Only whales can compete

[saltuskin]

Been playing for about 3 months now and unless you want to spend 1000s for real life money you will get no higher than gold/dia league and the dia you will not compete at all, i am in dia and spent a little money and there is no way i can compete with all these people

the teams these people have is impossible to get from packs, i have opened over 400 packs and have not got a lone 100 not saying a 100 that can be used

This game is 100% pay to win to bad they cant make it so the normal people can play, well we can play just up to gold league and it ends there.
you will never get the give away cards or any special cards
example how does a ftp get a Frank Thomas or and Ichro card
yes i know the all the ftp players will come to here and say it is posable no it is not want to see a ftp player win a diamond league or a perfect league
ok rant over game is some much fun to bad it it ruined by pay to win mechanics

[PunishedF2P]

Originally Posted by saltuskin

Been playing for about 3 months now and unless you want to spend 1000s for real life money you will get no higher than gold/dia league and the dia you will not compete at all, i am in dia and spent a little money and there is no way i can compete with all these people

the teams these people have is impossible to get from packs, i have opened over 400 packs and have not got a lone 100 not saying a 100 that can be used

This game is 100% pay to win to bad they cant make it so the normal people can play, well we can play just up to gold league and it ends there.
you will never get the give away cards or any special cards
example how does a ftp get a Frank Thomas or and Ichro card
yes i know the all the ftp players will come to here and say it is posable no it is not want to see a ftp player win a diamond league or a perfect league
ok rant over game is some much fun to bad it it ruined by pay to win mechanics

400 packs is a tiny sample, friend. I've gone 1200+ packs without a perfect pull, and 2800+ packs without a non-live perfect pull. I've also pulled three non-live perfects in a 25 pack before. It's all chance, evens out the more you open. I opened like 40K packs last year as F2P to give you an idea of what an elite F2P player can do, though that was with the old tournament rewards.

They nerfed Tourney rewards in PT24, but with PT+ (if you want to pay for it) it balances it back out a bit.

In PT23 a F2P player won 2 Perfect League titles, I know that. I made Perfect League 5 times myself, even making a good run in the playoffs. This year, I've been in diamond the last 11 seasons, in position for make my 5th playoff appearance this season (6.5 games up in the WC).
*
To be a top F2P team, it really helps to start the season at the beginning and be able to take advantage of all the LIVE updates. Last year there were way more players that went to 100 (particularly SP and RP's that performed way above their original rating), and I was maxxing out everything (I had over 24 of four different diamonds that went perfect on the final update), so it was definitely more rewarding - I made around 5 million PP on the final update alone.

But I'll end up with 5-6 million PP profit from updates overall this year, which is equivalent to thousands of dollars for a P2P player.

Until the Immortal missions it was definitely reasonable to shoot for PL as a F2P this year; and even now, I'm sure there are some F2P/PT+ players in PL right now. It takes a few years of playing to know all of the ins and outs of how to best utilize what is available for F2P. Definitely possible to compete, though not easy.

Pack luck always helps (I've had zero this year, haven't pulled a single card on my main squad worth over 80,000 PP).

And remember, if you're playing for free, it's the whales who spend thousands of dollars that keep the game afloat and free for us. As I always say, "thank you!" to the P2W players.

[smales72]

just curious. what do you win by "winning" in PT? is there some insane reward for winning a perfect team league? given the time and investment I would expect a vegas trip and encoutramants.

[Hwilensky]

Originally Posted by smales72

just curious. what do you win by "winning" in PT? is there some insane reward for winning a perfect team league? given the time and investment I would expect a vegas trip and encoutramants.

Bragging rights and I think you get some kind of trophy...I think..

[bailey]

In one of your previous posts, you were asking for help in iron tournaments. Have your results in iron improved? You don't have to spend money to win iron tournaments and if you can't win those regularly what does that mean?

[Fabtron7]

Originally Posted by Hwilensky

Bragging rights and I think you get some kind of trophy...I think..

