Subject: I.1

Thanks reverist, Patty16, and Headhog!

I never thought I'd actually manage to win the championship in I.1 given the way dynasties have dominated in the United States. In the first 36 seasons, only 3 teams had won. In the last 3 seasons since season 36, 3 teams have won.

When I started in season 5, there were more established teams ahead of me than currently exist overall today. It took me 5 seasons to promote to division II, and even then I only made it because I had high OTR and was moved up to replace a dead team. I promoted to I.1 5 times overall and didn't stick in I.1 until season 28 (I was in II.1, II.2 twice, and II.3 twice). Season 28 was my first season in the playoffs in I.1, and I've been in the playoffs every season since then except for season 30. I've been competitive in the playoffs since season 33 (except for season 34) and made the finals for only the second time since last season.

It looks like I'm the second team to start after season 1 and win (the first was the Bouncing Pucks) and the third to have started below I.1. (including the Bouncing Pucks and Razorback Thugs).

I'm also happy to see that my relatively radical method for training defense can be effective. To some extent, I was relatively lucky in tems of the RNG, but I also think that my defense managed to carry my team and didn't hurt as much as I worried it might have in terms of penalties.

One thing I'll say that having a competitive team with older players is ridiculously expensive in terms of free agency on top of salary. It's been manageable enough. I don't think it would be sustainable to have a team like mine though if I was finishing in 6th to 8th place. It worked out since I become competitive as my mostly homegrown players became older and subject more to free agency (though despite only having 4 foreign starters, I have 3 more U.S. players I bought from other teams).

Rakeem Cianek (a longtime member of U.S. national teams) finally managed to win a I.1 championship after playing for 6 teams at the age of 37. Of those 6 teams, 3 of them were top U.S. teams (Momentum, Spirit Crushers, and Montana Miners). Goaltender Ron Wolf gets the MVP award though after shutting out the Bouncing Pucks twice and the Razorback Thugs once in his last three games.

Grats on the victory! It's always nice to see a new team win the playoffs.

I burned lots of energy on the National Championship + Champions league + a credit tournament this season, so I figured it would be a rough final series.

The financials definitely make it hard to stay on top for an extended time period. My current lineup is the most homegrown it has been since I started due in large part to free agent expenses limiting player purchases.

So apparently I qualified for the Cup Winner's Cup. I have no idea how that happened. I also think I need to beef up my team ASAP not to let us down haha.

Good luck guys this season

It looks like we lost II.4.

(( we need to invite some friends to play this game , getting worst

Someone decided to bid $100,000,000 on a 37 year old from my team (whose OR is a bit inflated by training unnecessary attributes and who only has about 2-3 useful seasons left). I ended up getting a comparable player that's younger for half that price.

You don't get any compensation for that though, do you? Still, that's fascinating.

You only receive compensation for 26 year olds. Even so, I'd rather pay 50,000,000 for a new player than 100,000,000 for re-signing an older player that isn't any better and will probably decline faster.

After paying 500,000,000 to retain 3 of my key players over the last few weeks, I didn't want to spend that much on a 37 year old, even though I could have.

Wow. Rich people problems lol. I am several seasons away from pulling that kind of money in!

I will be letting my hockey team go. I will have some players and staff on the market over the next few days. Not much great for the elite teams, but the mid-tier may find use in players, such as Douglas.

Oh man, sorry to hear this! So will you still retain basketball, at least for a while?

Yes, I plan to.

Damn!! I hate seeing managers leave the game!