Tournaments General Discussion

[Morgans Magic]

Originally Posted by Lemandria

The lefty team mentioned above is 100% FTP.

I'm really not understanding what the problem is, loading a team with RH thumpers and punishing a LH rotation is simplicity.

How do you know which team it is if, as others aver, everyone is doing it. (And many many less are doing it since they fixed the fatigue.)

Well, all it would require is to wait the 4-6 hours for the 32-teams to winnow down to the last team, then sometime around 2:30 am, be sure to put in your lefty lineup to face the 1-2 innings of lefty and then deal with mostly righties and a sprinkle of lefties in the pen. (Which I, btw, did do, and still lost to anb array of talented relievers most pitching for at least the third time in four days.)

There are lots of ways to construct teams. If you have enough money/time to get guys like Pete Rose, Gwynn, Suzuki, Bill Terry etc. in your silver....


But if you have all these great players IS IT REALLY SO IMPORTANT TO PUSH THE GAME'S LOGIC WHEN YOU ALREADY HAVE A TOP LINEUP AND A TOP LINEUP DURING THE SEASON JUST SO YOU CAN CHEESE A FEW TOURNEY VICTORIES FROM PEOPLE WHO AT LEAST PITCH 4 GUYS????

[CrazyWR]

im confused, do you want them to just hand you the trophy?

[Morgans Magic]

Originally Posted by CrazyWR

im confused, do you want them to just hand you the trophy?

Oh, I'm sorry.


I didn't realize the only way to win was to try and game the system/rules other people choose to play by.


I'll bet your co-workers love you....

[mcdog512]

Originally Posted by Morgans Magic

Oh, I'm sorry.


I didn't realize the only way to win was to try and game the system/rules other people choose to play by.


I'll bet your co-workers love you....

You are under the impression that's the only way to win? I don't even have a lefty starter and I've done ok for myself. I have a traditional 5 man rotation, with some starters in the pen. 10 man pitching staff.

[Morgans Magic]

I harbor no such suspicion. Why would I?


I've won a handful of tourneys. I've honed my team. I've found the best lineups. I've downloaded the stats and compared performances.


But that only gets you so far. And then it's kinda galling TO ME (and frankly IDC what feels you catch from it) to lose to someone who, not only has 6 branded teams playing such that I play a couple of his teams in almost every tourney. He has a great lineup. I'm sure he has any starter he could want.


So I'm sort of asking, why is it necessary under such circumstance to be the kind of jerk (again IMO) who needs to cheat the game logic? Why not just field a normal team like the rest of us?

Why does this person who already does well in tourneys *(and many of his teams are not using this cheese)* FEEL IT IS NECESSARY TO TRY AND CHEAT THE GAME SO HE CAN GET A COUPLE MORE REG PACKS THAT HE DOESN'T REALLY NEED?

[CrazyWR]

again, its not cheating. The wonderful part about baseball is multiple strategies can win. You yourself say that you can win using a different strategy. You just don't approve of the way he does it. That isn't cheating. Just because it isn't traditional doesn't mean it is wrong or illegal. Yes it is kind of cheesy, but the developers have addressed this in a patch to the point where it is no longer nearly as successful.

Frankly, at the highest levels of tourney play, a lot of the games are tossups because many of the players are the same. Also in baseball the best teams only win 60-70% of the time, so its entirely possible you are just getting unlucky.

[Morgans Magic]

Originally Posted by CrazyWR

again, its not cheating. The wonderful part about baseball is multiple strategies can win. You yourself say that you can win using a different strategy. You just don't approve of the way he does it. That isn't cheating. Just because it isn't traditional doesn't mean it is wrong or illegal. Yes it is kind of cheesy, but the developers have addressed this in a patch to the point where it is no longer nearly as successful.

Frankly, at the highest levels of tourney play, a lot of the games are tossups because many of the players are the same. Also in baseball the best teams only win 60-70% of the time, so its entirely possible you are just getting unlucky.

You're absolutely right.


There are many ways to go about things. And just become some are untraditional, is no reason to frown upon them.


I just hope someone non-traditionally doesn't start using your identity and running up bills on you because they sought a way outside the normal system to make a living. Because, you know, that wouldn't be very fair, would it?

Try not to get stabbed to death cutting in line at Popeye's!!
[/larger philosophical point about how you behave in a group system, who follows the rules, and why some special people maybe feel it's more fun to cheat, no, "not use every day rules"]

[Lemandria]

The assumption is that other players haven't done as much research or analysis.

The other players are playing you psychologically.

"I only play the 'best' lineup, but others have figured out a way to beat it."

The 'best' lineup, at least in Bronze, is heavy on left-handed bats, right-handed starters, and lacks power.

I've faced that lineup a hundred times, and there is, in fact, a fairly simple plan to beat it.

LHP, because they don't hit that direction quite as well. LHB because primarily RH rotations are pretty hittable from the left side of the plate.

