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dafuge's FM18 challenge

dafuge

By dafuge,
in Challenges, Sign-Ups & Experiments

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dafuge

dafuge

Posted
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The Aim

To take a small club who were previously unplayable in an unedited game from the Vanarama National League North/South to Premier League and Champions League glory.

The Rules

Start the game unemployed and choose the advanced setup. Like last year, you have the option of loading whatever leagues you like at the start and throughout the game. All of the boxes should be left unticked apart from 'do not add key staff' and 'prevent use of in-game editor'. It should look like this.

Just like previous years, the players for the newly playable clubs need to be added which can be done using the 'advanced' option on the database size. The players from the three feeder league have to be added, which looks like this. You can also add anything else you like to increase the size of the database.

The extra levels of detail that you can change while in the game are up to you, as they shouldn't make a difference.

Add yourself as an unemployed manager, the details are not important at all. I like to call mine 'Holiday Man'.

Go on holiday until 25th June. This is the day that the new clubs appear, so saving on 24th June gives you a chance to reload in the hope of getting a particular club.

Retire your 'Holiday Man' manager and allow him to row off into the sunset, like Gendry.

Add a new manager, the personal details are completely up to you but I would expect people to use their own true nationalities and languages spoken. Coaching badges must be set to 'None', with past playing experience set as 'Sunday League Footballer'. The coaching attributes are completely up to you.

When adding a new manager, choose one of the new clubs promoted to the Vanarama North or South to manage. A quick way to check the new teams is to find the 'England Overview' team, then the 'season summary'. Just above the FA Cup summary you should find a list of the six newly promoted teams.

They should appear in this list which shows the reputation of the possible clubs. The reputation should act as a difficulty level. The lower the reputation, the harder your game should be. 

Isthmian League Premier Division

Billericay             2750
Brightlingsea          1500
Burgess Hill           1850
Dorking Wanderers      1250
Dulwich Hamlet         2400
Enfield Town           2000
Folkstone              1900
Harlow                 1850
Harrow                 1900
Hendon                 2100
Kingstonian            2200
Leatherhead            1850
Leiston                1800
Lowestoft              2250
Margate                2350
Merstham               1750
Met Police             1950
Needham Market         1800
Staines                2050
Thurrock               1900
Tonbridge              2200
Tooting & Mitcham      1650
Wingate & Finchley     1850
Worthing               1750
  
Southern Football League Premier Division

Banbury                1750
Basingstoke            2150
Biggleswade Town       1900
Bishop's Stortford     2300
Chesham                2250
Dorchester             1950
Dunstable              2000
Farnborough            2100
Frome                  1950
Gosport                2200
Hereford               2500
Hitchin                2000
Kettering              2750
King's Lynn            2250
Kings Langley          1850
Merthyr T              2250
Redditch               1900
Royston                1850
Slough                 2250
St. Ives               1750
St. Neots              1900
Stratford              1750
Tiverton               1850
Weymouth               1950
  
Northern Premier League Premier Division

Altrincham             2250
Ashton Utd             2000
Barwell                1850
Buxton                 1950
Coalville              1800
Farsley                1800
Grantham               1900
Halesowen              1750
Hednesford             2050
Lancaster              1750
Marine                 1850
Matlock                1900
Mickleover             1800
Nantwich               2000
Rushall                1900
Shaw Lane              1750
Stafford               1900
Stalybridge            2200
Stourbridge            2100
Sutton Coldfield       1750
Warrington             1900
Whitby                 1900
Witton                 1800
Workington             2050
It is now up to you to manage this club all the way to the Premier League title and UEFA Champions League crown. The challenge is complete once you have won both competitions, this does not need to happen in the same season.

You may not move clubs unless you are sacked.

If you get sacked, you can either take over a newly promoted club that satisfies the original criteria (check the club's league history), or just start again.

Any form of international management is not allowed, until you have completed the challenge.

