FM18 - Tour de Challenges

[TheEarl]

7 minutes ago, Skogmus said:

For the special player in stage 1, when do he stop to accumulate points? When I'm playing the Champions League group stage it's still considered a part of 2017/18 season by game schedule, even though 5/6 matches are played after the premiership ended. Did take the screenshots now, but they might have been taken 2 matches late, half way through the group stage when the squad went on holiday.

You stop after the final domestic match of the 17/18 season, but you do count the continental matches he played until then. So thats why all screenshots except for polkadot jersey has to be taken on the final match day of the domestic season.

[Skogmus]

Then my screenshots is taken 2 continental matches late. It shouldn't make any difference for league table and manager profile which can't change much, but my player of choice will have 2 more continental games played. Hopefully it's not a problem to just take away those 2 games when counting the score.

[TheEarl]

2 hours ago, Skogmus said:

Then my screenshots is taken 2 continental matches late. It shouldn't make any difference for league table and manager profile which can't change much, but my player of choice will have 2 more continental games played. Hopefully it's not a problem to just take away those 2 games when counting the score.

Thats fine @Skogmus just calculate the points from that last domestic match, but provide the screenshots as you mention.

And of course finish continental competitions so we can see that also

[vossmaj]

I made it through the prologue on my FMT tricycle. I'll start with the setup links

Game Setup

Manager Profile July 16th

Table July 16th

Fixtures before my start

 

[vossmaj]

Then after some tactical to and fro I changed to a rather intense 5-3-2 and it worked fine - especially in the derbies which went quite spectacularly (3-3 and 4-0).

Manager Profile End of Season

Fixtures since I took over (games 16-30; Halmstad match is #18)

Table End of Season

So that leaves me with the following points:

Yellow Jersey:

2 (13th in the league) + 5 (5 wins) + 2 (25 goals) = 9 points

Green Jersey:

3 (1 win) + 1 (1 draw) + 7 (7 goals) = 11 points

We climbed 2 spots but that's not important as done on FMT.

I'm quite happy with how this went and it was great fun, too. For anyone interested I'll add my transfers and tactic screen. Happy to discuss.

5-3-2 used since before the Djurgarden match

Transfers

Looking forward to the next one.

 

[SkiIIs]

Finished the prologue and only thing i really take out of this is an away win against AIK (they were down to 10 men early in the first half). Finished in the same position i took over.

Apologies about the pics, not quite sure how you all post them as a link, happy to be taught so i dont annoy yas going forward.

Scoring:

Yellow Jersey - 14th position 1 point + 3 points (3 wins) + 1 points (10+ goals) = 5 points

Green Jersey - 2 - 0 win against AIK got me 5 points.  Not sure how many derby games others got to play

On to South Africa we go...

[GwilymJJames]

Prologue - Hammarby IF

In retrospect, when starting this "get as high in the table as you can" challenge ten points below the next place, the correct thing to do would probably have been to reload.

Setup
Starting league table
Starting profile

We had one successful tactic that got us a run of wins, but then that stopped happening.

Final league table
Final profile
Fixtures part 1 & 2

Yellow jersey:

Games won: 5 (5x1)
Goals scored: 1 (15x0.1)
Finishing position: 1 (14th)
TOTAL: 7

Green jersey:

AIK 1-3 Hammarby
Djurgardens 2-0 Hammarby

Games won: 3 (1x3)
Games drawn: 0 (0x1)
Goals scored: 3 (3x1)
TOTAL: 6

Places gained : 1

[Skogmus]

My journey in Cape Town is now over. I really enjoyed this challenge, and hopefully I can get the same from the following stages as well. As for this save, I probably did the exact opposite of what I did in the prologue. While in Sweden I really wanted to focus on defensive structure, and I had a lot of close 1-goal win/defeats and draws. This time I just forgot everything about defense and just wanted to score more goals than my opponents. It worked fine most of the time, but I've had some annoying games where the ball just wouldn't cross the line.. Having scored 164 goals in 70 games and winning 52 of them, I would say it was somewhat successful. 

