Tag: Season 10

May 23, 2020May 23, 2020 by Chopkins

Season 10 Playoffs: Conference Finals Preview

After two weeks of postseason teams are beginning to see the finish line. But as we arrive at the Conference Finals, every match will be a tough challenge, and players will have to be at their absolute best if they hope to have a chance at the title. We’ve seen our share of upsets and we’ve seen the top players show why they’re the best. Now we will see who can continue to win and who will prove that they want it more than their opponents. Let’s breakdown each of the matchups you’ll see this weekend and talk about who has what it takes to bring home a victory for their franchise.

Foundation League

Orange Conference: Tyrants(2) vs Bears(4)

The Orange Conference finals are a tale of two stories. On one hand you have the Season 9 champions in the Tyrants. They managed to hold onto one player from last season and now find themselves on the road to a second championship. The other side of the matchup is the Bears team everyone has been talking about. The father and daughter duo made a splash in their first matchup with definitive 3-0 followed by a very wholesome post-match interview. In that interview, Cardinal made it clear he intends to see this story to a victorious finale, “I don’t see why we’re any worse than any of (the playoff) teams, and I think that we can go all the way with this team.” The Bears showed last week that they had the play to back up that statement. They dominated a 1st seeded Bulls team with tight rotations and impressive aerial plays by HyperFangHyena. But to win it all they first have to get through a Tyrants team that will be up to the task of battling the Bears. The duo of TheLouzer and Detto took on a very streaky Outlaws squad and won a crucial game five to take the series. The Tyrants seemed to absorb any pressure the Outlaws put on them and threw it right back on the counter-attack, often scoring multiple breakaway goals off of key saves. The Tyrants defense will be tough to break and so will the Bears determination.

Blue Conference: Knights(1) vs Hurricanes(2)

At the end of game two it looked as if the Hurricanes’ Achilles heel had been struck. The 2nd seeded team that looked so promising had begun to fall apart, losing 0-6 to a Blizzard team that had beaten them twice during the season in close 3-2 matches. And with Blizzard star Face scoring five unanswered goals, the Hurricanes seemed to be unraveling. Commentator and caster BigMacDan even stating in the post-game, “There is absolutely no way I see the Hurricanes taking this series anymore if the Blizzard keep this pace up.” And how did the Hurricanes respond? They turned the tables on the Blizzard in game three and for the next five minutes, FROGDOG and Bombin kept almost all of the possession with a single-minded drive towards the back wall of the Blizzard and didn’t allow a single shot on their net for the entirety of the game. The Blizzard would come back in form but the Hurricanes now knew they could weather their opponents and take the series. The Hurricanes will now move on to face the Knights who didn’t have to endure the same battle but won a comfortable 3-0 sweep. Kingkris32 peppered the express backboard for three straight games as Gabronies watched and waited for the Express to misplay the clear before collecting and scoring. It was a formula the Knights executed quite well. Now we will get to see the 1st and 2nd seed Blue conference teams battle it out to prove who it the best.

Academy League

Orange Conference: Flames(1) vs Outlaws (5)

By the second round of the playoffs teams are either falling apart under pressure or rising to the challenge. The Outlaws and Flames have both showed they are getting into their peak form when it matters most. Both teams showed trust in their partner on the backline. Both teams were patient and limited offensive double commits. Both teams took down tough opponents in 3-1 victories. For the Outlaws it was solid rational play and capitalizing on the mistakes of the Elite that won them the series. ITSLAPPY and PAV3K are beginning to show flashes of brilliant team plays. Perhaps none better than ITSLAPPY hunting for demos while PAV3K flicked the ball in to close out the series. On the Flames side it was a confident midfield defense that appeared to be the difference-maker. As the Flames pressure built, Bippers and DV2890 took turns holding the midfield line and simply waiting to collect the clear from the Wizards before mounting another offensive onslaught. They managed to pin the Wizards back more and more throughout the series until the pressure was too much for them. The team that wins the AL Orange conference will likely be the one that can maintain the trust and team play that these two pairs have built.

Blue Conference: Hurricanes(1) vs Hive(2)

The Hurricanes matching up against the Hive for the Conference Finals may have been picked by quite a few people but who will win this matchup is sure to be hotly debated. The Hurricanes proved in their sweep of the Puffins that despite being put in high-pressure situations, they’re most comfortable playing in the eye of the storm. They came back from two-goal deficits in the first two games and never looked panicked. Soop Feared showed patience and poise, taking the time to dribble players in late-game comebacks. The final game they fell behind late but scored with 19 seconds to take the game to overtime, where they won with another dribble play from Soop Feared. The Hive had a tougher time in their match against the Foxes as they traded high scoring games before winning in a definitive game 5. Black and DLEW19 continue to adapt to pressure from their opponents. After dropping games three and four, the Hive knew they needed to pick up their pace to return to form. DLEW said in the postmatch, “we’d rather overcommit and play fast than play too passive again.” That adjustment proved to be the answer as they took the last game and the series. Can this Hive squad continue to adapt and find an answer to the Hurricanes or will the Hurricanes roll through another team on their way to a final?

Champion League

Orange Conference: Pandas(1) vs Shadow(5)

The CL Orange Conference final is a matchup of two styles. Do you go with the team that has a clear role for each player, executing the same plays and solid rotation game after game? Or do you favor the team that follows whatever player has the hot hand (or hot car in this case)? The Pandas players Zach and Unforgiven seemed to have the right game plan for taking on an offensively aggressive Outlaws squad. Zach put up a solid defensive performance while finding his teammate, Unforgiven, in the backfield who then struck with fast counterattacks that shocked their opponents. Unforgiven managed to execute this game plan so well that they put up 14 goals in four games. The Shadow didn’t appear to have the defined roles that the Pandas had, but what they did have was a pair of players that pulled off highlight-worthy 1v1 plays time and time again. After a close game one, it was Euronate who stepped up and pulled off a hat trick in game two to pull ahead of the Dodgers. In game three, Lightning took the torch and showed off his dribble plays with a hat trick of his own to close the series out in a sweep. These two teams will both have an arsenal of weapons at their disposal but will the streaky play of the Shadow surpass their foes or will the game-plan of the Pandas successfully shut down the offense of their opponents?

Blue Conference: Wolves(1) vs Hurricanes (5)

In a matchup between two teams coming off 3-1 wins, we’ve seen that the Wolves and Hurricanes have come up against tough tests and both have proven their talents. For the Hurricanes they had to outpace a scrappy Aviators squad and establish corner pressure to force mistakes from their opponents. Goldentornado17 put in another solid offensive performance with nine goals on four games. The Wolves also came up against an opponent that had the ability to throw off top teams. The confidence from Clvn and Ripperr never faltered, however. It was the synergy from the Wolves that seemed to be too much for their Arctic division rivals as both players assisted on 10 of their 14 series goals. Ripperr, of course, also aided in the win with a few key highlight level plays including a stellar redirect off a long pass from Clvn. As these two teams fight for the Blue conference title it may come down to who can assert their dominance in the series and get to play their style of game.

Premier League

Orange Conference: Pirates (1) vs Outlaws (5)

The Outlaws have continued the strategy that made them successful in the regular season, put the ball toward the net at every opportunity. They swept the Spectre with their signature offensive pressure, putting 34 total shots on net compared to the Spectre’s 17. The Outlaws crashed the net time after time with a devastating one-two punch. Lotty Lettuce put in an MVP performance, taking difficult highlight level shots and placing them brilliantly. But the Outlaws offense will now have to face their white whale, the division rival that bested them twice this season. The undefeated Pirates looked as confident as ever in their first postseason game. The Wizards came in with attack after attack but were never able to set up camp offensively against the Pirates. It was the consistent hard clears from defense and quick transition speed of Tater and Taki that never allowed both Wizards to be on offense at once. The Pirates defense only allowed three goals in as many games. Will they continue to stifle the offense of the Outlaws, or will the Outlaws finally break the Pirates defense along with their winning streak?

Blue Conference: Blizzard (1) vs Knights (4)

When the season ends and the postseason begins the dynamics of strong teams can change. During the regular season, one strong player can’t guarantee you a run at the finals. In the Playoffs, however, a star player can make all the difference in a tough matchup. The Blizzard and Knights had just the right players last week to dominate their opponents. Comp scored 14 goals to take the Blizzard to a 3-1 victory over the Puffins. His speed to the ball and deft air dribbling quite literally lifted him over the competition. In a series that often went punch for punch and goal for goal, it was Comp who always seemed to have the last big play in the game. Jay proved once again to be the star player the Knights needed him to be. After getting shut down early in the series by the Aviators, Jay woke up in game three and put in four goals to win 5-1. From then on, it was the Jay show as he put on an incredible performance offensively and defensively with 11 goals and 13 saves on the series. In order to win the championship Prosperity2K and MapleSurrup will also need to continue their run of great play, but when the two teams meet this weekend you can expect to see a battle of star players looking to run up scores and pull off “play of the week” worthy goals.

Each team only has to win two more matches to take the title for their franchise. It’s going to be two more weekends full of action-packed excitement. Don’t miss a minute of it as the Conference Finals kick off on the MLE Network.

May 16, 2020May 16, 2020 by Chopkins

Season 10 Playoffs: Conference Semi-Final Previews

Only half of the original 42 teams survived opening weekend but more importantly, my playoff bracket didn’t survive. Upsets and close matches shattered my bracket rather than busted it. As we all collectively mourn the loss of my post-season picks, let’s look forward to all the exciting matchups that are scheduled for the second week of playoff action, including the first week of Foundation League playoffs.

Premier League Orange Conference

Pirates(1) vs. Wizards (6)

The number one seeded Pirates take the field against the wild card winning Wizards. If you still think the Pirates have an easy road to the final, you weren’t watching the stream this weekend as the Wizards went punch for punch with the Tyrants in the opening round. Smurf and JustTuck combined for a flurry of offensive pressure which ultimately won them a close game five upset. But can Wizards play the same high scoring offensive style against the number 1 seeded Pirates? This Pirates team has met and won against every challenge so far but the toughest challenge is to win the last game of the season.

Outlaws (5) vs Spectre (2)

The Outlaws vs Spectre is sure to be a knockdown drag-out fight in the premier league. The Outlaws players MattRochie and Lotty Lettuce took the sharks in four games after a five and a half minute overtime in game two. Ultimately the Outlaws took the series by putting on shot after shot while not giving the Sharks any time to possess the ball. The Spectre also took their series against the Bulls in four games. They won the first game 5-2 but lost the second 4-8. In games three and four they were finally able to settle down with WeTakeLs and Snip playing ball control to close out two low scoring games. Look for dribble plays to be on display in this battle two teams who prioritize ball possession to secure their wins.

Premier League Blue conference

Knights(4) vs. Aviators(6)

The Aviators have made it to the second round of playoffs untested due to an unfortunate NCP but make no mistake the players are ready for the next challenger. That next opponent will be the Knights who are looking to build off their win over the Eclipse. The Knights were slow to get going in the first round, dropping their first game before wing three close games(including two overtimes) to take the series. Both teams bring in players with highlight potential so look for Jay or Kilt to pull off the show-stopping plays and give their teams the edge late in the series.

Blizzard(1) vs. Puffins (7)

Maybe someone should inform the PL puffins that they’re the underdogs this postseason because the way they swept the Ducks last weekend you would think they were on cruise control. Opening the series with a smooth double touch from Cali and finishing with a play, the Puffins never once trailed in three games. Their next test will be the first seeded Blizzard who are eager to get in on the playoff action and show why they’re the team to beat. Lead scorer Mapplesurrup and his squad may should things more difficult for the Puffins.

CHAMPION LEAGUE Orange Conference

Pandas (1) vs. Outlaws (7)

A lot of upsets took fans by surprise this weekend. Maybe none more than the Outlaws win over the 2nd seeded Pirates. Not only did the Outlaws sweep their division rivals, but they managed to hold them to just three goals and zero assists. If they Outlaws can continue their streak of shutting down top offenses they have a good shot to build on their win. If the Pandas have anything to say about it, however, that playoff run will be short-lived. The first seeded Pandas are a balanced team with a stalwart defense that may be the perfect counter to the hot hand of the Outlaws.

Dodgers (6) vs. Shadow (5)

The upsets continue in the Orange conference with two teams that won close five-game series to move on in the postseason. Smalls and Furphy proved to be a defensive force for the Dodgers, absorbing 51 shots on the series and outscoring the Bulls 23 to 16. If the duo can come close to their impressive 62% shooting in the next series, they could be the giant killers of the CL. The Shadow had their hands full with a Comets team that was passing brilliantly but in the battle of the playing GMs, it was Euronate who proved to be the more clutch, with two epic game five saves to keep their title dreams alive. Both pairs look like their team chemistry is improving with every game. Look for this series to be a battle for momentum as each will be hoping to come out and dominate the series.

