I tried 4 seasons. Was 1st or 2nd overall in the 3rd and 4th seasons. But was a little bored so i simulated the playoffs and lost in the second round and the first round.
I went gangbusters on singing free agents in year 3, using the old "sign a long term deal, but the first year is for 5 million and the rest of the years are for 20 million" exploit to add Bregman, Goldschmidt, Hader, Polanco, and a bunch of others.
Was a fun challenge. I didn't realize how stupid hard that trade mode was. I wasn't able to gain much if any edge from trades.
Here is a challenge back to you:
- win 10 world series in a row, starting as any 2023 team (live start or 2023 start is fine)
- challenge mode
- trade setting all the way to the left (easiest possible in challenge mode, i think it's normal)
- all exploits fair game
This is pretty much the only way I've played since OOTP16, and I'm thousands of hours in across all versions.
I've done it 4 times, including my recent best run which was 17 in a row.
I've gotten a bit lazier in the last couple years and use a fairly stupid exploit: on the league settings -> minor league settings you can change the parent club of any minor league team. So you just assign some triple A team that has a good player to have the parent of LA Dodgers, take the player via roster management, then give the triple A team back. Recently I've taken it a step further and also used the infinite surplus value that this gives to also trade away all good players from the National League to the American League, so that the first 2 rounds of the playoffs are easier.
I used to not use any exploits that felt like cheating, but I was never able to pull it off without using some fairly savage exploits.
Even with all the best players on your roster, it is still tough to win 10 in a row...