I think mine will meet their targets but I'll probably have to play players I'd rather not in the final session. Every previous season I've T7'd that but possibly can't this.

Main problem is the lack of 4 and 5 set games - nearly all 3-0 or 0-3 even when the teams are close in skills.

Delighted that all my players have now reached their XP target for the season.  There's a couple that might even reach their stretch goal. How's everyone else getting on?

The male anglerfish is also tiny compared to the female

I wonder if Nashville and Columbia's bids will be of similar size?..

When male and female anglerfish mate, they melt into each other and share bodies, forever. The deep sea is so vast that if a male finds a female he latches on and fuses to her, losing his eyes and internal organs until the two fish share a bloodstream. Please, just change mascots.

I keep going back to my bid wondering if it's too large/small at **** RP

Brehme was worth it - he rolled all 11s to go with his max+2 ATK.

As long as it's not 2010 - one of the most disappointing films I've seen after expecting so much.

San Jose paid 1778 earlier this season.

The current record is 1813 paid by Columbia in season 10

These numbers do seem very close to some historic dates

1776 American Independence

1812 Russian Revolution

Could we see 2002? Beyond a Space Odyssey?

Minimum bid of 500 for a 5 star setter

Ideally I still need 3 more players for next season so have to watch the bank balance...

Thanks for the heads up, Roger. I'd have been gutted to lose the player with a 2000 RP bid along with the three teams below me in the standings.

There's no doubt that Thomas Demerrit, Lot 1 in next week's auction, is going to be a star Setter.  My current Freshman 5* has been fully coached this season to reach Set level 13.  By the time he retires he will reach the heady heights of level 16.  Pretty good - until you realise that Demerrit will start his Freshman season at level 13 and could be at level 16 by Session 4.  With the potential to top out at level 19 sometime in his Junior year, I don't think there's any doubt he will dominate the court for the next four seasons.

Which I guess is why Cincinnati (2896 RP), Nashville (2798), Columbia (2764) and Merrit Island (2409) are hoping to sign him this week.  And then there's Spokane, who have managed to squirrel away the princely sum of 541 RPs for their bid.  

I suspect Demeritt will go for over 2000 RPs - assuming everyone remembers to change their maximum spend limit - but I'm genuinely hoping and praying that Jason comes out on top.  However, I suspect I'd get better odds at the bookies on seeing a real-life Sasquatch walking down Northampton High Street.

Daunting though that prospect is, Eduard, I'm more concerned about the teams that could finish 14th or 15th.

Before going all out on the non-conf to get the #1 seed, Steve:

You just might consider who just might slip into the NCS at #16

I fully expect to extend the run to 11.

...to give Andy the kiss of death after only three wins.

Steve, on the other hand, absolutely deserves it.

Thanks for sharing that info Steve!

🏐 In addition, I apologize to Steve, Roger, and Andy, but someone has to call out some streaks here...  😎

Columbia is streaking at 9️⃣ in a row...

Pekin's streak has hit 5️⃣ in a row...

Andy's Angry Wolves are now at 3️⃣ in a row...

Best of luck next week gentlemen!

Firstly, this will be in 3 or 4 parts so as not to muddle things up with explanations too much. Secondly "rotation pairs" is a rubbish title but it's what I keep thinking it as in my head the past year or so.

In part 2 I will say "In TMVL it doesnt matter what position your serve receivers are." Although this is true for the most part, there is the odd occasion where it could.

On  pass (1) only, the receiver might not pass to the Setter (2 or 3 he does, 0 is an ace). If the Libero is the receiver it's an equal chance he'll pass to either OH (see Support for exact chance) if not the Setter. If an OH is the receiver there is a chance he'll pass to the other OH. As I indicated it is rare for an OH to set. In a recent game Brehme had 17 receives, 7 were pass (1) but the other OH didn't set any.

Why could it matter? If he is in the front row and passes to the other OH it will be a back-row Set. If it's a back row receiving OH the other OH will make a front-row Set and the attacker will be determined differently. It does make a difference but hardly.

I too would probably be a lot less afraid of Steve if I knew what it was and from whence it came!  Amusing article, Steve. Thanks for brightening my day with it, as you do the Northern nights!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/c4g0j7zn813o

Third time lucky!

Too right Steve, especially as on paper your MBs were your weak link (in as much as you actually have a weak link...)

I've come to the conclusion that all the stuff I write on here is complete nonesense.*

In the game against Pekin my MB, Rivera, had 24 attack attempts for 17 kills, numbers I don't remember ever seeing. Meanwhile my other MB, Legrand, had just 8 attacks with 4 kills and 4 errors. Had I stumbled on something that I could use and replicate? 

Both had the same ATK and BLK so it didn't matter who was in the front row apart from serve order. It didn't matter whether my Setter was front or back row - the chances of him picking out the MB was the same: 58% if the Setter gets a pass(3) from the receiver.

The only reason Rivera would get more attacks would be that when he was front row there were more Pass(3)'s. It doesn't matter where the receivers were and they all had the same RCV anyway. So the chance of a Pass(3) is determined by SRV: the lower the SRV the higher the chance of a Pass(3).

Rivera was in position IV so at the net when Pekin's first 3 servers served. These had SRV 18, 17, 18. The next 3 were 17, 17, 15. Not a great difference but I'd expect more Pass(3) when Legrand was at the net - not the 3:1 ratio I got.

So put your players where you want - it's all down to Olmec anyway.

*or it isn't and Olmec is just playing mindgames 

Do participate: you can get 40 RP per session easily; vote in the coaches poll, do a wellness check, comment on your 3 matches you're going to play and the 3 that you just played. 480 RP per season on top of the 2180 you are guaranteed is an extra 22%. It will pay half to a 4* or a third towards many 5* players.

Don't save more than 15 CP: anything over 15 is lost and there must be someone you can use CP on(however see below). It's ok in the last session to carry 15 on to the next season.

Do make sure you CP and XP your potential A rated players: make sure you unused spots on Fr OH's and S's that have 10 spots you'll want to CP in 12 sessions. Sophomores of these will probably want 9 slots CP'd. (Guilty of missing slots twice).

Don't use CP on an OH's SET: most attempts per set for an OH? 0.25 for an OH that has played more than one game. Even if I'd end up with over 15 CP I'd rather carry 15 over and waste the excess.

Do check for Libero serving: check you pick an MB that is playing, especially if you change your line-ups (guilty). If your L is a better SRV and RCV than one of your MBs then he must play.

Don't waste CP on potential C juniors unless you really have no one else to use it on.

Do read the BUM report: you'll know why once you do.

Don't waste RP on Steps 1 and 2: it soon mounts up.

Do check what others are doing: for instance as I type there are two teams that could get PLR 4 or 5 (4* MB) this session. One is also in the frame for PLR 6. These two teams are also interested in PLR 2 (5* MB) for next session and could drop out leaving just one team to sign that player (maybe I should pay 100 RP just to make sure but I'll check nearer the deadline).

Don't fret over rolling an 11 rather than a 10 on your recruit: yes we all do it (it's part of the fun) but as a Jr or Sr fully CP'd with FIT +1 (so 18 or 17) has only 1% to 4% increase of the chance of getting the better serve/set/attack/dig etc. and at 10 you'll save 5 CP (2 at Fr, 2 and So and 1 at Jr).

Do have fun.

Why am I reminded of the Avengers movies here?
Steve as Dr. Strange:  I looked forward in time, I saw 14,000,605 futures.

Al as Tony "Iron Man" Stark:  How many times did Quincy beat Columbia?

Steve as Dr. Strange:  One.

Once you have chosen your 7 players for a game and so has your opponent then there are 2304 ways they can line-up against each other. This assumes you don't have identical OHs and/or MBs and it's a no brainer which MB your L serves for. The trick (sometimes) is finding the best way.

Ah yes, Pierre is right.  It is I who was shameful in session 1.  😎

Our goal is to simply win 2 sets in session 2.  Now that teams know we only have weak players hopefully they will play their weak lineups against us to help the poor old Commish...

You must see it the other way, Al. Who was playing with 53, 53 and 56 this week to rest his top players? 😁

Steve is right.  That "rival" Mr. Turner referred to was none other than Mr. Mendonça...   

Can we talk about the 80, 78, and 80 teams threw at the poor commish this week?  No wonder we are 0-3.  No respect...

The weakest team we played at a 64 rating.

The strongest team one of my rivals faced had a 56 rating.

No, not the next book in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice but "How Skills Work in TMVL: Digging (DEF)."

Note, this is subject to verification from Al and/or Max and is based on the master spreadsheet found on the Support Page at https://www.olmec.org/tmvl/files/SL_Percentage.xlsx (I can't remember how to make this a link).

If your opponent's Attack is not out nor blocked, there is a chance for your team to defend with a Dig. A Dig is similar to a Set with ratings from 3 (excellent) to 1 (poor). Only your back row players can Dig and it's their DEF rating that is used and compared to the Attacker's ATK skill and also how good the Attack was (rating 3 to 0).

First a check is made to see which player attempts the Dig. I assume that if your MB was on to serve then he defends rather than the L

For a Setter attack (Dump) there is no data in the spreadsheet so I'm not sure if it's always your RS or S, or if the Right Side table is used.

Right Side: nice and easy 21% L, 42% RS/S, 37% OH

For MB and OH the table is more complicated and depends on the Libero's DEF rating.

For a front row OH or a MB the chance of your L trying to dig goes from 56% at Libero DEF 18 to 35% at DEF 8, your OH rises from 40% at Libero DEF 18 to 55% at 8 and your RS/S from 4% to 10%. The OH overtakes the L as the Libero's DEF changes from 14 to 13.

