Madden 18 Top 10 Users:Complete List

by connorrice26 | 6 years ago | 1 Comments

ALEX: #10: Dan Dan posted the league’s best offense multiple seasons. Despite having such an explosive offensive attack, he did not have the playoff success that others expected of him. These disappointments led to being the league’s most overrated player on numerous occasions. Dan enjoyed his best year his first season in the league in 2019. He went 14-2 with a playoff win over Austin. He would make the NFC Championship Game and lose 33-3 to Beard. He didn’t return back to the title game and only managed one more playoff win over his M18 career. #PrayForBaker Honorable Mentions: Chase, Shawn #9: Connor The Humble Host had an interesting madden 18 career, spanning three teams. Connor always had an excellent rushing attack, but seemed to fall short in the passing game. He had success in Detroit in a stacked division with myself and Cloud. After his stint with the Lions, he moved to the Steelers. Connor and Leveon seemed like a match made in Heaven, but it didn’t last and didn’t amount to much. Carolina was where Connor really shined. Run CMC was the perfect RB for Connor. He ran all over the league and made it all the way to the NFC Championship in Chicago because of it. Connor showed great improvement over his Madden 18 career. He got much better at defense and perfected his running style. I am looking forward to watching Connor work his magic in 19 with Saquan. I expect him to contend for Super Bowls with a weapon like that. #8: Justin luckycharms.jpg #7: Kiing Kiing is one of the Elite rushers in BL. He made Leonard Fournette the most dominant offensive player in BL history. Kiing had great success with the Jags, winning a handful of playoff games and having his first super bowl appearance. After his stint with the Jags, he enjoyed success with the Browns as well. Similarly to what was said yesterday, I think Kiing could put himself at the top if he could learn to pass as well as he runs. I'm excited to see what he can do with Kamara and Ingram in 19. #6: Ocho Ocho came in quietly as a DL recruit, but he immediately established himself as one of the best in the league. He made the super bowl his first year but fell short vs Austin. Ocho only lost a handful of games in his 3 seasons here. He made multiple conference championship games and won his division over Phil every year. He's one of the best defensive players I've played against. Ocho and his LA Rams are my favorite year 1 for the Super Bowl. #5. Cody Cody was one of the best regular season users in the league. He really transformed the so-so 49ers into a dominant team. He was almost always the 1 or 2 seed. In the last season, he went 16-0, but fell victim to Justin's lucky, miraculous super bowl run. (As did I). Although Cody didn't win it all in 18, he still has a lot to be proud of. He was consistently a top user in the NFC, he is the GOAT streamer and provides quality content to the league. It's a shame Cody moved away to the AFC in M19. I'm going to miss beating him every year. #4: Alex Leonard Floyd is the greatest defensive player in BL history. If I had Howard and Griffin Cohen for the super bowl against Phil, I would have won. Phil is all team. #3: Austin Austin was clearly the best NFC team. He was the only NFC team to win it all this cycle, and he did it twice. I beat Austin pretty convincingly year 1 and then I don't think I beat him again. He was able to build the best NFC team with INSANE offensive and defensive lines. Austin was consistently dominant the entire cycle. If he would have played the last season, he probably would have won a third title. I single handedly blame Shawn Goldring for Austin's second super bowl run. Like are you serious, dude? You cut 97 ovr Aaron Rodgers for Josh Dobbs. What a joke. Austin scooped up Rodgers in an instant and boom, an already elite team now had thr best QB in the game. Thanks Shawn. I'm really looking forward to what Austin can do with the Chargers. They've already got a pretty good defense, but he can make it the best in the league after a few seasons. #2: Phil #1: Morty CODY: #10: Connor Our humble host comes in at number 10 for me. No one can argue the value Connor brings to the league as a whole. In my opinion Connor is one of the most underrated users in the league. He started out in the brutal NFCN which included Alex and Cloud. He had two winning seasons and two playoff appearance in the first two years. 2019 was a tough season for him having an incredibly difficult schedule and coming up a quite short at 5-11. Connor took a brief break from the league where he had a short stint with the Steelers then took over the ownership of the Panthers. No one can forget his triumphant run in the playoffs in the 2022 season in which he was a massive underdog going up against Dan and Austin. Both of which he won to get him to the NFCCCG against Alex. Unfortunately he lost that game. Connor has an extremely explosive offense when everything is grooving for him and he's very well deserving to be in the top 10 BL users. I'm excited to see what he brings to the table in 19! Honorable Mention: Justin #9: Shawn When you think of Shawn one of the first things that should come to everyones mind is Khalfani Muhammad. Shawn struck terror into all of his opponents with his explosive run game with Muhammad. I personally got absolutely destroyed by this man. One of the biggest facts of Shawn is his consistency in the regular season. When Shawn is active and playing he's a force to be reckoned with in the regular season. Unfortunately that same success did not transition to the playoffs. He could never get past the divisional round losing to Morty in two of them and losing in the wildcard in the others. As I mentioned