LEATHERHEAD-LEAGUE SERIES 3

In Season 22/23 I did start a little self-organised friendly cup named LEATHERHEAD-LEAGUE SEASON I.
The original setup you find here with Discussion and the almost clean Standings/Schedule.
In Season 34/35 I did a Series 2, which can be found here with Discussion and here with Standings/Schedule.

In a nutshell the idea was to play games with run-only likey back in the beginning of 20th century.
The original idea is from another sim were I had several series of this.

The series here was also fun, thanks to the participants and likely because I did this the best I could and not only setting something up and that's that.
For SEASON I a full set of stats were created by me, but that was very demanding, so I skipped that for Series 2.
Right now I think I can manage another SEASON, so let's try to get some managers on this.

So lets get down to the framework:
Because of the special rules it needs to take place as Friday friendly. That means we might get into schedule conflicts with Champs of Champs Cup, so please look out for that, if you participate there.

Last time Peter did offer some special features to spice things up and I hope he will not only do it again, but also participate again.

Rules:

Playbook / Game Settings
- Offense plays basically 100% run
(Game settings "mainly rush" or rushing plays in the playbook, since still passing plays can happen, it will be tolerated if a few passing plays DO happen, but from my past games I would say the amount of pass plays should easily be under 10%)
- Punts and FG are allowed, if you play the 4th down as a regular play, the rule above does count
- All Offense and Defense formations are allowed
- MOTY or Relaxed as intensity is not allowed

League Structure (roughly open, since it depends on the number of participants, right now strcuture of the last time is taken)
There will be 2 Conferences with each having 7 Teams (so 14 Teams in total)

Every Team plays
- Against every team of their own Conference (6 games)
- Against 2 Teams from the other Conference (2 games)
That makes 8 games, means at least 8 weeks.

The schedule will be generated based on the strength of the teams participating. I will take ELO and Regional setup as guideline.
So strong teams will play strong teams and weaker will play weaker teams (at least with non-division-games)

I will play Commissioner/God and will do this on my own judgement.
Locations can be chose as needed or wanted, every bigger stadium with 45.000+ will do.
Every gameday will have normally 7 games, so every team will play.
As for all friendlies on Friday the games have to be setup by YOU.
I will post home teams as suggestion, that team is in lead to send an invitation, but of cause both teams can send invitations and clarify the home team on their own.
Please do the setup as soon as possible, before THURSDAY 00:00 (game clock!).
Otherwise the auto scheduler will/might give you a different friendly and you and your opponent can't play.
I will post the schedule up front when the 14 teams are known.
I hope all participator will play fair and will stay for at least the end of the competition.
If a participator drops out for whatever reason, I will try to find a substitution, but that team can only play the remaining games and the older games of the former team won't count towards playoff spots, so this is just for fun.
If I do a Series 4 or more, all participants of Series 3 do have spot guaranteed, if they want it at that time.
Please contact me, if anything is wrong or you need something to talk about.
Most issues can be solved by good communication.

Teams from Series 2 (which are still active) do have a guaranteed spot in THIS series, if they want it.
Those are
Red Grange Conference
Chelt Nam Bobbers -> confirmation open
H2TAGIT4Q once Pretty Guinness Consumers once Guinness Drinkers United -> confirmation open
Disadvantagedpoorhomeless once Torchwood Aliens -> confirmation open
BobBoy Magpies -> confirmation open

Ernie Nevers Conference
Bretzfeld Bandits -> confirmation open
Leverkusen Leopards

Penalties for rule violations
Managers which do NOT setup their games according to the rules will get a 0-20 game result for that game.
The supposed or played opponent will get a 20-0 game result for that game, except the team did ALSO violate the rules, then BOTH teams will get a 0-20 game result.
TD passes with more than 35 yards will be subtracted from the final result.
TD passes with less or equal than 35 yards will be equated with a FG and only 3 to 4 points (depended on the XP try) will be substracted from the final result.
A TD-pass in OT by team A during the regular season game ends the game and lead to a tie between team A and B.
A TD-pass in OT by team A during a playoff game ends the game and lead to a team B win.

If I was informed early enough and every contact attempts to setup the game as scheduled did fail, the contacting team is free to setup a different friendly.
That is valid for the WEDNESDAY!
In the past this was no real issue.
At the end me, as Commissioner/God will decide.

