Progression
Basics of Progressing
Each player will earn IP at a given rate. They will use this IP to buy attributes or badges that can be applied to their player. There will be no traditional "pay-to-win" or "packs-based" model, though there will be some exceptions as noted below.
Additional rules:
IP will typically be distributed on a weekly basis, but may be done more or less frequently in certain situations. Offseason periods when no important games are being played will likely release IP in larger, perhaps monthly batches.
There will be a deadline for upgrading players every week. If a player is illegally upgraded by that deadline, the league office will remove illegal upgrades until the player is compliant, refunding IP which can be spent next week instead. If a player has not used all of their IP, it will be assumed that they are purposely saving it. The league office may choose to give early warning about an illegal player or accept a late fix at their discretion, but the standard is that such things will not be typically allowed.
There will be a one-time opportunity to purchase a "starter pack" upon the initial creation of a player, for a modest amount of IP. This will give a player a very small advantage, similar to if they had joined slightly earlier, but not one that will affect competitive balance in any way.
Attributes and badges may be added, but never subtracted. See the next few points for exceptions to this rule.
If your previous salary allowed you access to a certain level of badges that you no longer have access to, it is your responsibility to reset that badge to the highest allowable level, which will refund some IP to you that may be used elsewhere. This will happen at a specific time in the offseason, and will be communicated well in advance.
There may be times when a player LOSES IP. The most common example will be at the start of a player's 8th season, where regression will begin. This will be handled as a single lump sum of IP being subtracted from the player's total, and it will be up to you to ensure you remove attributes and badges until the total amount of IP is compliant again. This amount may be defrayed at least in part with a high salary. For example, if a player is about to be hit with a -200 IP regression penalty but are earning a salary of 150 IP, they will only have to remove 50 IP worth of attributes and badges.
Regression is not an excuse to rebuild a player. If a player has -200 IP from regression and +150 IP from salary and weekly prog, they are obligated to remove 50 IP worth of attributes and badges. They are NOT permitted to remove 80 IP worth and then immediately add 30 to a different attribute beyond where it was previously upgraded.
Skipping seasons
A player may "skip" a season by paying $50 to the league office per season skipped. This will essentially begin them a year further into their career, and they will receive a lump sum of IP equal to what they would have earned based on their selected career path had they been in the league.
Additional rules:
Seasons may not be skipped once a player's career has begun.
In case it is unclear by the nomenclature of "skipping" a season, this does advance you in every functional way a year into your career. This is NOT just free IP. Paying to skip one season will make you functionally a sophomore in college, with only three years of eligibility instead of four.
In conjunction with the rule above, it is not advisable to skip more than three seasons. This will ensure your player still has one year of eligibility as a "senior" before declaring for the draft. Exceptions may be made at the league office's discretion.
Note that skipping seasons will NOT give any player a competitive advantage. A player who skips their first season will enter college with exactly the same amount of IP as any other sophomore theoretically has. They will pay slightly less ($50 for a season's worth of IP instead of $60 spread out over 6 months). However, they will have forfeited the ability to watch and control their player for that rookie season as well, justifying the lower price.
There are no additional restrictions on retiring a player. If a user wanted to create a steady-stream of "one and done" college beasts, they could create a player, skip three seasons to be at their max IP for the senior season, retire at the end of the year instead of going pro, and do it again with a new player the next year. Again, there's no advantage they will have over any other senior, so it will not negatively affect competitive balance.
Career Paths
There will be three different "career paths" a player can take: Steady Pro, Late Bloomer, or College-Ready. Each will earn IP at a slightly different rates. The broad strokes are as follows, but you can click [INSERT] link for a visualization:
Steady Pro will earn at a steady, standard rate for their whole career. They will be the 2nd-highest path at essentially all times.
Late Bloomer will earn a lower rate of weekly IP, making them the lowest for the first few years. However, midway through their career they will unlock a window of ludicrously fast weekly IP, making them quickly the best path. For the rest of their careers (including at their peaks), they will be the best path. The best player in the league at any given time will likely be a Late Bloomer hitting their peak.
College-Ready will earn a lower rate of weekly IP. However, they will receive a massive IP bonus to START their career, putting a freshman in college on par with most other juniors immediately. They will be the best path for the entirety of their college careers. However, if they do decide to continue after four years, they will have to refund some of that IP back, which will make them the lowest path for the latter half of their career. If you only want this particular player to be a college guy, this is the undisputed best path, however. They do also regress slightly slower than other players, should you play out their career fully.
Additional rules:
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES may a player change their path after their career has begun.
The linked chart makes many assumptions. IP earned via contracts may be different, giveaways may increase the amount of IP you earn, you may have extra to start your career depending on when you joined in the offseason, etc. This is just for a baseline of comparison.