CHAMPION LEAGUE Blue conference

Puffins(7) vs Wolves (1)

The Puffins found a winning strategy last weekend by discovering that if you simply don’t let a team score, they can’t win. In a 3-1 series, the Blizzard put up a total of 6 goals, and 1 assist on 27 shots. Bazed and ArcaneLizard never gave the Blizzard a chance to get going offensively and they got an upset victory for their efforts. Now they face off against their division rivals and the number one seeded Wolves. Of course, the Wolves are the 1st seed for a reason. Their high scoring offense will be a whole other challenge for the Puffins. Can they repeat their strategy or will the Wolves get to play their game?

Aviators (6) vs Hurricanes (5)

The Aviators played a series that was closer than it’s 3-1 series record shows. The Ducks put up a fight in a tough division match but Artemis and RapidChampion managed to get into a solid rotational rhythm that kept them composed in the face KingDuff’s 19 shots on net. Once the Aviators pulled ahead in games 3 and 4 they were able to hold onto late leads and close out the series. The Hurricanes took their round one win in a definite fashion. It wasn’t just the sweep that made a statement but also the Game one goal where Goldentornado17 popped the ball toward the goal and proceeded to tackle C0P3X out of the way. That is the style with which the Hurricanes took the rest of the series. Now we will see if the Hurricanes can bully the Aviators or if the Aviators will continue to keep their cool on the way to a conference final.

ACADEMY LEAGUE Orange conference

Flames (1) vs Wizards (7)

The Flames come in as the number one seed. Something that would be more comforting if it weren’t for how many upsets there have been already in this playoffs. They will need to bring their best game against a Wizards squad that looks in very good form. Legit and TourneyEarnie seem to have found chemistry late in the season. That chemistry helped them to a 3-2 win over the Tyrants. But this Flames team appears up to the challenge as they enter the playoffs on a nine series win streak.

Outlaws(5) vs. Elite (6)

The Outlaws and Elite both put up 3-0 sweeps in the first round against higher-seeded opponents. Outlaws’ player ITSLAPPY pulled off a dominating offensive performance with 10 goals on 20 shots. For the Elite, it was Rebel who did all the scoring but notably, Fraud assisted in 5 of Rebel’s 9 goals while putting in none of their own. Will the teamwork of Elite give them another win or will the offensive duo out PAV3K and ITSLAPPY be too much for them.

ACADEMY LEAGUE Blue Conference

Hurricanes(1) vs. Puffins (6)

The AL Puffins not only shocked the league with their upset over the Express but seemed to shock the Express themselves during the match. They held the express team to just 17 shots in 4 games to take the series. This Academy League team seems to have continued the Puffins trend of cool confident wins in the postseason. But just like the rest of their franchise brethren they now have to face a number one seed for their efforts. That number one seed comes in the form of a lethal Hurricanes squad. This test may prove to snap the Puffins out of that confidence.

Hive(2) vs. Foxes (4)

Being the 2nd seed has proven dangerous in this year’s playoffs. Only two 2nd seeded teams have managed to dodge an upset. But the Hive survived a close five-game series with an impressive defensive effort and solid team play. Black and DLEW19 combined for 23 saves and 10 of their 18 goals were assisted. On the other side of the matchup, the Foxes denied the upset by swiftly sweeping their opponents. The Foxes seemed to never let the Jets get going offensively, allowing only ten shots in three games. Look for the Foxes to try to keep their possession offense going against the Hive. But the Hive may have the perfect defensive backline to counter that pressure.

FOUNDATION LEAGUE Orange conference

Bulls(1) vs. Bears (4)

The Bulls have the highest goal differential in the league and come in with the exciting emerging star player of Wonderwulf. As the number one seed, this Bulls team is expected to be the favorite in the playoffs. On the other side of this matchup, the hopes of the entire Bears franchise have landed on the Foundation League this season. And the story of the father-daughter duo in FL has spread throughout the league. Will the Bears story have a storybook ending or will the Bulls prove too daunting a foe?

Tyrants(2) vs Outlaws (3)

The firepower of Foundation League will be on full display in this match up. Both teams have players with excellent goals per game averages. Both teams finished their season by winning out their last three division games. But only one of these teams will get to continue their winning streak into the conference finals. One way or another this will be a tough match that we will likely see go the distance in a best of five series.

FOUNDATION LEAGUE BLUE CONFERENCE

Knights(1) vs. Express(4)

In a playoff season already riddled with upsets, the Express are looking to keep that train rolling (I’m trying to quit the habit, I promise). They find themselves staring across at the Knights who are heavy favorites in the matchup. The Express will be relying on early pressure to take the momentum away from their opponents. But Whyuacow may not be thrown off their game so easily as so far they look like a contender for league MVP. During this wild postseason, anything can happen and this matchup has the potential to be yet another shocking series.

Hurricanes(2) vs. Blizzard(3)

The Hurricanes edged out the Blizzard to take the division title and the second seed in the playoffs. During the season the Blizzard won both matchups against the Hurricanes in close 3-2 series. At the end of the season, this rivalry can only be settled with a best of five, winner goes home match. This is sure to be the game you can’t miss this weekend. Will Face put up another star performance for the Blizzard or will the team play and fast rotation of the Hurricanes dominate the pitch?

You can catch every Conference Semi-Final series on the MLE Network this Saturday and Sunday from 6pm ET.

May 16, 2020May 16, 2020 by Chopkins

Season 10 Playoffs: Foundation League Preview

The Foundation League is in its third season and even though the level of gameplay isn’t Grand Champ, the desire for a Championship is just as strong. Which teams will fall short and who will rise to the challenge? Who will make the glorious run and win themselves an MLE Championship? Where will I decide to include the single pun that I am allowed to use per my very detailed contract with MLE? To help you get geared up for another thrilling weekend of playoffs I’m back to break down the teams and tell you which players to watch out for as eighth Foundation League teams make their run for the title.

The Underdogs

Express (Blue Conference 4th seed)
With a 5-5 series record and a -14 goal differential, this Express team enters the postseason as the clear underdogs. But the nature of the Foundation League means that player turnover is likely and the introduction of new starter JoKEN could give the team new life in the playoffs. After the rank out of leading scorer Kenbennedy, The Terminator, who is averaging 1.3 saves a game, is likely the new star who will have to lead the team. Look for this defensive player to hold the backline as the Express aim to surprise a few FL front runners.

Bears (Orange Conference 4th seed)
Putting aside the stats, the thing the Bears really have going for them is a great storyline. In the FL draft, it was revealed that the Bears successfully drafted the first father-daughter duo in MLE. Cardinal and HyperFangHyena have since been building up both fans and wins with the help of their solid third in KaptainKillazz. HyperFangHyena does lead the team in scoring with 1.4 goals per game and has an impressive 51.04% shooting percentage over 35 games. But if you’re looking for an x-factor, the answer is in the family synergy being the reason this team could clutch out playoff wins.

In The Hunt

Blizzard (Blue Conference 3rd seed)
Some FL teams are the product of a season-long campaign of stalwart play. For teams like the Blizzard, it’s always about the next man up, as rank outs result in turnovers and new starters taking up the mantle. Face and ItsGoguts joined in the middle of the team’s campaign and have gelled nicely with Audacity to create a well-rounded team. But as this team continues to battle into the playoffs, look for Face to be the emerging star. They’ve already managed to rack up 39 goals over 20 games, proving to be an offensive cannon that can be the difference-maker in the postseason.

Outlaws (Orange Conference 3rd seed)
The first of the returning champion teams in the playoff hunt, the FL Outlaws boast the first-ever FL champions title. Like true Outlaws, this team is attempting to steal back the title and bragging rights for the best Foundation team in the league. The team is led by the well-rounded captain OuttaBoost who averages 1.7 goals a game and 1.8 saves per game. At 1.7 goals a game, Hoosier_Daddy23 will likely be the other half of the duo. Not only are the two players 2nd and 3rd in the league for scoring, but they both also have at least 50% shooting on the season. We don’t know if the title will return to the Outlaws this season, but we do know they have the weapons to challenge any FL team.

Hurricanes (Blue Conference 2nd seed)
When it comes time for playoffs, most MLE teams can be assessed by the star players that will show up to carry their team to a championship. But the Hurricanes have built their season around the three-headed hydra that is Stanless, Bomnin, and FROGDOG. With a 3.97, 4.46, and 4.25 MVPR respectively the Hurricanes roster has turned out to be one of the best teams top to bottom in FL. While this has served them well throughout the season, will their lack of a high scoring star be a hindrance to them come playoff time? Other teams will be leaning heavily on their best player to come in clutch. But the Foundation League title may very well fall to the team that remains the most consistent on offense and defense and for that, I would look to the Hurricanes.

The Favorites

Tyrants (Orange Conference 2nd seed)
The Tyrants have remained a front runner for this season’s championship while never being a frontrunner in their own division. That’s a tough hill for any team to climb but this season’s FL Tyrants have a little extra motivation to keep them going. They could be the first-ever Foundation League back to back champions. The Tyrants General Manager, Majik, is no doubt eager to see his team cement themselves as the best once again and has done a stellar job developing a new group of players to be just as lethal as last season’s champions. The only returning roster player, TheLouzer, has been far from a loser while putting up over 1.6 goals per game, making him 2nd in the league in total goals scored. That doesn’t mean that their defense will be lacking though, as the first overall saves leader in FL is none other than Detto.

Knights (Blue Conference 1st seed)
Score more goals seems to be the mantra of the FL Knights this season. While they’re 10th in the league for least goals allowed, they have scored a whopping 157 goals, which is the 2nd most in the league. This is owed to the high-powered duo of team captain Gabronies and Whyuacow. Whyuacow is currently the league leader in scoring followed closely by Gabronies in 4th. The team may lean on the more well-rounded assist leader, Kingkris32, to facilitate plays from the backfield in the playoffs, but if the strategy of all offense all the time got them the division title, don’t expect them to step off the gas in the playoffs.

Bulls (Orange Conference 1st seed)
If I hadn’t already used my one pun, I might write something here about the rest of the league chasing the Bulls instead of the Bulls chasing anyone. This Bulls team has been the frontrunner all season long but the playoffs are a different story and the Bulls of the early season look slightly different from the Bulls going into the playoffs. The team is led by Omnikron and DarthRedRaider who have both been key to all 9 of the series wins for the Bulls. Those looking at the roster may notice a missing piece as their star scorer, VuMa, has recently ranked out. But he has quickly been replaced by someone who may be a new breakout star in WonderWulf. WonderWulf has come on to the team and scored 25 goals in just 10 games. Whatever their roster, the Bulls have combined for a +74 goal differential this season. The next highest differential is +56. The ability to maintain a stalwart defense while putting on a flurry of offensive pressure is what makes the FL Bulls a strong favorite for the championship title.

The Foundation League playoffs are one round shorter than the rest of MLE so when all eight teams kick off this weekend they will only be three wins away from a championship title. Which of these up and coming players has what it takes to win three straight series and prove they are the best team of the Foundation League this season? You can find out by catching all the action this weekend of the MLE Network!

May 9, 2020May 9, 2020 by Chopkins

Season 10 Playoffs: Premier League Preview

It’s playoff time and in MLE that means the best of the best will be facing off in a do or die bracket to determine the Premier League champions. It’s like Clash of The Titans if the Titans all drove rocket-powered cars and knew how to do double taps. To break down the madness and get you hyped for the start of the postseason I’m going to brief you on each of the playoff teams and star players that you’ll get to watch this weekend.

The Underdogs

Bulls (Orange conference 7th seed)
In any sport, people know that it’s not about how you start the season, it’s about how you end it. This PL Bulls team was determined not to end it before the playoffs. With three division games left, they sat at 28-27 game record. Still in the playoff race, but looking on track to just miss out. They won all three remaining division games with a 10-5 game record to clinch the last wild card spot. This is a team that is getting hot right when they need to. They’re led by star player, Gumbachi, who not only put up the 2nd highest league save total with 104 but also ended 5th in goals scored with 89. This team may be the 7th seed, but they’re hungry for an upset in these playoffs and they have the talent to do it.

Puffins (Blue conference 7th seed)
A great writer once said, “A win fades away, but memes, memes are forever.” Okay, maybe that was me who said it. And okay, I didn’t so much say it as I put it in a Parks and Rec meme and gave it to the Puffins GM. But as a former Puffin, I stand by my statement. The Puffins have learned not only to dominate the MLE meme culture but also to feed off that hype and use it to win games. And that’s exactly how this Puffins team have found themselves in the last wild card spot. Sure, Grizz1y is 3rd overall in assists. Sure, Dog and Grizz1y are defensive stars with 2.1 and 2 saves per game respectively. Sure, team captain, Cali has averaged 2 goals per game. But I think the Puffins care less about stats and more about what meme they’re going to use to brag about their playoff wins. When your priorities are straight it’s easier to do what you need to do and get the win.

