Rough Cut Diamond

[professor ape]

The march of my team up through the league levels now has me in my first Diamond league of the season. Looking at the other teams in my league, it seems like I will be doing my impression of the Angels and need to be ready for the life of a near .500 team for the foreseeable future. Don’t get me wrong, I like my team and feel good about how it has been developing. It’s just that at the Diamond level there are likely to be at least seven or eight whales which will dominate the standings each season. My division is one of the weaker ones this week so I’d say that I have close to a 50-50 chance of winning it but with the monster teams lurking out there, I realistically have less than a 1% chance of taking the crown.

Being a F2P player (other than 10K points purchased on Day 1 to build my initial a bronze tournament team) I’ll focus on my tournament team to keep the packs flowing, target a few of the BAL missions which will have the most impact on my roster, and make my next goal be to build a team that can consistently make the Diamond playoffs. From there, we’ll see if I can get lucky and get the chance to have my ass handed to me in a Perfect League.

How are you all feeling about your teams now that we are coming up on two months into the PT season?

[Leo_The_Lip]

I deliberately started late due to lack of interest in being whale food, finally getting to travel, and not having much time for OOTP.

I logged in to get my 2 Diamond packs and 2 Gold packs, but didn't start up until after the first great LIVE card reevaluation (in order to avoid seeing my Diamonds reclassed to scrap metal) So I started beating the snot out of the training wheels teams and completing missions like kids eating Wheaties in the 1950's. My 3 teams were all in the same Training Wheel league and eventually finished 2,3,4. When the league began, I literally had 7 of the 10 Diamond level players in the league.

So up to ROOKIE ball and more domination as most teams looked abandoned to me. So I collected points and completed missions. I'll likely complete close to all the LIVE missions this week with at least two of the teams.

Next will be the Build-a-Bear missions, which I don't understand yet. Next week I'll start looking at tournaments, too.

It has been a great two weeks of fun, but already I'm regretting advancing so easily. Many of my childhood favorites were great last season, but will be replaced by Division rewards. Seeing MVP and batting champ Hector Lopez having to lose his 3B spot to 99 Terry Pendelton hurts. Too much like soccer where you have to cut and replace last season's stars to survive at the next level.

I'll be looking for fun factors to keep me engaged. Not sure where they will come form.

[professor ape]

Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip

I'll be looking for fun factors to keep me engaged. Not sure where they will come form.

I’m only running one team this season and am putting a lot of attention on my tournament team. I’m liking having my focus on one main team so that I can really take care of it. If I were to win the lottery and be able to stop working, then I would add a second. Until then, one it is.

For my tournament team,100 packs feel like a typical week so my challenge is to average 20 packs a day. I may tinker with the Silver tournaments at some point, but for now I am still having fun tracking stats and tweaking my Bronze team. Continuing to work from home makes it easy to keep three tournaments going all day. I really need OOTP Go to get out soon so that I can keep that up now that I and my wife are slowly reentering the world. She’ll just be wondering what I am doing so intently on my phone every half hour or so.

[Leo_The_Lip]

I'd like to be more like your tournament philosophy. However I tried stat compiling early on (PT19) and found it tedious and awkward. Plus results are still random. I did well in PT 21 tournaments but then they dropped several of my favorite consistent winners and I lost interest.

Also, being retired, I have the option of just starting up a game of CIV 6 and going for 4 hours without needing to answer to anyone but my wife--who will usually leave me alone. So no real need to play OOTP all the time. I'm not avoiding work at all!

OOTP and PT are good to great, however there are lots of other pastimes that I can pursue.

[professor ape]

Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip

I'd like to be more like your tournament philosophy. However I tried stat compiling early on (PT19) and found it tedious and awkward. Plus results are still random. I did well in PT 21 tournaments but then they dropped several of my favorite consistent winners and I lost interest.

Also, being retired, I have the option of just starting up a game of CIV 6 and going for 4 hours without needing to answer to anyone but my wife--who will usually leave me alone. So no real need to play OOTP all the time. I'm not avoiding work at all!

OOTP and PT are good to great, however there are lots of other pastimes that I can pursue.

Starting a Civ game is a guarantee for me to lose a weekend.

[ubernoob]

I've been lucky this year in that I've been able to finish a lot of collections (I sold most of what I pulled early, got a real early jump in PP and lived off that up until now.)

I finished ~15 or so of the build-a-legends and the PP cache is pretty depleted. Back to living off of tournament reward pack openings once a week.

Not that that's a complaint. I don't really care about the leagues, they are just passive PP earnings for putting together tournament teams. Hopefully I can put together some more of the BAL missions, just gotta get lucky on the diamond pulls.

[Leo_The_Lip]

Originally Posted by ubernoob

I finished ~15 or so of the build-a-legends and the PP cache is pretty depleted. Back to living off of tournament reward pack openings once a week.

Thanks for posting that. What do you do with the Build-a-Bears? Are they now your league lineups? If you sold off so many cards, who plays in the tournies?

I'm in this mostly for the collections and seeing how my teams do in the leagues each year. Going back and looking at career stats for my favorite players is what I like--and I can't do that with tournament teams.

My by best team now has Cy Young at the top of the rotation, (and the other two likely will after the Sunday season rewards are handed out) so I'll need a new focus. For those interested, I started my three teams on May 3, and the first team completed the missions today, May 20. I could have completed earlier if I sold off rewards, but I haven't sold off anything but MLB doubles so far.