For a back row OH  the chance of your L trying to dig goes from 48% at Libero DEF 18 to 30% at 8, the OH rises from 45% at 18 to 58% at 8 and the RS/S rises from 7% to 12%. The OH and L are virtually the same at Libero DEF 17.

Again I assume that if the MB is on to serve then it's his DEF rating used to decide who gets the chance to dig.

As mentioned the Attacker's ATK, the defender's DEF and how good the Attack was is used to decide if it's a kill or a dig. The tables are extensive so I'll give few examples. The chances of Dig (3, 2 or 1) are generaly similar to each other (except with low kill chances) with Dig(3) always more chance than Dig(2) than Dig(1). A Dig(3) is used the same as a serve/receive Pass(3) etc. to help decide how good the Set is.

Setter: ATK 12, defender DEF 14: 67% chance of a kill, ATK 10 DEF 18: 56% kill

For all others with an Attack(3) and ATK 14 it's 100% a kill.

Below ATK 14 a MB or backrow OH has a better chance of a kill than a RS (front or back) or frontrow OH (I would have thought frontrow OH was better than backrow but I'm no expert) but at ATK 11 it's still around 90% kill chance, ATK 8 it's 80% give or take.

With Attack(2) a frontrow OH or RS with ATK 18 has 70% (DEF 18) to 81% (DEF 8) chance of a kill but a backrow OH or MB is 100% down to ATK 17. When you get to ATK 11 the former has only 32% with DEF 18 to 52% with DEF 8 of getting a kill. However the MB/backrow OH has 80% up to 87%.

With Attack(1) a frontrow OH/RS is at 43% (DEF 18) to 63% (DEF 8) and the backrow OH/MB it's 77% to 85%.

With Attack(0) you're in trouble. Frontrow OH/RS ATK 18 vs DEF 18  it's just 4% kill with 67% Dig(3), versus DEF 8 it's only 22% kill. I can't find the data for Backrow OH/MB but I expect it's better.

I make it 7 teams that must recruit a Setter and perhaps just one that doesn't need a 5*. And there's only three 5* Setters to pick from. 4* Setters? Meh! I'd probably roll 8 for SET.

Thomas Demerrit (Session 9 commits) looks like the kind of recruit that could really transform a team.  Could he break the 2000 RP barrier? 

I thought this might be useful for the new coaches and anyone else who struggles in this area. And it gets me 5 RP. I've been doing this for about 4 seasons now and it definitely helps. However it isn't foolproof as on at least two occassions I've messed up by missing a slot on my RS.

On XP I record how many sets I want the players to play, a Jr with a 16 needs 78 sets due to rounding and a So needs 47. You should be able to fill in all slots on Fr (except maybe SET on an OH which I don't worry about), one slot on a Jr and probably just one on a 5* So: my 4* OH, Olsen, needs 23 or 24 XP for two slots which is 68  or 71 XP. This can be done quite easily playing two games per session but he's my 3rd best OH and I have a Fr that needs 56 XP. I'll need a lot of 4 and 5 set matches and keep an eye on their games.

Hinata (L) 64 XP (SRV,SRV,RCV,RCV,DEF,DEF,SET,SET) 38 XP (All) 11x3, 1x6 (i.e. 11 single match sessions, 1 double which can become only singles with long games)

Boyle (S) 83 CP (SRV,SRV,BLK,DEF,DEF,SET,SET) 41 XP (BLK) 10X3, 2X6 (easy if we stay in WGM and play 4 match sessions)

Brehme (OH) 66 CP (all but DEF, SET) 78 XP (DEF) 12x6 +6 (he's my best OH so will play the games - just needs 6 extra sets and not have all 3-0 or 0-3 matches)

The rest I'll roughly work out: Olsen 102 CP (even 4* OH So's are expensive), Baptiste 97 CP, Wolverton 45 CP, Fletcher 86 CP, Rivera 71 CP, Legrand 28 CP, Wheeler 69 CP

Total 711 CP

I have 75 but lets say I use 40 on FIT (last season I used about half on FIT and rested others) which leaves 35. You only count 11 sessions at 55 CP as the CP earnt in the last session goes to next season.

35 + 11 times 55 = 640 so 71 sets needed. Last season we won 80 sets but did make every final. Teams I looked at with around 13 wins won around 50 sets. Pekin had over 90. If things start looking bad then I'll have to drop some slots like Hinata's SETs (15 saved)

When you look at the standings you can see next to the league abbreviation the title holders.

Only ONE can repeat as champions and that is Nashville.  

PAC-8

This is a 4-way horse race.  Bryce and Amy are tied at 8-4.  Meanwhile Vick and Matt are on their heels at 7-5.  There's a lot of scenarios left to play out.  The Angry Wolves are at 5-7 and will not repeat after 4 straight seasons of 1st and 2nd place finishes (two of each).

SEC

Roy has the lead as the Red Pandas hold a 1-match advantage over Senator Mike with two matches to play.  

BIG 8

The Jacks lifted the trophy last season, and have been competitive at 6-6 but it is Pekin's Legume Legion that is lifting the trophy this season.  Can Roger go 14-0?  Has anyone EVER done that?

BIG EAST

Dr. James White will be hoisting Alton's first conference trophy this season.   JT's Cinci could not do the (wow) 6-peat and along with the Bullfrogs will finish behind the Screaming Eagles.

Congratulations to Roger and James and I'm looking forward to seeing how the PAC 8 and SEC play out!

Our opponents will likely all win 3-0 this coming weekend. It's just a trend we've started for the season. Probabkly has to do with subpar recruiting and coaching. It's ok, you can agree with it. I won't be offended. Well, maybe just a little, but not worth enough to mention (except for the fact I just mentioned it). 😩

Hi Roger, good questions.  And yes, I was in that photo fromthe preview yesterday. 😎 They use some of my photos but also have students that take photos for them so they tend to use those a bit more as I think they pay them.  

And yes it was a VERY rough game.  

Rankings are based on record but usually have a strength of schedule (SOS) factor involved too.

Carthage has played a tougher schedule than we have so that goes a long way to determine ranking in most of these various sites.  Here are a few different ones:

https://masseyratings.com/cmvol/ncaa-d3/ratings

https://frogjumpvolleyball.com/2024/04/07/last-t100-for-2024-regular-season/

https://insidehitter.com/2024/04/07/updated-ranking-4-8/

https://www.avca.org/polls-awards/polls/?_divisions=division-iii-men

The Frog Jump site does some interesting analysis.  

Here's the summary of where we are:

1) We finished the regular season on Sunday (18-6; best record in program history)

2) We are the #3 seed in the 4-team conference tourney (the 5th/6th place teams to not participate)

3) We play at Carthage again on Wednesday.  If we lose the season is over.  If we win we play again Saturday.

4) If we win both then we go to the 16-team national championship bracket.  

On the Augie website preview* of yesterday's game with Carthage (a rough day at the office from what I saw) it says the no.7 Firebirds were 16-5 for the season, whilst Augie were 18-5.  Given this implies the Vikings are having a better season, why is it Carthage are the ranked team?  I presume there's some clever algorithm in the background that only Steve, John and Kevin would understand.

* I noted that although the photo on the website had some volleyball players in the foreground, the composition was clearly focused on the handsome gentleman in the bleachers with his camera...

Unfortunately I couldn't watch the game as the link from the website went to YouTube but not the game. I just had to watch Live Score and curse Aiden Bolan in the second set at all his attack errors at set point.

Thanks for watching Steve.

Below is a link to a second set play that Max had.  Essentially he played it off his shoulder, it hit the big ceiling scoreboard, stayed on our side and our MB platform set the ball to our RS for a kill.   Whatever it takes.  😎

https://www.youtube.com/live/DFaPPp96lTU?si=OJMBID84dLcywx0g&t=2030

For those that don't follow the Augie team website:

In Thursday Augie won their 10th game in a row to go 13-1 on the season. Their previous highest number of wins in a season was 12 and there's 10 games to go.

Tonight at 9 PM (I think) they play their first Conference game - I'm guessing this is going to be more of a test.

Thanks Allan for your explanation. I didn't realise it was below the entry of the recruitings.

Recruiting Tie

We had the scenario happen in TMVL this week where two teams finished with the same RP Bid:

You can see that it led to some questions.

Tiebreaker

In TMVL we use this tiebreaker for these types of ties (see recruiting page and entry tab and look down to NOTES section:

Why?

Anything that I have to deal with manually has a chance of not happening correctly (or more likely to be forgotten...by me).  So I try to automate everything I possibly can.   For this one we go with the team that is less strong in terms of results (current season).  The setup is similar to MSWL where I need to automate a winner as well.  

Rules Help

If anyone would like to help me manage the rules (this should probably go in the main set of rules) by making documentation updates, I would appreciate it. Please drop me an email if you have time to make occasional updates.

Match has just finished - I couldn't find it on YouTube livestream so watched what looked like the TMVL Viewer. I won't spoil the result but I have a question: two or possibly three players who haven't played before today came on as substitutes. Were these tactical to get a "better" server or the coach giving other players playing time?

Just caught the last few minutes of the Vikings' 3rd set.

Great diving save from Max for the 20th point - full length dive and setting up the ball beautifully for the point

Three sweeps.

I can honestly say I don't understand the game any better after watching the match but it doesn't really matter when you're cheering for one side and one player in particular.  And what a player Max is - I lost count of the amount of times I heard the commentators say "...and that's a great dig by Sellers".  Pumping up the rest of the team is clearly a speciality too!

