Association Concerns

First, I want to start by saying I really love this game, and I spend a lot of time playing it, supporting matches, discussing tactics and so on. Associations is my favorite feature of this game. Unfortunately, its entirely broken. Associations was designed as a system which was a competition between equal quality teams. It began that way, but over time exploits have become the norm; with the loan exploit being the first one many of us became familiar with. To nordeus credit, they have closed that exploit, and over time those teams have steadily been dying out. There is some talk about troll results, especially in associations, but i'm not going to get into that here, i'm solely going to focus on the exploits which should have closed a long time ago.

Now, the biggest issue is the association draw exploit, but i'm getting into this because a quick glance at the World Top 100 and it'll be seen by all. Plus, pretty much anyone that's in a 5* association in the platinum league has encountered one in all likelihood.

However, exploiting the draw isn't the only exploit in associations play currently. There are is another one, which I'll describe in detail while examining the case of the following player,

Attachment 84736

The player in question has a 1% skew on an 18 year old, and a speed skill at 524%. Add all 15 skills together and you a total of 2273. 2273/15 = 151.5. However, this player has an average quality of 130%. This means some of those skills are sub 1%. This is on the youngest aged player available as well. So how can a 130% 18 year old, have an average skillset of 151.5%?

This player belongs to a manager is the current world #32 association, XXX Sparta, so all can see it. World #4 Exclusive Ru, is also using this trick. How does this not fall under the "Using an alt to train your main" or "Power-Leveling" clauses, which is in the code of conduct, and against nordeus policy, and can be punished? It's pretty clear that manager in question has access to lower level accounts and is using those accounts to power-train said player, then sell to a higher level manager through negotiations.

We also have the problem of tanking, in an attempt to improve ones chances in associations, and only playing in the cup. How many managers playing the game with the intent of leveling up every season (which should be what nordeus pushes for) are having treble bids spoiled because a 150% team is showing up in their cup draw?

With that being said, I've seen nordeus make several great addition to improve the gaming experience of managers in this game in the 3 years that i've been playing. We've seen the new training system, live animations, associations, etc..., so I have faith that nordeus will one day fix this problem. That being said, this feature isn't even enjoyable for many nowadays. The draw exploiters can for the most part be avoided if one plays with a higher average quality; a few are around but not as many as exist at a 5* average quality. Unfortunately for many, this isn't a practical solution and this feature has hence, lost its allure. Building above a 5* average requires access to good farming, and since some markets get more free boosters than others, it's more challenging for managers from some nations to develop their teams. Add in the new transfer market, which at season reset is flooded with massive bids for the stronger players, several going up to the 35+ token range, replacing players isn't even an option (that's not to say the new TM is all bad, its nice being able to bid on players at any time of the day; just that cost wise it's impractical). Associations could be an outlet from the grind of the league, cup and cl campaigns against 6*+ squads for such managers; however, the current system has them thrust into a system where if fortunate enough to make platinum, will get thrown into the ring with draw exploiting associations like "Legends Never Die" or "System of a Down".

As an Asso that's made Plat last season, gotta say this is pretty spot on. Didn't expect it to be easy in any way, but some of the draws have been ridiculous. Whole Asso filled with tanking teams, weirdly high trained players, we're already seeing it all. -_-

Kinda sucks the joy out of an otherwise beauty of a game. Nordeus better fix em soonish.

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@pcmacdaniel
Thanks for that :)
I always wondered how folks were getting 18 year olds with 1% attributes.
I have faced many such teams and it is almost impossible to stop these players.

Coming to the topic, I do agree with your assessment that associations is a fun but broken feature.
One way to help fix it is using the suggestion that I have put forward in the past on the forum:
https://forum.topeleven.com/suggesti...s-totally.html

No promotion, no relegation(which is anyways not there), uniform 20% docking for all teams.
Helps with tanking, no "lower level" teams to buy from, your player will lose some skill with each season passing by.

What the heck are you talking about? It's normal that in platinum division every team is 6-7 stars rated. However, it's not that hard to compete with them. If you are just a good player, you can raise your team's quality to 6 stars by the middle of each season. Managing skills will do the rest.

Personally, I'm not tanking. I don't spend much money on game, I'm just trying to focus on getting good results by knowing the game, knowing the tactics and good countering. If you are motivated enough, you can compete with other teams in g1-plat without tanking. And also I don't think that tanking of certain players directly hurts players who achieve good results in league.

Greetings, I wish you good season's ending. Happy Holidays to you all! ☺

But I also find new transfer system rubbish. The only good change is the 4-minute periods. The rest, like creating bot-players by game (because their statistics are weird and unbalanced, for example DC has as good finishing as marking, what never happens in normal Top Eleven team, and it affects his quality, because he can be 95% and can be actually worse than my 80% DC whose stats are balanced) and of course the fact that managers from all levels fight for the same players. I think I don't need to explain why this one is crap.

I happen to currently be in a platinum association, and we're over 1350 points so I'm happy with how things are going for my team.

The thing is, platinum is broken. The 6*/7* team range works fine, it's the below 6* and above 7* ranges that are broken horribly. Exploiters are rare in the 6*/7* range, however they do exist. My association has an average quality of around 116% currently and haven't seen anything outside the norm this season. However we have members that have accounts in other associations that aren't in the 6*/7* range that have experienced problems. The member (who was our best player) that left at the start of the season, has another team in the platinum association AngelDevil, which is an 8* platinum this season, and has been 9* platinum, season's past. Another one of there members has his main account in our association still as they reduced to 4 members, and only bring in the other 2 members (if they wish to return) for the last weekend of the season, for the tokens. They've won every tournament, in which they've played w/ 4 members.

It might seem weird that they play with 4 members instead of 6. However, one must understand that the last 7 weekends in which they've played with a full 6 members, they've drawn Turkish Legend (World Top 15), 5 times. Turkish Legend is all tankers, but these aren't your normal tankers. They're token buyers that power-train, whom all took their teams to 180% before tanking. Some players have a 1% skew. One manager even has a 200% player, because he's repeated the level 10 consecutive seasons. It's impossible to beat them, so managers are going down to 4 or 5 members, or just quitting associations altogether. These managers leaving aren't free players too, they're token buyers. Some are tanking, whereas in the past they'd spend hundreds to maintain a 9* team every season. But they can't compete with tankers above 180% in associations, so they've resorted to tanking to close that gap. Nordeus is losing a good source of revenue because of this.

Below 6* is where the draw exploiters hang out. A simple look at the World Top 100 this Wednesday and you'll see 5* associations, with something like 3 teams with 7* or above teams and another 3 teams that are like 1*, 2* or 3* teams. After the draw, these low quality teams will hit the transfer market, and acquire eight 5* players, then proceed to acquire 3 7*+ players on loan. So a 1* team, becomes a 6* team, but was calculated as being a 1* team by the association draw engine. MANAGERS PLAYING FAIRLY, cannot compete against such associations no matter how skilled they are. :(

The 6* and 7* range however as I mentioned above and Adam Jus did as well, works fine for the most part in platinum.

Whoa! I knew platinum division was broken, but I never knew it was this broken.
I just gained promotion to platinum division this season. I hope my association doesnt get paired with legends never die lol

Nothing changed to long ago.years ago without association in lower level Vietnamese had personal trainer 9 star squads,no one complained,we just said **** token buyer...Now they have association so Vietnamese don't have anymore 9 star squads as they want for the draw to me keep their average rating low so instead buying 9 star squads they use now the money for greens. Nothing cheating nothing different they are just smart