The 2015 FMCU Awards

It's that time of year again!

For those of you who don't know, every year around September/October time we have an awards ceremony to celebrate the great, the good and Nobby. It's always tremendous fun (and is actually one of my favourite events of the year) and SRL88 and Deisler26 have really set the hosting bar very high in previous years.

The categories are as follows...

Best FMCU Poster

For the most active and engaging poster

Best FMCU 'Fountain of Youth' career

For 'youth-only' careers

Best FMCU Newcomer

For the best new poster on the forum from the past year

Best FMCU Thread Name

For the most amusing thread name

Best FMCU Career

For the best career of any type

Best FMCU Journeyman Career

For the best Journeyman career (taking in multiple clubs)

Best FMCU Team

For the best individual side from a career (e.g. Lenzar's QPR or Cougar2010's Raith)

Best FMCU Retro Career

For the best career on a previous verson

Best FMCU Classic Career

For the best older but still active career (must have been updated in the past month)

To give newer posters a taste of what the awards are like, here is the link to last year's event...

The Fifth FMCU Awards

And this thread links to all of the past awards night threads...

FMCU Awards

Rules

1. Votes must be PMed to me by 7am on Thursday October 8th.

2. All threads must have been started in the past year.

3. No voting for yourself or your own thread/team (which goes without saying but I'm saying it anyway just to be clear).

4. You can only vote for one person/thread/team in each category.

5. Keep your votes secret (aside from sending them to me obviously!)

6. Try and vote for every category (we had trouble with a lack of votes for 'Fountain of Youth' last year).

Feel free to ask any me questions you may have and discuss things further in this thread.

Good luck everyone!

I'm so brilliant I'm my own description.

I'm so brilliant I'm my own description.

Comes with the name...

http://discworld.wikia.com/wiki/Nobby_Nobbs

2. All threads must have been started in the past year.

Just to clarify: Does this mean since 27 September 2014 or since 1 January 2015?

Just to clarify: Does this mean since 27 September 2014 or since 1 January 2015?

The first, though not quite that literally. Essentially it's 'the past FM year' from each release or Beta release. The fact that most people play the current version and quickly switch to new releases (though recently more people have stayed with or gone back to older versions, myself included) makes it a good annual cut-off point.

It's been a whole day and I haven't had a single set of votes yet! Obviously it can take a bit of time to look through the forum and decide but I hope a few of you are pretty close to finalizing your choices.

It's been a whole day and I haven't had a single set of votes yet! Obviously it can take a bit of time to look through the forum and decide but I hope a few of you are pretty close to finalizing your choices.

You should have at least 1 now

That's more like it, dllu was just a few minutes behind you

That actually makes 3 sets of votes because I chose mine last week.

Make that 2

Excellent. It's good to see we've mostly gone for different options as well so it could be an open and competitive year for a few awards.

People need to pay a bit more attention to whether a thread or individual is eligible or not. I've just had to tell someone 'Sorry that doesn't count' for the 4th time.

Just to be clear, 'Fountain of Youth' means only recruiting players from the youth set up and making no signings at all.

One of these days I'll write a thread that fits within the guidelines to give myself half a chance will have a think about my votes though.

One of these days I'll write a thread that fits within the guidelines to give myself half a chance will have a think about my votes though.

Well 5 votes in and everyone has gone for something different for 'Best Thread Name'. Who will break the deadlock?

People need to pay a bit more attention to whether a thread or individual is eligible or not. I've just had to tell someone 'Sorry that doesn't count' for the 4th time.

I don't know about everyone else, but I don't have the time to 'bone up' on what each category involves. Given the specific nature of the 'Fountain of Youth' category (just because you've mentioned it), maybe in future years a shortlist for each category could be drawn up by the mods? As you've already commented that not many votes are in (and there have been issues with those that are), perhaps the process needs to be made simpler to encourage participation?

Please take these comments as helpful suggestion rather than criticism, because that's my intention.

I reckon you should create another title as I can't see it on the list.

Best Past Version Thread or something like that. I might vote, just because I pity you . Plus I do like to read. I'll get rancer to vote as well.

I also think you should sticky the thread for a couple of weeks. Then it won't get lost.

I reckon you should create another title as I can't see it on the list.

Best Past Version Thread or something like that.

I think that's a good shout. There have been quite a few people playing older versions over the last couple of years, and some excellent careers as a result. It could be an interesting category.

I don't know about everyone else, but I don't have the time to 'bone up' on what each category involves. Given the specific nature of the 'Fountain of Youth' category (just because you've mentioned it), maybe in future years a shortlist for each category could be drawn up by the mods? As you've already commented that not many votes are in (and there have been issues with those that are), perhaps the process needs to be made simpler to encourage participation?

Please take these comments as helpful suggestion rather than criticism, because that's my intention.

I'll probably edit the OP now with a brief description of each award category to help people out. Things seemed to have gone pretty smoothly in previous years so I genuinely wasn't aware that it wasn't that self-explanatory for a lot of people.

I really don't like the idea of having a pre-selected shortlist. I prefer to see the voting being completely open as it allows as many people as possible to get votes, including choices I wouldn't have expected. It doesn't help that without SRL88 I would be the only person drawing up the shortlists and I don't think it would be right if I had influence over the process in any way by deciding a relatively restricted list of options as even with the best intentions it would be impossible to avoid at least a bit of personal bias, and that would still be a risk if there was at least one other person choosing as well. I've really enjoyed seeing how many different people have gotten votes already and I wouldn't want to deny any individual or any thread the opportunity to get at least a bit of support.

