Agitated Flora, a Madcarrot story

[boscorp]

So you basically get a free pass into senior division 3. My SOD div 4 has 2 200k+ rating teams and my Senior 20/20 has 1 200k+ rating team.

It appears that way but its not always like that. Judging your opponents in the first week can be a bit rash sometimes. For instance some clubs still haven't played their strongest sides due to having weak opponents and also saving players for the Cup. Check your opposition thoroughly, as in compare squads and look at friendly game results. check on past performances and check transfer history. Some clubs are notorious for last minute transfers to win important fixtures.

#madcarrot, you accidently posted the senior T20 twice instead of putting up the youth T20 match ratings in your rundown.

[boscorp]

It is a very tough draw. So if you didn't get such week opponents and were in my shoes, how would you boost your ratings over 200k to get the "win at all costs" team you are building?

"win at all costs?" Buy some players with more experience, compare the different categories of the match ratings against your opponents and see where you could best improve. An improved keeper/batsman often goes a long way.

[Muff]

So you basically get a free pass into senior division 3. My SOD div 4 has 2 200k+ rating teams and my Senior 20/20 has 1 200k+ rating team.

It appears that way but its not always like that. Judging your opponents in the first week can be a bit rash sometimes. For instance some clubs still haven't played their strongest sides due to having weak opponents and also saving players for the Cup. Check your opposition thoroughly, as in compare squads and look at friendly game results. check on past performances and check transfer history. Some clubs are notorious for last minute transfers to win important fixtures.

#madcarrot, you accidently posted the senior T20 twice instead of putting up the youth T20 match ratings in your rundown.

I had a look at them, T20 has a very experienced team which significantly hurts Craig, and in the case of all 3 200k teams across SOD & T20 their MR last season remained fairly consistent so doubt the Cup fatigue hits are going to able to be relied upon to catch up.

Its pretty unfortunate especially when compared to Carrots competition

[Madcarrot]

It is a very tough draw. So if you didn't get such week opponents and were in my shoes, how would you boost your ratings over 200k to get the "win at all costs" team you are building?

There's still plenty of room the improve your team.

For the Flora, we went under senior budget by about $25k, and if I really want to ignore youths I could increase the senior wage budget by another 10-12k.

You would have a higher budget than me because you have more fans since your team has existed since 2021.

My bank balance is $827k, if I want to use that I can divide that by remaining weeks and add that to my senior wage budget as well (subtracting player purchases from that total.)

I think "win at all costs" isn't how I would label my strategy.

I'm using all of my available resources to achieve success, and if you look at my team they are all 25, 26, 27 years old.

So if I don't promote this season then what am I left with?

My team will be stronger as they will have increased power, endurance and experience
I'll have a bunch of prizemoney
I'll have more fans which will bring more people to our games and hopefully that will offset the increased player wages next season.

There's no losing

[CraigFisher]

I appreciate your feedback. In order to get to 180k rating I purchased a couple more players to fill out my senior team. After this I was going to be losing 60-90k per week, I do have my academy maxed out on my main and it was initially meant to be a youth focused team. I do like the idea of my youth recruits graduating into my senior side, you get attached to those players and the wage discount helps this strategy out somewhat also.

So I had been slowly building up my senior side, a very good manager who I respect greatly said that the wise move is that I need to promote my senior side this season. So I researched my opponents, recruited 2 26+ age very good players and had a tilt at it, after playing friendlies with my affiliate and after round 1, looking at my opponents and at what would be an extremely negative year financially with little hope of success with the current squad, I had 2 choices. Downgrade my academy and recruit another couple of expensive players, or sell the expensive guys off, put another season of experience into the side and try again next season, I am going with the latter.

[Madcarrot]

We are at the halfway point of our Maiden season.
So far it's been quite successful. I have accumulated a large sum of money, I'm currently on track for promotion in T20, YOD and YT20.

I did unfortunately take a loss in the SOD league though. Perry's Paratroopers XI defeated the Flora in rd6. They outrated us by 7k and chased down 280 with 7 wickets remaining on cloudy/flat conditions.

As a result I did make a huge purchase. I bought Douglas Buckanera, a former Australian U20 allrounder for $500k.
He's only 26.13yrs old so I'll get a good 4 seasons out of him and he's the quality player who can play all the way up to the higher divisions.

I'm also looking to get 1 more batter to increase the quality of my team further and hopefully get a win over the Paratroopers at the end of the season.

However I will say that we are in a great position overall. Even if we don't promote in SOD, we are well in it for a triple promotion which is a great result, I still have $400k in the bank as well.

I've turned the player visibility on for my team so everyone can check out my team.