before when Shawn is active and ready to compete he's a force. He had a couple breaks and vacations which took him away for a bit but he came back and made the Jets relevant again. Shawn comes in here for me at #9 off sheer consistency. Though he lacked playoff success Shawn has proven he's a top 10 user in this league. Also he supplies the bangers. rap horn Honorable Mention: Kiing #8: Chase Number 8 on the BL best users for me is Chase. We all know very well and good Chase is one of the best if not the best at usering the MLB. He collected a ton of user picks while he was in the buns AFC North. (I realize I had the same benefit in the NFC West). Chase won the division every year he was using the Browns and made a playoff run in 2019 but fell short losing to Morty in the AFC Championship game 10-6. Chase then switched over the Cowboys in the stacked NFC East with Dan and Austin. He continued to succeed and make the playoffs every season as the Cowboys as well. Ultimately he continued to fall short in the playoffs losing in 3 straight wildcards. (Two to Alex and one to Dan.) I think had Chase made a super bowl appearance you could argue him way higher then 8. Chase is one of the more consistent users in the league but has seem to just fall short in the important games. It will be interesting to me to see how affected someone like Chase is with the new nerfs to the user in Madden 19, assuming the nerfs are similar to the beta. Regardless Chase is dominant and is well deserving to be in the top 10. #7: Ocho The man who took the league by storm. I've got Ocho here at number 7. I'll start out by saying you could definitely argue Ocho way higher than this. He came in and dominated the league as you see in the above stats. In my humble opinion he comes in at 7 for two reasons. The first being his 3-3 playoff record and the second being his short stint with the league. (Only finding BL with only 3 seasons left one of which being the asterisks season.) That being said Ocho is one of the toughest defenses if not the toughest defense to crack in the entire league. The only thing I think holding Ocho back is from time to time he seems to lack the fire power on offense that you see guys like Dan and Morty have. If he could get his offense to the level of his defense ability it would make him a near unbeatable force. I'm excited/nervous to see what Ocho does with that stacked Rams roster and having to battle Dan 2 times a year should be one heck of a division rivalry. All in all come Madden 19 I think we could easily see Ocho as a top 5 if not top 3 user. #6: Dan This one might be slightly controversial! For me Dan comes in at 6 for Madden 18 top 10 users. Dan could easily be in contention for top 5 users if it weren't for a slight bit of inconsistency. Whether it was bad luck in game, with injuries, or just coming up a bit short from time to time, that's what ultimately keeps Dan at 6 here for me. Dan is a very dominant user (3 super bowls in City between 17 and 18) and for some reason things just didn't come together for him in the playoffs in BL. Dan is one of the, if not the best at throwing the ball. He will hit you with a gazillion different route combos and make you choose one with your user so another one opens up. The king of the hot route and shotgun formation you might call him. Another thing to note is Dan is very dominant at usering the LB as well. If Dan could figure out a way to balance a steady run attack in his game, even when he's losing, I think he could be an incredibly difficult user to beat. All in all, in terms of BL success you could definitely argue me putting Dan above someone like Kiing is off but as someone who knows Dan's potential and has played MANY cfm games against him I would say 6 is probably to low for him. That being said when you combine personal opinions combined with success in BL 6 to me seems the perfect spot for Dan. Can't wait to see how he builds up Rosen as an elite passer for 19. #5: Cody It's weird talking about yourself, but here we go. I've got myself coming in here right in the middle of the pack. Personally I think this is a perfect spot for me on the BL Top 10 users list. I benefited for most of 18 from what was probably the worst division (It got better once Jamie joined) thus easily winning the division every season. I would put myself up there with some of the other regular season warriors who things just couldn't quite come together in the playoffs for me. Making the super bowl in 2020 felt like my season but ultimately I think the nerves got the best of me. It was my first ever bowl and the inexperience showed against the dominant Morty usered Patriots. I pride myself and being able to run a very balanced offensive attack, while leaning a bit more towards the run game for succcess. At the end of the day trading for Dak seemed to be my undoing. For whatever reason Dak just seemed to always miss the mark, quite literally and figuratively, in playoff football. As I stated earlier though I think #5 is perfect for me here. I made splashes, won a lot of games but at the end of the day fell short in the playoffs quite a bit. So I plopped myself right in the middle. LETS GO BABY! #4: Alex What can I say about Alex? Many things but first and foremost I'd like to applaud him for how well BL is run. I've been in a multitude of other leagues and the respect this league shows Alex and the way he runs things is 100% because of how well he runs BL. Now that that's out of the way: Alex comes in here at #4 for me. Alex season after season had a top 5 defense and as the madden cycle got deeper he slowly had his offense follow suit. By the last couple seasons his RB tandem of Howard and Cohen mixed with his WR weapons was near impossible to stop. Alex seems to