(S29) Ultimus Week

[Pib]

The S28 draft class is one stacked with recreates and ambitious rookies, giving it the potential to go down as one of the best draft classes the league has seen. StadiumGambler currently leads the class in TPE earned, wracking up an impressive 656 TPE by the close of this past season. Naturally, such development is usually accompanied by on field success and that’s no different in this case. StadiumGambler managed to finish his rookie season on 1100 yards receiving for the Sailfish, grabbing himself 8 touchdowns in the process. Should his development continue at this pace, he’s going to be a lock in for the hall of fame.

Currently following StadiumGambler is Infinitempg, a league legend who will inevitably position himself as well as possible to gain as many accolades as humanly possible. The everpresent Infinite was drafted to the Baltimore Hawks, which has afforded him the chance to get plenty of playing time as they are currently working their way through a difficult rebuild period. Infinite did not waste this playing time, rushing for 810 yards in second season at the ISFL level, in which he scored 9 touchdowns. All in all, a fantastic performance from the ISFL great.

Rather shockingly, the 3rd highest earner in the class at the time of writing is Footballiscool. While he has been near the summit of the class for the entirety of his career, due to his position as an offensive lineman, it’s usually expected that they slow their earning down as their career progresses. The young lineman has done well for the Sailfish so far and his 631 TPE will be highly valued on the line. While he allowed 2 sacks on the season, he also racked up an impressive 108 pancakes — placing him just outside the top 10 lineman in the league for the season.

The current 4th highest earner in the class is Laser, another stalwart of the league and the highest earning member of the class still plying their trade in the DSFL. This is hardly shocking, given that Laser is a quarterback and they are usually called up substantially later than other positions due to their importance in terms of the teams overall performance on the field. For now, Laser is delivering for the Bondi Beach Buccaneers and will likely continue to do so for another season before moving up to the ISFL. From that point on, it really depends where he lands and the team around him in those early seasons.

Currently sitting in the 5th spot is yours truly, Pib. My debut season in the ISFL has been less than impressive with just 30 tackles and 2 sacks — however that is hardly shocking, given that I am surrounded by talent at the linebacker position and spent the season 4th on the depth chart. While I do believe that I’ll see more playing time down the road, there is still a long way to go and a lot of TPE to be earned if I’m to be a standout player at the position. It’s also worth noting that I haven’t actually updated for a few weeks, despite continuing to max earn, so in reality I should be a little higher up this list.

Dude_man is the 6th highest earner in the class and represents the 2nd and final offensive lineman in the top 10 of the class. Regardless of what Dude_man does on the field, this guy is set to go into the hall of fame in some sort of capacity. His early contributions to the league have been nothing short of astounding and he’s genuinely a great guy as well, based on my encounters with him via the Player Progression Team. An exceptional member of the league and one of the few individuals that you can really look at and say “they’re going to leave a lasting impact on the ISFL”. His player didn’t have the greatest start to life in the ISFL, allowing a sack and registering 53 pancakes this season but there is still plenty of time for that to turn around and given his activity levels, it really feels like it’s just a matter of time.

BigRed and Gragg are tied for 7th spot on the list at the moment and both members are insanely active and have ridiculous potential with their current players. While Gragg is a true rookie, he has already made a big splash in the league and his data driven approach to the league will serve him well as his career progresses. BigRed is a known entity at this point. He’ll be in the conversation for all sorts of accolades by the time this current player calls it quits and starting out in Baltimore, where he is getting ample playing time early on in his career, is only going to help the cause. I’d be highly shocked if one of these two users doesn’t end up in the hall of fame when all is said and done.

[UltimateYeehaw]

