Its no wonder why Spuds was the winner; only 4 losses with no loss income sacrificed due to boots, and profitability among your players. With master of desaster and Timinator as the only ‘unprofitable’ players, they were only unprofitable because of their ridiculous purchase prices. Spuds won this division by dominating every tournament and will extend their current run of 59 days without loss when the next season begins. With a respectable bank balance of 70.9 Nohhams, they need little change to their lineup. In the upcoming draft, their goal is to stay ahead of their competition and to play spoiler by scooping up good players or driving up prices. If they choose to trade any player in their roster, I’m quite confident they’ll have many buyers lining up for any of their existing players. Hedja has done well to win the first season and Spuds are well placed to replicate their success.
In 2nd place, WTF ended the season in a strong position, outperforming the expectations of over 90% of pollers predicted them to come 3rd place or lower. They recorded the exact same win rate as Warsenal but it was in 2v2 and 3v3 templates WTF showed their strengths to earn them more points. WTF had a very compact lineup which was largely a good strategy. All players except for Master Miyagi were active and performed well. Master Miyagi was responsible for 4 boot losses which only marginally affected WTF’s income, reducing it by only 2 Nohhams, and dropping 12 points. WTF isn’t in need of much change; only 1v1 was lackluster though it was still decent. Master Miyagi ends with a 3-7 win-loss record, 4 boots and unprofitability looking to reduce his base price, but he did manage to commit to 6/10 games, so this Tier 2 player could be of interest to Division B clubs. In any case, WTF is in a good position to challenge Spuds next season for 1st place. Platinum’s performance can be divided into two trains of thought: if you’re a Platinum-hater, he got lucky picking players with good activity, or if you are a normal person then Platinum was smart by picking reliable players. I am a normal person so good job Platinum!
Warsenal WC was predicted to do rather poorly, 4th place or lower by over 85% of the pollers, but they finished 3rd so congrats! Although the spectre of unreliable players rears its head. The booting problem is contained to dodo commander and andy903, each booted from 4 and 6 games respectively, resulting in a loss of 7. Master Atom ◆Elite◆ was booted once also, losing the club 1.5. Much more significant is the total of 39 points dropped from those losses with boots. It is unlikely anyone will trade for andy903 and dodo commander; both are more likely to be released back into the market to free up money for the draft. Warsenal WC will make a loss on these players without a buyer, but they will at least avoid paying their salaries again for next season, particularly andy903 who’s proven one of the least profitable players due to his high salary and low performance. The 3v3 team had an OK record and were nicely profitable as each player was purchased for a good price. Other than Kryzchu and andy903, this team had a nicely balanced buying method that meant most players were profitable. However, Warsenal WC was the only club in Division A, that purchased a substitute; OxTheArtist. It was recommended substitutes be purchased but there is no mechanisms to substitute players in a tournament so it was a waste of money, luckily a small waste of money. All-round, a good job for the manager Tjoex!
Robot Unicorns were a team with big expectations, predicted by almost half the pollers to place 1st, and did they ever underperform! Quickly I’d like to bring Legends of Light back, as that team gets a lot of flack for being a burning dumpster fire of a team which I don’t agree with per se. I feel Robot Unicorns did worse due to the pervasive boots within this team and how it hampered all game types and templates, Legends of Light were different and I’ll get to that shortly. Overall, Robot Unicorns lost 12.5 Nohhams from boots which is made worse by the club finishing with only 14.9 Nohhams if they keep their current roster. The club has very little money and an expensive, unreliable lineup. This is one of 3 teams that I see removing a lot of players including Ace Windu, and Grosshandlaren for poor performance, and also weighing their options with Tony Sodano and Sephiroth. These last two are good players, but they each played 10 games with 8 losses, 7 of which involved one, or the other, or both being booted. I can see Tony Sodano and Sephiroth staying on the team if the manager is prepared to give them another chance, or being traded to another club. I doubt they will be released to the market. But their Manager Kenny Apex is stepping away from Warlight which raises a new question of will this team fold or a new manager step in to replace them? The future of Robot Unicorns is very uncertain.
