FM18 - Tour de Challenges

[TheEarl]

Stage 1 final overview.

I was very happy with 15 submissions for the Prologue. Not so happy with "only" 8 for Stage 1. 2 of them where new, so it means 9 of those who played the Prologue, failed to finish Stage 1. Any thoughts on why, or something that should be changed for the coming Stages. Anyway we have a clear raceway manager here, and the rest of us needs to chase him down.

Stage victory

The stage victory was awarded for most "rival" wins.

@Watson156        10 wins (71,4%)
@Skogmus        10 wins (66,7%)
@kkfootball        9 wins
@TheEarl        8 wins (47,1%)
@XaW            6 wins (42,9%)
@abirdc            6 wins (37,5%)
@fabreth        3 wins
@vossmaj        NA (Touch mode)

Stage winners: Watson156 GOLD, Skogmus SILVER and kkfootball BRONZE.

Yellow jersey (including bonus points)

Watson156        64 points
Skogmus            59 points
kkfootball        56 points
TheEarl            47 points
XaW            45 points
abirdc            31 points
vossmaj            28 points
fabreth            25 points

Current holder of the yellow jersey: Watson156 with 87 points, kkfootball 74 and Skogmus 73.

Green jersey (including bonus points)

Watson156        35 points
kkfootball        31 points
Skogmus            31 points
TheEarl            18 points
XaW            18 points
abirdc            16 points
vossmaj            11 points
fabreth            9  points

Current holder of the green jersey Watson156 with 45 points. As one can only hold one jersey, so kkfootball is the holder of the green jersey with 44 points. Skogmus has 31 points.

Polkadot jersey (including bonus points)

Watson156        20 points
Skogmus            18 points
kkfootball        16 points
TheEarl            15 points
fabreth            15 points
XaW            7  points
vossmaj            7  points
abirdc            5  points

Current holder of the polkadot jersey Watson156 with 20 points. As one can only wear one jersey at the time, the wearer is Skogmus with 18 points. kkfootball has 16 points.

Leaderboards will be updated shortly. Stage 3 will not be launched yet, as I want more people to concentrate on Stage 2 first. Watson156 already have a great submission, but hopefully someone can knock him down from holding all 3 jerseys.

[TheEarl]

Leaderboards updated.

[vossmaj]

Thanks for the updates! I definitely enjoy being led to different parts of the world by this. Keeping the China deadline will be tough given the Christmas break/ family obligations…

@TheEarl

I guess it’s not too surprising that several participants are lost on the way of the Tour. The general setup to go month by month is ideal for someone as slowly a player as me who can hardly keep these already generous timelines. But faster and more dedicated players will start other saves in the meantime and get involved in these. So there’s a high likelihood for them to choose to stick to their current save instead of returning to the Tour when you add another chapter.

The only way to change this (I can think of) would be to publish all chapters at the same time (with successive end dates) so everyone can play at his/ her own speed including the fast ones. So they don’t stray…

[TheEarl]

1 minute ago, vossmaj said:

Thanks for the updates! I definitely enjoy being led to different parts of the world by this. Keeping the China deadline will be tough given the Christmas break/ family obligations…

@TheEarl

I guess it’s not too surprising that several participants are lost on the way of the Tour. The general setup to go month by month is ideal for someone as slowly a player as me who can hardly keep these already generous timelines. But faster and more dedicated players will start other saves in the meantime and get involved in these. So there’s a high likelihood for them to choose to stick to their current save instead of returning to the Tour when you add another chapter.

The only way to change this (I can think of) would be to publish all chapters at the same time (with successive end dates) so everyone can play at his/ her own speed including the fast ones. So they don’t stray…

I have thought of this last idea, but then I dont want everything to be decided before someone joins or have opportunity to play it also...

But thanks a lot for your thoughts, and hope more will comment also.

Given your thoughts of the Christmas break, if its needed I might extend the deadline by a week. The quite short time is set , because later Stages will involve more season and need more time if we are to complete all Stages by the end of FM18.

[vossmaj]

vor 2 Minuten schrieb TheEarl:

Given your thoughts of the Christmas break, if its needed I might extend the deadline by a week. The quite short time is set , because later Stages will involve more season and need more time if we are to complete all Stages by the end of FM18.

Oh, don't worry about that. I might make the Deadline or I don't. If I don't I will post results later anyway. Wouldn't want to be responsible for delaying anything and then even not deliver on the postponed Deadline day.

[TheEarl]

5 minutes ago, vossmaj said:

Oh, don't worry about that. I might make the Deadline or I don't. If I don't I will post results later anyway. Wouldn't want to be responsible for delaying anything and then even not deliver on the postponed Deadline day.

