It all started at the beginning but then doesn't it always? In this case it really is true it started with a group of about 15 friends following a post on our group’s forums about this new football browser game that looked like it might be something fun we could all do together. We had been looking for something new we could all get into, so about 15 of us signed up and began creating some players. One of us stepped up and bought a team and then it really was on.
Being seasoned gamers we knew not to just go into things blindly instead we scoured the forums in an attempt to glean the secrets of good quality player builds. Secure in the belief that we had learned the secrets we assigned our points and got ready for the first season. We found our selves in one of the newer leagues and since we got started behind other leagues the masters of GLB decided a shortened season was in order so we had only a 6 game schedule for season one.
Finally after all the preparations had been made the season began and we took the field for game one of our very first season. For 59 minutes we battled our opponent in a very close game but found ourselves behind by 7 points with time running out. Our offense stepped up during the two minute drill and moved the ball into scoring position. With time running out we managed to get the ball across the goal line leaving us with just the extra point attempt to pull us even and secure a tie in our very first outing. Send in the kicking team, our coach shouted and onto the field trotted our little kicker, our secret weapon; he would secure us a tie. The ball was snapped the hold was placed he stepped into the kick and drove the ball deep and true, straight past the right upright, unfortunately the wrong side of the upright....Shit wide right, we lose by one point. Fucking kickers.
It was all down hill from there we lost 4 of 6 that first season by a combined total of 39 points and could have won all but one of them. Following the season the league went through a major restructuring and we elected to be moved to the newly expanded US leagues. We found ourselves in USA A#3 and upon examining the competition we soon discovered that we were at a severe disadvantage compared to other teams in our division, they had all played a full first season of 16 games. They all had more money and higher level players then we did. We determined that we only realistically had a chance to win three games and we needed to do something drastic to make up the level disparity we now faced to be able to compete on even terms.
Looking around at other teams rosters we deduced that we had too many players on our roster and our starters were not getting enough plays to gain the exp needed to catch up. So we did what thought we needed to, we started trimming our roster until we reached a starting roster plus one backup per position and our team owner endured the hate mail from angry 14yr olds upset that the Texans just didn’t love them and was trading them away.
After a few opening losses in season 2 the masters of GLB sprung their next surprise upon us when they introduced stamina to the game. With a team that was averaging only 100 yds of total offense a game we quickly found that our defense was getting gassed badly as time of possession consistently ended up in our opponents favor and we started giving up huge chunks of yardage and points to opposing teams. Shit, now we need more players on our roster to keep our guys fresh.
It was at this point that my good friend and owner of the Texans began to waffle on the whole ownership experience, you see the angry ventings of 14yr olds upset with being traded or because their uber level 14 players with 30 skill points in both ability trees should be starting started to get to him. Then what I was most afraid of occurred next. He asked me to run the team for him and because he is my friend I reluctantly agreed to try. My goal was simple, get the team to .500, no playoffs nonsense, just get to .500 that would be tough enough.
So we set out to trade for the help we needed with an already trimmed down roster this meant trading for cash, and the competition for good players was intense with every player demanding to go to playoff bound teams what chance did a team with 4 wins in two seasons have to get them? Not much really, we tried very hard, we landed a few guys after days and nights of scouring the player market forums, keeping them around would be another “challenge” altogether.
For season 2 we went 2 up and 14 down and morale plummeted faster than our offensive output declined, and that is saying something. It was near the end of the season that the next thing that I feared most happened, a few guys on the team decided it was time to simulate the team meltdown. An embarrassing explosion of emotion and anger was poured out into the team forum and it soon began to engulf the entire team and destroy what little morale we had left, since the masters of GLB had saw fit to add that as well, we had reached a low point and it was really showing and wearing on the entire team. To resolve the crisis that a couple of guys started in our forums I had to cut a friend from the team and he did not take it well at all.
Season three began and things didn’t get any better. To begin with we had tried to get moved to another league as many on the team waited and hoped for help from the balance stick from the masters of GLB when that help failed to appear the die was cast for yet another tough losing season ¾’s of the way into the season and showing only two w’s in the win column confirmed it.
