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| posted: 2023-10-09 08:16:40 (ID: 100177370) Report Abuse | |
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And just like that the first game day has come and gone. Some interesting things that happened, though, and that's why we have the first
Re-Cap of Game Day 1 BobBoy Magpies 40:3 Hemet Hooligans The Magpies early on made sure to lead the game and did not look back after that. The delivered a Fieldgoal on their very first drive and kept on scoring, punting only 3 times the whole game. It was their Defense, though, that really made the difference in this ballgame, sacking the opposing QB 10 times (!!!) for 81 Yards, the Sack leader being LB Fred Pride with 4. The Hemet Hooligan Offense was held to only 19 First Downs and a total of 293 Yards total offense, with one FG scored in Q2. Two things struck me here, one of which I already pointed out above: The Magpies had 10 sacks, way more than e. g. we EVER had in one game. There are several reasons for that, one just being one hell of a manager and setting up the playbook with the right amount of LB-Blitz. The HAMBURG SEA LIONS had encounters with a lot of teams at the highest level that are very good at setting up the Blitz, many times ending a drive before it even gets rolling while providing a short field due to the punter having to punt from closer to his endzone. The Hooligans made these sacks happen „easy“, though, using formations to pass without protection by a FB. I’m very cautious to use these formations for passing because of exactly that: being vulnerable to the Blitz. Another thing that caught my attention was the very small amount of Running that the Hemet Hooligans attempted. I did learn recently that the engine of RZA is a bit more pass friendly, but that does hold true to the defensive side, too. I have seen a lot of games being won by great passing play, but it is effective Rushing that get’s you the furthest. I am a firm believer in the fact that every game where your Rushing is over 100 Yards is a game you’re likely to win. So I’d suggest the Hemet Hooligans add some Running Plays to the mix… which would also have the benefit of avoiding that many sacks, too. Motol Ducks 29:24 HAMBURG SEA LIONS This close one was ultimately decided by great defensive play by the Motol Ducks, forcing the SEA LIONS to punt 6 times while not needing to punt themselves for the whole game. The SEA LIONS had not more than 18 First Downs and did score 4 times nonetheless, although they sometimes just seemed to not have an answer for the Defensive Front of the Ducks. Just to contradict the last point above: HSL did rush for over 100 Yards and did not win this one. It was close, though. The opponent had nearly 3 times more passing plays than rushing, over 409 passing yards. And the manager of the Motol Ducks does know from many years of experience how to insert surprising Rushing Plays into the Gameplan. But extensive Passing does stale out over the course of a drive, like it did with many drives of the Motol Ducks, resulting in FGs only. This thing „not having an answer for the Defensive Front“ is real, though. I had set up the new playbook just in time before the game simulation started, only to find out after that that I had not set the plays in the right order. That happened when I copied the Playbook to a plan I drew on a sheet of paper to countercheck. I recognized a lot more then, but I will write about this later this week. The process of creating a new playbook is always exciting. Braska Bangers 09 34:16 Neptunes The Bangers jumped in front 10:0 with scoring a TD in their first drive, another FG with their second. From there on the Neptunes tried and tried again to come close, but always came up short, with settling for FGs when a TD would have been needed. In the second half three INTs were thrown, 2 by the QB of the Bangers, but again the Neptunes were not able to capitalize from that. With 3 Interceptions thrown to them and a recovered fumble it is a head scratcher how the Neptunes were able to lose this game. But they did only score 10 points off of these turnovers, being forced to punt after the fumble and giving one of the Interceptions right back which then resulted in a TD for the Bangers. I’d think the Neptunes need to be more confident in playing for TDs instead of FGs. Especially in the second half they did not leave the impression as if they played to win, leaving points on the field by settling for fieldgoals on the opposing 3 Yard Line as well as a later in Q3 on a 4th&2 from the opposing 28. Even 4th&4 on the opposing 20 late in Q4 may have been an opportunity to score. I understand if players are hesitant with making a play on 4th down, but I do believe that it pay’s off not only in points directly, but as part of influence on the game simulation. To remind everyone about two important sentences in the Almighty Manual: „The games engine will award players carrying well thought tactics. This calculation happens only on the Offensive tactics part.