Well I do feel that Christmas might have the same effect on others also, so I will think about it. Its still some time though, so will not move it yet.

Remember also Touch user can compete for Stage Win in Stage 2

[vossmaj]

vor 35 Minuten schrieb TheEarl:

Remember also Touch user can compete for Stage Win in Stage 2

woohoo

[Skogmus]

Seems like Watson156 really sat the bar high for stage 2, but I'll go at it with my best. First time managing in China, so that should be interesting.. Hopefully I can keep momentum and make it work here as well. It's time to start stage 2: If its power you want..

Setup
Manager profile

[TheEarl]

I have made a small teaser about Stage 3. Stage 3 will not be launched for sometime yet, as I said I want people to focus on Stage 2.

Happy to see @Skogmus has started, and @vossmaj might finally be in for a Stage Win. I have started my self also.

Hope to see newcomers join in at Stage 2, and challenge those who already took part to plan a breakaway attack for Stage 2 to catch up with @Watson156

@vikeologist @kkfootball @XaW @fabreth @Fadedaf @Pip @Ice Ice Gravy @abirdc @thomas_e @kccircle @Pino @GwilymJJames

[vossmaj]

vor 48 Minuten schrieb TheEarl:

, and @vossmaj might finally be in for a Stage Win. I have started my self also.

This means more or less that I have to get rid of the foreign strikers, doesn't it? Well, Jackson Martinez is injured for most of the season anyway. I wonder if I can get rid of him somehow. And I wonder if focusing on Chinese attackers will Sabotage all the other parts of the project. I guess the answer is something like "bet on it - no way you're going to win anything with Chinese attackers". Well, we'll see how this turns out.

[TheEarl]

12 minutes ago, vossmaj said:

This means more or less that I have to get rid of the foreign strikers, doesn't it? Well, Jackson Martinez is injured for most of the season anyway. I wonder if I can get rid of him somehow. And I wonder if focusing on Chinese attackers will Sabotage all the other parts of the project. I guess the answer is something like "bet on it - no way you're going to win anything with Chinese attackers". Well, we'll see how this turns out.

There is 2 ways to do it. Have Chinese players score and make almost all goals and assists. Or just score a lot and lot of goals and hope that Chinese players scores a bit more than foreigners. Chinese players gets 4 points for goals and 2 points for assists. Foreigners -2 for goals and -1 for assists.

[Watson156]

4 hours ago, vossmaj said:

This means more or less that I have to get rid of the foreign strikers, doesn't it? Well, Jackson Martinez is injured for most of the season anyway. I wonder if I can get rid of him somehow. And I wonder if focusing on Chinese attackers will Sabotage all the other parts of the project. I guess the answer is something like "bet on it - no way you're going to win anything with Chinese attackers". Well, we'll see how this turns out.

 

4 hours ago, TheEarl said:

There is 2 ways to do it. Have Chinese players score and make almost all goals and assists. Or just score a lot and lot of goals and hope that Chinese players scores a bit more than foreigners. Chinese players gets 4 points for goals and 2 points for assists. Foreigners -2 for goals and -1 for assists.

The way that I went about it is honestly forgetting about the points and just trying to score as many goals as possible. Due to the fact that you cant really afford to lose games, I didn't see the need to try and be too tactical and stop them scoring. I was very much a firm believer of we will score 2 or 3 more than you. As for the foreign strikers, I think that it depends on what tactic you play and if you want to quickly bring another foreigner in. I felt it was necessary to bring in a full back so I bought in a left back and a right back. With the squad rules only allowing 3 foreigners playing at the same time, I had either left back/right back, centre midfield and 1 striker. I played a 3-4-3 or 5-2-3 so with the squad rules this allowed me to play quite a few Chinese players who predominantly got the goals & assists.

The other option you have is put Chinese players on free kicks and penalty's. I probably grabbed 5-7 goals early in the year through penalty's but then went on a run of missing 5-7 in a row, so just decided to let whoever take them. 

I think it's counter intuitive to focus on not playing foreign players, trying to score more points at the end especially if that results in you not winning the League or Champions League and losing games that you would have drawn/won if you had a better foreign player playing.

I hope some of that makes sense!!

[vossmaj]

It does and it reflects the way I plan to approach it, too. Didn't think of the set pieces yet though (maybe that's because I didn't start yet...)

[TheEarl]

I only have a few matche left of Stage 2. But think I cant play for a few days now because of Christmas. If I can be succesful in the last couple of matches, it will be a really good score though. I might "hammer" @Watson156 score if I can win those crucial final matches of the season....

