The great playoff run of the Husavik Whalers has ended in defeat against the undefeated number 1 seed. The margin of victory made entirely in the kicking game, where the Whalers kicker was 1 for 3 in field goals under 40 yards, and the opponent kicker was 4 for 4 between 40-49 yards and 1 for 1 in field goals longer than 50 yards.

The lesson being, I guess, that having a strong kicker is pretty important.

I've crept up a little closer to the 600 mark on the waiting list. I'd expect we'd find out this week if we get a team or not.

That's good news (I'm currently at 646). I would think that we'd get a team this season, as the waiting list is apparently already at 1,800, and I don't think they'd want that huge of a backlog (assuming they can afford the servers).

Also, I'm happy to help with the flexpoints to buy the team (whether you want me to paypal you, or just buy you a drink if/when we have a meet-up when AG is in town).

I threw some more money at this today, figuring that if I'm going to own the team I'd better be serious about it.

I created a WR (Phil N. Blank), and boosted him and Edwin van Der Sac.

(That is going to be the last I spend for a looooong time, otherwise my wife will kill me.)

QB Joe Philadelphia (lvl 5--Gyuri)
Chad Munchington (lvl 4--JtS)

HB J.T. Stretch (lvl 11--Gyuri)
Tanvir Sene (lvl 9--Alex)

FB Zeke Montana (lvl 11--JtS)

WR Carmichael Harold (lvl 10--Gyuri)
Lucas Fire (lvl 9 -- JtS)
Phil N. Blank (lvl 4 - Matej)

TE Joe Stoyevsky (lvl 1--Gyuri)

OT Bob Bob Jones (lvl 10--Matej)
Johnny Roach (lvl 11--Gyuri)
Pablo Garcia (lvl 9--Inca)
Al Jackson (lvl 7--Alex)
Steve D'Abril (lvl 8--JtS)

G Jimmy Joyce (lvl 6--Gyuri)
Plantain James (lvl 8--Inca)

C Casey Harries (lvl 1 - Etienne)

DEFENSE

DE Crush McNasty (lvl 10--Gyuri)
Edwin Van der Sac (Lvl 6 - Matej)
DT Kenny Hotz (lvl 6--Alex)
Tommy Twitter (lvl 1--Gyuri)

LB Jedidiah Cleveland (lvl 8--Gyuri)
Bob Blomstrand (lvl 8 - Etienne)
Jerome Henderson (lvl 10--Alex)
Knut Rheinhardt (lvl 4--JtS)

CB Neon Leon (lvl 11--Matej)
D.F. Wallace (lvl 6--Gyuri)
Taco Pakahara (lvl 8--Inca)

FS Lee O'Tolstoy (lvl 3--Gyuri)

SS Spenny Rice (lvl 4--Alex)

K Frigyes Karinthy (lvl 9--Matej)
K Ginger Yellow (lvl 8--GY)

P Frankie S. Fitzgerald (lvl 1--Gyuri)

I am also considering that we maybe retire Karinthy when his contract is up, and I can use his flex points to fill in any other gaps we might have. (Center or guard, for instance.)

(That assumes that GY is going to be active.)

If we get a team, I'll definitely be welcome to people helping out with a paypal 'team donation'. We can work that out once we get a team.

I think you're right that it's a good idea to retire your K if GY is going to be active. We definitely could use help at guard, center and either safety position (also WR, D-line and CB, but I'm guessing you don't want two of those players yourself), or you could save the flex points to use for boosting next season.

By the way, I retired my old DT (Tommy Twitter) for a new DT (Jay Naustin), b/c I have a new theory that for positions where there are only 2 or 3 "major" abilities (with a major ability being one that is part of the automatic 2 ability points per level), it is worth maxing them out as quickly as possible so that automatic leveling points attain extra value. This is because when an ability hits 48.3 points, the next 12 points in that ability cost 2 SPs instead of one (at 60, it costs 3 SPs, then, I think, at 67 it costs 4 SPs, etc. up to around 20 SPs per point around 95). However, a DT automatically receives 0.66 ability points for each level in strength (also tackling and agility, but strength is more impt for the position).

So, if a DT hits 48.3 in strength by level 3, for example, he will have 54.9 at level 13 at the cost of no SPs (it would have cost 20 SPs, or the full input of 4 levels worth of SPs to do this otherwise). This allows you to spread those 20 SPs around to other abilities that would otherwise have to be neglected.

What I'm trying to say (with an admitted lack of coherence), is that for positions where one ability is particularly important, and where the automatic leveling points are significant (C, G, DT, P and K, being the obvious ones), getting that ability up to 48.3 as quickly as possible will ensure that you don't have to pay an inordinate amount of SPs down the road to get to the same place. This will cause some imbalance at early levels, but will make the player much stronger down the road.

