The League M20: Official Rules
LEAGUE RULES:
Welcome. This is a simulation style league. We reserve the right to use custom gameplay sliders to increase realism, if possible.
We will be using All-Madden Difficulty and 7 minute quarters. The rules below exist in order to maintain order and help ensure that everyone has a fair chance to compete to bring home the Lombardi Trophy.
Advances will be three times per week: Tuesday, Thursday, and Sat / Sun (flex option depending on games played and user availability). Every user has up to 48 hours or more to play opponent, but if no game is scheduled within 36 hours and no attempt to schedule is made by one or both parties, game may be simmed or a force win may be given as deemed appropriate by league commissioners. Schedule your game as early as possible and alert a commissioner if that scheduled time is more than 48 hours past previous advancement date. If a scheduling conflict arises, notify a commissioner to determine outcome of game.
Prime availability hours for this league on weekdays are 4-9 PM EST. The person with the most prime availability may be given the chance to play CPU, if your schedule does not fall within prime hours please reach out to opponent as early as possible.
BE ACTIVE AND COMMUNICATE!
I put this at the top to emphasize how important it is in this league to remain active. Other than quitting, this rule is the most imperative. That doesn't mean you HAVE to play every game: we all have lives outside of a video game. But you are expected to communicate with your opponent and let him know when / if you are free to play during the advance period. Repeat offenders of this rule may lose their team.
NO TANKING WILL BE PERMITTED. PLAY ALL OF YOUR GAMES!
Trade Rules:
Each user is limited to FIVE approved trades per season. In the offseason, there will be no trade limit, but they still must go through trade committee. IMPORTANT: Any trade involving first or second round picks, or any players 80 overall or higher must be approved by the trade committee. The committee will be comprised of league commissioners and will utilize a trade calculator within Daddy Leagues to determine fairness of trade. Anybody can view trade values on the Daddy League site.
Real NFL teams build through the draft and free agency; not by making 10 trades. Again, this is a simulation style league. We wil always allow you to build your team in a realistic and fair way.
4th Down Rules:
The 4th down rules are in place to ensure that decisions reflect real life decisions a real NFL coach would make.
First half: Cannot go for it on fourth unless on opponent's side of field or down by 15. When on opponent's side of field, 4th and 2 will be coach's decision .
In the 3rd quarter, a team trailing may go for it on 4th at any point they pass midfield.
In the 4th quarter, trailing team may go for 4th down from anywhere on the field.
Team leading in second half must kick on 4th unless
4th and 2 or less on opponent’s side of field
Past mid field in 4th quarter with a lead of 6 or less
*With lead of 14 or more you must kick on 4th down.
One FAKE PUNT is allowed per game in any situation.
Position Change Rules
Eligibility:
QB: can't change
RB:Fb, Wr,
*Rb must be 230 Lbs + and 87 speed or less to be moved to fullback.
WR: Qb*,Te*
*WR must be 6’3, 220 pounds and 87 speed or under to switch to TE
TE: Wr*, Fb
*TE must be 85 speed or higher to switch to WR
Oline: Interchangeable
DE: DT, ROLB, LOLB
DT: RE, LE
OLB: MLB, DE
MLB: ROLB, LOLB, RE, LE
CB: ss, fs, wr, rb
FS: ss,fs,cb,mlb*,olb* wr, rb
SS: fs,cb,mlb*,olb*, wr, rb
*Safeties must be 88 speed or less to switch to LB
*For moving LB, DTand DE, please see "Defensive Scheme" below.
P/k: interchangeable , can switch
A player may permanently switch positions based upon the eligibility chart listed above; however, there will be no tolerance for switching players every week to do training and then switching them back. This is manipulation of the system and will not be tolerated. Furthermore, you may not switch players to different positions just to use their development trait upgrades.
IMPORTANT: For Madden 20, when you move an X Factor Player (such as Chandler Jones or Bobby Wagner), their abilities will change, or "re-roll," to their new position. Please be wary of this as it CANNOT be undone.
Defensive Scheme
Along this topic of position changes, every team MUST have a scheme declared. This can be set in coach settings. Based on your scheme, you may need to move players to new position, particularly defensive ends / linebackers. You will also get more XP if your players fit the scheme you set on the game.
An example of this would be: Cardinals moving ROLB Chandler Jones to RE and Terrell Suggs to LE in order to switch from base 3-4 to a base 4-3 scheme.
3-4 outside linebackers tend to weigh around 250-275 and have pass rushing and block shedding abilities, as they will be blitzing most of the time. 3-4 defensive ends tend to weigh 280 or more, and specialize in block shedding. 3-4 defensive tackles tend to also weigh over 280 (usually over 300), and play "nose tackle," so they have high strength, acceleration, and blockshed.