[Skogmus]

Halfway through the season now, things are going well enough. Probably won't be able to challenge for stage win this time, but should hopefully get a decent result in the end. Ran some calculations just to check how things are looking, and I should be sitting somewhere around 100 pts. on stage win. Can't really find that killer tactic, so settled for something that just barely gives the results I want. Most of the offensive pressure comes from Alan, being involved in around 50% of our goals (scoring or assist), so netting a lot of minus points only from him. Players have been unhappy with me since the start but board seems happy so far, so hopefully I won't get sacked. Feel this challenge came too early in the tour, but at least we should all be dealing with the same problems. Just hope the last half of my season will go like the first, so I don't lose too many points on it.

[TheEarl]

9 hours ago, Skogmus said:

Halfway through the season now, things are going well enough. Probably won't be able to challenge for stage win this time, but should hopefully get a decent result in the end. Ran some calculations just to check how things are looking, and I should be sitting somewhere around 100 pts. on stage win. Can't really find that killer tactic, so settled for something that just barely gives the results I want. Most of the offensive pressure comes from Alan, being involved in around 50% of our goals (scoring or assist), so netting a lot of minus points only from him. Players have been unhappy with me since the start but board seems happy so far, so hopefully I won't get sacked. Feel this challenge came too early in the tour, but at least we should all be dealing with the same problems. Just hope the last half of my season will go like the first, so I don't lose too many points on it.

I am almost done now, I had the same problem with Dynamics. It was really expected. But it never troubled me, I was never questioned as a manager. I had one team meeting, but that only made things slightly better. When I got to the end of the season, Dynamics went from very poor to poor, and then to average. Dressing room was more or less constant as Very good. Board was always very happy, so sacking was never a question. I got my contract extended way before the end of the season.

My Stage Win looks really good, but I played with a bit different approach compared to @Watson156, I will tell more about it in the coming days when I have time to make my submission.

[TheEarl]

On 12/9/2017 at 19:32, Watson156 said:

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

Finally looked through this carefully. All is correct, and as mentioned a very good score. This might not only be a benchmark to reach for, but the way its written might serve as a guide for those who want to copy the submission.

I only have a few matches left my self, but will write my submission during Christmas. I will use a different format though, as I will compare my score to yours

[Watson156]

5 hours ago, TheEarl said:

Finally looked through this carefully. All is correct, and as mentioned a very good score. This might not only be a benchmark to reach for, but the way its written might serve as a guide for those who want to copy the submission.

I only have a few matches left my self, but will write my submission during Christmas. I will use a different format though, as I will compare my score to yours

Thanks, I'm looking forward to seeing how you're getting on. Don't want to give up any of my jersey's so don't do too well!!!

[Skogmus]

Well, this just happened.. 2-3 behind after 88 minutes, winning 6-3 I call effective use of stoppage time. Huaxia are 2nd in the league and had the same amount of points as we did before this match, so it was a difficult match (and crucial to win the league). Never had a crazier ending to match before!

[Skogmus]

And I'm done with this stage. Can't say I enjoyed it as much as the previous two, but it was a nice experience. Don't think I will compete for any top spot at stage victory and will probably fall back a few places on the leaderboards, but hopefully I can get back in the next stages. The title of stage 3 is really intriguing, so I'm really looking forward to the continuation of this series of challenges.

But now, let's dig into the screenshots:
Manager profile
League table
Transfer history
Fixtures 1 – Fixtures 2 – Fixtures 3
Player stats 1 – Player stats 2

Used my spreadsheet to calculate the points, so unless I have done some stupid mistakes, this is the results of my terrible attempt:
Calculations

[Ice Ice Gravy]

On 19/12/2017 at 10:11, TheEarl said:

I was very happy with 15 submissions for the Prologue. Not so happy with "only" 8 for Stage 1.

Number 9 wasn't for the want of trying! Picking up Stage 2 in the next few days and hoping for a better time of it. Although from reading people's progress it does sound harder...

[Ice Ice Gravy]

On 18/12/2017 at 11:27, vossmaj said:

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...

Sorry deleted the save in frustration. My toys were everywhere at the time.

First attempt - made it through to March but was sacked around 7th/8th in the league. Didn't lose too many but just drew a lot. Can't remember the names of the players but signed the same two in both my saves. Both did well and weren't the problem (a goalkeeper and left back from top rivals).

Persisted with a 4-2-3-1 in my first attempt. I usually do ok with it but it just wasn't happening.

Second attempt - league position was even worse and sacked around Christmas. Although I did win more against the top clubs.