Don't worry about MOV on your staff, the 'best' lineup lacks pop. Throw Stuff and Con.

Looks like the 'best' bronze roster needs to carry a few big righty sticks, instead of Gwynn and Ichiro.

They've figured you out and adapted, in other words.

Adapt and overcome.Their teams also have exploitable weaknesses. Find one and hammer it.

[atabakin]

It's a game. It's not real life. If you can't make that distinction...

"You play to win the game. You don't play it to just play it. That's the great thing about sports: you play to win. And I don't care if you don't have any wins. You go play to win."

[Morgans Magic]

A guess you're a big Astros fan then.



I'm out on this convo. I can call out who I like, just like they can behave how they like. That too is how the game is played.

[Dogberry99]

Maybe I'm not as diametrically opposed to the position of Morgans Magic as I originally assumed.

After all, I was a vocal opponent on these boards to fatigue settings that allowed RPs to be viable starters, and I also avoid capped and DoD tournaments like the plague because I don't like how formats like those allow depth to be completely ignored.

I also have been refining a power roster for bronze tournaments. I think there is a viable lane here that can result in at least limited success - success which I'd argue I am already experiencing to varying degrees in spite of an admittedly suboptimal lineup.

I don't like cheese, and while I don't actively fight it, I do deliberately avoid it when and where I can. I'm not sure how different that actually makes me...

[dkgo]

I think his gripe is against fake "starters" who pitch just one inning then an all opposite-handed bullpen used to cheese the depth chart platoons which is definitely a flaw in the game and a pretty lame "strategy"

Running a normal rotation of high stuff lefties used to counter the high contact ichiro/gwynn/etc meta is obviously perfectly fine and what is supposed to be happening

[da commish]

Well, this is a special moment for me. I've played about a dozen bronze and lower tournaments and for the first time, I got past the first round!! Won the Bo7 series 4-3. However, I went on to get swept 4-0 in the next round so my life in that tournament ended pretty quickly. It's kinda hard to believe that I could be this bad in a bronze and lower tournaments considering I think I have some decent players. You'd think that I'd win more series just by dumb luck. But I guess my lack of skill has offset dumb luck.

[Lemandria]

You'd think that I'd win more series just by dumb luck. But I guess my lack of skill has offset dumb luck.

Be patient, it's a process.

Create a lineup with a specific goal, something like "punish switch hitters" (you'll need "flipped" pitchers). "Steal lots of bags," "gopher balls over contact," or whatever you want to try.

Play the rosters, keep notes...how many rounds deep you made it before washing out, what you think the teams that beat you did well, possible counterplay for whatever that was.

Try lots of stuff. Learn from your mistakes, improve each lineup in the second iteration, then the third...

And remember there is no One True Lineup that easily wins every tourney. Because people will instantly start seeking counters to it.

[Dogberry99]

I feel silly for asking this, but... Are there more Special Edition tournament reward cards than the 5 that were showcased on TWIPT #50 (Simmons, Whitaker, Nichols, Jones, and Pujols)? Is there a post or anything that includes a list of some sort that I've overlooked that has this information?

Otherwise, I have no clue where cards like the 1968 Dave Giusti or the 1978 Fergie Jenkins came from. I can't even see their OVR since they aren't the 1st prize in any tournaments.

[waittilnextyear]

Anyone else noticing the same teams over and over again in tournament play? Some really impressive tournament warriors out there that seemingly sign up for every tournament they can. When I compete in any gold tourney, I see the Shinjuku Slugging Salarymen and Battery Point Energizer Bunnies every time, without fail.

Anyone else see teams like this being ubiquitous in various tournaments you like to compete in?

[Lemandria]

Anyone else see teams like this being ubiquitous in various tournaments you like to compete in?

Sure.

I've got three teams that specialize (more or less) in the types of tourneys they're good at (or sometimes not so good, but at least they can field a complete roster).

You'll see the brutes in bronze a lot, tomato in silver, leaving the senior team playing gold & diamond (rather poorly)...but the juniors can't field even a weak roster there.

So depending on time of day, there are probably other teams annoyed at how often they see me.

[daves]

These tournaments can take a toll on pitching. When does the game use the Emergency Starter? Do all the starters have to be exhausted? at what % does the AI still start the starters 70%, 60%?

[bailey]

Originally Posted by daves

These tournaments can take a toll on pitching. When does the game use the Emergency Starter? Do all the starters have to be exhausted? at what % does the AI still start the starters 70%, 60%?

A 4-man rotation won't go (much) below 70% and it's still fine. Many teams go this route in salary caps.

[waittilnextyear]

The regular packs I've been getting for winning tourneys have been absolute garbage. I don't think the contents of these packs are any different from any other regular packs, but getting them in such small whacks (like 2 and 4) and then not getting anything good in them really does wonders with negative confirmation bias!

I pulled a 96 Mariano Rivera from the first diamond pack I ever won, and when the NYY missions were about to happen, so I feel like I've been paying for that luck ever since...