SFL Communications
June 9, 2021
The Simulation Football League has revolutionized sim sports and taken things to the next level with the launch of SFL Automation, which allows teams and players to submit and sign contracts and for players to progress their players through this portal. Previously, all submissions of contracts and progressions were submitted one line at a time and manually processed by teams and league staff, susceptible to human error in rules and data entry and caused slow downs to the off-season schedule and to approvals or denials of progression.
“We are investing into the experience of our players,” Commissioner Cameron Irvine said. “To receive offers, track your progression over the course of a season, over a career and adjust your player’s future is a significant step in growing the SFL, the opportunity for players and teams to compete and increasing content efforts across the league. The off-season is a painful process, as is updating all rosters manually all season long, 12 months a year – whether that be in SFL or SFLm leagues. This will help ensure the SFL remains the highest quality sim product out there and continue to offer the most entertainment for your dollar.”
The portals features, which are now unique to the SFL, include:
- Team contract submissions to re-signings, free agents and rookies
- Player profile’s where players can view pending contacts and player information
- Team roster areas where teams can view their roster file, their player’s progressions and their team’s data
- Team contract areas where teams can draft, send, restructure and rescind contracts offered to players
- A transaction log of all players officially signed, including their full contract, their overall value, loyalty points spent on the player, whether or not the player has been designated a star, whether the contract is an original or a restructure and when the contract was approved by the team
- Automation of subscription checks so players without a current subscription cannot sign and cannot progress at the time of invalid submission
- Automation of progression eliminating player or team errors in progression submission or understanding
- Automation of Roster file creation so edits to players and team-building is adjusted on-the-fly, producing up-to-date rosters immediately after contracts and progression have concluded
To obtain login information for your player account, players in Discord must do the following:
- Contact the ‘SFLPortal’ bot in a DM with a question mark – ? – or the word – help – to access the bot menu
- Type ‘login’ to obtain your login name
- Type ‘password’ to obtain a temporary four digit passcode, which you will change upon accessing the Automation portal
- Visit https://simulation.football or go to https://simulationfl.net and click ‘players’ on the main menu to access the portal
- If you have a contract pending, it should show up in your player’s profile section
If you are a veteran player signing in Season 17, but did not play in Season 16, contact Director of Player Personnel Marcus Dunhill to inform him you will be signing and he will notify you of your contract status, based on how many seasons since you last played. If you are a rookie in the current Season 17 Draft Class, your player will be entered into the automated system after you’re drafted. If you are not drafted in the Season 17 Rookie Draft, your player will eventually be entered into the system and rookie progression will resume when the SFL season begins.
Revised off-season dates include the start of free agency (now June 17) and roster lock (now Saturday July 3). The Rookie Draft remains scheduled for the weekend of June 26-27. The final day to sign veterans to rosters will be Thursday June 24 and the league will release the final draft order on Friday June 25, based on teams that still need players to fill available spots.
In May, subscription prices increased as a result, along with increased costs to operate the league – including $350 that was invested in backup power supply to ensure league games are not interrupted by power outages or severe weather. A Pro sub now costs $5 a month and Pro QBs and RBs must have an additional QB/RB $2 a month subscription to sign their Season 17 contract. Rookie subs for all positions are still $3 a month. Players will not need to cancel their current subscription to the updated price, but will need to renew at the current price once their current subscription expires. Only 1 month subscriptions auto-renew, if you have a 1-month subscription at the current subscription price.
Fellow Discord member Gary Taylor is responsible for all the custom coding on the new site to go along with the improvements made to the main league site and the ongoing improvements being made to the league’s stat website, with a target date of all three sites being intertwined and interconnected by the start of next season.
“I’d like to thank Jacob Bouvette, Portland Fleet owner, for sharing his great contact with us to help this possibility to become a reality,” Irvine said. “Tom Ramen, Los Angeles Lycans Co-Owner, Liam Crowter, London Knights Owner and Marcus Dunhill, Director of Player Personnel have also been instrumental in getting Gary up to speed on the progression portion of our rulebook. The vision and efforts of team ownerships to help push the league forward is a huge part of what makes a great franchise in the SFL.”
- Image 1: All players can be sorted by contract value and rating in a particular category. When progression is input in the system, the value will automatically calculate. Blacked out values are values not able to be progressed. All the animations a player might have are also listed on the far right.
- Image 2: When selecting how you want to progress each week, the system will provide you attributes based on your selection that have not been maxed out yet and instruct you to apply the allotted progression.
- Image 3: When you apply the progression, you’ll be able to see the change in rating and will be able to submit your progression. Once progression is submitted, it is automatically applied to the league’s official roster file, so you can be 100% assured that your progression was applied accurately.
- Image 4: If you attempt to add too much to your player, you will not be able to submit the inaccurate progression.
- Image 5: If you hover over the animations, the type of animation will display if you’re not familiar with the APF icons that designate them.
- Image 6: All minimums and maximums for positions and attributes are in the system and available for easy viewing, so you are able to see what your player’s max potential is at all times.
- Image 7: All players can be sorted by position as well, helpful to comparing yourself to other players at the same position and for scouting your next opponent’s strengths and weaknesses.
- Image 8: All players have had accounts created in the portal and will be receiving access once the project is completed. A two-factor authentication is being developed to better ensure that all players and teams are following the rules of progression, submission and one player per customer.
- Image 9: The league is able to set progression windows and deadlines so players who submit on time can potentially change their minds after a submission has taken place and players who do not submit on time will not be able to do so in any capacity.
- Image 10: Even non-users are in the portal – your complete roster as a team is accessible and this direct export of this roster into official league files ensures a much easier experience checking to ensure 100% accuracy across the league and across all players.
- Image 11: When clicking on a player’s name, the details of each player appears, including player equipment, run style and player height and weight. Being able to completely customize equipment is on the list of accomplishments to achieve, but is not a part of the initial rollout.
- Image 12: As players progress and reach a new threshold, their tier automatically changes, as does the type of progression available to the player, based on their tier.