“ So it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that a gutsy play call, even if he did not result in points directly, has an influence on the game as a whole and may lead to a converted 4th Down try later in the game. Liz Biz 23:14 mCon The scoring in this game started with a Rushing TD by the RB of mCon for 83 Yards, which I always find awesome. mCon couldn’t score again until the 4th quarter, though, while letting the Kicker of Liz Biz do his magic. Then the HB of mCon even fumbled the ball on the own 34 which resulted in a TD for Liz Biz 3 Plays later. When mCon finally scored a 66-Yard-TD in Q4 and was on the brink of jumping in front their QB threw a very unfortunate Interception on the opposing 12 Yard line, which was returned the other way for 41 Yards and capped off with a TD with only 36 seconds to go. Another game where the team with WAY over a 100 rushing yards lost. Damn. Maybe I should not so firmly believe that Rushing over 100 yards boosts your winning probability. But this time the team with more rushing yards did also turn the ball over three times, with 17 points coming off of these turnovers. What I find interesting in this game is the defensive scheme that mCon is executing. The nearly played the whole first half with a 5 man front, only switching out of it for the most obvious passing situations. That is either very gutsy since I have never seen something like that and would consider that kind of defense pretty subsceptible to sophisticated passing. Or it’s brilliant and the manager of mCon found a clever way to use these defensive formations to the best of their possibilities. I’ll keep an eye on that. |
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| posted: 2023-10-09 15:49:20 (ID: 100177383) Report Abuse | |
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Chrill wrote:
What I find interesting in this game is the defensive scheme that mCon is executing. The nearly played the whole first half with a 5 man front, only switching out of it for the most obvious passing situations. That is either very gutsy since I have never seen something like that and would consider that kind of defense pretty subsceptible to sophisticated passing. I remember now that I HAVE seen this before: Ralph's Warriors/Amma's Angels used to defend like that when we entered D1 Level of the Admirals League back in S49. We had to play them twice before they sadly left the game, but both games, especially the second, were tough nuts to crack. They defended solely with 5-3-3 and 4-4-3, with sometimes switching to Goalline D. We had no chance to run on them, with the HSL-Squad then being by far not the strong one that we now have.  So it seems to be a good choice, especially to defeat competition that's relying on the Run. It's just very vulnerable when you meet an opponent that has his game based on strong passing by a top rated QB and fast and top rated receivers... but those teams are not that many and easy to spot 🤔 |
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| posted: 2023-10-11 20:14:47 (ID: 100177450) Edits found: 1 Report Abuse | |
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I told you about this new playbook I am trying to implement, and since I do find that is a very exciting process I thought I share it with you. So welcome to
The Dirty 12 – Chapter 1 Last Sunday I began setting up a new playbook. It was not that long ago that I had begun setting up another one. That playbook was and still is meant to be more of a complementary playbook to the basic game settings that should be done before each game, which was an idea that came to me while I was writing for this very thread in the forum (this entry), somewhere near the end of the first iteration of the Bootcamp Cup. It’s a collection of situations and how to react to them over the course of a game, all the while maintaining enough freedom to not overwrite the game settings entirely. This new playbook should be nothing like that. This new playbook should be tight, with the margin of error as narrow as it could be. But within being tight, it should be safe. Safe as in „not having some boneheaded plays like „going for it on 4th Down at the own 30 Yard line while leading by 3 with only 24 seconds to go in the 4th quarter“ in it“, but safe, too, to deliver at least one score in each quarter. And the inspiration this time came from an interview with Sid Gillman, where he was quoted „You build your offense from your basic running game, from what I like to call our „Dirty Dozen“. It’s as good a name as any for twelve plays our talent will let us run. We’re going to maintain and keep polishing all these basic things because we know them well, and we’re going to work like hell on execution.