never let the game get to him or at least he doesn't show it. He sticks to the run even when he's down and plays his game style even when you try to force him out of it. Alex plays a very clean game the majority of the time, which makes him incredibly difficult to beat as well. I'm not sure if you can lock down a specific reason why Alex never won a bowl maybe it was tough match ups, some injuries, some bad luck but all in all Alex is well deserving for #4. Alex surely has to be bummed he was never able to win a ring, but I feel confident he'll be at least in a bowl in 19 if not with a ring on his finger. Excited to see where he takes the Bears in 19. :angrybear: #3: Phil Coming in here at three for me is Phil. I can here him yelling at me from across the pond I think. When you consider the fact that Phil knew nothing about football not to long ago him being one of the better user in 18 in BL shows his intelligence in figuring out this game we all love and how to be successful in it. Not only in team building but in stick skills as well. Phil's style of defense is unlike most people I've played. He will constantly send pressure at you and most the time it seems he still is able to get all of your downfield reads covered. Phil was a sneaky good runner all 18 long and hit you with the well timed deep ball when he saw you sleeping on it. All in all it would've been very interesting to see how Phil would've done had he not gotten blessed by multiple pro bowls as many of the "top users" did. As we all know his team, specifically his defense, was INSANELY good. Phil is consistent and knows how to build a team well. One of the most interesting things for me is seeing how he does with the Ravens who outside of a few pieces are not a very good team. Let's see if Phil can continue to channel his inner GM to build another god squad to follow his stick skills. Phil welcome to the top 3! #2: Morty And just like that every OG BL user immediately got their pitchforks out. I know, I know, Cody, what're you doing? Morty has the most super bowls in 18 how is he not number 1? Well I will explain that once you see tomorrow's number one. Who is probably obvious at this point. Morty is by all means the most decorated user in BL and deservingly so. Something that I think that has been very underrated about Morty's streams that I haven't heard many if any people call out is how calm, cool and collective he stays while playing madden. It seems he never let's bad luck or anything else get to him. He just chuckles it off and has this lingering confidence that he knows he's going to win. Another incredible strength of Morty's (that I'm going to steal from Connor as he said this first) is his ability to play at least a B+ game in every game he plays. ESPECIALLY in the playoffs. It's very rare you see Morty make silly mistakes that you and I might make that costs us the game. Morty as we all know is an incredibly elite passer and will make you respect that and hit you with some inside zones once you start guessing he's going to pass. Morty by all means could and will be argued that he should be #1. You will get more of a glimpse of this in our post write ups about the reasoning being our rankings but I will give you a hint of it now. For me my top 10 wasn't always about record, rings and accomplishments. They definitely weighed into my decision but ultimately it went down to who I thought was the straight up best users from just playing these people combined with the accolades. All in all Morty could be 1. He very well could be. It's incredibly close between him and my number 1. But I will leave you all with this: Morty's accomplishments > User 1's accomplishments BUT User 1 > Morty. I'm talking just who I think the best madden player is. I'm going with User 1 who will be revealed shortly. Morty you are THE BL legend though and you are well deserving of #2 here for me. #1: Austin Alright you probably knew who this was going to be by now already and you probably are still up and arms about me putting Morty at 2. You're probably thinking is it Cody's gay love for Austin? Is it NFC bias? Is it because he wishes he was as good looking as Austin? Well all of those might be true, especially my gay love for Austin. But all those things aside I will open with this. I think Austin is one of the best users in Madden I've ever played if not ever. I've never felt 100% confident going into a game against Austin. Austin is the best most balanced user I've played in 18. His run/pass balance is the best I've seen. He will jam it down your throat with the run and right when you commit to stopping the run he's going to dial up some pass plays or play actions that are going to cut you deep down the field. Then on top of all that he's a top 5 user at usering the MLB. He shuts down the middle of the field as well as anyone does. I know that Austin only won 2 bowls and Morty won 3. (One being the asterisks bowl of course in a season Austin didn't play in, that doesn't change much though) Another reason I put Austin at 1 above Morty is the 1 time the played in BL Austin beat him 36-0. Offensive power house Morty couldn't put up a single point on Austin. I know that's just one game so that's not the strongest argument but guess what this is my top 10 and I CAN DO WHAT I WANT. Anyways, Austin for me just excels on all sides of the ball. Does he make mistakes yes, but who doesn't. When Austin is playing his best Madden I think he was the best user in 18. I realize this is going to be highly debated but all in all Austin is my number 1 and I think he's more than deserving of it. CONNOR: #10: Cloud How does one balance what was in my eyes the most dominant individual regular season in BL history, a Super Bowl appearance, and multiple division