Subject: I.1

frecsi is one of the best managers in the game. Their rebuild a few seasons ago was brilliant. Last season I started rotating players in and out. This season I am tweaking it a wee bit more. Goal is to have 2-3 more points of energy by the end of the season for my A line , as I had players near 100 last year who could have cycled in and out. The season before was even worse. The goal is to make final 4 NC each season and finish top 4. Then catch up with the players in my roster to match the top 4 spots starting next season.

After my next match in CWC, I will be in 2nd place in my group. I am going for a 5-3 record and a 2nd place finish. With 2 teams going under, I upgraded my projected 3rd place finish.

yeah, honestly, I'm pretty happy i was able to "hold my own" against him. Actually, I'm pretty happy that I've been pretty reasonably competitive in my group at all. It makes me confident that I'm doing things well with my "long play strategy."

I mean... comparing my team to frecsi 's, my "top 14" players are about 3 years younger on average, while my team as a whole is about 3.5 years younger on average.

Despite that age gap, my average OR is only 409.5 and 594.9 (respectively) behind his. Since most of my players train around 150-225 OR a season (depending on their age and CL), this essentially means that by the time my team is as old as his, I SHOULD be about as good or better than he is right now.

Since he's currently one of the most dominant teams in the world, that's pretty cool to think about.

hahaha yeah, you're gonna have to be carrying us this season with those 2 dead teams in your group since mine doesn't look to be giving me any favors.

My shots from 9m. Are killing me.

I dunno... it looks like your team is actually more proficient shooting from 9m than they are defending against those types of shots (by that I mean your 9m shooting percentage is higher ranked than your 9m save percentage).

Anyways... you have the 2nd best 6m shooting percentage in the league, the top ranked 6m shots on goal in the league, and the top ranked 6m goals scored in the league. I'd infinitely rather have those things going for me than better 9m shooting, which, under even the best circumstances, accounts for only 1/3 of your goals scored.

Check out your 2min penalties too though. You've committed 27 more of these (nearly 50% more) than the league leader, and only one team is worse than you in this category. That's the equivalent of nearly an ENTIRE GAME that you're playing with one less player compared to the league leader. To me, that's far more problematic than a missing a few 9m shots (which most teams at this level do quite a bit of).

But all of this is skewed anyways since you haven't played all your opponents the same number of times. As of today, I've played the top 6 teams 2x each, and everyone else (with the exception of [handball_team=15934]) just once. That can lead to some pretty titled year-to-date stats, ya know?

Couple of pretty nice wins today at the international level. Mine was more costly on energy than I would've liked, but a win is a win.

The first game of this champion's league season will likely haunt me though. I got whooped so badly in it that I still haven't managed to bring my goal differential into positive territory (even though I have a winning record). If I end up with another win or two (4-5 wins at the end of the qualification round), I'll still likely struggle to advance as a result of that darn goal differential..

BUT.

Our ranking is leveling up quite nicely. We were right on the cusp of having extra teams in international competition even BEFORE today. If we manage to finish the season strong, we just might get more teams at the international level next season for the first time in... well, ages.

Even if we don't achieve it this season, another successful / winning campaign next season will almost assure it I suspect.

We're definitely moving in the right direction on that front.

I just noticed that II.3 is now locked.

hmmm. weird. along with III.1 and III.2

i looked at II.3 just a few days ago and it wasn't, but I did notice at the time that it comprised of entirely dead teams.

What's the purpose of locking all of them though? what's the meaning? I don't think I've ever seen any division get locked before... and we've had plenty over the seasons that have had dead teams in them...

When the player base gets smaller, leagues which are unnecessary for holding active teams get locked. I've seen this in hockey which briefly had up to 10 or so leagues in division IV.

Apart from the active leagues, there are leagues full of dead teams. This is where they hold teams so that you could technically come back to the game, pay the fee, and get your team back (I vaguely recall something like this). I think they also tend to preserve the teams that are more accomplished. You can see all these leagues by going to your standings and changing the league in the URL. There are locked leagues in the U.S. up to III.9.

yeah... I noticed the same sort of thing in the leagues of other countries as well (Turkish handball looks very similar to U.S. handball these days).

I guess I just find it interesting that I've never seen it before in more than 3 real life calendar years. Just seems ... new.

blegh... draft rank lottery.

SAME. like whats the point of even spending a few extra million on the staff market if I'm going to get 6th with perfect staff an lvl 15 SA.

Last season I was ranked 5th, and this season 4th. Last season, I was one of two teams with maxed SA and staff. This season I'm one of three teams with maxed SA and staff. Next season, there will be 6 teams with maxed SA and staff.

So basically, my beef with it is that essentially ALL of the competitive advantage I should've had from maxing out my SA earlier than others was destroyed by the lottery these last two seasons.

Depending how the "pre-draft lottery" rankings work*, I may never again get a 1st overall pick.

*I still haven't gotten an answer as to how teams are ranked PRIOR to the draft lottery when their facility and staff levels are the same - ie, what happens when there are 6 level 15 SAs with maxed staff? The 6th "ranked" team can still only drop or gain 3 spots in the rankings, so if the "pre draft lottery rankings" are randomized, and I get shafted with the 6th seed, I won't be able to draft higher than 3rd, and I could be drafting as low as 9th. Despite having MAXED FACILITIES AND STAFF.

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I still say that the lottery should only be used for teams that have the same level facilities. Ie. have a lottery for the 6 teams with maxed facilities to determine the order they select. Have a lottery for all the level 14 facility teams, and so and so forth.

It makes zero sense to me that a team with level 14 SA is drafting first overall this season when there's 3 teams with maxed facilities.

In other, non-complainy news, DST totally threw me for a loop today. Thought I had missed the opportunity to change my tactics, but realized I had an extra hour to do it.

I've gotta think the mismatched DST all around the world does a number to people in international trade / finance.