The 2019 season for the EFL is in the books, congrats to the Div Winners & Wild Cards, on to the playoffs!

Stars Conference

This may be the season that eyeball & his Maine Event win it all after losing in the first two Super Bowls, he went "all in" to improve the team by putting out the big bucks for 4 "elite" FA's (see FA Review thread) and his 1.31 draft choice, SS Ogden, was a real good one. Ogden is a good example of using your first round pick, in this case even the late 31st pick, for a higher "impact position" as opposed to TE, FB, RB, QB, or OL. Use those critical first rounders for DBs, WRs, DLs, and LBs unless you are really desperate for another position to fill. There's a reason that GMs like eyeball win a very high % of their games, and that is one of them. Maine has one the top RB in the playoffs, Charles Casey, who finished second for the statistical best with 1207 yds and a 4.3 avg, but only scored 3 TDs. QB Fred Griffiths put up a solid 112.2 rating for the season, throwing 51 TD passes (2nd most). WR "T0" Obrien had an All Pro season with 118 catches for just under 2000 yds and 16 TDs. WR2, Otis "Elevator" Larson, gives Maine one of the best WR tandems in the league. DE Robert LeSage was one of the league leaders in sacks with 20. eyeballs Event has all the parts and ingredients needed to grab the championship this season, now its up to the "sims".

plasteredpickl's Americans got eked out on the tie-breaker for the WC spot, but had a great season at 10-6.

jlyman improved the Islanders from 3-13 to 7-9, nicely done jly!

Great job again put in by kicker10 with the Aspen Wampas, they went 11-5 for the 3rd time in a row.
Their 2nd round pick, WR Eric Rollins, had a nice first season with an outstanding 74% Rec avg. scoring 5 TDs. This may be the season that they go to the Super Bowl if they catch a couple of good sims in the playoffs.

Crazy Razors Salem Witches have been dominatrixes, as usual, lol. They brewed up a 14-2 season, 2nd best record in the Stars Conference, and have as good a chance as any to win the conference champ game. Along with Maine, the Witches signed 5 of the top FA's this season, handing out a 6 yr, $80 mill contract to QB Peter Greene. Greene finished 2nd in Yds with 5800, first in TD passes with 55, but also threw 29 Ints and finished with a QB rating of 89.78, which ranks him 14th among starting QBs with more than 300 attempts. Was he worth $13 mill/year? He will be if he plays well and wins the LC for Salem. Bruce Luna, the previous starter and now QB2, put up a 117 QB rating with 54 TD passes and 17 ints along with 1000 more yards passing the previous season, so it's highly debatable whether or not it was worth the high contract for Greene. Salems best addition this season was their first round pick, WR Jared Smith, who had an outstanding rookie WR season with 1246 yds and 13 TDs. Again, a good example of what best to use your first round pick on, a higher "impact position" and same for when you go FA shopping following the end of the season. WLB Michael King set a record for LBs with 7 ints!! CB Luke Doyle had 7 and Lucas Wood had 6, this is a very tough team to throw on.

trslick did a wonderful job this season, getting the Bennington Bulldogs into the Wild Card spot with a strong 11-5 record. trs has steadily improved the team from their first season 5-11, to 9-7, and now 11=5. Their 1.19 pick is another rookie WR that has had a big impact on their teams this season. Robert Chavez caught 89 passes for 1731 tds with a Rec% of 61.8 and a whopping 15 TDs scored. Another good example of why it pays bigtime, most of the time, to get a WR in the first round, especially so if your team is not doing well in their passing game. IMO, the WRs are the most important position group in the game. The Bulldogs RB1, Jon Leo "the Lion", had an outstanding season, gaining close to 900 yards with a high 5.7 yd avg, with a long run of 77 yds, and 5 TDs scored. All Pro CB Bryan Dobbins had another outstanding season in the secondary, leading the league with 10 ints.

Cudos to billstein, getting 5 more wins for the Phantoms from 3 wins last season. The Phantoms are def on the rise now.

IOT's Tallahassee Talons have won the the Walsh Div, for the 2nd time in a row following up their 15-1 record last season with a 13-3 finish. They also have as good a chance as any of winning the Stars Conf championship. They have a league leading QB in Jesse Hahn who posted a QB rating of 112.5 throwing 48 TD passes (T3rd). HOFer, WR Eddie Pina was All Pro again this season with a 2,030 yds!, 122 catches, 65.6 Rec%, and 16 TDs. Pina, Marco Richins, and Mario Hicklin give the Talons one of if not the best WR trios in the EFL. The Talons also have a great secondary, with CBs Glen McCarty's 8 ints (2nd most in league) and a 35% CA and Charles Deanda with 7 ints. They will be a handful for any team that has to play them in the playoffs.