8. Awards are arguably one of my favorite parts of the ISFL. During my DSFL career, my player won two (Wide Receiver of the year and Offensive Rookie of the year) while being on a campaign for Offensive Player of the year and MVP. Throughout my first season I also was up for Offensive Rookie of the year within the ISFL. While I have slowed my pace on nominations this past season, I still was heavily invested in watching who all would win. Turns out, my own boyfriend won Cornerback of the year. With all that being said, there are only two categories of awards not centered around player statistics: Most Dedicated Member and GMs of the year. That simply is not enough. The ISFL can do so many awards centered around users that could, quite frankly, create their own award show (and offer up another league job for those in need or desire.) I know the whole concept of user awards are more of popularity contests but the concept does have some merit. Each team could elect multiple representatives (no more than 3) to vote. Some potential awards that come to mind are Best Render of the year, Best Media Writer, Best Podcaster, Best Sim Tester (which I’m sure iStegosauruz would love,) etc. These awards could easily increase activity in the league and have more users continue to be active. We could even go as far as to include Rookie categories of all of the previously mentioned awards. The possibilities are endless. Personally, I think Best Render would be the most anticipated form. My favorite part of the league when I first started was creating my own render, Chunt The Badger. I leaned in very hard and it proved to be a lot of fun when it came to writing media. Busch Goose also could have easily won the awards with the full on lean infinite does to that role (which now Goose has an entire channel in the Baltimore server dedicated to honking.) The render award could influence users to be even more creative with their players and meme their way to the top. The media and podcaster awards would influence more people to write media series or record which would prompt the media team to hire more graders, giving even more people league jobs. There is no doubt that this set of awards and others that I am too brain dead to come up with currently would be a smashing hit. HO, get on this.

15. The Silverbacks dominated this year's Ultimus. Snatching the win from the fire geckos hands, the monkeys reigned supreme. Maybe not the true MVP of the game, but the MVP in my eyes, Colt Mendoza decided to celebrate his win the only true way to do so: Disneyland. Now Colt could not celebrate with just himself, that’s sad and pathetic, so he took his trusty Badger friend Chunt as well. The day they got there turned into an interesting one. Colt was ready to ride the coasters and explore the castle, but Chunt had other plans. Instead of touring and doing the typical Disneyland adventures most elect to do, Chunt took Colt on a wild tour of drink until you drop. After touring the Italy and Germany areas, they finally landed in Spain where everything went dark. It turns out, Disneyland is not keen on a Badger pretending to be a bull and plow through Colt. Mendoza was in such shock that he stood still as Badger single paw-edly took out multiple patrons causing them to be permanently banned from the park. At the end of the trip, it was safe to say that Disneyland is not the place to celebrate an Ultimus win, at least with a drunk badger.


19. There is no question about it, Chunt The Badger was born for the silver screen. Stardom courses through his tiny little veins with every breath he takes. More recently, Chunt has been prowling around the streets of Baltimore, Maryland in search of a good time. This is his method of unwinding from the grueling practices and games at the Hawk stadium. He has become a beloved figure in the state of Maryland, even going so far to have bars and restaurants plead with him to visit them for publicity. This has prompted Chunt to start his own reality show: “Badgers and Baltimore (Unrated.)” You see, Chunt is not the most PG of players within the ISFL, and what is more entertaining to watch than Chunt going wild in the city that he calls home. Censoring the Badger would be a travesty, so he insisted on having this show be strictly TV-MA. Watch him as he tours his beloved city, from clubs (including the non-clothed dancer kinds,) dive bars, hip restaurants, and hole in the wall place. Chunt will take you on a very, very personal tour of Maryland that will cause you to book a ticket to get there as fast as you can.

[dogwoodmaple]

15. Going to Disneyland! Who was the Ultimus Game MVP? Give us a rundown of their celebratory trip to Disneyland. (Can be completed after the Ultimus game)

MVP of the Ultimus has to be the entire secondary.  Is that a cop out?  Absolutely not.  When push came to shove and we needed a big play, the safeties and cornerbacks were there to make sure we got the job done. Whether it was a sack, pick, touchdown, or simply shutting down the big play offense of Berlin, we stood tall and prevailed against the toughest tests.  As for our celebration, the first stop is definitely to the many restaurants that Disneyland offers.  Whether it's me, Mac, Bobbo, Mendoza, or Quak, we all love to eat.  After throwing back a few chicken legs, we move on to the candy stores that dot the entire Disney campus.  Gobstoppers, Reese's, bubble gum, and even a few Swedish Fish fill our bellies before we go on to our final task.  Is it smart to have enormous meals and then ride the world's most exciting and thrilling roller coasters?  Perhaps.  But that's precisely what we do!  Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, you name it!  I may or may not have had to escort Roberts to the nearest restroom while he had a reversal of fortune, but we had a fantastic time celebrating together as a unit.  We're all about the team and could not care less about individual glory.  We ball out as a unit and we go to Disneyland as a unit.  Defensive backs for life!
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22. You’re in charge of entertainment for the Ultimus or Ultimini half-time show. What would you do?

