Anyone think this isn't accurate? I continuously find obvious discrepancies the league refuses to acknowledge. There are players I wanted to bring on from previous years, however, their MBR was established at a time the league wasn't as competitive. When asked to consider, it's ignored and a robotic answer is given.

Notable examples.

Zahir (33)
Anthony Liguori (33), played in a time where i was in mvp discussions
Rajab Abassi (37), i guess rajab, patrick and pete brown are on the same level?
Raza (28), i guess zahir and liguori are that much better than raza
Muj (31), zahir and liguori better than muj?
Patrick (39), see below
Farhad (47), see below
Paul Sullivan (36), same as Pete Brown?!!?!?!??!?!?
And the nail in the coffin, Weiss Froogh (10). I'm clearly a 20+

If you're thinking "well this is just a gauge" or something along those lines, i don't think so. those MBR numbers are the absolute truth when it comes to approving teams.


Patrick averaging 25-9-3, Farhad 19-11-3, Farhad much higher. Doesn't seem balanced.

League says it wants to stay balanced. I say please re-add MBRs for top 5 on each team again.


I was also told our 1-2 team is "top tier" lol but we are at the bottom of the power rankings and not allowed to add anyone.

Just venting to my fellow players. We should band together. You're more than welcome to come to me with your concerns. I will vocalize them here.

Looking forward to a satisfactory response or solution that doesn't include "ur so dumb" or "don't play in the league then if you don't like it". i like playing in the league, i just think things can be better handled. suggestions and feedback welome!

It’s late right now, and I will reply to this tomorrow when I have a few minutes inshaAllah. Don’t want to make anyone think this concern is being ignored.

First off, appreciate the feedback and cause for concern.

In the beginning of MB's history, there were no rules. Teams were allowed to bring whoever they wanted, and the league transitioned from being organically competitive among friends who were generally in the same talent pool to bringing in unfamiliar superstar players that nobody else in the league knew. I'm talking about very talented players from local gyms, plus his friends. That's not inherently a problem, and we've never told any player "you're not welcome here" because we strive to be inclusive.

We operated in that model for a few seasons till we realized we need to segment the talent. We did this by splitting the league into D1, D2, and D3.

D1 was no holds barred, and teams stacked their rosters as much as they wanted. However, it just didn't have enough of a following. We had to exert much more effort to get teams to register, pay, and in the end, it just wasn't worth it to have a division of 6 teams every time.

On the other hand, D2 (which still exists today), took off. We had a subjective captain/commissioner approval method, but by and large, this division represented the most common talent pool you generally find. Additionally, there was opportunity for D1 and D3 players here, provided the rest of the roster is balanced.

Over time, it became very difficult to objectively approve rosters across 20+ teams. We had statistics on every player, so we created the MBR. The formula is listed on the MBR page, and we can apply factors to normalize one's statistics. This answers Weiss's questions why one player has more stats than another, but a lower MBR. The reason is because the lower stats/higher MBR player played in a more competitive division. How do we create these factors? Thanks to players like Weiss (and many, many others) who played in multiple divisions - we can gauge their performance and see what the statistical uptick is if they moved to a lower division.

Now, is the MBR perfect? No. But it is more than enough to provide a meaningful guardrail to commissioners to assess a team's talent. What's more is that the data is over the last 30 games of a player's career, thereby normalizing (for the most part) for any single game, abnormal season pace, etc. What about players that haven't played in years? Really not sure what one can expect. Are we to assume they hibernated in a hole for 5 years? Of course not, they just played basketball elsewhere. Keep in mind we have those season factors - they normalize even a player's inactivity over time.

Again, the MBR is used as a guide and not end-all/be-all metric to decide which teams are approved or rejected. With that said, think of it as a salary cap. The higher-rated players demand a higher pay, and if the league institutes a cap on the salary, this helps ensure a balance to the league. Of course, one can always find exceptions, but look at the parity the league has seen in recent years since instituting this process.

Season: teams (ranking)
Summer 2019: Kazan (12), Mombasa (1), Tripoli (14), Sarajevo (3)
Champion - Kazan (12)

Winter 2019: Tripoli (10), Islamabad (6), Medina (9), Dhaka (5)
Champion - Tripoli (10)

Summer 2018: Kabul (5), Mombasa (3), Timbuktu (13), Suba (1)
Champion - Suba (1) - they beat Timbuktu (13) by 1 pt and Mombasa (3) by 2 points in Final Four

Winter 2018: Dhaka (4), Kazan (1), Granada (15), Lahore (6)
Champion - Granada (15)

Every season, it is "any given Sunday" with MB games. And combined with brotherhood, isn't that one of the best things that makes this league fun?

TL;DR = #trusttheprocess

Edited by user Thursday, January 30, 2020 3:48:27 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

You have a very difficult task trying to balance rosters with that many teams. JAK for your efforts. But I just have to disagree on your team ranking parity supporting information. Winter 19, the 10th ranked Tripoli team by record went 6-4. All four of their losses th were short handed, where one or two of Muj, Jean, Yusuf or Visar were out. If anything what helps your argument is that they won the chip without Muj, but they were a very good collection of talent with those 4 guys. So that argument in my opinion doesn’t carry weight.

You will never be able to balance rosters over 20-30 teams. I think a 2-division model works better. I understand that D1 is hard to sustain, I was a commissioner at that time and you are correct, it was very difficult to get those teams to register and pay.

It’s a hard problem. I don’t have a solution. But I think 2 divisions with different MBR limits is better than 1 large one.
Allahu Alam

Again thank you for your efforts in organizing, coordinating and operating this league. Amidst its flaws, it’s still a pleasure to play in and better than every other league I’ve played in.

Assalamu 'alaykum,

One idea is to have a pool of players register and do a draft! I play in another league with a draft and the competition level is pretty balanced. I know everyone wants to play with their friends but since we're discussing balancing rosters here...