The Boise Burn/Mac and Knoxville Misfits/falconfan finished tied with 10-6 records and the Burn got the WC nod with a better div record. What a great job turned in by both of you and your teams this season. The Burn were 4-12 last season! big turnaround this season by Mac and his team, it's a pleasure watching what you do with a team now Mac, you have become one of the best in the game, congrats my friend. I would strongly urge all to review what was done with the Burn this season, and ask Mac a bunch of questions, lol. Can you guess what their 1.7 draft pick was used for??? (see above, lol). Yes, a WR, Steve Madison. He did not have as good a season statistically as the other first round WRs, but he will make a big difference for the Burn for several seasons to come. RB1 Melvin Gregory gained 1002 yds on 184 carries for a nice 5.4 av, long of 75, and 5 TDs .... take a look at his AI default value ..... 53 !!. Better yet, look at his attributes and you will see what the key to a good RB is, very simple. Oh, and his contract amount? the minimum at $134 K, lol, Mac picked him up at Free Agency 2 this season. Shows what you can do if you know what to look for.

falconfan took over the Misfits after the MFN "Guru of Beta" (setherick) left the team to focus more on the beta testing. seth knows what makes good players and key attributes, its a good idea to read what he has posted from his extensive research and time put in on this game, if you havnt done so already. So, the Misfits are in good shape for the future. falcon did a great job and almost got them into the playoffs, will be fun to see how you do next season FF! The Misfits have one of my favorite logos in MFN. cheers!

Good luck to all in the playoffs, should be a great one for the Stars Conference.

Thanks for the compliment. We've a lot of holes to fill on both sides of the ball, but winning five more games than last season is a good improvement. Still a work in progress.

The Wampas are looking forward to the playoffs now that we are mostly healthy after a couple games where we rested anyone with any kind of injury. Still nearly won those games, but came up just short.

Fantastic write-up, Grandad! Quality stuff...

The Stars Conference Championship game coming up between the Maine Event and the Salem Witches is a good example of why owners & teams like theirs get to that level. It illustrates the importance of the combination of roster strength & continual improvement through an effective/successful Early FA period & draft. The continual roster improvement is combined with solid gameplanning with an empahsis on the passing attack with at least two elite level WRs & the use of effective situational rules, That is what separates the GMs that consistently win their divisions, conference, and LC's. Both teams were top contenders the previous season, and both teams led the rest by far on elite player acquisition, well done eyeball & Crazyrazor, the winner of this game should be the fav in the LC.

Both teams had excellent late first round picks in the last draft.

Salem Witches, 1.28, Jared Smith, WR2, 82 Ai rating, 89 speed, route 99, B&R A 86, catch 76, courage 63, +3 progress, 69 rec for 1248 yds, 13 TDs.

Maine Event, 1.31 - William Ogden, SS2, Ai rating: 85, 90 speed, 99 zone, 94 M2M, 82 punish, 100 tackle. +6 progress. 23 ThrnAt, 4 KnkDn, 26.1% Alld.

I forgot to deploy the situational rules that prevent a QB from scrambling 55 yards for a TD, or a backup QB from coming off the bench in the 4th to throw a 37-yard TD in his only pass. Also need a rule to keep starting OL healthy.

Ha, a touch of sarcasm and a dash of irritation, lol. The QB scrambles have been substantially reduced in the current game version, when I get one now it's a big surprise, like a punt return for more than 10 yards. In an MFN 1 thread, I think I read that JDB was going to try and increase the QB runs, he may have already "tweaked it", just in time for your playoff game. And as long as the fatigue effect is where it is at, it will continue to be an advantage to have your QB2 & 3 get a few or more plays in the game. I know that most GMs turn their nose up at it, run their QB fatigue at 60 or more, they say it's not a simulation of the NFL, where the only time a QB2 gets in is when the QB1 is injured. Which, I believe is not smart on the part of a lot of NFL coaches. When you are leading by 20 or more in the 4th with 10 min or less to go, you should get your QB2 some reps, you may have to start him if the QB1 goes down. Overall, MFN is not the NFL, the QBs do not fatigue the same way, they do not get "beat up" from a lot of sacks/hurries, and they do not perform as well at 60+ fatigue vs a sub with 20 or less.

Was a great playoff game btw the Talons & Event, could have gone either way, and as mentioned above, the Talons like the Event & Witches, also improved their roster this season with a 1.2 draft choice, which was smartly used for a CB, and several FA sign ups from the early FA period. Could have just as well been the Talons in the CC game, just comes down to the sim and the "breaks".

Code changes are only deployed in-season for beta leagues. When you're going up against Elite competition, you have to play your best. If we replay that game 10 times, it's likely I would go 0-10 without a single QB scramble to blame.

I don't have any respect for coaches who win not for the reasons you outlined above but by exploiting the AI flaw relating to QB fatigue. However, that's not what happened in this game. I knocked his starting QB out of the game, and paid the price when his backup came in.

I would give it more a 5 - 5 on 10 games played, especially so if you had the advantage of the play results from previous games. Both teams are top of the league, no question, and both teams improved their rosters substantially going into the season and during.

I dont see the QB fatigue as a flaw or something to "exploit", it just is what it is, until and if it is changed, and based on that you make your gameplan decisions. I take fatigue into consideration for all positions other than kickers.

I was fortunate to keep it close against eyeballll in the regular season, and glad I didn't have to plan for him in the playoffs.

In other news, I'll take any offer for this sieve: https://theefl.myfootballnow.com/player/2038