How my solitaire league works.

[dogwood30]

The Dogwood Miniature Football League....DMFL....Commissioner Mike Veliky

I was recently asked how I have completed almost 47 Super Bowl Tournaments with so many teams.

I started when I was about 10 years old. My Dad bought me the Packers vs Colts model 500 game for Christmas and I was hooked at an early age. There were not many teams back then so I was able to play alot. I even used to broadcast the games onto a reel to reel tape recorder. My Sister recently found an old reel and made a tape of it for me. Talk about reliving your childhood memories. I used to keep all my scores , standings , and Playoff records in this big notebook written in pencil. I soon had every team in home and away uniforms and moved up to the 620 boards. My best friend and I used to play so much we broke switches and pulled the wires loose many times. My friends Dad taught him how to solder the wires back on so we could fix our boards oulselves. As the NFC and AFC expanded and so did I. I played about 20-25 Super Bowls with my collection. When I was in high school I didn't play as much. A friend of mine accidently stepped on my 620 board and put a huge dent in it to the point where I threw it away. I packed up my teams in boxes and put them aside. I moved out on my own and forgot about my collection. When I finally went to dig them out I found out there was a major attic clean out at home and my entire collection of teams was lost. At this point I thaught electric football was history. About 10 years ago I was going through an old box of photos and at the bottom I found my big notebook with all my records in it. I was so excited I immediately put them on my computer. That weekend I went out and bought the Rams / Titans Super Bowl Game and was soon hooked AGAIN. Then I discovered that Miggle made all the teams and before long I had all the teams again. I soon bought a bigger board on eBay and my league was reborn. My next discovery was again on eBay when I saw some teams that were custom painted and had 2 color numbers on them. I fell in love with the buzzball figures and started collecting custom teams. I was able to sell my Miggle teams and started replacing them with the buzzball custom painted teams and I am still in the process. I'm sure there are MFCA members that have done teams for me. My last upgrade was buying a Watts board on eBay with a custom 49ers field painted on it. It had different shades of green grass and brown dirt to look just like Candlestick Park. It was ironic because the 49ers have been my most successful franchise over the years. I happen to be a Cowboy fan and I then discovered custom made field covers and bought a Cowboy cover and put it over the 49er field which I play on now. I gave you my league setup in anearlier post including all my expansion teams.

Here is how I do my tournaments with so many teams. This year I had 40 teams ( going to 48 next season ) 5 teams in each division. I start my grid by seeding the teams from the past seasons results. Each division winner and runner-up get 1st round byes I start with a play in round. The loser of last years play in round game is the visiting team. The home team is the 2nd round loser from the previous year who lost by the most points. They play the play in round to determin the #4 seed in each division. The #3 seed goes to the 2nd round loser from the previous year who lost by the least amount of points. Each division has a play in round game resulting in 8 play in games. After this round I am down to 32 teams. ROUND 2-Division playoffs #4 seed plays #1 seed and #3 plays #2 to determine who will play for the division title. This round gets me down to 16 teams. ROUND 3- Division Championship Round. The 4 division winners in each conference gets into the Super Bowl tournament. Up to this point I play all my games with a fastplay system that I have created which allows me to play games in just a few minutes. This system is very random so the league can't be dominated by the best based team each year and it gives my league great parity. Once a team make it to the field games its up for grabs. ROUND 4-Wild Card play in round- This is where I actually play the full games on my board.I now have 4 division champions in my brackets seeded 1 thru 4 but still need the #5 and #6 seeds the wild card teams. The 4 losing teams from each division title game get one more chance to make the post-season. These 4 teams playoff and the 2 winners advance as the 2 wild card teams in each conference. Round 5- Wild Card Weekend. Just like the NFL the #6 seed plays the #3 seed and #5 plays at #4 with the 2 winners moving to ROUND 6- Divisonal Playoffs -The 2 advancing teams from the wild card weekend are re seeded and the lower seed plays at the #1 seed while the higher seed plays at the #2 seed. The winners go to ROUND 7 Conference Championship Games with the 2 winners moving to ROUND 8- THE SUPER BOWL.

Next year when I go to 48 teams there will be 6 teams in each division so I will simply add 8 more play in round games totaling 16. After the play in round I will once again be down to 32 teams and will follow the same format as above.

