Tanking

[AirmenSmith]

Just wondering if there is anything in place to prevent tanking?

If you have a team that has nothing but Gold/Diamond Cards, couldn't they pretty much tank for a week or two? All they need to do is just sit all their good cards, then lose as much as possible. They will get demoted to a worse league. Once demoted they can start their good cards again and get massive PP's.

Not sure if this has been thought of or not. Maybe increasing the PP's for achievements in higher levels would prevent this. So if 6 hits in a game at a low level is worth 30 points, maybe the higher level one is work 60?

Thoughts?

[zrog2000]

I'm going to guess that someone who has a team of gold/diamond cards already wants to win first. Why else would they rush to have a team like that by day 3?

What's the difference between a whale tanking and a sucky team deciding to become a whale later? Besides, the whale is going to still rack up a ton of achievements without tanking. I also don't want achievements to scale to league because that's just what makes it much harder for the teams with a late or slow start to catch up.

I don't see a problem here whatsoever.

[Thalion]

Define "massive" pp.

[Orcin]

Why on earth would anyone do this? If I already have a great team, why do I need to tank to get a great team?

[Whoofe]

if I play all commons and tank in season 1, I will be missing out on PPs I could have earned by trying to be competitive. and those PPs could have been used to buy better players who could have earned me more PPs in the meantime

plus ppl who didn't tank but still lost will have improved their teams as well

tanking doesn't make sense to me

[stl jason]

if there isn't a rule against it in the TOS, then they can play how they want.... I guess I could call up all the 40-50 rated cards I have on the reserve roster (haven't bothered to sell any off yet), and shoot for a nice loosing streak... then bring back the standard team to win one and get the points for that, but my boys are mediocre enough without that kind of help

course, I shouldn't diss the low rated cards... my regular squad got shutout by a pitcher with a 53 rating last night.... heh

[sansterre]

I don't think that the PP windfall you'd receive from a few seasons of weaker competition would make up for the several seasons of crappy PP generation from starting a weak team.

[Whoofe]

Originally Posted by stl jason

if there isn't a rule against it in the TOS, then they can play how they want.... I guess I could call up all the 40-50 rated cards I have on the reserve roster (haven't bothered to sell any off yet), and shoot for a nice loosing streak... then bring back the standard team to win one and get the points for that, but my boys are mediocre enough without that kind of help

course, I shouldn't diss the low rated cards... my regular squad got shutout by a pitcher with a 53 rating last night.... heh

baseball as usual lol

[One Post Wonder]

Originally Posted by AirmenSmith

Just wondering if there is anything in place to prevent tanking?

If you have a team that has nothing but Gold/Diamond Cards, couldn't they pretty much tank for a week or two? All they need to do is just sit all their good cards, then lose as much as possible. They will get demoted to a worse league. Once demoted they can start their good cards again and get massive PP's.

Not sure if this has been thought of or not. Maybe increasing the PP's for achievements in higher levels would prevent this. So if 6 hits in a game at a low level is worth 30 points, maybe the higher level one is work 60?

Thoughts?

This had been my biggest concern since day 1, and I made exactly this suggestion before.

It seems like common sense to give incentive to get promoted, because once the leagues fill up, half of the promoted teams are going to suck in their new league. Yes, earnings aren't directly connected to wins but you're not going to earn as many points if you suck.

But the consensus is that while some players have already taken the trouble to manipulate 3 different accounts in order to funnel pp, they're not going to cheat in the way you're mentioning. I guess we'll see how it turns out in the end.

[AirmenSmith]

Originally Posted by Thalion

Define "massive" pp.

Well I do think it will be easier to get a perfect game if you have a team full of golds/diamonds vs a team that is full of mostly bronze cards. Same with winning the World Series.

[One Post Wonder]

Originally Posted by Thalion

Define "massive" pp.

You can earn thousands of pp in a single game if you completely destroy your opposition. An awesome team playing in a league of new players might be able to get that several times in a season.

[AirmenSmith]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Why on earth would anyone do this? If I already have a great team, why do I need to tank to get a great team?

Well this is something collectors might do. You might play to win the World Series but others might play to just open packs. Those are the ones that could tank so they have a better chance of getting PP's as the competition is weaker.

Also the perfectionist may want to tank as well. Tanking every other week could result in getting more PP's to make a super team later. It's really not much different in pro sports IMO especially before the luxary tax.

[Déjà Bru]

I've gotten slack-jawed over the past few days reading about the ways to "game the system" with this or that gyration. Mind-boggling.

My hope is that such folk will tend to drift upward. Me? I believe I will prefer to play PT in the Bronze leagues.

[AirmenSmith]

Originally Posted by Whoofe

if I play all commons and tank in season 1, I will be missing out on PPs I could have earned by trying to be competitive. and those PPs could have been used to buy better players who could have earned me more PPs in the meantime

plus ppl who didn't tank but still lost will have improved their teams as well

tanking doesn't make sense to me

I see it as a diamond card pitcher can get more achievements vs a common card then against a diamond card batter. So that Walter Johnson can earn more achievements by staying at a low level for just one week compared to playing against higher level players.

[sansterre]

Also, let's consider the loss of the time-value of PP.

If someone offered you the choice between 20,000 PP right now or 35,000 PP in two weeks you'd probably be wrong to choose the latter. PP can be invested for a return, both by opening packs and selling the proceeds, by hunting the AH for bargains and reselling the card, or by getting good cards and earning PP by playing well.

If you can reinvest your 20k PP at even a 5% rate of return (which in my experience with PT is fairly low) you'll have built up 40k PP in those two weeks.

I guess, given that investing PP for a profit is possible, PP now generally beats PP in the future.

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

I've gotten slack-jawed over the past few days reading about the ways to "game the system" with this or that gyration. Mind-boggling.

My hope is that such folk will tend to drift upward. Me? I believe I will prefer to play PT in the Bronze leagues.

My hope is we can worry more about our own teams instead of others gaming the system. If they cheat I have faith they'll get caught.

I know I enjoyed competing in a pretty tough league wondering how to get better. Never once did it cross my mind to drop down to a lower level, farm points, and win. To each his own I guess, but just my two cents is not worry as much about what others are doing and have fun.

[AirmenSmith]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

I've gotten slack-jawed over the past few days reading about the ways to "game the system" with this or that gyration. Mind-boggling.

My hope is that such folk will tend to drift upward. Me? I believe I will prefer to play PT in the Bronze leagues.

See I have never played the Madden, NBA or MLB versions of this game but through real sports, they try to discourage tanking. That is why I'm curious if OOTP has anything to "Discourage" this. Right now it seems like they are basing things off of someones competitive nature.

[AirmenSmith]

Originally Posted by NYY #23

My hope is we can worry more about our own teams instead of others gaming the system. If they cheat I have faith they'll get caught.

I know I enjoyed competing in a pretty tough league wondering how to get better. Never once did it cross my mind to drop down to a lower level, farm points, and win. To each his own I guess, but just my two cents is not worry as much about what others are doing and have fun.

In the Beta I moved up each year with almost the same record but missing the playoffs each year. Just made me work the market more and keep from buying PP's to win. I will enjoy taking down the "Big" teams the right way.

[Whoofe]

oh yeah, it is so satisfying to have a team with all silvers and bronzes and defeat a team full of perfects, diamonds and golds

[Thalion]

Originally Posted by One Post Wonder

You can earn thousands of pp in a single game if you completely destroy your opposition. An awesome team playing in a league of new players might be able to get that several times in a season.

And several thousand pp are going to do what for a team already made up of gold and diamond players given the dynamics of the AH?