A lot of people generally confuse the concept of a lab and a game. To be completely honest, when I first joined the MRL, I thought it was just cool slang for playing a game of Madden.
After being a member of the MRL for quite some time, I learned that labbing is very much different from an actual game, and if done correctly can be very helpful in advancing your game and taking it to the next level.
My definition of a lab game - a game in which two people are playing with the general purpose of working on improving a specific area of their game. It doesn't matter who wins and loses because the point is to improve in that specific area. I'll be the first to say that I will probably lose a lab by 5 TDs, but I doubt that would happen in a game.
When I am labbing with a team that I have played with before, you will rarely see me run the same plays that I run in a regular game. You will find that I run a lot of broken plays that never work, and may not ever work. After most labs, I may pick up 1-2 plays and add them to my offensive set for upcoming games.
Here is why I run labs:
When I first started playing in the MRL, I had a total of around 5-10 offensive plays that I would run in two sets (Shotgun and I-Formation). I would audible based on my reads of the defense.
Now, my playbook has expanded to greater than 20 working plays out of just about every formation in the Balanced Pass playbook. Labbing has also shown me how to read and protect against the blitz....the advantage of keeping your RB in the backfield to block, and also how to set up effective audibles.
Shoutout to Nitka, Swag, Rage, J (JayNizz22) and the rest of the MRL for helping me advance my game.
I would love to hear everyone's opinion of how you guys view a lab game, and what do you use it for.
Portal 
