I think the time has come for me to make a small announcement. Though it probably won’t be much of a surprise, I have made the decision to stay with Yellowknife beyond my current contract. I had prepared an in-character article to make the announcement, but this is not something I want to slip under the radar. So, I’ve decided to take some time to speak about this from an honest, out-of-character perspective.
Obviously, like many of us here, I’m a big football fan. However, I’m far from not an expert and I don’t pretend to be one. Though I truly enjoy the sport, I can’t dive into stats and make it sound interesting the way a lot of our media writers do. What I do know a lot about is characters. It’s not my intention to be the “me, me, me” guy that only writes about himself, but you guys do a great job with league analysis and predictions. Trying to do that when it’s not my specialty just wouldn’t be as interesting as the work that other people produce. And so, I’ve made it my main goal in the media that I write to create and develop a character that is easily recognizable within the league.
Up until now, at least, Eric Kennedy has not been a top 10 Running Back. He’s probably not on many fantasy teams. He’s not the name constantly popping up in the play-by-play feed during game streams. But because of my articles, there’s a good chance that you know his name. Or at least a much better chance than if I had let the stats simply speak for themselves. Not unlike a Tim Tebow or Johnny Manziel, he somehow remains relevant regardless of his actions on the field.
One major key with developing a good character is the story arcs that they undergo. In S2, Kennedy was the rookie that underperformed as a prospect, but wanted to redeem himself. In S3, he started to look for new ways to stand out and became known for being a receiving back. It was a nice niche to fall into and I enjoyed the ride, but from a storyline perspective, it kind of ran its course. I was looking for something new for S4 and looked at the fact that I was still a back-up and my contract was coming up. I’m very happy with the Wraiths, but from an in-character perspective, it’s only logical that Kennedy would look at other options. The idea of this young kid publicly putting his foot in his mouth and having to publicly sort out his options instead of doing it behind closed doors seemed like a fun route to go. I admittedly should have waited until the season started and contract negotiations began to kick off the story, but the offseason was here and I was bored. Once we were clearly out of play-off contention, I wanted something to keep me invested, so I jumped the gun and kickstarted the angle early.
Oddly enough, the biggest issue with Kennedy as a character is that he’s locked into this super positive, nice guy persona. The reason for that is that Kennedy is based on me. And that’s my real personality. As you read through this article, you’ll start to see a lot of things that start to feel like they’re in-character and that’s because I do base so much of him on me. I’m not fully sure why I did. I’ve done a lot of roleplaying over the years and thoroughly enjoy playing different types of characters. But for some reason, when I sat down to make a football player, I based him off myself. I guess it’s kind of cool to see a character based on yourself make a name for himself in a league like this, but the trade-off is that I rely on angles like this recent one to keep the character interesting.
Then, the current Free Agency kicked off and I took my foot off the petal. From a personal standpoint, I considered it disrespectful to the current Free Agents to be talking about season 5 when those guys were fighting for exposure of their own. On top of that, reading their posts and articles got me thinking about the way that Free Agents look at a team’s locker room when they’re negotiating. We all want to be on a winning team and we all want to get paid big money, but those things mean a lot less if we don’t enjoy the league. Our teammates are the people that keep us invested in the league and no one wants to end up in a locker room that has a reputation of being toxic. And here I am talking publicly about wanting out of Yellowknife when we’re trying to bring people into our locker room. I don’t necessarily want to claim that my articles had a major influence in that, but if there’s even a remote chance of it, I don’t want a character storyline to paint Yellowknife with a bad brush.
The truth is that I love the team I’m on. I’m in a weird spot, sure, but I’d rather be here than anywhere else. It doesn’t mean I won’t go somewhere else at some point. But right now, staying and fighting for a starting job with the Wraiths feels like the right thing to do. They’ve gone out of their way to keep my involved and have been nothing but supportive since the day I joined their ranks. The day I stop being useful to Yellowknife, I’ve given them full permission to move me, but until that day comes, I want to stay and contribute as long as I’m welcome here.
