vikeologist

Vikeologist's 2038 Scotland World Cup Report As Euro champions, we should have a shot at this. Just kidding, but I need to make sure we make it to the quarterfinal to keep the FA happy, and that’s hardly going to be easy. Group Stage Scotland 3-2 DR Congo Scotland 2-0 Ecuador Next exactly convincing performances. Our second goal against Ecuador came deep into injury time, but I guess the 2 wins are all that count at this stage. Not the easiest of job-preserving second round ties. 2nd Round (if applicable) 3rd Round (if applicable) Quarter Final (if applicable) Semi Final (if applicable) 3rd Place Playoff / Final (if applicable) After The Tournament

I always assumed it was because you can only fine a player once a week. I think that sometimes you can't fine all the lower performances, but I'm unaware of any occasion where I could warn but not fine.

Vikeologist's 2037/8 Hibs Report First a bit of unreported news. We were in the Nations League semi-finals last summer, but lost. Unfortunately being in that semi-final, and the subsequent 3rd place playoff, meant that we had almost no players available for the first World Club Championship we’d ever qualified for, with inevitable consequences. (Roughly 16 of the 23 player squad is usually Hibs players). In 4 years time I’ll pick a Hib-less squad for the Nations League SF if we’re in it, just in case, as there’s really no way to know if we’ll be in the CWC. Not sure why were in it this time. Anyway, on to the new season. Our last at 25k capacity Easter Road before we move into our new 43k capacity stadium over the summer. We won the league for the 5th season in a row. Rangers pushed us very hard, but we still won with a couple of matches to go. Celtic have been our main competition for ages, so they finished miles behind Rangers and ourselves. We went out in the CL Q/F, somewhat unluckily going down to 10 men late in the first tie because of injury and conceding a goal which proved to be the difference. It doesn’t look as though Scottish sides are ever going to do well enough to move up to 4th in the coefficient table to gain 4 group stage CL places, but our 5th spot look fairly secure. Top Goalscorer – Ethan Wilson – 36 Not a bad tally considering that I rotate my 2 strikers quite a lot. His backup had less matches, but a much better strike rate However, that might be because he plays the easier matches. Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Chris Mochrie – 7.84 Every season. Man of The Match – Chris Mochrie – 12 Most Valuable Player– Martin Duncanson Despite Chris Mochrie being the MVP for 10 of the last 11 seasons, right winger Duncanson is now by far our best player. Wonderkid / Youth Watch We had 2 players in the NxGn 50. Our only official wonderkid is still Jai Bannister 33b, who’s supposedly an even better attacking midfielder than Mochrie now. Hibs Season Position MVP Notes 21/22 4th Kyle Magennis Scottish / League Cup double. 22/23 3rd Kevin Nisbet No trophies, but massive progression. 23/24 4th Kyle Magennis Scottish Cup Winners 24/25 2nd Kyle Magennis Another domestic cup double and first CL qualification. 25/26 4th Kyle Magennis League Cup and reached the group stage of the Champions League 26/27 2nd Josh Doig Europa Conference Winners 27/28 3rd Chris Mochrie Scottish Cup winners 28/29 2nd Chris Mochrie Scottish Cup winners (again) and CL S/F 29/30 2nd Chris Mochrie Threw away league title last match of the season. 30/31 1st Chris Mochrie League/ Cup double. 31/32 2nd Chris Mochrie No trophies 32/33 2nd Ethan Wilson Threw away a 7 point lead with 4 matches to play. Europa League. 33/34 1st Chris Mochrie Won league with about 8 matches to spare. CL 1st KO Round. Lost Sc Cup final. 34/35 1st Chris Mochrie Unbeaten league season. CL 1st K/O 35/36 1st Chris Mochrie League / Scottish Cup double. CL Q/F 36/37 1st Chris Mochrie League. CL 1R 37/38 1st Martin Duncanson League/LC double. Cl Q/F Last season at Easter Rd. Scotland Season World Ranking Next Year's Euro Coefficient Prem League Ranking 21/22 41st 10th 11th Qualified for the World Cup 22/23 18th 8th Promoted from Euro League Div B after winning all 6 matches. World Cup R2 23/24 19th 8th 9th Topped Euro Championship Qualifiying. Reached Euros Q/F 24/25 16th 8th 8th 2nd in Euro League group. 25/26 17th 10th 8th Qualified for World Cup 26/27 20th 6th 9th Eliminnated in WC R2. Stayed in NL Dision A. 27/28 18th 6th 7th Qualified for Euros. Reached Euros Q/F 28/29 16th 6th 7th 3rd in Nations League group 29/30 18th 5th 6th Qualified for World Cup (on goal difference, in 2nd place). 30/31 12th 5th 6th World Cup 3rd place. Avoided Nations League group of death relegation. 31/32 11th 6th 6th Euros Q/F 32/33 8th 5th 6th Nations League S/F 33/34 10th 5th 6th World Cup R3 34/35 9th 5th 6th Failed to make NL S/F 35/36 6th 5th 6th Won 2036 Euros 36/37 6th 5th 6th Nations League SF 37/38 6th 5th Qualified for World Cup comfortably.