“ That’s what the new playbook would be: a gameplan formulated from the 12 plays that work the best for the HAMBURG SEA LIONS. Simplicity to success. Gillman went on to say that these 12 Rushing Plays are then complemented with different looks and passing plays off of that. I approached it a bit more openminded and looked for the 12 Plays, Rushing AND Passing, to find my „Dirty Dozen“. A next step could be to look for directions and sort the Plays by that, too, but why overcomplicate the thing in the early stages already? It was a nice late summer / early autumn night when I took the notebook, drew a table in it with all offensive formations, two columns with „Rush“ and „Pass“, and then I worked through all the games from this season that we played in the league and the Supercup. Each time a play was good for an average of 4 to 5 Yards was a dash in the appropriate column. Sometimes it was Rush, sometimes it was Pass, sometimes it was Rush AND Pass, sometimes it was neither. But with each game the list grew, and tendencies showed. When I was finished it had my 12 plays. My „Dirty Dozen“. And shortly after that, last Sunday, I began to put them into a new playbook. Next up: the broad strokes to start the playbook Last edited on 2023-10-11 20:15:38 by Chrill |
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| posted: 2023-10-12 10:51:52 (ID: 100177468) Report Abuse | |
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Some information on this thing about "more Rushing Yards means more winning": popopotamo, the manager of Pizti Beltzak, unknowingly confirmed my notion yesterday when he published some stats over in the Dragons League Forum (Link).
He compared all games in the league, took the number of games and the number of wins and determined the winning percentage for a lot of different factors that play a role during a Football game: Pass attempts, Interceptions thrown, 3rd Down and 4th Down effectiveness, Sacks, Fumble Recoverys and so on. And this overview shows, of all things, that having more Rushing yards than your opponent will give you a whopping 85 % chance of winning the game. For comparison: having more Passing yards "only" gives you a 59 % chance to win the game, having more Sacks in a game has your winning percentage at 76 %. Do not underestimate the power of the Rush  |
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| posted: 2023-10-13 09:57:52 (ID: 100177493) Report Abuse | |
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The Dirty Dozen – Chapter 2
Image an artist sitting in front of a white canvas. He has set up his easel, put a big canvas on it. Took his pens and brushes and colors and got them into place. His vision is a brilliant one. And he is eager to put the things he sees in his head to this very canvas, expressing every bit of joy that he feels when he thinks of this vision and the opportunities it presents. But then… should he go all in with the brushes, plastering the canvas in primary colors and then refine, add a little something here and there? Or should he use the pen beforehand, to lay out a design and maybe pre-define some areas that are known to be tricky to get with broad strokes alone? Which pen should he use? And what could he do to maybe work in a little surprise or two? Maybe change the color of certain objects to create illusions? That’s pretty much creating a new playbook. At least it is for me. And I’m one of those who pre-define and put basic lines and rules first. I do not have to start from scratch, though. Thanks to being in this game since S48 and starting to create playbooks in S49 I do have a good set of rules for the standard-settings. Interestingly enough most of them are plays that may not have to be changed for the „Dirty Dozen“ since they already are built from that set. So I take some rules from another playbook and have a lot of situations already covered: what to do offensively near the own goal line, what to do in the last minutes of each half, what to do in the Redzone, when to kick Fieldgoals, when to punt, when to go for it on 4th Down. These make up for the first 65 lines in the playbook, although they might soon grow beyond that. I usually put rules for being behind in certain areas somewhere in between these 65. Now the canvas is set. I could play a game based on the game settings with this. It would be boring and not won because of great play by the Offense, I’d guess, but it would work. So let’s go for the broad strokes to get some color on it. My 3 Basic Offensive Brushes with which I give base color to the canvas are the I-Formation, the Big I-Formation and Shotgun 2 WR. They vary in play design and arrangement in different areas on the field, but with these three formations the basic color design of the gameplan starts. All three have shown to be trustable choices and tend to please the eye of the beholder. I-Formation and Big I-Formation even were at the top of the list after the evaluation of the „Dirty Dozen“. They are the safe choices, the base of operations, the fallback if anything else goes haywire. But these basic colors won’t make a good painting. There’s no awe and amazement, no intricate brushwork or surprising effects with crayons. There’s still a lot of drawing and painting to be done for it to be what it can be. And what it should be. A winner. Next up: how to work in the other plays |
