Season 128 - Are you ready?

[Sillybq]

Having a 100% team is good enough to join a platinum association, especially with your outstanding records. That extra 50T (vs gold 1) will allow you to invest even more towards the best FT, which gradually makes your team even stronger season after season.

In terms of a ‘good’ draw, from these few seasons’ experience it is ‘easy’ enough even when we bring 9 core players into the next season. This is my first season I try to bring more than 8 players, and it still works very well. Turnover of squad in new season is only 9 players, consisting of 2 FTs (should be 1 FT plus 1 90%+ for 1 season, but couldn’t resist the 33T on auctions for a 18yo 97% ML/DL/DC of about 3% under max value with the ‘lucky’ 20% token-back box opened earlier), plus 7 subs.

Eg. By the end of last season, my top 9 players’ average was around 120%. Plus a 40%+ 18yo and a 20%+ 19yo, and another 8 x 1* players. The league’s top 2 opponents are 70%, the cup’s best 2 are 71% & 70% and CL’s best 2 are 88% (now 94%) and 86%. After strengthening my team, I still have 20%+ advantage (now 116%) over the best opponent in CL, and pretty confident that winning the treble would not be an issue.

Just a suggestion that you could consider keeping and bringing more players into the new season, instead of having to buy 14 new players each season. I did very similar to that until level 4 (I was bringing only 6 core players, so had to buy 12 - 5 first-11 and 7 subs then). That was both very stressful (to keep bidding for so many players) and expensive in T (80%+ 2-position easily costs 5T, let alone first-11 close to 90% costs 8T or more each at least). My association mates reminded me that even 5T per season means 35T for a 18yo FT to be used until 24yo for 7 seasons is very cheap, considering that the best stats keep improving. And more importantly, team performance would be a lot more stable with minimal change of personnel.

That I brought 9 from last season means I only ‘need’ to buy 2 first-11, with 1 to be FT and another 90%+ to fill the gap (that extra 25T FT was so cheap over 7 seasons that it makes no sense to buy 7 players in each season when it I would be more expensive and worse in quality). It means that I only need to look at 2 positions from day 1, plus 7 x ‘5T-or-less 2/3-position 80% subs. Some subs could even be as cheap as 3T if we could get through till day 5. That makes life a lot less stressful when it comes to auctions, and also saves T too.
(I’ll bring 10 into next season and see how it goes. If it still works, then it will save another 10T each season and put back 5-6T in average to build another FT. Even less stressful )

The key starting this is to build this extra first-11 to be brought forward is buying and keeping those 19/20 yo of close to 90% (ideally with useful SA even at a few T extra), so quality-wise they will stay the same over 3 seasons when we start to invest further into the 18yo FT as the very core when we don’t have to worry about replenishing those as they are good enough.

I realised abit late that we have to keep 1 star players. And when i did realise, i did not know i could use their SA and multi position players to keep quality low so they were gaining almost as much as they were losing in rating every season. So for now, till my players quality get lower, i will have to endure selling and buying more players for now. Yes it is stressful and i often buy very weak players 1st and waste tokens buying replacements later so I definitely spend more than 60 tokens per season on average.

Frankly i still track the associations i left previously. One got demoted after last season and the other looks likely to get demoted after this season. They both have alot of inactive players with training maintained at very low percentages. So I definitely made the right choice in leaving. I agree that i might be able to stay or join a platinum association but from what i see, it takes an association with an average of at least 115 from week 1 to retain their platinum division status. Not easy. Also must have well trained and active members.

[Der_Ryan_M]

I realised abit late that we have to keep 1 star players. And when i did realise, i did not know i could use their SA and multi position players to keep quality low so they were gaining almost as much as they were losing in rating every season. So for now, till my players quality get lower, i will have to endure selling and buying more players for now. Yes it is stressful and i often buy very weak players 1st and waste tokens buying replacements later so I definitely spend more than 60 tokens per season on average.

Frankly i still track the associations i left previously. One got demoted after last season and the other looks likely to get demoted after this season. They both have alot of inactive players with training maintained at very low percentages. So I definitely made the right choice in leaving. I agree that i might be able to stay or join a platinum association but from what i see, it takes an association with an average of at least 115 from week 1 to retain their platinum division status. Not easy. Also must have well trained and active members.

What do you mean by average of 115? There are many associations with 90-100% average and they are doing fine. The most important things are activity and also that the members are fairly close to each other in terms of quality to avoid bad draws and being vulnerable to people who "manipulate", so put their bench in and the high guys get the low opponents.
This weekend for example we were very unlucky with the draw, as opponents were approaching draw with bench on the field. But it is our own fault, one member is 140%, I am 129% and another is 117% and all others are around 100%, it's too big of a margin. The 100% guys had the toughest opponents and all lost their matches, so all it takes is one of us slipping in his "easy" matchup and he did...

