I consider myself an above average Madden player, and while I would love to take on the Broncos again like I did in Madden 12, I can't imagine it would be that fair with how good that team is going to be in Madden 25. I too have been getting a Madden itch again and I feel confident now that I'll be ready for Madden 25. I may just aim for a middle of the road team that I like more than the Vikings. But if we're just talking about fan owned teams, I'd absolutely be on board. I definitely felt weird playing against Dark Rider's Broncos last year and when I had them in Madden 12 I definitely enjoyed building up the team more than I did with the Vikings
I mean, the one issue I have with this is that sometimes there are people that join in the middle of the league that are cool people and there are people who are fans of specific teams who are total tools. I remember in the other league last year OG whitewidow was not always good about playing his games even though he owned the Pariots and was a big Pats fan (if I'm misremembering, someone please correct me). The whole idea of limiting teams to fans of the team seems just as hit or miss as not doing so.
I don't disagree with this...but there's a couple things that have to be considered: 1. We have to pick teams somehow. And 2. Somebody has to have the "good teams". Unless we had a concrete way of measuring skill level (like compiling everyone's win-loss record like I wanted to do last year, but never was able to put together), we're always going to run into this problem. Even if we did have a way of measuring skill level, that wouldn't tell us anything for new players. For instance, last year, Hemingway, as a new player, joined this league from the get-go and took the Patriots... Blade3D, as a returning player, took the 49ers. As far as I know, neither of them are fans of those teams...but they both had a hell of a lot of success.
The other option, of course, in an attempt to keep rosters "balanced", would be to just do fantasy rosters. I have a couple problems with this though. 1. I don't know that this would be the ultimate solution that people would hope for. As GamerDude mentioned before, it could cause people to just draft a "Madden team" built around speed or whatever, while others try to create a more realistic roster...and thus, you end up with what could be a worse balance than the default rosters had. 2. It could take away from the enjoyment of people who do want to play as their favorite team with their favorite players.
So, when taking all that into consideration, the thought I'm left with is trying to make the people who put the most effort into this league happy. And that's why I like the "favorite team" system. Like I said, for me personally, I would be picking my favorite team no matter what selection criteria we use. But then I start to wonder, "Am I handicapping myself because I'm not willing to just pick the best team in the game so I can have a better chance of winning?" Yeah, probably. Then I think "Are there other people in the league who do the same thing?" Again, probably yes. Then I think "Why should loyal members who have put years of effort into this league be punished because other players who just want the best team can join, win, blow up their team, and leave?" So, why not do more to discourage that type of behavior?
And I'll say again, yes, I would consider you one of the better players here...and I know the Broncos are going to be a good team. But it doesn't mean that if you didn't take them, another Hemingway or somebody wouldn't come along and take them anyway. And I would rather lose to somebody that I knew actually cared about the team they're controlling. Because you probably wouldn't run them like a jerkoff and blow up the roster either (I'm only assuming
lol).
Also, can't you see people just saying the "49ers are my favorite team" no matter what? This is a forum and 99% of the "Maddeners" could just say their favorite team is conveniently the highest rated or full of "Madden" talent.
I thought about this. For one, most of the people here have been here for awhile, and there most likely is a record of their favorite team somewhere...whether it's in a post in an old thread, a signature picture, etc. This would mainly only be a concern for new players. For new players, we'd have a couple options. We could actually require some kind of proof that they're actually a fan of the team they say they are (picture of team gear, Facebook link, etc). If people think that's asking too much, the other option would just be assuming they're not lying...but marking down that that's "their team" moving forward. It's not a perfect system...but again, there's no guarantees no matter how we do it. And I'd rather be sure that the people who have invested the most time in this league are happy and taken care of.