titles in what was the most difficult division in the league with the sad fact that his M18 career was cut tragically short in the 2020 season? I would compare Cloud's resume to that of Bo Jackson in that his peak burned as bright as anyone, but a lack of longevity means his resume crumbles when stacked against the more long-tenured users in the BL. His 18-1 season was his high mark, beating Alex and Cody in the playoffs before being dismantled in the Super Bowl by what I still think is Morty's best-ever performance, but he was among the league's elite all four seasons and was on pace for a 14-2 record and another playoff run before a blowout loss to Austin ended his BL career. Bridgewater-Cook was a feared offensive duo, his defenses were consistently top-3, and Cloud comes in at #10 on my list out of respect for what was, rather than lamenting what could have been. Honorable Mention: Dan, Chase, Shawn, Kook #9: Justin Super Bowl Appearance (lost 20-19 to Morty) 59-53-1 Regular Season 3-3 Playoffs Only #6 seed to ever reach the Super Bowl The definition of heart and the greatest underdog story in BL history, Justin was on pace for a thoroughly average M18 cycle before shocking the world in the 2023 season, running through Connor, Cody and Alex in consecutive road playoff games before giving Morty by far his closest game of his three M18 Super Bowls. Much like my issues ranking Cloud, it's difficult to reconcile 5 .500 or below seasons with a Super Bowl run in my rankings, but given the enormity of the task ahead of him in 2023 and his dominant defensive performances borne out of years of retooling and rebuilding, I had to show him respect and put him in my top 10. Justin had his chances pre-2023, losing to Beard by 1 in the 2019 WC round and blowing a 17-point lead against Alex in 2017, and though he missed the playoffs 3 straight seasons he never truly bottomed out, with his worst record being 6-9-1. Time will tell whether 2023 was a sheer anomaly or whether Justin will have staying power among the league's elite, but his Super Bowl run will never be forgotten, and out of admiration for what he achieved I have him at #9 on my list. #8: Connor I know, I know. You put yourself ahead of Justin even though that ass got CLAPPED in the playoffs?!? LMAOOOO you suck you overrated bum #humbledhost Couldn’t let recency bias impact my rankings TOO much, could I? My M18 career was a few echelons ahead of M17 due to more consistent success, improved defensive play and a passing game that went from horrible to below average. I had two elite stretches: the first 6 1/2 games of 2018 (before Alex injured Stafford and came back from 22 down) and the second half of 2022, in which I put everything together and beat Dan and Austin in the playoffs only to succumb to a relentlessly efficient Alex in the NFC Championship. To touch a bit on what Cody and Alex have already written about, my Steelers tenure was a mistake brought about by restlessness, as I didn’t give myself enough time away from Madden and came back to achieve similarly mediocre results. Carolina was where I found my form, taking advantage of a weak division (sorry Justin) and building a potent DL from the ground up to make sure my notoriously poor run defense was shored up. My on-field performance has always surpassed my team-building skills, and in M19 I'll need to get better at the managerial side of the game in order to rebuild a Giants team that has some sound defensive pieces and Saquon Barkley, but lags far behind in other areas. In a division with Chase, nothing will come easy. #7: Ocho This placement represents how nebulous the criteria can be for picking your top 10, as I believe that purely based on user skill Ocho is unquestionably top-3 in the league, and could make a case for #1. However, like a juiced-up version of Cloud, Ocho's 3 seasons in the league so far don't give him quite the resume of longer-tenured users who may not be as skilled as him, and due to that I couldn't have him break my top 5. A regular season demigod, Ocho has put up statement win after statement win against the league's elite, but with the exception of the 2021 playoffs has consistently fallen short in big games against divisional rival Phil (3-6 all-time record) and was hampered his first two seasons by an inefficient passing game that sunk the careers of Derek Carr and Teddy Bridgewater respectively. Despite these marks against him, Ocho put up consistently insane regular season records the likes of which the BL has never seen, and ensured immediately that the M18 AFC was no longer a two-man show. Elite running and defense were his calling cards, and if he can shore up the passing game a bit he will become an absolute force. I expect rings (yes, plural) in M19, especially with a Rams roster that seems to fit his strengths perfectly and will be fearsome year-1, but for now Ocho comes in at #7, with potential to blow the lid off of the league in the upcoming cycle. #6: Kiing The general perception around the league has at times been that Kiing is a user reliant on computer skill defensively and on the overwhelming talent of Leonard Fournette to compete, and I've never thought that's fair. Based both on the career resurgence of Carson Wentz using the Browns in 2022 (33 TD, 18 INT) and my personal experiences playing Kiing, he is far more than just an elite runner. He is highly skilled at both exploiting poor LB usering and reading coverages, as I've been victimized by plenty of times, and is an efficient enough passer to make the air attack his plan A in the rare occasions where the run game is getting shut down. TJ Yeldon's 2017 season proved that you can take away Fournette and Kiing will still thrive on the ground, as he has the skill both to read blocks at