I felt I'd persisted with my formation in the first save too long, kind of waiting for it to kick in to gear when it was never going to happen. Second time round I probably changed it far too much, 4 or 5 different formations. Needless to say this didn't work either!

[TheEarl]

15 hours ago, Ice Ice Gravy said:

Number 9 wasn't for the want of trying! Picking up Stage 2 in the next few days and hoping for a better time of it. Although from reading people's progress it does sound harder...

I know you tried mate

[TheEarl]

On 12/23/2017 at 23:37, Skogmus said:

And I'm done with this stage. Can't say I enjoyed it as much as the previous two, but it was a nice experience. Don't think I will compete for any top spot at stage victory and will probably fall back a few places on the leaderboards, but hopefully I can get back in the next stages. The title of stage 3 is really intriguing, so I'm really looking forward to the continuation of this series of challenges.

But now, let's dig into the screenshots:
Manager profile
League table
Transfer history
Fixtures 1 – Fixtures 2 – Fixtures 3
Player stats 1 – Player stats 2

Used my spreadsheet to calculate the points, so unless I have done some stupid mistakes, this is the results of my terrible attempt:
Calculations

Nice spreadsheet @Skogmus , unlucky about loosing in the CWC, it cost maybe as much as 20 points on the yellow jersey. But also seems like you relied heavily on foreign players for goalscoring

[TheEarl]

Merry xmas to all contenders

[Skogmus]

It's true that I relied on goals from my foreigners, but I couldn't see a way to get my Chinese players to score goals.. I wanted to play what I thought were the best XI within the rules, and then the formation was almost given to me as 4-2-3-1. Did search around for a Chinese striker but couldn't find a good alternative to buy, and didn't get a hold on a good scout to recommend any for me either, so was stuck with what I had. Even though I didn't have a great season, I still won the league, champions league, FA Cup and got third in Club World Cup. Might have managed a 2nd place in CWC if the drawing for semi final was different, but I feel that I got the most out of it. Of course I would have loved to have a better scored goals ratio between Chinese and foreign players, but it wasn't meant to be.

[TheEarl]

TheEarl Stage 2 submission

A bit quite here over the xmas period, so I though I finally make my Stage 2 submission.

Going to do this a bit as a comparison to @Watson156 score, as he set a great pace for the bunch to catch his breakaway.

I really enjoyed this Stage, but used somewhat different approach, so I though I would explain how I went about for this Stage.

First my setup screenshots:

Leagues loaded

Manager profile

The first thing I did was to hire a scout very fast, so that I could be active in the Transfer market before the deadline of squad registration for CL and league. I wanted to get rid of all foreigner except for Ricardo Goulart, but those with injuries where not possible to sell. In the end Alan and Muruqui didn't leave until the mid-season break due to the clubs buying them in the first place didn't secure work permits. I still signed Moussa Dembele, Milan Badelj and Shane Long early on though. As for Asian player I signed Park Joo-Ho from Dortmund as a real bargain. Later in the season Andre Pierre Gignac, Raul Albiol and Marcos Rocha joined.

Transfer history

This meant I had to rotate at every opportunity both players playing and squad registration to keep players as happy as possible. I was really fortunate to not have an "uprising", but had to hold a few team meetings. In the end everyone became happy when we won Asian CL. So for CWC I had a very motivated squad, and with no rules there, I could field 10 foreigners. This meant I could actually match Real Madrid in the Semi Final, winning 3-1 in match much more evenly contested than the match of Watson.

CWC Semi Final 3-1 win over Real Madrid

Now to the important part , the scoring.

Yellow jersey

Watson scored 54 points here. I took the same 12 points for winning CL and 30 points for winning CWC. I also lost the same 12 points for loosing 4 matches. (3 of them to Jiangsu who we played no less than 7 times.) But the vital part was my top goalscorer of the Chinese players. Zheng Long scored a massive 51 goals. So for me a total 81 points. (12 + 30 + 51 - 12)

Green jersey

More closely to Watsons score here. Same 5 points for winning the league, Scored 98 goals in the league for 16 points (2 points more than Watson), 54 goals in CL for 13 points (1 more than Watson) and 12 goals in CWC (1 more than Watson) Total 46 points. (5+16+13+12)

Polkadot jersey

Also a very close call. Same 3 points for winning FA Cup as Watson. Scored 23 goals for 11 points. Total 14 points. (3+11)

Stage victory points

Now this was very special and a coincidence really. I played a 4-3-3 all season, starting the season with Shane Long as a foreign striker, a possible 3 foreigners in midfield (played Goulart as a midfielder) and Park in Left Back. Of course all of them couldn't play at once but in a rotation. But Shane Long got injured early on, so I relied for 3 months on only Chinese strikers, and it payed off.