Oh this one is easy.  For the entertainment of the halftime show, I bring out the starting lineups for the team that finished last in the overall standings and force them to sing karaoke and perform a dance routine.  If they refuse to do this, they lose all of their draft picks, so it would be a sure thing that it would happen.  While many shows are semi-fun, semi-entertaining, and semi-engaging, this new entertainment show would be incredible.  It would spawn years worth of jokes, memes, and impressions, as well as bringing a light hearted atmosphere to ISFL to take the edge off of a sometimes drama-filled league.  The actual musical numbers and dance routines could be made up by the individual franchises and they would have a wide latitude about which to pick from.  Plus, it adds an extra element of camaraderie and familial relationship when all the teams could come and watch, join in, and celebrate with not only the worst team, but also the two Ultimus participants.  On top of that, you'd also get some extra motivation to avoid coming in last place.  The first overall pick is great, but avoiding having to do a scripted dance routine and sing live in front of millions of viewers?  That's enough to potentially kill tanking for all time in the ISFL.  More parity, more entertainment, more memes. What could possibly be better?
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25. Imagine your current position was not available to be picked when you created your player. What other position would you have picked, and why?

The pick here for me has to be running back.  In many ways, I consider safety and RB as mirror images of one another as far as their role in the team and play to play scheme.  My speed and agility would have also translated perfectly to the running back spot and I think I would've truly thrived there.  Also like safety, it's becoming more and more of a committee approach where the unit eschews individual glory for overall team success, which is right up my alley.  But I have to say, the feeling of scoring a bunch of touchdowns for my team or seeing my little dot race down the field after a big run is really appealing.  Plus, the fact that I could be the main threat on the offensive side and be one of the top fantasy options is also really exciting.  If and when this player retires, I will take a long look at running back when I make my future selection.  But I wouldn't want to just be a runner, I want to be involved in ever aspect of offense.  Catching passes, returning kicks, everything!  What could be more exciting than lifting the Ultimus Trophy after accounting for 100+ yards and a couple of scores?  After seeing the success of our duo in New York, it's clear that RB would be an awesome position to play going forward.
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29. Affiliate PT
SHL PT#2 Affiliate

[GlimsTC]

This is a topic I feel pretty passionate about this season, as no team was simmed harder this season than the Austin Copperheads. A top 5 team on paper going 5-10-1, while losing games that should in no way ever be a loss if the sim is working as intended. I mean seriously, when a team that just made the Ultimus the previous season is better this season, there's just no actual way they can be this unlucky. That doesn't exist in real sports, it doesn't exist in the PBE for example, and it definitely shouldn't exist here, in a league that arguably has far fewer teams than almost every other major sim league. This feeling of just straight up decking by the sim has started to make me doubt the sim we currently play on entirely, as this isn't the first season this has happened, and sadly, it won't be the last. Everyone remembers Chicago having this same situation happen to them last year. A team everyone expected to make playoffs went 6-10, and lost to a 2-14 Baltimore team in Chicago. Go back to the first season of the new sim, and once again, the Copperheads are the team who was good on paper who was down bad and worst in the conference at 3-13, being at least 3 games under teams with significantly less TPE at the time. To me, this tells me that the sim is straight up picking one good team per season to completely fall apart no matter what. Strats matter very insignificantly, because the sim decided that for this season, you're just going to lose. It's made me wonder if perhaps the sim isn't seeded or something, as realistically, teams like the Butchers and Copperheads should not have overly losing seasons when their team is as close to an Ultimus contender as possible.

I would like to further point out issues with the sim and how it picks things, by pointing towards the playoffs and the teams who have benefited because of the sim. Fellow league user Butters had once mentioned it was easy to tell who would win the championship game because it would always be a team that scored the most points in a game leading up to the championship. Something he enjoys doing is running solo season simulations with real NFL teams, and he has pointed out that it happens every time he runs a season. Well, we take a look at this year, and this theory of his holds true. The New York Silverbacks, who are indeed a really good team, scored the most points in the wildcard week (and in the entirety of the playoffs) in a win over the New Orleans Second Line with 35 points scored. They would then go on to drop a whole 40 points on the Berlin Fire Salamanders, who is arguably the better team this season and playing with a home field advantage. We then take a look at the other previous seasons of the new sim for further proof, because I agree, one result is too small of a sample size. But looking at those, the theory is once again true for both of them. The Yellowknife Wraiths scored the most points leading up to the Ultimus (23 points against the Sarasota Sailfish in a wildcard game), and they ended up beating the Copperheads in the Ultimus. Then before that, the Sarasota Sailfish scored the most points in a game leading up to the Ultimus (47 points against the Colorado Yeti in the NSFC Championship), and they ended up winning it all against NOLA. It's a trend that has been true for three seasons in a row now, and if it happens again, I'd have to say it's overwhelmingly obvious that it's not just a coincidence or complete luck.

