Well, here are my observations as a fresh tanker after being competitive for 12 seasons.
During those seasons I played, trained and enjoyed the game the normal way. I joined the game in season 8, when good players were worth something. In those old days, training and developing a team was a good strategy, much better than tanking, since the money itself was not as valuable as it is nowadays. During the past 5-6 seasons I have mentioned that players who cost plenty of millions can be purchased for 1/10-th of their real value. The only players that still remain valuable are the overall ones - the native SF in other words. Building-up such players makes the managers to train positions that they are not really fit to play, and thus not to be competitive, especially in Div. I, where I promoted to for the first time.
On the other hand, I saw the opportunity to build-up a team I dreamed about. Team full of the overall players, not too expensive in terms of salary, but VERY efficient in terms of performance. In order to make this dream come true, I had to forget about the competition in the league and start tanking and buying young trainees. After 4 weeks I expended my arena to a little bit over 20K, purchased 4 18 y.o. SF potentials (probably 1 of them will be released) 1 22 y.o. NT perspective and 1 21 y.o. MVP, that are aimed to be the key players of my team and help me survive in div. 2 next season.
All these issues eventually overweighted all the negative aspects of tanking. As soon as the game allows me to make 500K a week, train out of position and build-up a team of my dream with no obligations, compete in the cup and even get the #1 or 2 draft pick, I see no reason why not to take this opportunity.
Last edited by ig at 6/19/2012 11:59:13 AM