But now over to the interesting stuff.
Screenshots
Manager profile – end of season
League table – end of season
Fixture 1 – Season 2017/18
Fixture 2 – Season 2017/18
Fixture 3 – Season 2017/18
Fixture 4 – Season 2018/19
Transfer history
Keegan Ritchie – player history

Which should result in the following points:
Yellow jersey: 30 pts. for winning the league; 24 pts. for Ritchies 48 matches = 54 pts. in total
Green jersey: 8 pts. for losing finalist in Super 8 Cup; 8 pts. for losing finalist in SA KO Cup; 10 pts. for winning SA Cup = 26 pts. in total
Polkadot jersey: 15 pts. for winning the Champions League = 15 pts. in total
Stage win: SuperSport Utd – 1 win; Orlando Pirates – 2 wins; Kaizer Chiefs – 3 wins; Bidvest Wits – 2 (3) wins; Mamelodi Sundowns – 2 wins = 10 wins in total (2017/18 season) // 11 wins counting the continental run 2018/19

 

[kccircle]

 

Am playing the S Africa challenge - will be 3-4 days before I will finish this one I think

 

[TheEarl]

Full overview of the completion of the Prologue will come later today, thanks to everyone who played it and good luck at Stage 1.

[TheEarl]

Prologue final results overview

When I started this challenge Tour I wasn't sure what to expect. I am very happy that as many as 15 managers entered the Prologue. Some have already posted Stage 1 as well. Stage 2 will be launched during the week so it will run a long Stage 1 as that seemed like something people liked. This so people can play at their own pace. Now it comes down to the final results of the Prologue.

Stage victory

The stage victory was awarded for climbing the most places. It was a close race at the top, but 3 managers was awarded bonus points for the Stage at the end.

@Watson156    - Hammarby - 16th - 6th  - 10 places - GOLD winner
@TheEarl          - AIK               - 15th - 6th  - 9 places   - SILVER winner
@Skogmus      - Hammarby - 16th - 8th  -  8 places    - BRONZE winner
@kkfootball     - Hammarby - 12th - 5th  -  7 places
@fabreth         - Hammarby - 15th - 10th - 5 places 
@thomas_e     - Hammarby - 11th - 7th  -  4 places
@kccircle         - Hammarby - 13th - 9th  -  4 places
@Fadedaf        - Hammarby - 16th - 13th - 3 places
@vikeologist    - Hammarby - 16th - 14th - 2 places
@Pino              - Hammarby - 13th - 11th - 2 places
@vossmaj        - Hammarby - 15th - 13th - 2 places
@Pip                - Hammarby - 16th - 15th - 1 place
@GwilymJJames - Hammarby - 15th - 14th - 1 place
@Ice Ice Gravy - Hammarby - 16th - 16th - no movement
@skills             - Hammarby - 14th - 14th - no movement

Stage winners: Watson156 GOLD, TheEarl SILVER, Skogmus BRONZE.

Yellow jersey (including bonus points)

Watson156               23 points
kkfootball                 18 points
TheEarl                     17 points
Skogmus                  14 points
kccricle                     13 points 
thomas_e                 12 points
fabreth                     10 points
vossmaj                      9 points
Fadedaf                      9 points
Gwilymjjames           7 points
Pino                            7 points
vikeologist                 5 points
Skills                           5 points 
Pip                              5 points
Ice Ice Gravy             4 points

Current holder of the yellow jersey: Watson156

Green jersey (including bonus points)

kkfootball                13 points
vossmaj                   11 points
Watson156             10 points
vikeologist               10 points
Skogmus                    8 points
kccricle                       8 points
TheEarl                      6 points
Gwilymjjames           6 points
Pino                           5 points
Skills                          5 points
Fadedaf                    4 points
fabreth                     3 points
thomas_e                 2 points
Pip                             0 points
Ice Ice Gravy            0 points

Current holder of the green jersey: kkfootball

Leaderboards will be updated shortly and also include the current submissions of Stage 1.

