New Madden 19 PS4 32 Team League. Realistic as can be!

[lce5007]

This is a league where I am shooting for the most realistic league that we can possibly make. I'm talking as close to the real life NFL as Madden 19 will allow us to do. I don't want to have a league full of rules, but if we want to make it realistic, there are definitely some guidelines that need to be followed. I've been the commissioner of a league for the past three years, plus I've been a member of some that I am trying to emulate here, so I'd like to think that I've come up with a compromise where the league can be fun, competitive, and realistic, all at the same time. These rules will be fluid as well, meaning that if a change is needed at any point, we can all vote on it, and take it from there.

For starters, I would like to do a league where all thirty-two teams are user controlled. I know that some people don't like this, they think that it is too hard to keep up with, etc. I've been in these kind of leagues before and thought the same, but it really isn't that hard if everyone communicates. I myself have a full-time job, which also requires regular travel, so I don't intend on dedicating my life to this game. I wouldn't expect any of you to do it either. People also don't always have the same schedules, live in different time zones, etc. Trust me, if you stick to the guidelines, we will get through it with minimal to no issues. I took bits and pieces of the leagues that I've been in before, combined them, and came up with what I think is a good baseline to set our league at.

I will be using edited rosters and rosters. There are guys that do an amazing job of researching and testing these things out. I've had a lot of success using these in the past, so I would expect the same this year. I think that we can all agree that the default Madden ratings are awful in many ways. There are guys who create much better ratings based off of many factors, which also helps the realism. Same thing with the XP sliders. There is a guy who runs hundreds of tests over multiple seasons in order to create realistic progression. I've noticed in previous years that if you leave it as is, you'll end up with far too many elite players, which is unrealistic, which ruins the game for me. With his sliders, there are only a few elite players each year, several good, majority mediocre, etc. I know that the player progression system has been changed for Madden 19, but I assume that this guy will still do his due dilligence.

In the past, I've noticed that the best way to ensure good communication between the league members is by having everyone on a common platform in order to do so. Some have used Discord, message boards, etc. The one that I have seen work the best so far has been Facebook. We made a private group, invited all the members of the franchise, and everything was done in there. It worked extremely well. The commissioner would see who played who that week, tagged both users in a post, and the two users would talk to each other to figure out when they were able to play their game. I still think that this was the best method that I've seen so far, so I want to go that route as well. It helps with the realism if everyone can play every game against another human compared to having one of them play the CPU. If one person doesn't respond and play by a few hours before the advance time, the other person will play the CPU team. If neither play, it will be simmed. If someone quits or disconnects intentionally, then the other person can play the CPU team.

Ideally, everyone can bang out their games everyday, but I know that is not a reasonable request. I would like to set it up so that it advances every Tuesday night, Thursday night, and Sunday at 10pm Eastern Time. This way you have multiple days to get your games in, it won't conflict with the real life NFL that I am assuming everyone likes to watch (I realize that there are Thursday night games, but it's still allowing enough time to get a game in), and it also won't get in the way of your Friday and Saturday nights. Also ideally, when you are done with everything for the week, SET IT AS READY TO ADVANCE. If we are able to It's much nicer to have it advance automatically when everyone is done instead of one person holding everyone up and then it won't advance until I force it.

Now for the strict part. By realism, I mean that we play the game the way it is really played in the NFL. No gimmick plays or money plays. One of my best friends plays this game with me in a separate league every year and he literally runs two defensive plays and less than ten different offensive plays (the runs are the same concept and he uses two different passing concepts). He looks up these cheap plays on YouTube and only does those plays. When he plays the CPU, he ends up with 500+ passing and 400+ rushing every single game. THAT IS NOT REALISTIC. I don't even see how that is fun at all. Of course when he meets me in the Super Bowl, I'm not an idiot, so I adjust in order to stop these plays. That knocks him down a few pegs ... Anyways, my point is DO NOT EXPLOIT THE AI. We are trying to make it realistic. No NFL teams are running sweeps every time the run the ball, they don't throw every pass to the slot WR on a crossing route in the middle, etc. Playing against another human does cut this down quite a bit, but they can't control every player on the field. Call a variety of plays. If you are doing this and get called out on it by one of the other members, you'll be warned. If I have to warn you twice, you're out. Just keep it realistic. Only go for it on fourth down when it makes sense in real life. Punt when they should punt. You are allowed to lose games and make mistakes, it happens. I will allow custom playbooks, but you have to make it realistic. Don't just have the same plays over and over in different formations. If this becomes a problem, I will limit it to the EA playbooks. Also, keeping with the realism, don't run up the score in order to pad your stats. In real life, if a team is up by several scores, you don't see them launching the ball around and running no-huddle. Run the clock out, punt, and play defense. Bascially, do what the Falcons should've done in that Super Bowl vs the Patriots...

Here are the general settings for now. If the game comes out and something is different, I will update it, but this is pretty standard.

All Pro Difficulty
15 minute quarters
15 second playclock runoff

Roster Rules

For now, all trades are allowed. Try to keep it realistic though. If it gets exploited, I will change this. Keep in mind, there are some trades in real life that are a bit weird too, so this shouldn't be too hard. Starting-calibur players are traded for fifth-round picks sometimes. At the same time, some teams sell multiple first and second round picks for who they think is the right guy.

Salary cap will be on. Pay attention to your salaries. I've seen too many times where guys just trade for stars and throw money at big free agents, then they end up not having roster minumums and quit the league. Don't be a moron.

As for the start date, that will depend on a few factors. Not everyone is going to buy the game the same day, not everyone can immediately play, etc. I plan on waiting until I have the good rosters and sliders, plus it is always good to try out a few things on the new version. Once everything is set, probably a week or so after the game comes out, then we start.

That about wraps it up! I will notate any changes made with a date next to it. If you want to join, message me on here, post on here, etc. Get me your PSN name, then we will take it from there. If you have any questions, ask away.

Teams:

NFC East
Giants - lce5007
Cowboys -
Eagles -
Redskins -

NFC North
Packers -
Vikings -
Lions -
Bears -

NFC South
Panthers -
Buccaneers -
Saints -
Falcons -

NFC West
49ers -
Seahawks -
Rams -
Cardinals -

AFC East
Patriots -
Dolphins -
Jets -
Bills -

AFC North
Browns -
Steelers -
Bengals -
Ravens -

AFC South
Titans -
Colts -
Jaguars -
Texans -

AFC West
Chargers -
Raiders -
Chiefs -
Broncos -