*Scorp Rocks Lmao

[TomHanks]

I apologize in advance because this is really just going to be a rant. It’s not going to be structured, the order is going to seem weird. I don’t know how much it’s going to help anything, but holy hell is there a lot of animosity right now, and I thought we could do with a positive media post. Given everything that’s going on now, this could be seen as a political piece or some shit like that. It has nothing to do with that. All I want to do is talk about something that has bugged me for a while. Today I want to deal with a misconception that has been pretty prevalent in this league since all the way back in S15, which is that Scorp has been carried to all his awards and championships. I remember once in S17 being asked who I thought the best DSFL GMs were, and I think my answer was Duilio, Shady, and Scorp (no offense to other people who were GMs back then, those 3 were the first on my mind and definitely the ones I had the most contact with. The response I got was “Scorp? I always assumed everything good Tijuana did was you and everything bad was him”. That comment always stuck with me because it is all kinds of untrue, and just came down to PR. As a person with some of the most personal experience with Scorp as a GM, I’ve always wanted to clear that up.

I guess I’m just gonna start at the beginning here. I can’t speak to Scorp’s first GMotY award. He was a GM before I was even active in this league and won that award my only season as just a player in the NSFL. He had Slm as a head GM, and obviously that’s a pretty heavy hitter showing him the ropes, and maybe to a degree he was carried here. It was his first ever season and Slm is Slm, I don’t really think there’s any shame in that. I do no they didn’t test sim that season, but I’ll get back to that later. Slm knows the sim well, and obviously they were more than capable without doing that.
The following season was my first as co-GM of Tijuana, and Scorp’s second as GM of Norfolk. Scorp and I always had a good rapport through that season, and our two teams were both in very good situations roster wise. However, sim gonna sim, we finished 9-5 and Norfolk finished 6-8. There are a few things you can attribute that to, but ultimately it comes down to Norfolk not being able to do much on offense because they had 1 running back on the roster and a QB who the sim wanted to cast into the fires of Hades. Even still, they did tie the record they had the previous season when they won GMotY.

The season after that the DSFL had to contract because S15 send downs were gone, and back then a 70-person class would be considered extraordinary. The two teams that got contracted were the expansion teams, Norfolk and Palm Beach, who had incidentally just won the Ultimini. Ben, my co-GM in Tijuana, had been travelling the season before, so after the draft I pretty much had to run it by myself. I was also doing a lot of work in the New Orleans war room including doing all of our testing then, so I had a lot on my plate. We were always planning on replacing Ben the next season, and contraction freed up a few candidates. I went to and interviewed exactly one candidate, Scorp. I decided I liked him, he had a good energy, and he and I worked well together in GM chat. Easily the best decision I made as a GM (other than maybe adding the pets channel to Tijuana chat).

There are three people I will say I wouldn’t be in this league without. The first is PDX for his prospect bowl and getting us excited about the league. The second is Payton, one of my earliest friends in the league and the guy that got me hyped about Tijuana. The third is Scorp. Between what I was doing in NOLA and Tijuana, I would’ve had a breakdown or simply burned in S16 or S17 without him. He was everything I could’ve asked for in a co-GM. Anything I asked him to help with, he either did immediately or as soon as he learned how. One of the first things I ever taught Scorp was how to test sim, because Norfolk never taught him. Back in S15 he was simming and recording data with a pen and paper. While looking back that’s really funny, I admired the hell out of the fact that he was test simming even with no ability to do fast mustard or any of that, because he wanted to do whatever he could to help his team. As soon as he had fast mustard down, he was helping me sim most games for Tijuana, and frankly probably tested more games than I did in S17. Any time I wanted to talk through an idea, he was right with me and we’d get to planning. For a frame of reference as to how much Scorp and I talked about Tijuana over those two seasons, I have over 5550 DMs with Scorp, the vast majority of which are about Tijuana, and he has 1213 messages in the Tijuana war room. He was always accessible, and never stopped looking for ways to improve the team for his players. Whether it was looking for new trades, thinking about new things to add to the locker room, Scorp cared about the team and wanted to put it in the best position he could.
In S16 we went 12-2 and won the Ultimini and GMotY. People went on to decide Scorp deserved about 25% of that award. I haven’t a clue why, because as far as I was concerned, Scorp did as much as I did in S16. But by that point, we were right at the peak of “Scorp sucks lmao”. I don’t know that any user on this site has rolled with the punches as well and as much as Scorp has, other than maybe Dermot just by virtue of getting shit on for years. But then again, Dermot also started the Scorp sucks lmao train. I cannot fathom logging onto a website every day where people tell you that you suck as a joke and you just consistently laugh along with them. I really have to commend that. But all of that was jokes. The “you were carried to this award” was always something people believed.