Assigning parent clubs and loaning players is completely up to the player, although it should be noted that on occasions a parent club can lend players which will make the first season or two slightly less of a challenge. It is completely up to you how you play this one. Personally, I like to assign a parent club for financial benefits but never take any players on loan from them.

To sign a player, you must be able to scout them, this doesn't mean you have to, just he must be accessible to your scouts. If you have a foreign player on a free transfer who is willing to come on trial, you do not need to be able to scout them, as long as you have them at the club on trial so you can get a coach report on him. If an agent offers you a player, you can sign him without scouting him.

No external utilities such as scouting programs should be used and the database should be unedited (with the exception of cosmetic changes which cannot be discussed here). Should SI release a data update, this would be allowed but any other data updates are not.

Use of save game editors is strictly banned, whatever the reason. Ticking that box at the start should see to this.

Rules for this Thread

Player naming is allowed.

General discussion on tactics is allowed, although people should not refer to downloaded tactics. They are not banned, but I would expect the majority of people to avoid them.

When you join the challenge, post a screenshot of your manager's profile on the 25th June like this.

Progress of your club should be documented using this thread, we want to hear the story of your club all the way through. Please keep us updated, even if you are doing really badly.

At the end of every season, could everyone post some kind of season review, including at least a screenshot of a league table and the clubs transfer page. If you give this a title in bold it makes it a bit easier to pick out.

How to Post a Screenshot

  • While in FM, press Alt and F9
  • A picture will be saved to a screenshots folder, in the FM18 folder in your documents
  • Upload the image to an image hosting website such as Imgur
  • Post the direct Url to the image here.

Leaderboard

https://warhawk137.wixsite.com/dafugechallenge

(thanks to @Warhawk)

Enjoy :)

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michaeltmurrayuk

michaeltmurrayuk

Posted
Posted

Reposting this as it has proven popular in the past (before it gets lost in the thread), though some of it will be outdated;

I'll get this posted nice and early this year so it doesn't get lost in the middle of the thread somewhere.

This is how I start the challenge off, if anyone is new or struggling at the start, though it's not the only way to do the challenge and is based on FM15 information as I haven't really had a good look at FM16 yet:

- When picking a club Reputation, facilities and stadium will effect how difficult the first few seasons are - the better these items the (slightly) easier it will be, with facilities and stadium generally affecting how much money you have in the early years as rubbish small stadiums will need more money spending on them to meet league rules. Region also plays a part, if you pick a club based in the north west you'll be able to attract players from Manchester not London and viceversa. The other thing to consider when taking off a team is their kit colours make sure you pick a team who's colours you can read easily.

- Also a quick way to find the promoted teams is to run the holidayman bit before adding any custom logos as most if not all conference sides should be licensed, so the newly promoted sides will be the ones with the default generic logos.

- Once I have picked a club the first thing I do is sign the assistant with the best judging ability attribute possible (potential is nice but not as important, I also find tactical knowledge helpful for the OI if you use them, other attributes depend on what you want your assistant to do) also try and sign a quality scout if possible again you want the best judging ability you can get, with potential a nice one if you can get it.

- For coaches it depends on how many you can have, if you have the numbers I tend to go for a GK and fitness one - though if you can try and sign them as general coaches so they can still train anyone, then I use me and the assistant for general coaching. You can also 'cheat' a little bit by signing coaches with good judging ability and use them as extra scouts, as at this level training isn't going to do much and the more accurate scout reports you can get quicker the better.

- Ask for a Parent club (or senior affiliate as they now seem to be called) for free loans - depending on how the game is feeling you might get some free first teamers or at worst have to settle for some free bench players which can at least save you some money. (the ability to get parent teams and the quality of loanees seems to change each version, hopefully this will be a nice one)

- Pick your basic preferred formation (4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 etc...) roles and duties don't matter at the moment, though have a general idea of what you want, for example I tend to play 4-4-2 and in the centre of midfield I'll have a defensive minded player and an attacking minded one, and upfront I'll have a goalscoring (hopefully) and a support striker - though actual roles depend on my players and what works.

