FM18 - Tour de Challenges

[XaW]

28 minutes ago, TheEarl said:

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

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

I'm not sure what 5 matches you mean? If you mean the confed he played all 6 group stage and the last 4 matches in the knockout stages (in the next regular season). Have not added the league matches for the second season into his total. I might be a total idiot here, but I really don't understand, so I'll just trust in you to get it right.

[TheEarl]

Just now, XaW said:

I'm not sure what 5 matches you mean? If you mean the confed he played all 6 group stage and the last 4 matches in the knockout stages (in the next regular season). Have not added the league matches for the second season into his total. I might be a total idiot here, but I really don't understand, so I'll just trust in you to get it right.

The final match counted is the final league match against Wits. So he played a group stage match in Confed cup before that. That match counts, but the 5 final matches in the group stage doesn't count. And all the matches of "season 2" doesn't count either. So my guess is that he played 42 matches (47-5) as matches played as a sub do count.

[XaW]

Just now, TheEarl said:

The final match counted is the final league match against Wits. So he played a group stage match in Confed cup before that. That match counts, but the 5 final matches in the group stage doesn't count. And all the matches of "season 2" doesn't count either. So my guess is that he played 42 matches (47-5) as matches played as a sub do count.

Ohhhhh! Yeah, now I get it. That is correct.

I'm dumb.... 

[TheEarl]

38 minutes ago, XaW said:

Ohhhhh! Yeah, now I get it. That is correct.

I'm dumb.... 

no worries mate, as I said it was a bit pain to make that rule as fair to everyone as possible.

[TheEarl]

Still almost as much as 2 weeks left of deadline for Stage 1. Just an early friendly reminder for those who finished the Prologue (and others also) to complete Stage 1 in time. We had 15 users completing the Prologue and hope for even more to complete Stage 1. Who will lead the pack going into new year in real life time....

[Ice Ice Gravy]

1 hour ago, TheEarl said:

Still almost as much as 2 weeks left of deadline for Stage 1. Just an early friendly reminder for those who finished the Prologue (and others also) to complete Stage 1 in time. We had 15 users completing the Prologue and hope for even more to complete Stage 1. Who will lead the pack going into new year in real life time....

About a third of the way through the South African challenge. Needless to say it's going about as well as Kevin Spacey's career right now.

[vikeologist]

6 hours ago, Ice Ice Gravy said:

About a third of the way through the South African challenge. Needless to say it's going about as well as Kevin Spacey's career right now.

We should have an option when the squad complain to us about the fact that we've lost the dressing room after losing the last 15 matches.

'I know things haven't been going well, but I need you all to know that I'm gay.'

[vikeologist]

Has anybody reached far in the Chinese stage?

Starting with such a low reputation, I'd be quite surprised if anybody would survive every long without being sacked (regardless of results). I suppose it depends how the club is coded, but in real life they tend to have only world class managers, or as in the case of Cannavaro, world class footballers.

[TheEarl]

13 minutes ago, vikeologist said:

Has anybody reached far in the Chinese stage?

Starting with such a low reputation, I'd be quite surprised if anybody would survive every long without being sacked (regardless of results). I suppose it depends how the club is coded, but in real life they tend to have only world class managers, or as in the case of Cannavaro, world class footballers.

I let the manager run on holiday before making the stage, just to see how the fixtures went. (That there was no surprises of not making it into Champions League or anything that would have made the Stage different.) Not revealing how that holiday manager did, but he survived the sack.

[TheEarl]

Leaderboards updated with @XaW submission for Stage 1. 

I will try to make the leaderboard look a bit cleaner in format later, probably tomorrow.

[Watson156]

This is always what you want to see, after your 1st loss in your first 12 games.

[abirdc]

Real respect for the people who won the league in South Africa.  I will be happy if I can just finish in 4th position. 

 

Also, in case of Stage 1, you guys can check out Didier Zokora. For God knows why, he wanted only 350 pound/week, and clearly the best player of the team.

 

Hopefully I can wrap the stage 1 up within tomorrow. Any tips for the stage 2 anyone? 

[abirdc]

Really? Professor?

[TheEarl]

15 hours ago, Watson156 said:

This is always what you want to see, after your 1st loss in your first 12 games.

It can be a real pain, yes....

I have lost 5 matches now, but starting to get a grip of dynamics...