4-3 outside linebackers tend to weigh 225-250 and have good tackling, blockshed, and zone coverage abilities, as they will be spending more time in coverage than 3-4 OLBs. 4-3 defensive ends tend to weigh 250-285 and specialize in pass rushing, block shedding, and typically have good speed / accel to get after QB. 4-3 DTs typically weigh over 280, and are a hybrid of block shedding and pass rush, as preferred by each team.
If you have any questions about this, please message a commissioner.
CPU GAMES:
If a user is unavailable to play, or if there are not a full 32 users and we begin to have user vs CPU games, the CPU may be played 1 time. No stat padding… max points allowed to a user vs CPU is 49. A user may also request a FW vs CPU.
If game is played once and not finished, game will be fair simmed. Supersim is acceptable for regular season CPU games. Full game must be played in any playoff CPU games.
Scoring Limit
We will be implementing a scoring limit for sportsmanship and to cut down on stat padding. The scoring limit is as follows:
First half: No limit to scoring. Play your game
Second half: 35 point differential max. Anything over 35 will be penalized. When scoring limit is in effect, you may chew clock, but you MAY NOT intentionally allow opponent to score.
If leading by 28 or more in the 4th Q, you must bench all starters. Starters may reenter if score margin gets within 17 points.
Streaming
The following games MUST be streamed by the away team, unless the home team agrees to stream or permission is granted to not stream for connection purposes.
All playoff games
All divisional games
Game of the week, if applicable
Any other games specified by commissioners
Miscellaneous Rules:
There will be zero tolerance for the following :
-Quitting. No matter the score, a user may quit under no circumstances. This is a highly punishable offense.
-Glitch plays / Nano blitz- if this years madden has any unblockable or unstoppable schemes / plays, they are prohibited from being used
-Instant Rollout- Instant rollout is defined as when a user snaps the ball and immediately leaves pocket without pressure. Any playcall with a designed rollout is allowed, and rolling out to escape pressure or scramble is also fine. But on an instant rollout with no pressure, the options are to throw ball away or QB scramble. A user cannot wait by sidelines for someone to break open. It happens on accident occasionally; habitual instant rollouts will be punishable.
Practice squad stealing will be turned on week 3 every season. Please have all players you want to keep on your 53 man roster by then.
Onside kick / squib kick- Onside kicks are only allowed when trailing in the 4th quarter. A squib kick may be used at any time, but the only time kicking team is permitted to recover is trailing in 4th Q. Any other time, kicking team MUST punt.
YOU MUST CREATE YOUR OWN COACH. Custom coaches only; no active coaches can be used.
RUSH 3 AT ALL TIMES!! Spy does not count… at least 3 players must be rushing on each play.
Playcalling:
Every user is required to run a diverse offense and utilize multiple formations and plays. A real NFL offense mixes it up: in this league, we do too.
Defense also should utilize different playcalls and formations. No more than 2 consecutive playcalls will be permitted.
NO HUDDLE:
No huddle is allowed any time to strategically change tempo of game, but the offense must huddle up once every three plays unless trailing by 9 or more in second half (two scores).
PAUSING:
Madden allows a limited number of pauses during the game, so please keep that in mind. If it is necessary for you to pause the game, please provide a quick explanation to your opponent of the reason and how long you will need. Opponents should do their best to be respectful.
Please, do not start a game if you know something else will be interfering with your time to play the game. Additionally, if your opponent thinks you have broken a rule, you may not immediately unpause until after rules are reviewed by both users and / or a league commissioner is involved.
Rule Breaking:
If any rules are broken during game, please pause and inform opponent to review rules . If opponent refuses, DO NOT QUIT. Begin streaming game and show proof of further infractions to a commissioner as soon as possible. Quitting is always unacceptable.
OFFSEASON / DRAFT:
Roughly around the divisional round of playoffs, league commissioners will post a structured off-season schedule. Players are expected to be resigned throughout the regular season as much as possible. Accordingly, if someone misses re-sign stage, they will have to bid on them in FA like everyone else except in special circumstances (at digression of commissioners).
The draft will typically go all 7 rounds to allow everyone the option to build their squad however they see fit. If you cannot make the scheduled draft, you may either trade your picks or set your draft board up to pick for you.
Thanks for joining and welcome to The LEAGUE M20! The commissioners reserve the right to update or change rules in the future. We believe in democracy, so any user has the right to express grievances with the rules or any aspect of how the league is being run.
LAST UPDATED by Commissioner Dean 9/08/2019.