No, you can fine for 6.5, but as above, you should only give a warning. I don't see ny difference between first and reserve/youth teams. Not every player will get a bump every time, and some personalities / players will take it badly. Generally though, this works fine for getting determination up. If a player usually puts in good performances though, make sure you arrange tough preseason friendlies. Or just play them out of position, though that's a bit too 'unrealistic' for me personally.

If you set yourself a really difficult challenge, so that losing at least at first is almost inevitable, would that help you?

There are areas of the game that people feel really strongly about and if you challenge their beliefs they will kick back. I think that many people on here feel that they are quite knowledgeable about areas of the game. Me too, although not the tactics side. Forums used to be a big thing on the internet, but I guess now this is the only forum I really partake in, (apart from lately the WAGMI / Crawley Town Discord which is comedy gold). I try to avoid certain parts of the forum, (because I wouldn't even grant the semi element of its toxicity) and parts of it I love. 'Ignoring' posters you can ignore is definitely a good idea, not least because it quickly renders toxic hotspots totally unreadable, and you can also mute words. But with tactics, it's tricky, because for every issue there is an objective truth, because we're talking about computer code. Sometimes people think they know the objective truth because they've spent hundreds (if not thousands) of hours analysing that area of the game, and SI obviously sometimes don't show all their hands because they want to retain the illusion of reality for immersion purposes. Sometimes people say, SI have given the answer to this question countless times, and if they believe that, rightly or wrongly, they're not going to budge from their belief because some rando YouTuber has posted a video of an 'experiment'. There's also always a real possibility of being misunderstood. I 'run' a little thread elsewhere, and I'm sure there are times when I've inadvertently posted something that was wrongly perceived. I do worry about it, but at the same time, I probably spend too much time editing posts trying to avoid annoying people. None of us really understand our own communication flaws. I don't know about developing a thicker skin though. People should all try their best to be respectful, and if other posters aren't, then at some point you have to consider whether it's worth tolerating it. There is a culture here, toxic or not.

@Ronaldo BeckhamCongrats on completing again, for the 4th time.

