It would definitely take worldbuilding, but I think that's a feature, not a bug.
I was thinking all significant life transitions caused second form changes (so quitting doesn't help if your problem is letting go of your old team, and may in fact make things worse as the change is bigger and the adjustment harder to adapt to), or there was a Mirror Universe-type callousness towards the possibility of death (so players were likely to think that other players who died from it were weak and deserved it and it was never going to happen to them because they're better, plus teams factor in the possibility of losing players to death in trades), or both.
I don't think most transformation fics really go into detail on why they transform? I never got the feeling that it was something the team makes them do, anyway. Some handwave it as team bonding, but for some it just doesn't make sense. It's not exactly helpful if players randomly turn into animals when stressed - that seems like the sort of thing that could really disrupt a practice schedule.
Re: Trope talk-Animal Transformation
It would definitely take worldbuilding, but I think that's a feature, not a bug.
I was thinking all significant life transitions caused second form changes (so quitting doesn't help if your problem is letting go of your old team, and may in fact make things worse as the change is bigger and the adjustment harder to adapt to), or there was a Mirror Universe-type callousness towards the possibility of death (so players were likely to think that other players who died from it were weak and deserved it and it was never going to happen to them because they're better, plus teams factor in the possibility of losing players to death in trades), or both.
I don't think most transformation fics really go into detail on why they transform? I never got the feeling that it was something the team makes them do, anyway. Some handwave it as team bonding, but for some it just doesn't make sense. It's not exactly helpful if players randomly turn into animals when stressed - that seems like the sort of thing that could really disrupt a practice schedule.