[Sillybq]

What do you mean by average of 115? There are many associations with 90-100% average and they are doing fine. The most important things are activity and also that the members are fairly close to each other in terms of quality to avoid bad draws and being vulnerable to people who "manipulate", so put their bench in and the high guys get the low opponents.
This weekend for example we were very unlucky with the draw, as opponents were approaching draw with bench on the field. But it is our own fault, one member is 140%, I am 129% and another is 117% and all others are around 100%, it's too big of a margin. The 100% guys had the toughest opponents and all lost their matches, so all it takes is one of us slipping in his "easy" matchup and he did...

What i meant by average of 115 is to add up all the best 11 players average of all 6 teams and the result is around 115? But i have to admit that what i mentioned is an opinion formed through observation and might not be representative.

I do that too. That manipulate bit. I actually did it unknowingly at first as I usually place my B team in the lineup so my opponents cannot take screenshots asking experts for formation/tactical advice. I also noticed people tend to play less friendlies with me when they notice my B team listed. It took awhile before i realised i was always facing the weakest competitor. So far, no one has asked me to stop doing so or had anything negative to say about it but some have joined me. I do not try to be the weakest but i just leave my B team as starters.

What you mentioned does make sense regarding the wide gap in qualities between association mates creating a disadvantage. What i noticed is the associations i have been in do not actively change their association match time. No captain discusses this with its members on a weekly basis or even adjust it when they face associations in other continents. Like it is an obvious advantage for a european association to adjust the time to as late as possible when facing an asian association.

[HeavensAAA]

I realised abit late that we have to keep 1 star players. And when i did realise, i did not know i could use their SA and multi position players to keep quality low so they were gaining almost as much as they were losing in rating every season. So for now, till my players quality get lower, i will have to endure selling and buying more players for now. Yes it is stressful and i often buy very weak players 1st and waste tokens buying replacements later so I definitely spend more than 60 tokens per season on average.

Frankly i still track the associations i left previously. One got demoted after last season and the other looks likely to get demoted after this season. They both have alot of inactive players with training maintained at very low percentages. So I definitely made the right choice in leaving. I agree that i might be able to stay or join a platinum association but from what i see, it takes an association with an average of at least 115 from week 1 to retain their platinum division status. Not easy. Also must have well trained and active members.

With 1* player, you could accumulate them all over a few seasons. Bringing 3 x 40%+ 18/19yo (18yo 1-position with SA or 2-position is best, as roughly 1 season’s training will gain a position or SA - next season they can stand in as 20%+ with SA for first 2 cup games and even probably into day 3/4 with weak opponents) into a new season should not impact your draw. 3 seasons on this cycle you’ll have 9 of those, and they will stay for some 10 seasons before you need to replenish any.

Forum would usually have at least 5 platinum associations looking for member replacement at each season end, and typically they look for teams under 110%, or even 100%, for draw purposes too.

What I did in day 1 to 3 of season 4 was:
1) auction checking just past refresh - no interested players then set alarm timer in 7 mins (to come back with 40s for next lot) ; with interested, then set timer in 3 mins;
2) then check associations by random alphabets combination for platinum -
a) preferably Western Europe-based players (timing suits best, as SE-Asian countries would miss late games);
b) English-speaking (with current experience, I would not want to join one without active interactions);
c) preferably 1160 or above (fighting relegation with 1100 or less is tough when first joining - likely to be weakest and not easy also to be expected to keep beating weakest - My asso mates were bailing me out with their wins initially, until I could strengthen properly in season 5 - we barely kept platinum with 1355 and 1370; the pressure of getting at least 2 x 1st or 1 x 1st + 2 x 2nd is a lot
d) can tell if they are active at the time of joining (mine simply demand attendance and bonus - or else kick ) - just quit and rejoin another until such one is found

Good luck in finding your platinum association soon!

[Sillybq]

With 1* player, you could accumulate them all over a few seasons. Bringing 3 x 40%+ 18/19yo (18yo 1-position with SA or 2-position is best, as roughly 1 season’s training will gain a position or SA - next season they can stand in as 20%+ with SA for first 2 cup games and even probably into day 3/4 with weak opponents) into a new season should not impact your draw. 3 seasons on this cycle you’ll have 9 of those, and they will stay for some 10 seasons before you need to replenish any.

Forum would usually have at least 5 platinum associations looking for member replacement at each season end, and typically they look for teams under 110%, or even 100%, for draw purposes too.

