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Invisibases

Benoît Racette
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NO Dave All-Pro

NO Dave

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EF Hero - Have you tried one of these three things - 

1. Lessen the angle on the speed cleats, especially the flaps on the back?

2. Clean off the residual plastic on the underside of the flaps with an Emory board on the speed cleats in order to get improved contact with the board surface.

3. Turn the speed down on your Play Action Controller. 

Hope these help, and have fun! 

 

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TUDOR - Doug Rookie

TUDOR - Doug

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This was submitted by Weirdwolf a while back on Invisibases, though it would be helpful...

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Hello, I am an Electric Football hobbyist and gamer and compete in leagues and the upper level tournaments. I have a fair degree of knowledge on how to manipulate the bases to reach maximum performance. We call manipulation of the blades or prongs under the base/cleat, “tweaking”. There are several levels of tweaking which can go from simple adjustments with your fingers to extreme manipulation using smooth mouth pliers, lighters, candle warmers, sandpaper, cutters and other tools. Most people who just pick up the game do not attempt the more extreme tweaking techniques and are looking for simple solutions to getting their cleats to perform. I will focus on the simple solutions for now. 

Getting the bases to perform exactly per the instructions can require a degree of trial and error. It is best to take them on by groupings (Lineman, Running Backs, Receivers, Quarterbacks, etc) or you can get overwhelmed with the chaos. The manufacturing of the bases/cleats is not exact from one to the other and there can be small, micro variances from one to the next. As you may have already experienced, slight changes to the “blades” on the Cleats can lead to different results. Switching one set of cleats to another figure type can result in changes as well as each figure has a slightly different center of balance.

I personally start building my team by creating my 5 offensive linemen. I pick the 3 Lineman figures to act as my Center and the 2 Guards and then pick the two of either the “All Purpose” figure or “Backer” figures to be my Tackles. I put the Strength Cleats on these 5 figures. I then test these to see which way they move and how fast they move. For my offensive line I want the 5 figures to move as straight as possible and at the same speed. The Offensive Line men need to be strong and not necessarily fast. To strength test them, you place them, one on one, in the center of the field and see which one pushes the other. I’ll often use a small sharpie to mark the cleat 1-5 based on who was the strongest. I always put my straightest and strongest running cleat on the Center. I then pick the next strongest for my guards. As a beginner you will want your guard cleats to either go straight or turn slightly toward the Center as they move forward. If I have a cleat that naturally does this, I will use it accordingly. i.e. A Guard figure with a cleat that wants to naturally curve left, will be positioned as the Right Guard and a Guard that wants to turn right will become my Left Guard. I then do this for the Tackles also. The idea is that you want the Offensive line to form up side by side and create a moving wall. 

So, what do you do if the cleats natural abilities don’t allow you to arrange the lineman as described? This is where hand tweaking comes in. First, I take the cleat with the figure on it and will start by bending each of the blades back and forth several times up to twenty times. This loosens the plastic at its hinge point and allows you to re-position it easier. Also, this softens the plastic a degree and softer plastic will run faster and stronger. I then position the back blade of the cleat to almost straight up and down with just a slight angle backwards. On the front blade, I will position the blade with a 60-70-degree angle backwards. Then retest to see how the figure performs. Typically, you will see a slightly better performance in the cleat. Change of direction comes primarily from the front blade. Both blades have something to do with speed, strength and direction but primarily the front blade equals direction while the back blade provides speed or strength. To achieve a change of direction on the strength cleats you will want to again loosen the front prong by bending back and forth a few times and then give the blade a twist with your thumb and forefinger. Basically, you are trying to create an angle side to side on the front blade so that one side of the cleat is slightly farther back or at a greater angle on one side than the other. The farther back or greater angled side will cause the base to turn toward that side. On lineman cleats it only takes a small amount of adjustment to achieve the angle needed to get the lineman to lock up and form the wall. 

These same principles apply to the speed cleats. Typically, I personally like to put my speed cleats on straight as angling them does result in a less stable figure that can fall depending on the speed. Directional adjustment is best achieved by the angle of the front blades with just slight angles backwards for the overall cleat. Once I get them moving as I want I will add a bit of poster tack underneath to hold them in that exact place. TIP: You can use 3 speed cleats on some figures and by playing with the positioning, two farther to one side for example can achieve direction changes.

The steps for both strength and speed cleats are:
1) work by position groups
2) loosen/soften blades by repeated back and forth bending
3) use the natural abilities of the base to decide what its player position should be
4) hand tweak back blades per instructions above
5) hand tweak front blades per instructions above

Hope this helps. It’s really a simple science and as with all things, it can be taken to many levels which is what makes Electric Football such a great competitive hobby.

 

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The Major 1st Round Pick

The Major

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On 4/5/2020 at 9:18 AM, Benoît Racette said:

IMO, invisibases are really good to me (as a solitaire player) when you know how to adjust them (especially the speed ones.. a little bit like skis).

 

What is your opinion on that? Please let me know.

 

Cheers, Ben

Ben I also am a fan of the invisibase.  I am currently in the process of performing more experiments on the "speed cleats skis" to get consistent results and expand my knowledge of tweaking techniques.  And, I would love to hear more of your experience with the speed invisibases.  But I absolutely LOVE the strength invisibase.  For me they are the go-to base for the O-line.  Especially the interior O-line.  I use other bases for my O-line only by exception.  I like the snug fit and they perform brilliantly.  They are typically slow so don't get downfield too far but they are like a stone wall--very difficult to shift.  And with a flat front edge it's tough to "get off the block".  Can't say enough good about them.  

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nefgm.org Legend

nefgm.org

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I have never been a big fan of the invisibases, but not because of their performance. Just don't like the look of them on the figures. Guess I am really old school like that. However I am going to experiment with them, cutting them down to glue under some rookie base shells. I have a bunch of bases that are ruined due to poor tweaking. Might even try it on some of the old one piece figures.   

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