I read about the importance to use friendlies to get more money, so I placed an ad in the friendly ads section (Community section - click on "Ads" on the left rail, then "Friendly Games" ) specifically asking for a road game in a bigger stadium. In only a few minutes I had accepted an invite from a squad with an 11,150 seat stadium.

Now it was time to study my players.

Using the "Read this before you do anything" sticky, and the "Spilling the Beans" by jespernohr, I was able to get a read on what skills are important for each positon. I discovered that 80% of my players were not in their "best position" according to those skills. So I printed off each players main page, and spent a couple of hours working on a proper depth chart.

I felt pretty good when I was done, but I discovered that I was sorely lacking in some areas. I had only one real offensive lineman. I had only one linebacker. My best running back was playing "Gunner." My fullback was listed as a "Defensive lineman." I wanted to keep 7th place for the extra prize money, so I hit the transfer market. I was also able to make a youth pull, and the player immediately became a starting WR.

After the stadium build out I had $9,003 remaining. I spent $8,000 total to get two outside linebackers and an offensive lineman. Their weekly salary is a combined 6.8K, and these are players that should serve me well in the upcoming season. I did make one mistake here. In HT I'm used to getting the player on my roster immediately after the sale. The two LB's made it into the starting lineup for my first game, but even though I won the bid on my OL hours before kickoff, he wasn't transfered to my team until the next transfer window... which was after the game. (Next: The First Game) Last edited on 2011-11-27 at 22:32

The First Game!

To my US manager colleagues, this is called a "match" in Grid-Iron instead of a "game." Another adjustment you need to make - the home team is listed first, not last. I'm used to that from some of my soccer ... err... "football" sims, but it might be confusing here to my compatriots.

Anywhoo... 48 hours after signing up, I was playing my first league ga...match! (actually I was putting up Christmas lights in the yard, but had I been watching live, this is what I would have seen).

According to the little icon it was snowing at my opponents liar. I'm not sure this had any affect on what transpired, but it was cool to think we started our GI career on the frozen tundra.

After a quick exchange of really weak punts, Mayhem struck. Our QB ran it in from five yards out, and we were whooping it up in the visiting owner's skybox.

The second quarter saw more of the same, and it soon became apparent that the time invested in making sure a 300lb dude was not playing cornerback was time well-spent. Mayhem jogged off to the locker-room with a 24-0 lead. In the snow.

The second half was a blur of pounding, running, stomping and other "-ing's." We took our foot off the gas and only scored 21. In the owner's box we popped champagne and toasted our great success. 45-0!

As we broke down the stats, we discovered we -supposedly- outgained our competition by 352 yards to ....(wait for it)... 1. This looks a little shady as the individual stats seem to indicate they did gain 70 or 80 yards... but let them go to the bot judge and argue that point. Also, this game was rush-heavy as our investigation of the lower leagues led us to believe. That gunner, turned RB? 200 yards rushing on 20 carries. The DL turned FB? 50 yards on 10 carries. Our QB was only 4-16 with (surprise) 3 catches by the TE. They didn't complete one pass. And the punting was terrible. 31 yard average for the Mayhem, 28 for our opponents.

Maybe it was the snow. Last edited on 2011-12-06 at 5:40

The End of Week One

I feel like I've learned a lot in the first week. After our spectacular pummeling of the bot, our players got back home and cleaned out their lockers - some permanently.

Three players were set to retire. I asked for advice in the forums and instead of keeping them through their last payday on Wednesday before they would retire on Friday, I showed them their pink slips. I know, heartless of me. But it saved about 10K - and that's almost 15 VIP seats!

Then it was time to hit the transfer market. By looking for blocking or tackling in the 5-6 range, I managed to fill my missing spot on the DL and FOUR spots in the OL for less than $24,000. I admit I almost got carried away when I fell in love with one young OL...I bid up to $31,500 for him. Immediately when I hit the 'bid' button I started praying for someone to outbid me. And they did. Whew! He would have been a good player, but what was I thinking?

As this was going on I managed to get stomped in my friendly, but took the $127,353 check and said 'thankyouverymuch.' This is now in the bank waiting for the next stadium construction in about a week or so.

As the season turned I studied my league again. Down to three human managers (including me), and the other two haven't logged in for 10 days. They also still have 1,000 seat stadiums, and have not made any transfers. This, my friends, means not only will my team win more than we lose, but we stand good chance of winning the league. Why does this matter? Because as we moved to a new season at the end of the week, it allowed me to choose the sponsor that gives me the largest bonus for wins. Ca-ching!

Today, prize money rolled in. $264,000. In additon to the 7th place finish, it looks like I might have made it a couple of rounds into the regional cup? Dunno, but as I'm done buying players at the moment that gets banked for the next stadium expansion, which I'm planning after getting the cash from my next friendly. My goal is to have $525,000 to get all 750 VIP seats built in the South stands.

As Friday moved into Saturday, I poured myself a glass (or two) of a nice red and looked over my new roster. I immediately saw that with my residence in the division of Botatopia, I didn't need 33 players. So I started handing out more pink slips. Three players went away, including one I'd just bought for $1,000. More will probably follow, but since I started on glass three, I decided it best to wait until a new sunrise so that I don't end up without a kicker... or quarterback. Last edited on 2011-12-06 at 5:41

Very nice thread.....brings back good memories! Another good way to pick up friendlies is to just go to ticket income or biggest stadiums. Then pick a region and scroll down to ticket income in the 800k to 1.1 million or stadiums in the 10k to 14k size and send out challenges to 10 or so. Usually gets a good match for you

most people build vip and exec. seats first and these are more economically eefective. ie. you get more money. so with all these seats filled you get more money, due to attendances. something like that!