IMPORTANT: SEASON BACK ON - REASONS FOR SUSPENSION INSIDE

As it is a bit short notice, this Sunday's games will also be wildcarded and the season will resume on Thursday 9th August.




The reason why.

As we all know, the start of the season has been stupidly lacklustre. Following a terrible draft and following a series of unfortunate events later we've started off with way too many defwins and teams playing with only 3 players. Because of this, an idea to reboot the league completely was discussed. We decided to stall the league on the off chance that the decision went ahead to save people playing unnecessary games.

The idea was (we decided NOT to do this) as follows;

Start again from scratch on the new site when it is ready(we were hoping for a September start date).

Complete removal of the draft. The draft worked well when we were a smaller and more close knit community, where players didn't mind much who they played with. Now that we have a much larger and more competitive league structure, the draft has become more of a sideshow attraction than anything meaningful.

All teams would have been removed. New captain applications for the 20 teams would have been opened with preferential treatment going to captains who wanted to continue their team on the new site.

Players would be signed via free agency only, with the roster limits being increased to 10 or 12. Trades between teams would still be allowed but they'd be increasingly rare. With the ridiculously stupid trades that have already happened this year, hopefully this would have put an end to them completely.

Complete change to match day structure, permanently adopting the YeS system with two top matches and the rest behind closed doors.



More less important stuff was discussed, but ultimately it was decided against going ahead with it. The season as it stands will go ahead, however over the next few days there will be several changes made and announced so please be patient with us while we try our best to make sure this current season goes as best as it can. And any changes will be discussed properly at the end of this season, with the view to going into season 5 with a bang.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by all of this, but you have to understand that it was done with the best intentions. We hate how the league is at the minute and are trying our damn hardest to put it right.

Thanks for the time and patience.


NOTE: Flaming and non constructive shit flinging won't be tolerated, but good discussion, constructive posts and ideas are welcomed and encouraged.

EDIT: I am starting to like the idea that was proposed.

Maybe ask the community their view. After all, we are a community, we should all get a bit of a say imo.

how can u read that all thats looooooooooong

Please note because people have asked about this: we did not go ahead with the idea suggested.

That's so fucking long.

Why not simple bullet points where the sentences are snappy and relative to the subject.

98% of it was bullshit the constructive 2% was 'More less important stuff was discussed, but ultimately it was decided against going ahead with it. The season as it stands will go ahead'

Couple of thoughts with regards to scheduling:

If defwins are an issue, you need to make scheduling more flexible, all teams certainly have the players. Give each matchday a 3/4 day window and get captains to agree the date and time. If they can't, the match stays on the default day. With the top match system coming in, there's no need for the other games to be fixed to such a rigid schedule. Require teams to record matches with point deductions to punish for failure to. Matches can be streamed as live on a fixed period (giving Hax of the Day further usage).

There's been talk about some teams choosing to deflose rather than play with 3 players to save on GD. Simple idea there, any team that def loses is also deducted two points.

Keep the wildcard system and allow games to be scheduled up to 28 days later but require at least 3 days notice from the first day of the window of that match being due. Allow teams the 3 WCs as now but grant them additional ones by discretion should unforeseen nonsense occur.

Perhaps that last idea is ripe for a clusterf**k but let's make life a bit easier. Our playerbase isn't quite there for such precise timing. If a team repeatedly fails to make fixtures even with that, then that franchise needs replacing/shutting down.

I don't agree with the idea,
Am 13 and I have no problem reading that so fix your self up.

#GERMANWAY

And why the community hasnt been asked?

All of this could be avoided just removing the draft system, and increasing the rosters to 10 or 12.

There was no need of delays imo.

A lot of what was discussed may come in for the next season, along with us reducing the length of this current season. However we have put a lot of work already into this season and it would be a shame to restart it and the whole league. We will make a few changes though to improve the rest of this current season.

Agree with Nike though I think a delay was the right way to go about it.

#PUBLICVOTE

I'm glad you guys didn't go with that, starting the season over and deleting all teams to make new teams would have put off a lot of captains and players already in teams working to establish themselves. It'd have been too extreme of an action for sure.

Introducing that idea next season though would make more sense and would create a bit more excitement (not having the draft that is). It would be like re-inventing the FM league and would probably interest a lot of people that were planning to leave FM after this season to stay on and check it out.

ALSO KEEP US IN THE LOOOP NEXT TIME! but good decision imo

Guys, srsly. If you do the rules in public votes, anyone can't complain then.

I would managed this situation stopping the league a week for public voting the possible options:

- Delaying the league to september.
- Increasing the roster size.
- Etc, etc.

I dont want to annoy anyone. I apreciate and respect the effort you made managing this community.

