Bff?

[ROY_Angel_Berroa]

In several tournaments I have seen team names that end with BFF - what does this mean? Is this the PT version of the cool kids club?

[Catchthedamnball]

I would like to think that I'm cool but the reality isn't quite like that... lol

To answer your question, BFF is a friends list group with an additional restriction that you can't auction off any packed gold or higher historical cards, nor sell any cards you win in tournaments. The main point of which being to emphasize employing the mechanics and game modes at your disposal to earn PP and improve your team, rather than bankrolling your entire team for the cycle off of one super-lucky pull.

[QuantaCondor]

BFF is also F2P and we have some additional restrictions on flipping cards, on top of what was listed above.

As a note, if anyone has a F2P team that approximately satisfies these requirements (it's okay if you already sold stuff so long as it wasnt very expensive), if you want to join BFF then shoot me a PM and I'll send you the link to the Discord server we use to run the league.

[ROY_Angel_Berroa]

Thanks for the info - now I have a new question: What is F2P? Haha

[Arobbins]

Originally Posted by ROY_Angel_Berroa

Thanks for the info - now I have a new question: What is F2P? Haha

Free 2 Play / No Money Spent on PP

[ROY_Angel_Berroa]

Gotcha - So F2P and no major flipping from packs? So if I’ve held onto a Peak Ricky Henderson Peak and other Historical golds/diamonds I’ve pulled or purchased with PP points from milestones I’d qualify?

[QuantaCondor]

Originally Posted by ROY_Angel_Berroa

Gotcha - So F2P and no major flipping from packs? So if I’ve held onto a Peak Ricky Henderson Peak and other Historical golds/diamonds I’ve pulled or purchased with PP points from milestones I’d qualify?

Yes, as long as you are F2P and haven't sold any big 100k+ cards on the AH that you've pulled in packs, you qualify. Once teams are in BFF they can't sell diamond or perfect nonlive cards, but we make exceptions for newcomers who did so in the past.

The "flipping" rule is just to help prevent the AH strategy from dominating as the best way to teambuild. So we also require that if you buy a nonlive gold, diamond, or perfect card on the AH, you can't sell it again for a week unless you take a loss. If you don't buy and immediately resell cards on the AH frequently, this rule shouldn't really matter for most people.

[mcdog512]

Originally Posted by QuantaCondor

Yes, as long as you are F2P and haven't sold any big 100k+ cards on the AH that you've pulled in packs, you qualify. Once teams are in BFF they can't sell diamond or perfect nonlive cards, but we make exceptions for newcomers who did so in the past.

The "flipping" rule is just to help prevent the AH strategy from dominating as the best way to teambuild. So we also require that if you buy a nonlive gold, diamond, or perfect card on the AH, you can't sell it again for a week unless you take a loss. If you don't buy and immediately resell cards on the AH frequently, this rule shouldn't really matter for most people.

You lads sure have alot of rules. Holy Mary....

[professor ape]

To make sure I understand; the only condition for F2P is that you don’t spend money on PP, correct?

I’m the opposite of a BFF player in that I purposely have not done things like manipulate my park to maximize points. I have a lot of fun working the Auction House with the cards I get from the packs I win in tournaments. With the Live Missions behind me, I am looking forward to improving my roster one position at a time.

[QuantaCondor]

Originally Posted by mcdog512

You lads sure have alot of rules. Holy Mary....

It all followed naturally. A bit of historical context. The purpose of BFF, originally, was to put together a friendslist of strong managers who are F2P; in PT20 this consisted of a lot of whale teams who were making F2Ps for the first time and some F2Ps who were especially active. The goal was to answer the following question:

How do we make a F2P league that showcases manager skill rather than luck?

The answer became: if you pack a really high value card, you can't sell it. You have to use it. That mitigates luck most strongly, it's simple, easy to follow. So, with packed cards not a big source of revenue, the other potential outlets were: flipping/working the AH, collections, and tournaments. Since collections and tournaments give packs frequently and this rule kinda hurts their value, working the AH becomes a ridiculously dominant source of PP. So to balance the playing field a little, we just put up a roadblock that makes flipping a little harder: You can't buy and immediately relist gold+ cards; you have to wait a week. Pure AH flipping also isn't very fun for a lot of players, so this allows people who don't like doing that a group where just playing normally is more viable.

So, we originally had the first 2 rules (indicated in bold), and this year we added that third. The third rule doesn't affect 95% of the players either, so it really isn't that restrictive. It's pretty easy to manage.

[QuantaCondor]

Originally Posted by professor ape

To make sure I understand; the only condition for F2P is that you don’t spend money on PP, correct?

I’m the opposite of a BFF player in that I purposely have not done things like manipulate my park to maximize points. I have a lot of fun working the Auction House with the cards I get from the packs I win in tournaments. With the Live Missions behind me, I am looking forward to improving my roster one position at a time.

It's not that BFF teams don't use the AH, just that if we get an especially valuable card, we have to find a way to use it (or quicksell it) instead of selling it to provide the boost of PP. It doesn't prevent us from finding other ways to get PP through collections, speculation, or tournaments, the last of which being why every format has BFF teams in it since collections suck after the Live ones are done and speculation is expensive and not always possible.

[mcdog512]

Originally Posted by QuantaCondor

It's not that BFF teams don't use the AH, just that if we get an especially valuable card, we have to find a way to use it (or quicksell it) instead of selling it to provide the boost of PP. It doesn't prevent us from finding other ways to get PP through collections, speculation, or tournaments, the last of which being why every format has BFF teams in it since collections suck after the Live ones are done and speculation is expensive and not always possible.

How do you enforce it? I assume it's a honor system, and alot of OOTP players seem like very honorable folks so maybe that isn't a big deal at all.

[Catchthedamnball]

Originally Posted by mcdog512

How do you enforce it? I assume it's a honor system, and alot of OOTP players seem like very honorable folks so maybe that isn't a big deal at all.

It's by and large an honor system. But the proof is also in the pudding-- if your roster suddenly evolves dramatically and you've gone silent about your team's progress, people will notice.