tips for iron/bronze tourneys

[jonaththejonath]

Hey everyone.

I'm an FTP player who only realized that opening packs was a bad idea when I checked the forum like two days ago... so I'm not the smartest at this game.

I see that some of the best way to get packs to get valuable cards is to enter in iron and bronze tourneys... and with my luck, I have many, many iron and bronze cards. How should I choose which cards to use in my teams? What stats should I pay attention to, and which cards are some of the best for these types of tourneys (besides Don Newcombe, because that point has been made abundantly clear).

Thanks!

[Torgonius]

Enter some tournaments with your best cards. You just want to be in them throwing darts, but when they are done, you can look at the makeup of the winning teams. You'll notice that there are several players that invariably end up on at least one of the top 2 rosters. Those are guys you'll want to pick up.

After that, you're going to want to fill in the blanks with players who have better ratings. For your fielders, look for guys with high numbers vs Lefties for your vs L lineup, and vs Righties for your vs R lineup.

Also, pay attention to the makeup of the pitching staffs on the winners. You're going to want to have at least 13 pitchers, possibly 14. Bronze uses a DH, but Iron doesn't. There are no days off in the tournament unless you can win a series quickly, so rest is hard to come by for players that get used all the time.

Lastly, keep track of how your players perform. Starter always getting smoked? Replace him. Guy couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat? Replace him.

But make sure you get a decent enough sample size. The best player, who is on every winning team, can have an off series or off tournament. Variance is ever present in short series. Look for long term results.

Use the Export/Import function for tournament rosters. Get your roster, strategy, lineups and staff set, then export that. For each new tournament, import it. If you're ready to make a change, then export a new file and start using it.

[bwiese3908]

Originally Posted by Torgonius

Enter some tournaments with your best cards. You just want to be in them throwing darts, but when they are done, you can look at the makeup of the winning teams. You'll notice that there are several players that invariably end up on at least one of the top 2 rosters. Those are guys you'll want to pick up.

After that, you're going to want to fill in the blanks with players who have better ratings. For your fielders, look for guys with high numbers vs Lefties for your vs L lineup, and vs Righties for your vs R lineup.

Also, pay attention to the makeup of the pitching staffs on the winners. You're going to want to have at least 13 pitchers, possibly 14. Bronze uses a DH, but Iron doesn't. There are no days off in the tournament unless you can win a series quickly, so rest is hard to come by for players that get used all the time.

Lastly, keep track of how your players perform. Starter always getting smoked? Replace him. Guy couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat? Replace him.

But make sure you get a decent enough sample size. The best player, who is on every winning team, can have an off series or off tournament. Variance is ever present in short series. Look for long term results.

Use the Export/Import function for tournament rosters. Get your roster, strategy, lineups and staff set, then export that. For each new tournament, import it. If you're ready to make a change, then export a new file and start using it.

Lastly, keep track of how your players perform. Starter always getting smoked? Replace him. Guy couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat? Replace him.



Damn this reminds me of Kurt Bevacqua, I guaran****ingtee you this.. If i was going to pitch against a team with Bevacqua, I would send a limosine to get the clocksmoker to make sure he was in the mfn lineup... Cause i would kick that clocksmokers asse everyday of the mfn week! He is a big mouth, I'll tell you that!

[Torgonius]

Since I had to rush that first reply, also will recommend you check out Skep when he streams. He's a tourney monster and was a great source of information for me when I started out.

[daves]

Examine the winners after you are eliminated to see what you are missing if anything. Tournaments can be a crapshoot so there might not be a difference.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bailey]

The keys to grinding quick tournaments are to specialize in one ignoring all others and volume. You need volume because even the best teams are going to get knocked out in round 1 40% of the time. So, how do you know if you are making progress? Here is the method I used:

1) keep track of wins and losses--Pick your best players and enter them 16 times without changes. At the end of 16 tournaments, if you haven't won 52% of your games, change some players. Why 52%? Because, I think that's the minimum to win your fair share of packs. What's your fair share of packs? 3, by simple math: 16 entries: 8 survive to round 2, 4 to round 3 and 2 to round 4 where you win 1 and lose 1 earning 3 packs (in best of 5's). (Note; in best of 7's it's 4 packs because 3rd place gets a pack -- but best of 7's take 6 hours to win whereas best of 5's take only 3.5 hours to win. I think it evens out in the long run). Some people make good PP (3k to 5k per day) grinding Bo3 that resolve even faster and 3-5K per day is probably better than your main team's achievement output.

2) how do you know what players to change? Study the players of winning teams. You need look at finished tournaments--there are hundreds of them. Try to find teams that finished 1st or 2nd 10 or more times. You can't examine finished tournaments unless you played in it, but you can see who won. Then keep an eye out for these teams in your tournaments. Even if they get bounced in the 1st round study those teams. Remember the best teams lose in round 1 40% of the time. Try to figure out their strategy, don't just copy. Do they prefer defense or ignore it? Are their pitchers all high stuff or do they prefer movement or control? Contact, or power? Pick the best from each.

3) If you really want the scoop on players, download tournament data. But that has a weakness: you get a lot of data on the most commonly used players, but everyone copies everyone else-- the actual best players may have little data, most probably historical players that not everyone has.
Is Vic Power at 1B really the best choice? Good luck.

4) Warning: just when you have it figured out, MLB starts playing and the ratings of all the live cards change, dramatically altering who the "best" players are.