Not many people may be aware of this, but I heavily considered a position change just to secure a clear role on the team. As I’m sure you can tell, my character is very near and dear to me, so I didn’t want to drastically change my character. Becoming a lineman or defensive tackle and growing half-a-foot taller overnight would be out of the question, but there were a lot of positions that could still fit my character. My original intended outcome for this storyline was that it would lead to Kennedy changing positions. Last week, the Wraiths GMs and I had a long conversation and settled on Wide Receiver as the best possibility. And this was before Josh Garden’s jump to the Outlaws. I was absolutely ready to make the change, but when I went to pull the trigger, something didn’t feel right. I started this journey as a Running Back and I‘ve decided that I want to finish it as one. I’ll move onto something new the day Kennedy retires due to CTE or liver poisoning, but until then, I’m committed to the path I’m set on.
I think the fact there are only 8 starting slots for Running Backs in the league is one of the things that keeps me drawn to it. It forces me to push myself. If I miss an opportunity, it puts the next guy that much closer to replacing me. It’s going to be a hard spot to earn and a tougher spot to hold onto, but I like the challenge of that. I talk a lot about replacing Nuck. He and I have had discussions about it. He’s a great guy and he’s been a mentor to me. He doesn’t post a lot outside of the locker room, but he stays on top of his TPE tasks and remains active He pushes me to push myself, but at the same time, he doesn’t make it easy for me to pass him. It’s a strange dynamic, but the result has paid off. Obviously, at some point, something is going to give. I don’t know which of us will end with higher TPE in the long run. I also don’t know his long-term plans. One of us could eventually get traded or even sign with another team. I don’t know how this ends and maybe that’s what makes it compelling to me. For now, though, I’m going to continue to follow this path. Even if the future is unclear, I believe in myself enough to keep pushing for that spot. The Wraiths have made it very clear internally that they see a role for me going forward and I’m going to trust in that.
I spoke about league parity in some of those in-characters and there was a lot of truth in that. I want my team to win, but I don’t want us to become some unstoppable force. I think that competition is important for the long-term health of the league. If I honestly felt that I could make the league better by going to another team, I would absolutely consider it, but for now, I think the Wraiths need me just as much as anyone else. And I don’t want to make it look like I’m turning my back on them. Even if it’s just an illusion.
This team took a lot of hits this offseason. We lost our QB. We lost our WR1. Granted, RainDelay is an absolute beast and will be awesome as a WR1, but it still hurts to see people go. I wasn’t involved in the negotiations, but I know that there were a few people that I was hoping would come on over and it hurt to see them go elsewhere. I think the majority of the free agents that have signed so far have gone to teams that really need them and I’m excited for the parity that their moves bring, but at the same time, you can only see so many people make the move to other teams before you start to feel territorial. As a team, I think it’s important for us to stand together and I want to be part of that. No angle is worth costing us that sense of unity.
For those that have been following and were intrigued by the free agent storyline, don’t worry. I have a twist just around the corner that will resolve the storyline in a timely and logical manner. I won’t spoil the actual reason, but I think it will wrap everything up nicely. Sometimes, we simply have to be reminded of what we’ve got in order to appreciate it. It’s just another part of Kennedy’s journey and I’m looking forward to exploring what comes next for him.
For the sake of transparency, let it be known that if I do tease Free Agency at some point down the road, it will be genuine. Teasing something like this again would be going back to the well and that’s not good for me or my character. Because this angle had the potential to be controversial, I wanted to be completely open about the reason behind it and it was always my intention of coming clean after the storyline had run its course. If it doesn’t seem controversial, imagine me talking about jumping ship all season long just to sign with the Wraiths in the end. If I actually did enter free agency, the angle could have skyrocketed to a whole new level, but the temptation to go too far wasn’t worth it.
Special thanks for bzerkap and bovo for enduring what was potentially a self-destructive angle. I think this had the chance to be something really great if I hadn’t rushed it, but it also had the potential to really backfire. With that in mind, I’m comfortable putting the rumors to rest and allowing the character to move forward. Right now, Wraiths Nation needs a united front right now and I’m 100% committed to the cause. I’m excited to continue to rock the Wraiths uniform for the near future.
Thank you to everyone that has ready my articles the last few weeks and invested themselves in this latest storyline. Look for the official in-character announcement next week. I hope that it will be a satisfying conclusion for everyone.
- SwagSloth
2011 Words
Ready for Grading
GRADED
Obviously, like many of us here, I’m a big football fan. However, I’m far from not an expert and I don’t pretend to be one. Though I truly enjoy the sport, I can’t dive into stats and make it sound interesting the way a lot of our media writers do. What I do know a lot about is characters. It’s not my intention to be the “me, me, me” guy that only writes about himself, but you guys do a great job with league analysis and predictions. Trying to do that when it’s not my specialty just wouldn’t be as interesting as the work that other people produce. And so, I’ve made it my main goal in the media that I write to create and develop a character that is easily recognizable within the league.
