So I've been noticing a trend while doing the offseason bonuses for a long time.....and its kinda bugging me seeing it over and over again to a point now where I feel its now time to bring it up for discussion. I'm considering seeking league approval on something, nothing too drastic, more of a minor tweak, or who knows, maybe a little drastic. From day 1, my main concern with the MLD is to keep things competitive, fun and challenging for all of us. I don't want to pick on anyone in particular because truth be told, its a loophole a bunch of MLD GMs appear to be benefitting from it. (Heck, even my team has benefitted from this loophole that I am considering plugging or semi-plugging.)
While awarding the Non-playoffs(NP) bonus of +3 to Stamina, Shooting and Skating, I've been noticing alot of already highly skilled players on non-playoff teams, who are also receiving this bonus. Now I realize this is well within the current rules setup which is straight and simple, miss the playoffs, your entire team get this particular bonus. However I feel it goes against the whole purpose and point of this bonus, well one of them anyway. The bonus was created for 2 reasons....
1) It was to compensate non-playoff teams whose non-active players did not receive improvements back when the league began. That changed a year(s) or so ago with a WiS update so that players now improve during playoffs whether they are in them or not.
2) It was intended to assist struggling out-of-playoffs teams by improving their players' skill-wise, with the thinking that the players collectively needed the help skill-wise, to return them back to a competitive level. Awarding this bonus to players who are already highly skilled, but being "cooked/warehoused" is NOT what I wanted, but currently well within the rules under the current set up. It doesn't seem right that a Joe Smith with skills like 90ST, 90SH, 90SK....will now be 93ST, 93SH, 93SK because his team didn't make the playoffs.
I would like to consider tweaking this bonus (NP Bonus) or possibly removing it all together.
- if tweaked, we can make it so that no player attribute gets a boost with the NP bonus if it is already at or higher than a certain level. (say 80...or maybe even 70)
(I can't suggest a tweak of having it so that only players who played 20+ in that season get this bonus, simply because the workload in tracking this would be too great, sorry guys)
- if removed completely, its important to note, that the non-playoff teams would still get a bonus in the form of the Bottom 6(B6) Bonus. Plus, the beloved SC Bonus would still remain. Has this particular bonus rule become obsolete? (I hadnt thought it was until I typed out this message)