DISCUSSION POINT - SUGGESTION

[Loser]

U24 Comp is an interesting suggestion. It will lead to players from 21-25 getting more game time. Also it will have nice progression to take players to senior team.

However this will lead to spending more on wages for players between 21-25. So there should be some additional revenue stream to offset this additional expenses.

[GA-PowerBug]

My personal preference is as follows:

Monday: U24 T20 [+ Youth Training]
Tuesday: ST20
Wednesday: Rest Day [+ Senior Training]
Thursday: YOD
Friday: SOD
Saturday: Youth Cup [See 3. below. Full rest day is also fine]
Sunday: MKMC

1. Schedule doesn't get shaken up too much. I can see in this topic and on the discord equivalent there is a lot of love for the existing schedule and I think it's good to preserve that. Remember that YT20 has not been around forever, there was a long FTP history where it didn't exist.

2. This change gives something for 21.00 - 24.14yos to do beyond waiting for weekly training. Adjust experience accordingly so youth players are not affected with the loss of matches.

3. The addition of a Youth Cup (In T20 or 40 over form) would add something new to the youth side of the game. I personally find the Cup and its management really enjoyable and I think a lot of others also really enjoy what the MKMC brings, this can do the same for youths. Potentially worthy offsetting the start dates though (say a Week 4 start with only 1024 teams so 10 weeks long, finishing Week 13 Saturday).

[wolfberries]

A U24 comp will certainly mean many youth players miss out on games, so in certain respect a new U24 comp will be robbing Peter to pay Paul.

[Hawwy]

A U24 comp will certainly mean many youth players will miss out on games, so in certain respects a new U24 comp will in some respects be robbing Peter to pay Paul.

100% agree. The only way for U24 to work would be to create a new squad with its own matches which is entirely separate to youths.

Leave youths alone!

[Hawwy]

The addition of a Youth Cup (In T20 or 40 over form) would add something new to the youth side of the game. I personally find the Cup and its management really enjoyable and I think a lot of others also really enjoy what the MKMC brings, this can do the same for youths. Potentially worthy offsetting the start dates though (say a Week 4 start with only 1024 teams so 10 weeks long, finishing Week 13 Saturday).

This has to be one of the dumbest suggestions I've seen on this topic.

You're saying replacing an entire season of youth T20 matches (with U24) can be substituted by a knockout comp where you could get eliminated in the first round? That's potentially one match of YT20 a season for my youth players, meanwhile my 16yo's are getting beaten up by 24yo's while they play their YT20 games.

Come on guys

[wolfberries]

As HG sides I tend to rely on my younger seniors to play the earlier rounds of the cup and play in some of the senior league games, after all I need a wide spread of ages in the squad! Yet, having an U24 league would mean I'd probably lose far more games, either by not concentrating on the U24 league or the senior games with the young seniors.

*I've been winning a surprisingly high amount of games with quite a few U24's and we are in div 1/2 in the seniors.

[GA-PowerBug]

You're saying replacing an entire season of youth T20 matches (with U24) can be substituted by a knockout comp where you could get eliminated in the first round? That's potentially one match of YT20 a season for my youth players, meanwhile my 16yo's are getting beaten up by 24yo's while they play their YT20 games.

1. If your 16yos are currently playing YT20 they are already getting beaten up by 20yos. In my suggestion you can still play 16yos once a week and have them get beat up on in that game.

2. I didn't say that a Youth Cup is a substitute the current YT20 format. I am aware that in my proposal it would take away game time from youths and add it to those aged in their early 20s. That is exactly my proposal I'm not trying to hide that.

[GM-crowfan65]

some people may be assuming that XP will remain at the current levels if we make the change to game types etc

[wolfberries]

1. If your 16yos are currently playing YT20 they are already getting beaten up by 20yos. In my suggestion you can still play 16yos once a week and have them get beat up on in that game.

It's far easier to hide a couple 16 year olds in the T20 format without hurting your chances overly, this is harder in the longer format.

[CapnSim]

1. If your 16yos are currently playing YT20 they are already getting beaten up by 20yos. In my suggestion you can still play 16yos once a week and have them get beat up on in that game.

It's far easier to hide a couple 16 year olds in the T20 format without hurting your chances overly, this is harder in the longer format.

As a fellow home growner I agree with most of what you've said. 16 year olds can't be the main players in your youth side but they can do a job/be protected even in div1/2. I've also found my 21-25 year olds generally do decently enough in cup/as rotation players. Would a whole team of them compete, no, but good ones used sparingly are fine.

If an U24 comp is arriving, I'd rather it become three squads (and three academies, I'm not a particular fan of the one academy setup we have now, I think it homogenises ways of playing). I don't mind the idea accelerating the growth of youths to senior level, but as older players will inevitably have more experience I think you're still looking at the best teams being older so I don't think it fixes anything majorly. I'm also against just upping experience levels as again it makes teams the same.

I think the best long term approach to fixing things like this is linked to making managers have to make tricky/complex decisions instead of templating everything. Whether that's rejigging what skills exist/how they work/training, the impact of fatigue, more and more impactful traits etc. Anything to increase player variety (in skill levels/distribution) is, to me, much more important than 'have another comp so players in their early twenties play a bit more'. As much as that's the bigger challenge/workload to sort. I feel like most of these suggestions (in general) are going to make teams even more identical in skill levels. This is a management game so choice/variety is hugely important.