the second level with inside runs and follow his blockers when he bounces outside. I can also speak from experience when I say that he is one of the most lethal frontrunners in the league, not afraid to step on his opponent's throat to ensure the W. Consistently competitive yet never able to break through and get a ring, Kiing's M18 career was if anything a mild disappointment, but with an above-average OL and the lethal Alvin Kamara in NOLA, Kiing should hit the ground running. Based on hype heading into M19, it's my opinion that Kiing is the most underrated user in the league, and he will represent a legitimate threat to the NFC despite being in a brutal division with Shawn and Cloud. #5: Cody A perennial Super Bowl contender and a top-2 seed what felt like every season, Cody represents the cutoff point in my list where now, we speak about users who have no glaring weaknesses, on the field or in the teambuilding sense. You'll hear from the man himself and other elite users within this article about Cody's career, but in my eyes Cody is the greatest/most accomplished user by far in the BL to have not won a ring, and carried as much intimidation factor when I took the field against him as the Austins, Mortys, and Phils of the world. Creative defensive playcalling built to maximize the talents of a defense he built from the ground up was the guarantee, and Pitts Tha Holy Ghost consistently terrorized opposing secondaries. Cody also maintained an underrated run game on the back of an OL built specifically to open running lanes, and Joe Williams was a problem every time we played. I believe there are three main reasons why Cody never won a ring: relatively easy regular season schedules and a weak division that didn't leave him battle-tested come playoff time, a tendency to get overly heated during playoff games (I relate!) and, perhaps most crucially, bad luck. We all saw what happened against Justin, but Dak Prescott was never able to step up in big games (or any game, really) and B was open. He'll certainly be disappointed to have only made 1 SB so far, but I have complete confidence that he can build a Bills roster that has pieces for him to work with in M19 and capture that elusive ring. Cody is highly skilled on both sides of the ball, an intelligent gameplanner, an adept defensive user, and the GOAT streamer in this or any league. A top-5 spot is deserved, and I expect him to surpass this spot in the upcoming cycle. #4: Alex How am I meant to write, in an unbiased way, about my father? The man who beat me more than any other user in M18, who ended my one true playoff run and inflicted countless beatdowns upon my one-dimensional offenses? Despite Alex not winning a ring this goaround, I would argue he became a significantly better user both on and off the field than he was in M17, and his playoff defeats speak more to how the upper echelon of the league has drastically improved than anything else. The one-two punch of Howard and Cohen was certainly his calling card offensively, but what always impressed me most about Alex was both his ability to change his scheme game-by-game (I played him 12x this cycle) and his ability to stay calm when early parts of the game don't go his way. Where others would crumble under the weight of some of the leads I built Alex buckled down, both in the regular season and the playoffs, and was able to maintain his patience and get the W. I consider Alex to be one of the most mentally tough users in this league, a resiliency born both from experience and a fundamental trust in his scheme. Alex never had any one god-tier element to his game (Austin's DL, Morty's early-cycle air attack, etc), but I knew every time I took the field against him, I would be facing greatness on both sides of the ball. People can talk about how easy his division was the second half of the cycle, but I know if I had stuck around it would have been consistent sweeps, with maybe the occasional lucky win here and there. Alex is the best user to not have won a ring in M18, an amazing commish who has held a league full of big egos and bigger rivalries together, and an instant favorite within the NFC come M19. #3: Phil A ruthless exploiter of lesser users in the teambuilding sector and the most dominant regular season user in BL history, Phil entered the league in the late stages of M17 still learning about the sport of football, and within a year built himself to be a perennial Super Bowl contender and, undeniably, a top-3 user in the BL. I sadly was only able to play Phil once this cycle (a 31-23 loss), but what struck me most even then was his ability, much like Alex, to take my best shot early, stick to the scheme, and grind out a win. Defined equally by a relentlessly efficient air attack spearheaded by Chad Kelly, a ground game that wasn't heavily leaned on but was widely feared, and a ridiculous self-built defense headlined by a pair of 99 OVR CB's in DJ Fowler and Antwan Mullins, Phil could win games through any of these three phases, and when all were firing he became borderline unbeatable. If Phil hadn't suffered a trio of AFC Championship losses to Morty we would know him as the best BL user by far, and when coupled with his comparative success in the regular season against his AFC rival it's tough to know exactly what happened in those games. His defeats in those games are the only asterisk on what is otherwise an unassailable resume. Why, then, is he #3 instead of Austin? By the thinnest of margins, what prevented him from obtaining the 2 spot was a generally easier road within the playoffs and a significantly easier division, at least within the first half of the cycle, as well as a series of soul-crushing losses I suffered against Austin that made me question my will to live (more on those tomorrow!). Phil is one of the most knowledgeable users in the league, the best teambuilder of the M18 cycle, and if he can exorcise his playoff demons against Morty in M19 while continuing his regular season dominance he will make a strong case to be #1 on my list a year from now. #2: Austin I've taken a lot of L's in my day. Some of them as a result of my own choking and hubris, and others by getting completely outplayed start-to-finish. No one in this league, dating back to my early M17 days, has made me feel as consistently helpless and unworthy of sharing the same field as Austin. Having simultaneously built the strongest offensive (3 99 OVR's, a 98 and a 96) and defensive (headlined by Barnett and Cox) lines in the league, Austin takes total control of the line of scrimmage in both phases, and despite an occasionally inefficient air attack put together both an explosive offense and lockdown defense immediately upon his entry into the league. Austin certainly had different priorities in his team-building than Phil (the front 7 v. the secondary, mainly) but it's undeniable that the Eagles roster was as quickly and efficiently retooled to be a dominant one as any in the league. Unlike other users who will stick to their offensive scheme come hell or high water (subtweeting myself here), Austin was both intelligent and adept enough to recognize when something wasn't working and shift to an equally dangerous plan B, or C if needed. The blemish on the resume is of course a spotty playoff performance; despite being in a tier of his own within the NFC and the only Super Bowl champ to come out of the conference, he suffered a pair of 21+ point losses to Cody in the 2017 divisional round and 2020 NFCCG, and lost 52-28 to me in a chaotic playoffs that set the table for Justin's historic run the following season. The vast majority of Phil's playoff losses were to Morty and Ocho, no shame in that, whereas Austin had more up-and-down playoff performances. However, I give credit to Austin for largely owning the toughest division in the league for the entirety of the cycle, having to face harder challenges earlier in his playoff runs (pre-conference championship), and other factors that will be covered (and attacked, surely) in the upcoming reaction article. Austin is also the most multi-dimensional user in the league in that he can beat you in more different ways than anyone else, going pass or run heavy when the situation calls for it and combining excellent user LB play with the best run defense I've ever seen assembled. Elite in all three phases and in a tier of his own within the NFC, Austin is my second-best M18 user, and will look to contend immediately in the upcoming cycle with a competitive Chargers roster and a division that will come as a relief to him after dealing with the brutal NFC East. #1: Morty The most decorated user in BL history has also managed to be one of the most overlooked ones during different stages in the M18 cycle, but much like his irl counterpart Morty always keeps the dramatics to a minimum and Does His Job. I'll go into more detail on this tomorrow, but putting anyone else ahead of Morty would be succumbing to recency bias. Sure, he only won this past bowl by 1 against Justin, but Morty also put together what in my opinion were the two most impressive Super Bowl performances anyone submitted all cycle; an uber-efficient 34-20 victory against an 18-0 Cloud in 2017, and a 48-13 dismantling of a red-hot Cody in 2020 headlined by 3 user INT's and 17.5 YPA from Davis Webb. Put simply, with the exception of a 33-pt blowout loss to Ocho in 2022, Morty delivers in the playoffs more consistently than any other. Most users, even the elite ones, dip their level of play come playoff time, but Morty's elevates as proven by the rings on his fingers. It feels ridiculous to say this given their high team OVR, but Morty has also managed to put up these accomplishments despite not having any overwhelmingly dominant units, such as Austin's OL and Phil's secondary, to work with. Whereas other users prioritized specific units when building their teams, Morty took a more holistic approach to his roster, minimizing his weaknesses as opposed to maximizing his strengths. It's a tactic that no other top-5 user employed, but there's no denying the results. The asterisk bowl rhetoric heated up after Justin shocked the world by reaching the Super Bowl, but in my eyes that third ring counts every bit as much as the previous two. Morty still had to go through Kiing and Phil in the AFC, and it's not his fault that the NFC's elite collapsed against a newly-efficient Justin. Asterisk or not, Super Bowl XIII was the icing on the Better League's most impressive resume. Relentlessly efficient through the air and an intelligent defensive playcaller and user, Morty's considerable on-field abilities are overshadowed by his unparalleled mental toughness. Already 4 rings deep in his BL career, I expect Morty to keep adding onto the league's most daunting trophy room, and eagerly await the league's most exciting new divisional matchup when he plays Cody twice a season. Morty is my #1 greatest BL user in the M18 cycle, and deserves all of the plaudits he'll receive within this article. PHIL: #10: Kook Kook may have had one the most under the radar disappointing 18 campaign, that was also quite impressive. He started off as Panthers from 2017-2020 (inclusive) and won his division 2 of the 4 years. Then he went to the Texans and won it 2 out of his 3 years there. Winning his division 4 times gives Kook the 4th most Divisional titles (behind only Cody, Austin and Morty). That’s pretty decent. I don’t know much about what he has done with the Texans roster, but he built that Panthers team into