Whilst scrambling to fill the roster with the needed players to get us at least competitive I had completely missed that we were in need of cash badly for next seasons needs. Shit, I hadn’t had time to even think about any of that with all the roster needs we had and all those new tactics and stamina settings. So I began to learn all there is to know about team finances and stadium management, or so I thought.
After reading through dozens of posts and a very decent starting guide on stadium construction I reasoned that we were in ok shape as we had built two corners already and had allot of seats we could build, so we built them all. We did nothing with our prices and left them at expected prices because our previous record didn’t justify raising them. We anxiously awaited the start of season 3 and the influx of cash from all the season ticket sales. We needed to build another section for next season and we still had many roster needs to fill.
Then reality set in. Money what money? There wasn’t even enough money to get 4 level 20+ players of the 10 or so we really needed to compete, let alone build another stadium section and meet all the salary needs as well. Everyone needs money for equipment upgrades and now there are minimum salaries that have to be paid out, no matter to the Texans we have all been on minimums anyway. So what the hell went wrong why did we get so little money and how do those other teams seem to have so much? Back to the forums I must have missed something. What the hell? These guys are all seemingly charging 2.5x the expected price? And they are getting it? Shit, I screwed up, should have raised the prices and sometime I need to find time to get into all those new tactics settings they added that aren’t live yet before season 4 starts. Damn I really need some sleep, oh well I’ll sleep when I am dead I guess.
Season 3 mercifully came to end and we limped across the finish posting a 3 and 13 record with the only bright spot being we won all three back to back. Well that is something to build on isn’t it? It really doesn’t matter that we had to take out a $1.5mil loan just to get through the seasons payroll does it? Time to raise those ticket prices and then everything will be just fine. We will have the money to get our roster built up beyond 41 players and get that needed stadium expansion in, another corner section I suppose and that will bring us to three just one more and some end zones and hey we will have a nice little bowl going on.
Season 4 finally got started after what seemed like an endless off season, I suppose that happens when your team is trying to forget yet another losing season. Shit delays in getting things going the longest off season we have ever endured and we are almost out of money. It looks like we will just make it if the masters of GLB will just get this thing started again.
Finally Season 4 day one and all our problems will be behind us we will be rolling in cash, WTF! Zero tickets sold, zero not one fucking ticket? No concession sales. Shit we played our first game in front of an empty stadium? The Teams cash balance is at less than $250k and payroll is over $85k a day OMG we are fucked. A furious discussion and search began to try and figure out what went wrong when it hit one of the guys. Something was strange about our schedule. It was backwards when compared to the other team’s schedules we played.
When compared both teams were showing games as away, yet our team finances page showed them correctly. A quick search of the forums indicated no major wide spread problems being reported, and certainly nothing like what we saw. So a post was made and shortly we got our reply from the GLB master himself. Your prices are way too high, lower them and you will sell stuff.
FUCK! We are finished there is no way for us to recover from this we will run out of money in two days and I cant even sign guys whose contracts are expiring in week one because of the newly instituted minimum signing bonuses, which none of my guys even wanted anyway. Texans are a tough and dedicated group of guys and they did and would do what ever it takes to help the team. Shit, I let them all down everyone of them and this is all my fault.
It is a sad state of affairs that so far the most fun many of my teammates and myself included have had playing GLB was in breaking up the team. Mistakes were made sure but the margin for error is just too small and it feels as if somehow we got the shaft.
I hope this tragic tale will do a couple things first, If you are an owner who managed to sign one of the Texans players then you got a quality TEAM player who has proven they can be counted on to do whatever is needed for the team. Second hopefully other owners will see that team finances are the most difficult part of running the team, unless of course you win most of your games and get to the playoffs. Then your morale won’t suffer causing losing streaks to endure and you won’t find yourself doing nothing but paying salaries for long off seasons while other teams play for titles and cash bonuses further increasing their dominance over their divisions. In GLB winning means surviving and losing means an ugly ending for everyone involved.