Wizards (Orange conference 6th seed)
There are four teams in this year’s PL playoffs with 7-7 series records. But only 1 of those teams comes in with a surprising +63 goal differential. The Wizards may have only figured out how to win series in the latter part of the season but they always know how to score goals. The Wizards enter the postseason 4th highest in total goals. Led by JustTuck who finished with an even 100 goals on the season. Their other likely starter, Smurf, also averages 2 goals per game as well as 2.45 saves per game. With a duo like that this team has the potential to shed the image that their series record shows and make a deep run in the playoffs.

Aviators (Blue conference 6th seed)
The Aviators are another team that needed some last week heroics to clinch their playoff spot. They seem to be counting on their star player, Kilt, on both ends of the pitch, averaging 2 goals per game, and 2.1 saves. Newcomer, Justify, has played in only four series but has put up an impressive 6.89 MVPR. They’ll have to prove in playoffs if that stat was earned against tough opponents. Aviators finish the season 9 and 5 but with a marginally positive goal differential of +1(yes 1 goal). They haven’t been dominant but they’ve done enough to earn a chance at the title. Now we just have to wait to see if they take that chance and run with it.

Sharks (Orange conference 4th seed)
Say what you will about the PL Sharks, but this squad is here to entertain. Sure they could have run away with the Tropic division but instead, they dropped 4 series in a row and came within a game of losing their top spot, all so they could clinch the division in the final week. I say that’s calculated. The team has had its struggles but that shouldn’t take away from the stellar season Mattybananas is having. With 81 goals over 35 games, he finishes 10th in goals scored this season. The Sharks come into the playoffs with a 7-7 series record and a -7 goal differential but as they’re the only playoff team coming from the Tropic division it’s up to them to prove how tough the division was by upsetting teams and making a run for the final.

In The Hunt

Eclipse (Blue conference 5th seed)
There’s a lot of Motion on this PL Eclipse team. (I get one pun per article as dictated by my contract.) I’m not talking about the fast rotations or the speed of the cars. I’m talking about Motion, the captain of the PL team who averaged 2.1 saves a game and 1.6 goals. The team is a defensive roster that seems primed for the kind of swift counterattacking that can surprise any team in the league. The other half of this defensive duo is Toby, who averaged 1.8 saves per game. The pair helped the full roster to place the team in 6th for the lowest number of goals allowed. In a league with so many high scoring stars, the Eclipse will try to make a run at the playoffs by not letting offenses get going. It may not be the most flashy strategy but it got them a 43-27 record in a tough storm division, so I’d count on it being effective in the postseason.

Outlaws (Orange conference 5th seed)
At the beginning of the season, Outlaws General Manager Stovvads called his team into a conference room and had a quote up on the whiteboard that read, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take -Wayne Gratzky -Stovvads” Okay, maybe I stole that story from The Office TV show but it seems possible considering the number of shots this team puts on net. Scoring leaders, Lotty Lettuce and MattRochie, have a combined 440 shots on the season, the most for any PL team duo. Placing third overall in scoring means that their strategy seems to be working. But is it enough to take down the other offensive heavy hitters come playoffs? I don’t know the answer to that but I do know that this Outlaws offense will be thrilling to watch in the playoffs.

Knights (Blue conference 4th seed)
So, with four weeks left, your team is 25-25 with a 4-6 series record. How do you make playoffs? Just win four straight and go 15-5 to finish the season, obviously. The Knight’s season-saving run is due, in no small part, to Jay who came in late and put up 62 goals in those four series and finished with the 2nd best MVPR in the league. The Knights now appear to have the star player to continue that run into the postseason. The rest of the team is stacked with solid talent but look for team captain MikeIsMyIke to be the other half of the duo. MikeIsMyIke leads the league in assists with 51, making him the perfect complement to the offensive canon of Jay.

Tyrants (Orange conference 3rd seed)
The Tyrants do not have anyone on the league leaderboard top 10 for goals, assists, or saves. There’s no runaway star and they don’t have the flash of a player like Taki or Deluxe. What the Tyrants do have is the ability to play any starter in their line up and win a series. The four starters in Snoopy, Majik, Moog, and Kaito have an average MVPR of 4.91. Their lowest scoring player still averages 1.5 goals per game. There’s not a weak link to be found on the Tyrants. How do you prepare for a team that could play anyone in the playoffs? A division winner without a known league star has all the makings of a dark-horse run for the Tyrants in these playoffs.

Foxes (Blue conference 3rd seed)
With two weeks to go in the Arctic Division it seemed like no one had a lock. The Foxes might have been favorites, then they dropped a series 1-4 to the Wolves in week 9. With one week left the Foxes found themselves in a three-way race. So what did they do? They called up Deluxe, their star scorer who put up 18 goals and 15 saves in one series to give them a 4-1 series win and clinch the division. Deluxe averages the 3rd highest MVPR (7.05) and the highest of anyone with a full season of series played. He’s dominant offensively and consistent defensively. He’s the kind of player that could put in an MVP performance and take the title away from some of the other heavy favorites. If you’re watching the Foxes in the playoffs look for Deluxe to be the difference maker and showstopper for the series.

The Favorites

Spectre (Orange conference 2nd seed)
The Spectre franchise currently has a Premier League player from Cuba, A Champion League player from Puerto Rico, and an Academy League player named AmericasF1nest. I’m sure there’s a joke in there but sadly I wasn’t able to find it in time for this article. The point is WeTakeLs is a Cuban MLE player and lead scorer on a stellar Spectre squad. No starting player has below a 4.8 MVPR and the team is captained by Assistant GM Blackwatch, who has put up an average of 1.9 goals per game. Yet, that still might not make him a starting pick, as that puts him in third for totals goals within his own team. From top to bottom the Spectre are putting up consistent numbers in goals saves and assists. They look like a team that plays well on both sides of the field and can start plays from anywhere.

Ducks (Blue conference 2nd seed)
Did you know the D in Ducks stands for Defense? That’s right, Ducks is an acronym. I’ll tell you what all the other letters stand for some other time. But this Ducks team has built a winning formula on solid defensive play. The team Averages 1.9 saves per game with their star defender Wockit Kah himself putting up 72 saves on the season. Also, in classic Ducks fashion, Wockit Kah wins the title of the best name in MLE, hands down. Because have you heard the casters call a series with Wockit Kah? It’s hilarious. Knitt rounds out the likely starting duo, leading the team with an impressive 71 goals on the season.

Blizzard (Blue conference 1st seed)
The right pick up can make or break a season. And if there can be a “best signing of the season” accolade we’d have to give it to the Blizzard who picked up Comp late in the season only for them to break an MLE record. Comp broke a record for the highest MVPR in a single series with 9.68. With that kind of dominant play in one series teams will have to be wary of the kind of run this Blizzard team can make in the playoffs. The team doesn’t just have one star player. Mage and Vandy have both proven to be top tier players but its leading scorer Maplesurrup, with over 2.4 goals per game, that will likely complete this dangerous duo.

Pirates (Orange conference 1st seed)
I must confess that I started sections of this article before the last week of the season. But when I got to the preview for the Pirates I paused. I’m not generally a superstitious person but when I saw that 13-0 series record I didn’t dare type the phrase “perfect regular season” before it happened. You just don’t jinx a team like that. But this Pirates roster came through with a truly remarkable feat this season. They made it close in the last series only winning 3-2 over the Bears. The rest of the season, however, was not as close. With a +145 goal differential, they finished 1st in both goals scored and least goals against. To not talk about Taki when talking about the Pirates would be an oversight. Taki put up 111 goals on the season, averaging 2.77 goals per game. They also finished in the top ten for assists and saves. Taki leads the race for MVP this season but what Taki and this Pirates team really want is a championship title. And with them having yet to lose a series, they seem to be the clear favorites.

There’s a lot on the line for every team in this bracket. We’ll see star players pulling off amazing shots. We’ll see an undefeated team trying to cement themselves as the best. We may even see a cinderella story emerge from a wild card team. But you can’t see any of these amazing stories play out unless you tune in this weekend to watch the start of the playoffs. The action begins from 6pm ET on mlesportsgg2 and from 7:30pm on mlesportsgg Saturday & Sunday!

May 9, 2020May 9, 2020 by Chopkins

Season 10 Playoffs: Champion League Preview

The Champions League playoffs are here and the playoff teams have been decided. They’ve battled it out for 10 weeks and 14 matches to determine the 14 teams worthy of competing for the title. But before you jump into the playoff matches and start spamming your favorite team name in the twitch chat I’m going to give you all the info you need to know on each playoff contender.

The Underdogs

Outlaws (Orange conference 7th seed)
The Champion League wild card was a nail biter this season. The Outlaws will no doubt be ecstatic that they snuck in on a close win. This 7-7 series team has had an up and down season but having a shot at a playoff run is not something they’re looking to throw away. Austinsanity could be key to an underdog run, with an average MVPR of 4.71. Theevilisback could be the other half of their playoff team as he’s proven to be well rounded, clocking 1.6 goals and 1.45 saves per game. We know that their playoff games will be close, but we don’t know yet if these players have enough to eke out ahead at the end of the series.

Puffins (Blue conference 7th seed)
Maybe the Puffins franchise likes to be the underdogs. Maybe they enjoy the sweat and nerves that their fans get watching them sneak in at the last moment. All three Puffins teams won their series in the final week to clinch a wild card spot. None of them had a more nailbiting season than this CL team. The team finished the season with an 8-6 series record, despite having a total goal differential of -1. The lack of positive goal record may be due to the teams’ lack of a defensive player. If the Puffins can get their leading scorer, Bazed, on a roll, they may not need a defensive stalwart. But having Bazed at 10th in scoring for the league means the team may need something more for a deep playoff run. The Puffins have managed to come in clutch in week 10 with every team. But will that trend continue into the postseason?

Dodgers (Orange conference 6th seed)
Yet another team that was able to clinch a last-minute spot in the playoffs, the Dodgers snapped a three-game losing streak to win 3-2 over the Tyrants and clinch the 6th seed. They locked in that spot with the offensive firepower of Jaytee and defensive clutch play of Furphy. With Jaytee ranking out right before the playoffs, who will Furphy take on their playoff run? They need a shooter to step up on the team and it could come from any of them. But with 82 saves on the season, expect the Dodgers to build their playoff run on Furphy holding the backline.

Aviators (Blue conference 6th seed)
When a franchise has a Champion League title in their history, as the Aviators do, you’re constantly expecting them to make a run back to the finals. When a team’s Captain is named RapidChampion it’s expected that they’ll put their money where their Gamertag is. RapidChampion has certainly put his team in contention with 1.97 goals per game. Finding a championship-winning formula requires two players, however, and the Aviators are looking at the other starters to help their star. The rest of the team all average under a 4.0 MVPR so they may need a surprise turnaround from one of the remaining three. Look for Rapid to be the star of the Aviators show as they try to get their first league title since season six.

Shadow (Orange conference 5th seed)
The last of the 7-7 teams to sneak into the playoffs, the Shadow takes the 5th wildcard seed with 38 game wins. Unlike the other wild card teams, this team is limping across the finish line with a two-series losing streak. This Shadow does have the tools to make a run despite their recent downturn. GM Euronate finished the season with a 4.85 MVPR and placed 3rd in the league for saves with 90. The other probable starter is Lightning who put up an impressive 4.59 MVPR with 58 goals and 53 saves on the season. On paper, this duo can make a run in the postseason, if they could just shake off their current form and turn their momentum around.

In The Hunt

Hurricanes (Blue conference 5th seed)
There’s a lot of chaos in the Champion League. The team 2nd in the league in scoring won’t be making playoffs. Another team will be making playoffs without a winning record. The Hurricanes are 10-4 with a +88 goal differential and that isn’t enough to clinch their division. Still, tough league races can often galvanize a team. And now that playoffs have arrived the Hurricanes want to prove that just because you’re a wild card, that doesn’t mean you’re not a heavy favorite. Their likely starters, Squanchy and Goldentornado17, certainly make a case with a 4.68 and 5.22 MVPR respectively. This Hurricanes team will look to make a grand finals run not only with a defense the was second in least goals allow but with a high powered offense that helped them put up that +88 goal differential on their opponents.

Express (Blue conference 4th seed)
The elephant in the room that is the CL playoffs is the Express getting into the postseason by way of two NCPs in the final five weeks. That doesn’t mean that this Express roster doesn’t deserve a shot and that’s just what Playing GM C0P3X will be out to prove come game time. C0P3X leads his team in goals with 57 and also holds down his teams’ defense. The rest of the team hasn’t put up truly inspiring numbers but as Gualbertos has shot 50% in just four series maybe this player just hasn’t had enough time to pad those stats. Now that they are in the playoffs, look for the Express to throw everything at their opponents to try and show us all why they’re the rightful owners of the Forge division title.

Comets (Orange conference 4th seed)
General Managers are leaders of their franchise. They’re there to set an example for their team, while also being managers for scheduling and rosters. In the case of GM Thunderbug, leading your team also means leading in scoring and saves. With 80 goals and 89 saves on the season, Thunderbug is setting the pace for the CL squad. The rest of the starting four have followed suit with solid season performances. Zeta and Snugglable finished with 4.42 and 4.74 MVPRS respectively, while TheLegend27 has turned in an average of 1.6 saves per game. At 11-3 it’s a team that knows how to win a series and with a 3 series win streak coming into the playoffs they intend to keep winning all the way to the CL title.