[TheEarl]

8 hours ago, abirdc said:

Real respect for the people who won the league in South Africa.  I will be happy if I can just finish in 4th position. 

 

Also, in case of Stage 1, you guys can check out Didier Zokora. For God knows why, he wanted only 350 pound/week, and clearly the best player of the team.

 

Hopefully I can wrap the stage 1 up within tomorrow. Any tips for the stage 2 anyone? 

Tips for Stage 2: 

- Watch Dynamics carefully

- Keep a very close eye to squad registration

[Ice Ice Gravy]

Erm. Just been sacked by Cape Town. Are there points for that? Toys well and truly out of my pram. 

Only lost 4 league games all season, but drew far too many. 

Can I have another go?... Energy pending of course.

[TheEarl]

14 hours ago, Ice Ice Gravy said:

Erm. Just been sacked by Cape Town. Are there points for that? Toys well and truly out of my pram. 

Only lost 4 league games all season, but drew far too many. 

Can I have another go?... Energy pending of course.

You can have as many goes as you like before the submission date.

Points scoring for getting sacked: 0 points in all categories.

[Ice Ice Gravy]

6 hours ago, TheEarl said:

You can have as many goes as you like before the submission date.

Points scoring for getting sacked: 0 points in all categories.

Will fire up again this weekend in that case. Fingers crossed for better luck this time!

[vossmaj]

Just to let you know that I am still on it in South Africa. I’m halfway through the season with 15 league matches played. That’s not true for all teams so the table is still a bit skewed. In this skewed version I am ranked 2^nd with 27 points. Ajax is leading the field (30p) and several others follow with 27p, too.

We started pretty inconsistently using a wide 4-2-3-1 DM. As we finally ran into a really bad injury situation (broken bones and damaged cruciate ligaments, incl. Ngoma and Obinna, two of of our major attackers/ AML) I was forced to switch to a narrow 4-2-3-1 MC and it worked wonderfully. We didn’t lose for quite a bit and climbed from rank 10 to 2 winning the Confed Cup on the way (but that doesn’t count for anything (just like for @XaW) – it helped with the finances though).

Can anyone please enlighten me about how qualifications for the next iteration of the international cups work? What determines whether we’ll play Champions League or Confed Cup? And why do some of us play the 2017 Confed Cup and others don’t?

 

[TheEarl]

2 hours ago, vossmaj said:

Can anyone please enlighten me about how qualifications for the next iteration of the international cups work? What determines whether we’ll play Champions League or Confed Cup? And why do some of us play the 2017 Confed Cup and others don’t?

 

Cape Town City finished 3rd last season, so they should start in Confed Cup. But if a South African club wins the 2017 version of Champions League, the nations gains an extra spot and that becoms you

[vossmaj]

vor 3 Stunden schrieb TheEarl:

Cape Town City finished 3rd last season, so they should start in Confed Cup. But if a South African club wins the 2017 version of Champions League, the nations gains an extra spot and that becoms you

Ah, ok, thanks! As Wits actually really won the Champions League, I guess we will start there next season. Which is kind unfortunate as I guess it would be easier to gather points for our little challenge in the Confed Cup than will all the big guns in the CL. Well, let's see. If Wits can win it, we can, too...

[abirdc]

Well, finally finished the Stage 1. It was a fun challenge, in the first season at least. In the second season, I was feeling quite bored, when I got knocked out early in the confederations cup, I actually felt a bit of relief.

However, I think I am the worst performer here, could only win the Super 8. The likes of Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates were just on a different level, and despite our best efforts, we could only achieve a fourth position. Injuries did not help me either, my two left wingers Patosi and Obinna were both out for 8 months. I bought a new left winger in the January transfer window, and guess what!! He was out for four months after playing 2 matches!!

I made a blunder tactically too. Started with 4411 and 4231, both of which failed. A switch to 4321 however did the trick, as we improved much after using it.

Another blunder of mine was to underestimating Lehlohonolo Majoro. Initially he was my third choice striker. After the failures of my first choice 2 strikers, I gave him a chance, and he didn't have to look back. Majoro ended up the season as the top goalscorer of the league, despite playing only 21 league matches.

Anyway, enough rambling. Time for screenshots....

 

Final League Table

Fixtures Part 1

Fixtures Part 2

Fixtures Part 3

Fixtures (2018/19 Season)

Transfer History (2017/18 Season)]

Transfer History (2018/19 Season)]

Darren Keet

 

Point Calculation:

Yellow jersey: 14+17=31 points, for finishing 4th in the league and for 34 matches played by Darren Keet.

