We had a lot of fun in this league and met a lot of really cool people. I hope everyone had fun this season and is crafting the ultimate plan for next season.
This year was incredibly tough for expansion teams. The level of competition in the A-leagues this year was stifling. I had prepared to face teams like what i saw last season and at the beginning of this year, when i looked around, i thought to myself 'holy shit!' There are 6+ teams in our league alone that could have went 16-0 and won the championship in many A-league last season (and several other teams that could have won 12-15 games).
I did still think we had an advantage but it was much narrower than I thought it was going to be. I think our real edge was our depth as most teams put out competitive starting units. The entire defense ran with a 98/99 energy setting and never forced starters.
I wanted to do the same on offense but we had a glaring weakness on the OLine (depth-wise; except Sirhc Klassen who was pretty solid). Our starting 5 were tremendous, but I couldn't believe how hard it was to recruit the sort of builds I was looking for and I couldn't get the starters backed up properly. I ended having to plug in my own OLinemen who were just not ready to handle good builds in the sims if anyone noticed. That part of things was not according to plan. Almost every single time our OLine did something bad it was my backup guys out there. I think they gave up all but 1 or 2 of the sacks this year against us (they were slowbuilds that had huge strength and blocking but NOTHING else... like 11 agility, speed, and vision lol and got owned most of the year).
The weakness at OLine prevented me from being able to run 98/99 at OLine like i did at HB, FB, TE, and WR. It also meant that I had to force offensive starters in key situations which is another thing that wasn't according to plan (and the reason why 'Sweetness' got so many touchdowns).
Next year that stuff is fixed and I plan to run a 98/99 energy setting at every single position on the team and no forcing starters at any time. That's the main part of my plan to compete with AA teams next year anyway. If i tried to go out and recruit every high 20's level monster with good builds I won't have any money for equipment bonuses or stadium building and the more important reason is that the guys who won the championship would get rewarded with sitting the bench! So I have to do something different... Hopefully if I combine depth and a high sub-rate with quality AI and such we can carry on the good name of EEA4 next season in AA ball.
We did scrimmage the #4 seed from the league we'll be moving to and lost - although looking through the sim i was encouraged that with a little improvement we might be able to win against some tough teams up there. It's going to be really hard but I have plans in the works! I want to win 12 or more games next season and who knows... with a splash of luck in the playoffs you never know.
Anyways, this is my farewell to the league. I gave some of the Spartan secrets as a goodbye present heh and wish you all well. I'll likely check in next season here and there to encourage everyone (the new league gets my game-face) and wish you all good luck in recruiting!
Oh and...
THIS!! IS!! SPARTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This year was incredibly tough for expansion teams. The level of competition in the A-leagues this year was stifling. I had prepared to face teams like what i saw last season and at the beginning of this year, when i looked around, i thought to myself 'holy shit!' There are 6+ teams in our league alone that could have went 16-0 and won the championship in many A-league last season (and several other teams that could have won 12-15 games).
I did still think we had an advantage but it was much narrower than I thought it was going to be. I think our real edge was our depth as most teams put out competitive starting units. The entire defense ran with a 98/99 energy setting and never forced starters.
I wanted to do the same on offense but we had a glaring weakness on the OLine (depth-wise; except Sirhc Klassen who was pretty solid). Our starting 5 were tremendous, but I couldn't believe how hard it was to recruit the sort of builds I was looking for and I couldn't get the starters backed up properly. I ended having to plug in my own OLinemen who were just not ready to handle good builds in the sims if anyone noticed. That part of things was not according to plan. Almost every single time our OLine did something bad it was my backup guys out there. I think they gave up all but 1 or 2 of the sacks this year against us (they were slowbuilds that had huge strength and blocking but NOTHING else... like 11 agility, speed, and vision lol and got owned most of the year).
The weakness at OLine prevented me from being able to run 98/99 at OLine like i did at HB, FB, TE, and WR. It also meant that I had to force offensive starters in key situations which is another thing that wasn't according to plan (and the reason why 'Sweetness' got so many touchdowns).
Next year that stuff is fixed and I plan to run a 98/99 energy setting at every single position on the team and no forcing starters at any time. That's the main part of my plan to compete with AA teams next year anyway. If i tried to go out and recruit every high 20's level monster with good builds I won't have any money for equipment bonuses or stadium building and the more important reason is that the guys who won the championship would get rewarded with sitting the bench! So I have to do something different... Hopefully if I combine depth and a high sub-rate with quality AI and such we can carry on the good name of EEA4 next season in AA ball.
We did scrimmage the #4 seed from the league we'll be moving to and lost - although looking through the sim i was encouraged that with a little improvement we might be able to win against some tough teams up there. It's going to be really hard but I have plans in the works! I want to win 12 or more games next season and who knows... with a splash of luck in the playoffs you never know.
Anyways, this is my farewell to the league. I gave some of the Spartan secrets as a goodbye present heh and wish you all well. I'll likely check in next season here and there to encourage everyone (the new league gets my game-face) and wish you all good luck in recruiting!
Oh and...
THIS!! IS!! SPARTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