Ducks (Blue conference 3rd seed)
The CL Ducks have the worst overall defense of any of the playoff teams, allowing 234 goals on the season. But who needs defense when you have a player like KingDuff? KingDuff put up 98 goals on the season and shot 50% over 40 games, that’s a decent argument for offense over defense. Even more so when it wins you the division title. The Ducks also have a choice of three more offensive weapons in DudTheBomb, AwsomDixie, and ChaosSpike. ChaosSpike is the favorite to complete the team with an average of 1.7 goals per game. Whatever their line up, look for the Ducks to spend each of their 5 minutes racking up high scoring games.

Bulls (Orange conference 3rd seed)
Sporting the best win streak in the league, this Bulls team is heating up at just the right time. Every starter on the team has an MVPR over 4.0, proving that this roster has depth. The leader of this team and the likely player to look at for those highlight plays would be their captain, Chaser. Chaser has 65 goals and saves on the season as well as 28 assists. While Chaser isn’t exactly a league leader in any category, they’re enough of a team leader to captain any talented second into a deep playoff run for the Bulls.

Pirates (Orange conference 2nd seed)
I know three things about Jamaica. They have Usain Bolt, they have a bobsled team, and they have Crey2k. Crey2k, who has a 5.86 MVPR, who is the 5th leading scorer in the league with 84 goals, and who is 2000 times Crey (that’s a lot). The team also has a standout player in Jansen24 and a newcomer in Speedy. The wild card of the team is AGM Miller_Ball_22 who is well known in MLE and who I would say is secretly angling to take not only the championship but also the GM spot from Tater, but I also just found out he’s Canadian so he’s far too nice for that. Let’s hope this team can be aggressive enough to steal some games off the competition.

The Favorites

Blizzard (Blue conference 2nd seed)
Have you ever been caught in a Blizzard on the side of a mountain? I have and let me tell you, it can be terrifying. If the snow is heavy enough, and the wind is bad enough, you can’t see what’s going on five feet in front of you. That’s the way I feel when I try and analyze this Blizzard team. I don’t know what’s going on or where this team is getting wins. They’re 10-4. They have the fourth-best goals-against record in the league but fall below the middle of the pack in scoring. They have no leaderboard players to speak of but they have Hiimly and Bledsoe. Bledsoe averages 1.56 goals per game and Hiimly averages 1.65 saves. Those don’t seem like league-leading stats but it’s gotten them the second-best record in the Champion League. So maybe the secret is that’s all you need. There’s a lot of chaos on the pitch in a Champ League game and, in that chaos, this Blizzard squad is usually ahead at the end of that five minutes. Maybe the other teams just can’t see through the Blizzard.

Pandas (Orange conference 1st seed)
The Pandas have won their division, not by being the most flashy team, or the highest scoring, but by being solid on defense and closing out series. They don’t have a single player in the top ten for scoring but they do have an average MVPR of 4.68 and, more importantly, a 12 and 2 series record. The Pandas have won a good amount of these series due to defensive stand out player, Zach, who has a league-high 101 saves. With play coming from the defense first, look for the Pandas to survive the offenses of most teams and win games off smartly timed plays and counter-attacks.

Wolves (Blue conference 1st seed)
Sabres starters Adi and A1Andyx played the Wolves in week 8. Puffins starters Bazed and ArcaneLizard played the Wolves in week 14. I mention those names while talking about the Wolves because if I was any other CL team I would want to figure out what those players did to beat this dominant Wolves squad. Because no other teams seem to have an answer to the Wolves offense. The Wolves have 275 goals in one season. A goal differential of +147, which is higher than the total goals of one CL team. I’m not typically a salty player but if I had to play against the CL Wolves, you can bet I’d be screaming “oh come on, they gotta be hacking!” into my coms because this team is unbelievably ahead of the pack (I get one pun per article, per my contract). All of their players boast amazing stats including their star scorer, Ripperr, who is averaging 2.5 goals per game. But the only real stat you need is this, they’ve won 56 games this season. This season of Champion League play has been a season of chaos so I’d never say the Wolves are a lock. But what I am saying is that if I was a betting man. . . well, you know the rest.

There are 14 teams in the Champion League playoffs this season but only one can walk away with the title. Who will break through this tough bracket to prove they are better than the rest? Will it be the dominant favorites or a surprise underdog? Will leading scorers prove why they’re the best or will an unknown step up to be the playoff MVP? You can find out the answers to all these questions and more when you tune into the MLE Network this weekend! The action starts from 6pm ET on mlesportsgg2 and from 7:30pm on mlesportsgg Saturday & Sunday!

May 9, 2020May 9, 2020 by Chopkins

Season 10 Playoffs: Academy League Preview

It’s everyone’s favorite part of the season once again. The dust has settled on the regular season and the best teams will be battling it out for the title of Season 10 Academy League Champions. With the adjustment of salaries for this season of MLE, the Academy League will now feature Champion ranked players among the rosters fighting for the AL title. This change has not only risen the style of play but the competition among teams that are hungry to win it all. To help you get excited for the MLE Playoffs, I’m here to break down the teams and tell you why each team has a shot at the final.

The Underdogs

Wizards (Orange Conference 7th seed)
A late-season change can make or break your team come playoff time. In the case of the Wizards, all eyes were on the recent pick-up, Legit in week 10. Before ranking out, Shult was a powerful offensive force for the Wizards with over 2 goals per game and also served as an outstanding facilitator showing off an impressive .8 assists per game. Mario_RL, TourneyEarnie, and Krihg have all been dependable for contributing to the Wizard’s winning record. But they needed help from Legit to get the 4-1 win over the Demo and clinch a playoff spot. Now GM LilRock has to decide if he will ride the hot hand of Legit and TourneyEarnie or look to one of the other starters to step up and pull off an upset on what the Wizards are hoping will be a cinderella run at the title.

Lightning (Blue Conference 7th seed)
The Lightning were tested in their last three weeks of division play but when they needed it most they managed to pull together a 4-1 win during week 10 to clinch a wild card spot. The team has had an up and down season to get into the playoffs. They’re the only playoff team with a negative goal differential. But with an 8-6 series record, they’ve managed to give themselves an outside chance at a playoff run. To make that run they’ll likely lean on DC9708, who leads the teams in scoring and defense. DC averages 1.4 goals per game and 1.8 saves. Those are impressive numbers but are they good enough for championship MVP?

Puffins (Blue Conference 6th seed)
Teamwork makes the dream work in the AL Puffins squad. That’s the mantra that team captain AubreyE has led this squad while putting up a league-high 42 assists. The rest of the team has followed suit and ElCuchinero Cuh also placed 6th in the league for assist with 32. This style of play no doubt helped them score a shocking sweep over the Wolves in week 10 to snag their wild card spot and clinch the 6th seed in the playoffs. But if the Puffins want to continue a run of upsets, they’ll have to turn to GM and leading scorer B1 to stay on track of averaging at least 2.1 goals per game.

In The Hunt

Elite (Orange Conference 6th seed)
The Elite squad seems to be building up steam as they head into the playoffs. Their first few weeks were rocky, getting off to a 4-4 start. But they finished the season on a six-series win streak, capping it off with a statement 5-0 win against their division rival, the Bulls, to lock in a wildcard spot. A +32 goal differential isn’t as convincing a number when compared to some of the AL favorites. But their star players Rebel and Frawd have both ended the regular season with an average MVPR of 4.57. With the current form of this team, it doesn’t seem right to call them underdogs. Can they continue to show they’ve shed all memories of their shaky start and keep this streak going all the way to the finals?

Jets (Blue Conference 5th seed)
The Jets are another team that has been helped into the playoffs by a late-season pickup. The new starter, Sangy, has put up 16 goals over 10 games and helped his team to a 5-0 in the last week to clinch a wild card spot. The newcomer will be tested in the playoffs, however, as they face tougher opponents and stingier defenses. None of the remaining starters have an MVPR over a 4.0 so they’ll be looking for someone to step up if they’re going upset opponents. But the good news is for as much as the Jets look like the underdogs, they have found a way to win series.

Outlaws (Orange Conference 5th seed)
The Outlaws lost a tiebreaker for the division title. That alone doesn’t look bad until you see that they lost it by getting 5-0ed by their division rivals and eventual winners, the Rhinos. But the Outlaws still have weapons that could help them bounce back in the wild card round. ITSLAPPY is third in the league in saves, leading a defensive-minded team. The other half of the likely duo is team captain PAV3K, who averages 1.57 goals per game. The Outlaws are looking to get back to the finals after winning the AL title in season eight. The Outlaws GM, Stovvads, knows that if they want to get back to the title game they need both defense and offense to get them there.

Comets (Orange Conference 4th seed)
It was a close race for the Mystic division title this season. The Comets were able to scrape out a win thanks to having the 5th highest-scoring offense. To say that MattyIce2110 is their star player might still be an understatement. Having the number one scorer in AL with 110 goals in 40 games is enough to make any opponent afraid of playing the Comets. Add to that he has 7th highest number of saves and you have the makings of a league MVP frontrunner. With RWB being the AGM as well as an Academy League starter, it’s unclear if he will play. But whoever ends up being the other starter in the duo will have a very important job, get the ball to Matty-Ice2110.

Foxes (Blue Conference 4th seed)
Team turnover in the league is natural throughout a season. Often a star player leaving can cause a slide at the end of the season. But the Foxes have managed to hang on to the division spot thanks to strong leadership and good scouting. Tyler remains their star player with the most experience and, at a 4.10 MVPR, is a well-rounded player who could be key to winning in the postseason. The only question is, who will the Foxes choose to help Tyler make a run? With Khaos only playing a single series but putting up 10 goals in 5 games, he may be the secret weapon the Foxes need.

Rhinos (Orange Conference 3rd seed)
There are two types of stats. There’s putting up a lot of saves because your team is constantly on defense, and there’s putting up a lot of saves because your defense is a brick wall. I won’t oversell you on the Rhinos and say they’re a brick wall. But the Rhinos have put up impressive defensive numbers as a team and that team defense has resulted in the lowest goals allowed in the league. The team averages 1.27 saves per game with team captain IMichael putting up 55 saves and 76 goals on the season. With IMichael, the team has scoring potential, but it’s clear that the Rhinos start their plays from a strong backfield.

Express (Blue Conference 3rd seed)
Is this a good time to say that I like the Express? I like their star scorer, CommanderSushi1. I like their GM, C0P3X. I really like their hype videos. What I don’t like is their series record in AL this season. They somehow managed to win their division with 7 series losses. It’s a team that appears on paper to be able to win matches but has struggled to close it out in games. Still, with Sobes tied for 4th in the league for assists at 34 and CommanderSushi being second in league MVPR with 6.01, this team has the tools to win. They just have to show they can close out a best-of series when it counts.

The Favorites

Hive (Blue Conference 2nd seed)
There’s a lot of buzz around this Academy League Hive roster (contractually, I get one pun per article). But when a team has two players in the top 15 in goals and a top 10 player in both saves and assists it seems appropriate. This team is top-down full of well-rounded players that could pop off in playoffs. With DLEW19 as a GM and Academy starter, he has put together a team that is one of the favorites to take home a championship. And with star defender Black putting up 1.9 saves per game, they have a solid duo to take on any team.

Tyrants (Orange Conference 2nd seed)
Let’s just run down a checklist for the Tyrants real quick. Top two scoring team in the league? Check. Three players with over 4.9 MVPR? Check. An English player? Check. An Irish player? Check. A player with food in their name? Check. That’s a solid checklist for a team making the run for an AL title Gogurt is third in the league in assists with 39. If Gogurt is the playmaker, then GameStrike208 is the shooter. Averaging 2.1 goals a game, GameStrike208 has the accuracy to put in the passes that Gogurt feeds. That’s a formula for a championship-winning duo.

Hurricanes (Blue Conference 1st seed)
The Hurricanes seem to be a lot like their Blue Conference companions, the Hive. They both have a stacked group of well-rounded players. They both put up solid 50+ goal differentials during the season. They both start with H. But what the Hurricanes have that the Hive doesn’t is Soop Feared. Soop has the second-most goals in the league with 88. The Hurricanes also boast a stalwart defense with Soop Feared and Krosis averaging 1.7 and 1.8 saves per game respectively. A star offensive player and a good defense are enough to help you win against any opponent. It’s a combination that could carry them all the way to the title game.