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| posted: 2023-10-15 09:18:59 (ID: 100177533) Report Abuse | |
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It's the second game day already, and we look forward to these match-ups today:
Hemet Hooligans 0–1 @ HAMBURG SEA LIONS 0–1, 1800 GMT In this game, which is broadcasted by the RZA Network as „Match of the Day“ despite both teams having lost their first game in this tournament, the SEA LIONS welcome the Hemet Hooligans to Hamburg. The visiting team won their league match-up yesterday and further secured their playoff spot in the Monarch league, having already won their division and fighting for the bye-week. The SEA LIONS on the other side come in the game for the second time in a row having lost their league game the day before. They need a win not only for keeping hopes alive to advance to the playoffs in this cup, but for feeling a bit better for the remainder of the season as a whole. Let’s just hope the OC has the new playbook figured out already… BobBoy Magpies 1–0 @ Motol Ducks 1–0, 2100 GMT The Magpies won their league game yesterday, today they visit an old friend from the Admirals league. They played many times already, with the Motol Ducks even leading the record in league wins. The latter had a pretty long stretch of not playing competitive football in the past few seasons, though, and are rebuilding. They seem to be on a pretty good track, as the have not lost since the end of September. With a win yesterday they defended their seed in the conference and are locked in to play in the postseason. Liz Biz 1–0 @ Neptunes 0–1, 1800 GMT Liz Biz lost a close one in the league yesterday after winning three in a row. They visit the Neptunes in hopes to push the record in the cup to 2–0 which would mean they’d have one leg in the playoffs. The Neptunes won convincingly against their league-opponent yesterday, even jumped to seed #6 in the conference and now have a great shot at the playoffs. They must continue to win today to stay in the mix in this friendly cup, too. Braska Bangers 09 1–0 @ mCon 0–1, 1900 GMT The Bangers come off a division-win and are sitting comfortably at seed #1 in the AC conference of the Fire league. Having won their first game in this cup they need another one and can already be sure to advance to the playoffs. mCon needs a win to keep chances for the playoff spot in this cup alive, and come in with good feelings after having defeated a fellow playoff contender in the Galaxy league. Geez, the SEA LIONS and Liz Biz are the only teams that have not won yesterday. And only one of the teams that lost have a Rookie manager 
Good luck for everyone, and enjoy the games |
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| posted: 2023-10-16 20:36:10 (ID: 100177561) Report Abuse | |
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There we are, the second game day already been gone again, and only one game really mattering in those coming up. But one thing after the other, first here’s the
Re-Cap of Game Day 2 Hemet Hooligans 38:34 HAMBURG SEA LIONS In a game worthy of the broadcast as the „Match of the Day“ the SEA LIONS jumped in front 14:0 with a TD to start the second quarter. It were the first 7 of combined 31 points in this quarter alone, and the SEA LIONS were up 4 points at halftime, feeling pretty good about their game. The new offensive playbook obviously had done some good for them. It was the defensive side of the ball that let them down again, as they let the offense of the Hooligans score nearly every time they touched the ball. The own offense stepped back slightly, too, as they had to settle for 2 Fieldgoals in the second half. I honestly don’t know what to say here. The defense of the SEA LIONS not being able to defend the pass is a theme that runs through the second half of this season as a whole, and it’s been this way for the past season, too. I’m pretty much clueless what to do at this point. I don’t want to take away from the Hooligans, because they obviously found a great way of getting the ball down the field with precision. It’s just maddening to see that even the most dangerous plays, deep passes, connect again and again without any of our guys in the defensive backfield minding to make a play. BobBoy Magpies 32:27 Motol Ducks The Magpies threw an interception to start