a force - EVEN Connor was able to make a NFCCG with it. So yeah, he’s got longeivity, team building and regular season success on his side. Unfortunately, this never really transitioned into playoff success. He only won the NFCDG once, lost once, and then he also lost in the AFCWC twice too. His playoff record ended as 1-4, which I would imagine he is hugely disappointed with. However, 5/7 playoff appearances and 4 Divisional titles is enough to give him the #10 spot on my rankings. Hopefully he can take the next step in 19, overcome his yips, and make some Championship Games. Honourable mentions: Chase, Shawn, Matty #9: Ocho Despite only being here 3 seasons, Ocho has established himself as one of the elite users. With 3 #1 AFC seeds in 3 seasons and making a SB + AFCCG, the only thing holding him back is a lack of luck in tight playoff games. If it weren’t for myself being some sort of kryptonite for him, I think we’d be looking at him as a top 2/3 user and as the favourite for an early Super Bowl (with that Rams team). Not only that, but he is one of those rare players who is not only fucking good, but is also sound as a fucking pound. I can’t wait to see what he does, and I hope he sticks around. Ocho will compete/dominate in the NFC for 19. #8: Kiing I’m putting King at #8. I think you could make the argument that Shawn and Chase are better actual users/players. However, the sheer GOATness of King’s run game is why I’m putting him #8 and them not in the top 10. Yeah, it was going to be hard for Fournette to NOT have an awesome BL career; however; getting 3 MVPs in 4 seasons (missing one because of injury I think) is just stupid. Fournette aside, King did have a solid M18 outing – making a SB, winning his Division twice (once with each team) and making the playoffs every season he played a full season. He had some quality playoff wins too and is probably the person who had the best playoff record vs Morty. However, he’s gotta be disappointed that he still hasn’t won a SB. He was a top player at the end of 17 and was a top player throughout 18. He may be up there for being the most successful player to never win a SB Also, with rumours that running has been nerfed slightly for 19, there could be an expectation he is less competitive (however, my expectation is that EA try to fix this nerf, but go too far the other way resulting in run game being OP). He does need to learn to pass if he wants a ring though. #7: Connor Again, to reiterate, my list isn’t strictly the best actual users, or Dan, Shawn or Chase might be here. I’ve got Connor at #7 because of the dramatic improvement we saw over the course of 18, which culminated in that deep playoff run in the penultimate season (only for Alex to spoil the story). I think, before that run, there was a common feeling that Connor had all the skills necessary to compete for a bowl; he had just had a few issues with luck, tough divisions and, most of all, losing to himself (especially in big games). He won a divisional title in NFC North, before moving to the NFC South and dominating there. I think one of the more underrated developments for Connor is getting a better understanding of how he plays and the he needs to build to succeed. That Panthers team (that Kook) built for him, was a great match and I’m expecting him to try and build the Giants in a similar mould. Its no coincidence that in the playoff run he was staying pretty chilled, and if he can do this for 19 he will compete again (especially as NFC weak as fuck again) #6: Alex First off, Alex is the best commish I’ve seen. Now that’s out of the way, he also takes the constant abuse I hurl at him pretty well too. Alex has definitely established himself as an elite user – especially in the last 3 seasons of M18 He made a SB and NFCCG (where he somehow lost to Justin) and started to emerge as one of the dominant forces in the NFC. Its possible some of this was due to the lack of any competition in the NFC (Connor and Cloud leaving), but I think its also that it took a while for him to realise what sort of players he needs for his scheme, and for him to build the Bears in that manner. He has a fantastic defence and is great running the ball (made easier with having the best HB tandem in the league), but he has also mastered the high point passing. I think he’ll be annoyed he didn’t win a SB, especially with how weak the NFC was outside of Austin and Cody (and how often they choked in the playoffs) It looks like he has a pretty easy division for 19 again, so we’ll likely see the Bears making the playoffs more often than they don’t. If that’s the case, I’d bet on him getting a SB in 19. #5: Cody Starting with the 49ers is no easy feat. They do have some very nice pieces (Thomas) but the majority of the teams ‘good’ starting players are ones who have/will peak at the mid-80s, and so its difficult to take them from being a ‘good’ team to a ‘great’ team. Its pretty impressive Cody was able to do this (without the XP gate) and I reckon he’ll have been labbing enough to do the same in 19. Cody is the most dominant madden 18 user who hasn’t really achieved anything in his BL career (i.e. hasn’t won a SB, or regularly made SBs). He dominated his division every season, was a perennial Bye Week competitor and got the #1 seed twice. However, I think he’ll be disappointed with just the 1 SB appearance in 7 seasons. Its hard to put your finger on a single reason for why this happened; as Cody was definitely good enough to make more. But a combination of bad luck, Dak Prescott and (the main reason imo) a weak division caused him to struggle at the playoff stage. We’ve seen time and again (most infamously Chase) users who dominate their division too much and coast to the playoffs, only to then choke when