Watson had 83 Chinese goals, I had 119 = 476 points

Watson had 100 Chinese assists, I had 106 = 212 points

Watson had 74 foreign goals, I had 64 = -128 points

Watson had 40 foreign assists, I had 48 = -48 points

Watson had total 344 points, I had 512 points.

Squad stats 1 Squad stats 2

Fixtures 1 2 3

So now my manager can be Chinese second nationality for the rest of the stages. 

Wish everyone good luck with this Stage, and hope to see a lot of submissions.

[Watson156]

Hell of an effort there @TheEarl Not only do you smash my score, you make my 1-0 win over Real Madrid look pathetic!

 

 

[vossmaj]

Well, when I saw the new "Forsman gets Guahgzhou firing" I honestly thought I was fired. Well deserved it would have been. 12 games into the season we are 3rd, 6 points behind Jiangsu after a horrible April. And we went out the Champions League in the group stage.

Despite 4-2-3-1 is a must with this squad I tried a 4-2-4 (to get CHinese to score) and a 4-2-3-1 DM. Apart from this to and fro we really suffered from many injuries. Maybe I can get the season going without being sacked...

[TheEarl]

18 hours ago, vossmaj said:

Well, when I saw the new "Forsman gets Guahgzhou firing" I honestly thought I was fired. Well deserved it would have been. 12 games into the season we are 3rd, 6 points behind Jiangsu after a horrible April. And we went out the Champions League in the group stage.

Despite 4-2-3-1 is a must with this squad I tried a 4-2-4 (to get CHinese to score) and a 4-2-3-1 DM. Apart from this to and fro we really suffered from many injuries. Maybe I can get the season going without being sacked...

I would give 4-3-3 a go with retraining some forward players to strikers...

[vossmaj]

vor einer Stunde schrieb TheEarl:

I would give 4-3-3 a go with retraining some forward players to strikers...

With my job already being VERY INSECURE I won't have the time to retrain anyone. So back to 4231 it is and hope for the best... Next up: Guangzhou R&F and Quanjian.

[vossmaj]

Oh boy, what a ride it has been. After my last post I escaped getting the boot several times (I remember the media writing about an El Sackico (haha, very funny…) at least three times)… but we made it through the season and finished 3^rd. Compared to all others here and to what the club was up to when they started with me, it is absolutely woeful but I am glad I survived. It would have been a disaster being thrown out after 29 matches and it was very close…

 

 

At the start I tried to get the best Chinese players in I could get. Not much to get though in the attacking department so I at least bought some for the defense and midfield.

 

 

So let’s look at some results:

Manager profile (start)

Manager profile (end)

Fixtures 1

Fixtures 2

Fixtures 3

Player stats 1

Player stats 2

Table

CL group

 

 

POINTS

Yellow jersey:

CL, 3^rd in group: 2 points

CWC: didn’t start there

7 points for 7 goals of either Zhang Xizhe or Huang Bowen

Oh dear, that’s 13 losses overall, so -39 points

So let’s define failure with a score of -30 for the yellow jersey!

 

 

Green jersey:

Winning CSL: 0 points

10 points for 64 goals scored in the league

1 point for 6 goals scored in the CL

0 points for scoring in the CWC

So hooray for me, a positive score of +11 points

 

 

Polkadot jersey:

0 points as not winning the cup

2 points for scoring 4 cup goals

So that’s a brilliant +2 points 

 

 

Stage win (ahaaahaa)

25 Chinese goals = 100 points

38 Chinese assists = 76 points

48 foreign goals = -96 points

27 foreign assists = -27 points

Thank god, the result is a positive one: +53 points

 

I need to lie down... or get terribly drunk... or both in random order.

Anyway, have a great start to 2018 everyone!

 

EDIT: Just forwarded the save a bit to see the season end stats and guess what happened: yes, they sacked me. But they were friendly enough to have me finish the season. Phew

EDIT2: Doesn't matter really, but didn't want to leave my inability to sum up Points correctly for the yellow Jersey uncorrected.

[TheEarl]

Bad mistake from me here. This should have been in the rules all the way from the start:

Negative scoring:

In the event of a manager achieving negative scoring, the following rule comes into place:

Yellow, green and polkadot jersy: all negative scoring will be set to 0 points. 

As for Stage Win, if more managers have negative scoring, the lowest negative value will be counted as the best score.

[Ice Ice Gravy]

Finished stage 2 without being sacked! Onwards and upwards. Will post my results in the next week.

[abirdc]

I got busy with some other saves. Hopefully I will be able to finish Stage 2 within next 10 days.

