Warrior General Games

Originally posted by tpaterniti
12thKnoght I like you as a person but there is a reason you don't go straight from BBB to Pro. In this league you either have the talent or you don't. Just ask the Kentucky Mad/Wild/Crazycats. After a 10 win season in season 2 they have gone 17-63 in the last 5 seasons, and 6 of those 17 wins were against gutted teams. Yikes!

He would have been promoted to A, fwiw.

Also, to his credit, he's done admirably in spite of that.

Originally posted by tpaterniti
12thKnoght I like you as a person but there is a reason you don't go straight from BBB to Pro. In this league you either have the talent or you don't. Just ask the Kentucky Mad/Wild/Crazycats. After a 10 win season in season 2 they have gone 17-63 in the last 5 seasons, and 6 of those 17 wins were against gutted teams. Yikes!

And the Marauders are a great example of how it can be turned around. But I can tell anyone in the bottom half right now...it will be a very very difficult climb. It can't be a 1-2 season thing, but rather a plan for 4-5 seasons down the road (which we are just hitting now on the Marauders)

Originally posted by tpaterniti
12thKnoght I like you as a person but there is a reason you don't go straight from BBB to Pro. In this league you either have the talent or you don't. Just ask the Kentucky Mad/Wild/Crazycats. After a 10 win season in season 2 they have gone 17-63 in the last 5 seasons, and 6 of those 17 wins were against gutted teams. Yikes!

We'll just have to agree to disagree on this. I wouldn't call the last two seasons a failure at all, and my team has been improving in spite of the record - our recent victory over the Rage is proof enough of that. I agree that you "either have the talent or you don't", but every offseason is an opportunity to attract that talent that I need to put this team into contention, and every offseason I work my ass off to get us there. My greatest issue has been that most excellent players want to finish their careers with famous teams where they have a shot at a title - they don't want project teams. I would have confronted that issue whether or not I was stuck in single-A (where we probably could have won some more hardware by now) or not.

As far as my own players, call me crazy, but I'd rather put them on the project teams. I don't give a rat's ass about how many championships you've won or whether you're going to steamroll the competition in the next year or what have you. To me, going from 15-1 and a title to 15-1 and another title means a lot less than being part of a 0-16, 2-14 or 5-11 team which fought its way into respectability. Each win means a hell of a lot more, and being part of that is something special. I've been there, and that feeling of accomplishment against the odds is the best part of this game, and maybe any game.

Originally posted by Galkuris
Originally posted by tpaterniti

12thKnoght I like you as a person but there is a reason you don't go straight from BBB to Pro. In this league you either have the talent or you don't. Just ask the Kentucky Mad/Wild/Crazycats. After a 10 win season in season 2 they have gone 17-63 in the last 5 seasons, and 6 of those 17 wins were against gutted teams. Yikes!

And the Marauders are a great example of how it can be turned around. But I can tell anyone in the bottom half right now...it will be a very very difficult climb. It can't be a 1-2 season thing, but rather a plan for 4-5 seasons down the road (which we are just hitting now on the Marauders)


This. I didn't make the jump thinking we were going to win it all in Season 6 or Season 7. There's heavy dues to pay to get in the door in USA Pro, and we're still paying them. The very best I could do in the last two seasons is hold my core together, constantly improve and refine our builds and AI, and maintain a reputation as one of the better owners out there in GLB. I think those things have happened, but I (and the other non-playoff owners in Pro as well) have some pretty tough obstacles - namely:

1) With careers winding down, there's less and less incentive for excellent players to go to marginal teams
2) Not making the playoffs for a couple seasons wreaks havoc on a team's finances, even if they have a complete stadium - it has been impossible to fully finance my team's equipment upgrades
3) More and more high-level players are being cannibalized for flex points, making top-shelf talent rarer - I'm guilty of this as well, as I'm not too keen to drop another hundred dollars to boost my thirty-some players for another season

In any event, I'll be on the virtual phones during the offseason as usual. It's a hell of a lot of work, but we still have unfinished business here.

Originally posted by tpaterniti
12thKnoght I like you as a person but there is a reason you don't go straight from BBB to Pro. In this league you either have the talent or you don't. Just ask the Kentucky Mad/Wild/Crazycats. After a 10 win season in season 2 they have gone 17-63 in the last 5 seasons, and 6 of those 17 wins were against gutted teams. Yikes!

At least the madcats play hard