Up until now, at least, Eric Kennedy has not been a top 10 Running Back. He’s probably not on many fantasy teams. He’s not the name constantly popping up in the play-by-play feed during game streams. But because of my articles, there’s a good chance that you know his name. Or at least a much better chance than if I had let the stats simply speak for themselves. Not unlike a Tim Tebow or Johnny Manziel, he somehow remains relevant regardless of his actions on the field.
One major key with developing a good character is the story arcs that they undergo. In S2, Kennedy was the rookie that underperformed as a prospect, but wanted to redeem himself. In S3, he started to look for new ways to stand out and became known for being a receiving back. It was a nice niche to fall into and I enjoyed the ride, but from a storyline perspective, it kind of ran its course. I was looking for something new for S4 and looked at the fact that I was still a back-up and my contract was coming up. I’m very happy with the Wraiths, but from an in-character perspective, it’s only logical that Kennedy would look at other options. The idea of this young kid publicly putting his foot in his mouth and having to publicly sort out his options instead of doing it behind closed doors seemed like a fun route to go. I admittedly should have waited until the season started and contract negotiations began to kick off the story, but the offseason was here and I was bored. Once we were clearly out of play-off contention, I wanted something to keep me invested, so I jumped the gun and kickstarted the angle early.
Oddly enough, the biggest issue with Kennedy as a character is that he’s locked into this super positive, nice guy persona. The reason for that is that Kennedy is based on me. And that’s my real personality. As you read through this article, you’ll start to see a lot of things that start to feel like they’re in-character and that’s because I do base so much of him on me. I’m not fully sure why I did. I’ve done a lot of roleplaying over the years and thoroughly enjoy playing different types of characters. But for some reason, when I sat down to make a football player, I based him off myself. I guess it’s kind of cool to see a character based on yourself make a name for himself in a league like this, but the trade-off is that I rely on angles like this recent one to keep the character interesting.
Then, the current Free Agency kicked off and I took my foot off the petal. From a personal standpoint, I considered it disrespectful to the current Free Agents to be talking about season 5 when those guys were fighting for exposure of their own. On top of that, reading their posts and articles got me thinking about the way that Free Agents look at a team’s locker room when they’re negotiating. We all want to be on a winning team and we all want to get paid big money, but those things mean a lot less if we don’t enjoy the league. Our teammates are the people that keep us invested in the league and no one wants to end up in a locker room that has a reputation of being toxic. And here I am talking publicly about wanting out of Yellowknife when we’re trying to bring people into our locker room. I don’t necessarily want to claim that my articles had a major influence in that, but if there’s even a remote chance of it, I don’t want a character storyline to paint Yellowknife with a bad brush.
The truth is that I love the team I’m on. I’m in a weird spot, sure, but I’d rather be here than anywhere else. It doesn’t mean I won’t go somewhere else at some point. But right now, staying and fighting for a starting job with the Wraiths feels like the right thing to do. They’ve gone out of their way to keep my involved and have been nothing but supportive since the day I joined their ranks. The day I stop being useful to Yellowknife, I’ve given them full permission to move me, but until that day comes, I want to stay and contribute as long as I’m welcome here.
Not many people may be aware of this, but I heavily considered a position change just to secure a clear role on the team. As I’m sure you can tell, my character is very near and dear to me, so I didn’t want to drastically change my character. Becoming a lineman or defensive tackle and growing half-a-foot taller overnight would be out of the question, but there were a lot of positions that could still fit my character. My original intended outcome for this storyline was that it would lead to Kennedy changing positions. Last week, the Wraiths GMs and I had a long conversation and settled on Wide Receiver as the best possibility. And this was before Josh Garden’s jump to the Outlaws. I was absolutely ready to make the change, but when I went to pull the trigger, something didn’t feel right. I started this journey as a Running Back and I‘ve decided that I want to finish it as one. I’ll move onto something new the day Kennedy retires due to CTE or liver poisoning, but until then, I’m committed to the path I’m set on.
