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It's only free on the salary side. It trains very slow and eats into the build cap so it's very expensive on those 2 resources. If you start a rookie guard(6'4 and under) with 4-8 rebounding and never train it he's going to be in a good place.

Inspired by a recent MLB article where 2 writers "drafted" their top World Series contenders, here is my ranking of the top contenders for winning III.7 this season. I would love to see other managers lists, even without any analysis.

Tier 1 - Title Contenders
1. Archers of Loafcross
The hottest team in the league right now, having won 13 straight. This young team (all under 30) relies on a deep and balanced roster and maximizes their teams enthusiasm for every match. No real weaknesses as evidence by them leading the league in Points For AND Points Against.
2. Rashmonsters
Led by the highest RB differential in the league (+19.9), this team is solid all around and looks to be the favorite from the Great 8. While not as deep as AoL, in Watson they have a 50k big coming off the bench which is tough for other teams to match.
3. Missouri City Sounders
My early season favorite looked dominate early on, but proved vulnerable when Cisong went down with injury. If they can stay healthy, Cisong and Estrada could carry this team to a championship
4. Cyborgs
Call me a sucker for potential, but they have all of the pieces to succeed. Long tenured manager, good deep team, young upcoming stars, solid wins against other good teams. Yet, they would be out of the playoffs if they start today. Perhaps this is a fooldhardy place to put them, but consider them my dark horse candidate.

Tier 2 - Almost Title Contenders
1. Dark Matter
A mini-rebuild this season has hurt their depth, but that has not hampered their ability to still beat some good teams. A diverse enough offense makes them hard to game plan for and makes them dangerous, but at the same time they seem to be one piece away from competing with the top teams.
2. Drunken Sconnies
The Sconnies hold opponents to 37.4% shooting on the season which is good for 3rd best in the league, and still has the ever dangerous Chen Cunrong. Despite their low team rebounding, Paul Wilks covers enough to keep rebounding from being a black hole. And yet this team does not appear quite as strong as in seasons past.
3. Hasting Hornets
The roster construction looks good, but the enthusiasm management and Game Shape management is what seems to be holding this team back. If they adopted's AoL philosophy of Take It Easy every game and find a way to get their starters about 10 less minutes a week, I could see this team threatening for a title.
4. Bananahorns
2 NBBA titles, 1 Cup title, Coach Shnuffy definitely know what it takes to build a winner. Thankfully for the rest of the league the Banahorns are in the middle of a re-build. Given their pedigree and probable money in the bank though, they are one decision to compete away from becoming a title contender.

Nicely done analysis Slash! I love reading this kind of stuff. I only wish I had your brain power for insight and analysis! I can’t really argue with your predictions, except maybe move I’d Dark Matter down a couple or three slots…😆. Thanks!
DM

Nice writeup. I appreciate the ranking, but I've been lucky to face some teams with injuries. I'm a player or two away from winning anything and look for a Sounders vs. Rashmomsters final.

I'll never understand why teams waste enthusiasm in the regular season.

Is it a waste though if you don't think you will need it for your upcoming games?

Avoiding relegation rounds is the big reason. Holding the 2 seed is more profitable all season long than a lower seed when you're not competitive to promote. Picking up a few wins might be worth 100k. If you can take down a 1 seed it might spin the division into a battle for position, causing a spending battle or more enthusiasm used later in the season. It's definitely under used before the break. 80% of the time it's not enough to matter.

It is because a team won't be able to max it out for the playoffs/relegation. If you look at the schedule, 4 of my last 6 games are on the road and there is a good chance I lose at least three of them, so it's really just wasting a ct at that point.

Last edited by Sterling Archer at 8/11/2024 10:40:52 AM

I think there is alot more flexibility than that in how a manager chooses to spend their enthusiasm, and I think that's part of what makes BuzzerBeater interesting. Have you ever used the coachParrot tool? It has an enthusiasm calculator which seems fairly accurate in my experience.

Here's my understanding about how enthusiasm works. You start the season at 5, and there is a natural decay, or boost towards 5. So if your enthusiasm is at 4, it will naturally increase towards 5. If your enthusiasm is 13, it will naturally decay towards 5. The farther away from 5 you are, the quicker it moves towards 5.

I do not know Sounders enthusiasm levels for that game, but for the sake of simplicity let's assume a team plays TIE ever league game and every cup game and that they get eliminated after their 5th cup game. Plugging those numbers into the enthusiasm calculator, they would have been sitting at 8.9 enthusaism for Saturday's game (game 16). With this approach here would be their enthusiasm levels for the rest of the season up till the first round of the playoffs.

game 17 - 9.4
game 18 - 9.2
game 19 - 9.6
game 20 - 9.3
game 21 - 9.7
game 22 - 9.3
1st round playoffs - 9.7

Now if you run the same situation but instead do a CT on Saturday (so every other game is a TIE) then you get
game 17 - 4.5
game 18 - 5.8
game 19 - 7.1
game 20 - 7.9
game 21 - 8.7
game 22 - 8.8
1st round playoffs - 9.4

Game 17 and 18 the team is definitely at a severe disadvantage and game 19 a minor one, but for the enthusiasm level at the playoffs, a CT on Saturday would make only a very minor difference in the playoffs.

The reason in my mind to spend the enthusiasm is to try to earn HCA for the playoffs. Home court is very valuable and for two evenly match teams, it can be hard to overcome. Now obviously you can go over board and spend too much enthusiasm, but to me it's a balance.

Your approach is definitely working for you so I am not knocking it, I just think it's selling the enthusiasm system short if you say the only way to be successful is to TIE every game.