Gameplanning
Cap hit and badges
The level of badges that are you eligible to apply to your player is dependent on your CAP HIT. See section [INSERT] for more details on allocated v. spent IP. Once you reach a certain cap hit level, you may equip badges at that level or below.
Cap Hit - Maximum badge level
0 IP - Bronze
40 IP - Silver
100 IP - Gold
150 IP - 1 HOF badge
200 IP - 2 HOF badges
250 IP - 3 HOF badges
300 IP - 4 HOF badges
Additional rules:
In case it is not clear, a salary of 300 IP means you may equip 4 TOTAL HOF badges, not 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 10 badges.
If your cap hit decreases in the offseason and you are no longer eligible for badges that you had previously purchased, it is your responsibility to remove those badges. This will return IP to you that you may use elsewhere, or save if you anticipate reaching that cap hit again in the future. The league office will communicate when you may do this, since normally reducing badge levels will not be allowed.
Rotations
Rotations will be fairly permissive, allowing for a more realistic style of having starters and bench players. Minutes are set based on a 48-minute game, although our games will only be 40-minutes, so you can mentally multiply by 5/6 to estimate how many minutes they will actually play. The following are general rules for what a player can receive.
Touches: 30 - 99
Minutes: 14 - 36
Play initiators (as a team): 1 - 3
Additional rules:
Players may play at any position, as long as their height is eligible for that spot. See the rotation sheet for specifics.
There's not a limit on how many players on your team can have heavy touches. Keep in mind though that having 10 players at 99 touches won't be any different than having them all at 30, so there's not much point.
No player may be scheduled to play more than 12 straight minutes in a particular half without coming off the floor.
Every individual stint for a player either on the floor or on the bench must be 3+ minutes long. Substitutions can still be staggered every minute, just not for the same player.
At a cap hit of 50 IP, you receive a higher guaranteed floor of touches and minutes. These numbers are 50 and 20 respectively. These are referred to as "improved minimums" for the rest of this document.
Any aspect of gameplanning, including these, may be written as a condition in a player's contract. For example, a player may agree to a 100 IP contract and also say "touches must always be 70+ and my final MPG average must be 30+." However, it is up to that player and team to track whether or not these are being achieved and mediate amongst themselves what will happen if it is not.
Improved minimums may be voluntarily declined if the player themselves directly requests so from the league office, such as in the case of an aging-but-still expensive player wishing to take a smaller role on a contending team's bench. The league office may deny a request at their discretion, but they would not find it likely that they would do so. Owners may always choose to reduce their player's role below the improved minimums, and are simply asked to make the same request so the league is aware of it.
Tricking custom rotations to manipulate minimums and maximums will not be permitted. They are absolute. The league office will periodically review actual minutes earned to ensure compliance. For example, if a player has the Improved Minimum minutes of 20 MPG, we'd expect them to play at least 20 * 5/6 = 16.7 MPG. If they are actually only receiving 14 MPG, this will be unacceptable, and punishments may be levied. This can include IP fines, draft pick fines, or at least interim control over rotation decisions by the league office in truly serious cases. The easiest way to avoid this is to schedule players for more than their minimum (or less than their maximum). This will only be verified later in the year when there's a larger sample size of data (so one fluky game is not punished). Smaller infractions may receive smaller punishments, or none at all, at the discretion of the league office. Any discrepancies exceeding two full minutes in either direction or any issues unaddressed even after first brought to an owner's attention will be considered intentional cheating of the system and will be punished in accordance with that view.
Adjustments and submissions
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Playbooks
Every team is required to have a custom playbook. If none is provided, the league office will assign a default ones with plays that they know are suboptimal. Whenever you make a change to the playbook, be sure to highlight the new plays and check the box on your gameplan submission that indicates the inputters need to adjust your playbook.
Additional rules:
Every playbook must have between 25-40 plays.
Every player will have at least two play types assigned. If they do not, they will receive "cutter" and "handoff" as their primary and secondary play types respectively.
For each instance of a player with a selected primary or secondary play type, you must have at least one of that play. For example, if two players have post up high as their primary type, one has it as their secondary, and four have it as their third/fourth type, the team will need at least three post up high plays. This requirement will account for your first 20 plays.
If no player has a particular play type assigned to them, you may not have any plays of that type. If you do, they will not count to your 25 total minimum plays, but they will count towards the maximum.
You may not have exactly 1 play of a particular type. If only one player has that play type as a primary/secondary, then you need at least 2 plays of that type to allow some variation.
Some play types like "pick and roll wing" and "pick and roll point" are combined under one type. Your team playbook sheet will do these calculations for you.
Additional notes
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