Vikeologist's 2036/7 Hibs Report After the miracle of the national team winning last year’s euro, the season returned to customary disappointment at club level. We won the league for the 4th year in a row, (very comfortably) but crashed out of the Champions League at first knockout round. We had a lot of long term injuries to our best players this season. We’ve made no headway in catching up Germany for 4th place in the coefficients. We’re building a new stadium, but that’s still a year away. So next season we go again. The national team is in the semis of the Nations League this summer though. Squad Top Goalscorer – Ethan Wilson – 32 Comfortably the all time top scorer for the club now, even though his production throughout his career has been basically only fine. Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Chris Mochrie – 7.75 Man of The Match – Chris Mochrie – 10 Most Valuable Player– Chris Mochrie Again. I’m not saying he’s our best player. He probably isn’t, especially now he’s 34, but he’s been our playmaker as long as I can remember now. Nearly twelve seasons. Wonderkid / Youth Watch We do have a wonderkid now, last year’s NxGn winner; Jai Bannister 33b. He’d lost his starting place alongside Mochrie playing behind the striker, but has regained it now. Scotland has 2 other players in the NxGn 50, but one is a striker, who wouldn’t get a look in here, and the other doesn’t want to join, (plus we’re actually in debt at the moment because of building the new stadium). Hibs Season Position MVP Notes 21/22 4th Kyle Magennis Scottish / League Cup double. 22/23 3rd Kevin Nisbet No trophies, but massive progression. 23/24 4th Kyle Magennis Scottish Cup Winners 24/25 2nd Kyle Magennis Another domestic cup double and first CL qualification. 25/26 4th Kyle Magennis League Cup and reached the group stage of the Champions League 26/27 2nd Josh Doig Europa Conference Winners 27/28 3rd Chris Mochrie Scottish Cup winners 28/29 2nd Chris Mochrie Scottish Cup winners (again) and CL S/F 29/30 2nd Chris Mochrie Threw away league title last match of the season. 30/31 1st Chris Mochrie League/ Cup double. 31/32 2nd Chris Mochrie No trophies 32/33 2nd Ethan Wilson Threw away a 7 point lead with 4 matches to play. Europa League. 33/34 1st Chris Mochrie Won league with about 8 matches to spare. CL 1st KO Round. Lost Sc Cup final. 34/35 1st Chris Mochrie Unbeaten league season. CL 1st K/O 35/36 1st Chris Mochrie League / Scottish Cup double. CL Q/F 36/37 1st Chrsi Mochrie League. CL 1R Scotland Season World Ranking Next Year's Euro Coefficient Prem League Ranking 21/22 41st 10th 11th Qualified for the World Cup 22/23 18th 8th Promoted from Euro League Div B after winning all 6 matches. World Cup R2 23/24 19th 8th 9th Topped Euro Championship Qualifiying. Reached Euros Q/F 24/25 16th 8th 8th 2nd in Euro League group. 25/26 17th 10th 8th Qualified for World Cup 26/27 20th 6th 9th Eliminnated in WC R2. Stayed in NL Dision A. 27/28 18th 6th 7th Qualified for Euros. Reached Euros Q/F 28/29 16th 6th 7th 3rd in Nations League group 29/30 18th 5th 6th Qualified for World Cup (on goal difference, in 2nd place). 30/31 12th 5th 6th World Cup 3rd place. Avoided Nations League group of death relegation. 31/32 11th 6th 6th Euros Q/F 32/33 8th 5th 6th Nations League S/F 33/34 10th 5th 6th World Cup R3 34/35 9th 5th 6th Failed to make NL S/F 35/36 6th 5th 6th Won 2036 Euros 36/37 6th 5th

Vikeologist's 2036 Scotland Euros Report International competitions are much like Hibs’ attempt to win the Champions League. It’s possible, but unlikely. You never know though. Group Stage Scotland 4-0 Norway Scotland 1-2 Spain Scotland 3-4 Ukraine In the match against Ukraine we were 2-0 up at half time, and I took some of our tired top players off, and it bit me in the arse. I thought we were out of the tournament, and me probably out of a job, but luckily there’s the 3rd placed team thing, so we’re still alive, albeit barely. We’re even lucky with our next opponent, Bulgaria, who somehow managed to win their group above Italy. They’re obviously playing well, but we should be able to beat them if we start performing. 2nd Round (if applicable) Quarter Final (if applicable) . Semi Final (if applicable) 3rd Place Playoff / Final (if applicable) After The Tournament

