Subject: II.3

It helps if you build triples for your stadium. I get up to 8,000,000 per home game in ticket sales, 1,000,000-2,000,000 per home game in souvenir sales, 13,239,977 per week from my media sponsor, and roughly 2,500,000 per week from skyboxes. For every exhibition, I still earn about 1/8 of the amount I earn for home games (you can take advantage of this by scheduling exhibitions with teams with large arenas).

I was also able to build a team capable of sticking around in division 2 by spending up to 10,000,000 per player for 2 lines and a goalie. In addition, I bought (probably after finishing my arena and when I started to build my training facility towards level 15 from level 10) a lot of cheap (flawed) prospects with mostly good qualities that have turned into good players for this level. Young players with 5 CL, players with one bad quality, or players with OR in the 300's as they are approaching 16 years old are really cheap. Róbert Mezovský cost me 120,000 and has ended up with good CL for a 27 year old as well as one of the better players on my team.

With that said, some managers that started later than me have not found it too costly to pay for a team capable of competing in division II - what worked for my team may not work for other teams. In addition, you can take advantage of the draft by building your sports academy and staying in division III where nobody else will actively scout players. Generally, it also isn't good to invest in prospects with a lower level training facility.

*have found it too costly

You want to drop down? I've been trying and failing for about 3 seasons now. I keep trying to walk that line between being good enough to gain some OTR but bad enough to demote, and I always fail on that second part. It's getting quite annoying.

Have you tried playing your forwards on defense and defensemen in goal and on offense when you need to lose? You could just play your prospects when you are winning too much.

Unless you primarily want to demote for the draft, you could just try to be a good division II team. I have the 12th best OTR in the country as a good division II team and have a fair chance at getting good prospects in at least the midseason draft.

Or you could sacrifice OTR for a better chance with the draft.

I wanted to demote for the draft. I was hoping to build my team with prospects, but I may have to go a different route and start purchasing 18-21 year olds. I was hoping to be able to bring up some strong US talent, but I don't see that happening.

Sacrificing OTR isn't an option. It's way too important to throw the entire season just to demote. The lost OTR will punish my team for seasons. I was trying to walk the line to offset that, but my half-attentive approach won't work for that. I've gotten too used to setting the team on autopilot.

As has been said, you need to maximize your arena in order to afford more facility upgrades.

I also scouted your player Vernon Mena , and he could be significantly better if he was trained to a more suitable ratio. Defensemen should have Pas and Agr trained to half of the value of Def (i.e., a 2:1:1 ratio of Def: Pas: Agr). You've got more flexibility for how much Tec and Sho to train, and since he has a high Tec quality, it's perfectly reasonable to train it half as much as Def as well.

So, for his 583 Def, he should have 291 Pas and Agr, anywhere up to 291 Tec, depending on how much tolerance you have for him taking penalties, and somewhere around 230 shooting.

I haven't scouted any other players, but goalies should have a 2:1:1 ratio of Goa: Pas: Tec, Centers should be 2:1:1 for Off: Pas: Tec, and wings should be 2:1:1 for Off: Tec: Agr. Centers and Wings also need some shooting. How much exactly to train is up to you, but I train shooting on my offensive players between 60% and 80% of Off, depending on how high their Sho quality is.

thanks guys. a few good tips there to get myself going in a better direction. maybe i'll be able to beat you in ten seasons. haha

I thought that is wasn't possible to get prize money for promoting to a level where you had already gotten the prize money for promoting in the past, but I just got the prize money for promoting, even though this is my third time promoting to I.1 (though each time has been from a different division II league). Maybe I'm remembering a limitation (from when they added the penalty for purposely trying to lose in the playoffs) that wasn't ultimately implemented.

Wasn't it a 20% bonus the FIRST time you promote

You lose less OTR the first time you promote. This might be true in practice, though my OTR has tended to be among the best immediately after I've promoted for a second time in soccer and hockey (probably just due to doing well in division II).

Maybe it's only the OTR that is affected in that way and not the monetary bonus for promoting (which I've just received for the third time, though each time was from a different division II league).

"Ahh, I see" said the blind man.

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I came in 19th, that puts me back in II-3 doesn't it?

I think that puts you in II.2. The lowest seed among the teams that directly relegate goes to II.1 and so on.

Damn, haven't scouted them AT ALL. Better get to it.

Just keep scouting II.3. We'll both ask PPM very nicely to put you there instead of II.2 and I'm sure they'll go for it.

They seem more talkative then we are as well.