What I did in day 1 to 3 of season 4 was:
1) auction checking just past refresh - no interested players then set alarm timer in 7 mins (to come back with 40s for next lot) ; with interested, then set timer in 3 mins;
2) then check associations by random alphabets combination for platinum -
a) preferably Western Europe-based players (timing suits best, as SE-Asian countries would miss late games);
b) English-speaking (with current experience, I would not want to join one without active interactions);
c) preferably 1160 or above (fighting relegation with 1100 or less is tough when first joining - likely to be weakest and not easy also to be expected to keep beating weakest - My asso mates were bailing me out with their wins initially, until I could strengthen properly in season 5 - we barely kept platinum with 1355 and 1370; the pressure of getting at least 2 x 1st or 1 x 1st + 2 x 2nd is a lot
d) can tell if they are active at the time of joining (mine simply demand attendance and bonus - or else kick ) - just quit and rejoin another until such one is found

Good luck in finding your platinum association soon!

But mate, why were you looking to join a platinum association? Like you said you were being carried along while you strengthened. You run the risk of getting kicked if the position holders get frustrated. Plus it sounded like a fight for survival. Why gamble, there are many associations that are a guaranteed 50 or 100 tokens? So you went in and out of associations just checking their training levels before sticking with your current association? But i do understand why there is a need for associations to demand attendance and bonuses since i was frequently frustrated in my previous associations.

I really like the auction bit. Very efficient use of time! Will probably try that next season. With regards to 1 star players, i still cant afford the 18-19 year olds. The stadium development is draining all my cash. And without developing the stadium, i cant proceed to develop anything else.

[HeavensAAA]

But mate, why were you looking to join a platinum association? Like you said you were being carried along while you strengthened. You run the risk of getting kicked if the position holders get frustrated. Plus it sounded like a fight for survival. Why gamble, there are many associations that are a guaranteed 50 or 100 tokens? So you went in and out of associations just checking their training levels before sticking with your current association?

If keeping the association at platinum level, there will be a 100T reward for each season. Along with 35T from sponsors, 5T from boxes (my typical bad luck ), and typically 20T from events (could be more - set as 20 for budget purposes), I could earn up to 160T each season.

Like what you do and exactly what I did until end of season 4, typically I spent about 50T for squad replacement for 1-season players before too. Without that 100T from association (say only 50T from gold 1), I would only have that 50T extra to spend on FTs (will explain on greens later), and that basically means 1 very good one max, so only by getting that max 100T I can consider strengthen 2 positions with FTs each season until the team becomes relatively less beatable.

I only joined 1 association and that’s the current one (looked around for a long time before requesting). They previously had 2 different members being kicked in those 2 previous seasons because of general inactivity, and they made the point very clearly that maximum bonus and attendance is way more important than result at the start. They understood in a sense that they might need to bail me out in that first season (to earn the T to strengthen in the following season), while they feel relatively confident that I could at least win 50% of matches when considering my 96% general win ratio and clean sweep of trophies then. (hence why I feel you should be fine in finding a good platinum to join when yours is even better than mine!)

Yes, now it is still a fight for survival (got 1st this week, and 3rd last week - need another 1st to safely stay in platinum, as usual ). Draw has often been very tough and unkind (this week we are the weakest of 4 on paper as usual, and still managed to win 1st ), so it kinds of bringing out the competitive edge of each other. And don’t think they would kick me out now (not surprised if in the first season ) when I have earned 131 out of a possible 168 points in 3.5 seasons with them.

[Sillybq]

If keeping the association at platinum level, there will be a 100T reward for each season. Along with 35T from sponsors, 5T from boxes (my typical bad luck ), and typically 20T from events (could be more - set as 20 for budget purposes), I could earn up to 160T each season.

Like what you do and exactly what I did until end of season 4, typically I spent about 50T for squad replacement for 1-season players before too. Without that 100T from association (say only 50T from gold 1), I would only have that 50T extra to spend on FTs (will explain on greens later), and that basically means 1 very good one max, so only by getting that max 100T I can consider strengthen 2 positions with FTs each season until the team becomes relatively less beatable.

I only joined 1 association and that’s the current one (looked around for a long time before requesting). They previously had 2 different members being kicked in those 2 previous seasons because of general inactivity, and they made the point very clearly that maximum bonus and attendance is way more important than result at the start. They understood in a sense that they might need to bail me out in that first season (to earn the T to strengthen in the following season), while they feel relatively confident that I could at least win 50% of matches when considering my 96% general win ratio and clean sweep of trophies then. (hence why I feel you should be fine in finding a good platinum to join when yours is even better than mine!)