It was also a lot of fun to play Where's Wally/Waldo and try and spot where Al had got to to get the best camera angles.  If you could wear a red and white striped jumper next time it would make my day...😎

GREAT observations Steve and thank you for watching!  

That is awesome that Jacob was asking questions and had some interest.  YES, the Chihuahuas have a great logo!  😎

And yes, Max does wear the Viking helmet in the Pre-match "ceremony" to get the team fired up.  Like this from yesterday:

YES, you found all of us in the bleachers too Steve.  I move around a lot but Amy (yellow sweatshirt) and Kelsey are here:

YES, our Saturday opponent was picked to finish 4th in their conference.  I thought we had a 50/50 chance and our team won in 3 sets. The teams below them in their conference that play:

- We play the 5th, MSOE, next Saturday

- the 7th Illinois Tech in a few weeks

- the 8th was Concordia Chicago that we beat on Thursday

- the 9th we play in Green Bay in 2 weeks

- the 10th we play on Thursday

- the 12th we play later in the season

So if "whomever" said yesterday's team was the 4th best that means if we continue to play well we will have some success.  

Max - Passing.  Yes, Max had a good game.  The announcers are college kids who were new to volleyball (I watched a little while I categorized/compiled my 2500 photos from the game today).  So they did things like called passes digs and didn't understand a lot, but they were excited to do it.  The announcer kept calling it a "Roooof" when Augustana made a big block.

YES - Aidan Bolan is a great server!  He does a jump topspin serve.   I saw the "Aces" thread Roger has and YES it is on Max and my list to add a serving "tactic" tweak at some point.  More over the next year on that.  

Basically a power serve does this:

- It gets you more aces

- It ALSO gets you more service errors

- It puts the opponent in TOUGH situations to make a good pass/set/attack (and this is the common, effective outcome)

YES, you have the right analysis on the MB/L swap in match.  Liberos can't serve in college for NCAA Div 1, 2, or 3. (they can serve in NAIA).  For the women's game liberos CAN serve at all levels.  It makes no sense.  We play an NAIA team in 3 matches I think, so hoping Max can serve then in a couple of them.

SUBS - YES you are correct.  In TMVL we did not set it up for subs (just the MB/L swap which is not officially a sub).  Subs "could be" a future enhancement but it would take a lot of thought.

Essentially Augustana (and many teams; 30%?) play 2 setters.  So the sub scenario is that when a setter would move to the front row, a RS comes in for them.  At the same time when a RS moves to back row, a S comes in for them.  I think it was Degnan/Schaefer as Steve notes and then the RS were McNelis and Carlson.  

This means the Setter (S) is always in the back row and can set 3 players in the front row: OH, MB, RS.  In TMVL when the setter is in the front row he can only set the OH and MB.  I think the strategy here is that we want the Setters in the back row (and they can only serve as back row players) which means the RS players in this scenario don't serve.  

The stats from Saturday show you that the 2 setter approach yielded (in this case) an equal number of assists for both setters. Also Max had 4 as the Libero.

YES, I try to get into different spots each match to get some different angles and backgrounds.  I have 2 cameras and 3 lenses I use and I move around a bit...

I've just watched the game against  Concordia Wisconsin Falcons: a few points I picked up.

The Falcons were stronger than Augie's previous opponents - it didn't matter, the Vikings were hot.

Max had some great defensive plays, one great dig was from a tough serve that Max controlled leading to winning the point and the second set. Aiden Bolen's serves - wow!

Substitutions: I noticed two patterns, the first is like TMVL. Augie's MBs were (I believe) Ty Heater and Ben Schultz. Liberos don't serve here so when Heater served Max was off court. When Augie lost the point Max replaced Heater. Over the next service changes Max moves from I to VI to V. When he's to move to IV he goes off, Heater comes back on and Schultz serves. Max replaces Schultz when his serve results in a losing point.

The other was a double substitution. Augie have 2 setters, Degnan and Schaefer.  It seemed to me that Degnan and Carlson always came on together to replace Schaefer and possibly Moreano. Degnan always came on in the #1 spot to serve immediately. I'm guessing he replaced Moreano (a poor server?) He didn't replace Schaefer as he served. I never really noticed when Schaefer and presumably Moreano came on but it didn't seem to be to serve.

I enjoyed playing "Where's Al" who I spotted in 4 positions and there would be at least one more out of camera shot.

If you haven't watched a game and still don't get it, I'd recommend it. Augie's next game is Thursday 25th January. I believecthey are streamed live but this could be late for UK viewers. The games are on YouTube the day after anyway.

I'd just finished watching the Vikings' game on YouTube when my lad came into the room. Jacob asked why I was watching basketball and, after I corrected him, he asked if my team won. I said Max plays for the team and showed him TMVL again explaining that Max has the Scarecrows and his dad has Quincy, showing the logos. Jacob said, "I bet that's Max" pointing at the player wearing the helmet. I couldn't see Max so moved back on YouTube to where the teams exchanged handshakes and spotted Al, Amy and Kelsey. I showed Jacob their photos for confirmation and he said "I like the Chihuahuas the best."

I'd go with that idea, reckon the Panthers would take it easily. 😉 

Seeing as how John and Steve "matched up" in a D+ v. D+ event this past weekend...I'm (not seriously, but hear me out) thinking of a new cup.

In high school me and I guess some weird friends would play giveaway chess at lunch.  You won by LOSING all your pieces.  If the opponent was able to take a chess piece they had to.

Fast forward 40 years to Columbia - Sheboygan...D+ v. D+.  Sure John won the match, but SORRY JOHN you lost the point total.

Do we need a new comp where you advance by losing?  Hey, my team is worse than yours?  Tell me I'm crazy...  😎

Seems very unbalanced with 8 very strong teams (historically or currently) on the right hand side : Quincy, St Charles, Baton Rouge, Cincinnati, New Orleans, San Jose, Nashville and Pekin.

Happy New Year to All!  I wish you all the best in 2024. If you need support or someone to lean on please feel free to reach out to me.  I have some things to work through this year too and am hoping to make progress.  None of us go through life undefeated...

Hopefully we will see Micki back soon.  Maybe we need a letter writing campaign.  Would that help Phil?

Oh and thanks for starting the naked mascot thing Phil.  That call you are about to receive is from TMVL Human Resources...

Onto more important matters...I like to remind my friends who to focus on.

Below are your top T-7's for this coming week, also known as your Overlords...

#1 Portland - Paul has built a juggernaut.  

#2 Pekin - Rockin' Roger is off to a slow start, but look out!

#3 Cinci - Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

#4 Nashville - Welcome to the SEC...where all y'all are 3 games behind the Pandas in conference play

#5 Columbia - As they say, Steve Turner does not rebuild, he reloads.  Another strong team and start for Los Crazies

Let me just say that I regret ever breaching this topic. It was not worth the 5 RP's it garnered. Please let it rest in peace.

we don´t want to imagine it at all................

and we miss her hats!

On the subject of nude mascots, our Sasquatch is only shown from the chest up, so you'll have to use your imagination. What kind of pants (trousers) is he wearing, if he's wearing any at all?

Perhaps she could return some time in the future. I miss her barbs.

Merry Christmas everybody.

...the banana's wardrobe is appealing.

Merry Christmas to all, but especially Steve Turner. Hang in there! Some of us don't have a CP/XP plan to lose! 🤪

Glad you weren't injured. Micki still talks about Steve as her favorite part of TMVL.

A lot of hyphens in that subject.

Sorry to hear about Steve's car situation and I'm glad he is okay.

Will coaches take advantage of Steve this weekend?

In the meantime here are your top 5 teams for effective T-7.  Look at that BIG-8...Q-City is nowhere to be found (sigh)...

Last Friday my car was written off in an accident. I'm ok as it wasn't a hard hit but they're scrapping the car as too old to economically repair. We have a free hire car until a week after the insurance pays up. Unfortunately that looks like being very soon as the other party's insurance has agreed the price. We aren't rich and would like a nice car so my wife has putbinbfor extra hours to help pay a credit agreement. We have no idea what our budget is or if this car goes back during my holiday. Nightmare at the moment.

Also Monday my phone looked like it was not going to charge so I prepared  a spare  phone to transfer essential apps. Then it was suddenly ok. Then last night as it was going flat I put the charger in only to find it wouldn't go in. So a couple of things I hadn't transferred were lost including my CP/XP plan. Yes I can redo them but Christmas is around the corner and spare time is at a premium.

So take advantage this weekend as I don't know how many games I need certain players to play.

And the Manatees are just showing off

It must be noted the vast majority of mascots in this league aren't wearing nothing at all, including a twister, and a mushroom, and a banana.

Well, fair, the banana is arguably wearing gloves, but the mushroom is fighting bare-knuckle.

It appears the PAC 8 mascots are all sans vestments.  It's a West Coast nudie vibe thing, apparently.  At least the chihuahua is wearing his collar.  Then again, it appears the Big East is similarly non-clothed.  Perhaps Phil should petition to move to the well-dressed Big 8 (St. C, Quincy, Portland) and request a new mascot.

Or not. Because that might open the door to conference realignment and the PAC 8 might be dissolved entirely within 2 seasons.

being all green they can still be mistaken for a Shrimp. ahhhh but they are pointless in PAC8. maybe not then.......

Maybe the chameleon is wearing pants but they're camouflaged to look like lizards legs

Or.some unscrupulous seller sold your mascot pants and claimed they were invisible 

Other mascots have clothes, why can't I? Even the manatee gets a tank top, and he's just a fat fish. Mule has un ugly Christmas sweater, hound dog has pajamas, and even Bananaman has gloves. I want PANTS!