Flames (Orange Conference 1st Seed)
It’s a tough road to be the top team in the league. It’s even tougher to go all the way through the playoffs and win a championship. If you’re going to do it, it helps if you’ve done it before. The Flames are looking for their second AL championship in a row and it looks like they have just the team to do it. They’re the highest-scoring team in the league, finishing the regular season with 251 goals. Bippers and Vague are the likely pairing to take the championship. Bippers finished 2nd in assists with 41. Vague leads his team in scoring with 69 goals over 35 games. The one-two punch of these two players has helped the team finish with a nine-game winning streak. That’s a lot of momentum that this team could use to carry them to a 2nd consecutive AL championship.

The Academy League playoffs are sure to be a wild ride. Will we see an underdog make a shocking run to the grand finals? Will there be a two-time champion franchise in the Academy League? Will we see a dark horse player make an incredible run and take the title? Whatever happens, it’s going to be an event you can’t miss. Be sure to tune into the MLE Network this weekend! The action starts from 6pm ET on mlesportsgg2 and from 7:30pm on mlesportsgg Saturday & Sunday!

May 4, 2020May 4, 2020 by TheGamingBear

Inside MLE: April Monthly Insight

Welcome to the latest instalment of MLE Monthly Insight; an in-depth look behind the scenes at the different areas of MLE. In these articles we will look to give you, the community a peep behind the scenes, to see what’s happening and potentially what’s coming. With playoffs literally just around the corner it’s been a busy time behind the scenes so what’s been going on? Let’s find out…

Community

With franchise logo reveals now well underway, there were two community surveys published to gauge community reaction to 10 of the revealed logos. We received a decent number of responses to both surveys, though the more feedback we get the better perspective we have of community opinion. Generally the consensus on the logos revealed so far has been positive, with a few caveats, which we will touch upon.

So how were the last 10 logos revealed received?

From the infographic there’s clearly one “anomaly” in comparison to the rest of the logos. The Spectre, Spartans and Bulls logos were all well received, with strong positive like to dislike ratios. In particular the Spartans, which no one ranked below 3. The only main criticism of the Spartans logo was the “mane”, which some people felt went too far around the helmet. The Bulls logo received a fair amount of praise for its shading and use of colours but there was some uncertainty regarding the “white circle backdrop”. The Spectre logo was commended for its design and use of colours though there were some who felt a different design would have suited the franchise more.

The one “anomaly” in the pack was the Flames logo. Before the logo was revealed we had a hunch that the logo may divide opinion due to it’s relatively minimalistic nature. It appears from the feedback that the simplicity of the logo was the main criticism, with lack of shading and detail cited. It’s clear the logo didn’t meet a number of people’s expectations and we are reviewing the possibility of changes.

The Eclipse, Hawks, Hive and Wizards also had their logos revealed this past month, let’s see what the community had to say about them?

As with the previous four logos the reception was generally positive. The Hawks logo was complimented for its design and detail with people stating the Hawk looked fierce and aggressive. One of the main points of contention raised was the general size/proportion of the logo due to its width. The Wizards logo, with a like to dislike ratio of 7.6 to 1, was praised for its general design and its “relatability” to the franchise. A few people felt the secondary colour of the franchise, yellow, could have been incorporated more into the logo. The Hive divided opinion somewhat, with the design being the focal point for divide in opinion. A number of people liked the angular design and sharp edges but there was some criticism of the use of red in the logo. Lastly the Eclipse is one that has split opinion right down the middle with a 1-1 like to dislike ratio. Majority of people felt the colour scheme gave the logo a clean and bold look. The main issue a number of people had was with association and relatability. A portion of people felt the logo didn’t symbolise what they expect when thinking of Eclipse.

Lastly the Sabres and Express also received new logos…

The Express received the honour of joining the Spartans in receiving no “dislikes” (i.e. a rating of 1 or 2). The main compliments of the logo were the level detail of the use of colours. There was a proportion of people who felt the steam wasn’t necessary or could be reduced but there were no common complaints regarding the logo. The Sabres was also generally well received, with people liking the general design however there was a common theme regarding certain changes such as incorporating white fur to increase association with Sabretooth tigers. The nose was also a contentious point of the design, with a proportion of people feeling it didn’t look right.

Overall the feedback to logos has been generally positive so far. We will discuss the design of each logo a little bit more in-depth in the media section. As many in the community will be aware after recent discussions and a community poll, we have decided to change tact in terms of revealing logos. We had been revealing a few each week on stream. However with playoffs starting next week (9th May) there was a desire, especially from a Broadcast perspective, to have all the franchise logos ready to use come the start of the playoffs. With this in mind we will be broadcasting a special reveal stream this Friday (time tbc) on the MLE Network.

Of course the Community the team has been busy elsewhere. Admissions continue to run smoothly and the team are gearing up for the inevitable increase in applications that come with the playoffs. Below are admissions stats for the month of April. Big GGs to the admissions team for bringing in fresh meat to the community!

Recently, the Events team has still been attempting to rebuild and improve event player numbers. The team are planning on utilizing the off-season survey to hear community suggestions on the future of MLE Events. Two events are currently being planned for the playoffs. The first is another Crew Battles event and we hope to put on a Call of Duty Warzone competition event. More info on these will be released soon. The team are confident that with the feedback from the community on this seasons off-season survey that they can bring enjoyable events for everyone.

The Power Rankings Committee, with the assistance of a couple of community members, are working on a community feature to be run during the playoffs. The feature is hoped to bring an extra level of interest and engagement into every playoff series. More details will be released this week once the idea has been finalised.

LEAGUE OPERATIONS

It’s been largely business as usual for League Operations this past month, ensuring things run smoothly and rules around league play are enforced appropriately. Focus obviously has now turned to playoffs and ensuring everything is set from a League Operations perspective. The League Ops team have compiled a Playoff document that will provide useful information for players and teams. This will be released within the next day.

BROADCAST

It’s been exciting times in the Broadcast department. As the team start to get pumped up for the playoffs, there have been several improvements to Broadcast operations and output. Behind the scenes we have recently invested in VMIX. VMIX allows for greater flexibility and efficiency when it comes to running broadcasts and will allow us to take our broadcasts to new heights. This investment wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our great community!

On screen you will hopefully have been seeing some of the improvements the team have been working on. One in particular we are very happy with is the implementation of player stats during series. See the clip below from the Blizzard vs Hurricanes Foundation League series to see it in action!

The Broadcast team are continually working to implement extra features that improve the quality and presentation of streams. There’s lots more in-store for broadcasts for the future! The team feel there have great strides made this season and there are some “massive projects” in the works for next season.

In the nearer future Broadcast are working with Media team to ensure all franchise logos are incorporated into assets for the playoffs. Don’t forget we will have a special stream this Friday showing off the remaining logos yet to be revealed!

We hope these improvements will create greater engagement with streams and in tandem, increase viewing figures. There was a small increase in viewing figures during April compared to previous months. We hit a new peak for maximum viewers for the season and the average number of viewers for the month was up on the seasonal average.

*Broadcast viewing and revenue stats for April & Season 10. Viewing figures do not take into account draft shows, revenue stats taken from 1st January.*

Those figures don’t take into account the week 10 viewing figures, which saw a strong increase in viewing figures, with a new peak viewership achieved of 225 and an average viewing figures of well above 100 for the weekend. These figures also don’t take into account those who tuned into mlesportsgg2 over the weekend. Broadcast hope to utilise mlesportsgg2 much more frequently next season. We would like to take this moment to thank everyone for their support by tuning into streams, the support has been amazing!

Lastly here’s a look at some of the scheduling distribution stats. These stats include week 10 streams. All franchises were broadcasted at least once, with 27 out of the 32 franchises broadcast at least 3 times during the season. In total, 70.31% of teams were broadcast this season. We are relatively happy with the spread over the course of the season but realise there are a few gaps. We are looking to make significant changes to scheduling and series distribution for next season to allow for a more “even spread”.

*Broadcast scheduling distribution for season 10.*

And lastly, while Broadcast is focused on providing the best experience possible during the playoffs, the wheels are already in motion for Season 11. The team are always on the look out for new talent and support. If you fancy our hand at casting or broadcasting or perhaps supporting the team behind the scenes, feel free to reach out to one of the Broadcast “heads” about getting involved. The team are committed to supporting and developing talent, so don’t worry if you haven’t had much experience.

MEDIA

With the regular season drawing to conclusion the media team have been concentrating majority of their effort on playoff assets. We are looking to make this Seasons playoffs the “best looking” yet and a number of assets are currently in production that will be revealed on streams, website, social media, etc. over the course of the playoffs. To wet your appetites and provide a sneak peek, check the tab below here for a preview of “Road to Champion Series” graphic. These graphics will show each team in the playoffs “route” to the playoffs… and maybe Championship Series!

Road to Championship Series graphic

As promised, let’s take a deeper dive into the recently revealed franchise logos mentioned earlier. Our objective with the franchise logos was for a relatively clean style that erred more to a relative simplistic but focused look. One that would give each franchise a clear and unique image but one that fit in with the overall presentation of MLE.

In la st mo nths insight we went into some detail regards Spectre and Flames logo. Our own opinions and thoughts regarding Spectre logo have not changed and the feedback from the survey cemented those thoughts. The Flames however has seen a fair amount of discussion since the release and reception of the feedback from surveys. While we generally don’t want to make any drastic changes to many if any of the logos revealed we are not wholly opposed to changes if we feel necessary. Based on the feedback of the Flames logo we are looking into possible changes, however at this moment there is nothing concrete to announce.

The Spartans logo was pretty much an instantaneous hit upon first reveal. The design we felt while immediately obvious, was strong and bold. The logo did undergo one small alteration before being finalised to the logo that was revealed to the community. In the first draft of the logo the mane had a white “tip” that curved around part of top of the main. We felt this detail wasn’t necessary and also the extra colour didn’t fit with the overall design of the logo.

The Bulls logo was one logo that actually underwent a major redesign. The first draft of the logo was a “head on shot” of a Bulls head. While the logo wasn’t bad it was generally perceived to be not in keeping with our design and presentation objectives and requirements. One of the main criticisms was it felt a bit generic and aped a “Texan” aesthetic. The designer went back to the drawing board and came up with the current design, which met our expectations. One aspect we really like and think is key a component of the new logo is the sense of motion/charging, making it more dynamic than the previous design.

Bulls logo change

The Hawks logo underwent a few changes from its first draft. Those changes being the inclusion of white (the white eyes in the first draft are actually transparent) and the double outline. We felt the outline and the inclusion of white gave the logo more pop, helping to define its features such as the feathers and talons. These changes we felt improved the logo considerably. There were some concerns on the size, particularly the width of the logo however we feel it can be incorporated into MLE. This logo is one that has grown on TheGamingBear (President of MLE) considerably over time, “fun fact” for you there!

Hawks logo changes

Despite the Eclipse logo receiving mixed feedback, upon being revealed by the designer it was well received. We particularly liked the themes and feel of an Eclipse were present in the logo without being too obvious. While we know the design has split opinion in the community we feel over time a number of people will become more accustomed to it. We expect this to happen with a few of the logos. As they start to be incorporated into the league people will start to associate and relate them to the franchises over time.

The Wizards logo didn’t undergo much change from first draft to final design, with the only change being made in the beard department. The first draft had more “curly” elements to it, which was something we felt didn’t quite look right and the beard was made much smoother and fuller.

Wizards logo changes

The Hive logo made an instant impression on us when first shown by the designer. We felt the design was bold and striking. One element we particularly liked about the Hive logo was the somewhat “honeycomb” inspired outline. There wasn’t really anything we felt needed changing with the Hive logo so the design that was revealed was in fact the first iteration of the design shown to us.

The Sabres logo didn’t undergo any revisions from its first draft. There were some concerns regarding the nose however we felt it gave a “snarling”, fierce look to the logo.

The Express logo did undergo a few changes from its first draft. We felt the first draft provided a good foundation to develop the logo a bit further. We felt the inclusion of steam gave the logo more depth and identity, whilst changing the outline colour gave the logo more definition. Lastly we felt the train element of the logo was a bit too “wide and short” and the shape was adjusted to it’s final design.

Express logo changes

MARKETING

In the Marketing department, work has been ongoing to improve promotion on Social Media. It’s likely we will be looking for additional support in this area over the playoffs. Keep your eyes peeled for an announcement.

We will be looking to reinvest some of the revenue generated from different streams (merch, Twitch, etc.) into advertising and promotion going forward, as we feel it will help increase the exposure of MLE.

With the upcoming reveal of the remaining franchise logos, preparation is well underway to incorporate all the franchise logos on the store. All being well products will be available soon after the reveals. We know there has been a continuous interest in jerseys and this is something we are continuing to explore. It’s important we find the right supplier and distributor for such a product therefore it will likely take sometime before we come to a decision, most likely at least a few months. We can’t give any definitive time frames but we are committed to making it happen.

SPONSORSHIP

Not too much to report from a Sponsorship perspective, the team are settling under new guidance from Mobgaz. Emphasis right now is on reaching out to potential sponsors whilst maintaining existing sponsorship relationships. Don’t forget you can get free shipping on any order of BAWLS Guarana by using the promo code “MLE”. Perfect for some refreshment during the playoffs!