Vikeologist's 2035/6 Hibs Report We achieved the league threepeat, although it was a close run thing. Celtic appointed a new manager at the start of the season, and they pushed us all the way. We only lost once, but drew a lot of matches, largely because I was focussing on the cups and Champions League, so used the league matches to rest players. The deciding factor was that our record against Celtic in the league was 3 wins and a draw. We beat them in our penultimate match to secure the title which relieved the stress a little, but I always felt that we could prevail if I played my best players at the end of the season. We reached the Champions League QF and went out to Real Madrid in a close contest. As I say every year, we can beat any of the top teams, but whether we’ll ever be able to beat 4 of them in a row in the knockout rounds is another question. We’re outclassed skill-wise and are only competitive because of tactics. Unfortunately other Scottish teams really screwed the pooch in Europe this season which means that our coefficient score for the season was awful and will take 5 seasons to recover from, probably ending our chances of overtaking Germany for the 4th spot (with the 4 CL group stage places) and puts us in danger from a resurgent France / PSG. We also won the Scottish Cup, which was a priority as we hadn’t won a domestic cup for 5 seasons, largely because I’ve used the cups to play backups. Winning it was part of the club vision, so glad to get it done. I thought the only thing which could realistically change for the better is if the owners changed, so that we’d have someone in charge who’d build a new stadium to replace our 25k one which we sell out every match. It’s not like we can’t afford a new one, but the current owner just isn’t ambitious enough / it’s a bug. But at something like the 10th time of asking, they’ve agreed to a new stadium with about a 42kn capacity. That could be a game changer. I’m not sure exactly what or who I’ll be able to spend the extra money on though. Squad Top Goalscorer – Ethan Wilson – 34 His best tally for a few seasons simply because he played more. 259 goals in total for the club now. Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Chris Mochrie – 7.79 Man of The Match – Chris Mochrie – 10 Most Valuable Player– Chris Mochrie As usual. Wonderkid / Youth Watch Still no official wonderkids, either at Hibs or Scottish, but we did have the NxGn winner; Jai Bannister 33b. He was a starter most of the season, but has lost his place again to Marc Turnbull 28a who has finally blossomed. Still, hopefully Bannister will be ready to step up once Mochrie is over the hill. We also had my backup right winger at 37 in the NxGn list. We have quite a few promising players of course. Any decent young Scottish players, I hoover up as soon as I can. Hibs Season Position MVP Notes 21/22 4th Kyle Magennis Scottish / League Cup double. 22/23 3rd Kevin Nisbet No trophies, but massive progression. 23/24 4th Kyle Magennis Scottish Cup Winners 24/25 2nd Kyle Magennis Another domestic cup double and first CL qualification. 25/26 4th Kyle Magennis League Cup and reached the group stage of the Champions League 26/27 2nd Josh Doig Europa Conference Winners 27/28 3rd Chris Mochrie Scottish Cup winners 28/29 2nd Chris Mochrie Scottish Cup winners (again) and CL S/F 29/30 2nd Chris Mochrie Threw away league title last match of the season. 30/31 1st Chris Mochrie League/ Cup double. 31/32 2nd Chris Mochrie No trophies 32/33 2nd Ethan Wilson Threw away a 7 point lead with 4 matches to play. Europa League. 33/34 1st Chris Mochrie Won league with about 8 matches to spare. CL 1st KO Round. Lost Sc Cup final. 34/35 1st Chris Mochrie Unbeaten league season. CL 1st K/O 35/36 1st Chris Mochrie League / Scottish Cup double. CL Q/F Scotland Season World Ranking Next Year's Euro Coefficient Prem League Ranking 21/22 41st 10th 11th Qualified for the World Cup 22/23 18th 8th Promoted from Euro League Div B after winning all 6 matches. World Cup R2 23/24 19th 8th 9th Topped Euro Championship Qualifiying. Reached Euros Q/F 24/25 16th 8th 8th 2nd in Euro League group. 25/26 17th 10th 8th Qualified for World Cup 26/27 20th 6th 9th Eliminnated in WC R2. Stayed in NL Dision A. 27/28 18th 6th 7th Qualified for Euros. Reached Euros Q/F 28/29 16th 6th 7th 3rd in Nations League group 29/30 18th 5th 6th Qualified for World Cup (on goal difference, in 2nd place). 30/31 12th 5th 6th World Cup 3rd place. Avoided Nations League group of death relegation. 31/32 11th 6th 6th Euros Q/F 32/33 8th 5th 6th Nations League S/F 33/34 10th 5th 6th World Cup R3 34/35 9th 5th 6th Failed to make NL S/F 35/36 7th 5th Qualified for 2036 Euros

Sounds like you managed the club better than Mohammed Lemsagan, but I accept that the constraints of the game made it hard to match his level of incompetence. Note: Lemsagan's the Sporting Director. I know Sheridan was the 'manager' at the end of the season).

