By: Ryan Moreland (@ryanmoreland)
During the Championship Pregame Show Mike unveiled the new plans for the league moving forward. To recreate more competitive play, the league is revamping how players are upgraded. This article hopes to answer any questions people might have about the new system.
Overview
The CFSL’s resident stats guru Tony Papol (@SGEasty) dug through the numbers earlier this year to find an alarming trend: the league is becoming less competitive. As you can see from the stats below close games have become rare as the number of blowouts has boomed.
| Score Differential | Seasons 1-8 | Seasons 12-16 |
| 10 or less | 58.67% | 38.18% |
| 17 or less | 75.1% | 49.41% |
| 24 or less | 86.85% | 64.32% |
| 30 or more | 8.17% | 25.63% |
| 40 or more | 3.19% | 12.06% |
| 50 or more | 0.4% | 6.53% |
As you can see in Seasons 1-8 over half of the games ended with a close margin. In recent seasons that had dropped 20%. Blowouts of 40 or more have nearly tripled and blowouts of 50 or more are 16 times more likely than they used to be! So, the new system is born out of the idea that the league needs more parity and competition.
In the new system, each position group will have three archetypes. For instance, a QB could be a pocket passer, option QB, or balanced. The ratings for each archetype will be broken into tiers. When you want to upgrade you will purchase the next tier. So rather than packing up a player, you will simply advance to the next tier. The ratings within those tiers will be fixed and the reason for that is to prevent players that are 99s across the board. Your player will now be great in some aspects but will have limitations in others, just like real-life players. And what archetype you choose will determine what kind of play style your player will have.
Also, the tiers will top out before 99 (but will likely be different based on position). This will make everyone in the league slightly closer in skill, which will lead to more parity.
There are other positives besides just fewer blowouts and more competition. When 99-speed defensive tackles are a thing of the past the running game and screens will open up on offense. We believe this will lead to a lot more playbooks being viable options. This makes game planning far more interesting and will bring more variety to the league.
Generational Talents
Mike touched on the topic of Generational Talents a bit during the broadcast. As he said, this is something we likely will not see until all of the grand-fathered players have ended their careers, but it is coming.
When you save up your channel points to buy a custom arch you will now get a chance to develop a Generational Player (GP). A GP is going to be a high-rated player that would be a massive impact player on their team, like Barry Sanders or Randy Moss in real life. This player won’t be a 99-everything god amongst men (one designed to be like Deion Sanders, for instance, will not be a great tackler). But they will be higher rated than the normal players in their position.
After a player is designed he will be put up for auction. The highest bidder will then get to take that player over. There will be a limited number of GP in the league at any given point.
Frequently Asked Questions
I wanted to include this section because there have been many great questions about how this system will work and we want to make sure those all get answered.
Q: Will my current player be forced to change to the new system?
A: No. The new system will only be applied to new builds. Current players will be grandfathered in and you won’t be on the tier system until you make a new player. That being said, there will be some players that will need to downgrade certain rankings a bit so that we can ensure a level playing field. An example of this would be a QB with 99 strength or a DT with 99 speed. Anyone asked to take packs off of a player will be reimbursed for those purchases. Those refunds will be made on PayPal or league credit, whichever you prefer. Mike will reach out to you on Discord if this needs to happen to your player.
Q: How will Lifetime Elite and Lifetime 5-Stars work?
A: You will still be a Lifetime Elite or 5-Star. There will be a tier designated for each. So your player will start at a higher level than those who are not a Lifetime Elite/5 Star. This tier will be based on the equivalent cost of a Lifetime player in the old system, so you still get your money’s worth.
Q: Can you still purchase a Lifetime Elite or 5-Star if you haven’t already?
A: No, at least not at first. Retooling the entire purchasing system is complex and that isn’t something that was a priority in the initial launch of the new system. However, it will be something the league office is to explore in the future. So it may come back, but you can not buy a lifetime initially.
