Troll matches

[ilgatto]

Ok ...I have the strongest team in my league, ( 89%) and have been having Fair matches from the start of the league.. Last week I ranked 2nd on the table with just 3 more point to go, this week am 5th after losing 5 games to relegation teams...my team is stronger better and my tactics are better than my opponents yet I still lose.

[Tactician]

This is one of the big bad sides of this game. Suddenly a team can go on a bad run for like no reason, and the match just goes like to how the game engine wants. Opposition goals come out of nowhere, team draw or lose even if they are stronger, properly managed and even if they dominate those matches statistically. In one past case of mine, I can say that this occured because the game wanted another team to win the league, and the game trolled in so many ways so that in the end my team lost the league by goal difference despite that I was better tactically compared to the mananger that won the league and I even beat his team on his ground.

Despite having played this game for a long time, I myself do not know for sure what can be done to avoid this other than maybe spend fortunes in the game.

[Kelpie Grant]

Seems some people dont suffer "troll" results so meh tbh. I dont suffer from them , I get maybe 1 or 2 matches per season where I draw or lose to "weaker" teams( which I would say on balance is probably about right) but then its all about what you consider weaker. My teams at this stage of the season are 110 -115% and I fully expect hard matches from any team 90 -95% and up mainly because they are still decent teams in their own right. Any team under that % then I would consider to be weaker , weaker enough that I should beat them 99% of the time and most of the time handsomely beat them which is what happens.

I read in here about managers of teams who consider any team more than a couple of % lower than their own team to be weaker ,that is their opinion but such managers seem to be the ones who constantly refer to "troll" results. I say reset your mind to a more realistic % differential and maybe you dont get as many "troll" results. Also the spate of "troll" results seems to increase in the last week of the season , I think this is more manager passion/disappointment than anything else which makes it seem worse and more frequent.

If your team suddenly goes on a run of average /bad results then I would investigate why this is happening. Mostly you will find you team has players out of form a little bit and a critical mass has been reached where those with good form can no longer cover those having dips in form or it may even be your training method has become too much the same routine , try something different every now and then , mix it up a little and see what happens.

[funker]

This is one of the big bad sides of this game. Suddenly a team can go on a bad run for like no reason, and the match just goes like to how the game engine wants. Opposition goals come out of nowhere, team draw or lose even if they are stronger, properly managed and even if they dominate those matches statistically. In one past case of mine, I can say that this occured because the game wanted another team to win the league, and the game trolled in so many ways so that in the end my team lost the league by goal difference despite that I was better tactically compared to the mananger that won the league and I even beat his team on his ground.

Despite having played this game for a long time, I myself do not know for sure what can be done to avoid this other than maybe spent fortunes in the game.

spending fortunes in this game is absolutely not like any other p2w game. happened to me back in the days when i was active, happened to many others as well. you pay to build a super strong and competitive team and when game wants you to lose, you will lose no matter how good is your team or how well trained is. this is the biggest problem of this game. it's not p2w, it's pay to think you'll win ))

[Tactician]

spending fortunes in this game is absolutely not like any other p2w game. happened to me back in the days when i was active, happened to many others as well. you pay to build a super strong and competitive team and when game wants you to lose, you will lose no matter how good is your team or how well trained is. this is the biggest problem of this game. it's not p2w, it's pay to think you'll win ))

I suspect that if a user spends a lot (not small amounts) this causes some sort of re-roll in certain hidden factors. The troll, bad form or whatever may suddenly vanish and it is your opponents or closest rivals that get trolled.

The reverse might occur too if this thing is true as a team that currently has good hidden factors may get worst ones due to a forced re-roll.

The thing is that users must find ways to force re-rolls if such a thing exist in this game so that they can get rid of a bad period. Some users try training, others buy and sell players (squad changes), some buy tokens, some do a combination of those, some change the win bonus, some stop attending matches and others something else. Each one has his own perceptions and suspicions.

How do you think my team got trolled many times for that case I said above? That user whose team won the league on last day by goal difference was a big token buyer. He was buying scouts and recommended players. The game maybe decided he deserved to win the league and trolled me because I did not buy anything in that period. Hahaha.

There is another thing. There is a breaking point - an amount of quality difference that will override the effect of bad roles of dices, that is if your team have this quality difference and you are a decent manager (decent tactics, keep team in good condition, training bonuses and so on) you will not lose or even draw no matter what unless there is a flaw or bug. The thing is that this quality difference might be much more now because they tweaked the game engine due to unrealistic high scores and maybe due to the mutant effect.

[Ποσιδονας]

With 89% quality at the end of the season, we are not talking for someone who spends.
We don't know the quality of other teams he lost.
If it's 70%, he's not so much stronger.

[Tactician]

With 89% quality at the end of the season, we are not talking for someone who spends.
We don't know the quality of other teams he lost.
If it's 70%, he's not so much stronger.

He said 'relegation teams', so likely opposing teams that are poorly managed (lower quality, poor condition, poor morale, no training bonuses...). Based on what he said only, he probably going through those troll periods where a team loses and draws a lot during a certain period against whatever opponents due to certain hidden factors that rolled to poor values. I myself, I hate those periods as they cause frustration and anger; they can mess a lot of things, ruin the whole work of a season and can even cause the user to quit. It is not like the rare troll of every season - the one match case or the case of two matches (knockout round).

[HeavensAAA]

Hi all there. This is my first post as a relatively newbie level 4 manager, so please not to be too harsh.

Over the 4 seasons, I only lost 1 single match early in the first season and that was when I was building the team without good subs yet. Until now, there has been a perfect run on all trophies (4 FA Cups, 2 CL & 2 Super Cups [in final this season] and 3 Leagues [current season leading with 14 points with 2 matches left, so practically 4 Leagues]).