I am in the process of working my entire solitaire playing style and rules plus the fastplay system into a package that may interest the solitaire league player. I am still refining things trying to make thigns even better so when I get it all together I will let you all know. I hope this thread was interesting and maybe even inspiring to the solitaire player. Expansion teams are fun and it's not impossible to have a 48 team league.

Mike V.

[eflfanatic]

Wow!!! Really looking forward to reading about the fastplay system.

[Norbert Revels]

Norbert Revels

[mark robin]

dang what a post. ive been off work a year in 4 more days, ive only completed about 6 games in that entire time...lol. heck, when i was working 45-60 hrs a week a few years ago, i would get in a game a week easily, my how things change.
great post, and keep us updated.

[RooMorgans]

Dude, that's hardcore. Nice work.

Your Packers and Texans are on their way early this week.

Roo

[Orleanian In Exile]

Hmm... Basically, a tournament season like Capanther's, only with a much larger field. Little wonder you'd need a fast-play system for the initial rounds.

[markee]

Here is how I work my league:

I have 21 teams in the league. As I finish a team (every 2 months or so) I add it to the league. I try to work in rounds as each team will get to play the other in the league. Each team in the league is available in home and away colors. Every player ,on all teams, have there own bases. That is a lot of bases but, it makes each player very unique. I have tweaked most of the bases with many from Norbert and a few from Jim Davis. New teams are based inbetween games. Note: My son will often join me in challenging one of my teams with one of his own...sometimes...

I Play my games on a Buzz Ball field with a Virginia Football League field cover done by Jerry McGhee.

In every game there is a coin toss with team captains on the field making the call.
each team gets 4 offensive drives per half.Field goals and extra points MUST go through the uprights. In fact, my son filled in the uprights with with paper noting the RED ZONE. It is easy to see as the ball must bounce off the upright net. Punts are automatically moved 40 yards down field. Two point conversions are permitted. tackles can be made anywhere on the base. Buzz Ball sticks can be and sometimes are used. Interceptions are called if the passed ball touches a pass or, in the case of the sticks, if the defender reaches the ball first. Penalties are not currently called as I feel that it would slow the game down too much.
That id about it....play on.

[capanther]

i use 16 teams and it takes 15 games to complete a tournament...i have found i can normally complete a tournament in about 2 months...thats about 1 game every 4 days on average.......sometimes i play more and sometimes i have a long layoff.......i think it has taken me about 6 or 7 years to complete what i have documented so far.....so that is only about 3 tournaments per year on average....( 45 games ) ...but, as i am getting older and i have retired from high school coaching and i get home around 3:45 every day so i can play more often now. ........here is how i play:

1) i have about 50 or 60 bases ( mostly widetops) total so at the start of each season i test all of them and the best 22 are used for that season.
2) after completing each game i switch the bases to the next 2 teams to play.
3) i play 4 ( 10 or 12 play quarters)
4) i determine run or pass before i set up either team, i basically run 2 different run formations ( 1 back or T formation) .
5) when i pass i use geno's g-force qb ( i love it)....i allow my qb to drop back 20 yards and can turn him 1 time ( the exact opposite direction he was in) , so by the time he gets back to the line he should have passed or he will run.......( if nothing is there i will simple throw it away like a real qb would do)
6) a pass can be completed on the fly or ground.( basically the old tudor rules)
7) if a team doesnt get a first down i punt, but i always punt out of bounds to prevent long returns)
8) alignment.....my line up goes like this...i set up the offense first and then i set up the defense...my defensive rule is that every offensive player must be covered head up.....so if i use a 1 back with 4 receivers...all 4 are covered.
9) as soon as a player has his base touched by a defensive player he is down.......my only exception is a guy with his back completely turned away from the ball carrier does not count ( i am not going to give a guy credit for a tackle if he is running away from the ball carrier)
10) i kick field goals and on a touchdown...a team can have an automatic 7 points or in the (4th quarter only) they can get 6 and go for a 2 point conversion.
11) onside kick can only be used in the 4th quarter.....on an onside kick...i place the ball directly on the 50 yard line...i then line up my teams on each 40....the first one to touch the ball gets it !
12) this has worked well for me and i would say my average score is 21-17 so it is normally a realistic game situation.

***** i am an old school coach and i love the running game.....to me, there is nothing more beautiful to see a jim taylor or jim brown hit a hole off tackle and run about 40 or 50 yards for a TD........that is PERTY.....hahaha

HTTP://CAPANTHER.TRIPOD.COM