the game, giving the Ducks a very short field that they converted into a TD. But while they did not score TDs themselves until 6 minutes into the second quarter, they always came close enough to kick a FG (or at least have try). So when the Ducks turned the ball over at midfield in Q2, the Magpies took the ball to the endzone and with that took the lead. Not being overly impressed, the Ducks scored themselves another TD, though, making it 17:16 in their favor to start the second half. Their first possession resulted in another FG, but then came the big moment of the leading rusher of the ELITE league, Armand McDermott, who broke free at the own 44 yard line, avoided the tackling of the FS of the Ducks and ran it in for a 56 Yards Rushing TD. They did not look back after that, as the Ducks turned the ball over 3 times in Q3 and twice in Q4. When the Ducks finally scored another TD it was way to late. The fumbles and interceptions are pretty hard to control, so not all the turnovers by the Ducks were on them. But they turned the ball over 5 times (!!!) on 4th Down over the course of the game, with the shortest try being 9 yards (on the opposing 45 yard line) and the longest even 17 yards (on the own (!!!) 28 yard line). While you can call these calls gutsy, there’s a fine line of genius and madness with going for it on 4th down… and trying to convert more than let’s say 3 yards can be done, the cost of not converting is just so much higher, especially if you try and fail in your own half. In the end it were 16 points (with another FG try missed) that they had the Magpies score with short to very short field position where they could have had them stopped way further away from the own goalline after a punt… because the defense of the Ducks was well prepared and did a great job. Liz Biz 30:0 Neptunes Speaking of great defenses: The Liz Biz defense did not allow ANY score by the Neptunes yesterday, holding the opponent to 11 First Downs and only 162 Yards of total offense, while the QB of Liz Biz had a great day with 46 of 66, 448 Yards Passing and 3 TDs. But what happened with the Neptunes offense? As they did last week they relied heavily on their Rushing Game and did not get off of it despite being down 3 scores to start the second half. They had some surprising passes in between, but mostly the defense had already adjusted to the gameplan. And then the Neptunes even had bad luck with some good ideas that just did not work because of no one knows. Not much to say here beyond what I already wrote above: Sometimes the Rush can only take you so far. And despite me pounding the table that a healthy amount of rushing does lead to success*, it does not take you far if you’re trailing 3 scores. And even if: The time it takes to constantly rush does not help you either. Maybe you’ve noticed: The time between two rush plays is 30 seconds nearly every time, whereas two passing plays can get off a lot faster. That does help when you’re leading to keep the opponent off the ball. It hurts when you need points, though. *Last week I referred to a graphic where the great popopotamo collected data on which aspects of the game leads to wins and while it did seem to prove my point that „rushing leads to winning“, it can be interpreted the other way around, too, using the aspect I mentioned above: Lots of rushing can also mean that you have the game already won by passing a lot, having gathered enough points and now you use rushing to control clock and opponent. So I may be wrong with my sentiment about making the run game a prominent feature of the game… but I tend to keep believing in it nonetheless 
Braska Bangers 09 24:20 mCon One team in this game had 3 interceptions thrown by their Quarterback and missed not one, not two, not three, but four (!!!) fieldgoals, one to end the first half, one to start the second half, one to start Q4 and one again to close out. The other team lost the game. Granted, the defeat could have / should have been much harsher than the 4 point spread it finally was. mCon did profit from the interceptions they were given. Besides that they were not able to move the ball against the Bangers who had their defense set up pretty nicely. The hometeam was a bit unfortunate here and there that the plays did not work out the way they should, but overall they were outsmarted by their guest nearly all game long. This one’s pretty easy, because I think that the Bangers just had the better gameplan, offensively and defensively. I’d love the Bangers to be a bit more balanced on offense, but that’s just me. Great games altogether, although I would have favored it for all last four games to be a bit more exciting… not only one of them. But so be it. What I find curious: Every game so far was won by the visiting team. Let's see if that changes on Game Day 3 |