- Go through your existing players and work out their best position, also check your U21 and U18 squads incase anyone decent is hiding in there. Use the Report and Squad Depth screens, I also add some extra columns to the squad view - Ability and Potential columns, you can also add best position and role columns if you wish. This year we have some new columns in the tactics screen - a role rating column that seems to give your assistants star rating of the role, and a green bar chart that seems to be based on the average of the key attributes for the selected role - at this level I'd probably use the green chart rather than the stars.

- Pick your Best XI and Second XI from your existing players, this now allows you to see where you are weakest, also check for any AI made future signings, I think the squad depth screen has a filter to include future transfers, you may have got lucky and had the AI grab you a good player.

- Check the Contract Offers view on the squad screen to see if the AI has offered any of your players a new contract, and cancel any offers you don't want, also check the expiry dates of the contracts as some players may only have a week left on their contract.

- Before making any offers for players you need to check a couple of things to see what standard of player you are looking for, a quck glance can be had by looking at the Team Report -> Comparison screen, this will give you the highest and lowest averages for various attributes in your league per position, in the Conference North 10/11 is normally good for a key attribute. Next from the player report screen check to see what level the stars correpond to - players will have a star rating which will change depending on expectations, quality of players and league, however players also have a description that doesn't change which will read decent/good/leading and then a division, you need to keep on an eye on what level the stars are at, as for example at the start a decent conf north player may be five stars as your team is rubbish but a month later may only be two stars as you have found better players.

- Now it's time to find players, what I do is filter by interested players within scouting range, and add conditions unattached and eu-national (you aren't likely to attact players from other clubs at this stage nor will players get work permits at this level) and then add a position filter and search for the position you most need a player in.

- Next step depends on how many players you found and what staff you have, you have two options;

- Trial players in - reveals attributes over time like scouting does, once on trial can compare with other players, downside players may not accept trial and it also seems players on trial attract more attention from AI players. If trialing do it for 1 month/end of pre-season. (Though I think trialling was changed in one of the patches for FM15 and no longer reveals attributes instantly, but is still an alternative to scouting)

- Scout players - limit to how many you can scout, new system takes time, however no need for player to agree terms, can also get coaches to scout if they are any good.

- Once you have scouted/trialled players for one position move onto the next, if you have the staff you can assign one member of staff to scout players of one position whilst another scouts a different position.

- If you scout a player and still aren't sure trial him in, you can use scouting to weed out the useless players and then trial in the possible ones to have a closer look.

- If there is no interest in a player then trial him in and take your time, unless he looks really good.

- Priority is first team players squad depth isn't important yet and can be filled with free loans or non-contract players.

- Once the season is under way carry on searching (transfer window doesn't close until march in non-league) as better players will be interested as the season goes on. (free players get more desperate the longer they are without a club).

Tactics wise keep it simple and if not sure where to start check out the tactics forum - there are some stickied threads to help you understand the roles and how they are linked, otherwise it's just watch the matches and slowly tweak things depending on what is happening.

The first season I tend to write off - you have to build a team, understand the new features and work out a tactic, if you are lucky things will start coming together at the end of the season and you may sneak a playoff spot or if not be in position to push for promotion next season.

In your second season you should have a better idea of what you need and what works, I also tend to have a core team by now and just look to add some players with that extra bit of quality.

Once you have gained promotion you repeat all of the above, until you gain promotion again and repeat the above again etc...

Getting quality players in the early years is part luck part how much time you have - to find the gems you may have to scout/trial thousands of players which takes time (both real and in game), you also cannot always rely on poaching players from other peoples games as at this level most of the released players we are after have random attributes and have had a season or more to develop/fail.

