Im with hoospack on this one, something is not right. Kermit and Gonzo cant see the forest for the trees.

For the record i choose to pay for a yearly subscription which i recently renewed. I also enjoy the game very much and hope it will be here for a long time.

Having a go at the guy because he is American though !

In my best Scottish dialect..... stop being such a wee fanny!

I agree with Trevor.

AbCat wrote: Yes, it's not the admins having a go at Hoospack for being American, it's Simpathia. To be honest, if you're a citizen of one of the most dominant nations in history, it's fair dos. But yea, 18 novice teams with similar names all paying 80 Euros for an Ultimate Supporter? Most of them playing in the same way, with almost no forum activity until now? If it were a group of friends, you'd expect some banter between them, or different approaches to playing and team building. You'd expect some of them to go bust or make dumb mistakes, or others to get bored and bot from inactivity. It's nice the admin is actually engaging. They even replied to my email. But if these teams aren't admin-related, whose are they, and why have they spent €1440 on a browser game?

Fair enough Abcat. Just to reiterate, I don't have a problem with someone attacking me, but there are better ways to go about it. Especially when we have to consider that there are young people that still play this game.

However - you make a very valid point that the Admins completely ignored in their debate with me. I specifically mentioned what I called "the oldest trick in the book". I brought up the possibility that these teams are actually being managed by people trying to drive Ultimate Supporter sign-ups and getting a commission for the referral. As you pointed out, there are roughly 20 teams all from Switzerland, with similar names, that have all "paid" for Ultimate Supporter (including the Swiss NT manager). You pointed out, that it is highly improbable that all of these teams from Switzerland have organically paid for Ultimate Supporter. Especially when they are not actively on the message boards and don't have any history of engaging with the community, other than when they randomly message people promoting Ultimate Supporter!

Occam's Razor would say that this is HIGHLY improbable. It is "most likely" a group of teams that were created to show-off the new uniform designs in a scheme to try to get more money flowing from Ultimate Supporter sign-ups. This is the most likely scenario. Or as Occam says "the simplest explanation is usually the right one".

By the way, this is commonly used strategy by online casinos in their "affiliate marketing" to try to drum up business. They make it look like lots of people are signing up, playing, and paying (and winning), when in reality it is a group of affiliates that are working to create a "fear of missing out" in exchange for increasing business and commissions.

As I said, "oldest trick in the book".

But I guess this just makes me a crazy conspiracy theorist.

Imagine admins with iq