[TheEarl]

A small teaser about Stage 2 is made in the overview post. Full launch of the Stage to follow later this week.

 

[TheEarl]

Leaderboards once again updated. @Skogmus submission for Stage 1 included. Also overall leaderboards include those who have submitted Stage 1 so far. So points now has a big gap between those who completed 2 stages versus those with 1.

My own submission of Stage 1 will come soon, just need to sort out the screenshots.

And Stage 2 will be launched today so that those who have played Stage 1 might progress further if they want.

[Watson156]

Fantastic, cant wait. Need to extend my lead in the Yellow Jersey!!

[TheEarl]

The Earl - Stage 1 submission

I really liked Cape Town City and the challenge in South Africa. My aim like others was to score as many goals as possible. I struggled in the beginning though as we let in far too many goals. In the end I felt quite happy about my performance, but I couldn't live up to the standard of some you guys who already posted here. We finished second, losing too many games and letting in too many goals. Also 8 rival wins was a bit annoying as there are 3 better managers already.

Screenshots:

Start up screen

Manager profile start of season

Manager profile end of season

Final league table

Fixtures part 1

Fixtures part 2

Fixtures part 3

Fixtures Champions League

Transfer history

Jackson Mabokgwane

Points calculation:

Yellow jersey: 24 points for finishing 2nd + 23 points for Mabokgwane playing 46 matches. Total = 47 points

Green jersey: Semi Final Super 8 gives 5 points + Semi finalist SA KO Cup gives 5 points + Finalist SA FA Cup gives 8 points = 18 points

Polkadot jersey: Winner of Africa Champions League = 15 points

Stage win: 8 rival wins from as many as 17 matches. 8 wins is not enough but tie-breaker would be 47% Win percentage.

Finally I would like to make a little contribution for fun here: Does this guy really feel safe???

 

Now I look forward to Stage 2 that I will launch here in the coming hours...

[TheEarl]

Stage 2 - If its power you want...

Deadline for submissions: 14th January 2018 23:59pm UK time

Team: Guangzhou Evergrande (Chinese Super League)

Duration: 1 season 

Background: Guangzhou has dominated the highly money inflated Chinese football for several years. They have won the Asian CL a couple of times, but you need to go one better. Failing is never an option in the Peoples Republic of China. You should therefor win every competition including the Club World Cup. Also there is a high need for involving Chinese players. A big warning though, if you reach the CWC it will play alongside the East Asian Cup and Chinese Internationals will not be available.

Setup instructions:

Load a new game of FM18. Choose the following leagues: China down to Tier 2 and South Korea down to Tier 2. You might add as few or many other leagues as you want. Database size is totally optional, the same goes for adding extra players. Tick off: Do not add additional staff, prevent use of in game editor and Disable Attribute masking (This so FM-touch users can compete for Stage win). All other checked boxes should be unticked. Important: Set start date to earliest possible in China.

Start the game with the following criteria:

- Same name as in previous Stages if you took part, if this is your first Stage chose a name of your liking.

- Same nationality as in previous Stages, you can add language of Swedish and/or English if its not part of your languages already. For those playing their first Stage either choose 1 nationality or your true genuine nationality(its) in real life.

- Sunday League Fotballer and the coaching badge at the end of your last Stage. For those playing their first stage National C-License is allowed.

- Manager birth year 1995, day and month is optional

Take of Guangzhou Evergrande immediately without waiting any days. 

Aim: To win every competition without loosing matches, having Chinese players score as much as possible and making assists.

Scoring system

Yellow jersey: 

Yellow jersey will be split into 4 parts this time:

Part 1 - points for Asian Champions League:

4th in group stage: 1 point

3rd in group stage: 2 points

Losing in Eight Final: 3 points

Losing in Quarter Final: 5 points

Losing in Semi Final: 7 points

Losing finalist: 9 points

Winner: 12 points

Part 2: - points for Club World Cup:

7th position: 1 point

6th position: 2 points

5th postion: 3 points

4th position: 5 points

3rd position: 10 points

2nd position: 20 points

1st position: 30 points

Part 3: - points for highest goalscoring Chinese player

1 point per goal in every competitive match (friendlies not included, but Super Cup count)

Part 4: - penalty for matches lost

minus 3 points for every competitive match lost (friendlies not included, but Super Cup count) if you loose 1 match in a 2-leg tie and win totally its still a loss. Losing on penalties of extra time counts as a draw if the score was even after 90 mins.