5) Write a bot that automatically enters after one ends without you having to baby sit the computer all day and night (JUST KIDDING). I don't know why there is no auto re-enter--probably to give casual players a chance?

[neugey]

Good advice by bailey, and one thing I would add is consider 1-2 run games and extra-inning games when you evaluate your team. If you lost a string of close games and that's what bounced you from the tournament then stay the course - especially if you had more hits than your opponent.

[CurlyKarkovice]

Originally Posted by bailey

The keys to grinding quick tournaments are to specialize in one ignoring all others and volume. You need volume because even the best teams are going to get knocked out in round 1 40% of the time.

Good advice here. I "upgraded" the weak part of my lineup and a couple rotation guys (better contact and defense for batters, higher control on SP) based on teams that were always beating me in bronze championships or semis. And I wasn't using any Live cards which was neglecting some better talent.

Might not see immediate results. You'll slump, you'll have winning streaks, so Bailey is right that volume is key. Might end up with 16 packs after a day of entering tourneys at breakfast lunch and dinner and before bed but you could go a day or more with zero packs at the same vol.

[CurlyKarkovice]

Also if you win one save the roster and import! Edit it the save from there as you get upgrades.

And be sure to check that the correct roster is being used when you enter tourneys. Don't sign up and forget it. Log-in. Import your file. Double check the roster, might need to import a second time because not all the players are there on first import. I've never had to import more than twice.

Not sure if I have too many versions saved and need to delete some older files but randomly I'll be on a losing streak and examine it to see some bad default combo of players I don't want are in there sucking. Then again I've also been on a bad losing streak with the players I want in there too haha

[BatAround]

I can't seem to save my custom lineups from tourney to tourney.

I sign up for a new tourney, I import my tourney roster from a file. I next create my lineups and depth charts for RHP and LHP. I set my pitching rotation and bullpen.

Under 'Customized Lineups' I 'Save This Lineup as Custom Lineup' and give it a name. I then submit the team.

Next tourney, I can still import my tourney roster, but there's no Custom Lineups available. What am I doing wrong?

[chazzycat]

Originally Posted by bailey

The keys to grinding quick tournaments are to specialize in one ignoring all others and volume. You need volume because even the best teams are going to get knocked out in round 1 40% of the time. So, how do you know if you are making progress? Here is the method I used:

Disagree about specializing in one tourney. For me having a bronze, silver & gold team has worked out very well so far (currently 6th overall on the tourney wins leaderboard). With more options, you can rest assured that any time a tourney finishes, there is another one very close to starting. It's all about maximizing your time in actual running tourneys, not just queued and waiting for them to start.

[Jeff1787]

Originally Posted by chazzycat

It's all about maximizing your time in actual running tourneys, not just queued and waiting for them to start.

Can you elaborate a little, please...

[chazzycat]

Originally Posted by Jeff1787

Can you elaborate a little, please...

If you specialize in one type of tourney, there are limited numbers of that type of tourney running. So you'll probably end up joining tourneys that aren't close to starting, and just sitting idly in the queue. By having multiple different teams, you increase the odds of finding something to join that will kick off right away, and minimize time wasted in queues.

[jeffstified]

I've been tracking tourney stats for the last few weeks. I've enter 263 tournaments (~11/day). I've been bounced in the first round 116 times (44.1%). I've finished "in the money" 54 times (20.5%). My team is 1792-1511 (0.543) in games and 349-241 (0.592) in matches.

Early on I found more success in 32-team Iron tourneys, so they represent the vast majority of entries (216). Gold tourneys take too long to fill.

Pack-wise, I've won 123 packs, about 5/day. I've gone pack-less 3 days, but that was early on before a few upgrades. Although, it was close 2 days ago, only getting 1 pack in 17 entries! But the next day I got 13 packs off of 13 entries.

[Jeff1787]

Originally Posted by chazzycat

If you specialize in one type of tourney, there are limited numbers of that type of tourney running. So you'll probably end up joining tourneys that aren't close to starting, and just sitting idly in the queue. By having multiple different teams, you increase the odds of finding something to join that will kick off right away, and minimize time wasted in queues.

Got it...but that means you are glued to the computer...

[ImBrotherCain]

Originally Posted by Jeff1787

Got it...but that means you are glued to the computer...

This is OOTP during quarantine... Are you not glued to the computer?

[jeffstified]

Originally Posted by ImBrotherCain

This is OOTP during quarantine... Are you not glued to the computer?

Exactly! I also happened to break my foot the same week all this started. So, double glued for me!

[Jeff1787]

Originally Posted by ImBrotherCain

This is OOTP during quarantine... Are you not glued to the computer?

Pretty much!!

[OMGPuppies]

I remember always telling my GF that I can't wait until I can retire and just play this game all day. Well what do ya know...

[Lemandria]

More than one "team" is pretty essential. It allows you to adapt and overcome the guys who constantly kick your a**.

Work up a Power Roster and a Contact Roster and a Lefty Killer Roster and Righty Killer etc etc etc.

They may not all have top win records, but you'll be surprised how useful they are if you see one guy with the same team beating you over and over and over.

If you play at the same time every day, you'll constantly have problems beating the same teams. When that happens, see if he's vulnerable to a specialty strat.

And if you see a "Meta" developing, everyone pitching lefties or whatever, you can be the one guy who beats it.