[Ice Ice Gravy]

I enjoyed this much more than my time in South Africa. It's amazing what winning and not getting sacked can do for your playing enjoyment.

Overall it went pretty well. I was usually in control of games and scored goals freely. As can be seen below though by my points, I paid the price for not winning the Asian Champions League. It's a shame I had a rough end to the season too as otherwise I'd have won a few more points. I obviously also had the inevitable "squad not happy with my management" early on in the season. Just strange that it came after we'd won our first 11 competitive games. 

I played my usual 4-2-3-1, even though it didn't set the world alight in SA (what do they say about the definition of madness). If I was to replay this challenge I'd be happy playing the same system again, for the most part it worked. The only thing I'd change would be placing as much importance on the long-term injured players at the start of the season.

Stats-wise Jackson Martinez and Kim Young-Gwon were the best striker and centre-half respectively at the club. I dropped Muriqui from my ACL squad in the hope that I could bring back Martinez later in the season (when I'd obviously be in the latter stages of the ACL). Other than scoring a hat-trick in one game, Martinez never got going, and I fear bringing him into the team for the steady Alan led to a sluggish end to the season. Young-Gwon played no better than my other centre-backs.

That said, it probably serves me right for placing importance on any foreign player given the rules in the Stage competition. After my time in Stage 1 however I just wanted to win at any cost.

Alan and Goulart were the stand out players, but Long and Bowen were excellent Chinese players for me. Game of the season was definitely the 6-5 loss to Suwon in the ACL, stressful for myself but an epic for the neutrals. If only I had Muriqui available who knows what could have happened. But on reflection Suwon were just too good over two legs.

Screenshots

Set up and database

Manager at start of season

Manager at end of season

League table

Fixtures 1

Fixtures 2

Fixtures 3

Transfers

Goal scorers

Assists

Points (someone please correct me if I'm wrong):

Yellow Jersey: Part 1 = Last 16 3pts | Part 2 = DNQ 0pts | Part 3 = Zheng Long 16pts | Part 4 = 6 Losses -18pts | Grand Total = 1 Point

Green Jersey:  Part 1 = Winner 5pts | Part 2 = 71 Scored 11pts | Part 3 = 27 scored 6pts | Part 4 = 0 scored 0pts | Grand Total = 22 Points

Polkadot Jersey: Part 1 = 4th Round 0pts | Part 2 = 4 scored 2pts | Grand Total = 2 Points

Stage Win: Part 1 = 38 Goals 152pts | Part 2 = 47 Assists 94pts | Part 3 = 62 Scored -124pts | Part 4 = 39 Assists -39pts | Grand Total = 83 Points

[Fadedaf]

Halfway through Stage 2 and things are not going well at all... we're out of the Champions League and 9 points off the top in the league. I should be able to finish this one at least (if i'm not sacked) but it will not be a great score.

[TheEarl]

5 hours ago, Fadedaf said:

Halfway through Stage 2 and things are not going well at all... we're out of the Champions League and 9 points off the top in the league. I should be able to finish this one at least (if i'm not sacked) but it will not be a great score.

Good luck for the remaining part of the season.

[TheEarl]

Friendly reminder by the way that Stage 2 ends at the end of this week.

I will probably launch Stage 3 on Saturday, as I will have some time, but will update the leaderboards later today with @Ice Ice Gravy and @vossmaj submissions. 

Hope to see @Fadedaf complete in time, but you other guys come on... This is a really fun Stage and @XaW lots of numbers for you to calculate here hehe

@vikeologist @kkfootball @fabreth @abirdc @kccircle @thomas_e @Pino @Pip @Gwilymjjames you are all missed....

[thomas_e]

1 hour ago, TheEarl said:

 @thomas_e @Pino @Pip @Gwilymjjames you are all missed....

Sorry about that. Except for a few hours at the Dafuge's challenge, I havent been able to play or keep up with FM the last month. 

A great initiative this, I will follow as a spectator and come back stronger next time! 

[vossmaj]

As my notebook recently passed away I hope I will be ready to go with a new one for the next stage on time.

[Fadedaf]

Okay all finished up with stage 2 and it was not a success. We were incredibly inconsistent for the duration of the season, we could beat anyone on our day but also lose to anyone. We often went from an excellent dominant win to a miserable loss in consecutive games. We suffered badly from injuries throughout the whole season, especially to key players. I had multiple meetings with the squad and at least three with the board however I did survive the sack! At one point I was given the target of 13 points from 5 games to save my job and we actually managed to do it, scraping four 1 goal wins and a draw. We finished up in 5th in the league, significantly behind the top four and getting knocked out in the first KO round of the champions league. We made it all the way to the final in the Cup and won the first leg 2-1, however 3 of my first choice back 4 were suspended for the second leg and we lost 3-1 unfortunately. Can't say I hugely enjoyed managing in China with the weird transfer/registration rules and never being able to field my strongest team but i'm looking forward to the next stage! 

