the mISL will probably not make it through the season, and i would be astonished if it did. i was pushing for minor league affiliate teams for reasons that are exactly what we are seeing right now as i'm trying to get this thing kick started.
1. FAs are generally uninterested in the minor leagues
i messaged ~70 people on the FA list in attempt to get them to join the minor leagues. the current system we have in place makes it so that they can play whenever they want and get signed whenever they want by an ISL team. free playing time and a chance to get noticed and leave the minor leagues at any time, a golden ticket, but yet we are barely scraping together 4 people per roster and we only have 4 teams.
2. players who are interested in playing are stuck in the ISL where they will get no playing time
why have roster limits of 15 when we know that starters will start and the only people who can realistically expect to see playing time are proven players who will be #1 and #2 off the bench??? the current system has teams of 5 players with another 10 being used as playing chips in trades. how many times is a prospect realistically going to see the field in a close game? everyone is going out to win a title, and to do that you simply have to win games, and to do that, you have to put good players on the field. in the pre-season, subs were forced. after that, it's every man for himself, and the starters will start and the bench players will usually not play.
however, if we send the regular bench players to the minor leagues where they can get equal playing time because the games don't count for anything, then they will be happy because a) they are getting to work on their games and, most importantly b) they are getting playing time.
to reiterate, it's really screwing over the players to have a system in place that forces the teams to put their best players on the field all the time or inevitably lose the game. you could say, "well yeah it's roblox," but losing's never fun for anybody. we're out here to have fun, but we're not going to have much fun while we're going 0-10 every season.
3. players are not guaranteed to stay in the league at all
in the ISL players are under "contract," where they are locked down to their teams and must stay on that team unless they are traded by the owner. in the mISL with the current model, we are naturally made up of unsigned free agents who can be signed at any time. additionally, we do not have a guaranteed supply of players coming in to the mISL. this means our demand is virtually unlimited and our supply is inconsistent and relatively nonexistant. everyone who wants to join the minor leagues will have done so at a certain point and we will have no new players coming in to replace the players who are taken by the ISL teams.
under an affiliate system, we would by nature have the same amount of players going up as coming down to and from the ISL. if a player is called up to a maxxed out roster, the team would have to send someone down. this keeps a constant balance of players in the ISL and in the mISL.
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my ideal system looks like a multi-tier system, a true minor league system:
Tier I. ISL - regular league
Tier II. mISL (AAA) - minor league affiliate teams, players transfered up and down at any time, playing full season, managed by team staff
Tier III. mISL (AA) - minor league affiliate teams, players transferred up and down at any time, equal playing time for all players, playing shortened season, managed by team staff
Tier IV. mISL (A) - free agent rosters, signed by teams at any time, equal playing time for all players, playing shortened season, managed by volunteers
this will probably not be in place for seasons to come if ever, but it's what i want would want the minor leagues to look like, and it's what an all-inclusive league should look like. keep in mind it currently looks like this:
Tier I. ISL - regular league
Tier II. mISL (A) - free agent rosters, signed by teams at any time, equal playing time for all players, playing shortened season, managed by volunteers
/rant |