In conclusion, this sim is buggin on a stack, yo. It's incredibly flawed, in my opinion, for a league that has so much effort put into it by teams. With the old sim, I feel like while the gameplay was garbage, at least the season felt a lot more exciting. When a big team would get upset, it felt a lot more magical than just "YO LOOK HOW BAD THIS GOOD TEAM IS THIS SEASON LOOOOOL". It feels like the input of the teams strats are a lot less impactful compared to an inherent bias the sim seems to have for whatever teams it's selecting to do certain things that season. I would love to see if we as a league could look into this more, as even if it's not something major enough to cause a sim switch or something, it's definitely something for Wolverine Studios to take a look at so we can get a better sim in the future. And I admit, maybe the previous sim was just as bad if not worse and I am being motivated by the rose tinted glasses (and my team constantly being a victim of the sim), but there has to be something better than whatever these current odds of things happening are. Because as it stands, this sim is easily more frustrating than the previous, and it makes me envy the PBE's sim more and more every season.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

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[mango8154]

15)

After the Ducky bois won the Ultimini we all went to Disneyland, we started the trip with the Ultimini parade down the main street, we were on a giant duck float that honked when a button was pressed, everyone took their turns to honk especially when we passed ex players like Anton Bruckner and Bender Rodriguez, the MVP Oles JR went around parading the MVP trophy and the whole team celebrated with the big trophy in the castle. The trophy went on many trips on the cup rides and the merry-go-round with the bois and the team went around, riding rides and getting drunk. O’Leary and Soulja went around going on the big rides leading the team, Soulja of course had to be held by the hand on bigger roller coasters as he was very scared. Going around we found Bruckner and put him in a Mickey suit, and laughed at him. The team after going around mickey mouse land we all went to the hotel, ate and drunk the entire night and we all had a great time, the morning after was less fun but the team all had breakfast together before leaving the premises, after getting fined for damages after we left the rooms in a bit of a mess.


20)

I’m going to make my report on my fellow Minnesota teammate LeCarpeton Dukemarriot, first of all he is a top lad, is always in the locker room and is always a positive influence and is always creating a good time in the locker room, also he creates the greatest sigs, even creating the term Dukemarriot special for his impressive shuckle sigs, he has been recognized in the league in terms of award nights as he won defensive rookie of the year showing the great year he had being the best rookie in the defense and for my money the best rookie of the year, in terms of stats in the regular season (14 games) he made 78 tackles averaging 5.5 tackles, making 8 tackles for loss and missing 5 tackles for loss, showing he got into the backfield a lot, he forced fumbled twice and recovered the ball twice creating two valuable turnovers, sacked the qb 7 times, got one int and deflected the past four times, in those stats he joint lead rookies in tackle for loss, fumble recoveries and sacks in the regular season. In the playoffs he got an int in the semi finals and in the Ultimini he got nine tackles, a tackle for loss and a PD, showing he is a big game player. All this shows he is a great pickup and should be high on any draft board.


21)

Well first of all I must say my only experience with the old sim was the S26 ultimmus and ultimini game as that is when I joined the league, so I may be very biased to one over the other, but here we go. First of all, now we have stadium sounds instead of free use music, this makes a better viewing as I much prefer the stadium sounds that give the slight hint of realism. Next I also much prefer that all of the plays are shown and aren't skipped if no moving up the pitch happens like they did in the old sim, this makes everything much more comprehensible and makes for a much better overall viewing. Another thing is that I much prefer viewing the whole field than having the scrolling field like the old version, it allows a much bigger comprehensible view at a glance and I don’t have to focus 100% to know what is happening. Another thing I prefer is that they give a split second before the play starts, this separates the plays so you can tell what is happening and makes the viewing experience much more enjoyable. The graphics also look much slicker and allows my eyes to view the sim for longer.