Green jersey:  10+5+1=16 points, winner of Super 8, knocked out in semifinal of SA KO Cup, knocked out in second round of SA FA Cup.

Polkadot jersey:  5 points as I got knocked out of the Confederation Cup 2018 in the Quarter Finals.

 

Supersport Utd - 1-1-0 (2 league games)

Kaizer Chiefs - 1-0-2 (2 league games, won in the Super 8 Final)

Orlando Pirates - 0-1-2 (Lost in the SA KO Cup Semi Final, 2 league games)

Sundowns - 1-0-2 (Won in the SA KO Cup Quarter final, 2 league games, did not count the 2 Champions League games as they were not played by me)

Wits - 3-0-2 (2 league games, lost in the Confederations Cup Group Stage match and SA Cup 2nd Round)

 

Total - 6-2-8  (37.5% wins)

If I did any mistake, feel free to correct me.

Thank you, now time to go to China.

 

[TheEarl]

Will look through it more carefully tomorrow @abirdc but looks correct as far as I could tell.

Your score isn't that bad really, just some guys did really well in this Stage. Your score is more like I would have expected from the start. There is plenty of Stages to come though, and it could all change...

[abirdc]

1 minute ago, TheEarl said:

Will look through it more carefully tomorrow @abirdc but looks correct as far as I could tell.

Your score isn't that bad really, just some guys did really well in this Stage. Your score is more like I would have expected from the start. There is plenty of Stages to come though, and it could all change...

Thanks. Feel free to tell me if I made any mistake. I am sleepy af now, so there may be somewhere I did something wrong.

I am kind of disappointed with the thread though, wish more people participated.

[TheEarl]

17 minutes ago, abirdc said:

Thanks. Feel free to tell me if I made any mistake. I am sleepy af now, so there may be somewhere I did something wrong.

I am kind of disappointed with the thread though, wish more people participated.

Well I was happy with 15 people finishing the Prologue, and hope people will stick with it, then I will be really happy. But of course I hope people join in like a few seems to do for this Stage.

[abirdc]

A question to the people who have already started Stage 2. Have you guys been able to offload the foreign players?

To get more stage points, I was thinking I am going to sell them, and instead buy some foreign defenders or defensive midfielders.

[TheEarl]

1 minute ago, abirdc said:

A question to the people who have already started Stage 2. Have you guys been able to offload the foreign players?

To get more stage points, I was thinking I am going to sell them, and instead buy some foreign defenders or defensive midfielders.

I can offload Alan, but that guy Muriqui or something seems to be stuck...

[Watson156]

I kept Alan, and sold Muriqui when Martinez was back fully fit. Couldn't sell the Kim Young-Gwon though. 

I've just hit a massive problem. Have won all the competitions (will do a complete round up tomorrow when i've worked out points) and when it came to registering my players for the World Club Cup, it turns out that it's running at the same time as the East Asia Cup and I am going to be missing 9 first teamers. To make it worse, only 4 of them had been called up to the previous international teams. Hate Lippi, and he is meant to be a club favourite. There goes my hope of winning that.

[Watson156]

Okay...... So somehow this just happened! I just FM'd Madrid!

 

[TheEarl]

Thats just crazy even with a red card... the thing about internationals is something I warned about in the briefing of the Stage.

[abirdc]

14 hours ago, Watson156 said:

Okay...... So somehow this just happened! I just FM'd Madrid!

 

Wow, that's just incredible. Would like to read your full season update soon. 

[Watson156]

Ok so here we go with my Stage 2 results. The points for the stage wins looks a little high, but I think that it's correct although I am shocking at maths so there is a chance that I am massively wrong!

Overall an enjoyable challenge, although the fact you couldn't really bring in any new players was a little annoying. The League and Cup were very easy, and although we tried to lose against Suwon in the Champs League 2nd Round, favourable draws made it pretty easy after that. The World Club Cup was mental. The fact we were missing 9 first team players sucked but the fact we won made it all the better. 

Bring on Stage 3!