Green jersey:

This is also split in 4 parts:

Part 1: - points for winning the Chinese Super League 

5 points for winning the league. All other league positions = 0 points

Part 2: - points for scoring league goals

1 point for every 6 goals scored in the league

Part 3: - points for scoring CL goals

1 point for every 4 goals scored in CL

Part 4: - points for scoring CWC goals

1 point for every goal scored in CWC

Polkadot jersey: This is split in 2 parts only

Part 1: - points for winning the Chinese FA Cup

3 points for winning the Chinese FA Cup. Getting knocked out at any stage = 0 points

Part 2: - points for scoring FA Cup goals

1 point for every 2 goals scored in FA Cup (penalty shootout goals dont count, but goals in extra time do count)

Stage win: Stage victory will be awarded with Gold, Silver and Bronze. They will calculate in 4 parts:

Part 1: 4 points for every goal scored by a Chinese player in a competitive match

Part 2: 2 points for every assist made by a Chinese player in a competitive match

Part 3: minus 2 points for every goal scored by a foreign player

Part 4: minus 1 point for every assist made by a foreign player

 

 

Bonuses:

Gold: 20 yellow jersey points, 20 green jersey points, 10 polkadot jersey points

Silver: 10 yellow jersey points, 10 green jersey points, 5 polkadot jersey points

Bronze: 5 yellow jersey points, 5 green jersey points, 3 polkadot jersey point

Submission: Please post your submission before deadline (14th January) including the following screenshots:

- Manager profile at start of season

- Manager profile at the end of the season

- Setup screen before you started the game

- League Table at the end of the season

- Fixture list 

- Transfer History

- Overall stats of your squad sorted by number og goals scored. (Might have to split this in 2-3 parts)

 

Finally there is BONUS: If you win the Club World Cup, your manager will be rewarded by the Chinese State with a Chinese second nationality for LIFE!!!

Good luck to everyone!!!

[abirdc]

Well here I go,  Stage 1: Fight for the capital. Just bought FM today.

 

Game Setup

 

Manager Profile

[TheEarl]

8 minutes ago, abirdc said:

Well here I go,  Stage 1: Fight for the capital. Just bought FM today.

 

Game Setup

 

Manager Profile

good luck mate. Points for Prologue was not so high, so still a good chance to make progress on the overall leaderboards as well

[Watson156]

Ok here we go then.

Game Setup

Manager Profile 

 

Can't wait to get started and see if starting off with better coaching badges makes any difference.

[TheEarl]

11 minutes ago, Watson156 said:

Ok here we go then.

Game Setup

Manager Profile 

 

Can't wait to get started and see if starting off with better coaching badges makes any difference.

Good luck

[TheEarl]

For people who want to play in Stage 2, I suggest making your own simple Excel-sheet or something for keeping tabs with all the scoring rules. I like to do that personally for all stages, to see the points go up/down as I progress through the Stage.

[vikeologist]

12 hours ago, TheEarl said:

For people who want to play in Stage 2, I suggest making your own simple Excel-sheet or something for keeping tabs with all the scoring rules. I like to do that personally for all stages, to see the points go up/down as I progress through the Stage.

I can't help feeling that if @XaW fully appreciated the spreadsheet potential of this challenge, he'd jump at it. Maybe next year you should call this challenge the 'Tour de Tableur'.

Getting one's ahead around all the rules and the scoring system certainly is hard work. I'm going to suggest that this challenge firmly establishes us (CSE) as the FM intelligentsia.

But I do have a lot of questions, and it's hard to track down the answers because the thread is so popular so far.

So, in stage 1, do loan signings (from the 4 other teams) count? I'm working on the assumption that it's only transfer signings.