22)

First of all I don’t no why the halftime show committee would allow a player of one of the teams to control the halftime show but hey ho, lets go, for the Ultimini I would firstly have a chorus of Ducks perform a classical song (or maybe a Minnesota based song) just like the toad choir in harry potter, after that I would hold a great rubber duck race, the two teams would create a large rubber duck and put them on a water course and make them race, this would be excellent entertainment for the people as who doesn’t like giant rubber ducks, they are great. After that I would have the two teams come out and battle it out in games like karaoke, having the two teams battle it out in Mario party like games would just make everything more fun and the two teams could let out any nervous energies they had after the first half. After all this there would be a lot of fireworks and then both the teams can come back on and the third quarter can start. The Ultimus would be much of the same except maybe the giant rubber ducks could be giant rubber salamanders or something.

[Cincyfan96]

10. 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.

Schell had an interesting season in Berlin. He went into the season hoping to crack the 500 tackle mark on his career and ended up coming just a handful of tackles short. While physically feeling the best he ever has, it felt like the opportunities to shine were just not there for Schell this season. He tried to remind himself that this was not a bad thing, as it was coming as a result of an influx of talent on the team defensively with the addition of Derred de Ville this offseason to be his right hand man and the progression of Bam Bam McMullet in his journey to superstardom. The fact is that holding down the middle of the defense did not always mean having ample opportunities to rack up the stats that Schell anticipated having at this point in his career. Certainly there are still things that he can do personally to increase his production, but the team’s usage of him has also played into the narrative of this portion of Schell’s career. With this in mind, Schell approached the Berlin GMs with one goal in mind as they worked together to form a new contract: maximize playmaking opportunity. Having conversations around the league, Schell gathered that playing middle linebacker, while extremely fulfilling mentally, would never offer the same opportunities to physically impact the game that is available to those playing on the outside. Therefore, Schell worked together with the GMs of Berlin and formulated a contract that, over the next three seasons, maximizes Schell’s desire to increase his playmaking opportunities and the impact he can offer Berlin from the outside. It took quite a bit of time and effort – huge shout out to the incredible GMs of Berlin – but the deal was made and everyone walked away feeling satisfied. Just after this was signed, Schell took the field in the Conference Finals and made a game changing play, getting a pick 6 with the team down 7 in the fourth quarter. The first pick 6 of Schell’s career, it was clear that he was absolutely elated as he celebrated in the end zone with his teammates, making sure to hang on to that ball as he made his way back to the sidelines to hugs and back pats from teammates and coaches all around. This turned out to be the play of the game, changing the tide as Berlin went on to win and appear in its first Ultimus game – an unfortunate loss to the New Yard Silverbacks. When asked about the play after the game, Schell responded, “There’s a lot more where that came from. Just you wait.” It will certainly be interesting to see if more time on the outside is what it takes to unlock this defensive quarterback’s full potential.

11. Write about your team’s biggest rivalry and what makes it so fierce. Is the competition founded in statistics and the team’s recent performance, or is it a rivalry that developed over time during the team’s history that would exist regardless of statistics?

The biggest rivalry for the Berlin Fire Salamanders has to be their inter conference rivalry with the New York Silverbacks. The Silverbacks and the Salamanders were the two teams formed in the S25 expansion, and have both managed to quickly turn themselves into contenders in the ISFL. In their inaugural season, both teams were at the bottom of their respective conferences, with Berlin at 3-13 and New York at 4-12, although Berlin took their inaugural matchup in week one of that season 30-27. The next year Berlin improved to 7-9, though still missed the playoffs. New York, in a remarkably even ASFC finished in a 5 way tie for 1st at 9-7, getting the 1 seed through tie breakers, but falling to the Second Line in their first playoff game as a team. This season also featured a week one meeting of the two teams, with the Silverbacks taking the win, 38-20. In season 27, Berlin had plenty of setbacks as their offense could not sustain winning drives despite a great defensive season. New York, having similar troubles, faltered to a 7-9 record, also missing the playoffs. This season New York took a 2-1 lead in the all time series with a 30-26 win in week 11. In season 28, Berlin finally got things rolling, going to their first playoffs as the number 1 seed in the NSFC after compiling a 12-4 record. Their early exit was disappointing as they could not win their first playoff game, similar to New York. Speaking of New York, they went 10-6, good for the second seed in the ASFC, but still could not get the playoff monkey off their back with a first round loss to the Copperheads. Head to head, Berlin evened the series at 2-2 with a nail biter 20-19 win in week 3. Finally, in season 29, Berlin topped its previous record going 13-3 and winning the NSFC 1 seed and conference title in the playoffs, setting up a trip to the Ultimus. New York had another 10-6 season, good for another 2 seed, but this time they were able to get the elusive playoff win number one and two, setting up the “expansion bowl” as the two teams met in the Ultimus. The two teams did not play in the regular season, but the Silverbacks came to play in the Ultimus, taking advantage of a rough night all around by the Fire Salamanders en route to a 40-20 victory and the first Ultimus championship among the S25 expansion teams. The current head to head series stands at 3-2 in favor of New York, but Berlin is itching to get back on the field and avenge their latest loss. This looks to be an ongoing rivalry for many years to come as each young team seeks to build the biggest and baddest dynasty around. We’ll see what happens in S30!