[boscorp]

Your having a pretty good season and you still are a very good chance in SOD. You did accumulate some good earnings although a balance of 400k is not too impressive after your recent 500k purchase and an intention for another purchase. I don't agree that Buckenara was a well thought transfer but more of an impulse buy after losing. Its another 6 weeks til you have a competitive SOD game again so you have plenty of time to find a replacement player at a better price. Personally i think the best improvement you could make for your side is to get another keeper-batsman. Having a 2nd in your squad does increase wages but you can manage fatigue better. There is usually a few listed at a good price, as in under 200k for a spec or exceptional one that will last 2 or 3 seasons.

[Madcarrot]

A couple of news points as we are heading into the business end of our first season.

Firstly I upgraded our grounds capacity by 2,000 to a 10,000 capacity.

Next we secured 2 promotions already this week!

Firstly we managed to promote in YT20, chasing down a massive 194 in 16.1 overs against Aripal Qalandars in humid/flat conditions.

Secondly we also scraped a 5 run victory against IndigoGreens-II. Fortunately we also had a massive NRR advantage over them but now we are 2 wins ahead as well which puts it beyond doubt.

Round 13 we play Attenuators in YOD who rate slightly higher than us, we beat them earlier in the season but are only 0.0648 higher than them in the NRR so it could be extremely close if we lose.

We also play against Perry's Paratroopers XI in the SOD. They beat us in the first game but we do have a higher NRR. So we'll overtake them if we win. We do rate fairly higher than them now so hopefully we can get up over them.

[Madcarrot]

I've got a week off work now for Christmas so I'm taking the opportunity to write my first end of season report.

Unfortunately we did lose to Perry's Paratroopers in round 13 so will remain in division 4 SOD for next season.
However we did promote in T20, YOD, and YT20 so I still consider it to be quite a successful season.

My sponsorship will increase from $141k per week to $162k per week plus additional gate takings in the div3 leagues as I'll be playing against human teams with more supporters and also the increased ticket prices.

One benefit of still being in div4 for SOD though is that as I'll be bot bashing, my players will increase in their form quite quickly which will then help them perform against the human teams in T20.

At this stage I'm not planning on selling or retiring any players just yet until I assess my opponents at the eos.
I have 1 player who is 29.3yrs old, a wristie. Otherwise most of my players are between 26-27 and still good to play.

[Srini1593]

Happened to stumble upon this thread. Nice
Will also try to make out my teams' strategy by next season as I have got a team just a week or so before..

[Madcarrot]

Happened to stumble upon this thread. Nice
Will also try to make out my teams' strategy by next season as I have got a team just a week or so before..

Great to hear from you!
I hope this thread is useful to you and remember that success and failure in this game has a lot to do with financial management. Get out of the bot leagues and don't overspend. Feel free to ask questions on here if you like and join the discord channel

[Madcarrot]

Well we've done it. This is the end of the Floras first official season. I think I'm pretty happy overall with how it went. 3 promotions is a pretty good effort. I'm disappointed that I didn't get SOD as that's the real money making league but I still think I can consider the season to be a big success.

I have 2 big write ups. Firstly we will look at what our 2nd season in Pakistan will look like. Evaluate our opponents, see where we stand in the pack and what our needs are.
Then I will evaluate my finances, weigh up my increased wages vs my increase on sponsorship and gate takings and see if we have the money to make any improvements.

Div 4 in SOD - unfortunately mostly bots. There are 2 human teams.
Jeanz - username who logs in once or twice a month and rates around 120k, username has been playing since 2007 so they should have a lot of supporters which is good.
Oval Invincibles - HajiBilal who have been playing since 2020 but their team is rating around 50k

So I am expecting to have clear sailing to promotion this season.

Div 3.4 in T20
Last season I had an average rating of around 190k.

This is where is starts to get interesting and names that are familiar in the forums and discord might start popping up
Locked on Lads - TheOneDwade. The lads came 5th last season in T20 with an average rating of around 180k. They have quite a young team with nobody over 23yrs old. They have a reasonably well balanced team, missing a fast bowler but they have a couple of FM's.
Gujjar Lion - Jza787. Came 4th last season with an average rating of around 165k. They have a stronger team but looks like they use T20 for younger players because they are much higher rated in SOD. They also won the 1.1 YOD title.
KillerAllsta - ubanees1 came 7th last year but looks like they avoided relegation due to either someone changing countries or a BOT. They had an average rating of around 180k last season.
Gojra Gators - HChou1717 Pakistani U20 NAT manager. Very active manager logging in several times per day. Mostly a youth focussed team they finished 5th last season rating around 165k
RisingStar - Boom83 been around since 2014 so plenty of experience and a very active player as well. They narrowly missed out on promotion last season finishing 2nd and had an average rating of around 205k
Victory_Veer_USA@86 - Veer Veer has been around since 2021 and is reasonably active. He finished 4th last season in T20 rating around 165k
Jazibstan - Killer our only relegation candidates from div2. He finished 8th with a very mixed rating from 210k, 190k, 140k. He has 5 players in his team who are 32+ which is unfortunate for those who have him early. I play him in rd3 where hopefully they will be getting tired.