Setup screen before starting

Manager profile at start of season

Manager profile at end of season

League table at end of season

Fixture list 1 2

Transfers

Goalscorers

Assists

 

Points: 

Yellow Jersey- 3pts for CL Last 16, DNQ for CWC, 16pts for 16 goals from Gao Lin, -39pts for 13 losses. Overall= -20pts (0pts)

Green Jersey- 0pts for not winning the CSL, 10pts for 60 goals scored in the league, 5pts for 23 goals scored in CL, 0pts for CWC. Overall= 15pts

Polkadot Jersey- 0pts for not winning the cup, 9pts for 19 goals scored in the cup. Overall= 9pts

Stage win- 264pts for 66 Chinese goals, 124pts for 62 Chinese assists, -66pts for 33 foreign goals, -25pts for 25 foreign assists. Overall= 297pts 

[TheEarl]

5 minutes ago, Fadedaf said:

 

 

Points: 

Yellow Jersey- 3pts for CL Last 16, DNQ for CWC, 16pts for 16 goals from Gao Lin, -39pts for 13 losses. Overall= -20pts (0pts)

Green Jersey- 0pts for not winning the CSL, 10pts for 60 goals scored in the league, 5pts for 23 goals scored in CL, 0pts for CWC. Overall= 15pts

Polkadot Jersey- 0pts for not winning the cup, 9pts for 19 goals scored in the cup. Overall= 9pts

Stage win- 264pts for 66 Chinese goals, 124pts for 62 Chinese assists, -66pts for 33 foreign goals, -25pts for 25 foreign assists. Overall= 297pts 

You came really close to Watson's score for the Stage win here, but at least you are third in the Stage win so far. Might be looking for a bronze and some bonus points

[abirdc]

On ‎1‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 15:52, TheEarl said:

Friendly reminder by the way that Stage 2 ends at the end of this week.

I will probably launch Stage 3 on Saturday, as I will have some time, but will update the leaderboards later today with @Ice Ice Gravy and @vossmaj submissions. 

Hope to see @Fadedaf complete in time, but you other guys come on... This is a really fun Stage and @XaW lots of numbers for you to calculate here hehe

@vikeologist @kkfootball @fabreth @abirdc @kccircle @thomas_e @Pino @Pip @Gwilymjjames you are all missed....

Almost done, I hope I will be able to give an update within next 24 hours.

20 games gone, so far unbeaten in the league.

[TheEarl]

9 hours ago, abirdc said:

Almost done, I hope I will be able to give an update within next 24 hours.

20 games gone, so far unbeaten in the league.

Sounds great  Good luck for the remainder of the season

[abirdc]

This stage was way more interesting and fun compared to South Africa. We hardly struggled, and maybe for the first time in my life, spent the whole league season undefeated. Won 4 silverwares, and finished 3rd in the club world cup.

Not saying that this stage wasn't challenging. I had to rely a lot on my foreign players for winning. Dynamics was a huge obstacle. At one point, when I continued 10 matches undefeated, the players revolted out of nowhere. I had a meeting with them, where one of the team leaders Gao Lin, openly went against me. This affected the whole team, as soon around 8 first teamers supported him in this case. The leadership support kept getting deteriorated even though we were winning every match. However, as soon as  I got rid of the guy in  the midseason transfer window, the other players stopped complaining, and the leadership support started increasing. After the end of the season, it's all green.

At first, I played my usual 4-2-3-1 with 2 DMs. This didn't work properly at first. So I changed into a 4123(with 1 striker), giving Alan an advanced playmaker role in the right. We didn't have to look back after this.

I brought Ryan Bertrand from Southampton. The transfer was expensive no doubt, but he ended up playing a pivotal role in my successful season, even placed in the second place in end of season award, behind Alan.

All the foreign players played very well. Among the Chinese players, special mention to Wang Shanguyan. He was initially placed in the transfer list, with no team willing to buy him. Injury crisis made me use him as an wing back, and wow, he ended up finishing the season with the highest rating among all  players, including foreigners.

 

Screenshots

 

Setup Screen before Start

 

Manager Profile at Start

 

League Table

 

Fixtures 1

Fixtures 2

Fixtures 3

 

Transfers

 

Assist 1

Assist 2

 

Goals 1

Goals 2

 

Manager Profile at End

 

Gao Lin History(Giving this as I counted 1 assist he made before transfer)

 

Points: 

Yellow Jersey: 12pts for being Champions League Winner, 10 points for 3rd place in CWC, 15pts for 15 goals from Yu Hanchao, -3pts for 3 losses.