Congrats @darren1983. Quite a quick completion as well. Well, a lot quicker than mine. I plan to try this challenge on FM23 with the aim of finally setting a decent completion time. That Hall of Fame is getting quite big now, but loses none of its kudos.

I sign quite a few players with very good personalities, and mentoring the U18s is their only job. I don't know to what extent it works. It's not like I have an U18 squad of Perfectionists (which is a far easier personality to recruit than Model Pros or Citizens), but maybe it smooths some of the rough edges.

Vikeologist's 2034/5 Hibs Report An unbeaten league season, but so frustrating as I nearly beat an almost impossible record in the CSE Records thread of 107 points in a 38 game season. With 2 matches I needed 4 points to break it, but we ended the season with a couple of limp 0-0 draws. In the Champions League we won all 6 group matches, including against man Utd, but then went out in the next round 0-1 on aggregate. I did break one record though. Chris Mochrie ended with an 8.21 average in the league, although he almost screwed that record up with his performances in the last 2 matches. Update: Can't even use this, as it looks as though the existing record is for the season as a whole, and Mochrie did indeed cock that up in the final 2 matches. I took a break from this challenge before this season, because it’s hard to see us progressing any further. There aren’t really any Scottish players I can sign to improve the team. I’d say 9 of my national XI are Hibs players, and that will probably become 10 soon due to Celtic’s David Turnbull being 35 now. The remaining player, Brandon Hunter, used to play for us. In fact I signed him on a free transfer, but after one season he wanted to leave and I sold him for 16.5 million, which seemed like a lot at the time, but a few seasons later he went for £62 million, and he’s in the 50 top players of the world. I’d love it if he’d come back, but that’s not going to happen. I think I should be able to dominate domestically for the foreseeable future. The Champions League? That would require a large chunk of luck, as would Scotland winning a major tournament. I’m not sure there are any young Scotland players coming through with the potential to be as good as Hunter. Perhaps a striker Brandon Kirk who came through our youth ranks but I sold to Porto because I only use one striker and he wasn’t getting enough game time with us. He may have just broken through to the Porto first team at the end of the season. Basically I’m like a hamster running on wheel now. We were close to breaking into the top 4 nations in the Euro coefficients, which would be a huge deal as we’d have 4 teams in the Champions League group stage, but overhauling Germany is proving to be really tough. Only Rangers, Celtic and ourselves are proving capable of doing well in Europe, and it’s not enough. So at some point I may abandon this challenge and sign foreign players in order to win the Champions League, but not yet. Squads Top Goalscorer – Ethan Wilson – 29 We had 5 players score 20 or more goals (including our backup striker and only remaining NxGn wonderkid), but Wilson’s tally was disappointing considering everything. A lot less goals this season, but that’s because he didn’t play nearly so many matches with squad rotation and going out of the Champions League early. A goal every 110 minutes is fine, although hopefully he does better during the World Cup. Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Chris Mochrie – 8.06 The 8.21 average I cited above was for league matches, but it’s still pretty damn good. 8th MVP award but Mochrie is 32 now. Hopefully he has 3 more seasons in him. Man of The Match – Marc Turnbull 28a – 8 Bit of a surprise here. Turnbull is Mochrie’s partner in attacking midfield. Despite being the top prospect 7 years ago, this is his first season as a full time starter. It took him 3 years to even get many first team games, and he’s not that great in terms of his star rating. I’m maybe going to introduce a more promising and younger player, 24. Jai Bannister 33b, next season, but Turnbull did have a good season. Maybe I shouldn’t pay too much attention to his star rating. Most Valuable Player– Chris Mochrie Definitely the MVP of the entire save. Wonderkid / Youth Watch We don’t have any official wonderkids anymore, (either Hibs or Scotland as a whole). 20 year old Billy Hughes 31ewas the NxGn runner up with his third consecutive top 3 appearance, but for the second year in a row he was the only current Hibs player to feature. Hibs Season Position MVP Notes 21/22 4th Kyle Magennis Scottish / League Cup double. 22/23 3rd Kevin Nisbet No trophies, but massive progression. 23/24 4th Kyle Magennis Scottish Cup Winners 24/25 2nd Kyle Magennis Another domestic cup double and first CL qualification. 25/26 4th Kyle Magennis League Cup and reached the group stage of the Champions League 26/27 2nd Josh Doig Europa Conference Winners 27/28 3rd Chris Mochrie Scottish Cup winners 28/29 2nd Chris Mochrie Scottish Cup winners (again) and CL S/F 29/30 2nd Chris Mochrie Threw away league title last match of the season. 30/31 1st Chris Mochrie League/ Cup double. 31/32 2nd Chris Mochrie No trophies 32/33 2nd Ethan Wilson Threw away a 7 point lead with 4 matches to play. Europa League. 33/34 1st Chris Mochrie Won league with about 8 matches to spare. CL 1st KO Round. Lost Sc Cup final. 34/35 1st Chris Mochrie Unbeaten league season. CL 1st K/O Scotland Season World Ranking Next Year's Euro Coefficient Prem League Ranking 21/22 41st 10th 11th Qualified for the World Cup 22/23 18th 8th Promoted from Euro League Div B after winning all 6 matches. World Cup R2 23/24 19th 8th 9th Topped Euro Championship Qualifiying. Reached Euros Q/F 24/25 16th 8th 8th 2nd in Euro League group. 25/26 17th 10th 8th Qualified for World Cup 26/27 20th 6th 9th Eliminnated in WC R2. Stayed in NL Dision A. 27/28 18th 6th 7th Qualified for Euros. Reached Euros Q/F 28/29 16th 6th 7th 3rd in Nations League group 29/30 18th 5th 6th Qualified for World Cup (on goal difference, in 2nd place). 30/31 12th 5th 6th World Cup 3rd place. Avoided Nations League group of death relegation. 31/32 11th 6th 6th Euros Q/F 32/33 8th 5th 6th Nations League S/F 33/34 10th 5th 6th World Cup R3 34/35 5th Failed to make NL S/F