We had 3 community PowerA giveaways last month! Each lucky winner the recipient of a Spectra Enhanced Wired controller courtesy of our friends at PowerA. Check out the stats from each giveaway below!

WEBSITE

Over the past month the development team has been working closely with our broadcasting team to brighten up the scoreboard. By using the endpoints available from the website, we can pull in franchise and player data directly into the broadcast. SimpleAOB has been working on a robust control-board application for our casters. The team has also been working on a “Playoffs landing page”. Stay tuned for an announcement later this week. Looking further down the road, the team plan to add player’s salary, rank and other data to each profile.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

April saw a large amount of investment into MLE, most notably the final payments for franchise logos as well as a sizeable investment for broadcast. We are committed to ensuring revenue generated through Twitch, Patreon and merch is reinvested back into the league that improves the quality of our output and also benefits the community as a whole. Now that franchise logos are complete we can focus on other areas such as broadcast, where we can reinvest revenue. The infographic below shows the distribution of revenue reinvested for the season so far.

And that concludes the Monthly Insight for April! It’s been a busy month behind the scenes. We hope you have enjoyed this insight behind the scenes. We strive to make them as informative and interesting as possible. If there is anything you would like to see or hear about please feel free to send your suggestions via the usual formats.

As we enter the Playoffs and concluding weeks of the Season, the excitement grows and we can’t wait to finish the season with a bang! There’s lots in store and we wish all those competing in the playoffs the best of luck. And to those teams and players that didn’t make it we hope you enjoyed the season regardless and are itching for Season 11 to come around. So folks, fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride! It’s destination Season 10 Playoffs!

Thanks for reading,
from everyone at Minor League Esports

April 6, 2020May 8, 2021 by TheGamingBear

Inside MLE: March Monthly Insight

Community

There’s been a fair bit going down on in Community Town this past month. No doubt many of you will have seen some of the surveys going out including the “sentiment survey” and the recent logo survey. Thank you to all those people that have responded to either or both of the surveys. The feedback provided has been very insightful and is helping to structure some of our plans and and shaping our internal discussions.

The sentiment survey has given us some very useful feedback and highlighted areas where we can make improvements. The survey did highlight some concerns, criticisms of the communication regarding logos, which we believe was largely based on communication early on in the process (Season 8 and fair portion of Season 9). We agree communication could have been better during that period but since then we have made continual improvements, especially since the release of the “logo limbo” insight article posted August, 2019.

Segueing into the logo survey, we received a good level response. We will be looking to publish survey for each “batch” of logos revealed. This gives the community a better chance to digest each logo and provide clearer feedback for us. We will “talk” a bit more about the design elements of logos later on in this article under the media section but we wanted to take this opportunity to share general consensus so far.

The general consensus based on the feedback has been generally positive with some great feedback been provided on not only our communication and the logos process but on the logos themselves. We’ve seen a fair amount of conflicting opinions this past week since 6 of the franchise logos were revealed. The infographic below gives an overall summary of general consensus on the first 4 logos revealed, which formed the bulk of the survey.

Ratings for each logo from the survey so far. Like-dislike ratio based on ratings of 1 & 2 being dislike and 4 & 5 being like. Ratings of 3rd April.

Looking into the feedback at more detail for each logo revealed some common themes. For the Aviators logo, the community generally liked the simplicity of the logo in particular the clean lines & “wings” element of the logo. A proportion of people were unsure of the A/chevron and a few people were hoping the logo would incorporate a plane or pilot in some form.

The Blizzard logo was the most divisive. People generally liked the level of detail and the colours of logo but the biggest area of contention was with the use of a Yeti for the logo, with a noticeable proportion of people saying they didn’t really associate the image of a Yeti with the franchise.

The Comets logo has received a positive reception with most people liking the simplicity and bright colours of the logo. One notable criticism made was the use of the letter c being used to represent a comet itself.

Lastly the Demolition was the best received out of the 4. People generally agreed the style and design suited the franchise, stating the logo gave the franchise character. The main criticism of the logo is the colour scheme itself.

So that’s a summary of the voting so far. A big thank you to everyone who provided feedback. But what does this feedback mean going forward? Well it’s unlikely to have any immediate and direct changes. While we know there have been contrasting opinions on the logos, some more than others, the general consensus appears to be positive, which we are happy to report. Of course this doesn’t mean these logos can’t or won’t change over time but for the immediate future we want to give them, and those still to be released, time to embed into MLE. As we saw during the MLD era logos did develop and evolve over time and we are always committed to improving where possible. For now though we hope people are enjoying the reveals and we look forward to revealing more over the coming weeks.

Of course Community isn’t just about surveys. One area of MLE that some people may not think about is the admissions process. Our admissions team have been working consistently throughout the season to ensure a steady stream of new faces join the community, so a big welcome to all those that have joined us this past few month. We thought we would use this opportunity to provide some statistics and a brief overview of the process that give an insight into how involved the admissions team are.

The admissions process is essentially split into 3 phases:

Application: where a person applies to join MLE. Their form is then reviewed & processed by admin team. During this phase the admin team will be looking through all relevant information provided on the form, such as RL tracker, Twitter, Steam account, etc. A decision on whether to approve an application will then be made.
Interview: after an applicant has been approved and joins the admission server they are then interviewed by a member of MLE admissions team to see if they are a good fit for the community.
Orientation: after being interviewed, should an applicant be deemed as a good fit they are then invited to an orientation session. Here a member of the admissions team provides important and relevant information to support and help applicants before they join the MLE server.

Hopefully those stats give an indication of the work load of the admissions team as well as the amount of people “coming through the doors”. A big thank you to our admissions team for all their work in keeping a steady stream of new, excitable faces into our community.

LEAGUE OPERATIONS

Not too much from League Operations perspective to report this month. It’s all relatively business as usual as focus is on day-to-day operations such as scheduling, transactions (roster changes, rank ups, etc.) and resolving any issues that arise from competitive action.

There are two points worth noting though. The first being the new ineligibility system, which required rebuilding the database and spreadsheet structure entirely to be able to account for salary on a daily basis. Huge shout out to Peytoneli for his work on this. The second point is the Statistics Team bringing on kcscrag to help with data entry, and Squanchy to rebuild his excellent standings sheet in MLE-form. Expect that to be released in the coming days.

Focus will soon start to turn to playoffs and ensuring everything is in place to ensure as smooth operation as possible. This will include coordinating with broadcast team to determine scheduling responsibilities and ensuring General Managers are aware of the structure and any relevant information they need to know and pass onto their players.

BROADCAST

On a broadcast front improvements are continually being made and we have some exciting things in the works we are looking to bring in the near future that we think will increase the level of production.

This past month we put out a broadcast survey to gauge community opinion on broadcasts. A big thank you to everyone who replied so far, we had over 30 responses to date. For those who put their Twitch ID on the forms the free 100 reward points have been added to your accounts. Here are some of the key figures/results from the survey.

Results for following questions: “how often do you watch MLE streams?” (top-left), “on a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you enjoy MLE streams?” (top-right), “How would you rate the promotion of broadcasts?” (bottom-left), “Overall how would you rate the quality of casting?” (bottom-right)

Those are just some of the “key” results from the survey, there’s obviously a fair amount of feedback and ratings provided that we will detail. But a general summary from the survey can be that the results are positive with a few areas of improvement. Obviously the results are from a small sample of the community but they provide a general indication of thoughts. We know not all 1400 community members watch streams, though we always hope they might :). 30 responses essentially reflects about 30-50% of viewers based on average and peak viewing figures. What’s great to see is nearly 75% of those who completed the survey said they watch 3 or more streams a month. This gives some validity to the results, as the majority of feedback is being provided by those who have more exposure to streams and therefore likely to be able to form stronger opinions.

Stream enjoyment is definitely something we are interested with. We want to make sure people enjoy watching the streams. Simply put, if people do they will likely tune in more. It’s clear though there is a proportion of people who feel we could be doing more to make streams more exciting and we are continually looking at ways to do just that.

Steam promotion is one area, which based on feedback could do with some improvement with the main points being about consistent promotion as well as ensuring broadcast schedule is posted well ahead of time. Ideally we want to have the broadcast schedule out by Friday of each week although there have been a couple of instances where perhaps we have not delivered to this timeframe. Something we will aim to rectify going forward.

Although not shown on the graphic, the survey included a number of questions regarding the presentation of broadcasts. The ratings were positive across the board, “good” counts as a rating of 4/5:
82% rated the quality of graphics at least good or better
87% rated the scoreboard at least good or better
91% rated the scoreboard at least good or better
90% rated the image quality of streams at least good or better
90% rated the smoothness and stability of the action at least good or better

Great results across the board and a true testament to the fantastic work behind the scenes to make our broadcasts look awesome! But we won’t rest on our laurels here, you can be sure we will continually be making improvements over time.

In terms of casting, the response was generally positive as well however a few issues were brought up, which the broadcast team will be looking to address. Primarily there will be even more focus on caster training and development, ensuring budding casters aren’t “thrown into the deep” end too soon. That being said the availability and levels of resource when it comes to broadcasting talent can sometimes be limited. It means we have to give those with perhaps as not much experience a chance. That concludes our look at the broadcast survey, please don’t be afraid to submit more feedback or fill out a form if you haven’t already done so.

Moving on from the survey. We know the broadcast schedule can create some debate and discussion in the community. The majority of franchises and subsequently the teams and players that represent them all hope to feature on stream. From an organisational perspective we try to balance giving each franchise exposure, each of the four leagues coverage and also try to put the best match ups on stream. Before we go into this in more detail let’s look at some stats surrounding broadcast scheduling for the season up till the end of March.

At the end of last month, 75% of franchises (24 out of 32) had featured on stream at least once. During March, 7 of those franchises featured on stream at least once, meaning 96.8% (31 out of 32) franchises have been streamed. The Sabres, the only franchise to have not been streamed, were streamed this weekend (April 4th) so that figure now sits at 100%, which is great, with still 3 weeks of regular season broadcasts left. It’s difficult to ensure an even spread amongst franchises due to the flexibility of our scheduling system, which allows series to be scheduled any time within a set period, Thursday-Saturday, not including “double header series”. The only way to ensure an almost even spread would be to implement hard-scheduling however this would restrict players to only be allowed play at certain times.

We are continually looking at our scheduling system and seeing where improvements can be made. It’s definitely something that will be reviewed in the off-season to see if any improvements can be made that benefit and balance things from an organisational, franchise and player perspective.

Lastly over to viewing figures for March. They were slightly down compared to the rest of the season however we are not too concerned and are confident viewer numbers will pick up going into the business end of league play. Big thank you to anyone who choses to tune into the MLE Network at any point. We appreciate the support and hope you enjoy the content.

MEDIA

Naturally there is a lot of focus on the franchise logos currently as they start to be revealed. So far 6 logos have been revealed: Aviators, Blizzard, Comets, Demolition, Flames & Spectre. Hopefully these logos have given everyone an idea of the general style we have tried to implement. Our vision and objective with the franchise logos was to have clean, relatively simplistic logos that gave each franchise an identity, whilst still feeling part of MLE. We wanted to stray away from the “generic” esports style logos that seem common place, as we felt they don’t really fit in with the identity of MLE. We thought we would take this moment to give a brief insight behind each logo revealed so far. The people involved in MLE hierarchy with the logo process were all Leadership and Council members, including advisors, as well as Goofy (Media coordinator) and Sleegi (Broadcast & Marketing coordinator).

The Aviators logo was the first logo created. This was done back in September 2019. We felt the simplicity of the design was one of the main positives. Not encumbered with too much detail but something straight, clear and bold. The “wing” element and the stylised chevron give the logo that identity and relatability to the Aviators without being directly obvious.

The Blizzard logo took many of us by surprise at first as like many, we didn’t naturally think of a Yeti. That being said it immediately became obvious to us and we could see the relevance. It soon felt like a unique twist, avoiding the trappings of the old snowsept mountain logo. It has divided opinion in the community however we are confident with time it will grow on people.

The Comets logo was one that pretty much was universally liked upon the first design being shown. The bold, bright colours mixed in with the imagery felt a natural fit for the franchise. The logo did undergo a small revision however as the “trail” was much longer and we envisioned this may be problematic for merch, graphics, etc. and so the designer reduced the length of to it’s now current state. For a bit of fun, we have popped the original logo below (behind a spoiler, what teases!)

reveal logo

original Comets logo

The Demolition logo was also well received upon being shown to us by the designer. We felt the mischievous look of the logo felt in keeping with the Demolition franchise, one that is associated with a bit of craziness and mayhem.

The Spectre logo, revealed this past weekend, dubbed “lil’ spooky boi”, was also generally well received. We all felt the logo had personality and seemed to fit the identity of the franchise; spooky but with a hint of playfulness that avoided the logo being too “dark” and out of touch with the overall presentational style.

