Top of the World!

I’ve finally made it. I’ve reached the top spot in the youth rankings in game world Lemerre. It’s took a long while to get there, but I always imagined it would do, especially with my strict policy of not over spending on the wages of my youngsters. A lot of people will say that rankings mean nothing, but to me it’s a bit of a landmark. I’ve never reached the top of the rankings since I first started playing this game during the late stages of beta, and never been around the top either. It was a nice feeling to read my teams name at the top of the list.

Anyway, on to my impressive number of trophies last season, youth trophies of course. To list the titles that I won would probably be the easiest way to explain:

Lemerre Youth Championship League - In Lemerre, the Ladder system has been replaced by a fully tiered league structure, running the full length of the season. The Championship League is obviously the second tier, but still a nice trophy to add to the cabinet.
XFA U18 youth Cup - there’s always a nice feeling when you win a cup tournament, as a lot of the time knockout games can be somewhat of a lottery. One bad decision, one selection mistake or one or two injuries can see you out of the competition, even if you do have the best team.
XFA U17 Division 1 - the third tier of U17 league competition in the XFA
XFA U21 Division 2 - the fourth level of U21 league competition
CFA U17 Premiership - just the one tier in the CFA through lack of participants, but still the winning team out of 25, with some very good sides included
CFA U19 Premiership - again the only level at U19 level in the CFA. This same squad now has won the U17, U18 and now the U19 CFA Premiership’s in consecutive seasons
CFA U21 Premiership - pleasantly surprised by this one, as I didn’t think my U21’s looked that good.

I also managed to finish runners-up in:
XFA U18 Elite League - probably one of my best achievements last season, as this was the top level of U18 league competition and game world wide
CFA U20 Cup - the manager I was due to face in the final of this competition was relatively inactive and hadn’t signed in for over 2 weeks, so I decided to play his AI. It went all the way to a penalty shootout, not one of my squads strong points, so I lost 3-1 after the game finished 1-1
CFA U18 Cup - funnily enough, the team I met in the U20 Cup Final was also my opponent in the final of the U18 Cup. Once again I decided to play his AI, this time losing 2-1. He outplayed me in both games to be honest, so he was the worthy winner.

So a very impressive and surprising season for me then. It’s going to be very hard to top that this season, especially with 3 of my better youth players all hitting 22 making them ineligible. I have thought about selling them on to get a bit of money in, but with the current market I will struggle badly. Also, after finishing 3rd in last seasons CFA Division 2, I am now a level 10 team. With that comes more income, so I can comfortably afford to keep them to help my senior side, whilst still having funds to add to my current youth teams. If the market picks up though, I may have to re-evaluate.