Subject: Federation Cup

So I'll finally be playing against a real user in this Federation Cup and in fact, this will be my first match against an Indian user since I joined the game. So after 8 months playing against pointless bots and out of frustration trying to creating a new arcade league of my own, here I am with a match that has some context and a little bit of excitement for my new club. However, the opponent doesn't look very active as I just checked his squad and he has a bunch of 35 yo+ players with two 40yo + strikers, one of them being 44 years old. Clearly, he looks as good as a bot currently but technically, yes he is a real user. Obviously, now I'm not as excited as I previously was but will still be looking forward to a nice game. On a sidenote, his club has rolled out some really good juniors for our NT in the past so it's good to see that he's atleast taking care of that.

I don't think I have any threat from his strikers but his mids and defenders along with the keeper look good. I think the game will mostly be about my strikers trying to find an opening to score and his mids dominating without leaving much of a mark on my keeper. My vastly inexperienced players will have to push themselves to get a win.

My squad for the game will be:

1 Kimon Dionisiou GK
2 Farshid Ettehadieh DEF
3 Felipe Gil DEF (Ecuador NT defender)
4 Aris Mamelias DEF
5 Barney Ashton DEF (Potential Australia NT defender)
6 Gregorio Banchero MID
7 Theo Malaquias DEF
8 Rajmund Sobczak MID
9 Márton Bereczki MID
10 Bartholomäus Nietnagel ATT (My best striker)
11 Xenofontas Tsagas ATT

12 Jerzy Plewnia GK
13 Nick Cousins DEF (Irish NT defender)
14 Achraf Hadrioui MID
15 Anderson Salles Salgado ATT
16 Teido Meelak MID


There are 1/2 defenders who I wouldn't play against a tougher opponent but I think they'll still stand good against weak strikers. For example, Cousins can easily play in place of Ettahadieh but I'll go ahead with the training routine for now and reserve him for the later games. Dasdidar doesn't get a spot in the subs because of strong competition (and training routine) but maybe in the next game, he'll be in the subs and Ettahadieh will be replaced. There's also MacVean who is a potential Scottish defender (I'll get a lot when I sell him) who can easily raise his hand up later.
(edited)

So I'll finally be playing against a real user in this Federation Cup and in fact, this will be my first match against an Indian user since I joined the game. So after 8 months playing

This is ridiculous. They need to merge all the small countries (but leaving nationalities in the game) to stop this happening. Really, how many people are interested in playing bots for almost a year before playing someone else.

In a game of 10,000 people, you should not be waiting that long.

These other guys you aren't playing in the cup, are they playing your league match to get training still?

If you have too many trainees, feel free to send an sk-mail to determine who to get rid of so all your players get trained each week.

I think I need to point this out in the Dev forum.

Yeah, they are getting training in the league games. I have 2 completely different squads for both league and friendly games which means that every player in my team gets a game every week and is utilized fully.

Just had a quick scout and the team you are playing had basically the same rating you had last week.

I'd be putting out my number 1 team against him just to make sure you get to the semis as your League match this coming week looks pretty easy, and you are already the team with the most points of all div 2 teams (except for the other one in your league on 9 points, who you will just need to beat anyway)

Ah good, the way it was written made me think otherwise.

Good luck, I'll check in after the match next week to see how you go :) See if you can better your previous best

Leaving out 1-2 players, this is my main squad. I always play my weaker players (and younger) in the league games and the stronger players in the friendly/cup games as I usually win all league games even with my weak squad. It also ensures that my younger players get more training than my older players although really there's not a huge difference in the ages since both squads are pretty young.
(edited)

Yeah fair enough.

Hopefully you get the win.
It's definitely a good idea to play your best prospects in the league matches (league and cup get the same training), and the worse prospects in the friendly.

Once you are in Div 1 you won't have this opportunity, but then you'll be earning a lot more money, so will be able to just buy better players to start with haha

Once I get in Div 1, it will be easy to maintain my place there as my club is easily among the top 3-4 clubs. And because of that, my focus will be on training better Indian players for the NT instead of trying to win the League. I'll focus on winning the League, maybe 1-1.5 years from now (maybe more), by which time I'll have better coaches and plenty of money. But by then, fingers crossed, there will also be an International League to fight for which will have more parity and excitement.
(edited)

Getting excited about playing your first human controlled user? Looks like it will be a close game. He has even logged in a whole 5 times in the last month...basically a regular lol

Yeah, in many ways as good as a bot :(

Ah I don't know, when you can still see multiple logins in a month, that is still a semi-active user.

Generally in my head difficulty is based on activity and comes in 6 levels.

Super Active - very rare. Changes tactics for most matches. Most fun to play against
Active - active in forums and training.
Semi active - Logs in regularly but doesn't chat in forums; Talks in forums but isn't trying hard with their team (often old users who want to keep their connections)
Partially active - Their logins fill all the spaces but without seeing that, you wouldn't know they exist
Inactive - Human user but has zero logins recorded
Bot - says it all

At the same time, you could almost appoint a + or - to their rating based on their activity.
Super-active +4 ratings
Active +3 ratings
Semi-active - 0
Partially active -3
Inactive -4
Bot -7

It's all very subjective, but it is kind of how I think about it. Also any team using a default tactic you could probably take off another 3 rating points from any listed.

So I'd say you are up against a partially active team. Given you are both the same rating, I'd say this is equivalent to you having a +3 rating point advantage which is probably a 1 goal win.

Good luck, and hopefully you get to the semis and really get tested

Hmm, that's a nice angle to look at it. Yes, you can classify him as partially active and maybe introduce another category below that (which would be more apt) since he has 40+ y strikers and 35+ y other players. On top of that, he hadn't even replied to my mail when I had once mailed him. I don't know, maybe he's just too busy nowadays and is just logging in to prevent his team from being a bot and maybe might be more active in the future. That could also be the reason.

I'm positive that I'll reach the semis:)
(edited)

The game got a bit too close for my liking but...

on to the semi finals!

Their mids showed their class by putting in balls in the right position for their strikers, however my attack was relentless and eventually we managed to score more goals than the opposition and that's what matters in the end. Tsagas had a horrific game where he missed many chances. He always plays bad when I play him as a right forward. In the next game, I might swap his position with Nietnagal.

Now, if I get to play harsh killers in the semi finals, my path to the finals is guaranteed. But if I get either of Aguardilho FC or Lagends FC, my journey will most probably get over here.
(edited)