I reckon you should create another title as I can't see it on the list.

Best Past Version Thread or something like that. I might vote, just because I pity you . Plus I do like to read. I'll get rancer to vote as well.

I think that's a good shout. There have been quite a few people playing older versions over the last couple of years, and some excellent careers as a result. It could be an interesting category.

I very nearly did such a category. I eventually decided against it because while there have been a bunch of threads of that nature, mine was one of only a handful that had been particularly active (especially recently) and I didn't want it to look like I had introduced a new award because I had a decent chance of winning though I actually had the idea months ago when my older (and ineligible) career was still active. I'm planning an FM16 project so we might have it next year when there isn't the potential conflict of interest.

I don't think anyone would have cared tbh. There are 6 threads that have been active in recent weeks. Plenty of choices tbh.

I don't think anyone would have cared tbh. There are 6 threads that have been active in recent weeks. Plenty of choices tbh.

It'd also give those with shoddy old laptops a chance at winning something ? In general this forum is great because people don't care what version of FM you're playing, if it comes across that a player is enjoying his/her thread then there'll be interest in it. Makes sense to take that same attitude into the awards.

I don't think anyone would have cared tbh. There are 6 threads that have been active in recent weeks. Plenty of choices tbh.

It'd also give those with shoddy old laptops a chance at winning something �� In general this forum is great because people don't care what version of FM you're playing, if it comes across that a player is enjoying his/her thread then there'll be interest in it. Makes sense to take that same attitude into the awards.

Good points guys. I've just added it to the list. People who have already voted don't have to suddenly come up with a choice for that one if they don't want to.

Someone also raised a valid point about how it's a pity how there are a few good active threads that are technically too old to be eligible and suggested a 'Retro' award for these older careers and that maybe the rules could use a little tweaking in future, and I'm certainly all for making the awards as inclusive and varied as possible. I won't change the eligibility rules for the existing categories this year but for this year at least I'm going to add the 'Classic Career' award, subject to it getting enough interest and votes.

Still just the 6 sets of votes so far and none in the past couple of days. Still a decent amount of time left but we've still got a couple of multi-way ties (and in fact no one's got multiple votes for 'Best Thread Name' yet) so we could use a few more soon.

Will try and get mine in on Sunday. Still thinking over a couple of categories.

Did you get my votes?

Yep, just added them to highly sophisicated vote-recording system .

Just to clarify the difference between 'Classic' and 'Retro'. Classic would be stuff like Withnail316's 'The Scandinavian Shankly: From paupers to kings', RBKalle's 'Undrið FF, the Faroese Wonder', Mark Heath's 'Avoiding the drop with Darmstadt', b101's 'Like Icarus to the Sun, the rise and (hopefully) rise of Jozef Prochazka' and KDR's 'Up the Long Ladder'. All older but still active threads.

'Retro' would be my own 'Got 99 Problems But Norwich Ain't One', both dllu's 'Home® Nations to the Max' and 'Thisted - City on the Edge of Forever', GreyedOutMan's 'Whitehawk Down', DB08's 'Sticking To The Top Leagues' and a few others that are from this year but where we've elected to go for an older version instead of FM15, hence 'Retro'.

As for awards night, I'm looking to do it next Friday evening, Oct 9th so you all know when to be around. *wink*

Hope the votes are still trickling in, DB.

Hope the votes are still trickling in, DB.

You were No.8, so we're getting there. Hopefully there'll be at least a few more to come.

I'll send some votes in later. May have to abstain in a few categories (namely the newcomer) as haven't been actively following that many threads by people I don't know this year.

Votes cast - PM sent.

OK, 10 sets of votes in so far. Given the award ceremony will be held on Friday evening I'm going to extend voting a little until from tomorrow morning to Friday instead in the hope of getting a rather more decisive outcome in 'Best Thread Name' where we've currently got a 3-way tie with just 2 votes apiece. It helps that it's probably the easiest award to judge on so people unsure about some of the others should still feel able to send in a vote for that.

Votes cast. Some may not be eligible, but as a relatively new comer (or returning member, rather), I'm basing this on stuff I've read over the past month or two. Not ideal, I know...

Thanks for contributing anyway

I went months without writing about a career on this forum, but I've been a fairly regular reader all along. I'll have time to take another look around tonight or tomorrow, and I'll go ahead and cast a ballot.

There are a lot of good threads here, which makes picking the winners a fun challenge.

I went months without writing about a career on this forum, but I've been a fairly regular reader all along. I'll have time to take another look around tonight or tomorrow, and I'll go ahead and cast a ballot.

There are a lot of good threads here, which makes picking the winners a fun challenge.

Indeed. One of the interesting things about being able to see the voting in detail is that while a few awards aren't as competitive as the rest, from the start we've had a really good spread of people and threads getting votes this year which is great to see.

Last chance for voting tonight guys as the deadline will be 8am tomorrow. The awards night itself will probably start 7:30-8 in the evening.

PM sent.

PM sent.

Thanks. OK, voting is now closed. Tune in tonight for the results.