PowerPlay Magazine

Four games down with another one tonight and already the energy tactics are plain to see, though the choices are getting more difficult.

I for one am a big fan of using as little energy as possible throughout the regular season so that my players have as much left as possible for the playoffs.  

During season 1 this meant that I played almost every regular season league match on low importance except for a couple of times that I forgot to change it back after playing a cup match.  This worked out really well, with the team only losing 4 regular season matches.

Come season 2 and I decided to follow the same strategy again.  This time however, the competition was better and more evenly matched.  I ended up winning less than 50% of the matches during the first half of the season and was starting to doubt whether i made the right choice.  The miserly use of energy paid off during the second half of the regular season though as the team won 18 of 19 games to secure 3rd place.

Now season 3 has rolled around and it seams more teams in the OW i1 league are following the same energy strategy.  For the top teams this makes sense as they should be able to win games based on their superior team strength even on low energy.  However, this has also contributed to some big upsets so far with no team winning all four games thus far. 

For the other teams though is this the best way to go?  Would they be better off playing on normal and notching up some extra wins or is playing on low and having an advantage in the second half of the season a better option?

On the other hand, the use of high importance has also already been used by the current second placed team to fight out a win against one of the top 3 teams based on team strength.  Was this win worth the deficit in energy that this team will face against opposition for the remainder of the season?

Let us know your opinions on energy tactics.  What have you found works best? Do you stick to one type of importance or do you adjust it depending on who you are playing?