CBFL Season 4

The CBFL will return for its fourth season but unlike the previous 3 seasons, season 4 will be done on Retro Bowl, a mobile game inspired by Tecmo Bowl. Since Retro Bowl lacks an official multiplayer mode, people have made leagues where players send in their point differentials to determine standings and use playoff scores to determine a champion. My plan is to turn the CBFL into a retro bowl league for GSL/UWFFL owners to participate in and CBFL Season 4 will serve as a test only using CBFL teams to see how everything works before other owners join this fall. The Atlanta Aliens actually played in a Retro Bowl league this fall but got eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. More info will follow in the coming weeks.

Links on Retro Bowl and Leagues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJvBthpUTPM&t=461s
https://retrobitcoach.com/retro-bowl-leagues/

The CBFL will begin next week and will occur over 6 weeks (4 regular season “games” and 2 rounds of playoffs)

How it works is that every team will submit their point differentials every 4-5 in game weeks in order to determine standings. For the playoffs each team will use their points scored in each playoff game to determine a winner. All four CBFL teams will make the playoffs this season.

Tiebreakers are determined through the number of restarts used during a season. If a team uses more than 3 restarts they will have points removed from their point differential.

Games will be 2 minutes at medium difficulty (most casual leagues use this setting, I put two minute quarters instead of the usual 3 minutes because I’m using 4 teams)

Preseason power rankings

1: Providence
2: New Orleans
3: Sacramento
4: Dallas

Schedule, tiebreakers, and bye weeks

Teams submit point differentials every 4-5 in game weeks. The cycles are as follows

Cycle 1: week 1-4
Cycle 2: week 5-9
Cycle 3: week 10-13
Cycle 4: week 14-18

Each team has one bye week and these are as follows
Dallas: week 14 (cycle 4)
New Orleans: week 7 (cycle 2)
Providence: week 6 (cycle 2)
Sacramento: week 7 (cycle 2)

Tiebreakers by rank:
Number of restarts used
In game W-L record
Division point differential
Simulated game on Madden between the NFL teams each team is randomly mapped after (hint: 3 teams are mapped after AFC teams and 1 is an NFC team).

Since I already competed the first cycle for all teams I’m going to submit the standings tomorrow as opposed to next week and standings will be submitted every Friday night.

Standings after cycle 1
1: Providence +131 (0 restarts, 3-1, +53 div)
2: Sacramento +126 (0 restarts, 4-0, +42 div)
3: Dallas +102 (0 restarts, 4-0, +45 div)
4: New Orleans +82 (0 restarts, 4-0, +53 div)

Cycle 2 standings
1: Providence +256 (0 restarts, 7-1, +110 div)
2: Dallas +223 (1 restart, 9-0, +47 div)
3: Sacramento +205 (0 restarts, 8-0, +46 div)
4: New Orleans +165 (0 restarts, 8-0, +53 div)

Forgot to post last Friday but here are the cycle 3 standings

1: Providence +423 (0 restarts, 11-1, +209 div)
2: Sacramento +348 (0 restarts, 12-0, +47 div)
3: Dallas +296 (1 restart, 13-0, +55 div)
4: New Orleans +273 (0 restarts, 12-0, +56 div)

Cycle 4 standings

Cycle 4 Standings
1: Providence +609 (0 restarts, 16-1, +300 div)
2: Sacramento +505 (0 restarts, 17-0, +155 div)
3: Dallas +432 (1 restart, 17-0, +122 div)
4: New Orleans +366 (0 restarts, 17-0, +100 div)

The playoffs begin next week and rather than do a normal seeded format (1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3) I’ve decided to do a top and lower bracket. This format has 1 play 2 for an automatic berth to Super Cup 4 whereas the loser of that game plays the winner of the 3 vs 4 game for the second super cup spot.

This would mean Providence will play Sacramento for an automatic spot in the title game whereas Dallas and New Orleans would play for the right to play the loser of Providence vs Sacramento for a shot at the championship.