Random Players played a risky strategy this season spending far less on players than their competition, and were aiming for anything 5th place and above. And it worked! They should consider themselves lucky that one team fell apart, Legends of Light, to save them from relegation. However, with the largest amount of free money of all the clubs, Random Players can throw some weight around next season to bag the best available talent. But on a less positive note, boots were an issue for this team. Good Kid was the only stand out bad player in the lineup, going inactive mid tournament, unlikely to return next season. Super Smoove and Farah are two strong, active players but didn’t win as many games as expected and got booted in 3 of their 4 losing games. Motoki was booted from 1 game, it is difficult to draw a trend from 1 boot and a positive winning record. The club is wealthy enough to perhaps not care about a total of 9.5 income lost to boots, but those games alone were worth a whopping 35 points; their season total was only 39 points! There are good players at this club but many didn’t perform well. I can see this team just releasing 1 or 2 players back to the draft if unable to trade them. They have enough finances to maybe even accept the 90% release value without hesitation. Regardless, Random Players can make some strong moves in the upcoming draft to outbid a lot of managers for a few power players should any become available. The only club that could possibly compete is the newly promoted club if their promotion bonus is large enough.
“Who’s left?”, I inquire. Then it hits me, “Legends of Light, of course!” I search the room and Legends of Light is sitting quietly in the corner. They perk up when they see me and I lead them on the stage. “Don’t be afraid, it's not going to be as bad you think”.
Legends of Light: a worst case scenario for a club. The inactivity of Summer sunk a team with such high hopes. Master Turtle boasted of a perfect record on 3v3 Europe although a team with Gustave II, an avid 3v3 EU player, Summer, not a 3v3 player, and Master Ryiro, an unconventional 3v3 player, wasn't the best choice. With Summer on two templates and going inactive, the motivation to win was broken and the team fell apart. Between Summer, Master Ryiro and Glamorous, each was booted in 9, 4 and 3 game losses, respectively. The club lost 15.5 Nohhams and 67 points to boots! That is critical because Legends of Light are broke, unable to afford their existing wage bill, and the only club with no choice but to trade or release players. For such a poor performance, there is blame to go around. The obvious choice is Master Turtle; the mentality of 'the buck stops with the person in charge’ overlooks personal responsibility to follow through on your commitments which Master Turtle couldn’t have predicted as the poor performing players had low boot rates around 3%. So if Master Turtle isn’t to blame per se, then the blame lies with the players, and I agree. Summer, for whatever reason, didn't play their games and no one can rationalize that as ok behaviour. Everyone on Warlight has a life with more important commitments, but Summer’s inactivity isn’t the way to drop everything and leave Warlight. But just because Summer left doesn’t mean that the team was automatically relegated! Random Players was also doing poorly and Legends of Light was entirely within striking distance to beat Random Players. If players gave up that early on and were throwing games, then this mess is entirely on the players. You didn’t have to relegate, but alas Legends of Light did.
So here comes the uncertain part for Legends of Light, with a weak financial situation their Base Income may be cut. I wasn’t able to determine if a relegated team gets the 30 nohhams of Division A or 10 of Division B. It makes sense that Legends of Light would get 10, but that pushes them further into the red at -35.2 nohhams! And this club has
the most expensive lineup that was booted the most of all clubs. Getting relegated is just the sucker punch Legends of Light doesn’t need. Summer, Master Ryiro and Glamorous needs to be released back into the market due to inactivity and retirement. But this club has little money even if that happens. Master Turtle needs good, cheap picks Season 2 to stay competitive in Division B. Though this club can improve, I don’t see it returning to Division A anytime soon.
So one last thought about inactive players. Is it the fault of managers that a player goes inactive? Should a manager be penalized for a player leaving Warlight by releasing a player for 90% of purchase price + 50% of change in base price? Or is a full reimbursement fairer? I don’t know what the plan for inactive players is, but I hope the solution isn’t to punish managers.
Edited 5/25/2016 19:43:45