Anyway, I have a new DT that I re-rolled until he started with 20 strength, I then put all the initial SPs into strength so that he now has 35 strength at level 1 and will hit the max when I boost him in a couple of days.

The list of the "major" and "minor" abilities for each position are here. Please except my apology for this prolonged geek-fest.

Oooh... good geek-out.

Remember Gyuri, give me a day or so to post or 'in-game-pm' about getting a team, since I can't check at work. I'd hate for us to end up with two teams after all this planning.

I think we may be able to have some fun with the depth chart as we're likely to end up with some big drop-offs in quality.

I think it might be clever/effective to play Neon Leon as the 4th WR, or one of our OTs as the back-up FB.

And I agree in principal about the major 'skill' approach, but it can backfire in specific situations. An 'all-speed' player will catch up to the ball carrier, but a slight hesitation sends the chaser to the dirt. (There is a clip on the forum somewhere along the lines of 'all speed no agility=fail')

Matej,

I'm not a fan of a long-term build that focuses only on one or two abilities, but as a short-term focus, I think it makes sense in a few circumstances (as described in my earlier post). The key is to maximize the key skill very early on in the build, so that by the time the player is at level 8 or 9, he will have been able to bring up the lesser attributes to non-joke levels. For example, a punter with 48.3 in punting and 18 in strength is going to be useless. But if he hits 48.3 by lvl 4, then there's plenty of time to push up the strength (and vision and confidence) to levels that make him a good punter.

No problem with the two-teams issue. Even if they give me a team after you have one, I can sell it back, I think, rather easily. Hopefully, we'll know in advance whether and when we are likely to get the team as they should let us know how many teams they are rolling out and in what timeframe.

As for the depth chart, I think it's inevitable that we will have to do some recruiting outside of OTF, as at some point it makes more sense for guys to spend their FPs on boosting rather than filling another hole.

It turns out, without me realizing it until now, that my lowly, level 1 punter is on a D-League team that will be playing for the championship on Wednesday. Somehow, it's hard to get too excited about this.

Well, at least you are in it (kind of).

Ok, here's the list of OTF players, updated to reflect the current levels (my players are listed with the levels they will have tomorrow, after I boost two of them).

I think there's a good chance that we will have a team by the beginning of next season, so to the extent you've been able to get out of your current contract (or had an agreement for release), our team should be in decent starting shape.

QB Joe Philadelphia (lvl 8--Gyuri)
Chad Munchington (lvl 4--JtS)

HB J.T. Stretch (lvl 12--Gyuri)
Tanvir Sene (lvl 9--Alex)

FB Zeke Montana (lvl 11--JtS)

WR Carmichael Harold (lvl 10--Gyuri)
Lucas Fire (lvl 9 -- JtS)
Phil N. Blank (lvl 4 - Matej)

TE Joe Stoyevsky (lvl 5--Gyuri)

OT Bob Bob Jones (lvl 10--Matej)
Johnny Roach (lvl 12--Gyuri)
Pablo Garcia (lvl 10--Inca)
Al Jackson (lvl 8--Alex)
Steve D'Abril (lvl 8--JtS)

G Jimmy Joyce (lvl 6--Gyuri)
Plantain James (lvl 9--Inca)

C Casey Harries (lvl 2 - Etienne)

DEFENSE

DE Crush McNasty (lvl 11--Gyuri)
Edwin Van der Sac (Lvl 6 - Matej)
DT Kenny Hotz (lvl 7--Alex)
Jay Naustin (lvl 4--Gyuri)

LB Jedidiah Cleveland (lvl 8--Gyuri)
Bob Blomstrand (lvl 10 - Etienne)
Jerome Henderson (lvl 11--Alex)
Knut Rheinhardt (lvl 5--JtS)

CB Neon Leon (lvl 11--Matej)
D.F. Wallace (lvl 9--Gyuri)
Taco Pakahara (lvl 9--Inca)

FS Lee O'Tolstoy (lvl 6--Gyuri)

SS Spenny Rice (lvl 5--Alex)

K Frigyes Karinthy (lvl 9--Matej)
K Ginger Yellow (lvl 8--GY)

P Ty Boarfisher (lvl 4--Gyuri)

er... I hate to bring this up, but is anybody else still playing besides me and Gyuri?

Oh yeah, that's a pretty good question. The calendar struck June and the May timewaster may have become obsolete.

Anyone anyone?

I am playing, but maybe not so obsessively. I reserve that for the EVI's.

Yeah, I'm still playing. Bob Blomstrand is now lvl 10, Casey Harries lvl 2.

But I'm going to be in Sweden for a week now, so I'm not likely to log on much (maybe just to tweak my Xpert11 team!)