[itztimg]

Task 10: Will "Brick Wall" Smyth. If you don't know him, you will soon. From dropping to the third round in the Season 28 DSFL draft to moving up to 10th overall pick in the Season 29 ISFL Draft, he's coming in and he's coming in hot. Look out ISFL, here comes the Brick Wall! But what a lot of people don't realize or know about is how Smyth became the up-and-coming Defensive Tackle he is. He was homeless, spent his life shuffling between halfway house and the streets. It became a never ending cycle, his parents were drug addicts from a young age, and Will was heading down the same path. Then, he went into another halfway house, this one called Sister Mary's Halfway House for Disenfranchised Peoples, where met a young man who retired from the ISFL due to a career-ending injury, Alexander "The Flash" Johnson. He didn't know just what Flash saw in him, but he saw something in Will. They formed an unlikely friendship, with The Flash telling Smyth to gain some more experience and then declare for the Draft. It took some convincing, but Smyth eventually relocated to his hometown of Portland, OR and attended Ronald Reagan High School where he played for the Regan Rockets for his entire high school career, starting out as QB 2, but then eventually finding his calling at DT. After his high school days were done, he went to University of Oregon on a full-ride scholarship, and played for the Oregon Ducks. He found out quite quickly that playing here as opposed to high school was completely different. He definitely struggled, to the point where he was almost benched. In one game, when the Ducks were down 23-15 against their interstate rival the Beavers, he looked into the stands and saw his old friend, Alexander "The Flash" Johnson. He mouthed one word, but Smyth understood it perfectly- believe. It wasn't that he wasn't good, it's that he didn't believe in himself. Oregon then rallied to the win the game in overtime, 34-28. It was then that he knew he had to declare for the DSFL Draft. And the rest, as they say, is history. But there is one chapter that has yet to be written - the chapter of Smyth's time in the ISFL. With a nomination for Defensive Tackle of the Year already under his belt, he will only rise higher and higher.

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Task 22: Hoo boy, Smyth? In charge of Ultimini entertainment? Prepare for one of the wackiest, zaniest, most outrageous halftime shows ever. It'll be quite the spectacle. So, first Smyth would make London-themed food, since you know, it would be a nice way to rub in the fact that London didn't make the Ultiimini and that he is from London, so it would be a nice send up. So at the concessions stand, attendees would be fed fish and chips, bangers and mashed, tea, crumpets, the whole nine yards. Then, during halftime itself, Royal Guards would come out to play God Save the Queen, and then there would be songs from Queen, the Beatles, and Lady Gaga (because she makes any halftime show fun). Finally, towards the end of the halftime show, then they'd have Luchadores and ducks come out to perform on the field, and then each team would come back out onto the field, and play the game, with Minnesota eventually shutting out Tijuana 40-0. It's the perfect, evil, plot to really drive home the point that London will return and that we are not so easily cowed. Time for us to come back again and win it next season.