I think the fact there are only 8 starting slots for Running Backs in the league is one of the things that keeps me drawn to it. It forces me to push myself. If I miss an opportunity, it puts the next guy that much closer to replacing me. It’s going to be a hard spot to earn and a tougher spot to hold onto, but I like the challenge of that. I talk a lot about replacing Nuck. He and I have had discussions about it. He’s a great guy and he’s been a mentor to me. He doesn’t post a lot outside of the locker room, but he stays on top of his TPE tasks and remains active He pushes me to push myself, but at the same time, he doesn’t make it easy for me to pass him. It’s a strange dynamic, but the result has paid off. Obviously, at some point, something is going to give. I don’t know which of us will end with higher TPE in the long run. I also don’t know his long-term plans. One of us could eventually get traded or even sign with another team. I don’t know how this ends and maybe that’s what makes it compelling to me. For now, though, I’m going to continue to follow this path. Even if the future is unclear, I believe in myself enough to keep pushing for that spot. The Wraiths have made it very clear internally that they see a role for me going forward and I’m going to trust in that.
I spoke about league parity in some of those in-characters and there was a lot of truth in that. I want my team to win, but I don’t want us to become some unstoppable force. I think that competition is important for the long-term health of the league. If I honestly felt that I could make the league better by going to another team, I would absolutely consider it, but for now, I think the Wraiths need me just as much as anyone else. And I don’t want to make it look like I’m turning my back on them. Even if it’s just an illusion.
This team took a lot of hits this offseason. We lost our QB. We lost our WR1. Granted, RainDelay is an absolute beast and will be awesome as a WR1, but it still hurts to see people go. I wasn’t involved in the negotiations, but I know that there were a few people that I was hoping would come on over and it hurt to see them go elsewhere. I think the majority of the free agents that have signed so far have gone to teams that really need them and I’m excited for the parity that their moves bring, but at the same time, you can only see so many people make the move to other teams before you start to feel territorial. As a team, I think it’s important for us to stand together and I want to be part of that. No angle is worth costing us that sense of unity.
For those that have been following and were intrigued by the free agent storyline, don’t worry. I have a twist just around the corner that will resolve the storyline in a timely and logical manner. I won’t spoil the actual reason, but I think it will wrap everything up nicely. Sometimes, we simply have to be reminded of what we’ve got in order to appreciate it. It’s just another part of Kennedy’s journey and I’m looking forward to exploring what comes next for him.
For the sake of transparency, let it be known that if I do tease Free Agency at some point down the road, it will be genuine. Teasing something like this again would be going back to the well and that’s not good for me or my character. Because this angle had the potential to be controversial, I wanted to be completely open about the reason behind it and it was always my intention of coming clean after the storyline had run its course. If it doesn’t seem controversial, imagine me talking about jumping ship all season long just to sign with the Wraiths in the end. If I actually did enter free agency, the angle could have skyrocketed to a whole new level, but the temptation to go too far wasn’t worth it.
Special thanks for bzerkap and bovo for enduring what was potentially a self-destructive angle. I think this had the chance to be something really great if I hadn’t rushed it, but it also had the potential to really backfire. With that in mind, I’m comfortable putting the rumors to rest and allowing the character to move forward. Right now, Wraiths Nation needs a united front right now and I’m 100% committed to the cause. I’m excited to continue to rock the Wraiths uniform for the near future.
Thank you to everyone that has ready my articles the last few weeks and invested themselves in this latest storyline. Look for the official in-character announcement next week. I hope that it will be a satisfying conclusion for everyone.
- SwagSloth
2011 Words
Ready for Grading
GRADED
![[Image: welcomeBraxtonEast.png?ex=677e7b1f&is=67...y=lossless]](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/357281973594619905/1319836335887880192/welcomeBraxtonEast.png?ex=677e7b1f&is=677d299f&hm=c03a86226787bfca2f2d024eb23c800c6f1ecd647532e0419a9d0218636d40e4&=&format=webp&quality=lossless)
![[Image: baby-yoda-by-jango-sm.png]](https://i.ibb.co/1rgfYXP/baby-yoda-by-jango-sm.png)
Thanks to Jangorhino for the sig.
![[Image: card6.png]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/692421772183601193/1053345472418431016/card6.png)
![[Image: image.png]](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/332292285788192788/401385203261636609/image.png)
![[Image: AjG7IlG.png]](https://images-ext-2.discordapp.net/external/3XePkbq5Roxja4-XKktZu8IlUj3T3zxVQoCpIhNS_Lc/https/i.imgur.com/AjG7IlG.png)
![[Image: XSfVUgo.png]](https://i.imgur.com/XSfVUgo.png)