I'd like a Cup as well please, just for you know being me 😇

Thanks for noticing Al. I await the XP Audit Cup being added to my Team Awards 🥳

During my XP audit to make sure teams used them...  

There was something I noticed this time around.  The players with the MOST XPs were:

1) Tommy Ryerson (MB Pekin) 87

2-tied) Geordi La Forge (OH T-Town) and Bill Stearn (MB San Jose) 86

...the commish has created a new "pay for no kiss of death" promotion where the commissioner agrees NOT to advertise a team's win streaks (some call it the "Al Kiss of Death") should that manager provide a donation to support web hosting costs...

Again, this idea has not been discussed...

I was trying not to break the simulator in case it was using unsigned 16-bit integers to store its data...

There's a few comments on John's bid for Klein and I mention it today but it is likely to be lost .

65535 isn't as random as it looks as it is 2^16 - 1 or FFFF in hexadecimal.

I would always prioritise XP over winning unless it was something to play for, such as the Nationals or Conference title. I realised I might have a problem with Dave Dohm so played him twice last week and had the possibility of having to play him twice this week or next week. However I was fortunate to get enough sets played and won, and checked calculations on CP and find I don't need to play him again (though he will play today against Manitowoc)

I am always interested in this part of the season, where there's a struggle between getting XP where it needs to be for max effect after the season vs needing/wanting to win. I find myself looking to play some lower skilled players more than in prior weeks to get the extra sets and bump the XPs to where they need to be. Yet I want to win, haha. To quote Al in his famed paraphrasing of me...where is my stuff!?

I'll take them off your hands if they're any good Brian 😁

Is there an equivalent of non-league sales if you don't want to retain a players services?

Thanks for the heads up Steve. If only more coaches could be open and upfront about what side they're putting out this would be a much easier game to play 😁

Columbia have a 66.7% record. If we T7 and win every Conference game and every Nationals game and lose every TMVL Shield game then we still finish with a 66.7% record 26-13

However if we T7 and win the Conference and Shield games and throw the National game against Pekin we finish with the same 26 wins but only 10 losses for 72.2%.

So, if you're listening, Roger you can take it easy in our National game and concentrate on your Conference and TMVL games.

https://x.com/skillsleveI/status/1713877987488420044?s=20

I learned some new terms , pancake and joust !!

Don't worry about the Hounds.

We're still this bad that every walk-on helps.

At the midway point of the season I'm getting concerned about a Tax Man visit for certain colleges...

Here is why the bad session for Kentucky,  distracted 

...for clarifying.  I only have access to the data for later seasons.  

Agree with you that 2000+ RPs could be reached next session.  Brehme will be dominating defences for years to come - and I can only imagine the disappointment Coaches would feel if they lose out by a few measly RPs trying to be parsimonious with a bid of only 1700 or 1800.  

As you can probably tell, I'm gutted to miss out myself but, sadly, having recruited Flores last season, a megastar OH just isn't on my shopping list this year.

The most expensive was Iker Zubizarreta of Baton Rouge, a 5* setter with max SET +2. He went for 1701 RP but this was before we settled into the current system so I don't know how much RP was about back then.

I think the record will be broken - I don't think the OH will go for 2000 RP though.

It will be more.

Way back in Season 6 the Red Pandas snapped up Sean Berryhill, MB (Max +2 Blk) for the princely sum of 1562 RPs.  He remains the most expensive player in TMVL but as a perennial feature in the Team of the Week has surely proved to be money well spent.

Which brings us to the Session 4 commits.  Huge interest in three 5* players - Sheridan S (Max Set), Brehme OH (Max +2 Atk) and Idaho MB.  Is the record about to be broken?  Brehme looks most likely (and I reckon it'll be Roy again) but even at 2000 RPs he would definitely be value for money. 

My friend Roy said:

Nashville appear to have done well, but as Steve pointed out if you recruit 5 star players instead of 3/4 you will have higher SL.

So as usual I'm just quoting my friend Roy.  I had to laugh at the "5-star is better than 3 or 4 star" implications in a Spinal Tap "these amps go to 11" sort of way.  So once again I'd like to blame my friend Roy.  😎

Thanks Steve for your explanation. It will helps me to understand volleyball and/or this game better. I've used the-libero-instead-of-the-MB before, but not with fully knowing the impact. 

Libel. I've been misquoted or misrepresented or it's been taken out of context.

I saw that Roy mentioned it but I want to know when I supposedly said something so obvious.

The nearest I can think of is that 5* players cost more to CP than 3/4*

You'll be hearing from my lawyers.

Pierre asked this after his 3-0 loss to Columbia despite a 6 point per man advantage (80% chance of a win based on Kev's post about this last season.)

Al gave a good answer about the setter/OH combinations. He neglected to mention that we were probably lucky.

We were 6 points worse because I had a weak MB and weak OH. Fortunately this didn't hurt much as the OH was next to a better ATK RS - so when the software had a choice and picks the better of the two the RS received the set more often. Also the MB didn't get many attacks and this was probably fortunate that when he was at the net there wasn't a good receive/pass.

But the biggest thing I spotted was the libero not serving in any of Mendon's games. In all three he was a better server and defender than the weaker MB. The libero is on the court all game apart from when a MB serves. The Libero can serve for one of them. If the MB serves he will also be on court when the ball comes back on your side and he might have to try and dig the ball.

If the Libero is a better server and defender than one of the MBs always play him to serve for MB. If he's weaker at both then never do this. If he's stronger at DEF but weaker at SRV then it's a judgement call. It is very unlikely he will be stronger at SRV and weaker at DEF (1* freshman L and 5* senior MB maybe) but again a judgement call.

It doesn't matter about the MB's ATK or BLK because in the server position #1 he won't be able to do either.

Last chance for recruiting this session and I've only managed to secure one player...desperate!

Mrs Sellers going to get a 5* Libero at minimum price or will Christer get his orders in? Or maybe Keeley make a last minute bid?

As of this post, we have a three-way tie on record between Pekin, Dallas & St. Charles, and they all still play each other over the last three sessions.  Will we have one team dominate and ride to victory, or will they all knock each other around and let one of the two teams lurking just a win back overtake them?  Is there a Dark Horse (or Mule) that is the favorite in the race if anyone falters?

Five Big East teams in the National Championship tournament, including three of the top four seeds.

Surely Vick's is the best of all.  I think it is a hat - it is just so big, that the picture doesn't capture it all.

It seems Phil finally has another rival  for who has the best hat job.

I laughed at Kevin's remark.

I never tinkered playing PBM Diplomacy (Well once I posted my orders). Not much tinkering cab be done with 3 or 4 units.

Even with PBEM I probably only changed my moves once or twice. But I was on the computer every night as a GM anyway so knew I'd be able to send in last minute orders.

But this online stuff is terrible lol. Though I've noticed I tinker less recently - maybe that's why Columbia is doing so badly.

I'm enjoying the posts on PBEM, good stuff.  I think we were two week sessions back in the day when I ran the original MSWL in 1989 and entered/printed everything on a Commodore 64.

Thanks John for the nice comment.  

James: 6-8 weeks a turn, that would be brutal!

Kevin: Ha!  Yes, I'm not sure Steve would have had as much tinker time...

===============================

Slight delay this week on the "Why Do I Care" segment this week, but its up now and includes this gem from Craig on the WGM Cup Final...

I imagine that as often as Steve T tweaks his orders each week, having to play by mail would either drive him crazy as he couldn't amend what he sent out last week, or else bankrupt him as he sends out Next Day Air Mail posts every day leading up to the deadline.

When I (and familiar names here) started this Play be X journey it was PBM and snail mail.  Results every 6-8 weeks.  Anticipating the arrival of the zine.  Panic at trying to catch the postman to make deadlines and early deadlines.  None of this dashing out some orders with a few minutes to spare, before results. Simpler and slower days!

A whole TMVL season takes the same time as 2 sessions would have been.

Interesting to think that play by email games are in decline, which makes sense - I think one of the reasons OLMEC has done so well is that it has a slick non-email design and keeps the manager base hooked for a long time...

Thank you Eduard for looking into it.  

On popular demand ...

Around the late 90's a guy named Rien Kooy adapted some United concepts (aging, market etc) to the game of Volleyball. Only e-mail then, no web site.
I've played a couple of matches in an experimental proto season - my data got lost though.
It didn't quite click with me, so when he started for real, I didn't continue.

So I don't know how long it lasted, but I would be very surprised if it was still running. Some quick web archeology at least showed no results.

Welcome to the game Eduard. Nice to see you have a lot of experience with other games and a Dutch volleyball game. I even didn't know we have had a pbem volleyball game in the Netherlands. 

A couple of minor upgrades to the tournaments that are wrapping up: WGM Cup & Conference Tournaments

Both now have:

• The competition name clearly shown
• A listing of the defending champs (so you know who REALLY wants to win this competition)

Conference tournaments now have logos which I "borrowed" from the internet. 

I'll integrate the features to the others eventually.

I need to bracket the TMVL Cup/Shield.  Its on the list.  

Thanks again for joining us Eduard.  I had "coach bio" section on the team page for the football/soccer leagues.  Maybe I'll have to add that.

PLEASE send me a link (or info via email) on that Dutch Volleyball game you mentioned.  I'd like to learn more.

Also, a warning for everyone.   It is very clear Eduard is a quick learner and has a strong background in these types of games so as he notes: enjoy your easy wins...for now.  😎

Also be aware that with one more win the past session the Hounds would be on a 4-match winning streak...

Another veteran incoming.

