Out With The Old, In With The New

The off season came and went in a flash this season. So much to sort during with the Federation stuff and the CFA. No time for wage auctions, let alone to update this blog. I'll start just before last season's end then. Remember a certain amazing striker I had, Diego Bustamante? Well, it was decision time. On £50k wages at the time, his demand was £100k. With a fair bit of money now flying around in Lemerre, it would have been a major risk to go with a rebid. So it was either extend at the £100k, or sell before wage auction time. Fortunately, a friend in the CFA had been after Busta for quite some time, and after long discussions in negotiation, I sold him for £4.5m. Considering I had signed him off the free agents list for £2.1m, to make a profit was something I was only too happy to do.

With projection jumping by around £5m, i started searching for a new striker, defender, and whatever else i could find. There was an awesome striker that was in a transfer auction, ending shortly after the sale of Bustamante, but i disappointingly missed out on bidding. A £2m+ TV player going for £1m. Gutted. The next day however, the manager that signed him, put him on the transfer list, with an auto of what he had paid. Without hesitation, Marcio Ferreria was a Fiftyfifty player for just £1.1m

Next up was a DC. I saw a player i liked, and stuck in an offer, hoping that all of the £1.5m up front would be enough to tempt the all French manager into selling. I had to wait a few days while he found a replacement, and also had to pay an extra £200k, but i got my man.

Searching through the transfer auctions i came across a good, solid DM, with the current bid just a fraction of his TV. Wage demand seemed a little high, but with 54 days remaining on his current wage of £55k, i stuck in a maximum bid of £350k. Happy that i had signed him for just £250k, i noticed that he had joined me on a one season contract at £75k. I am sure i clicked "take over existing."

So with a new look team, i set about season 11 with a bit of optimism, but that was soon quashed with a poor start to the season, carrying on from where i had left off in the last. More of that, and my complete inability to create a good tactic in a later post.

Lemerre And It's Activity Problems

It really came to light on Friday night. All season I have been running community activities on a daily basis, with next to no interest whatsoever. Reward Point Challenges and one match CPU Challenges will attract 4 people at the most. Disappointing to say the least. I do try my hardest to play up "The Federation" but still we really have got an activity problem.

So onto Friday night's event then, a CPU Challenge. The way I run this is by giving the game world a level 5 CPU side to play. Lose or draw and you are out of the competition. Win, and you move onto a level 6 side, and so on. On Friday night, there was 53 managers online, yet only 14 taking part in this challenge, and that was a good number in comparison to other events.

The problem with Lemerre is the fact that it is one of the newest game worlds. Whereas worlds like Voller and Ramos already have good strong communities from pre reset game worlds, Lemerre is completely new. We have a number of 2nd, and sometimes even 3rd accounters. That is the problem with Lemerre. What I, we, need to do, is to get those people to make Lemerre their primary account. How we are to do that i'm not sure. I'm looking at writing another blog, solely for "Federation" events with reports and score updates. As for any other ideas, answers on a postcard please...

Backtracking

My last real update was towards the end of season 9. Wednesday see's the end of season 10, so it's been a while.

So, in that post I mentioned that I would give a Ryder Cup update. One word, fail. I still think it was a good idea, as a few in CFA in Lemerre said, "something different for a change." Truth is though, we always struggled to get games played when it came to the match ups week. We are still unable to create 2 team competitions, so we always had to rely on the managers being active enough, and remembering who they were up against and to both accept a friendly. It was never going to really work in all honesty, so I decided to scrap the competition.

I also mentioned that I had came to the end of the youth experiment. I had reached the top of the youth rankings, and won a number of competitions, but now wanted something different. All youths were up for sale, with most in recurring £1 auctions. This weekend, i have had to release a lot of them. These are the players that took me to the top of the youth world, but i couldn't get £1 for them? The trouble was, that the best of the youngsters were 3.5* maximum. I never built my youth side on potential, more current ability. That's where so much success came from with so little money. I've seen teams full of players on £5k-£10k wages, but the highest i was paying was £2,500. But when it came to selling, no one wanted 2.5-3.5* players, everyone is after 4* plus.

So without a treasure chest from my youth sales, i've pretty much started on the seniors from scratch. My first season in the Premiership was fairly successful, but this season has been a struggle. I'm currently sitting just above the relegation zone, but i think i should be able to steer clear. More on that when the season finishes on Wednesday.

Still Here!

I've not forgotten, nor am I neglecting this blog. But it is getting harder and harder to keep it updated. Being a community moderator in game world Lemerre, I am running a community event every night of the week. Whether it be a quiz, a CPU challenge, a beat the mods night or even competition quick plays, i rarely have time to come on here to update my goings on.

I am still here though, and i do hope to update this on what is happening very shortly.