Subject: I.1

Man. It's never a great time to lose your best player and the highest OR US-born player to an injury... but for it to happen during a week when you're playing two teams in the top 5 of the standings, it's definitely more ... annoying.

I made it out of the week with a 1-1-1 record, which is probably something to be proud of even though it's a bit bittersweet.

Oh well. Nice job to Cactus HC for taking me down at home in a close match. That's only my second loss at home this season I think..?

The standings so far have been crazy. I thought for sure that I'd be bumped out of 1st place after the down week, but it seems like I'm holding on by my fingernails ... and goal differential. Well... mostly goal differential. It'll definitely be interesting to see how the 2nd half finishes up.

P.S.
Just a quick follow up on the players discussed in my last post. The last three are on the market. Auctions end when I said they would.

Cheers.

On a completely different topic, I just pulled my draftees.

None of the guys I pulled are particularly noteworthy though. Ryan Brecht is the only one I didn't immediately cut, but that might change at any moment. Once the 3 players I put on the market sell, I'll be back to 25 players and I'll have HUGE cost savings at that number... The 26th roster player adds roughly 550k / day to my expenses in fees and added staffing costs alone, so unless he's either really important to the current or future success of my team, it's probably not worth it. I don't think Brecht is "that guy."

The biggest bummer of the draft for me is that my 1st pick, Slater Barksdale turned out to be such a dud in nearly every respect. I mean how cool is the name "Slater Barksdale?" His name is literally what put him at the top of my "B" player rankings.

Too bad he's all bark and no bite.

ba dump bump chish!

^_^

Oh well.

Epic Name. Disappointing eh.

I decided to not hold onto Ryan Brecht . He's really not a bad defensive back prospect (his qualities are 79 FiP / 70 Sho / 83 Blk / 92 Pas / 87 Tec / 72 Spe / 60 Agr and he's a universal handed player).

I just have a ton of defensive backs. I already sold one of my good prospects, I'm selling Benjamin Lewis this weekend, and even after that I'll still have 4.

So anyways... my gain is your gain. If you want him, feel free. If he doesn't sell, he'll be on the market anyways, as I'll be cutting him. This way, you just get him quicker if you want him (rather than waiting for the 7 day auction to end).

I threw him up on the market for this saturday at 2:00 pm EST (30 minutes after my other 3 auctions are scheduled to end).

this week coming up decides where I finish.

Hey guys, another decent young player fell victim to my roster cap tonight. I cut Conrad Lancaster from my lineup even though his "top 3 qualities" (FiP, Blk and Spe) are all in the high 80s.

Problem is that he's yet another defensive wing, of which I still have like... 5 or 6 at the moment (2 of which are also 15 years old). Meh. Anyways... if you're interested, keep an eye on the market, he should pop up there and be on sale for the next week.

If you buy him now, he should be around 500 OR by the end of the season. Definitely a decent depth guy for those of you who have had so-so luck with player pulls so far this season.

Well the first round of the playoffs is over. Looks Like Cactus HC and Orlando Generals are playing each other in the semi-finals for the second season in a row.

Last season, Cactus HC beat the Generals in three games with a series goal differential of +2. Insanely close series... How will it shape up this season?

Meanwhile, I get to match up against Pballas, who is possibly the team I've struggled with the most over the years... I've had decent luck against them this season, but that was before he made a couple of very noteworthy market additions late in the season.

Semi-Finals should be interesting...

I always enjoy playing Cactus HC. we were 2-2 this season. I think that big win was due to training camp.

Wowwww. What a series against Pballas.

Both games, I was losing at halftime, yet both games I came back to win it in nail-biting fashion.

Since season 6, my team has had a total of 2 (TWO!!) ties through the end of regulation. Today I had my 3rd, in a game that would decide if I would advance to the Championship game of the pro division.

I can't believe I managed to squeak by this very good team, while playing on the road today.

Great matches, Mr. Palumbo!

Now my guys get some much needed rest while I wait to see how that other semi-final series will shake out. It also looks to be living up to it's billing. Neck and neck.

I've gotta say, the intensity of the competition in division I.1 is definitely rather refreshing. You just never know what's gonna happen.

That was a beating.....

I was definitely pretty surprised by the results. Did you lose a lot of energy down the stretch or something?

I feel like every time I think I understand the metrics of this game, something flips it on it's head and confuses me all over again.

I guess it means I won't be heading to the cup winner's cup next season. I think i liked my chances there better than in the champions league, but I definitely can't complain. I never thought in a million years that I'd manage to run the table in my first season in division I.1

I'm looking forward to continuing to grow our rivalry next season.

oh heyyy... I just got a pm that I placed 2nd in the top art competition for my handball pennant that I made.

That's pretty cool, considering that I think those awards almost always go to the "sexy women" pennants lmao.

Goalie was low 70ish the majority of the players were high 70 low 80.... Then brought in 3 player's in the mid 90. Still not sure why it was so lopsided. Figured 3 game's..

hmmm. maybe that was it? My lowest guy right now (after that game) is Keenan, and he's 79 (so I think he was actually 80-81 going into game 1). So pretty much my entire roster was low-mid-high 80s on energy. My goalies were 81 and 89 (Russ and Copeland respectively).

I'm not sure what the falloff / fallout is from being more tired, but maybe your goalie being low was what caused the significant handicap?

I dunno. I don't know enough about how energy works to know if it's a linear or exponential decay in player effectiveness...

I switched up the goalies this year and played them lots to build chemistry and experience. Hence the low energy. The other aspect is that I will spend energy in regular seasons games to get OTR.