Scores from playoff games are used to determine playoff games. If a game is tied the first tiebreaker is point differential in the game in question. For example if Sacramento plays Dallas in the second round game and both teams tie the point differentials from their in game playoff game is used. If that tiebreaker doesn’t work it will then go by playoff record and the final tiebreaker will be total playoff point differential.

The bracket follows this model

Playoff schedule

Saturday May 27

1:00 PM
Dallas vs New Orleans
AT&T Stadium, Arlington TX

4:30 PM
Providence vs Sacramento
Gillette Stadium, Foxboro MA

Playoff Scores

Dallas: 42
New Orleans: 49


Providence: 55
Sacramento: 41

Sacramento will host New Orleans in the losers final next Friday night at 8pm ET at Hornet Stadium. Providence receives an automatic berth to Super Cup 4 in Houston in two weeks.

Uniform matchup for Dallas vs New Orleans

Uniform matchup for Providence vs Sacramento

Semi final preview

Sacramento vs New Orleans
Friday June 2nd, 2023 7pm local time
Hornet Stadium, Sacramento CA

Had the CBFL gone with a traditional playoff format neither of these teams would have a shot at Super Cup 4 as Sacramento would have lost to Dallas 42-41 and New Orleans would have had 55 points dropped on them by Providence but this is not the case and both these teams have a shot at the Super Cup.

Sacramento is loaded at every position except for QB and kicker (a missed PAT was why Sacramento ended up with 41 points last game). Their defence is one of the better units and when this offence gets going they can score points almost at will thanks to their big time receiving corps turning short passes into huge gains.

New Orleans has one of the league’s best offences as can be seen in the playoff game against Dallas. The problem with the Lions is their defence who can’t stop a cold and have made many New Orleans Lions games turn into shootouts.

It should be a good semifinal game this Friday night .

Field and uniforms for Sacramento vs New Orleans

Score for tonight’s game

Sacramento: 42
New Orleans: 42

Since both teams both scored 42 points in their second playoff game we will move to the first tiebreaker, point differentials in the game in question.

Differentials

Sacramento +28
New Orleans +21

The Sacramento Scorpions will advance to Super Cup 4 at NRG Stadium in Houston next Saturday against Providence. Since this will be Providence’s second game their score from their second game will be used in Super Cup 4 whereas Sacramento will be using the score from their third playoff game.

Here are the season stats for Dallas and New Orleans since both teams are now eliminated

SUPER CUP 4 PREVIEW

Providence Steamrollers vs Sacramento Scorpions
Saturday June 10th 2023, 8pm
NRG Stadium, Houston TX

It’s a battle between two of the CBFL’s most successful teams in Providence and Sacramento for Super Cup 4. After getting blown out in the first playoff game vs Providence and needing a tiebreaker to end New Orleans’ Cinderella run at a third straight Super Cup appearance (The LA Coyotes of Season 2 became the new New Orleans Lions), Sacramento is in a tough rematch with a well rested Providence team. Both teams look to be the first to reach two Super Cup Championships as Sacramento won the first Super Cup over Dallas in winter of 2021 and Providence took home the trophy over the LA Coyotes last spring.

Providence is the most complete team in the CBFL this season as they’re loaded at every position on offence and their defence is nothing to scoff at. Sacramento’s roster asides from quarterback is just as loaded as the Steamrollers but like the first playoff game between these two sides it may come down to quarterback play that decides the winner of Super Cup 4.

The CBFL itself  will return in this same format with the same 4 teams this winter with a potential expansion coming for next spring season (there are two unclaimed teams in the UWFFL that the CBFL has its eyes on, hint: one is a La Lega team and the other was in the same UWFFL league as a CBFL team but got moved into another UWFFL league and I would have to move my teams around)

Uniform matchup for Super Cup 4 tonight

Score for Super Cup 4

Providence: 49
Sacramento: 35

The Providence Steamrollers become the first CBFL team to win two Super Cups and will be going to this year’s Canadian Bacon World Cup to win a second trophy this year. They will be joined by the Dallas Outlaws. The New Orleans Lions and Sacramento Scorpions will prepare for the in game draft ahead of season 5 this fall. Season 5 will be the same format with the same 4 teams.