 

Manager Profile

Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2 | Fixtures 3

League Table

Squad Stats 1 | Squad Stats 2

Transfer History

 

Points:

Yellow Jersey: Part 1 = Winner 12pts | Part 2 = Winner 30pts | Part 3 = 24pts | Part 4 = 4 Loses -12pts | Grand Total = 54 Points

Green Jersey:  Part 1 = Winner 5pts | Part 2 = 84 Scored 14pts | Part 3 = 48 scored 12pts | Part 4 = 11 scored 11pts | Grand Total = 42 Points

Polkadot Jersey: Part 1 = Winner 3pts | Part 2 = 19 scored 9pts | Grand Total = 12 Points

Stage Win: Part 1 = 83 Goals 332pts | Part 2 = 100 Assists 200pts | Part 3 = 74 Scored -148pts | Part 4 = 40 Assists -40pts | Grand Total = 344 Points

[TheEarl]

@Watson156 congrats on eternal Chinese nationality. The points looks fine at a first glance. Really around where I expected a winner. The points will not be included in the leaderboards until after the completion of Stage 1 anyway. So I will have a close look at a later time.

[TheEarl]

@abirdc your points for Stage 1 looks good, so I will include them in the leaderboards now.

[TheEarl]

A friendly reminder that there is 6 days left of Stage 1.

After 15 submissions for Prologue, we so far have 7 for Stage 1. But 2 of those are new, so potentially we could have more than 15 this time.

[vossmaj]

vor 21 Stunden schrieb TheEarl:

A friendly reminder that there is 6 days left of Stage 1.

After 15 submissions for Prologue, we so far have 7 for Stage 1. But 2 of those are new, so potentially we could have more than 15 this time.

I will post my update on time (and not much earlier). We finished the season 6th after a disappointing loss of form and return to the inconsistencies of the early stage. We won all the unimportant stuff (Confed Cup 2017, African Super Cup, Reserve League, you name it) but Kaizer Chiefs reliably threw us out of (too) early stages in every national cup that mattered. We just went through the CL group stage at least and face USM Alger next in the quarter final. I guess I’ll holiday through all the league games totally trusting my AssMan not to screw morale…

[Ice Ice Gravy]

On 11/12/2017 at 11:51, TheEarl said:

A friendly reminder that there is 6 days left of Stage 1.

After 15 submissions for Prologue, we so far have 7 for Stage 1. But 2 of those are new, so potentially we could have more than 15 this time.

Is there a particular time on Sunday we need to get Stage 1 in for? Started again but to be honest it's not going much better than my first attempt...

[TheEarl]

8 hours ago, Ice Ice Gravy said:

Is there a particular time on Sunday we need to get Stage 1 in for? Started again but to be honest it's not going much better than my first attempt...

Just before the end of the day, so I see it on Monday morning. I wrote 23:59pm UK time, but honestly I am not awake around that time  lol

[Ice Ice Gravy]

10 hours ago, TheEarl said:

Just before the end of the day, so I see it on Monday morning. I wrote 23:59pm UK time, but honestly I am not awake around that time  lol

That would be great dedication! Should be able to make it fingers crossed. 

[TheEarl]

Just a friendly reminder that there is about 2,5 days left of Stage 1

[vossmaj]

oooooh, the suspense!

[Ice Ice Gravy]

Annnnddddd sacked again. Game over for me on stage 1. May try and pick up Stage 2 but think I need a break from FM to be honest. It's pretty demoralising being this bad.

[TheEarl]

2 minutes ago, Ice Ice Gravy said:

Annnnddddd sacked again. Game over for me on stage 1. May try and pick up Stage 2 but think I need a break from FM to be honest. It's pretty demoralising being this bad.

Sorry to hear that

 

[vossmaj]

So another just in time delivery from my part. All in all a rather average performance as I outlined earlier. We won all the unimportant parts. Now the details:

Yellow jersey: 28 or 29 points

6 points for finishing 6^th

22 or 23 points for 45 matches played by Clayton Daniels – formerly of SuperSport Utd. (counting all competitive matches for CT City in the 2017/18 season)

 

 

Green jersey: 11 points

KO Cup: Lost in QF (ag Kaizer Chiefs): 3 points

FA Cup (Nedbank): Lost in 1^st round (ag Kaizer Chiefs): 0 points

Super 8: Lost in Final (ag Kaizer Chiefs): 8 points

 

 

Polkadot jersey: 7 points for losing in semi final (ag Zamalek)

 

 

No stage wins for us as this is played in Touch mode.

