International Complex
 

This sounds a really silly question, but I'm only just branching out into the areas of the game I don't understand, and thus haven't worked this one out yet.


My scout keeps finiding players to put in the IC that, frankly, look absolutely useless. I mean, I've played 6-7 different save files, only a few of which got past the second season admittedly, and cannot once remember an International Complex discovery with higher than 25 potential (20-80).

Is it just a case of 'once in a thousand times you'll find a good player'?
Do some of them quickly gain potential as they get older?

I've discovered that potential isn't static, it can improve (that concept is weird to me). But can it improve THAT much?

There must be something I'm missing, or teams wouldn't bother, would they?

Less than one in a thousand I think. I have seen others report good finds but for me it's been all 1-1.5 star type of guys.

One reason, if you like, to change your league settings to generate "many", so that you'll have more chance to get something worthwhile.

Yes, I have had 20th round draft picks become all stars.

Doesn't it also depends on your scouts "International" scouting rating? Mine is "Legendary", and of the four players he has signed so far this year, two 20's, one 23 & one 63.

Yeah, most of the time the vast majority of these guys are going to be maybes, at best. As they age and develop a bit, what I do at semi-regular intervals is pull up a candidate- usually one at or approaching the age max -and switch the Relative to League setting on his profile to Rookie. If he looks good by that comparison, I tend to promote him the next reasonable opportunity into the ranks. If he doesn't, and is at the decision-making interval, I plan to, or do, release him. Using the Relative To option has proven essential to me in this area and lot of other situations.

Good to know, I won't chuck them all away yet then. :)

I have seen 4.5-star potential come out of my international scouting but only once. I think this mirrors real life. Miguel Cabrera's only come around once every 20 years or so from that player pool.