Madden NFL 20 Player Ratings System Changes

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When Madden NFL 20 arrives, not only will the game dynamics and animation feel different, but the way stars play will be different from those who aren't real stars. That's because the ratings system for Madden 20 has been overhauled to make superstars really stand out. In addition, gamers are getting an early preview of the upcoming Madden 19 Rookie Premier program that will carry over to Madden NFL 20.

Madden 20 Player Ratings System Changes
To make the superstar players of the game really stand out, the Madden 20 player ratings system separated those players from the rest. The highest tier of players in the game is Elite/Near-Elite which is most likely where the Superstar X-Factor players will reside. Below them is a tier called quality starters followed by low-level starters. The backups and low-level backups are the lowest tiers of players in the game.

Madden 20 not only changed up ratings overall but also for specific attributes. The place where this had the biggest impact was QB Throw Power. They paired this up wot the gameplay animation changes for the pass trajectory.

More details on the Madden 20 player ratings stretch.

First, divide players into different levels according to their performance on the field. As follows:

• Elite/near elite players
• Quality starters
• low level starters
• backups
• and low-level backups

By increasing the ratings of the elite/near elite players, and decreasing the ratings of everyone else, the stars began to stand out even more than they did before. We went through every single attribute in the game and stretched them by position. For example, in Madden 19 there were 53 corners with 80 or better Man Coverage. There are 42 in Madden 20. We also raised the ceilings on some of those ratings to further the gap between the elite and the rest.

Next, they re-defined what is considered “starter quality,” which is probably the biggest change of this system. In Madden 19, 54% of the roughly 2,900 players (including free agents) were 70 OVR or better. In Madden 20, 41% of the players are at 70 OVR or better, which means that both low-level starters and depth players can be rated in the 60s—and maybe even 50s. From a gameplay perspective, this creates a drastic drop off from starter to backup. This solves a big issue. In previous Maddens, backups were almost plug-and-play if a starter was injured. But now, with the severe drop off in ratings, starters will have a distinct feel, while you will struggle much more with their replacements.

Furthermore, Madden 20 slightly tweaked the overall formulas for every player archetype. With the changes they made to the QB (the West Coast archetype has been changed to Improviser) and WR archetypes (changing Possession to Route Runner and changing Red Zone Threat to Physical) they wanted to ensure that players were being labelled correctly. They created new overall formulas for these archetypes and adjusted the weights on the existing overall formulas to put a greater emphasis on the more impactful ratings per position.

Lastly, the greatest ratings stretch occurred for QB Throw Power, which is paired with the gameplay changes to pass trajectory. Without getting too deep into the pass trajectory mechanics, they lowered the maximum velocity for passes to help add more trajectory to all throw types. Because of this, players with high throw power will have less trajectory than QBs with weaker arms. In Madden 19, 53 QBs had a Throw Power of 90 or better, with 80 being the lowest. In Madden 20, 18 QBs are at 90 or higher Throw Power, with 72 as the lowest at the position. Every single QB is still a viable gameplay option, but you will need to pick your passer carefully to ensure they fit your playstyle.

With all these alterations in place, here are the differences between Madden 19 and Madden 20:

In Madden NFL 20 they have just 41 percent of players with 70 OVR or better compared to 54 percent holding a 70 OVR or better in the Madden 19 game. So the low-level starters and "depth players" will be rated in the 60s and even 50s for Madden 20.
When Madden 20 kicks off, there will only be 22 players with the 95+ OVR. That's three fewer than Madden NFL 19. The biggest drop came in the 1980s and 1970s. That means more players are expected to score less than that this year.

WHAT'S NEXT?
Starting next Monday, the Rookie Premiere Program will be launching in Madden Ultimate Team (MUT). The Rookie Premiere Program is a special Loyalty program that allows players to get a Rookie Premiere player now in MUT19 and then also in MUT20. 

You will be able to earn these players in MUT19 by completing their Rookie Premiere sets. Once you complete a set, you will receive a NAT 99 OVR version of that specific player in MUT 19 and a special "Rookie Premiere" version in MUT20. The player in MUT20 will have his ratings improve every single time we release a new player edition through February. A total of 10 Rookie Premiere Players will be released: 5 on Offense; 5 on Defense. 

Here is a sneak peak at one of the Rookie Premiere Players coming to Madden Ultimate Team on Monday.

For more details on the Rookie Premiere Program, make sure to join on Madden Daily Drops (www.twitch.tv/eamaddennfl) this coming Monday, July 1st at 10:00AM ET. 
Madden NFL 20 is out worldwide on August 2. Pre-order the Superstar Edition and play 3 days early. 

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