[TheEarl]

5 hours ago, vikeologist said:

I can't help feeling that if @XaW fully appreciated the spreadsheet potential of this challenge, he'd jump at it. Maybe next year you should call this challenge the 'Tour de Tableur'.

Getting one's ahead around all the rules and the scoring system certainly is hard work. I'm going to suggest that this challenge firmly establishes us (CSE) as the FM intelligentsia.

But I do have a lot of questions, and it's hard to track down the answers because the thread is so popular so far.

So, in stage 1, do loan signings (from the 4 other teams) count? I'm working on the assumption that it's only transfer signings.

Setting up all the rules so that each Stage is a bit different and not only straight forward about winning the league for maximum points, it will always be a bit special rules. I will try to make it a bit "simpler" in the future. But also I hope people will not be afraid to ask these kind of questions before they play. Just fire away, and I will answer the best I can. 

Sorry for not mentioning about loans regarding Stage 1. The player you count for your points should be a transfer and not a loan. However you might loan as many players as you want for achieving the other results of course.

[vikeologist]

Can't find the answer to this yet either. (stage 1 S Africa question)

If a cup round is 2-legged (against a rival) and you win one of the legs, that counts as a win (or 2 wins if you win both matches / legs)?

[TheEarl]

46 minutes ago, vikeologist said:

Can't find the answer to this yet either. (stage 1 S Africa question)

If a cup round is 2-legged (against a rival) and you win one of the legs, that counts as a win (or 2 wins if you win both matches / legs)?

Its each seperate match. So lets say you play Sundowns over 2 legs and get these results:

0-1 (away) 2-1 (home) - counts as 1 win (even if you lost on away goals)

1-1 (away) 0-0 (home) - counts as 0 wins (even if you won on away goals)

If you play a cup tie that is decided in one match

2-1 aet - counts as 0 wins 

5-4 pen - counts as 0 wins

[XaW]

So I guess, thanks to @vikeologist for tagging me here. And he is right, I love me some statistics and spreadsheets and I think this would be amazing to play. I don't know how this have flown under my radar. Since the prologue is over, I'll join at stage 1. I haven't managed in South Africa for a lot of years, so this should be interesting.

Stealing the format of pretty much everyone else here:

Game setup

Manager profile

[TheEarl]

Nice to see you join @XaW

Like I said before, points from Prologue isn't the highest so overall you could still do very fine without the Prologue.

(For the fun of it, you might test the prologue and see how you do compared to those who finished of course)

[vikeologist]

1 minute ago, TheEarl said:

Nice to see you join @XaW

Like I said before, points from Prologue isn't the highest so overall you could still do very fine without the Prologue.

(For the fun of it, you might test the prologue and see how you do compared to those who finished of course)

I'm pretty much going to have to make do without points from the prologue, and I completed it.

[TheEarl]

2 hours ago, XaW said:

So I guess, thanks to @vikeologist for tagging me here. And he is right, I love me some statistics and spreadsheets and I think this would be amazing to play. I don't know how this have flown under my radar. Since the prologue is over, I'll join at stage 1. I haven't managed in South Africa for a lot of years, so this should be interesting.

Stealing the format of pretty much everyone else here:

Game setup

Manager profile

Like I said, I use an Excel sheet for personal use to keep tabs with my scoring a long the way. This is mostly manual and I change it from game to game or whenever I want to keep the score. But its not fancy like an automatic update or something.

But if you @XaW (or anyone else for that matter) would like to make an automatic Excel sheet where people just type in results/goalscorers etc. both for Stage 1 and Stage 2, I am sure people would appreciate it highly. 

It could then also be something that people add as extra to screenshots to easier provide the scores for the leaderboards. (This will always be optional though as screenshots still will be required.)

[XaW]

Ok, first impressions of the South African league and the challenge so far:

• Better quality players than I expected
• We are not in the Champions League, but we are in the Confederation Cup at least
• The names.... oh the names. Not to be rude or anything, but I keep on laughing at the names. 
• Fixtures! 5 games in a week and then not a game for a month. Because why not?
• My players hate me because of the low rep. Currently there are 14 players opposing me (including all squad leaders).