they come into their first tough game in 4/5 game weeks. Fortunately, for Cody, he is going to be playing Madden 19 with the most successful BL user of all time in his division, and the full contingent of Madden 18 SB winners in his Conference. I think it will take him a season or two to get the Bills going, but Allen looks like a phenomenal Madden QB (fast-ish and 99 THP) and we saw with the 49ers that Cody can build a team in a legit manner. I’m expect Cody to make the playoffs every season for Madden 19, and to seriously compete for bowls from the start of the 2nd season #4: Austin I think there’s a number of people who probably think Austin is the best User in the league, in terms of skills. I think this is a pretty fair argument - he is probably the toughest opponent I’ve played and one of only 2 players I’ve played 3+ times and never beaten. His defence is ridiculously solid (even if he only calls cover 2 and 3 zone). But, I think the aspect of his game that is most underrated is his pre-snap diagnosing of the defence, and then audibles to counter it. This kinda typifies his knowledge of the game, both in terms of gameplay and team building. He has built what is probably the best team, for how he plays, in the league. And, he did a lot of this through good long-term planning. The reason I put him behind myself and Morty is that, even though he was the best user in the NFC by a fair margin, he never displayed the same level of dominance – particularly in the playoffs and his NFCCG appearances. He made 3 NFCCG and 2 SBs in 6 seasons, which really, is pretty darn good though. When you look at the number of losses he took during regular seasons, and his playoff performances I think you could argue that Austin was fairly inconsisent – which is a weird thing to say for the most dominant NFC User and top 3 user (in absolute terms) in the league. Going into Madden 19; I think Austin will again challenge for a SB every season and will continue to stake a claim for being the best user, skills wise, in the league. If he can get a bit more luck in the playoffs, I expect we’ll be talking about him again in terms of being the most dominant user in the league. #3: Phil I’m not going to write loads. I’m just happy to have made it to being a top 5 player this cycle. I’ve put myself behind Morty because he won an extra SB. I’ve put myself above Austin because we tied in bowls, but I had a better regular season win%, playoff win% and I don't think any of Austin's playoff competitors were as good as Morty or Ocho. I didn’t start playing any sort of Madden until around Xmas 2016, in terms of knowledge of (American) Football – I didn’t have a fucking scooby what a LOLB/ROLB/FS/SS/TE were or what the different formations, play concepts or in-game adjustments etc meant. The people in the league are what enabled me to learn more about Football, and about hwo to play this game. So, I’d like to thank you all for the opportunity and for making the league so bloody awesome. I’m looking forward to Ravens and applying all the stuff I learned over the course of this Madden from the very start of the next cycle. I will miss the Broncos though – In Von we trust. #2: Morty Morty won more SBs than anyone, so its difficult to put anyone above him based on record. When he’s firing he’s basically impossible to stop and almost all his losses during the 18 cycle came from him losing games, rather than his opponents winning games. Although, when he does lose its quite often in spectacular fashion and full on implosions (see games vs Ocho and Austin) The thing that impresses me most about Morty is that you never hear about him playing games outside of BL or labbing with others. So he basically competes/dominates out of just pure natural talent, as opposed to sheer hours of practice. The thing that annoys me most is that he’s too nice. I’ve been trying to have a rivalry with him since the end of 17; but he never gets annoyed, never has a moan and never falls for baiting. There’s obviously something wrong with him. I will say that I am pretty bitter about that final AFCCG where John blessed Morty with 3 fumble recoveries (off 3 fumbles) for a free 17 points – if I’d won this games we’d be looking at a 2-2 playoff record between us and I’d be the one with 3 SBs (no way I lose to Justin). But that’s not the way it played out…I’ll just console myself by continuing to moan about it at every opportunity (even here where i'm meant to be talking about Morty) #1: Justin I’ve put Justin #1 because, for me, the best parts of CFMs are the stories that are created. Justin’s rise from perennial NFC South whipping boy to losing a SB by a single point (despite being on top really) is the best story by far – and so, for me, Justin is the best user of the BL 19 cycle. Unlike real life, online CFMs tend to have users/teams dominate every season throughout the cycle and, frankly, it can be a bit boring. Of the 7 AFCCGs, all of them featured me or Morty. Of the 7 NFCCGs, only 2 did not feature Austin or Alex (we make up 16 of the 28 spots in Championship games). Having people who can come in and break user domination in a conference is awesome and, I think, essential for the survival of a CFM. Justin started off being an outside shot at a wildcard and then getting spanked when he did make the playoffs. Although he had an element of luck in his playoff games, from what I saw it was pretty exaggerated by people post-game. Ultimately, he put in the hours to grind and managed to improved loads since the start of the league. If he continues like that, he could be a force in 19. So yeah, Justin is my pick for best user for BL18 (to have in the league) due to his perseverance, improvement and eventual fairy tale story in season 7…even if he did fall short.