Subject: I.1

@reverist

I was considering buying back some of my old players once they hit free agency. It would make a lot of sense, since i realized that player season bonuses last forever (even after a player has been sold). keenan for instance, sold for $96m... which... if he had been on my team, he would've only costed $48m to keep him. Not bad at all for a player of his caliber.

My issue is... I continue to struggle logging in regularly. I missed the free agency deadline for yet another of my players this season, and consequently lost him when i shouldn't have done so. So it probably just doesn't make sense for me to rebuy players that I'd have to keep careful watch over.

Thanks for the heads up on this stuff though. It's always good to know when the superstar americans playing overseas become available.

I thought about sending you a message on Keenan, but didn't know if you'd get it, so I figured I could at least post here!

yeah no worries! i didn't see it until after the fact so it's no biggy. but thanks for thinking about it.

Hey all, Just wondering if you have any guys that might make it on the U21 team. We have 8 roster spots open at present, and could especially really use a solid defensive RW. Also, if you've gotten rid of a potential player any time in the last six seasons and remember him, please let me know and I'll check him out!

handy tip for keeping track of players, put them in your "followed players" list. There's no limit to it (mine's at over 1000 players now). I used to use that to make finding u19 guys easier. you can sort by age, OR, and can easily click to see their team or their country, etc.

Before I got lazy 2 seasons ago, I'd been tracking all the u.s. born players in the game since season 8. complete with CL history (i'd copy and paste my "followed players list" into an excel table at the end of each season.

Makes for a bit of extra work, but it's soooo good for keeping stuff organized.

As far as pointing you in the direction of some decent defensive wings for the u21... i unfortunately can't help much with that piece.

only 21 year olds that I have in my list that you might be interested in are
Leroy Rivers - he's built as an offensive wing
Jorge Streeter - defensive pivot on a dead team

only 20 year olds I have in my list that you don't already have on the team are:
Bert Perez - defensive right wing with SUPER low OR. It'd be good if her were 17 or 18. But he's 20.
Donnie Tackett - left offensive wing. currently injured, poorly trained (nearly all points went to FiP), and he's even lower OR than the previous option.

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Sorry to not help more. But if you're truly desperate, that 20 year old with nearly 1000 OR can plug a hole. just don't count on him for much more than that.

Make sure to add anyone that could be feasibly of interest from the Big fatty cats while it's still possible.

You already have my only notable player in the age group who currently plays for the Doppelgangers - Lincoln Harris. The only other player I seem to have had from the age group is Tim Cosby (RB) who plays for the Sticky Toads HBC (U.S. II.2), but he's not worthwhile unless you have no depth at the position.

The youth NT's tend to struggle to fill some positions some seasons. You'll probably just have to play the best offensive/balanced RW you can find for the whole match. At the very least, you could use it as an excusive to focus more on using fast breaks.

Thanks guys! Quick question: I have one right wing, but he's just not defensive. The guy I'm playing on defensive RW is a left preferred side, but is much, much better defensively than the right preferred side guy. So much so that it *seems* to me to be worth the deduction if I have no other option. Do we have any idea how bad the penalty is for playing on the wrong side, if that's what it comes to?

I think it's pretty bad an better to just use the offensive RW.

Try playing a challenge with your own team, and then try again after switching the sides of your LW and RW (unless both are UW's) to get an idea.

i think i heard sometime a while ago. like... a WHILE ago. that the penalty for playing a wing on his "wrong" side was 25%. so if he's normally 1000 OR, on the left side (as a left hander) he'd be effectively as a good on the right side as a 750 OR right hander.

with backs i think i heard that the penalty is 15%.

I think the most important thing in handball is actually fip (and not shooting / blocking). I actually think consensus training on shooting / blocking is probably higher than necessary. I won 3rd place in the playoffs last season with effectively only 2 true offensive players in my starting lineup (ie. people with the SHO stat properly trained).

I would go with cap on this one. I think it's far better to play an offensive RW on defense than it is to play a defensive LW on defense on the right side.

"Make sure to add anyone that could be feasibly of interest from the Big fatty cats while it's still possible"

???

what does this mean? From what i can tell, max has been active (ie.... his team isn't dying). what's the time issue regarding adding players of his?

He posted that he's quitting in the I.1 hockey forum. Perhaps it might just be in hockey like what happened with the manager of the Oregon Sixgunner's hockey team. It's unfortunate since he's been around for so long and is one of the key producers of talent in all 4 sports.

Thanks guys! I think I might switch them back (fortunately we just have a friendly coming up--two in fact, both against Estonia. Might be a fun test to try it one way and then another).

I have been operating under the assumption he's going to let all four sports go, and added the guys I think we can add under the 20-21 age range. There might be a guy for the U19 roster on his team that could be added.

oh i see. gotcha. yeah, might be worth reverist or the other national managers in handball sending him a quick note to confirm which sports he's pulling back from.

four accounts is a lot to manage. even when i cared and was logging on daily, i wasn't really keeping up with all four successfully. I actually can't believe that you've been able to do it as long as you have without having any burnout. you're a god among us tbh.