It's just the better option for everyone must be known and voted for everyone.

A lot of what was discussed may come in for the next season, along with us reducing the length of this current season. However we have put a lot of work already into this season and it would be a shame to restart it and the whole league. We will make a few changes though to improve the rest of this current season.

As much as I appreciate the amount of effort that has been put into the league and appreciate the time you take out of your schedules to create a fun, yet competitive league and tight knit community, I think the wrong decision was made here.

In my opinion, a restart is the fairest way. Teams like Meet Me Outside for example are going to be punished by two def losses which Menso couldnt do much about. Plus the amount of uneven/3v3 matches that have taken place etc. makes me think that we should just restart this league, and as I will say again, I think a public poll should have been made regarding what we think of this. If you had decided to go with your idea, without alerting captains of your decision, I can see quite a few people getting really angry with the decision.


I hate to complain and I really do appreciate what you do the community, I just think you made an error of judgement this time

Don't Re-do the draft.

Re-start the season, every fixture that is.

Allow FA to be opened to all teams to cut and sign players WHO ever they want.

Confirm every team has a committed captain and a full roster of active players.

Then start the season.

Constantinople wrote:If you had decided to go with your idea, without alerting captains of your decision, I can see quite a few people getting really angry with the decision.

The plan was to get a unanimous admin decision, then take it to man talk for a wider opinion before putting it to a public poll. We wouldn't have restarted without a large majority decision.

Starting with 20 new teams next season would probably make some players not care about this season as it will have no effect on where they come next season, making this season pointless. Probably would have been for the best to start again because of that.

IMO should have scrapped the league but kept the cup. Moved the cup dates closer and just ran with the cup while the new sites in progress.

The plan was to get a unanimous admin decision, then take it to man talk for a wider opinion before putting it to a public poll. We wouldn't have restarted without a large majority decision.

Think it should have been done anyway tbh.

Constantinople wrote:

The plan was to get a unanimous admin decision, then take it to man talk for a wider opinion before putting it to a public poll. We wouldn't have restarted without a large majority decision.

Think it should have been done anyway tbh.

Yeah. The admins seem to be split in the decision a bit like how the members who have posted in this thread are. Would have been good to see what the majority of members want.

The rules for this season have been laid out and given all the training etc that many have put in, to simply wipe the slate and start again would be harsh.

Perhaps you could simply remove any notion of home and away games and halve the regular season?

Between now and the end of this season, you guys need to lay down point by point what you propose, what the viable alternatives are, and see where we all agree and disagree on, I imagine there'll be a mixture.

wait what

this was my exact suggestion to CB and he took it and blackstabbed me omg? cb pls

I will be discussing with Barack Obama about this.

A lot of work has gone into this season, and you would need a very large majority opinion going for it to work IMO. Donny's idea isn't actually that bad really but that decision has already gone through now.

I think the main reason that the league failed is the fact that we changed to 4v4 and added 4 new teams. For last season there were 16 teams playing 3v3, that is a minimum of 48 players (I realise that a lot more are needed but for arguments sake I'm using minimums); but for this season we have 20 teams playing 4v4, so that is a minimum of 80 players needed. And whatever way you look at that its almost much double the people needed to make it work (although reserve leagues etc. but whatever)

I don't think copying everything about Y-es would work imo, and restarting everything would pretty much destroy the whole FM legacy although I can see why it was mentioned.

I think we should restart the teams next season, but do a draft again. If people want a YeS format, just play on YeS, and just make a few changes to FM.

^ +1 to that, just go to YeS.
Draft is what makes this league special. You just shouldn't have allowed draft cheating, it doesn't matter if it breaks no rule, it's just about common sense... Penalize those who joined draft without telling who they really are, if they only want to join a single team, just fuck off and do that somewhere else.

BTW restart the league and open free agency if you haven't penalized draft cheating. Because draft is pointless since it can be cheated so easily by dickheads.
I mean, why can't I sign the players I want to sign if people could do it by cheating. The rest could have cheated to, maybe they didn't because they're not smart enough, or just, like it's my cause, because I'm not a motherfucking cheater and like to play legally. This is a league(game) to have fun, cheating is just being an asshole.

I think that the admins are obviously trying as hard as they can to repair this season and get it back up and running and it was a good call to halt the season for a bit.

Imo, I think it went wrong at the beginning when deciding to move the season forward. Not just because I was on holiday but loads of people were and therefore as ghost said, defwins all over da place.

So, I think that we should wait for the new site to be made (no idea when that would be) and then restart the season - using the rejected idea of getting 20 new (and old) teams and just starting over, with the season beginning in September.

Thanks

What is the point of season4 then?

^^