That's 8 teams advancing, 6 were cast out.

That means for 2nd round we have 2 from Elite and 6 from Level 1

The matchups are:

Hemet Hooligans @ IONS
Space Kraken @ GLADIATORI ROMA
Blue Devils @ Chattanooga Express
London Silverbacks @ Black Dragons
Baltic Stars @ Paxtang Black Panthers
Trnava Saints @ Sunrise City Prairie Dogs
Caplit e salama @ TOOL
Ruhrpott Miners @ Raspberry Bush

Good luck to everyone!

Strange than after all these years it's so hard to find community friendly managers to keep the forum a bit alive.

Playoffs are coming.

Next Tuesday the Wildcard Playoff

Baltimore Blue Crabs @ Paxtang Black Panthers
Two teams I do wonder about against each other.
The Crabs are quite new in the league, won their division twice until Sfniners08 switched to Monarchs-Region and spoiled the fun since last season. Progress on the team development is at least on the team overview page quite low this season and the manager did not log in since almost 2 weeks. That gives the team roughly 10 days before falling BOT. If no standard settings are stored (ut likely there are) the game will be over before the start.
The Panthers on the other hand did change something in their management strategy, which did put that former powerhouse into the 2nd tier of competitors since almost 20! seasons.
This season, both teams had a match and the Panthers won.
Given the current status of the Crabs, it would be a big booboo to not pick the Panthers here.

Hemet Hooligans @ Fighting Frankonian
The Hooligans did not win the division, despite coming back from Elite with a quite impressive roster. But some surprising losses in the 1st half of the season did leave them behind the Panthers and they now have to face the division winner Frankonians. But lucky for the Hooligans, the Frankonians are quite new and their development is slow, won the division based on an easy division and an easy schedule and the team is on paper no match against the Hooligans. Hooligans should have no problems in this one.

Hopping Rabbits @ Blue Devils
The Rabbits did only make the playoffs, since the other teams in the conference are either even newer or BOT. That's not their fault, it's just a fact that the teams development is far from that of their opponent and they can only take the money and invest it into the future.
The Devils should be way better and should win this in a landslide.

Orono Ancient Snappers @ Doves
The management plan of the Snappers seems to be a slow build approach, since the level the team is playing on could be better after so many seasons. But since everyone can build their team as they like, they have to face a quite equally matched Doves team, which is a season younger and went all in on their roster, while this does not reflect in their overall strength.
The Doves won games this season and last season against the Snappers and I think the chances to upset the Doves in this game are quite slim.

Good luck to everyone!

It very well fits my profile. I was much more active a few seasons ago, but since then RL took a serious toll on me. Hopefully I'll get back to normal soon. As soon as I put in order the most important pieces in place, irl. The plan is - about in September.

_This_ September, mind you ;-).

ps. Very good evaluation of my team, btw. I see our chances against Doves very similarly. The outside chance for an upset. If their players run low on fitness. The good part is I've finally found time to sit down and take a serious look at the PB. I've decided something went a little bit not as planned, when we punted 1 yd from GL in one match I analysed recently :-D.

Edit: Sclerosis. Not punted. A field goal. Attempt missed, by the way

The main focus for a new(er) team should be (after stadium build), how to
A) get the roster better
B) train the players
C) sustain the roster over the next 5-10 seasons
That's all just small management tasks, once you figure out the overall strategy.
A) training, YA, Draft, Free Agents, that's in short all there is.
For training you need the coaches strategy and then it's just execution
For YA you need either highest regular setup or even premium and then just every u p d a t e s e l e c t a player, find the physicals and then decide on the future or that player
For Draft, it's more or less luck, sort every 3 month 10-15 and you get some of them, the rest is luck anyway
For Free Agents, build a Transfer Agent profile or more and then wait for it, or look for steals during the season and end or the season.
B) this I mean in context of went to start where and when to stop where. The way between is just execution
C) There are managers prefering a revolving roster, so every season a few players and then every retiring player has already a backup, and there are some wanting the big bang, grind the roster to retirment and start over.

What I don't see with your team, as far as I did watch it is,
For A) you buy young players, but you sell also some players and the overall strength of the team does look to go sidewards. That means training is not going well as it seems, or what you gain is what you sell. Drafties should already be just future players, not instand help.
For B) I did not scout the players, but wage and strength of the team do not show the team does gain much right now. Likely you balance a lot out to avoid wage shocks, but that tactic will help you not much. Because A-skills do give the players major boost, so as long as they are segnificant less developed as the opponent players, you have an disadvantage.
For C) Not sure you have such a play already.

Overal I think if you get clarity on the 3 topics the effort to manage them would not be that much more than you spend already. The biggest effort anyone can sink into this game (beside writing long posts) is scouting the opponent and adjusting the playbook/settings accordingly. THAT brings a big boost, but needs also a lot of time. The rest is somewhat of a few minutes every day or 1h every update.

Thanks

What I was actually referring to, was lack of activity on the forum . In fact, I do post on the forum now and then, but much fewer posts go to my Family. Well, that would be Monarchs .

But since you wrote a long and very detailed advice I'm going to take a few minutes to address the issues you've (rightly!) pointed out.