Best of luck to everyone.
Baseline Former GM of the Dallas Texans
Being seasoned gamers we knew not to just go into things blindly instead we scoured the forums in an attempt to glean the secrets of good quality player builds. Secure in the belief that we had learned the secrets we assigned our points and got ready for the first season. We found our selves in one of the newer leagues and since we got started behind other leagues the masters of GLB decided a shortened season was in order so we had only a 6 game schedule for season one.
Finally after all the preparations had been made the season began and we took the field for game one of our very first season. For 59 minutes we battled our opponent in a very close game but found ourselves behind by 7 points with time running out. Our offense stepped up during the two minute drill and moved the ball into scoring position. With time running out we managed to get the ball across the goal line leaving us with just the extra point attempt to pull us even and secure a tie in our very first outing. Send in the kicking team, our coach shouted and onto the field trotted our little kicker, our secret weapon; he would secure us a tie. The ball was snapped the hold was placed he stepped into the kick and drove the ball deep and true, straight past the right upright, unfortunately the wrong side of the upright....Shit wide right, we lose by one point. Fucking kickers.
It was all down hill from there we lost 4 of 6 that first season by a combined total of 39 points and could have won all but one of them. Following the season the league went through a major restructuring and we elected to be moved to the newly expanded US leagues. We found ourselves in USA A#3 and upon examining the competition we soon discovered that we were at a severe disadvantage compared to other teams in our division, they had all played a full first season of 16 games. They all had more money and higher level players then we did. We determined that we only realistically had a chance to win three games and we needed to do something drastic to make up the level disparity we now faced to be able to compete on even terms.
Looking around at other teams rosters we deduced that we had too many players on our roster and our starters were not getting enough plays to gain the exp needed to catch up. So we did what thought we needed to, we started trimming our roster until we reached a starting roster plus one backup per position and our team owner endured the hate mail from angry 14yr olds upset that the Texans just didn’t love them and was trading them away.
After a few opening losses in season 2 the masters of GLB sprung their next surprise upon us when they introduced stamina to the game. With a team that was averaging only 100 yds of total offense a game we quickly found that our defense was getting gassed badly as time of possession consistently ended up in our opponents favor and we started giving up huge chunks of yardage and points to opposing teams. Shit, now we need more players on our roster to keep our guys fresh.
It was at this point that my good friend and owner of the Texans began to waffle on the whole ownership experience, you see the angry ventings of 14yr olds upset with being traded or because their uber level 14 players with 30 skill points in both ability trees should be starting started to get to him. Then what I was most afraid of occurred next. He asked me to run the team for him and because he is my friend I reluctantly agreed to try. My goal was simple, get the team to .500, no playoffs nonsense, just get to .500 that would be tough enough.
So we set out to trade for the help we needed with an already trimmed down roster this meant trading for cash, and the competition for good players was intense with every player demanding to go to playoff bound teams what chance did a team with 4 wins in two seasons have to get them? Not much really, we tried very hard, we landed a few guys after days and nights of scouring the player market forums, keeping them around would be another “challenge” altogether.
For season 2 we went 2 up and 14 down and morale plummeted faster than our offensive output declined, and that is saying something. It was near the end of the season that the next thing that I feared most happened, a few guys on the team decided it was time to simulate the team meltdown. An embarrassing explosion of emotion and anger was poured out into the team forum and it soon began to engulf the entire team and destroy what little morale we had left, since the masters of GLB had saw fit to add that as well, we had reached a low point and it was really showing and wearing on the entire team. To resolve the crisis that a couple of guys started in our forums I had to cut a friend from the team and he did not take it well at all.
Season three began and things didn’t get any better. To begin with we had tried to get moved to another league as many on the team waited and hoped for help from the balance stick from the masters of GLB when that help failed to appear the die was cast for yet another tough losing season ¾’s of the way into the season and showing only two w’s in the win column confirmed it.