Born and raised around Düsseldorf / Germany. 
Graduated in CS and subsequently made some money from computers in several ways, currently mostly by consulting.
Initiated way too long ago with German style United games, I've pretty soon moved on to mainly EEFL style leagues.
I've even visited Ultra Cricket and - seriously - a short-lived Dutch Volleyball pbem. Yes, TMVL isn't the 1st of its kind.

After the decline and disappearance of many leagues, I've looked around what was still alive and running. 
And so - Al conscripted me to get the TMVL Bloodhounds on course.

Alas, Starkville's glory days might be in some very distant future.

So, for now, enjoy your easy wins.

Back in season 5 the Crazy Tomatoes had a 34-4 season. It was a perfect storm for me as I'd gotten the game as my team was very strong and all the new teams were added. I wasn't sure itvwoukd ever be beaten.

But halfway through the season we have New Orleans on 19-1 and Cincinnati on 18-2. Surely one of these teams will do it.

I will add this to my list this week to watch the episode you guys mentioned.  

I think I like Steve's optimism though...just a slight downward streak lately, to be corrected hopefully soon.  😎

I found the episode on YouTube, Roger, (Season 1 Episode 7 No Hiding Place) but it wasn't fog but a flooded pitch.

With thanks to Al - photo now up Steve. I think it's from the very episode you remember.

Pity the picture isn't showing. 

I used to enjoy watching but only remember one episode: Bob and Terry spend all day trying to avoid knowing the result of an England football match sonthey can watch the highlights. Only to find out the match was cancelled due to fog.

As for me and Terry - we've both suffered from poor recruitment and bad luck with those we have gotten. But we'll be back.

Photo: Steve and Al watching Dallas storm to another Conference win

Something strange is happening in Big 8.  Normally at this stage of the season Columbia and Quincy are sat at the top of the standings miles ahead of the opposition (except occasionally for St. Charles) and in pole position for yet another match up in the Conference Tourney Final.  While it's probably still unwise to bet against Bob and Terry, I mean Steve and Al, pulling it out of the bag, you've got to wonder if this is the beginning of the end for the Likely Lads.

(with apologies for those too young or too American to get the cultural reference)

What a heartfelt blog by my Darlo 'friend'.

Was a tear shed? No, no, of course not, I had something in my eye, nothing more

Rivaly in sport has many faces most often born from locale and competition for trophies/league placings. There are cities in the UK where you'll find families split supporting 2 local rival teams - Liverpool/Everton (Merseyside), Celtic/Rangers (Glasgow) etc - where the fanbase has a more divisive split you can get a bit more animosity (there's usually a religious element). But you also get great camaraderie and respect.

There's also a great sketch by stand-up comedian Jason Mansford (A mancunian) about rivalry.

I will paraphrase a great routine - talking about rivals you have the red side of Manchester and the blue side. But what about Merseyside? Well yes, if it's a battle of the great North West powers, then red and blue will stand together. Ok but what if it was East vs West? Well then we'd stand with our scouse brother vs the Mackems & Tackems of the North East. Southerners? Well yes, then men of the North we will stand together against the soft southerners. Scotland? Well obviously the English are united against the Haggis eaters. Europe? Didn't we leave them recently? Well the good old red, white and blue will stand firm against the Europeans. Our transatlantic cousins? Well there's the golf. We'll take our little white balls and see them off. The rest of the world? Ok we can do that. The universe? Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!

You more often than not have more in common with your rival team than you might like to admit. Which brings me back to Pools. In 2009 Darlington went into administration and was trying to find a buyer for the club. They decided to put on a charity match to raise funds to try and help save the club. I went along with friends and family and we decided to sit in the end usually reserved for away fans as we aren't usally allowed to sit there. As the stadium filled up we noticed a family sitting a couple of rows in front of us all wearing familiar blue and white striped tops - Pooly fans. They had come to support their local rivals put their hands in their pockets to help save the club. The tannoy mentioned that their were fans from other teams in the ground and mentioned Hartlepool. The fans waved and got a round of applause.

We still went into administration but it was a very heart-warming moment.

So when Dallas beat St Charles last weekend and stayed top of the Big 8 it reminded me of last season when with 2 sessions left to go Nashville was joint top with Baton Rouge and I suddenly thought "Can we win this?" So rivals yes, but against the powerhouses within the Big 8 I'm siding with the local boy.

Welcome again Eduard!  And a big thanks to Eduard for jumping in right away to get some orders in within a couple of hours today.  He has already mastered the "play your freshmen against us" approach.  😎

I've added a couple of website updates today:

1) Conference Tournament Bracket (I still have some work to do but its a start).

2) Added link to conference bracket from the preview page.

Good luck this week.  Please wish me good luck.  I really need it.

And best of luck!

I've just adopted the Starkville Bloodhounds (on very short notice) - so please have mercy with the new guy.
It's still time to play all freshmen against us.

I've realised that the Panthers spot in the SEC ladder is actually correct.  I'm from Australia sometimes called the land down under,  so being at the "bottom" of the world puts me looking at the ladder from a different angle and shows the Panthers at the top. Makes perfect sense 😇

Here are a couple of examples of the new preview match page I've been working on for the past 3 weeks. The first 2 weeks were mostly data gathering (like what you saw with coaching records) to help get some numbers for this and future things.  Now, I'm finally getting to the payoff part of adding stuff.  The bottom left TEAM STATS is a work in progress (still some stats to go/add).  The bottom right category (obviously) will be replaced by something else.  I have in mind some player stats from each team.

Please spot check me on numbers.  If something looks off, call it out and I'll investigate as there are/have been a lot of moving parts here...thanks.  

For the tournaments we will have a link to competition info and a bracket (as I have time to add it) as you see below for BRB-AA.  Can I say that the CCT-DAL looks like two Top-5 teams (look at all those top ranks for team stats!).

Is Rob really 3-3 at home versus Senator Mike?

Be warned, there's a Cardassian in the auction! Lot #1, MB Gul Dukat will try to take over and then ultimately destroy whatever team he is recruited onto. You are all warned! He is a false emmissary!

I see Roger is helping his fellow coaches know who they can and cannot sign at RS...what with the large Pekin RP War Chest and all...

And then I needed to post Christer's comment:

I love the words from Christer (more threat than proclamanation).  I am SO GLAD I do not have to play the Squirrels this week.  Good luck to Aires, Dr. White, and Senator Mike versus Schenectady.  You will need it.  

There seems to be a lot of recruiting interest in Right Sides at the moment, especially CJ Hawke who looks like he's going to be a cracking player.  

In the spirit of openness and transparency, I thought I'd give you a heads up that a top quality RS is number one on Pekin's shopping list and we're fairly confident of getting our man later in the season. So if you're after a great Right Side, to avoid disappointment in the future, now might not be the best time to skimp on your bidding. 😁

In case anyone's looking for a new team nickname, look no further than this Japanese sentient butter roll: https://twitter.com/mondomascots/status/1664679922495782913?s=20

I don't think luck is zero sum. For instance on June 18th Dallas will be lucky to win a set when we beat them.

To be clear Paul, Mrs. Sellers does not mean "everyone".  She is really only wishing a handful or less of teams "good luck".  I've gotten used to her sarcasm over 30 years to know what she really means...  😎

When you see "good luck everyone" it really means "good luck 'everyone'"...

Is that possible?  Isn't luck zero-sum?  If some people have good luck doesn't that mean that others must have bad luck?

Good luck to everyone! 

Yes, I have Rob. I think Al has stitched me up big time. Oh well, always next season!

For once, in any league, I'm not going to argue that I'm in the group of death... has everyone seen Group A? WOW!

Thanks Steve, John, and Jason.

I will add those to my list for next season, although with my condition the Len Nicodemo may hit a little close to home...

Thank you!  Please keep the ideas coming...and yes I know John has a very random, random name generator available if I need it.  🤠  

No Bob Sacamano, either. But I do see Tim Whatley, Jackie Chiles, and David Puddy.

We got a Crazy Joe Davola but no Len Nicodemo or Jay Riemenschneider...

I was just perusing the list of players and noticed a couple of Next Generation names, two from DS9, one original Star Yrek, two from Battlestar Galactica and a couple of so-so United managers.

I expect there's quite a few I've missed from TV I've seen.

I thought Al's clarification was triggered by my earlier question about the rules - does the 2500 cap hit before or after media and competition bonuses. The new drafting clears this up.

I was actually over the cap at season end but chose to pick up a 17th squad member through the walk on process so I didn't lose the RPs.  Starting the season with 2497 would have been nice though...

I like the new wording. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Roger unaffected by this? Even if the media bonus were added, he'd still be at 2,497 (and, therefore, just under the cap).

It seems unfair to implement it this season just for Roger. I know the bank tax in MSWL is after session 7 or 8 - perhaps we could implement the tax after session 4 or 5 or 6?

We don't want teams stockpiling RPs, but we also want to incentivise RP collection, so this would force teams to use excess RPs in the first few recruiting periods.

New wording reads clear and concise to me.  Therefore, there were clearly no lawyers involved in the scripting of this revision.

I'm no legal expert but your proposed new wording on the 2500 limit is much clearer Al.

Not quite so sure about the drafting below though - no competition finish bonuses for Pekin this year it seems! 🤣

"...Roger gets his 500 RP bonus that we all get, but we also get competition finish bonuses..."

Those are not random numbers. They are where my friend Roger starts the season on RPs.  Roger is the leader (by 400+ over Derek who is in second).  

Please take a minute to review this rules snippet:

At the start of session 1, (after receiving their 500 RP) a team with more than 2500 RP gets their total dropped to a max of 2500 RP.