I did (am doing) well enough in PT 21 tournies, but they eliminated my favorites when PT 22 came out. The Bronze Historical Do-or-Die was my ATM (like an ATM I could only take out 200 at a time, but 15-20 times per day was fine). They dropped that and my interest with it. I've been loathe to spend time on tournies so far, but what else is there?

I'm hoping for FOTF missions, or something else.

But I'm not holding my breath.

[ubernoob]

Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip

Thanks for posting that. What do you do with the Build-a-Bears? Are they now your league lineups? If you sold off so many cards, who plays in the tournies?

I'm in this mostly for the collections and seeing how my teams do in the leagues each year. Going back and looking at career stats for my favorite players is what I like--and I can't do that with tournament teams.

My by best team now has Cy Young at the top of the rotation, (and the other two likely will after the Sunday season rewards are handed out) so I'll need a new focus. For those interested, I started my three teams on May 3, and the first team completed the missions today, May 20. I could have completed earlier if I sold off rewards, but I haven't sold off anything but MLB doubles so far.

I did (am doing) well enough in PT 21 tournies, but they eliminated my favorites when PT 22 came out. The Bronze Historical Do-or-Die was my ATM (like an ATM I could only take out 200 at a time, but 15-20 times per day was fine). They dropped that and my interest with it. I've been loathe to spend time on tournies so far, but what else is there?

I'm hoping for FOTF missions, or something else.

But I'm not holding my breath.

They are in my league lineup. It's nothing too crazy, and the Tommy Bridges I still may sell (I just threw him in there because BAL coming out dropped the price of perfects, so 50k is eh.)



The only card that got me to break my pattern of pulling and selling was Cool Papa Bell (I pulled him, held him for a week then decided to keep and finish the collection.)


I'll never compete with whales ever, but this is my lineup for the (foreseeable) future. Next BAL I want to complete is Lucroy, but that's because I'm a Brewers fan.


As for tournies? I pretty much only play bronze/silver/gold, so there aren't any worries for me in terms of expensive diamond/perfect cards I need for meta purposes. I also dabble in live tournaments but those have been more streaky for me this year.


I play this game (and diamond dynasty in the show when I purchase that game) to collect cards, not to "win" per se. I like the collections, I like the history of baseball more than anything.

[ineedplayerpics]

Originally Posted by ubernoob

They are in my league lineup. It's nothing too crazy, and the Tommy Bridges I still may sell (I just threw him in there because BAL coming out dropped the price of perfects, so 50k is eh.)



The only card that got me to break my pattern of pulling and selling was Cool Papa Bell (I pulled him, held him for a week then decided to keep and finish the collection.)


I'll never compete with whales ever, but this is my lineup for the (foreseeable) future. Next BAL I want to complete is Lucroy, but that's because I'm a Brewers fan.


As for tournies? I pretty much only play bronze/silver/gold, so there aren't any worries for me in terms of expensive diamond/perfect cards I need for meta purposes. I also dabble in live tournaments but those have been more streaky for me this year.


I play this game (and diamond dynasty in the show when I purchase that game) to collect cards, not to "win" per se. I like the collections, I like the history of baseball more than anything.

I love my cool papa bell card! 117 speed is insane and his defense is phenomenal too, he’s been winning good gloves as a RF and stealing 100 bases a season

[Leo_The_Lip]

Originally Posted by ubernoob

They are in my league lineup. It's nothing too crazy, and the Tommy Bridges I still may sell (I just threw him in there because BAL coming out dropped the price of perfects, so 50k is eh.)



The only card that got me to break my pattern of pulling and selling was Cool Papa Bell (I pulled him, held him for a week then decided to keep and finish the collection.)


I'll never compete with whales ever, but this is my lineup for the (foreseeable) future. Next BAL I want to complete is Lucroy, but that's because I'm a Brewers fan.


As for tournies? I pretty much only play bronze/silver/gold, so there aren't any worries for me in terms of expensive diamond/perfect cards I need for meta purposes. I also dabble in live tournaments but those have been more streaky for me this year.


I play this game (and diamond dynasty in the show when I purchase that game) to collect cards, not to "win" per se. I like the collections, I like the history of baseball more than anything.

Thanks for this!

I started scoping out the Build a Bears today and decided a second baseman was where to start. I think the main reason I entered so many tournaments last year was there wasn't much else to do with the lockdown. Now that I can be out and about, there simply won't be time for all the tournament entries.

Encouraging to see others playing in a manner I'd enjoy!

[Boomcoach]

Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip

Encouraging to see others playing in a manner I'd enjoy!

That is one of the things I like most about OOTP, both the standard game and PT. People can play and enjoy them the way they want, and there are a variety of ways to do so..

[professor ape]

As predicted, I’m doing a perfect imitation of the Angels. I am 61-61 right now and have been within a few games of .500 all season. Adding to that, Mike Trout has hit 27 home runs for me in 94 games.

[Leo_The_Lip]

I've made my 3000 PP for a 15 or more game winning streak several times in my two seasons (of 3 teams). But when I get to 15, I think "I could complete a mission now with the 3000, but I don't want to lose, so...."

So today I get to 15 and know I can complete the Mets mission which completes the Pendelton mission, so I'm kind of okay with losing. But we win. Then win again. Now its dinner time. After dinner we still win, win, wait, wait, wait. All the way to 23.

It was still 3000, though so a bit bittersweet to complete the mission after having to wait 4 hours after the 3000 was won.