Yes, now it is still a fight for survival (got 1st this week, and 3rd last week - need another 1st to safely stay in platinum, as usual ). Draw has often been very tough and unkind (this week we are the weakest of 4 on paper as usual, and still managed to win 1st ), so it kinds of bringing out the competitive edge of each other. And don’t think they would kick me out now (not surprised if in the first season ) when I have earned 131 out of a possible 168 points in 3.5 seasons with them.

Not at all mate. While i do think many may look at the trophies to see how active my team is. I think ultimately it is about the quality or high white skills. I know my team isn’t strong. It can be but isn’t. Your points total is really good and it is surprising that your association has to fight for survival. I mean they bailed you out before so your members should be relatively strong as well.

But i have been told association draws are similar to normal draws in that we are more likely to draw our friends. Perhaps you guys might be luckier if you eliminate some friends from strong associations who do not support you often and are in the same division?

[HeavensAAA]

Not at all mate. While i do think many may look at the trophies to see how active my team is. I think ultimately it is about the quality or high white skills. I know my team isn’t strong. It can be but isn’t. Your points total is really good and it is surprising that your association has to fight for survival. I mean they bailed you out before so your members should be relatively strong as well.

But i have been told association draws are similar to normal draws in that we are more likely to draw our friends. Perhaps you guys might be luckier if you eliminate some friends from strong associations who do not support you often and are in the same division?

Yes, lots of associations consider favourably teams with players having high white skills. And probably rightly so because it does give some advantage to those teams.

And only by keeping FTs (or some 19yo with some greens to start season around 100% and stay in team until 22yo) for lots of seasons can gather them without spending crazy amounts of Ts. It then comes back to the point where it is worth spending lots of hard-earned Ts to get more FTs to keep. Hence, I did overspend slightly in season 4 and 5 to strengthen, and only by strengthening enough that winning more becomes possible in asso matches against platinum opponents (league, cup and CL do not need such high whites to win anyway). You can see it is like a cycle - strengthening requires lots of Ts and greens, and in return its rewards is even more T (plus further more from certain event, such as King of the Hill which is heavily biased towards high avq teams).

Well, really no luck with draws mostly and 3/4 times would end up being the worst or 2nd worst team with the best teams having significant quality advantage against us. Tried lowering AVQ of first-11 and just turns out similarly tough. There was not even once that our association was the best team in AVQ in some 14 draws, which is incredible. (And that is also why I always feel so hilarious when some are complaining about draws not working, because ours is as luckless as it gets ). Association members are doing extremely well to win 1st this week (eg. 17% & 15% disadvantage, still managed to win home games, 8% disadvantage and managed a draw when 2 goals behind, etc.). I won 3/4 when the engine is so, so determined to troll my other game 9-2 with opponent having a 90% shot efficiency and red card my DC with PK awarded too.

Really don’t know about the association draw related to friend list. I will surely have a look and remove those!

[Sillybq]

Yes, lots of associations consider favourably teams with players having high white skills. And probably rightly so because it does give some advantage to those teams.

And only by keeping FTs (or some 19yo with some greens to start season around 100% and stay in team until 22yo) for lots of seasons can gather them without spending crazy amounts of Ts. It then comes back to the point where it is worth spending lots of hard-earned Ts to get more FTs to keep. Hence, I did overspend slightly in season 4 and 5 to strengthen, and only by strengthening enough that winning more becomes possible in asso matches against platinum opponents (league, cup and CL do not need such high whites to win anyway). You can see it is like a cycle - strengthening requires lots of Ts and greens, and in return its rewards is even more T (plus further more from certain event, such as King of the Hill which is heavily biased towards high avq teams).

Well, really no luck with draws mostly and 3/4 times would end up being the worst or 2nd worst team with the best teams having significant quality advantage against us. Tried lowering AVQ of first-11 and just turns out similarly tough. There was not even once that our association was the best team in AVQ in some 14 draws, which is incredible. (And that is also why I always feel so hilarious when some are complaining about draws not working, because ours is as luckless as it gets ). Association members are doing extremely well to win 1st this week (eg. 17% & 15% disadvantage, still managed to win home games, 8% disadvantage and managed a draw when 2 goals behind, etc.). I won 3/4 when the engine is so, so determined to troll my other game 9-2 with opponent having a 90% shot efficiency and red card my DC with PK awarded too.

Really don’t know about the association draw related to friend list. I will surely have a look and remove those!

You guys are good! I have not played in platinum but i track my previous associations and their record has been dismal in platinum after dominating in gold 1 so it is a very steep jump in the kind of teams you face.

I feel my Gold 1 matchups are much tougher than our League,CL and Cup so platinum must be really bad ass.

My draws have been relatively good this season. I attribute it mainly to my team mates being more active this season and having a much stronger first 11 than their bench. Not sure if it is also best 14 quality players from each team form associations draw quality but it does seem to make a difference by keeping a weak bench.