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Task 25: If my current position were not available when I had created, I would have gone for Quarterback. Why? The answer is simple. I like having the weight of the team's hopes and dreams on my back. It gives me drive and motivation. A lot of players not just in the NFL or NBA, but also the MLB have this weight on them, and it drives them to do better, to play better, to train harder, and work for their goals. Every successful pitcher in the MLB has felt this weight. Sandy Koufax, Cy Young, Dennis Eckersley, all of them have thrived off of this weight. It would be the same for me as a quarterback. I would need to stay active to maintain my spot on the roster. I would need to update well to have the success I need to thrive. I would need to work ten times as hard to prove to teams looking to draft me *why* they should draft me. I would need to show a level of commitment that is uncommon to other positions. And I would need to learn to trust my instincts. I would be *the* QB1, and as such, I would need to show dedication. And if I were to be Quarterback, I definitely would.

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[J0EB]

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6. Write 800 words or more on something about anything in the league that interests you. It could be related to statistics, a league issue that you take seriously, or a niche part of history that doesn’t fit neatly into either of the above categories. This must be directly related to the league, so don’t wax 800 words about your team’s participation on a Werewolf server or something.

This year I was thinking about it and I really, really, didn't want to do Ultimus Week. The tasks have gotten so repetitive, and I've written about all the interesting ones already, and I can't exactly redo them. At this point, I've been in the league for over a year, and I've done 7 seasons of Ultimus weeks (this will be my 8th). So it makes sense that it would get a bit repetitive, but I wanted to take a deeper look into everything including but not limited to, how the UW tasks have changed over the years, how the formatting changed between S21 and S22, how my previous responses themselves may have been repetitive, and maybe even talk a little about how we can change UW to give opportunities for more creative responses each year. This isn't meant as a criticism to the PT team, but rather as an observation I've had and a feeling (more than likely) shared between users/vets of the league who have done 5+ of these by now. Thanks for reading and I hope that this can help inspire positive change.

The first UW I did was the last of the old school style that a lot of users probably wouldn't recognize at all. For reference to those who need it, here it is. For those who don't want to open their 12th sim league tab, back in the day, you could do 4 tasks for the UW, and they were all worth 2.5 TPE each. There was no variation in word count or TPE worth. There were 20 prompts, and they cycled throughout the years to add a bit of refreshment to them too. Since it was my first year in the league, these prompts were all pretty appealing and interesting to me.

After that year though, in S22, the PT team made big changes to the way UW worked. Instead of each prompt being worth 2.5 points and having the same word limit set at 200 words, there were longer length prompts worth more TPE each. Long tasks (800+ words) worth 10 TPE and Short Form Tasks (400+ words) worth 5 each. Personally (and I think the majority of users will agree with this sentiment), I think that this was an awesome change to the way UW worked, as it allows users to really hone in on a topic and get creative if they want to write for a 5 or 10 TPE prompt. I think encouraging longer writing is always a good thing for the league to do because the in-depth story telling in the league can be so much fun.

An important part of Ultimus week regardless of the formatting, is the prompts that users are given to work with. This is my main gripe with current day UW, and since I don't like to just spout complaints with no backing, I've done some analysis on the different prompts available each year.

To do this, I'm going to look at 3 factors, the number of prompts, the number of unique prompts compared to the previous year, and the number of entirely unique prompts (meaning never been used before starting from S22). I think this will give us a good idea as to how the UW prompts might cycle year after year, and show us how many new prompts have been created since S22.



So, what can we make of this? It seems like new prompts were slowly being added each year, but starting in S26, there was a wave of unique prompts introduced. This was really nice to see as the new prompts obviously gave users more creative ways to respond to UW and earn their TPE. After this huge refreshment, in S27 only a few new prompts were added. This makes sense since a lot of those prompts were still unique to some, I don't think every year there needs to be 15+ new prompts, so mixing a few newer ones in along with those added the previous year was a good mix of new and old (which were still relatively new).  In S28, we got more new Written and Graphic Prompts, and 2 new Short Form prompts which again were good additions to keep things fresh and cycling through.

While for the most part the PT team has been doing a good job adding new prompts to UW. The issue that I see, is two-fold. First, there hasn't been a new Long Form prompt in 3 seasons (and there have only been 3 new Short Forms), and second, there was only 1 new prompt introduced this year.

Adding new long prompts whether Long or Short Form is still important. Being able to do 2 tasks for 5 TPE is (in my opinion) the perfect median to use for UW. I really wish there were more of the longer prompts so that users could use their creative minds more and get to those in-depth stories that I mentioned earlier. Obviously the write about anything that interests you prompt is still present which is awesome, but sometimes the guidance of the prompts can be really helpful too.

