For competitive Madden Mobile/Overdrive players, League vs. League has always been a highlight of the game. Many of us can remember tough battles that went down to the final seconds and came down to long conversions or last second defensive stops. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat in LvL battles are a big part of the Madden community, and why many of us love the game.

However, this year has brought a dramatic increase in something known as league hopping, in which top players from a variety of top leagues form temporary all-star hunt leagues for the specific purpose of matching a target league and beating them. Since they use disposable leagues usually ranked in the hundreds, it becomes a way for them to give their opponents in the Top 100 additional losses without ever risking their main league rank. To be clear, these hunt leagues are dramatically different than feeder or training leagues, since they are created and used by main league players to beat other leagues and not for the purpose of training or development. In past years, this was not a significant problem since the gameplan feature required players to remain in their leagues for the duration of the match in order to “live counter” or change their gameplan to get more defensive stops. This year, players can move freely from league to league and spin as many matches a day as they would like.

We therefore petition EA Games to institute a 24 hour cooldown from the time a player joins a league to the time they can be added to the LvL lineup. There are three main arguments for a LvL cooldown period:

• First, adding a cooldown period to LvL will allow all leagues to compete on an equal playing field. Dozens of dedicated, committed leagues have been driven out of the Top 100 due to being hit multiple times by hunt leagues who were trying to match someone else. Many players in those leagues have quit the game due to being targeted and suffering multiple losses from hunt leagues. Hunt leagues are essentially all-star leagues - groups of the top players with the best teams from multiple leagues. There is no way regular leagues can compete. It would be the same as a regular NFL team like the Chargers being forced to play the NFC pro bowl team in the regular season.
• Second, the precedent for a cooldown period already exists both in Madden Overdrive currently and in other EA Games titles. New league members have a cooldown period before they can donate crowns to the league or claim items from the league bank. FIFA Mobile, one of EA’s most successful and popular titles, also has a cooldown period for LvL. And since the technology and infrastructure for LvL cooldowns already exists in FIFA, it would be easy to implement in Madden Overdrive.
• Finally, adding a cooldown period to LvL would drive revenue for EA and increase player engagement for Madden Overdrive. Instead of using the same team to play in multiple LvLs, top players would be forced to spend more time and money to build up alt accounts in order to be a part of multiple leagues, as they did in past seasons. In addition, the Top 100 leaderboard would be made up of a wider range of leagues. More individual leagues would have the opportunity to rank in the Top 100, rather than it being dominated by huge networks of leagues all using the same top teams and players to maintain their rank. And those leagues that gained the chance to rank in the Top 100 would be more likely to spend time and money to improve their teams to stay ranked well.

Adding a cooldown period to LvL in Madden is a win-win, both for Madden players and for EA. It will make the game better by leveling the playing field and making Madden Overdrive fair and fun for everyone.