 

Manager profile start

Manager profile Oct 18

Setup

League table

Fixtures 1

Fixtures 2

Fixtures 3  

Fixtures 4

Fixtures 5

CL Fixtures 2018

Clayton Daniels history

Transfer history

[TheEarl]

28 points for yellow @vossmaj

Will update the Stage during the day.

[Skogmus]

As the first stage is completed, I thought it would be interesting to hear how everyone else took on it..

In my case, I felt there was a weakness defensively in the team and quickly found Keegan Ritchie transfer listed at SuperSport United. Thought he would be a better option than Edmilson Dove that was left back when I arrived, so I went for him. Was a cheap transfer in and gave me a good player in return. I also got Kgotso Moleko from Kaizer Chiefs as a backup at right back without spending too much. Thinking back at it, I probably also should have bought goalkeeper Brandon Peterson from the start, as he is a much better option than what we already had. Our star signing in this save however were Ruud Boymans, that's just too good for this league. 30 goals in 32 (3) matches is just an amazing contribution and he were definitely important in my team.

Had some injuries during the seasons, but I got lucky with severity. Worst case was when Majoro had 5 weeks out midseason, but Judas Moseamedi and Obinna could cover for him, making a good partnership with Boymans (and when needed, each other). Patosi did however get injured after the final game of the season (before the Champions League) for 7-8 months, and could not play any of the games in 2018/19-season.

As for performance in the team, of course those already mentioned played a huge part in my team. But there is one player that I think deserve a special mentioning. Austrian wing back/midfielder Roland Putsche was an absolute key player for me. Probably played in every game (cup, league and continental) in some way, and were absolutely incredible. A decent 7.19 average rating, 7 goals scored and 4 POM awards from the league games, and not much worse stats counting the cups. He is, in tough competition by Boymans, my MVP for this stage.

In the end, this is my preferred XI, as I would play if I had all players available: Best XI

[vossmaj]

vor 22 Stunden schrieb Ice Ice Gravy:

Annnnddddd sacked again. Game over for me on stage 1. May try and pick up Stage 2 but think I need a break from FM to be honest. It's pretty demoralising being this bad.

What about looking at it again? What tactic did you use? What were the Transfers? Why have you been sacked? Maybe post some screenshots and we can come up with ideas why this went wrong to cure the demoralisation...

[TheEarl]

3 hours ago, Skogmus said:

As the first stage is completed, I thought it would be interesting to hear how everyone else took on it..

In my case, I felt there was a weakness defensively in the team and quickly found Keegan Ritchie transfer listed at SuperSport United. Thought he would be a better option than Edmilson Dove that was left back when I arrived, so I went for him. Was a cheap transfer in and gave me a good player in return. I also got Kgotso Moleko from Kaizer Chiefs as a backup at right back without spending too much. Thinking back at it, I probably also should have bought goalkeeper Brandon Peterson from the start, as he is a much better option than what we already had. Our star signing in this save however were Ruud Boymans, that's just too good for this league. 30 goals in 32 (3) matches is just an amazing contribution and he were definitely important in my team.

Had some injuries during the seasons, but I got lucky with severity. Worst case was when Majoro had 5 weeks out midseason, but Judas Moseamedi and Obinna could cover for him, making a good partnership with Boymans (and when needed, each other). Patosi did however get injured after the final game of the season (before the Champions League) for 7-8 months, and could not play any of the games in 2018/19-season.

As for performance in the team, of course those already mentioned played a huge part in my team. But there is one player that I think deserve a special mentioning. Austrian wing back/midfielder Roland Putsche was an absolute key player for me. Probably played in every game (cup, league and continental) in some way, and were absolutely incredible. A decent 7.19 average rating, 7 goals scored and 4 POM awards from the league games, and not much worse stats counting the cups. He is, in tough competition by Boymans, my MVP for this stage.

In the end, this is my preferred XI, as I would play if I had all players available: Best XI

I will try to share my experience a bit later. At work now, but will update the scores for the round as soon as possible.

[TheEarl]

Work is crazy today, so sadly I cant update the leaderboards and final standings for Stage 1 until tomorrow.

[Fadedaf]

Congrats to those who completed stage 1, I started and got about halfway through but then couldn't get it finished in time. I wasn't going particularly well as we were knocked out early in two cups and were sitting in 5th in the league so probably wouldn't have been a very high score anyways. Should be able to get stage 2 finished in time!