[TheEarl]

57 minutes ago, XaW said:

Ok, first impressions of the South African league and the challenge so far:

• Better quality players than I expected
• We are not in the Champions League, but we are in the Confederation Cup at least
• The names.... oh the names. Not to be rude or anything, but I keep on laughing at the names. 
• Fixtures! 5 games in a week and then not a game for a month. Because why not?
• My players hate me because of the low rep. Currently there are 14 players opposing me (including all squad leaders).

Nice to see some action here. I kind of missed a bit people writing more in between season updates.

Also half expected someone to comment my attendance screenshot hehe

But yes, there is a lot of challenging stuff to manage in South Africa.

[XaW]

2 minutes ago, TheEarl said:

Nice to see some action here. I kind of missed a bit people writing more in between season updates.

Also half expected someone to comment my attendance screenshot hehe

But yes, there is a lot of challenging stuff to manage in South Africa.

Yeah, I like to write a little comment here and there to liven it up a bit. For a small update on my part. I'm doing quite well, well enough to finally have a couple of players supporting me. This, in turn, are making the players play even better. The striker, Gabadhino Mhango) I bought from Wits (to help with the score) have scored 13 goals in 18 matches so far, so that seems like a good purchase. I actually also bought a midfielder, Lucky Mohomi (as I said, love the names), from Sundown and he fits into my Marine tactic like a glove and his average rating of 7,30 in 14 matches mirrors this. By the way, since I have two rival purchases, do I just pick the one with the most matches for the score?

Anyway, I'm in 3rd place in the league after 14 league games. Also played about 50 cup games, but how that went, I'll write in my end report!

[TheEarl]

19 minutes ago, XaW said:

 By the way, since I have two rival purchases, do I just pick the one with the most matches for the score?

 

Just take the one that ends up playing the most matches.

[XaW]

8 minutes ago, TheEarl said:

Just take the one that ends up playing the most matches.

Will do!

I really don't get the scheduling in South Africa though. Have 10 matches within 3 weeks, then a month break. then 10 matches in 2 weeks, then 3 months break.... All my players are either exhausted or lacking match fitness...

[TheEarl]

Having just glimpsed into Stage 2 , a bit fun fact about names. Not sure if this is my try that I will finish so not posting any screenshots yet, but I have in my team the following players:

Zheng Long        and

Shane Long

[XaW]

12 minutes ago, TheEarl said:

Having just glimpsed into Stage 2 , a bit fun fact about names. Not sure if this is my try that I will finish so not posting any screenshots yet, but I have in my team the following players:

Zheng Long        and

Shane Long

Haha, nice one!

I'm just starting to play in the Confederation Cup, and just had this result in the preliminary round

[XaW]

Yeah, let's put an international break at the same time as the African Confederation Cup plays. And do not let youth players play. I had 12 players available, 2 of them goalkeepers. Lost 3-2 away to a crappy Ugandan team, but had 9-0 to go on from the home leg. For some reason I don't think this cup have the same status as the Champions League...

Also. Judas is my saviour apparently...

[Skogmus]

@XaW those things just happen.. I can see it's a problem with only 12 players available, but those international breaks (or maybe it's the continental matches that) just come when you really don't want them. I have completed this stage, but take a look at this: 6 players on int. duty while I'm playing CL final... 5 of these players started the first leg, and I had to make do without them for the last game.

 

Also want to say that stage 2 looks really interesting. I've been managing in China once before, but got fired rather quickly back then. Hopefully it will be a much better experience this time, managing a big club. Just made a spreadsheet so I can try to keep track of the points, even though I'm certain it will just be a mess. Won't start the challenge before the holidays because of exams, but there should be plenty of time to complete it after that..

[XaW]

6 minutes ago, Skogmus said:

@XaW those things just happen.. I can see it's a problem with only 12 players available, but those international breaks (or maybe it's the continental matches that) just come when you really don't want them. I have completed this stage, but take a look at this: 6 players on int. duty while I'm playing CL final... 5 of these players started the first leg, and I had to make do without them for the last game.