Correct, you get a trophy to hide from your wife.

[Ty Cobb]

"You know, I'd like to be an astronaut. And for some reason, they just won't let me."
—Ned Yost

[LeeD]

Difficult, not impossible. 23 straight weeks in Diamond league with nothing more than PT+ for three of those months. Even came within one series of promotion to Perfect league twice.

[HRBaker]

I think sometimes we are so intent on taking a side as to whether it's impossible or not to compete without money or time, the real issue we are missing flies right over our heads.

I, obviously, am one who feels the typical F2P player "mostly" will lose interest after about 6 months. This is due to the fact that the talent level of the upper levels becomes so intense that either money or time is required to compete and/or improve.

Those who are "in" that list of best teams would defend the game in that "there are plenty of ways one can compete and improve without spending money" - but they propose solutions that require vast amounts of time.

The point we keep sidestepping is not all PT players want (or can) spend the money OR time to compete after about 6 months of play. For many of us, OOTP is a "hobby" - not a fixation. That is not meant to degrade those that want to be the "best" - it is only meant to show the difference between someone who plays the game for "fun" from those who play it for dominance.

After 7 years of playing PT I have simply admitted to myself that the "fun" of the concept ends at about 6 months for me; and suspect many others feel the same way. At this point I log in to cash in my points for card packs in the slim hope I will land a "power card" that I can either play or sell to open more packs. I have no wish to dive deeper into game strategy and searching for opportunities because they would require more time than I wish to put into the game at this point.

I will, as always, look forward to v26 and I fully expect to play March-to-September as an FTP player again, falling back on the Classic OOTP game and other interests after September.

It would do us all well to realize there are two distinct types of PT players and each is a valid customer of a great game - and as such, ALL of our opinions are valid and possibly useful to the powers that be.

(steps down from soapbox)

[PunishedF2P]

Originally Posted by HRBaker

The point we keep sidestepping is not all PT players want (or can) spend the money OR time to compete after about 6 months of play. For many of us, OOTP is a "hobby" - not a fixation. That is not meant to degrade those that want to be the "best" - it is only meant to show the difference between someone who plays the game for "fun" from those who play it for dominance.

This is sort of contradictory. If it's just for fun, which is fine, there should be no complaining about not being able to compete with the top players in the top leagues (not that you're complaining, that'd directed at the OP). If you're trying to compete, there are certainly ways, and of course they are time consuming, otherwise no one would spend money instead.

I'm in the middle this year. I spend time to invest in the LIVE updates properly (since those are the most valuable for the time spent), and I don't even bother to play tourneys or get any pack drops or anything extra. I don't even login everyday this year.

[HRBaker]

Originally Posted by PunishedF2P

This is sort of contradictory. If it's just for fun, which is fine, there should be no complaining about not being able to compete with the top players in the top leagues (not that you're complaining, that'd directed at the OP). If you're trying to compete, there are certainly ways, and of course they are time consuming, otherwise no one would spend money instead.

I'm in the middle this year. I spend time to invest in the LIVE updates properly (since those are the most valuable for the time spent), and I don't even bother to play tourneys or get any pack drops or anything extra. I don't even login everyday this year.

I admit there are times I "wish" there was an easier way to stay with the game longer, but the reality is if your not spending money (beyond PT+) and not willing to put in the time, you've pretty much blocked yourself from having much further success. Thus, I'm ok with waiting for the next version to start over.

[bailey]

Originally Posted by HRBaker

I admit there are times I "wish" there was an easier way to stay with the game longer, but the reality is if your not spending money (beyond PT+) and not willing to put in the time, you've pretty much blocked yourself from having much further success. Thus, I'm ok with waiting for the next version to start over.

Start a new team now and follow the advice in New Team Primer.

Here is the progress of my most recent team that followed this advice, but does not play in tournaments nor collect twitch drops. (I was more than a little slow getting the live missions completed, too).