Free 2 Play Team Building

[AirmenSmith]

So I am not the biggest fan of PT. I will log on once a week to see how the team is doing and get new packs. I would really enjoy having a F2P server so that other F2P players can play against each other.

Since F2P players go up against P2P I have always been skeptical on how well you could build a team without real money. So for OOTP21 I decided to test out how well a team could be built using Packs only. No auction house and no real money.

Below are the screenshots of the results. Overall I was very surprised how well my team turned out. While I didn't win the WS at all I did find it to be on fair grounds compared to P2P.

[Marleigh]

I have to ask why no AH? I used the live missions and selling off those rewards to generate PP for my f2p pack only team, and it certainly shows in the difference of our rosters and league position. Seems odd not to use something that is available for F2P players to your advantage.

[AirmenSmith]

Originally Posted by Marleigh

I have to ask why no AH? I used the live missions and selling off those rewards to generate PP for my f2p pack only team, and it certainly shows in the difference of our rosters and league position. Seems odd not to use something that is available for F2P players to your advantage.

The reason for no AH is that P2P players can influence that as well with real money. I was going for the most basic set up possible. Mostly I am trying to show that even with little effort you could build a very good team so new players don't need to worry much about the P2P players.

[QuantaCondor]

You're in luck, one of the other active threads on here is about recruitment for a F2P-only PT group in which (especially at higher levels) F2P players only play other F2P players. I think you'll be surprised how much higher the ceiling is on F2P success than you might anticipate.

[AirmenSmith]

Originally Posted by QuantaCondor

You're in luck, one of the other active threads on here is about recruitment for a F2P-only PT group in which (especially at higher levels) F2P players only play other F2P players. I think you'll be surprised how much higher the ceiling is on F2P success than you might anticipate.

I know it would get me more involved in PT. Either way though I am very happy that I was able to build a great team without paying money. Sure when I got to the Bronze level I was destroyed but up to that level I was always competitive. I was originally under the impression there would be a huge disadvantage but it wasn't as bad as I thought up to a certain point.

[Maddox]

Originally Posted by AirmenSmith

The reason for no AH is that P2P players can influence that as well with real money. I was going for the most basic set up possible. Mostly I am trying to show that even with little effort you could build a very good team so new players don't need to worry much about the P2P players.

That's a good point. I did not play much this past year but with the addition of collections and tournaments that limit players, even good lower tier cards could see their prices artificially inflated by those willing to buy perfect points to bypass the time it takes to grind for them.

My question is not as much about competing as I know I will never be in the top leagues and more about being able to stay busy in the mode. How many PP will I get simply playing? Will I be sitting on my hands for multiple days or a week to save up enough perfect points for one upgrade? Will I have to forego that upgrade if I want to acquire the cards to finish a collection? If I spend my PP on one of the above then will I even have enough to put together a team for a tourney? I don't expect to do everything at a high level but just want to have options on any given day that are not unfeasible due to slow PP gain in the main mode.

We will see. I was happy to see it confirmed that Perfect Draft does not have an entrance fee. That at least provides an outlet, allowing a mode to play while waiting for your main team to earn some PP.

[QuantaCondor]

Originally Posted by Maddox

That's a good point. I did not play much this past year but with the addition of collections and tournaments that limit players, even good lower tier cards could see their prices artificially inflated by those willing to buy perfect points to bypass the time it takes to grind for them.

My question is not as much about competing as I know I will never be in the top leagues and more about being able to stay busy in the mode. How many PP will I get simply playing? Will I be sitting on my hands for multiple days or a week to save up enough perfect points for one upgrade? Will I have to forego that upgrade if I want to acquire the cards to finish a collection? If I spend my PP on one of the above then will I even have enough to put together a team for a tourney? I don't expect to do everything at a high level but just want to have options on any given day that are not unfeasible due to slow PP gain in the main mode.

We will see. I was happy to see it confirmed that Perfect Draft does not have an entrance fee. That at least provides an outlet, allowing a mode to play while waiting for your main team to earn some PP.

One cool fact is that, if you know what you're doing, you can earn a TON of PP on the way up. Towards the end of PT21 it was possible to start a fresh team from nothing and make like 1M+ PP on the entry pool-to-silver run. A team that has the right bats (namely, having a ton of eye and power) at the lower levels with not much pitching to speak of can earn easily probably upwards of 50k+ a week in equilibrium if PP generation was your main goal.

These numbers won't be possible right away when PT22 drops, but power is expected to play up even more in this version than the last, so who knows what numbers we'll see this time around.

HOWEVER, that's not something you can just run into accidentally. I'd say a skilled F2P player who isn't trying to do anything fancy can make maybe 400-500k on the trip up from entry pool to silver (assuming they go to Rookie after entry pool). You might hit equilibrium after that and make maybe 10-20k a week, depending on how your team is set up, if you're not doing anything special to maximize PP generation. If your team isn't especially good, you might see something more like 5-10k a week. That is a floor you'll see no matter what.

The rate at which you can upgrade, then, depends a lot on your weekly PP generation and the exact composition of your team (mostly whether or not you're selling out for offense).

[Charlatan]

There are at least two different F2P leagues that are recruiting in threads near the top of the message boards here. Both are full of friendly, helpful players and good competition.

[n8n]

I actually did the same thing, but because I didn't really understand the concept of PT at first. I got a peak Eddie Collins on my main account, and he's led my team to a few championships. I, like you, am bouncing between Bronze and Iron.

[Mizzery]

The last two years I had a FTP pack only team, won’t do it again though. Even though I pulled three historical perfects over the course of the year in PT 21, couldn’t get over the Silver hump.

The real challenge with pack only becomes the eventual tedium of converting all earned points into packs, only to open pack after pack of duplicate live cards after six months or so into the game.

[IanIachimoe]

F2P player here, looking to play other F2Pers.