As I had a rating of around 190k on average last season without any changes made I should expect hopefully a top 3 season. One advantage I will have being in div4 SOD is that my players will get big form increases, boosting my players abilities

YOD last season I had an average rating of around 80k but I have 3 players 20.3 and 1 who is 20.7 so will need to look for some replacements soon.
Jazibstan - Killer finished 5th last season with an average rating of 90k
Beiram's 11 - Beiram another veteran of the game who mostly focusses on seniors. He finished 4th last season with an average rating of around 95k
Quetta Gladiators - Nawaf Another mostly senior focussed team but a good manager nonetheless. He finished 7th last year but avoided relegation still. Had an average rating of around 95k
IndigoGreens-II - ss888 Zimbabwe NAT assistant. They have more of a youth focus for their team, but they finished 2nd last season with an average rating of around 115k
Married Eleven - nadeemkhan Pakistani u20 assistant. Good manager and an active player. He has a stronger senior team but finished 3rd last season. He had an average rating of around 110k
Woodchester XI - Darkmatter A long time manager in the game, who unfortunately relegated in 3 leagues last season including YOD. He had an average rating of around 100k
Tiger Titans - Hayan been playing since 2015 but not super active. Last logged in mid-November.
He finished 6th last season with an average rating of around 75k

So it looks like I definitely need to upgrade some of my youth players if I want to stand a chance at even surviving this league let alone competing in it.

YT20 as with YOD I promoted with an average rating of around 80k
Hasraz - Hasraz A div1 seniors player who is very active and been around for a long time. He finished 8th in div2 last season with an average rating of 100k
Nutella CC - steve97 Bermuda u20 NAT manager. Finished 4th last season with an average rating of 100k
Perry's Paratroopers XI - Perry8 strong team, they moved to Pakistan last season and promoted in all 4 leagues immediately. Had an average rating of around 85k
Tiger Titans - Hayan we will face each other in both youth formats. But the Titans were slightly weaker in YT20 rating around 65k
Jazibstan - Killer how did I get this guy in all 3 of my div 3 leagues? We will have a good rivalry I hope. He finished 5th last season and rated around 95k
Allmänna Idrottsklubben - Sheikh03 had to copy and paste his team name because I couldn't write it. But Sheikh has been around for a long time and is a great manager. But he hasn't logged in since early October so he may go BOT soon but I hope he comes back.
Marauders XI - AliyanPirani Pakistan NAT assistant. Decent manager, got a very young youth team. They finished 6th last season with an average rating of 110k.

Much like in the YOD, my youth team is far behind and a relegation candidate. I will have to assess my financial situation and look for options to improve my team.

[Madcarrot]

Alright so I've worked out a budget for season 57


Total sponsorship has increased from $141k to $162k per week

I've also worked out my formula for gate takings as well.

SOD - ticket price x 80% capacity ÷ 2
T20 - ticket price × 60% capacity ÷2
YOD - ticket price × 40% capacity ÷2
YT20 - ticket price 20% capacity ÷2
Total = $81,562
This is a conservative estimate and I expect to probably exceed this.

Total income $243,560

Expenses
Wages have increased from by $15k to $192,054
Stadium maintenance = 10k
Academy = 10k

Total expenses is $212,054

This means I have a surplus of $31,506 per week.

With this in mind I can factor this into some improvements for my team.

After some great prizemoney last season I now have a bank balance of almost $1.2m so I easily have enough money to make purchases to increase my team.

After assessing my team and my opponents. I will look to improve my youth teams, and will also look for a good wicket keeper for my senior team.
One of my wrist spinners for senior team is 29 yrs old as well so I will look for a replacement in his mid-20's.

[Srini1593]

Interesting.. Regarding the capacity% is it standard that there will be a decease in occupancy for each match?or will it differ from team to team

[Madcarrot]

Interesting.. Regarding the capacity% is it standard that there will be a decease in occupancy for each match?or will it differ from team to team

There are factors that affect this such as division. Unfortunately I remain in the bot league for SOD, opponents supporters, position on the table and supporter happiness.

Often newer teams find that their attendance increases towards the end of the season due to guaranteed wins from weaker teams and bots.

the formula that I used was completely made up though and it was just used to help make an estimate.