თემა: II.1

I wrote a reply to this... but got douched over by the fucking 7:30 pm page log-out/reset.

Summary (because I'm lazy and sort of annoyed at the moment):
- surprise that my team's AQ is that good
- general complaints about crappiness of random SA pulls in recent seasons
- sadness that the draft this time around appears to be so damn shitty (since that's the only place I seem to get decent players at all anymore).

*nods* This draft so far is a horrid lunk of crap for so far also.

I've found 4 B's, a handful of C's, and a crap ton of D's. This draft looks horrible.

I've found 8 B's, 12 C's, and otherwise D's. At least I'm guaranteed a probable B. In any case, the A's I've drafted recently haven't even turned out that great anyway in terms of having good qualities in the right places.

Well the big karmic pimp-slap came and knocked my bitch-ass down a peg. I guess that's what I get for being excited about defeating 4 very good teams a couple of weeks ago.

Since then, I've dropped 4 games... to teams ranked 6th or below. Granted, I've been in camp during the last week, but still... my team should be competitive enough to do better than 2-4 in my last 6 games.

This game still completely baffles me at times...

That explains why it was a close game. Still not sure how I managed to pull out a win though. Thank you random factor I guess.

*sniffles* Curley just went down for 14 days.

It looks like I will have the second U.S. 20,000 seat arena in 4 days.

The Asshai Shadow Babies seem to have been the first to complete the arena.

I think they tweaked the sim this season, because I feel like home court advantage is WAY more prevalent now than in the past.

I don't know about anyone else, but 6 of the 8 games I've lost this season were on the road. And I've had some damn close wins on the road beside that.

I mean sure, I got some of my starters back from camp in time for my game on wednesday against Joshua Eagles, but to beat them by as much as I did... I'm thinking that's the home court bonus kicking in.

Considering I haven't even built any media centers in my arena yet, I think it's effect is kind of overpowered right now.

I don't understand the rush to be the first to finish the arena. Is it just for bragging rights or what? ... I mean sure, you get slightly more $$$ in ticket sales for a few games to finish the season... but you'll be no better off in the grande scheme than someone who finishes 20,000 2 weeks from now... or 3.

Everyone is on a level playing field come sponsorship time at the end of the season. Sponsors don't reward you for being the first to finish construction (to my knowledge).

I could've rushed mine along... to try to finish it faster... earlier in the season. But why? I figured that was silly. From my perspective, it made infinitely more sense to make ensure that I had a level 14 SA finished a few days before next season's drafted players arrive. I'll still have 20,000 seats in time for sponsorship day, but I'll be much better off than had I arbitrarily pushed to finish my arena earlier in the season.

It's a reference to a previous discussion about racing to finish the arena now that we've finally arrived at that point, nothing more.

It just happened to work out that I am finishing mine soon, in time for the sponsors. My sports academy has been sufficiently effective.

well it's definitely a cool thing. I'm looking forward to mine being done and being able to invest everything into facilities and players going forward. In a way, I feel like it'll be so liberating.

Also... friendly reminder: If you haven't already, don't forget to assign your arena custodians again now that your construction is finishing.

I personally weight the value of a 20,000 seat arena way lower than both of you. The only team that a full arena makes sense for is probably just Mojo. Everyone else would be off spending that money on facilities and players to get better on the court. If you're in Div II, your #1 goal should be getting to Div I by any means necessary, then staying there. Once that is secured, you should focus on making sure your next generation of players are on your team. THEN stadium. My opinion only. Good luck all.

Just to add context to that previous comment, what does it cost to build a full stadium -- $570MM? The payback on that investment is many many seasons. If you take a fraction of that investment...say $150MM...to buy players to get you to Div I you would be way better off financially in the short (and long!) term.

My arena will be maxed in 13 days, so not too far behind. I'm putting everything into accessories now to take advantage of that capacity.

As for why to focus so hard on the arena rather than buying players? For me personally, I resent the imposition on my life posed by the auction deadlines, particularly since the vast majority are at a completely awful time when I could never be available even if I was willing. Building up the arena is the only way to ensure the long term financial stability of my team. With a maxed out arena, I know that even if I do poorly, I can still keep upgrading facilities.

Handball is also quite unfriendly to non-PRO teams. There's no option to load past lineups, and there's no individual player ratings, so as far as I'm concerned, it takes way more effort than it's worth to optimize my team for every match. Maxing out the arena just makes the most sense for a lazy team like mine.