Ugly Next Gen Stats

by Kris_06905 | 2 years ago | 0 Comments

Week 1 of the SFL's 46th season saw an unusually high number of interceptions thrown by starting quarterbacks.  95 interceptions were thrown to just 57 TD passes.  The interception issue was known to be a problem prior to the start of the season, but no one expected just how bad it would be.  To help combat the flawed portion of the Madden gameplay, admins set the slider for interceptions to 15 (down from a default of 50).  The remaining pass defense-oriented sliders were left on default settings.  Typically, the SFL will evaluate slider adjustments every 4 games, but with such an outrageous number after week 1, the sliders were adjusted for week 2.

The results for week 2 were slightly better with the interceptions slider set to 0.  The total number of picks thrown did drop to 83 for week 2, but so too did TD passes from week 1 totals down to 37.  Some of the week 2 drop in TDs is possibly attributed to users being shell-shocked after week 1's crazy totals and throwing less especially since pick 6s were also at comedically high levels.

For week 3, the pass defense reaction slider and pass coverage slider were both adjusted from defaults of 50 to 35 and 40 respectfully.  This seemed to have a noticeable and positive impact on the rate of interceptions and number of TD passes.  Interceptions fell to their lowest weekly total to 65 and TD passes returned to the same 57 from week 1.  However, it should be noted that week 3 had the fewest number of user versus user games played and a closer look at the CPU games showed that interceptions thrown by CPU QBs were fewer than 1 per game on average while user games stayed around 5 picks per game.

Week 4 had an increase in user games and as such an increase in interceptions but also TD passes.  Interceptions were at 82 and TD passes were at 59.  These numbers are still slightly skewed by at least 5 CPU versus CPU games where picks were again around 1 per game and the user games still around 5 on average.

The league will give the current slider settings one more week of play for evaluation before deciding if another slider adjustment is needed.  Some users seem to have adjusted to the new passing mechanics and are trending down while others are still struggling.  There will always be a skill gap in users and the league is not trying to lessen that with slider adjustments.  The purpose is to find that balance where user skill and programming flaws can co-exist so the game is fun and fair for everyone.