As for the lack of new prompts this season, honestly I'm not sure why this was the case. Perhaps the PT team couldn't think of good new prompts, perhaps they didn't even consider adding new ones, I don't know. But I think that I speak for most people when I say that UW can be really frustrating to do sometimes when the prompts all feel the same.

So, what do I think the solution is? Well I think UW is in need of another refreshment like what we saw in S26. Adding another big set of new prompts (focusing on Long and Short Form prompts too) would really remove some of the existing repetitiveness. After that's done, we can add a few at a time until things get stale again (2-3 seasons) and then have another big new set added. I think a cycle like this would be really healthy for the users of the league and encourage further engagement in the UW year after year.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I have at least one idea for how to help come up with prompts, but I'm running short on time to submit this for TPE so I'm going to wait until I have a few more ideas and submit a follow up media piece (to not be graded).

[Alucas]

29.
PBE 26-2 Affiliate

17 - 
A new stadium is always a chance for something cool to be built. I think in addition to the grand stadium seating that would need to be built to house our many fans I would think we would want a couple of gimmicky attractions to improve peoples game day experience and keep them in the area for longer. Firstly we would want the best food court/options possible, I am talking food from across the globe at cheap prices and massive portions, this way no matter what you are craving on game day you can buy it at the stadium with no hassle. I think it would be cool to have a feature part of the stadium, like the Buccaneers Pirate Ship for Tampa Bay. I think a giant hawk where the wings are spread sort of like a cover instead of the usual stadium roof would be a cool addition that would be practical (to a point) and also give our stadium a unique look. Either this or a funky structural component to the stadium like the green monster at the Boston Redsoxs park. I would imagine seeing a cool shaped wall, whether it be low and have great view of the field or up high and be something imposing for the opposition to see.. either way I would push for some unique architectural features.

226 Words

26-
Although football has been around for quite some time now, there have been various rule changes throughout history, a lot lately centered around the safety of players, reducing how players can hit and things like the tandem blocking in kick returns to prevent heavy hits. I think I would look at bringing football into line with a lot of the other sports in the world and remove the pads. I think this would change the game drastically, currently padding allows players to launch themselves and manipulate each other with a little more ease than if there was nothing to grab or padding to reduce the way players throw themselves around. I think it would allow people to tackle more cautiously as they wouldn't have the same safety net of padding to allow for mistakes. I think tackling would be completely different and if we removed the helmets too then nobody would be tempted to launch themselves head first (not that they are meant to now) and this in my opinion would help reduce the heavy hits as it would just be player on player with no extras. I don't know if this would be a very popular rule change as many people love the pads and helmets and it is a core part of football, but I think it would be interesting to see how people adapt.

227 Words

25-
When it came to making a player, I had a few choices that I was interested in making, I was leaning between a defensive lineman or a linebacker. Both main focus are making tackles and stopping the QB in his tracks if possible. I leant towards the more versatile linebacker this time however if I couldn't pick it now I would almost guarantee myself to switch sides of the ball completely. Despite the fun of being defensively inclined and sacking the QB, I think for any new create for myself, I will be looking at an offensive weapon. So far I would pick the tight-end position as I think it is an under appreciated position and can be a versatile offensive weapon. The tight-end can both block well and can also streak down the field for a touchdown, they are also a bit bigger in general so they can break tackles and if they are genetically gifted then they can be fast too. I would choose to hopefully have a redzone impact in the league and become a household name for fantasy as a tight-end as there aren't too many in the league. It would require a different skillset from the linebacker but it kind of reminds me of the swiss army knife of the offense and that suits the opposite of the linebacker who is the swiss army knife of the defense.

233 Words

[Bigred1580]

15. Going to Disneyland! Who was the Ultimus Game MVP? Give us a rundown of their celebratory trip to Disneyland. (Can be completed after the Ultimus game)



18. Written option - which teammate of yours is the ultimate team player and why? How does this person exhibit selflessness and put the team first? Are they a great locker room presence who encourages others? Do they play an important but unappreciated role on the team which doesn't receive much recognition for awards? Graphic Option: Create a graphic of your player with your teammate who exhibits a team-friendly attitude.



19. If your player had a show starring them, what would the plot be? Graphic Option: Create the cover art for your player’s show



22. You’re in charge of entertainment for the Ultimus or Ultimini half-time show. What would you do?