I think this was John's suggestion back in the day.  John also had a CP for RP or RP for CP scheme (sort of like how you can trade X reward points from your credit card for X points for your airline) that I didn't implement so maybe it was tied to that.  I'm not saying it was a bad idea.  I think it was a good idea.  We've just never made it very close.  

Anyway, in hindsight, I need all you lawyers to help me rewrite the above.  I was monitoring it as one of my end of season tasks.  It is a little vague like, well, Roger gets his 500 RP bonus that we all get, but we also get competition finish bonuses (and maybe a media bonus if it works/worked).  So would it be better stated as:

At the start of session 1, a team with more than 2500 RPs gets their total RPs dropped to 2500 RPs.

Also, let's not fall asleep on U2 1st Division leader and tactical genius CB over there with his big RP war chest...

I've been looking at some of the team stats.

Not surprisingly Cincinnati top most of the attacking stats but what I find unbelievable is that Columbia are 2nd in Set% when I consider our Setters average at best. We did have some great attackers in Gallo (MB) and White (RS), the former way better than the 2nd placed in % and the latter very high in kills/set though only .500 overall. These two carried the Setters.

One other thing I found surprising was the digging stats. Manitowoc topped digs/set, Burlington and Albuquerque top Serve receive %.

Can I point out that you got the TMVL Cup and Shield mixed up and that Columbia also finished with a double win.

I'm getting better at working out who to vote for and where to find the results. (Just found the Shield final session under Score) so here's my round up of the final session and who could be up for consideration (Nashville) if you're going to vote:

San Jose won the National Championship final, they had already wrapped up the Pac 8 division

Cincinnati were runners up in the NC final, however the did win the TMVL Cup and had already wrapped up the Big East division.

St Charles won the Holyoke Invitational trophy. They finished the season with three 3-0 wins.

Nashville were runners up in the Holyoke and finished joint top of the SEC division.

Baton Rouge finished joint top of the SEC division.

Columbia won the TMVL Shield final

Antioch were runners up in the Shield final

Mendon were runners up in the TMVL Cup final

Quincy won both their matches and had already won the Big 8 division

Also finishing the season with a double win:

Carlsbad, Tucson, Burlington, Teutopolis, Albuquerque and Spokane (who finished 3rd in the Shield)

Thanks Steve, that's helpful. The rules are clear that the 2500 limit is after the additional 500, but I wasn't sure if it was before the final media bonus / prize money.

The TMVL Cup, National and Holyoake finals all featured teams with very close average ratings (86-89). I assume all teams played T7 in these games and it shows how close teams are. 3 points is nothing in these games where I've seen 10 point differences overcome  and I think Quincy lost a game this season with a 13 point advantage. That's 13 points per player - or something like all As vs all Bs.

Yes that is correct - although I'm not 100% sure when the 2500 RP cap is applied.

Can anyone clarify whether I am right in thinking that the following happens to our RP totals (in this order) before the start of Session 1:

1. Cost of any walk ons is subtracted

2. Any media bonus / prize money is added (but this session we don't get the standard 140 RPs)

3. End of season 500 RPs is added

4. Any balances above 2500 RPs are reduced to 2500

5. New season starts

With Quincy, Columbia, and Teutopolis all falling in the national quarterfinals, it is now guaranteed that someone will get their first-ever National Championship. Good luck to Pekin, Cincinnati, San Jose, and whatever the other team is (I can't remember).

The National Championship bracket chooses the Top 16 in this manner:

- WGM Cup AND Conference Tournament Winners

- Remaining 11-12 teams with best overall record: Win Pct, then Set Win Pct, then Points For/Against are the tiebreakers

This session we had a team (Denali) win a Conference Tournament and they should have received an automatic bid as a Top 16 team.  They did not.  The code looks like it did "some" of the analysis but in the end it did not schedule Denali in the National Championship bracket as it should have.  So I've done a manual update.  Here's what changed since an hour or two ago:

Alton was a #16 National Championship Seed.  They move to the #1 Holyoke Seed.

St. Charles was a #1 Holyoke Seed.  They move to the #2 Holyoke Seed.

Denali was a #2 Holyoke Seed.  They move to the #15 National Championship Seed.  The Conference Tournament win over Tucson means they get the automatic bid to join the field in the National Championship. However, their 12-12 record is the worst of the 16 teams, hence the #16 seed.  

There may be a danger of reducing TMVL to the level of a wargame....

Does this get into the realm of BRBs for this game? I'd be in favor of something like that. 

Jason suggested a "Fan Intimidation" element

Proposal:

1) Each team gets two "special" home games each season where they will have a MASSIVE fan base that impacts the match.

2) Currently for home court the only difference is that the home team gets +1 for each player's SL in ATK, BLK, and DEF.  This addition would allow the home team to get the added benefit of their massive crowd harrassing the away team when they serve.  So the away team's players would all get a -1 for their SRV SL in the match.

3) Each team gets to type in a text box to "name" their special home match night.  Such as: Senior Day, Mrs. Sellers Day, Green out, Kiss of Death Night, Beat My Brother, etc…

4) Obviously, we'd probably need some code so that no team could use this against Quincy because that would be unfair.  😎

5) #4 is probably a joke.  But seriously I like the idea of selectively using it so the away team will feel like a victim (or I will remind them they are) and get vengeance later.  🤓

We will talk about this one a bit more though before moving forward to potentially add in a future season.   I've added it in to my task list as a future idea.  

Al, your post about Mrs. Sellers's imposing presence at Max's match gave me an idea. What if we coded "fan intimidation" into the game? Home court advantage is one thing -- being comfortable in your surroundings, such as the light, the temperature, and the overall feel of the gym, etc. -- but maybe a coach could spend RP or CP to have a loud fan really knock the opponent off their game and earn an extra point or two per set. I'm definitely not being facetious here.

...to make the family play Monopoly just because they interrupted your volleyball watching Steve 😉

Thank you Steve for watching the matches this weekend! As for the ceiling question, if you dig a ball and it hits the ceiling and lands on the other side, it is the attacking side's point. That has happened to me a lot about it recently.

I saw a bit of this game, part way through second set (when I saw the email) to part way through the third (Monopoly with family). Some very good defence on both sides with long rallies and Augustana played better than yesterday. And I noticed they did swap ends between sets.

One thing I did forget to mention: the announcer said that normally the Augie support is easily the loudest (in the conference?).

Also I was surprised that the teams didn't swap ends between sets but having just thought about it, the subs and coaching staff would also have to swap unlike in American Football where they are on opposite sidelines.

Thanks for watching the match Steve!

Ha! Yes, Mrs. Sellers said she could not say "Go Vikings" during the match.

Also, when a North Park server clearly stepped on the line when serving (line judge did not see it/call it) that player became a target for Mrs. Sellers wrath.  Every time he came up to serve Mrs. Sellers was yelling:

"HE'S A FOOT FAULTER!!  WATCH HIS FEET!!"

That server missed a lot of serves after that.  Everyone knows Mrs. Sellers is good for 2 points a set when she's in the building.  😎

You are right on with the serving Steve.  North Park was effective with their serves and I believe had a bunch of aces (9 aces, 10 errors).  Our serving wasn't too bad for us, but 0 aces and 7 errors makes a difference showing North Park was way better.

The other thing about their serve was that when we passed the ball we often made our setter chase it (so like a 1 or 2 pass) and then its difficult to put a hitter in a good spot to attack for a kill.  That was a key challenge along with the fact that North Park played GREAT defense.  When we had great attacks they were able to dig almost everything.  No free points for Augie.

The ceiling plays an issue in these smaller gyms.  That happened a lot.  The home team always knows about it (home court advantage) and knows how to play it off the ceiling.  For us, I think we didn't always spot it.

For your Scenario on if we hit the ball, it hits the ceiling, and goes over the net in bounds...what happens?

That's considered out of bounds (ceiling can't 'help' the ball) and the other team gets the point. 

If you hit the ceiling on your side and the ball stays on your side to continue getting your 3 contacts, then that's fine.

This is a team we played a 5-setter against last season.  They played much better than we did.'

Thanks again for watching Steve!

I watched all this game and so a few comments.

1. Excellent video feed though the camera could do with zooming out a little to show both baselines, which themselves were hard to see until I spotted the back(?) judge(?).

2. Good commentary and not too unbiased - confusing at first as both teams were Vikings.

3. North Park's serves were awesome in the first two sets and Augie just couldn't handle them - they just didn't seem ready. Augie also served too many errors.

4. Augie blocked pretty well it seemed to me.

5. I don't know if it was poor setting or bad timing by the attackers but a lot of Augie attacks had the player getting under the ball too much and not being able to get his hand over the ball so hit the ball too long, or hitting too low into the net.

6. Augie never got going, the 3rd set was close, and I was hopeful, mainly due to poor North Park serving. Augie got a run of four points in that set but that was the only time, often lucky to get consecutive points.

7. The ball hit the ceiling at least three times with that causing the team to lose the point  due to timing. These were all on the same side of the net as receiving/digging team. What happens if a player hits the ball so hard that it hits the ceiling, goes over the net and in?

I'm putting out a request for everyone to take a vacation from recruiting in the next couple of weeks. Antioch is low on RP funds, but we still have a couple of areas of need. If folks can take a break for a few weeks, and then, when I've gotten a few cheap recruits, you can all pick back up. Sound like a good plan? Yeah? cool.

I better get my orders done otherwise I won't have time to tweak them with family down for the weekend.

Four matches this week and the last one is against my son in a tournament in which I am suprised to still be playing.

We play Dallas away in both the Conference and WGM next up. Quincy play Ames at home in both competitions. 

The winners of the WGM games (Ames and Dallas based on coaches' pessimism) play each other in the next round.

