Subject: Promotion/Playoffs

In IV, does every side who finishes top, play in a play off?
I know that the best points/goal difference teams go up automatically,
but I was wondering if I'd have to play a playoff if I finish 1st this season.

the reason I ask, is because my IV is probably the most easy one there is, with all the teams having started this season, and I'm assuming I'll come top.
and, I'd get thrashed in a play off, and I don't want my fan mood to drop stupid amounts.

thanks in advance.

Yep, the top 16 sides in IV auto promote, the rest face a playoff against a team finishing 5th to 8th in Div III.

cheers.

looks like I'm going to recieve a thrashing :|
any ideas on how to avoid the resultant fan mood drop?

I really can't be doing with losing supporters.

try and win :)

Seriously, you'll have to wait and see who you draw - you may get lucky and get at team that's turned bot (so you can plan for their fixed tactics).

However, if you do draw a strong side my advice would be to set up defensively to limit their chances - it won't be pretty, but it might be effective and you could even sneak it with just one scoring chance.

make sure you lose your friendlies... if you are winning all your league games it willnot drop your fan mood but will help keep your ranking down. that way if you do lose the diference in rankings should keep down the impact of losing

I think you are currently the 41st best IV side in terms of leading your Div, but that could easily change with a few draws here and there.
Supporters are rubbish anyway. Make them stand in the rain whilst watching a 10-0 defeat.

the whole point of the changes to fan mood was to reduce the severity of the fan mood drop when beaten by higher placed sides - it's nowhere near as bad as it used to be - some people lost and got increases I seem to recall from last year

thanks for all the help.
I think I'm just have to scout the opposition and specialise some tactics for the match, and limit damage.

am I right in saying that supporters mood changes worse/better for 'important matches' like a playoff?

I just know i'm definitely not good enough to win a playoff, and getting promoted would be a ticket to thrashings every week.

Losing a playoff did used to have a big impact, but I think the devs have now lessened the potential damage.

So as has already been mentioned, if you can keep it respectable against good opposition the impact could be next to nothing.
(edited)

How did you know which team you are facing Dfuzz?

He doesn't... yet. He means once he knows, he'll scout them (I think) :)

Yeah, steelers is right.
I don't know which team I'll be facing up until the final standings,
but I'm pretty sure there's a topic somewhere that actually covers who's stood where towards the end of the season.

and yeah, once I find out it'll be tactic creating time.

how do i find out how im ranked compared to other div 4 managers

Go to your club page and click on the number to the right of your Region. Not sure if you can filter it by Series.

I don't think you can filter by series.

but towards the end of the season there's usually a thread somewhere that has the playoff kind of info on, there was last season.

Whoops, i only read his post without looking at the context of thread (so thought he actually meant rank).

I can see he means a different thing totally, and you are right, this will come out later in the season.