Conferences will be decided by
- # wins
- direct compare
- # wins against all teams in Conference
- # point difference
- # points scored
- coin toss

Playoffs
The first two teams of each Conference will play in the Half-Final-Bowls (BLOCKS OF GRANITE BOWL and RED ELEPHANTS BOWL) to determine the Conference Champion.
The winners of those will play on the Championship-Bowl (FOUR HORSEMEN BOWL).
The rest of the teams will have their season final with their last regular season match.

The two Conferences are:
Red Grange Conference
Ernie Nevers Conference

Special Features and Prices (OPEN, NO CONFIMATION BY PETER! Prices of last season are here)
Peter does support the idea and did offer a nice package for the participants, which comes for a price.
Each Participant will have to pay 30 Credits up front
Each BLOCKS OF GRANITE BOWL and RED ELEPHANTS BOWL participant will get 60 Credits as price
Each participant of FOUR HORSEMEN BOWL will get 60 Credits as price
I will only mention each games MVP inside the match review, no stats prices.
Winner of FOUR HORSEMEN BOWL gets 3 month Supporter-Account as price plus a special Trophy for the trophy case.
Last time did Peter also add a PARTICIPANT-trophy to all other 13 teams. I hope he will do this again.
Peter will do this manually.

Who can participate?
Since this a Friday game, no Champs of Champs Cup-Participants can play if the schedule does not allow it, sorry.
I have to check this, once we know the amount of weeks we need.
Beside that basically everyone is fine to play.
Since this will be a real played game, team strength will be an issue.
Every team is free to play any roster they want to play with, starters or backups.

When does it start?
Open, likely in 1-2 weeks.
Schedule will be available, once I know whether we play and with how many.

Anything else?
So far I hope I did cover all.
Whatever questions might come up in addition will be posted here, including the answers.

Here the stuff from season I (adjusted a bit to make it better readable and understandable)







It was suggested to treat eventually happening pass-TDs, especially big-plays like FG or even as void them after the game at all.
We did adjust the rules accordingly.
Another suggestion was to have the rush-focused defenses 5-3, 5-2 and goalline banned.

Both suggestion were open for dicussion, the second suggestion was not used.



To all new teams and all surviving teams from TOG.
Welcome!

Whoever is wondering regarding conference naming and Bowl naming:
Conference names:
Red Grange
Ernie Nevers

Bowl names:
Seven Blocks Of Granite
Red Elephants
The Four Horsemen

PS: Peter, if I did put something wrong into this, please let me know.

List of Teams

1 Leverkusen Leopards
2 Chelt Nam Bobbers -> CONFIRMED
3 H2TAGIT4Q once Pretty Guinness Consumers once Guinness Drinkers United -> CONFIRMED
4 BobBoy Magpies -> CONFIRMED
5 Bretzfeld Bandits -> CONFIRMED
6 Constanta Ravens -> CONFIRMED
7 HAMBURG SEA LIONS -> CONFIRMED
8 Fredericksburg Comanches -> CONFIRMED
9 Social Distance Runners -> CONFIRMED
10 Melittlemenon thepitchhitchin -> CONFIRMED
11 Lincoln Towncars -> CONFIRMED
12 Alaskan Fur Trappers -> CONFIRMED
13 Braska Bangers 09 -> CONFIRMED
14 Morgantown Mad Dogs -> CONFIRMED

LIST CLOSED

I'm sorry for the teams not making the cut.
15 Disadvantagedpoorhomeless once Torchwood Aliens -> No answer

16 TOOL -> plays CoC and that creates scheduling problems
17 San Diego Blitz -> plays CoC and that creates scheduling problems
18 Paris Guardians -> plays CoC and that creates scheduling problems
19 Niceville Norsemen - - > plays CoC and that creates scheduling problems

Schedule / Standings -> Schedule/Standings

YES! Leatherheads back whoop whoop
Count me in!

Sounds fun Jack. I like it a lot.
I'm in.

But you both on status CONFIRMED.

EDIT: After PN-Reply, Bandits and Bobbers are also CONFIRMED.

Whooohooo, I am in!

Confirmed!

Peter is also CONFIRMED.

Aliens are a bit tricky, since they announced they would leave and are right now banned.

But you never know ....

Ooohhh, that sound's great I'd like to participate

I did put you on the list as CONFIRMED.