Per Steve's suggestion I've added the player rating at the end of the player's page.  So if you go to your team page and click on a player name you'll get to something like this where Christer's Libero was a PERFECT (even the Russian judge loved him) 10.0.

You might notice that Christer rested his top Libero this session...so he'll be even better for the rest of the season!

And then there's our poor Rabid Biting Mules...here's a typical player rating thing for us...

We are lucky if we get a rating in the 4's...

What Steve didn't say was that one of those teams that spent all their CP on fitness was Al's Quincy. Although neither of the other Sellers had the same tactic.

The one to watch in the Big East Cincinnati raised the fitness of their senior players.

My own tactic is to rest my freshmen in the first session of the season, bringing all their skills up to a slightly more competitive level. This also means the T-7 are all out for the first session hoping to bag some points early doors. Obviously with 4 OHs and 4 MBs in a 3 match session you can rotate 3 of them to rest the 4th.

So that's my fitness tactic for now. Doesn't cost any CP. Although I see the benefit of spending CP the Freshman's fitness levels as it costs less.

Looking at the blog post of Steve, I was curious how every team has focused on the fit +1. 

Looking at all the teams there is a range of 0 until 12 players with +1. 
The most teams have got 2 players with +1 (6 teams), 3 players with +1 (4 teams) en 4 players with +1 (5 teams). 
The average amount of players with +1 after 1 session is 5.1 players with 19 teams below average (I've counted 5 players also as below average) and 13 teams above average. 

Some interesting tactics out there in the first session. I haven't looked at all the teams but have spotted two that used all their CP on Fit and nothing on skills. One of them has their T7 all Fit +1, the other only 5 of them. As for Columbia, I could have gotten T7 to Fit +1 but decided I wanted to get my best but weak Setter's SET skill up as well as the player's Fit.

I hope I can do better with my recruiting this year now that I am starting to understand it better.

We're ready to get Season 8 underway! Antioch is angling to make this season the first season where we hook a trophy in one of the competitions. Unlike the mighty salmon though, we are not the greatest at swimming upstream. 

i only spotted the three better call saul characters, Howard Hamlin, Mike Ehrmantraut and Nacho Varga. so now we need to look for others!

Just spotted Biggs Darklighter and Jek Porkins in the first Recruitment draft.

Nice little nod to two Star Wars characters who both died flying X-Wings on the attack on the first death star

I am also working on it....

 Not this season but soon my friends, soon. Keep the faith

No it's not.

Sorry Roger, we're fighting a losing battle.

...the Big 8 to the Big 3?  Whilst Columbia, Quincy and St. Charles sweep all before them - Ames, Arlington, Dallas, Pekin and Portland have a combined trophy score of zero. Is this the season one of us finally breaks through?

Micki kicked my butt in our final match, and that meant that we were part of a four-way tie for first in the PAC 8! 

I like spoilers, it saves time, and it's always nice to be spoilt occasionally

...you're not (doing it right).

I recommend stopping posting spoliers.

It is beyond you.

Put the keyboard down and just stick to buttering up the Olmec Gods and delivering Kiss of Death quips as these are two areas you excel in.

Rolls eyes

Congratulations to James Tucker on winning the BIG EAST!

Oh and I like this SEC vs. BIG 8 rivalry between Senator Halpin and Olmec Steve!  😎

You can't shout spoiler then congratulate those involved in the same subject heading lol :)

It would mean reading the word spoiler then immediately averting your eyes.

Only my eyes roll that fast

In a TMVL first, we have a 4-way tie for conference champions.

Santa Clara, Tucson, San Jose, and Albuquerque (I've been to 2 of these cities; its not a competition) all finish at 8-6 and will each a conference co-champions title!

WOW!

I think with the National Champions, the WGM champion, 2 of the top 3 NET/ELO/Overall standing as well as 1st and two 2nd= in the non conference BIG 8 has a food claim for the best conference.

Demonstrating why the SEC is the best TMVL conference! 

Why, Oh Why on this last weekend of the season do I have to face the two youngsters (Micki and Max) that I root for when we are not playing against one another?

Muttley was my favourite character and I think I did want Dick Dastardly to win at least once.

I quite liked the Ant Hill Mob.

The Slag brothers Rock and Gravel drove the Boulder Mobile and they were the inspiration for Captain Caveman

I believe their names were and I'm happy to be corrected but Captain Caveman and Son ring a bell.

Both Colin and Steve are spot on - Dick Dastardly said 'drat and double drat' in Whacky Races.

So, for those who remember Whacky Races....who was your favourite?

Mine were the cavemen...soz, can't remember their actual names but I'm sure you know who I mean :)

Aye, I’ve done something similar myself this season. Too late to fix it now and gives me a challenge next season.

Without googling I'd say Dick Dastardly.

I did the same thing with my freshman right-side.  Too late I realised there weren't enough sessions to fill all the slots I wanted.

It's a fine balance between coaching players and Fit. I decided not to coach my junior OH and save the CP for Fit. Next season he'll be my 3rd OH anyway and was never going to be a superstar.

Firstly, name the reference in my subject ;)

Secondly, a bit late in the day now but just remember for next season to have at least a loose idea of what you need to do to max out your budding stars of tomorrow with CP use.

I've royally cocked mine up.

All I did, as far as planning its use, was think back to last season where I had CP to burn and found myself trying to find where to spend them in the last couple of sessions.....so based on that, I decided to burn a load of CP on FIT this season and as a result I won't max out some of my star players.

Imbecile.

A friend of mine was telling me how he had fallen out with a work colleague at Tesco while were chatting over a pint in the pub. One of the local hard men overheard us and asks my friend who the guy at work is and when the name is revealed the goon says he knows him too and he would sort him out for a pound. A pound? my friend asks. Aye, says big Arty, I normally charge more but seeing as I don't like him I'll do it for a pound. My friend hands over the pound and I go up the road.

Turns out big Arty did sort the guy out. He turned up at his place of work and throttled the poor guy. He then saw two folk watching and to avoid any witnesses he throttles them too.

I only know this information from what I read in the local newspaper which had the headline

BIG ARTY CHOKES 3 FOR A POUND IN TESCO

Beware of lumberjacks, they swing in all directions....  

Tomatoes can be considered a fruit and a vegetable - we're crazy that way.

Tomatoes don't hunt but just hang around waiting for the time to be ripe.

A Panther is actually a jaguar or leopard

The Panther is a stealthy hunter

Panthers are incredibly quick and strong

There is such a thing as toad in a hole in the US of A but that is just an egg fried in a slice of bread/toast that has a hole in it.

I bet that gets the Americans googling.

Hole in the head I don't need

Hole in the toad is the wrong way round

Hole in One in Golf is Good

Hole in the ground can be good and bad

Hole in the bucket is not good

As I approached 65, I wet for a rare haircut, and was asked if I was entitled to a discout.  The very thought!  What an insult!

At my next haircut, I was asked the same question.  How wonderful!  What a compliment! 

Last session I confidently predicted Quincy to win the Cup, Columbia the Shield and Portland the Holyoake. Clearly Al isn't the only one with the power 👹  Although I'm not sure what went wrong with the Championship....

New Year: when does it stop being new?  It could be when you wish the last person Happy New Year, as I have been told.  But you would never know when that was, would you? And what if you met somebody you hadn't seen for three years? Happy New Year, Happy Previous New Year & Happy New Year Twice Removed? And what if you met somebody you hadn't seen since school 45 years ago.  Ridiculous

Actually I really wanted to respond to Paul Cockayne's point about middle age and being old.  Nobody really wants to be old or at least to be called old do they?  And yet Society reinforces the message that you are old all the time.  I have been receiving my UK state pension for a few months - widely referred to as the old age pension which makes me an OAP - Old Age Pensioer.  When I turned sixty, I was initially chuffed to find that lost of places - cinemas, atttractions small & large etc - offer a discount.  Except that for sometimes a tiny benefit - say 80p off your £9 admission - you have to state your elderliness to some ticket seller who then, disbelieving, asks how old you are before disdainfully allowing the pathetic reduction.  And then there's the place in many forms when "for analysis purposes" you have to state which aged band you are in.  There is no consistency in what these ranges are but the cruellest has to be, for example, under 20, 20-40, 40-65, 65+.  That + is code for "really old" isn't it?

I am sure we could find some difficult to pronounce towns in Wisconsin that could be Cheese towns, like Mukwanago Muensters. 

During expansion, I really should have pitched the Leicester Roquefort as a bona fide internet volleyball team.

In Volleyball the ball goes over the net

In Basketball the ball goes through the net

In Football (Soccer) the ball goes into the net

In Baseball the net stops the crowd behind the batter getting hit.

In Fishing there is constantly a hole in the net so the fish keeps escaping 😒

The city of San Jose has banned prawn sandwiches. We don´t want to be compared to old trafford.

If we're going to add a Sandwich division, we're going to need some cheese-based mascots.

Also, did John just call a hot dog a sandwich? Be careful wading into that debate.

There'll definitely be room for the Saint Donatus (Iowa) Sausage Dogs (San Diego is taken)

More importantly the Sausage Dogs would feature in the Sandwich Cup (mascots which when combined would make good sandwiches), especially when they would play New Orleans, which might be the top delicacy in TMVL.

Urgh, do I not like that.

My post should read 'an' English Bulldog not 'a'.....it's because I typed British Bulldog the first time

Bulldogs are the best. Fact.

I have a French Bulldog and she is very funny.

Our next dog will be a English Bulldog - mega lazy so we'll get on well :)

Don't forget that Bulldogs are also the BEST at volleyball. This is also a fact.