In S17, we had another r/nfl recruitment year, and had a massive draft class. One of the hottest prospects was a guy called Trae Bacon. At 6OA, Scorp and I were ready to pull the trigger on him, and then I got messaged by the Portland GM asking if they could trade up. I messaged Scorp to ask him what he thought, we started a chat, and Scorp asked for 5 picks. That got thrown out pretty quickly, but we really liked Trae and we weren’t giving him up without getting paid. After a little bit of a negotiating, I had to get on the subway and lost service for a little bit. When I got to a stop where we had service, I had a ton of unread messages in that group chat and a PM from Scorp with Saba’s offer, the one we ended up taking. That whole trade was talked about as a huge win for Tijuana, and it really was. We built our team that season on the back of that trade. If I’m remembering rightly, 4 of those 5 picks turned into actives, 2 of which are either former or current Tijuana GMs. And that trade was all Scorp. We turned Tijuana into a ridiculously active team with all of that, and had 3 first round picks for the next season. We went onto win our second consecutive Ultimini and GMotY, and this was the first one Scorp ever said he deserved the full 50% of. I strongly disagree with that as I have said, he deserves the world for S16 too, but neither here nor there. Even still, people come out of the woodwork to say that he was carried to that too. Never you mind that the key to our success that season was a trade that he negotiated. Yet again we spent all season planning and talking and hyping up the locker room and making Tijuana a place where every rookie on the team wanted to be. In my opinion, Scorp deserves the S17 GMotY even more than I do.

The next season, he moved onto Baltimore, and I moved up to New Orleans. Fast forward to his recreate, I drafted him in the first round because I know what an asset he is to a team. Fun fact, the other team that knows that, Baltimore, was going to take him with their next pick if we didn’t. Almost like everyone who has actually seen Scorp work and don’t just fall into the Scorp sucks lmao bandwagon realize his value. I PM’d Scorp asking his advice on trades, and we even decided to expand our war room beyond the size we had initially settled on to get him in there.

He is a phenomenal GM in this league, a pleasure in any locker room, and will make fun of himself with you more than anyone I have ever met. Like I said, I don’t know how much this helps anything, but I thought it might be nice to talk about all the good things one of my friends has done while dealing with this stupid ass “Scorp is always carried” nonsense.

[bex]

When it was whispered that Norfolk was going to move from being a bot team back to being a player team, I made a comment. about giving the team to Scorp. It was meant as a joke, because Scorp had just stepped down from a GMing position, and I didn't want to pressure him into stepping back into GMing. The public conversation moved on from the topic, and Scorp DMed me.

"Was that a joke?"
"If norfolk actually does need someone i would be willing to step in"

At the time I didn't know for certain if the team was in fact coming back, and I told him as such. But the second the determination was made, Scorp is the person I went to. He seemed to share my joy about the decision to reopen the Fleet and when asked about the decision to go back to GMing, he said 'Ya I wanted the free time but I think this is worth it tbh".

Scorp gives his all for his teams. This is the explanation for how he led the best Norfolk team in franchise history. I have had the pleasure of watching him rebuild that team over the last two seasons, and it has been amazing to see unfold. He shows up for his players and does what he can to put them in the best position he can. He has earned the accolades he has received in my mind, without a doubt.

Scorp Rocks indeed.

[Baron1898]

On the one hand, you’re telling me that Scorp is a great user and GM and wonderful to be around even when he vomits on his keyboard.

On the other hand, scorp sucks lmao.

I think I’ll take the second option thank you very much.

[Frostbite]

skcrop saucaxs lamp

[Opera_Phantom]

Almost like everyone who has actually seen Scorp work and don’t just fall into the Scorp sucks lmao bandwagon realize his value.

Tbf, i think that 99% of people that says "scorp sucks lmao" do it exactly because they know how good he is and that he is a good sport in taking it.


And this message will self destruct in a few seconds.

[rapideagle]

good points, however i shall maintain my stance that scorp sucks lmap

you cannot take this away from us

[IsaStarcrossed]

I have to back all of this. I can even attest to part of what TH is saying here because we knew Scorp was our first round pick in NOLA basically the day he recreated. No one else ever even came into consideration. Everyone there knew how awesome Scorp was and it is a privledge to have him in New Orleans with us now.

Scorp is one of the guys I've talked to the most in this league. He has a great head on his shoulders and is fantastic to bounce ideas off of. He is silly and always willing to play along with a joke and 90% of the time when he enters a chat, it brightens everyone's day. He has been a joy to be around since I've joined this league and it is incredible just how much he has put up with over the past year. Scorp gives 100% to his teams and never once have I doubted his leadership in Norfolk.

I've seen his work ethic even behind the scenes in the rookie mentor environment. Any and every project that Woelkers comes up with for the mentors to work on, Scorp is always the first to volunteer to put in the extra work. He's always striving to help out wherever he can.

It is easy to give someone a hard time for the memes, especially when that person plays along. But Scorp is an awesome human.

[Faded]

Great Read. This is the wholesome content that we need to pay attention too, and not create drama just for the hell of it.

Scorp sounds like a really nice guy.

[Huskies311]

You’re definitely right on us wanting scorp. It’s why I always laughed when people called him a reach - he absolutely would have been gone by your 2nd.

[AdamS]

Tbf, i think that 99% of people that says "scorp sucks lmao" do it exactly because they know how good he is and that he is a good sport in taking it.


And this message will self destruct in a few seconds.

The other 1% is just really really loud. I get Toms want to defend his friend here.