Spectre logo

The Flames logo, revealed on last night’s stream, was one of the more divisive logos amongst those of us involved in the process. Some of us really liked the simplicity and the fact the flames were stylised to look like an F, while others felt perhaps it needed more detail. We decided to keep the logo as it was for the time being. Throughout the process we have been conscious about time and we wanted to ensure time wasn’t being wasted “perfecting” a logo, when that time could have been used to start/develop others. Of course this doesn’t mean we said yes to every 1st draft going, the Flames was one of the logos which did undergo a slight tweak, which saw the Flames being made thicker.

Flames logo

After revealing these logos we have had many questions, enquiries, etc. around the whole logo design process, especially from the survey. If you have not seen it already a new channel, #logo-faq, has been created in the Discord server to answer some of the common questions asked. Hopefully this provides more clarity to the process and giving an extra level of detail to it. Don’t forget all logo reveals can be viewed on YouTube too!

Lastly we have seen some misinformation stated regarding the cost of logos. Previously we have held back discussing this however now that logos are starting to be revealed we know feel it’s the right time to offer some insight to this. Both designers we are working with offered very attractive and fair rates, which worked out at $62.50 per logo. Simple maths $62.50 x 32 is $2000. We are very happy with the quality of output in relation to the cost of production, especially considering some quotes we received while researching were 2-3 times higher than this. We would like to take this moment to thank both designers for their efforts and are looking forward to giving them the acknowledgement and respect once all 32 are revealed.

On the subject of revealing the logos we are currently revealing two a week, one at the end of every stream. We are hoping to increase this rate with a view to having all 32 released by the Championship series, though this is dependant on time and resource available. Regardless of if we can make that target, all 32 logos will be ready to go (barring any unforeseen circumstances) for Season 11.

Of course Media isn’t all about logos. The team have been working as always to ensure weekly tasks are completed and focus is now starting to shift towards playoffs. Behind the scenes Goofy is in coordination with Broadcast to bring some exciting things to stream, which we hope to bring to you in the near future. There is also a focus to automate some assets to allow for more efficient processes and working. This last week the Conference standings graphics you see on screen can now be automatically filled with the relevant stats, saving time and resource that can be spent improving elements. Big thanks to AOB for his work on making that happen.

MARKETING

It’s relatively quiet in terms of Marketing the team are currently looking towards playoffs and beyond in terms of plans. We are also reviewing our Social media interactivity and processes around it. The aim is to create a more streamlined and productive way of working, which will help us be more consistent in our promotion and activity on Social Media.

On the merch side of things the store saw a very quiet month with only 1 sale. This was to be predicted somewhat as new logos start to roll into town, there’s no doubt people will be waiting for these to be released before purchasing merch. We are hoping to add some new designs in the meantime however so keep your eyes peeled for further news on that. Unfortunately due to current coronavirus pandemic, Spreadshirt has stopped promotions (i.e. sale periods) for the foreseeable future. This is to ensure they can meet demand while also ensuring safe-working. More information can be found here.

*Latest merch info. Please note there was an error with total no. of sales shown on Februarys graphic that didn’t account for 11 sales.*

SPONSORSHIP

There has been a change in the Sponsorship team. Therealmobagz (yup not that fake one) has recently come on board as the new Sponsorship Coordinator taking over from Scoobert. We would like to take this moment to say thank you to Scoobert for all his work and effort during his time as Sponsorship Coordinator. Mobagz has been on the team for a while and we have full confidence he will help lead and direct the Sponsorship team.

Things have been inevitably quiet for Sponsorship whilst the change took place. The main priority for the team during this time is to maintain existing relationships and ensure any agreements are suitably met and delivered.

There was just one PowerA giveaway last month due to the bye week. VoidRL was the lucky community member who won themselves an awesome Spectra Enhanced Wired Xbox One controller. Due to the changes in the Sponsorship team there was a delay on sending out the controllers but they will soon start to be sent out to winners. We still have more PowerA giveaways coming, with 4 more Spectra controllers to give away over the course of the regular season! Congratulations to Atokad, who won this weekends giveaway!

WEBSITE

Our website is a key component of league for many reasons and there is always something happening behind the scenes when it comes to the development of it. This past month TeaBoneJones joined the website development team and he will be working on an exciting feature. Each player’s salary and rank will be available on their profile and be updated frequently so the information does not become outdated. This is something we know a number of people have requested.

We are also considering getting the content train back up and running again. If you have a passion or interest in journalism/writing and feel you could produce regular, engaging content on behalf of MLE for the website then please reach out TheGamingBear.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

As our community has grown there has been increasing interest in how things work behind the scenes and specifically where the revenue generated from Twitch, Patreon and merchandise is used. As stated frequently, revenue has mainly been used for the creation and development for logos for our 32 franchises. But we thought we would give a bit more insight into where the revenue is used and how it is essentially split. The information provided in the graphic below doesn’t account for all revenue, but more the distribution of the revenue that has been used this season.

Not all revenue that has been generated has been used. We essentially have managed revenue for future investments and projects. We are conscious of using any revenue wisely, ensuring any use of the revenue is beneficial and worthwhile. As you can see from the infographic revenue so far this season has only been used for a small number of aspects. As we near the completion of logos we can now start to look at other projects and potential investments.

In last month’s insight you may remember a brief mention regarding Patreon and a purpose to breath new life into it. As you know the world has somewhat changed this past month and we felt it best to hold off any changes for the time being. We didn’t feel it quite right promoting Patreon during this period of uncertainty. Of course we know Patreon is completely voluntary but at the same time we want to ensure people focus on what’s really important.

For those current Patreons we appreciate your continued support and we aren’t forgetting about you we can assure you. Your support has directly helped MLE, helping us fund such projects as franchise logos and ensuring we can keep services such as the website running. And while we but plans to refresh Patreon on a small hiatus you can be rest assured it gives more time to improve those changes.

So lastly we wanted to take this moment to reflect a bit on the state of things and how it effects MLE. Obviously as an online Esports organisation our operations aren’t really affected. However we know the situation is affecting many of our community members. While MLE can’t solve everyones’ problems we do want to encourage people in community to come together and support one and another through it. We have a great community built on respect and strong values, and in such testing times the strength and value of the community can be a great source of support for the people in it. So remember be kind, be respectful. Have fun and most importantly right now stay safe.

Thanks for reading,
from everyone at Minor League Esports

March 6, 2020April 27, 2020 by TheGamingBear

Inside MLE: February Monthly Insight

Community

Since the last insight Stovvadz has been installed as Community Director. The primary reasons behind this was to give Stovvadz more responsibility within MLE and to bolster Community operations. We are placing more than ever a greater focus on the Community, working on improving engagement and interaction. Part of those improvements have seen the Community team discuss potential surveys, which saw the release of a community survey regarding the Discord server. From this survey we have made a few changes such as merging two training channels into one, removing the redundant coaching role and looking to breath new life into the Hall of Fame amongst other things.

A new Community survey is planned to be released within the coming days. This survey will allow the Community to provide feedback on topics such as transparency, staff interactions with the community, and various other important topics. We appreciate any feedback we get and the more people that provide it the better we can act upon it and look to make improvements from it.

The Community team is also hard at work looking at how to improve how suggestions are handled. We were looking into using EMILIO (Riz’s lovechildbot) to create a new suggestion system. This has proved trickier than first thought and would be difficult to implement all the functionality we would require. Instead of implementing a bot system some upgrades have been made to the current suggestions tracker based on feedback & suggestions.

We are delighted with the response and attendance to the Council Q&As. We hope the Community have enjoyed them so far. Going forward we will look to try hold these at least bi-weekly if not more often, with at least a couple of Council members in attendance at each Q&A. Some of you maybe wondering if this signals the death of the Town Hall? Well after reviewing our operations we have decided to focus Town Halls for the off-season, when there is usually a greater influx of new members to MLE, as well as a number of organisational changes (i.e. rules, structure, etc.).

Elsewhere in the Community team, the events team has not had much success with events so far this season, with low sign-up numbers a problem. The team are committed to providing engaging and entertaining events for the community and are looking at ways to make events more attractive.

Admissions has been running smoothly, with a steady flow of new people joining the community. As always we welcome those joining and hope you enjoy being part of MLE.

Play of the Week activity has been slightly disappointing in terms of voting this season, with approximately 20 valid votes each week. We are looking at ways to improve visibility of Play of the Week and make the process more straight forward. Don’t forget You can see all the Plays of the Week winners from this Season and previous ones on YouTube.

LEAGUE OPERATIONS

Now the Season is well under way, the primary “grind” for League Ops has started. The bulk of League Ops daily work is transactions and ranks, ensuring these are dealt with efficiently and processed correctly. The start of the season always provides a few unique challenges. One of the main ones this season is a result of the change of uploading replays instead of result screenshots. There’s been a few struggles acclimating to this change but things have improved over the past few weeks and the process has become almost routine for all involved. This is only possible thanks to the efforts of the statistics team and General Managers, so thank you to all involved for their work & co-operation.

League Ops is always looking at General Managers responsibilities and how they can be simplified/made easier. With this in mind the team implemented new GM support roles including Captains & Public Relations support. These additions appear to be well received and the League Ops team is very pleased with the results fo far.

One issue the team encountered in Week 1 was with regards the server reset rules. The team addressed these by rewriting the “Once Underway” section of the rule book to better explain the process following a reset request. To our knowledge, no issues akin to what happened in Week 1 have occurred since.

Looking forward, League Ops current goals for the coming weeks include upping support for the developers team, in an effort to begin displaying on our website the work stats team has done assembling MLE’s historical data in a readable and usable fashion. This process is likely to take quite some time, but it is a daily effort from the developer team and stats team alike. They are also working on a way to open up the replays we’re collecting for community use. And finally, EMILIO is an ongoing project that League Ops intend to, one day, appoint as Supreme Ruler of League Operations.

BROADCAST

The Broadcast team has had a good start to the Season, and despite a few minor issues, have set a good foundation going forward. Very recently our Broadcast operations received a big boost thanks to Simple_Aob who has developed a system, which essentially automates key parts of our broadcast such as transitions. This system will mean, in theory, we have a greater pool of broadcasters to call upon. It also will help deliver a more consistent quality of broadcasts. So a big “nice one!” goes to Aob for implementing this for us. We have also implemented a new system for updating our scoreboard, which also simplifies the process for Broadcasters. These improvements have given us a strong platform to build upon and we are now looking at ways how we can improve our output.

Viewer numbers for the Season so far have been decent however we would like streams to consistently achieve an average of 100 viewers. We are always looking at ways to increase the attraction of broadcasts and are open to suggestions. We would like to encourage more people, especially franchise accounts, to retweet the official broadcast schedule posted on Twitter each week. This will help provide more exposure, especially in the Rocket League community. The infographic below shows viewing figures for past month and Season 10 as a whole up to now, as well as revenue generated (please note this does not take into account any commission Twitch receives).

*Broadcast viewer and revenue figures. Seasonal viewing figures do not take into account draft streams but revenue figures taken from 1st January. Figures correct as of 6th March.*

The Affiliate program has had a good start to the season as well, with Riyo doing an excellent job leading that side of Broadcast. We currently have a good number of people in the program close to becoming verified, which will mean more Affiliate Broadcasts! We are looking into ways we can improve the exposure of verified broadcasts. Part of the “problem” is Affiliate Broadcasts don’t follow a set schedule as do Official Broadcasts. This means we are not always sure how many Affiliate Broadcasts there will be each week and when they will be. This makes promotion a little less straight forward but not impossible. Two ways we will promote such streams are through announcements, as well as posting Affiliate Broadcasts for that week in the broadcast-schedule channel.

One element of Broadcast operations that has been discussed in the community recently is that of Broadcast series scheduling/allocation. We understand there’s a desire for teams to get a fair share of screen time and we will endeavour to achieve this were possible. Due to the manner of how series are scheduled it is not straight forward to ensure an equal spread of series amongst teams. Bearing in mind there are only 6 “stream slots” each week, which means a total of 12 teams can be streamed each week. With 10 weekends of broadcast action, which essentially means there are 60 stream slots, so there are 120 opportunities for a team to be selected. There are 112 teams in MLE (split amongst the 32 franchises), which means in theory each team could be streamed once, but for that to happen would there would need to be “perfect scheduling” (i.e. teams scheduling in broadcast times every week). Therefore it’s somewhat an impossible task so we have to strike a balance between fairness as well as ensuring the best matches are shown. The infographic below gives some detail on the broadcast spread so far this season.

*Broadcast series scheduling information for the season so far.*

MEDIA

Our media team has been mainly focused on cranking out the weekly assets, such as Stars of the Week, Play of the Week, etc. We have also implemented Conference standings graphics for each league, which those who tuned into the Week 3 Broadcasts will have seen (see example below). We are looking to implement more stats/info based graphics as the season progresses.

*Academy League Standings going into week 2.*

The team has undergone a small restructure with the addition of Wheezy to the team, whilst Porkchop and TeaBoneJones stepped down. We would like to take this moment to thank them both for their support. Wheezy brings years of expertise and knowledge that we hope will help improve our visual output.