Thank you for confirming that I was right. I had heard it a couple of times, but Allan would not believe me and was kind of stubborn about it. It was his suggestion that we consult the UK experts. I told him now he should get me a sausage dog since I was right.  Just kidding, I have a few friends with them and I have heard in general that they can be quite stubbon and don't listen.

sausage dogs is certainly how thy are known on this side of the pond

...are definitely called sausage dogs in the UK.  This is not, as is commonly thought, because they resemble a sausage but because they are about as affectionate as a frozen sausage.

Thank you for your prompt response.  If I had to guess, I would think that perhaps the large number of German immigrants to the U.S. probably had something to do with us using the term "weiner" 

Sausage would be the correct term in Britain. Weiner isn't a thing here.

To keep this fair, no names will be specified.  Need to settle a family dispute. A friend recently got a Dachshund puppy (very adorable) in the U.S. they are sometimes called "wiener dogs". One of us said to the other "in the U.K. They are called "sausage dogs". The other disagreed stubbornly and vehemently. Then in an Episode of Derry Girls there was a reference to "sausage dogs", thereby proving that person correct, but the other still disagreed and suggested we bring it to the blog for an answer. Who is right? 

Despite valiant resistance from Vick's Shrimps, Big 8's Columbia took the WGM Cup last session. At the same time, Dallas topped the Non Conference, closely followed by Ames and Portland in joint second place. In fact the eight Big 8 teams occupied the top 13 places in the NC table.

Looking ahead, Quincy are the top rated team left in the Cup. Despite the presence of a lot of top teams, Columbia must be clear favourites for the Shield. Quincy are #1 seed for the National Championship and Portland #1 seed for the Holyoke. What odds for a Big 8 clean sweep this season?

Big session for the little shrimp underdogs this week as we face the Tomato Beasts of TMVL who rolled over some tough opposition in the Anglerfish away from home 3-0 to reach the WGM Cup Final. Now they are at home in the final and have better players than us in every position. It is not looking good is it, but the Shrimps have pushed above their weight to get here, beating both Denali and Cincinnati on the road to get this far. We should probably just enjoy the day and now concentrate on winning more achievable games this session as the Tomatoes have already vowed to put out their top dogs. Probably we should, but it is the final and the Shrimps do like a good scrap.....................

First of all, ouch...a thief?!

Second of all, on an unrelated note I just bought some of the quietest shoes ever and a nice black turtleneck.

Following a quiet Christmas, more quiet at the new year.  A birthday to contend with though I find that I am counting in fives thses days.  Next year (or strictly, this year), I may be forced to admit to being old....or can I push "late middle age" out until I hit 75?

Those on the national championship tournament bubble will have an eye on two matches: #5 Mat-Su v #2 Tucson in the Pac 8 and #3 Teutopolis v #1 Baton Rouge as well as the WGM Cup Final as San Jose play Columbia.

The winners of all these games clinch a spot in the national tournament.

Mat-Su and San Jose are currently on the wrong side of the bubble while Tucson and Teutopolis are on the "right" side.

The Mat-Su/Tucson winner will clinch a spot and with Mat-Su having a difficult schedule they probably need a win while a win would probably be enough for Tucson to get an at-large bid anyways but would still cement them in the tourney.

Same goes for Teutopolis - a win would secure their spot but would also basically clinch an at-large bid.

San Jose though are just off the pace and could would slide into the field with a win over Steve's Columbia in the final - another situation where the standings are so close a win would probably launch them into the at-large conversation anyways.

This leaves Mat-Su as the one "true" bid thief.

I must say I LOVE Christmas. Definitely my most favourite time of the year.

Not only do you get presents, which is ace (yes, I am 12), but it is enforced relaxation with the family whilst eating and drinking too much.

It's also one of the only times of the year that family will play a board game with me.....but this year we didn't!! Booooo

Like Roger, grown up kids so we took a back seat at Christmas, nothing more energetic than throwing the grandkids around a bit.  Getting old has its benefits

It's just past 10pm on Christmas Day here in the UK, and what better way to round off the day than getting Al's email to say results are in. Thanks Al 😁

Hope you all have had / are having / will have a great day. The weather in the States looks scary (if a little cool compared to the drab rainy grey day we've had in the middle of England. 

Steve - hope you got a bit of a lie-in. I'm glad my kids are all grown up, and not only sleep in but cook the dinner too 🍲

Asleep by 1 AM if I'm lucky. Awake at 6 AM I expect.

to wish everyone here a very happy Christmas. 

It's a 100 minutes away from Christmas Day here as I type and we're just getting stuff out of the hiding places for the kids for tomorrow. We always hope for an early night but never get to bed before midnight.

It's Christmas Day here in Australia so Merry Christmas to you all. Enjoy your presents, food and drink and family and friends. Remember it's a time of giving...so more wins to the Panthers please 😁😁

I notice that Phil has failed to challenge my authority to the best hat throne. He has finally given up on fighting for it, so I am the winner! (You can't see me, but I'm gloating to Phil.)

Winner, Winner, Taco Dinner?  I think not. Micki's hat is far superior and substantial. I can't believe I am playing they McIntosh family this weekend. May the best hat win!

Just like Craig said, that hat is a much more insignificant than my hat is. Micki will be winner. Micki is always winner. Micki is winner. Micki also has money and is willing to bribe the waiter to make sure Phil's grubby hands stay off my hat.

That looks like a significantly different hat to the one worn by Micki.

It is smaller and less impressive.

Therefore your claim is null and void.

Micki is still the winner

I have won. I have won the right to claim Micki's hat. Note the look of concession on her face. Winner!

I noticed this as well. Doesn't bode well as we have never reached the semi-finals of the WGM.

At the bottom left side of the Round of 32 WGM Cup Bracket we have this:

-----------

The first matchup has the Big East 1st Place Burlington Bullfrogs playing the ALSO 1st Place Sheboygan Vampire Bats.

Aires vs. John

Mega matchup

Recent quotes by these coaches include:

Aires - Getting it done

John - Once again, we're way too high (is there a time machine involved and are the Bats following the Grateful Dead around the US?)

-----------

Then its Mad Max and the Crows versus Steve and the Tomatoes.

Just as with the above...MEGA MATCHUP

"Rebuilding Steve" won 3 titles two seasons ago and 2 this past season.  Can he make that 4th seed work for him in this corner of the bracket?  

And even if you claim that your hat is the hat of all hats (which is totally not true) mine still looks better. :)

Well, the thing is is that I wear my hat more often than you do! And they give free desserts because they like me better.

And, I actually own my hat. As opposed to someone who gets to wear their hat one day a year at the Mexican restaurant (or any other day of the year when she tells them it is her birthday to sneak a free dessert....she thinks they don't know, but Micki....THEY KNOW!!)

Well, of course I'm not wearing my hat at this moment. Because I'm cleaning bathrooms. Including YOUR bathroom. By the way, you are welcome and this situation is about to change!

Well, of course I'm not wearing my hat at this moment. Because I'm cleaning bathrooms. Including YOUR bathroom. By the way, you are welcome and this situation is about to change!

Oh, your actually wearing your hat today? I thought it was in your closet gathering dust.

Oh, I'm sorry Micki. Did I overlook your hat comment? 

I'll say it again, slowly, so that everyone understands. MY hat is THE hat in TMVL. I actually own my hat. And I love all the attention it gets. If I fail to respond, it is because MY hat actually speaks for itself.  And today it is telling me, "tilt me forward a bit down toward the nose. I'm feeling rowdy today."

All this talk and nobody answers the question...

WHY ARE THE WOLVES ANGRY?

Denali is the native word for tall mountain. The Russians used to call it the big mountain.

The word Sahara just means desert and the river Avon in the UK means river.

The word kangaroo does not mean 'your finger' but the Yucatan in Mexico does translate to 'I don't know what you mean'

Finally Canada means village, it's believed the first explorers knew this but still decided to refer to it as the Canadas region.

I'm realizing now I completely misread Roy's post and thought he was actually asking where it is. Oops.

Roy,

Denali is in Alaska. It's the name of the tallest mountain in North America, which was formerly known as Mount McKinley. Denali is also the name of the borough (similar to a county in the rest of the United States) in which the mountain is located. 

This time they asked where in the US is Denali?

As Andy manages the Angry Wolves I had looked up where they were.

Would anyone else know in which state you would find Denali?

Code Updates this week

1. An issue with MBs making an error but their team getting the point was identified and fixed.  Thanks to Steve for helping with examples.

2. Issues with setting assists/attempts were identified and I believe resolved.  Again thanks to Steve for his analysis here too.

3.  When I look at the preview sometimes it doesn't always hit me why the home team has a high winning percent (for the ELO part) when the ratings are close.  I added the "+145" to highlight it is a home match and its really the rating PLUS 145 that gets you to the higher chance of winning.

Craig

I'll try to add more strategy ideas but it may not be for about 3 weeks as I'll be away for a bit.  One consideration though is to think about playing 1-2 of your best players all 3 matches from time to time (obviously not this week).  It will cost some FIT/CP for FIT but may yield results.

Steve

When Steve says "You can't win every game" he means the "you" as in the other 31 teams.  Steve, in fact, CAN win every game as evidenced by his amazing 34-4 mark in season 5.  😎

Seriously though his analysis is of course exactly right.  It will be harder to have those types of seasons now that we have coaches who are gaining knowledge and building strong teams.  Good stuff!

Very curious though about those "two things" Steve is holding back though on strategy.  🤔

Misc

Good to hear TMVL is providing all the answers to House of Games.  That's funny.

Hats

That reminds me, I need to add some code to show people with hats for their photos more often...