Another way to narrow down players on your scouting screen is to add the last club column to the view and first check out the players released from bigger sides (unfortunately there is no column to show what division the side was in). You can also check the transfer history for clubs (or even England) for released players and scout them and hope that you can persuade a quality released player to sign for you.

Another cheeky thing you can do at the start is look at the reserve teams of the prem sides and scout the ones who's contracts are expiring (or get a team report) because we start a week before the contracts expire and in the past AI teams haven't looked at these players until they have been officially released, so you might get lucky and be able to snap one up before the AI gets interested.

 

FM18 stuff;

- Scouting has changed no idea how this impacts on the challenge, the main thing is reports now don't go directly into your inbox but the new scouting centre, you also have packages Youth one is for U21's so these may affect the players shown on the search screen.
- Role rating seems to have changed a bit, it now looks to rank all of a players roles/positions instead of by position - so if someone can play several positions they'll only get one full dot instead of one for each position, also the tactics screen also doesn't seem to show the position rating which makes getting used to a new side a bit more difficult.

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BryanS

BryanS

Posted
Posted

I've enjoyed reading the results here over multiple versions and will do so again.  Considered joining this year, but opted for a different kind of game instead.  Still, good luck to all the participants, and thanks to dafuge for once again setting this up.  

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dafuge

dafuge

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Posted
6 minutes ago, Ivs said:

It world be good for FM Touch gamers to be finally involved in this challenge, but once again no mention... :(

I've never played FM Touch, but is there anything in the rules that would rule it out?

Provided it can meet all the rules I don't see any problem with FMT being used.

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G_D_K

G_D_K

Posted
Posted

Back with my annual bunch'o'saves for those that don't want to holiday themselves.  As usual, I'll do a batch of beta saves, and when the the full game goes live I'll post a couple different batches based on different save seeds with a differing # of players in the database.

This first batch is off of the Beta with approximately 38,000 players in the database (all of UK&Ireland playable, as well as a handful of other European nations:

  • Save 1 Kettering, Hereford, Stourbridge, Billericay, Dulwich Hamlet, Stalybridge
  • Save 2 Billericay, Hereford, Kingstonian, Kettering, Buxton, Nantwich
  • Save 3 Billericay, Hereford, Dulwich Hamlet, Hitchin, Whitby, Stalybridge
  • Save 4 Dulwich Hamlet, Chesham, King's Lynn, Margate, Stalybridge, Buxton
  • Save 5 Kettering, Hereford, Tonbridge, Workington, Lowestoft, Altrincham
  • Save 6 Billericay, hereford, Tonbridge, Bishops' Stortford, nantwich, Ashton Utd
  • Save 7 Kettering, Bishop's Stortford, Dulwich Hamlet, Altrinsham, Margate, Rushall
  • Save 8 Billericay, Kingstonian, Stalybridge, Slough, Bishop's Stortford, Workington
  • Save 9 Billericay, Kettering, Merthyr T, Stourbridge, Margate, Ashton Utd
  • Save 10  Margate, King's Lynn, Kingstonian, Kettering, Hednesford, Altrincham

Second batch of saves is off of the Beta with only English leagues loaded (for those with concerns about game speed/lower spec computer -- about 17K players)

  • Save 11: Kettering, Basingstoke, Stalybridge, Dulwich Hamlet, Met. Police, Hednesford
  • Save 12: Kettering, Margate, Altrincham, Billericay, King's Lynn, Warrington
  • Save 13: Kettering, King's Lynn, Altrincham, Staines, Hendon, Stourbridge
  • Save 14: Tonbridge, Stalybridge, Farnborough, Stourbridge, Hendon, Gosport
  • Save 15: Slough, Kettering, Tonbridge, Billericay, Matlock, Workington
  • Save 16 Kettering, Hereford, Dulwich Hamlet, Billericay, Altrincham, Marine
  • Save 17 Billericay, Kettering, Tonbridge, Workington, Dunstable, Hednesford

Third batch of saves (probably the final batch off of the beta branch) is All UK&Ireland (about 23K players):

  • Save 18 Kettering, Chesham, Dulwich Hamlet, Altrincham, Billericay, Nantwich
  • Save 19 Billericay, Kettering, Chesham, Dulwich Hamlet, Warrington, Stafford
  • Save 20 Billericay, Kettering, Slough, Hednesford, Warrington, Leatherhead
  • Save 21 

One more batch of Beta branch saves (UK&I + top players from teams all continents...about 90k!)