We know everyone is eager to know more logo progress. We currently sit at 16 of the 32 logos complete, halfway there! We are really happy with the quality of the logos produced so far and look forward to seeing the remaining 16 completed. We know progress has perhaps been slower than people hoped/expected and in full honesty we would have liked the progress to be a bit quicker but we didn’t want to compromise on quality & style. With that being said we are looking into speeding up the development, with an eye to ensure all logos are complete by the end of the Season and ready to roll out for Season 11, if not earlier.

MARKETING

The Marketing department has had a somewhat slow start to the season but plans are in place to increase productivity and output. The merch store will see some new designs coming in the near future. We had planned to release them in good time for RLCS, to give anyone who was attending an opportunity to rep MLE and their favourite franchise. Sadly with the cancellation of RLCS has somewhat hampered our plans but we still plan on releasing these designs soon. We are quite happy with the results of the merch store in terms of sales since its “doors opened”. We would like to thank all those that have support MLE via buying merch, your support has directly been invested into MLE. You can see some interesting merch data in the infographic below as well as upcoming offers. While we are generally happy with the merch store we are exploring the possibility of changing our store front as we recognise some of the limitations our current store has.

In terms of Social Media, we are looking at increasing our output across all forms: Twitter, Instagram & Facebook with a view to becoming active on others. Hellyaman is currently revising the workflow in terms of Social Media output to ensure there is a consistent quality and frequency of content. In a recent meeting, franchise activity on Twitter was discussed. We are generally pleased with the levels of activity shown by franchises on Twitter and hope this continues through the season. We realise that Tweetdeck isn’t the most functional platform to post content on Twitter and are looking at how we can improve this interactivity those tweeting on franchise accounts have.

The Marketing team are also already looking ahead to the off-season and Season 11 with a view to generating more interest in and exposure for MLE, utilising visual media, such as hype videos, where possible.

SPONSORSHIP

There’s not too much happening with Sponsorship team at the moment now the Season has started. Focus is on ensuring the agreements and relationships between MLE and our sponsors are maintained. The team had hoped to acquire another sponsor for this season but ultimately a deal fell through. However we are very happy to continue to work with BAWLS & PowerA.

The community PowerA giveaway seems to be going well, with decent number of entries for both draws. There will be 6 more community draws during the regular season as well as 4 draws during the playoffs, which will be open to those outside the community. Check out some interesting stats behind the 2 giveaways. Just goes to show anyone in the community can win, regardless of how many tickets you acquire.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

We are currently in process of refreshing our Patreon with a view to offering more incentives and rewards. So far, the majority of revenue generated so far from Patroen, Twitch and merch has gone towards logos. We are now starting to focusing on ways we can invest future revenue and have a number of ideas/plans. We believe Patreon can be a great way to generate such revenue providing the community a level of transparency in terms of goals and rewarding them for their support. The finer details of this “refresh” are being ironed out with an announcement expected to happen in the very near future.

We are continually looking at ways to improve our website and have a few plans in place, such as a Community section. However priority right now is to sort out a few minor issues on the website, most notably the player “team issue” i.e. where players are assigned to the wrong teams.

And lastly back to the franchise logos. Our plan was to announce/show all 32 in a big, exciting event once they were all complete. However we have decided to change our tack and over the course of this season will be showing off a few at time. And what better time than now to show off one of the first logos that was created… the Aviators! We will let the logo do the talking first…

REVEAL LOGO

So there you have it; the first revealed franchise logo. This logo incorporates the presentational style we wanted; clean, relatively minimalistic but bold. We feel the presentational style applied to all logos allows for each franchise to emphasise their identity whilst feeling part of the MLE brand as a whole. We hope you like it and are looking forward to seeing more logos down the line. Please note while we will be releasing these logos they won’t be incorporated into MLE (I.e. Twitter pfps, on website, in graphics, etc.) until all 32 have been revealed. Thanks once again for your patience and most importantly your support during the logo creation process. The end is in sight and we can’t wait to see all the new logos in “action”.

So there you have it folks. We hope you enjoyed this insight, we took no board feedback from the last insight as well as analysing areas we could make it more informative and insightful. Till next month, have fun out there!

January 29, 2020April 27, 2020 by TheGamingBear

Inside MLE: January Monthly Insight

Welcome to the first MLE Monthly Insight; an in-depth look behind the scenes at the different areas of MLE. In these articles we will look to give you, the community a peep behind the scenes, to see what’s happening and potentially what’s coming. So let’s get to it…

Community

On the back of recent discussions in the community, we have been reviewing how we interact with the community and how we can improve such interactions. One way we communicate with the community is via Town Halls and when these have been run they have generally been quite successful. That being said there have only been a few Town Halls since their introduction and it has become apparent that perhaps the format of Town Halls isn’t quite as productive as it could be. We are currently revising Town Halls and looking at ways we can improve them.

As you will have seen we are introducing weekly Council Q&A’s. These will be smaller, less “all encompassing” meetings than Town Halls held by council members on a weekly basis. These Q&A’s will allow for community members to ask questions directly to the council. The first Council Q&A will be held by TyTy tonight at 7pm ET.

This doesn’t mean Town Halls will disappear completely but the introduction of the Q&A’s will allow for more focused opportunities for the community to interact with MLE. There are plans to improve how suggestions submitted via submission form are handled, with a view to implementing status updates on suggestions. Lastly we will be looking at having more concentrated community surveys throughout the season to really gauge community opinions.

On the events front, the team have taken this off-season to review operations, hence why there haven’t been any events since “12 Days of Christmas”. Captains Clash will return this season but will now happen on Wednesday evenings. The events team are also looking to run a pre-season event for each league as we build up to the start of the season. There are plans to try do some events based on different Rocket Leagues modes however these can only happen with enough community interest & participation. Hopefully we can increase the levels of participation this season and the introduction of an “opt-in” Events role should provide more direct attention to events. If you are interested in taking part in MLE events type the following command into the #command-center channel: !rank Events.

Lastly, Fittz is working on the return of the MLE Fantasy League and will have an announcement within the coming days.

LEAGUE OPERATIONS

With the draft now done & dusted, League Operations will now start to shift their focus to day-to-day operations; player trades, roster, changes, etc. The League Ops team still have a few things to implement and announce. One major new addition to Season 10 will be a Scheduling Server for GMs. The aim of the server is to provide an environment that centralizes communications between franchises for match scheduling.

The MLE Multi-Tool, a spreadsheet that acts as a quick reference for season fixture schedule, match times and dates, and pairing uses/reserve uses is close to being completed. The League Ops team are also close to finishing work on the MLE Scheduler, a tool for GMs to use to help coordinate their players’ schedules within the franchise.

Lastly League Ops are exploring additional support for GMs. As MLE has grown the demand, responsibilities and expectations on GMs has also increased. We want to ensure we do our best to help those who are passionate about MLE and the franchise GM’s definitely fit this criteria. We will provide more info when the exact details of the additional support have been finalised.

BROADCAST

The Broadcast team has slowly been taking shape in this off season and a new organisational structure has been put in place to ensure Broadcast Operations run smoothly. Sleegi & Theevilisback have come on board as Broadcast Coordinators, whilst Riyo will be overseeing Affiliates and InanimateJ has come back into the fold in an advisory role.

The main objective for Broadcast this season is to ensure a consistent quality of broadcasts throughout the season, which will help to provide a platform for Production for which to develop on. On top of this we want to help nurture broadcast talent, providing a pathway for talented and enthusiastic individuals to become involved with Official Broadcasts. We are hoping the application form posted in community announcements this week will help attract such individuals. We will be reviewing the applications received so far this week, thank you to all those that have applied.

There are unlikely to many drastic changes to Broadcasts this season, at least in the short term, bar a few aesthetic changes here and as of writing Broadcasts will follow same structure as last season; 3 series Saturday & Sunday evenings starting from 8pm ET.

MEDIA

Whilst we patiently wait the creation of the new team logos, the Media team has been focused on reviewing and updating assets as well as looking to implement a few new things on the way. Whenever assets are updated or created the aim is to always ensure the presentational style is consistent. No doubt you will start to see some of these improvements as we near the start of the season. We will have an update on franchise logos very soon.

MARKETING

With the recent addition of Gogurt as Marketing Coordinator, the Marketing team are currently discussing and devising plans for the season ahead and beyond. While there is not much to report as of this moment we can assure you there will be a much better focus on marketing efforts. It is important for the growth and future of MLE to ensure we are always attracting new people to the community and increasing the interest in MLE as a whole.

SPONSORSHIP

We are hoping to retain BAWLS and PowerA as sponsors for Season 10 and discussions are on going at present. Both BAWLS & PowerA have become synonymous with MLE these past few seasons and hopefully this will continue going forward. Negotiations with both sponsors are close to being finalised, with BAWLS expected to continue sponsoring Play of the Week. The sponsorship team are also looking at possibility of bringing in a few other sponsors as well but as of this moment there is nothing definitive to announce.

FINAL WORD

That wraps up the first MLE Monthly Insight, we hope you enjoyed the content & insight into MLE operations. We will look to produce these on a monthly basis to keep you, the MLE Community, updated on what’s going on behind the scenes. Obviously some months some areas might have as much to report but where possible we will keep you as informed as much as we can. Going forward we will try incorporate a bit more media when possible to make these articles more engaging.

Thank you for reading, we hope you found the information interesting. Please feel free to provide any feedback/suggestions on these Monthly Insights. Your opinions will help to shape the content, structure, etc. Until next time… have fun!

December 30, 2019December 30, 2019 by TheGamingBear

MLE News: Season 10 Update!

the festive is season is coming to a close but as the New Year draws near so does Season 10…

Season 10

2020 will see the start of 10th season of MLE and it promises to be an epic one! We know a lot of people have been eagerly awaiting the announcement of the start of the season and we are happy to announce that the competitive action will start on February 13th! Below is a list of key dates for Season 10 (please note these dates are provisional and maybe subject to change).

Season 10 Key Dates:

Player Drafts: January 25th & 26th
Week 1: February 13th-16th
Playoffs: Begin weekend of 9th & 10th May
Season 10 Championship Series weekend: 30 & 31st May

Full schedule for Season 10 will be released soon. The date for the Draft Lottery, which decides the order for each League’s draft, is to be confirmed.

If you are interested in joining our community with the possibility of playing in Season 10 fill out an application form! There’s nothing to lose and you could be representing one of the 32 franchises in Season 10!

There will be lots more info coming regards Season 10, including important changes.

FRANCHISE LOGOS

10 franchise logos have now been completed with a further 2 currently in creation. Progress has been somewhat slower recently due to other commitments and projects undertaken by the designer but we are very happy with the quality of the logos. We are an adopting a quality over quantity/speed approach. The franchises with completed logos so far are: Aviators, Bears, Blizzard, Bulls, Comets, Demolition, Dodgers, Eclipse, Elite & Spectre.

SEASON 9

As Season 10 starts to take shape you will notice some changes on the website, most notably the archiving of Season 9 standings & stats. Don’t worry they won’t completely disappear but will be moved to the “Season” section.

COMMUNITY NEWS

BROADCASTING & MARKETING COORDINATOR OPPORTUNITIES

As we prepare for Season 10 a couple of coordinator positions have become available (please note these positions are only available to those in the community).

Broadcast Operations are undergoing an overhaul, with a new team in place to manage & oversee operations. As part of the restructure we are on the look out for a new Broadcast Coordinator who will join the current team; Sleegi (Broadcast Coordinator), Riyo (Affiliate Lead) & InanimateJ (Broadcast Advisor). The main objective of a Broadcast Coordinator is to ensure the smooth running of Broadcasts; making sure each Broadcast has sufficient support & those involved have the right information & support. If this sounds like something you can do and you have an interest in Broadcasting, Production, etc. as well as strong organisational and communication skills we want to hear from you!

We are also on the lookout for a new Marketing Coordinator. We are looking to improve our the consistency and quality of our promotional output, looking to further the exposure of MLE as a direct result of such. The Marketing Coordinator is instrumental in helping to achieve this as they will help create, lead and manage promotions and campaigns with the assistance of the Marketing team. If this sounds like something you can do and you have a strong interest in Marketing along with an enthusiastic & proactive attitude then please fill out an application form linked in the corresponding post in Discord.

SEASON 10 FAQ CHANNEL

Keep your eyes peeled on the Season-10-FAQ- channel in Discord under “MLE Home” category for updates regards Season 10. This channel will act as reference for those in the Community of all the vital information for Season 10 such as key dates, team salaries, etc. We will also be updating the League-Info channel soon!

FINAL WORD

2019 is nearly over but we just wanted to take this moment to wish everyone a Happy New Year and start getting everyone excited for the upcoming season! Lots is happening behind the scenes and these efforts will soon become apparent.

As always keep those peepers peeled to this site as well as our Twitter account for the latest news & happenings. Until next time…

Have fun & Happy New Year,

Minor League Esports

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