More importantly, I have been on an ongoing run of 174 unbeaten streak in matches across all competitions in 4 seasons and had a winning streak of 53 matches and a couple of 40+ matches, so can be confident in providing my 2 cents on the so-called trolled games.

Important points on quality (that I believe) before illustrating further:

1. Quality advantage of 10% or less is insignificant (unless the better team has the difference in advantage purely because of having a far superior ST or AM [>1.5 stars over opponent’s best defender, hence a lot more likely to score in dead-ball situations]);

2. Quality advantage of 10%+ to 20% could provide an edge, but still could easily lose against opponents with perfect counter formation and tactics (will illustrate further below);

3. Being the favourite, with advantage of 20%+, means one should win comfortably in around 7 to 8 out of 10 times. Opponents with nearly perfect tactics may still get a draw with a ‘very good roll of dice’ and could even win with a huge slice of luck (such as better team having a player sent off, better team couldn’t hit a barn door, etc);

On quality, mentality-wise, it may be best not to overestimate our advantage when it is only within 20%. It is easily understandable that with a 10% advantage that we may subconsciously go for a more attacking formation when we feel we should get a win, and indeed this is the most dangerous setup if our opponent plays a perfect counter formation and tactics. If our active opponent is at home and putting the bonus onto defence, then we could end up having a minimal advantage in attack with a DISADVANTAGE in possession (with attack bonus), or with a minimal advantage in possession and NO ADVANTAGE in attack (with possession bonus), and the likely consequences is we would lose the game if the opponent striker or AM is taking their scoring chances.

Correct tactics on paper also does not necessarily translate to an automatic win (eg. 3-3-2-2 attacking flanks vs 4-1-2N-1-2 should be right most of the time, but then sometimes their back 4 could be blocking all the shots - say half time still not scoring then you may have to try different ways, such as switching from 3-3-2-2 to 3-2-4-1 attacking from the middle to try outnumbering the AMC area to score).

Timing of change is VERY important when you sense a trolled game is on the way (20%+ advantage with right tactics and players having good ratings but not scoring till half time or even losing to the odd goals). I watched many games of other managers, and most are waiting at least until after 70th minute before making any changes in possible troll game situations. Some may even only change after the 80th.

It is all very well not to make unnecessary changes against an equal or stronger opponent while holding onto a desired scoreline (ie. Don’t fix if it ain’t broken), but to leave ourselves with only 1 possible change of formation and substitutions with such only some 20 minutes to force a goal or more to win EVERY TIME in such scenarios is kind of ridiculous to expect things to favour our team all the time.

In short, if things evidently aren’t going our way, it may be worthwhile to try making 1 attacking substitution to change formation at half time until around the 65th-minute mark. At least you give yourself a possible extra bite of cherry (eg. That change of formation somehow works and scores; that sub is in top form and scores despite the formation change not making any difference, that sub attracts unexpected extra fouls and your top player scores or assist in those deadball situation, etc); even if nothing happens, you still have 2 subs to change into a 3rd formation and remove the under-performers to have another go.

From own observations, possible troll games come around every 10 games, and so it comes around 2 to 3 times a season. The key is to stay calm, try making a sensible change early and do NOT go for something like an all-attack 3-1MC-2-4 in the last 10 minutes and hope for miracles after miracles (An experienced opponent will just play a 5-1-3-1 or 4-2DM-3-1 then a counter goal will kill the game off). I did fail to win a few troll games and could only draw while trailing despite making all the right changes on paper, but then it’s kind of reflecting the reality that in the odd matches all the players could be forgetting their shooting boots and/or opponents are having their ‘match of their life’.

[funker]

I suspect that if a user spends a lot (not small amounts) this causes some sort of re-roll in certain hidden factors. The troll, bad form or whatever may suddenly vanishe and it is your opponents or closest rivals that get trolled.

The reverse might occur too if this thing is true as a team that currently has good hidden factors may get worst ones due to a forced re-roll.

The thing is that users must find ways to force re-rolls if such a thing exist in this game so that they can get rid of a bad period. Some users try training, others buy and sell players (squad changes), some buy tokens, some do a combination of those, some change the win bonus, some stop attending matches and others something else. Each one has his own perceptions and suspicions.

How do you think my team got trolled many times for that case I said above? That user whose team won the league on last day by goal difference was a big token buyer. He was buying scouts and recommended players. The game maybe decided he deserved to win the league and trolled me because I did not buy anything in that period. Hahaha.

There is another thing. There is a breaking point - an amount of quality difference that will override the effect of bad roles of dices, that is if your team have this quality difference and you are a decent manager (decent tactics, keep team in good condition, training bonuses and so on) you will not lose or even draw no matter what unless there is a flaw or bug. The thing is that this quality difference might be much more now because they tweaked the game engine due to unrealistic high scores and maybe due to the mutant effect.

i honesly don't care anymore... i have 3 months now since i quit, i only check forum here to see if something changed... and it only seems that it's worse than ever. it's a fixed/scripted/pre-programmed game with minimized influence of the manager. from an amazing game few years ago, now it's a pathetic boring game.

[Tactician]

i honesly don't care anymore... i have 3 months now since i quit, i only check forum here to see if something changed... and it only seems that it's worse than ever. it's a fixed/scripted/pre-programmed game with minimized influence of the manager. from an amazing game few years ago, now it's a pathetic boring game.

I think that some years ago the game reached a sweet spot, but the company later ruined it in many ways partly due to their greed and certain features they introduced in the game which their systems could not handle on heavy load days like association days. I have certain suspicions like they simplified the way matches were simulated to cut down resource usage. I quit in the past one time because of this.