First of all, it took me quite a while to figure out how I want those 55 spots of the top depth chart distributed. Of course I've started with the in-game suggestion, in the depth chart. But then, watching how the energy loss is distributed, I've started making corrections. The first to go were 6th WR and CB.
I made further adjustments, after I learned that WB and FB (the "bones") are the same formation. Until then, I was actually quite keen to use them more than the majority of teams. To take advantage of the significant, in my head, difference. I've decided FB is not going to play as important role as I had planned, so I redistributed the top arrangement to reflect that change.

The same, to some degree, goes to the distribution of the entire 70 seniors. It makes sense to add at this point, that I am a person who really needs all the details to be fixed precisely, and with the very deep reasoning behind it. Even though I am well aware, that the RZA engine doesnt require _that_ much analysis, I just can't say simply, "10 DL total sounds about right - lets try that". No, I had to go thru the lengthy process of calculating the average shifts, let me call them, at all positions, taking into account how many of them are in each formation, taking into account the likelyhood of the formation being used. Brr.. Im hopeless
Also, it was only a few days ago, when I had enough time to set up properly the friendly, that I've learned KI doesn't lose any energy (playing exclusively as KI and PU), so it is not likely I'll ever have any use for the 3rd KI/PU.

In addition, though I think may be I should've started from it - I am even more hopeless regarding, let me call it - ideality of the squad. The reason you see so much in the way of buying and selling young players of, objectively, comparable value, is those bought have traits, or traits better in my opinion suited to the position, and those sold don't, or not as good. Let me stress - I DO realise it is not really worth the hassle. Just because the CB gains the LoRe trait, doesn't, I believe, improve his chances of a successful interception, more than once, may be twice a season. And it'll be likely a friendly game . But like I said, it's me. Me, whose final stage of checking and double checking and re-checking the data for my phd thesis took 3 yrs. Resulting in getting the opinion of "he's sloooow", resulting in not getting a good postdoc position, etc etc. It wasn't it came as a surprise. It's just my stupid brain, that I couldn't force to finish the bloody thing, because of silly voices in my head that pointed out all the lack of quality of the data and, hence, the reasoning based on those data, in the phd articles my collegues were happy were accepted and nobody criticised. A lil bit lengthy, but gives a perspective on my reasoning, also in RZA. Anyone with me, still? Hello! Back to RZA now

Similarly to traits, I am much too perfectionist regarding physicals. Part of the reason is somebody's complaint, stating, that in RZA a lineman without str 50 or a WR without spe 50, is a waste of the team spot. Bullshit, I know it is. And I've known for some time, but my fingers just can't be forced to stop that 49.7 str lineman from getting the push to those final 0.3 :-) .

Now you see the reason I keep replacing those players, who by now should have skills in their 40's, with youth fresh out of school, or from the market, or from the draft. Worse, I recently realised those perfect players I've cherished for a while, soon might wave me a goodbye. Like that talented and all QB, who will turn 27 next season...

On the brighter side, it's not that I am gonna get caught completely by surprise. The YA who are likely to ever make the top team all already "know" who will make space for them.
And yes, I do have a top squad, and a squad that rarely plays which is going to be the top squad when I finally fill the last missing positions in it, and the 2nd squad where those who don't make it to the current top55 pick up exp, and finally the one where the major thing is not too low fitness (because as you might guess from the above, training PC is a very rare event for Snappers, even though the facility affecting PC has been bought ages ago, "because it'll be used a lot one day" - I wonder if it's not too outdated or with too much rust, by now ).
Also on the brighter note, I am no longer picking a player in the academy "because he is superfast". He's got to be 16, or 17, at most, now. Also took me some time to figure out why it's important (it was only last year, when I finally found enough time to check the difference between my intuition and how much _really_ can gain per season a player without an AC. And if he won't be 50+ by the time he's got his primary skill to 42

To finish this essay (), i really expect to speed up things a bit in a few months. Unlikely to happen sooner, though. A private toll, unrelated to RZA, unrelated even to my sloooowness, a series of hits irl I took recently, don't allow me to realistically expect it happen sooner. But once it happens, I'll definitely find the way to at least to some extent stop building only, and start finding pleasure in looking for the ways to actually win a game or two against an active team

Although to be completely sure of this, Pete would need to remove that "pushing the red" feature

I did start pushing the red AFTER I did reach my skill limit on all skills I want to be at that level.

To be honest, I don't know, whether that did help much.

It seems it is more important to have the RIGHT players in certain positions above the skill limit and other even below. But I will scout further and then I might change again my training.

Despite and regardless of upsets and puzzles and mysteries and wonders and strange stuff, my prediction.


Wildcard Playoff
Hopping Rabbits vs. Blue Devils => Devils
Orono Ancient Snappers vs. Doves => Doves
Baltimore Blue Crabs vs. Paxtang Black Panthers => Panthers
Hemet Hooligans vs. Fighting Frankonian => Hooligans

My favorites:
AC
Black Dragons or Trnava Saints
NC
Hemet Hooligans

Bowl
AC will win

Only 3 teams did survive, 1 from Elite and 2 from Level 1, 5 got defeated.

That makes the list for round 3 quite short:

mystics @ Hemet Hooligans
Black Dragons @ Pizti Beltzak
Space Kraken @ Raspberry Bush

Good luck to al!