Also want to say that stage 2 looks really interesting. I've been managing in China once before, but got fired rather quickly back then. Hopefully it will be a much better experience this time, managing a big club. Just made a spreadsheet so I can try to keep track of the points, even though I'm certain it will just be a mess. Won't start the challenge before the holidays because of exams, but there should be plenty of time to complete it after that..

Yeah, I just think the scheduling in South Africa is poor overall, but I'll manage. I guess my casual sarcastic tone of voice don't translate well into writing!

[abirdc]

How did you guys sell players in South Africa? I tried to do a squad overhaul, but failed miserably.

Also, what's with the terrible scheduling?

2 hours ago, XaW said:

Yeah, I like to write a little comment here and there to liven it up a bit. For a small update on my part. I'm doing quite well, well enough to finally have a couple of players supporting me. This, in turn, are making the players play even better. The striker, Gabadhino Mhango) I bought from Wits (to help with the score) have scored 13 goals in 18 matches so far, so that seems like a good purchase. I actually also bought a midfielder, Lucky Mohomi (as I said, love the names), from Sundown and he fits into my Marine tactic like a glove and his average rating of 7,30 in 14 matches mirrors this. By the way, since I have two rival purchases, do I just pick the one with the most matches for the score?

Anyway, I'm in 3rd place in the league after 14 league games. Also played about 50 cup games, but how that went, I'll write in my end report!

What kind of role are you using for Gabadhino Mhango? I bought him too, and so far he played 5 matches, with zero goal.

[XaW]

1 minute ago, abirdc said:

How did you guys sell players in South Africa? I tried to do a squad overhaul, but failed miserably.

Also, what's with the terrible scheduling?

What kind of role are you using for Gabadhino Mhango? I bought him too, and so far he played 5 matches, with zero goal.

Glad to see it's not only me who feels the schedule is horrible! I'm soon to be done with the season though, the season flies by when hungover at a Sunday...

I'm using him as a Attacking Forward in my 4-3-3 formation. I made it in my Marine save and it seems to be working here as well.

[XaW]

XaW - Stage 1 submission

Stole this from you @TheEarl and I hope it's ok. It was fun playing in South Africa and a very fun challenge indeed. I did win the African Confederation cup, but it was in the 2017 season, so it doesn't count unfortunately. There were a lot more matches than I had expected and the scheduling is hard to wrap my head around, but it's all part of the challenge of managing here. I did encounter my biggest win every in a competition game when I won 17-0 in the early stages of the Confederation Cup. Now, let's see if I manage to work out the points as I should, please excuse me if I make a mistake or two. I did have to play a bit into the second season to finish my try in the 2018 African Confederation Cup, so some screenshots are from at the end of the season and some are from the end of the challenge.

Screenshots:

Start up screen

Manager profile start of season

Manager profile end of the challenge

Final league table

Fixtures part 1

Fixtures part 2

Fixtures part 3

Fixtures Confederation Cup 2018 (after the season rollover)

Transfer history

Gabadhino Mhango (season 1)

Gabadhino Mhango (season 2)

Points calculation:

Yellow jersey: 24 points for finishing 2nd + 27 points for 54 total matches by Mhango.

Green jersey: SA KO Cup winner is 10 points, SA FA Cup quarter final is 3 points, Super 8 cup semi final is 5, so a total of 18 points here

Polkadot jersey: Got knocked out of the Confederation Cup 2018 in the semi finals by Club Africain is 7 points. Annoying since I won the 2017 version...

Stage win:

Supersport Utd	  - 0-1-1 (2 league games)
Kaizer Chiefs	  - 1-0-1 (2 league games)
Orlando Pirates	  - 1-0-2 (2 league games and the loss in the SA FA Cup)
Mamelodi Sundowns - 3-0-2 (2 games in the Super 8, won in the SA KO Cup final, 2 league games)
Bidvest Wits	  - 1-0-1 (2 league games)
----------
Total		  - 6-1-7 (42,86% wins)

I think this is correct, but I will welcome anyone who corrects me.