I don't invent most of the leader board memes. It's possible I haven't invented any of them.

Yep. Age makes no difference, at least at the low end. It's possible that being really old would be a disadvantage, but I have no evidence of that.

It seems like people always achieve the challenge when I'm about to hit the sack. Well done, @BigJack. I'll add you to the hall of fame tomorrow. It's an impressive way to finish, and I love me some challenge Elevens.

For me the issue is whether I'm going to buy FM24. For me, FM22 has been a problem. I've played FM/CM since CM97, and I think this is one of 2 editions that have had this level of problems / bugs. In fact I'd say that the release edition of FM23 (as in after the beta) needs to be less bug rideen than the 'final' version of FM22. I've reported lots of bugs, and I'd say less than half have been fixed. Obviously there is an extent where SI say, 'the game is supposed to be like this' and we disagree about whether it's a bug or a feature, but nonetheless, still less than half, I think. But look, there's always going to be a degree of having to accept / work around flaws. As long as this poopshow isn't repeated for FM23, I'll forget about all the problems much as I have the previous time. I'll be buying FM23, and if there's no significant new features, I can just take the view that I hope they've fixed all the problems of last year (which IIRC was exactly what happened the previous time SI released an edition this broken). The problem of course is that SI give it the spin that FM22 doesn't have that many problems statistically or whatever. I understand that they have to claim that. But if SI sincerely think this game was up to their normal standard, that would make me extremely worried. #FoolMeOnce (Obviously there are some areas where FM22 was an improvement on previous versions, but they're outweighed).

@BigJackLooks like you might just need one more season, despite your never wanting to leave us.

The best way to increase his determination (and work rate) is to fine him for poor performances. 6.5 warning 6.3-4 1 day 6.2 and below 1 week. Not me that discovered this. And his personality is not necessarily atrocious, because it's so easily fixed. Of course, once his determination goes up to 6, you might find out there was an atrocious one hiding there, so you may want to have him mentored by players with good ambition. (I've just noticed that the top prospect from my last intake also had low determination personality, and I haven't managed to improve his determination at all yet this offseason. The snag is that they do need to play badly at some point. If necessary I'll play him even more frequently in friendlies against really good sides next summer. However, it's still only a few months of training and mentoring so early days).

Good luck with this. Obviously a challenge with your extra rules, but I guess it depends on how successful you are. You might finish it quicker than I ever have with the low hanging fruit.