  • Save 1 Billericay, Altrincham, Hereford, Gosport, Tonbridge, Grantham
  • Save 2 Kettering, Billericay, Dulwich Hamlet, Slough, Stalybridge, Barwell

_________________________________________________________

RELEASE Saves!

First Batch is UK&Ireland loaded -- about 23K players.

  • Save 1 Billericay, Kettering, Basingstoke, Hendon, Ashton Utd, Stourbridge
  • Save 2 Billericay, Kettering, Methyr Town, Stourbridge, Kingstonian, Workington
  • Save 3 Kettering, Altrincham, Billericay, King's Lynn, Hendon, Stalybridge
  • Save 4 Kettering, Margate, Chesham, Lowestoft, Stourbridge, Grantham
  • Save 5 Hereford, BIllericay, Chesham, Nantwich, Kingstonian, Whitby
  • Save 6 Kettering, Billericay, Hereford, Hednesford, Nantwich, Harlow
  • Save 7 Billericay, Stalybridge, Kingstonian, Chesham, Slough, Warrington
  • Save 8 Kettering, Billericay, Hereford, Altrincham, Kingstonian, Matlock
  • Save 9 Bishop's Stortford, Hereford, Margate, Staines, Workington, Stourbridge
     

 

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michaeltmurrayuk

michaeltmurrayuk

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Edwin_Poon said:

Is it normal that I can't seem to offer part time contracts for longer than 12 months? Could be tricky retaining players for next season... 

Yes contract lengths are limited by the board and type and have been for the last few versions, at this level one year contracts are normal with only key players generally getting two year contracts, whilst you normally give the players new contracts towards the end of the season March onwards for key players. It's also an advantage as when you can attract better players towards the end of the first season you don't have to worry about having unwanted players stuck on long-term contracts.

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G_D_K

G_D_K

Posted
Posted

It might be temporary, as I might find a team I'm more interested in when I do my release-day set of saves...but for now I'll give it a start.

Gosport Borough have taken the chance at hiring an American with ties back to England but with little playing or managerial experience:  51 yo Galen Kantz

Time will tell if the board has made a wise move.

Gosport start with 13 senior players (3 of which are goalkeepers), no U18 players.  3 coaches (inc. 2 GK coaches) and the AssMan are all on expired contracts --- and none wish to remain with the newly promoted club.  The team also has 0 scouts and 0 physios.

The 4,500 capacity stadium seats 800, but was built in 1944 and is showing signs of it's age.  The team has basic corporate facilities, Poor training and youth facilities, a youth level of 0, Fairly Basic junior coaching and limited youth recruitment facilities.

Let's hope that the chariman, who is enjoying times at the club and intends on being around for a long time, has quite a bit of patience!

On a positive note, we've got some wage budget room (spending £636/wk out of £3125/wk allowed), although we have 0 transfer budget.  We also have an affiliation with rival neighbor Portsmouth...so perhaps we will be able to pick up some loanees as the season progresses.

On the schedule, the Oct. 27th meeting with fierce rival Havant & Waterlooville is the date to mark on the calendar!

 

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XaW

XaW

Posted
Posted

I got Barwell if anyone wants it. Not quite sure who I'm going for yet, so just reloading and saving the less common ones. @G_D_K seems to have most of the teams up, but I noticed Barwell wasn't on his list (yet), Let me know, and I'll find somewhere to upload it.