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| posted: 2023-10-18 10:02:29 (ID: 100177647) Report Abuse | |
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The Dirty Dozen – Chapter 3
A playbook is like a pocket watch. When you get it in your hands and see it working, you see shiny glass and polished metal. You can marvel at the smoothness with which the clock hands go their way. When you look closer you start to realize that the numerals on the face of the watch is slightly embossed and embellished with what seems to be pixie dust. Then your eyes wander to the opening on the watches face where you can see some of the cogwheels moving. And you remember having seen once or twice all the small pieces that are mostly hidden in this beautiful case of shiny glass and polished metal: the winding wheel, the crown wheel, the winding click, the regulator, the hairspring, the escapement bridge and the small balance end stones. All these small pieces were put together by a highly focussed man or woman with a very steady hand, committed to create something special. Who are only content when the finished product is as shiny and smoothly clicking as it is when you get it in your hands. A playbook is like a pocket watch. Formations and play types are the cogwheels, screws and springs. And like a watch it does not work as long as it is not clicking the right way. The three jewels that keep the whole construct in its place are, as mentioned in Chapter 1, the Big I-Formation, the I-Formation and Shotgun 2 WR. The basic wheels of my pocket watch are the play types, being the movement and the balance wheel, with which I set the pace for the playbook to run at. I go for a slow paced „Rush“-based playcalling. And arrange the play types in a way that hopefully results in a smooth flow, based on observations I made early in my play calling career from a scrimmage game gone wrong. When I began to grasp the depth a playbook is able to have I was searching for ways to get to a better understanding of the engine. Because only if I’d know what effect play calling has „on the field“ I will be able to put together a working playbook. So I set up a „Formations“-Playbook in which I only let certain offensive formations work against certain defensive formations, and had the team run them numerous times. And while I usually had many different formations in one scrimmage, once it happened that I mishandled the line arrangement in the Playbook and had only I-Formation run Rush–Rush–Pass and Rush–Pass–Pass against 3-4-4 and 5-3-3 a whole game. It was eye-opening. And it dawned on me then that the arrangement of plays make or break a playbook, and that I would have great possibilities to surprise my opponent with clever play calling. I use these findings for a nice arrangement of Movement and Balance Wheel to make the the clockwork run at a steady pace. And within this set up I begin to add the first complementary wheels. These cogwheels, being the other formations that are part of the „Dirty Dozen“, sometimes help stabilize the base set up even more (e. g. variety added in certain areas of the field), or they are used to drive a certain small display with very special precision (e. g. 4th Down plays). Slowly but Shirley the clockwork is taking shape. But I want to build a precise clock. A clock that does not miss a beat. And at this point the imagination only takes me so far. Constantly having to scroll and the diversion from the internet don’t help to make this a pleasing experience, either. No, I have to get away from this. And find a way to create the gameplan where I can see it all in front of me. Where I can evaluate all the connections and overlappings of the cogwheels without running the risk of mishandling the basics. So I take a big sheet of paper and a pen. And I begin to draw the „Dirty Dozen“-Gameplan. Next time: drawing the „Dirty Dozen“-Gameplan |
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| posted: 2023-10-22 11:41:35 (ID: 100177798) Report Abuse | |
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It's the last game day of the group round today. One spot in the playoffs from group 1 is still vacant, group 2 is already decided. These are the games:
BobBoy Magpies @ HAMBURG SEA LIONS The Magpies won both games, the SEA LIONS lost both games. Maybe it'll be the other way around today, but most likely not
Hemet Hooligans @ Motol Ducks Whoever wins this one advances to the playoffs. Liz Biz @ Braska Bangers 09 Both teams are already qualified, so this game is about getting the "easier" opponent in the playoffs. Neptunes @ mCon One of these teams will get the first win in this cup today. Good luck for everyone |
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| posted: 2023-10-22 17:29:44 (ID: 100177821) Report Abuse | |
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Good game Liz Biz!🍻
Huskertarr |
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