti. All three teams have been rocked by scandal, some before I joined the league and some after, but I think the outcome for me would have been very different in each case. I know, the subject is a little self-indulgent, but let’s self indulge for a minute.

I was drafted in season 4 of the league. This was right after the Outlaws had won their third Ultimus championship in a row, and it was hard to picture anyone ever dethroning them. Then, the reason for this dominance came out. We don’t need to rehash what happened, but I wonder how it would’ve impacted me. I imagine I would have stuck around and been in much the position I am now: a young player on a rebuilding team. The other possible landing spot for me was the Las Vegas Legion. They had a lot of draft picks that year, so it would’ve been easy for me to end up there. Shortly after I would’ve been drafted, half the team retired in a huff, believing the league was not going their way. In this case, I imagine there’s a good chance I would’ve quit the league altogether. That locker room seems like it was not a good atmosphere, and I wonder if I would have stuck it out at all. Ah well, I like my spot on the Yeti.

Haruki Ishigawa

Word count: 254

[JKortesi81]

I think the biggest scenario in recent years that could’ve changed the face of the league is if Nick Pierno would’ve been a pocket passer instead of the running, fumbling, inconsistent, shitty quarterback that pretty much held back the Colorado Yeti from doing anything the last few seasons. Yeah, as if the Noble issue wasn’t enough for the franchise, Pierno’s refusal to not give up the dream of being a dual threat quarterback completely undercut the Yeti’s rebuild. Now, instead of Colorado on the cusp of competing for the playoffs and perhaps being a dark house Ultimus contender, they’ve had to go and do rebuild 2.0 instead. Multiple people across the league have suggested time and again that the Yeti would have been a much better team without the Pierno circus, and after watching game after game where the Yeti had a shot to beat teams like San Jose and Orange County, only to be ruined by a Pierno interception in the red zone, I’m with them. Think about it. The Yeti could’ve competed with anyone, and perhaps pulled off a few wins instead of being a doormat. In the close playoff races, that could’ve been the difference between who did and didn’t make the playoffs. Granted, the Otters probably would’ve won the title each year still, but that’s not guaranteed. (221)

[JuOSu]

What if... Er did not create all those multis? Well the league would be massively different! The biggest change to me would be that Arizona would likely not have dominated. They were a great team nonetheless but without that edge, they are likely only the 2nd best team in the league. Orange County gets home-field advantage and can therefore dominate the league how Arizona did in the first three seasons. Now all of a sudden instead of a three-peat, Orange County might have already won 6 titles and every other team in the league would be conspiring against them and / or quit the league. Who wants to play in a league where the same team wins EVERY season? The ridiculous home-field advantage would make it happen! What pure dominance that would be, it is insane!

But there are other effects besides that. Er would still be on Arizona and they might not be rebuilding. Er would still be the simmer and timeconsumer just the shadowpuppet he used to be. Scandals might have happened differently or not at all. What a crazy situation this would be and how different the league might be. It is almost impossible to think about all the different effects this would have. Truly, the butterfly effect of the NSFL.

[PigSnout]

My biggest What-If is what if the Yeti beat the Legion in Week 12 of Season 2? There were multiple unlucky events that kept the Yeti out of the playoffs that season that would have allowed them to make it if that event change, but none were more unlucky than the Legion loss. As the Co-GM of the Yeti that season, I did a lot of test sims that season, and we won that game against the Legion in 92 out of 100 test sims. The fact that the actual sim was a loss for us was incredibly unlucky. This loss was huge as it was the difference between entering the playoffs on a 5 game winning streak with the best record in the NSFC and a home playoff game and missing out on the playoffs altogether due to a tiebreaker. But I wonder what would have happened if we won that game and made the playoffs. We had over a 70% against the Hawks at home, so I think we would have made it to the Ultimus game for the second year in a row. We would have had to play the Outlaws in Arizona again. However, from the test sims I did earlier in the season when we played the Outlaws, we had about a 45% chance to beat them in Arizona. When we played in Arizona earlier in the season we only lost by 5 and one of their touchdowns was set up by a blocked punt so we easily could have won that. If we had the chance to play them again and look at the strategies they used against us last time, we still wouldn't have been favorites, but I think there was a decent chance we could have won that game and won the championship that season.

It's interesting to wonder what kind of ripple effects this could have had for the Yeti. We had a wave of players either go inactive or request trades over that offseason, but I have to think maybe they would have had a different attitude if the season ended with an exciting championship run rather than missing the playoffs in disappointing fashion. Although many of the players who left us that offseason ended up together again on the Legion during the mass retirement, so maybe that Yeti team was a ticking time bomb anyway and we would have been the team with the mass retirement if those players had stayed around. Maybe if he already won a championship, Noble wouldn't have felt the need to cheat and would have still been the Yeti's quarterback. Or if Noble still had gotten suspended and we weren't already in a rebuild, maybe we would have switched an existing player like Tweed to quarterback instead of spending so much time developing Pierno. It's possible that one loss was the difference between the Yeti remaining a powerhouse and turning into a bottom feeder.

I also wonder what the Yeti management would have looked like if we had made the playoffs and potentially won the championship that year. Would I still be a GM of the Yeti? I didn't really have the time to manage a GM job anymore at that point, but it would have been hard to step down right after winning a championship so maybe I would have forced myself to stick with it. This could have been good or bad as maybe I would have become a good GM with years of experience or maybe I would be too overbooked and wouldn't have done the job properly but would have felt a duty to stick with it. Perhaps deadendpath would still be around if not for that loss. I don't remember the exact timeline of him leaving and I never found out why he left so suddenly, but I'm pretty sure it was around the time of the Legion loss so its possible that game was a last straw for him and maybe he would have stayed active and would still be our GM if we had made the playoffs. If we were picking much later in the draft, would we have still been able to trade up and draft Antonio Sandoval? If not, TheMemeMaestro wouldn't have become GM. We needed OL pretty badly that season, so it's likely our Plan B if we couldn't get Sandoval would have been to draft Archon. Would he have become head GM of the Yeti in this scenario? I can only imagine what kind of disaster that would have been, as it was bad enough when he ghosted as a Co-GM but it would have been even worse if he were a head GM.

I wonder how different the legacy of the Yeti would look with a deep playoff run that season. Even if everything afterwards went the same, maybe it would have been easier going through the rebuild if my player already had a ring. Maybe the Yeti would have been more respected even in their struggles if they were the only NSFC team with a championship. It's interesting to think that the entire history of the franchise was probably altered by that one loss that only had an 8% chance of happening.

869 Words

[Kmarko]

I haven't been around the NSFL long enough to experience any forks in the road that could have taken the league in a different direction. So instead I'll focused on what would happen if the league allowed all of Kmarko's players to start with 99 stats across the board.

The first major change would be Ramadan Steve being picked first overall in every draft ever. People would get pissed off. But how could their 50 TPE rookie compete with GOD status DT, Ramadan Steve? They couldn't. New users would get discouraged and abandon their player. Oh well, more sacks for Stevie boy.

After winning the DSFL championship, Steve would dominate offenses for years to come in the NSFL. People would get tired of Steve's team shutting out every opponent, winning every championship, and Steve raking in the DPOY awards.

The league wide backlash would grow. "Why is HO allowing Kmarko to cheat? This league is stupid and unfair." New recruits would become scarce. Long time contributors would go silent. The league would slowly wither and die, but Kmarko's ego would continuously be boosted by all the bots he's sacking, and meaningless awards he is winning.

In retrospect, this would probably (though we would need test-driven data to be ABSOLUTELY sure) be a poor path for the league to go down.