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G_D_K

G_D_K

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, XaW said:

I got Barwell if anyone wants it. Not quite sure who I'm going for yet, so just reloading and saving the less common ones. @G_D_K seems to have most of the teams up, but I noticed Barwell wasn't on his list (yet), Let me know, and I'll find somewhere to upload it.

A little under 50% of the teams so far....but few of the more rare ones.  I'll be running another holiday batch in near future....and another on final release.  Aiming to get 75% or so of the teams

 

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Ivs

Ivs

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, dafuge said:

I've never played FM Touch, but is there anything in the rules that would rule it out?

Provided it can meet all the rules I don't see any problem with FMT being used.

FM Touch could meet all the rules.

Only two little restrictions, but they can be easily overcome:

1) Attribute masking: is disabled by default, but can be unlocked during the game (obviously during another save game before starting the challenge) or bought as unlockable item in the download section of the game

2) Roster of the newly promoted clubs: due to the limited database not all players appear in squad (even with a large db). I guess the problem could be solved with a ddt file which retains the necessary players. Some years ago, when there weren't the advanced setup options, you @dafuge and @michaeltmurrayuk released an appropriate ddt file in order to load the game correctly. Maybe you could create another sImilar file?

 

A different leaderboard or a tag for the version of the game used could be helpful to distinguish between the challengers.

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dafuge

dafuge

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Posted
1 minute ago, jsar said:

Oh no, are Chippenham not applicable this season? couldn't see them in the initial list? I have played as them for as long as I have done the challenge. Not sure i can cope with a new team!

They got promoted to the Vanarama South :(

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XaW

XaW

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, dafuge said:

Local club for you I'm guessing?

I'm Norwegian, so not even close actually. :) According to Google Maps I'm a trip of about 2200 km away if I were to drive.

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XaW

XaW

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, dafuge said:

Not that close then :D

Still, they are just down the road from the club you support.

Yeah, that's one of the things that made me take a close look at them. Now, let's see if I can get a big parent team to send me some youngsters! ;)

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XaW

XaW

Posted
Posted

1vhaCD3.png

"Come on, Paul, mate. There's at least a couple of big clubs close by who you could ask? Just a trip down towards Stanley Park and you can ask two clubs almost at the same time!"

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Crewey

Crewey

Posted
Posted

dafuge. what settings do you use  with regards to extra players/regions etc? I think I remember you posting a screen shot a few years, saying it helped with making the European competitions more competitive and helping with the longevity of the save.  

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dafuge

dafuge

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Posted
29 minutes ago, Crewey said:

dafuge. what settings do you use  with regards to extra players/regions etc? I think I remember you posting a screen shot a few years, saying it helped with making the European competitions more competitive and helping with the longevity of the save.  

I usually load as much as I can from each continent until I end up with a database of around 60-70k. Things like current international players, players from top clubs etc.

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Quavis

Quavis

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, jsar said:

ahh man, now i have to decided if i do the challenge with a new team or just play a Chippenham save instead

Yeah, ill be moving to the north so I don't have to play against them.    Possibly Shaw Lane or Farsley

 

Looking forward to seeing the stories getting started this year.   May try and actively document my progress again this year to keep me motivated

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XaW

XaW

Posted
Posted

Played two matches in the league so far. A 0-0 draw away to Chester and a 2-0 win at home to Chorley so things are looking good so far. How are you guys starting your seasons?

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psychonutter

psychonutter

Posted
Posted

I shall be participating this year, I am currently in the process of loading my game ready to start holidaying my man and hoping for a real low reputation team to really get myself a challenge, knowing what I'm like I'll get bored of it and go for someone that comes up after about 5-10 loads but fingers crossed. Good luck everyone else doing the challenge

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dafuge

dafuge

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Posted
23 minutes ago, MikaelS said:

@dafuge So glad to see your challenge up again. Unfortunately I am not sure I will participate this year, seeing my beloved Chippenham got promoted last season. It feels like cheating if I choose another team.

But good luck to everyone ;)

Man down :(

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