Whilst scrambling to fill the roster with the needed players to get us at least competitive I had completely missed that we were in need of cash badly for next seasons needs. Shit, I hadn’t had time to even think about any of that with all the roster needs we had and all those new tactics and stamina settings. So I began to learn all there is to know about team finances and stadium management, or so I thought.
After reading through dozens of posts and a very decent starting guide on stadium construction I reasoned that we were in ok shape as we had built two corners already and had allot of seats we could build, so we built them all. We did nothing with our prices and left them at expected prices because our previous record didn’t justify raising them. We anxiously awaited the start of season 3 and the influx of cash from all the season ticket sales. We needed to build another section for next season and we still had many roster needs to fill.
Then reality set in. Money what money? There wasn’t even enough money to get 4 level 20+ players of the 10 or so we really needed to compete, let alone build another stadium section and meet all the salary needs as well. Everyone needs money for equipment upgrades and now there are minimum salaries that have to be paid out, no matter to the Texans we have all been on minimums anyway. So what the hell went wrong why did we get so little money and how do those other teams seem to have so much? Back to the forums I must have missed something. What the hell? These guys are all seemingly charging 2.5x the expected price? And they are getting it? Shit, I screwed up, should have raised the prices and sometime I need to find time to get into all those new tactics settings they added that aren’t live yet before season 4 starts. Damn I really need some sleep, oh well I’ll sleep when I am dead I guess.
Season 3 mercifully came to end and we limped across the finish posting a 3 and 13 record with the only bright spot being we won all three back to back. Well that is something to build on isn’t it? It really doesn’t matter that we had to take out a $1.5mil loan just to get through the seasons payroll does it? Time to raise those ticket prices and then everything will be just fine. We will have the money to get our roster built up beyond 41 players and get that needed stadium expansion in, another corner section I suppose and that will bring us to three just one more and some end zones and hey we will have a nice little bowl going on.
Season 4 finally got started after what seemed like an endless off season, I suppose that happens when your team is trying to forget yet another losing season. Shit delays in getting things going the longest off season we have ever endured and we are almost out of money. It looks like we will just make it if the masters of GLB will just get this thing started again.
Finally Season 4 day one and all our problems will be behind us we will be rolling in cash, WTF! Zero tickets sold, zero not one fucking ticket? No concession sales. Shit we played our first game in front of an empty stadium? The Teams cash balance is at less than $250k and payroll is over $85k a day OMG we are fucked. A furious discussion and search began to try and figure out what went wrong when it hit one of the guys. Something was strange about our schedule. It was backwards when compared to the other team’s schedules we played.
When compared both teams were showing games as away, yet our team finances page showed them correctly. A quick search of the forums indicated no major wide spread problems being reported, and certainly nothing like what we saw. So a post was made and shortly we got our reply from the GLB master himself. Your prices are way too high, lower them and you will sell stuff.
FUCK! We are finished there is no way for us to recover from this we will run out of money in two days and I cant even sign guys whose contracts are expiring in week one because of the newly instituted minimum signing bonuses, which none of my guys even wanted anyway. Texans are a tough and dedicated group of guys and they did and would do what ever it takes to help the team. Shit, I let them all down everyone of them and this is all my fault.
It is a sad state of affairs that so far the most fun many of my teammates and myself included have had playing GLB was in breaking up the team. Mistakes were made sure but the margin for error is just too small and it feels as if somehow we got the shaft.
I hope this tragic tale will do a couple things first, If you are an owner who managed to sign one of the Texans players then you got a quality TEAM player who has proven they can be counted on to do whatever is needed for the team. Second hopefully other owners will see that team finances are the most difficult part of running the team, unless of course you win most of your games and get to the playoffs. Then your morale won’t suffer causing losing streaks to endure and you won’t find yourself doing nothing but paying salaries for long off seasons while other teams play for titles and cash bonuses further increasing their dominance over their divisions. In GLB winning means surviving and losing means an ugly ending for everyone involved.
Best of luck to everyone.
Baseline Former GM of the Dallas Texans
Last edited Aug 20, 2008 03:43:11
