Madden 19 Beta: Deep Dive into Draft Additions

The Deep Dive Gaming team had the pleasure of gaining access to the Madden 19 Closed Beta and we conducted a thorough breakdown of the new/updated CFM features.

Our focus here is the draft. There are two primary changes to the draft this year: Presentation & Custom Draft Classes. These are two updates that the CFM community has requested for years. We’ll provide a general summary of the updates followed by pros and cons of each of them.

Draft Presentation

The New Presentation

Previously, the draft interface consisted of the same menus we see above on the right and scrolling tracker on the left showing pick orders and drafted player names. It was boring. It was stagnant.

The new draft is alive, and flashy. We are toured around a draft stage with numerous city backdrops. The playercard of the previous pick is blown up middle stage including his name, position, college, drafting team, and his best scheme overall. Including the player’s overall rating was a big request from the community. At the top we are given a display showing the current team on the clock, the remaining time, and what teams are on deck.

This presentation functions the same for both CFM rookie drafts and CFM Fantasy drafts.

PROS

1. Dynamic & animated: The new stage display is visually attractive. It appeals to online CFM users who spend 1–2 hours sitting in league drafts, or fantasy leagues users who are there for 6–7 hours.
2. Player overall: Player’s best overall displaying on the centerpiece is a great addition and liven up online drafts.

CONS

1. No way to navigate picks: While the top bar displays the current and upcoming picks, it is static and you are limited to the handful of picks it shows. There’s no way to look through previous picks other than the single playercard on the centerpiece. This is a MAJOR oversight on EA’s part and a huge drawback of the new presentation. This hurts fantasy draft leagues most of all as they cannot see draft order until the draft has started.

Custom Draft Classes

Finally, EA has given us back custom draft classes. When the commissioner reaches the first week of scouting (Week 3) they are prompted with the menu in the screenshot above. This allows them to choose a random draft class similar to recent Madden’s classes, download custom classes developed by other users, or use one they have stored locally.

After making a selection the commissioner has the ability to edit the draft class by opening the scouting menu and pressing the left analog stick. When editing the draft class the commissioner can edit every aspect of players’ appearances and skills. The base interface is similar to the current Roster menu allowing the user to navigate through all positions and player attributes. Upon selecting the player you want to edit it will bring up the current Edit Player menu. While the user editing the class can see the all attributes in the base menu they cannot see the development traits.

There is some concern about the possibility of commissioners gaining a step up in league drafts by scouting players through editing the class, or possibly hiding late round gems with Super Star development. Luckily, EA thought some of this out.

Transaction logs show when the draft class is accessed by the commissioner. On top of that it shows when and what player has been edited in the draft class. This at least allows online CFM users to make sure their commissioner isn’t accessing the draft classes. Now what if a commissioner “accidentally” opens the draft class editor by hitting the wrong button?

Not a good excuse. When the commissioner attempts to open the editor they are prompted with this confirmation popup. So if a commissioner finds their self in the editor it’s because they wanted to be there.

PROS

1. Diversity & creativity: This allows leagues to enhance their leagues in different ways. Buff weak position groups. Add in NFL legends like Randy Moss and Jerry Rice. Numerous possibilities.

CONS

1. Commish tampering & prevention: Leagues might have to create an additional set of rules for commissioners regarding editing draft classes.
2. Imports easily found: If a league imports an uploaded draft class users can find that class, download it, and look at it offline giving them an advantage.

These additions have their pros and cons. The presentation is great, but the removal of the ability to see previous picks and future picks is a step in the wrong direction. This has a major impact on fantasy drafts since the only time you can see pick order is once the draft has started. The custom draft class feature is a step in the right direction though. It’s a great feature to increase the longevity of offline/solos, small group, and even some full 32-man leagues.