[TheEarl]

Hello @XaW

It seems mostly correct except for the point from matches played by Gabadinho Mhango. The final match that counts for this is the final league game against Wits in the 2017/18 season.

So he could never have played more than 47 matches (23 points) but probably he played some of the 5 final Confed matches. Depending on those you need to "remove" some matches for him. Probably he played around 42 matches which gives 21 points for him. (And together with the 24 points from finishing 2nd you would end around 45 yellow points)

[TheEarl]

@Watson156 without revealing too much of your score so far, how are you doing in China? Do you like the challenge so far?

[XaW]

Well, the game stated 44+ 3 as a sub for him in the first season, and then I added the last 4 confed matches to get to 51, I think I erroneously typed 54 there. Is this not correct?

[TheEarl]

5 minutes ago, XaW said:

Well, the game stated 44+ 3 as a sub for him in the first season, and then I added the last 4 confed matches to get to 51, I think I erroneously typed 54 there. Is this not correct?

No, and I am sorry for a bit confusing rule. Originally S.Africa wasnt my top choice for the Tour, but I promised to visit all over the world so this was the best I could come up with. The reason S.Africa is such a pain is the fixture congestion as mentioned, but mostly the fact that Continental football runs in a different calendar than domestic.

So the rule for the special function player was to count the number of matches only until the final domestic match of 2017/18 matches. The rest of the matches is just played to determine the polkadot jersey points. After making the rules I realize it would be easier if I made the rule that the entire 2017/18, but once I made the rule like I did we just have to stick with it everyone. Sorry for the inconvenience 

[Watson156]

1 hour ago, TheEarl said:

@Watson156 without revealing too much of your score so far, how are you doing in China? Do you like the challenge so far?

Haven't started it really. Just been having a look at bringing in new staff and having a good scout all around China. Also have to make sure my ocd is taken care of and make sure that all the correct graphics are in place!

Like I said at the start of stage 1, starting a new season/save is always the hardest part for me. Just need to get into the season and then I will fly through this. The rules are really interesting this time especially rewarding for not losing, really have to look at my approach. Usually, I go all in for the win every game whereas now I have to think about not losing! 

[XaW]

2 hours ago, TheEarl said:

No, and I am sorry for a bit confusing rule. Originally S.Africa wasnt my top choice for the Tour, but I promised to visit all over the world so this was the best I could come up with. The reason S.Africa is such a pain is the fixture congestion as mentioned, but mostly the fact that Continental football runs in a different calendar than domestic.

So the rule for the special function player was to count the number of matches only until the final domestic match of 2017/18 matches. The rest of the matches is just played to determine the polkadot jersey points. After making the rules I realize it would be easier if I made the rule that the entire 2017/18, but once I made the rule like I did we just have to stick with it everyone. Sorry for the inconvenience 

Oh, ok then, please just fix it for the leaderboard then!

[TheEarl]

7 minutes ago, XaW said:

Oh, ok then, please just fix it for the leaderboard then!

No problem, but you think he played all those 5 matches?

I am at work now, so leaderboards will be updated tomorrow anyway

[TheEarl]

46 minutes ago, Watson156 said:

Haven't started it really. Just been having a look at bringing in new staff and having a good scout all around China. Also have to make sure my ocd is taken care of and make sure that all the correct graphics are in place!

Like I said at the start of stage 1, starting a new season/save is always the hardest part for me. Just need to get into the season and then I will fly through this. The rules are really interesting this time especially rewarding for not losing, really have to look at my approach. Usually, I go all in for the win every game whereas now I have to think about not losing! 

I have started my self, and find it very interesting. I can reveal that I have lost match(es) but will not reveal my strategy too much, because there is a lot of ways to think about doing this Stage. What I can say is that finding a way with all registration rules regarding all different competitions seems to be a key factor (and Dynamics as always.) I actually played a match against a lower tier side in the chinese cup, and had to field a number of young players, I barely had enough players to play the match.