Crazy Bad Performances

[LeeD]

Yes, over millions of iterations there will be some just-plain-horrible luck and some just-ridiculous-good luck. I had a team on the good side of this that won a Game 163 play-in and then swept the table to win the championship. It happens.

[ChessSafari]

I read through this thread hoping for some insight into the strategic use of CHEMISTRY. I understand it is important because it shows up on my home screen for every team. I have spent some time trying to figure how to use it to my team's advantage and found instances where substituting one or more lower rated players for higher OVR, with less chemistry, actually improved the team, though not necessarily the particular player involved, not always and not reliably. Have any of the affiliates done a good job on their streams explaining how this works in league play and/or specific tournaments?

I am convinced that it is not merely cosmetic. but I still have no clue on how to factor it into my roster builds from season to season in Perfect Team play.

Tbh, I am surprised chemistry hasn't been mentioned here as one of the reasons for variance. Can anyone provide some insight on this topic or point me in the right direction to learn more?

[cwhitman]

Originally Posted by ChessSafari

I read through this thread hoping for some insight into the strategic use of CHEMISTRY. I understand it is important because it shows up on my home screen for every team. I have spent some time trying to figure how to use it to my team's advantage and found instances where substituting one or more lower rated players for higher OVR, with less chemistry, actually improved the team, though not necessarily the particular player involved, not always and not reliably. Have any of the affiliates done a good job on their streams explaining how this works in league play and/or specific tournaments?

I am convinced that it is not merely cosmetic. but I still have no clue on how to factor it into my roster builds from season to season in Perfect Team play.

Tbh, I am surprised chemistry hasn't been mentioned here as one of the reasons for variance. Can anyone provide some insight on this topic or point me in the right direction to learn more?

i have seen no concrete evidence to show that chemistry does anything enough to really want to pay attention to it. some people swear it makes a difference, but nobody has shown me anything other than feels for that

to clarify: i believe there is some impact, it's just extremely unnoticeable at small sample sizes

[usa_hank]

So glad to see the community is still as loving as ever! Let people vent, it's okay. It's perfectly okay to vent about horrible dice rolls, because lets face it, this isn't a game of skill any more than blackjack is - if you know basic strategy, you have just as much luck as everyone else. It's a little more luck here because of the pack opening aspect too, so I'd say even blackjack has more skill.

A couple more months and the new PT comes out, and we'll all be starting over, watching the whales reach PeL in the early game, and many of us rattling around reminiscing about how we made PeL once and HD 6 times in 2025, while complaining that our version of Al Kaline is hitting .230 while everyone else's is hitting .290. Meanwhile, the people who have a vested interest in the game either because they are streamers or because they are long-time players who can't let the torch go get upset and tell people off with some feigned plausible deniability. Rinse, repeat.

[usa_hank]

There was a lot of talk about chemistry in the first page or two. People seem to think it does nothing, or at least that its impact is negligible. I do think it has some impact though, otherwise they wouldn't disable the chemistry impact in some tourneys.

Again, secret sauce from the devs. They won't disclose the impact. It could very well be a placebo, who knows.

Originally Posted by ChessSafari

I read through this thread hoping for some insight into the strategic use of CHEMISTRY. I understand it is important because it shows up on my home screen for every team. I have spent some time trying to figure how to use it to my team's advantage and found instances where substituting one or more lower rated players for higher OVR, with less chemistry, actually improved the team, though not necessarily the particular player involved, not always and not reliably. Have any of the affiliates done a good job on their streams explaining how this works in league play and/or specific tournaments?

I am convinced that it is not merely cosmetic. but I still have no clue on how to factor it into my roster builds from season to season in Perfect Team play.

Tbh, I am surprised chemistry hasn't been mentioned here as one of the reasons for variance. Can anyone provide some insight on this topic or point me in the right direction to learn more?

[usa_hank]

Another wonderful example for this thread - in HG, my Dihigo is hitting .213 with 7 HR while others are seeing .270-.300 and 11-23 HR. Worst performance on my team, from a player that has arguably close to the best offensive ratings on the team. Gotta love it.

An example on the high side, for about 9 weeks I used 96-rated Adley Rutschman as my backup catcher for his switch hitting. Through weeks of LD, he would be one of my best for-average hitters, at around .285-.290. A consistent 1.5-2.5 WAR backup catcher for about 9 seasons for me. Finally took him out last season in favor of more pop at the C position. But it made me laugh how good he played despite his offensive ratings being worse than other catchers and other players on my team.

I know in OOTP and in PT there is a benefit to avg for a player to have less power, but he shouldn't have been performing as well as he was considering the competition.

[bailey]

Originally Posted by usa_hank

So glad to see the community is still as loving as ever! Let people vent, it's okay .................
and many of us rattling around reminiscing about how we made PeL once and HD 6 times in 2025

I have 6 HD and 1 PeL!!

[usa_hank]

LOL see? I didn't think we'd start reminiscing THAT quickly haha

Originally Posted by bailey

I have 6 HD and 1 PeL!!

[cwhitman]

Originally Posted by usa_hank

There was a lot of talk about chemistry in the first page or two. People seem to think it does nothing, or at least that its impact is negligible. I do think it has some impact though, otherwise they wouldn't disable the chemistry impact in some tourneys.

Again, secret sauce from the devs. They won't disclose the impact. It could very well be a placebo, who knows.

there are multiple people in PEL this week who are playing bad iron players to try and juice chemistry. I see no consistent impact from any of that. Even if there is an impact, it's so negligible that diluting your team with bad players is not the way to go.