Total= 12+10+15-3= 34 Points

Green Jersey: 5pts for winning the League, 12pts for scoring 72 goals in the league, 8pts for 14+6+5+4+3=32 goals scored in CL, 5pts for scoring 5 goals in CWC.

Total= 5+12+8+5= 30 Points

Polkadot Jersey: 3pts for winning the FA cup, 11pts for 4+2+5+6+5=22 goals scored in the cup.

Total= 3+11=14 Points

Stage Win: 272pts for 68 goals by Chinese players, 164pts for 82 Chinese assists, -120pts for 60 foreign goals, -25pts for 25 foreign assists.

Overall= 272+164-120-25= 291 Points

 

 

[abirdc]

Now that I have a proper look at other's score, all my happiness crumbled. How do you guys manage to do so well? A Chinese player scoring 51 goals in a calendar year?! That's madness!!

[TheEarl]

On 13.1.2018 at 20:38, abirdc said:

Now that I have a proper look at other's score, all my happiness crumbled. How do you guys manage to do so well? A Chinese player scoring 51 goals in a calendar year?! That's madness!!

Like I said, it was a bit of a coincidence. Shane Long whom I bought would have scored a lot of goals, but he got injured for about 3 months in the first game he played. Then Zheng Long took over and he scored a lot. Dembele and Ricardo Goulart played in midfield. They where a lot third last on the goals but made us score a lot of goals without negative points.

Also one of my tactics was to buy a lot of foreigners that played in the later parts of the season. Alan and Muriqui where sold. 

Finally your score is really good, its around where I though the winner would be.

[TheEarl]

Now I really have to apologize, I dont have time to wrap up Stage 2 today, and also didn't have time to launch Stage 3 yet.

I will do my very best to wrap up Stage 2 tomorrow, and launch Stage 3 during this week. I will move submission dates for Stage 3 and 4 forward by at least 2 weeks to give people more time.

Thanks for all submissions.

[TheEarl]

Stage 2 final overview.

Finally have some time to wrap up Stage 2 here. We are down to 7 submissions this time, so still a bit decline. I hope people will catch up again as I soon will launch Stage 3. I have prolonged the submission date for the next Stages to give people more time. Stage 3 will the first with more than one season. Maybe it will encourage those who like to build a team over time. Anyway its time for the results of Stage 2.

Stage victory

This was the scoring for most goals/assists made by Chinese players vs. goals/assists made by foreigners. A first Stage win for me, as Zheng Long just went bananas. Watson claimed "only" a silver, his first after two straight golds. Close race for bronze, which Fadedaf just made enough to secure his first medal.

@TheEarl            - 512 points
@Watson156      - 344 points
@Fadedaf           - 297 points
@abirdc              - 294 points
@Skogmus         - 156 points
@Ice Ice Gravy   - 83 points
@vossmaj           - 53 points

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

Yellow jersey (including bonus points)

TheEarl                - 101 points
Watson156         - 64 points
abirdc                  - 34 points
Skogmus             - 12 points
Fadedaf               - 5 points
Ice Ice Gravy       - 1 point
vossmaj               - 0 points 

Current holder of the yellow jersey: TheEarl with 165 points, Watson156 with 151 points is second and Skogmus third with 85 points.

Green jersey (including bonus points)

TheEarl               - 66 points
Watson156        - 52 points
abirdc                 - 30 points
Skogmus            - 27 points
Ice Ice Gravy      - 22 points
Fadedaf              - 20 points
vossmaj              - 11 points

Current holder of the green jersey: Watson156 with 97 points. TheEarl is second with 90 points and Skogmus third with 66 points.

Polkadot jersey (including bonus points)

TheEarl               - 24 points
Watson156        - 17 points
abirdc                 - 14 points
Fadedaf              - 12 points
Skogmus            - 11 points
Ice Ice Gravy      - 2 points
vossmaj              - 2 points

Current leader of the polkadot jersey is TheEarl with 39 points. Second is Watson156 with 37 points. Third placed and wearer of the jersey is Skogmus with 29 points.

Leaderboards will be updated shortly. Stage 3 will be launched very shortly also. After seeing all the scores I must admit I agree to Watson156 comment about the scoring and bonus being to high. I really thought more people would end around the same score. But the Stage was a big upset with the bunch falling behind. I will try to adjust the scoring to be more "fair" for coming Stages.