FML Launch Dates confirmed!

The launch dates have finally been confirmed!

They can be seen here.

Cantona kicks off the big jamboree on the 27th of October. This comes after a very smooth launch for GW23, setting a great example for live.

The best launch GW, Sharp, will start sometime in November (I'd expect early November), after all the riff-raff have sorted out any teething issues!

Oh, and the Blades are now unbeaten in 7, having won 6 and drawn 1. The initial ranking came through last night at a very acceptable 89th!

Solid start continues

I managed to steal an hour online today, and the Blades continued their excellent start to life in GW23.

Another two wins and a draw - and in games cherry-picked against top 50 sides - saw the unbeaten run stretch to 5 games... and still unbeaten in GW23. Hopefully that may just be enough to squeak me a ranking tonight at midnight, and start the ball rolling on some daily income - as an unranked side, I'm still only getting my wages covered.

Once I get some money rolling in, I'll be able to go shopping...

Blades hit Dublin in style

The Blades have set up camp in GW23, Dublin, and have hit the ground running with two wins from their opening two friendly matches.

The initial squad selection took some time, but in the end a good blend of youth and experience was chosen.

The key positions for me are always the keeper and the strikers. In goal is former Arsenal keeper Rami Shaaban - a solid all-rounder, and a bargain at that £24K. Up front I plumped for Vaclav Sverkos: cheap, quick, a good finisher and a smart mover. Another nice signing was former GW4 favourite Christopher Lamprecht. All in all a fairly solid side.

The opening tie was against a good friend of mine, Chris Priestley and his 780 FC side. I travelled to his ground for the match, and roundly thrashed his side of big names (Billy Sharp, no less) 3-0. Goals came from MC Stefan Buck, Sverkos and DM Edgar Mejia - definitely one to watch for the future.

The second fixture was a home match, against an old GW2 buddy, Jay Kotak. It was nice to catch up with Jay - it's been a long time since I left GW2 back in December! It was nicer to see sub Renan, who was at MR but can play in roughly 4 million positions, grab a goal after some neat interplay. The Blades ran out 1-0 winners.

I won't get ranked tonight - probably not until Sunday night, in fact, as I won't have time to get on tomorrow, but at least we're up and running. And some wins too!

Blades win Cup on last day of GW

Well, I logged in quickly just now to say goodbye to the guys, just in case I can't make it on again and two things happened.

First, I fined a guy £10M for two crazy deals - think the end-of-GW blood rushed to his head.

Secondly, I saw this news item:

Capable Scottish manager Nik Reeves-McLaren's overachieving Frecheville Blades have won the sixteen-club "Only The Strongest Have Survived..." after their 5-4 penalty shootout win over Israeli manager Asaf Foerster's powerful Beitar Katamonim in the Final.

The game had finished 0-0, but it's nice to see the lads end on a high note!

A week? Blimey

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I last posted! Apologies for that - I've been a bit on the busy side.

I have lectures to write, and they start next week, so that has been a big focus. Also, the BEFA (Big End FA) launch was on Monday night, and I had that to do for myself.

With only 65 members being projected for GW4, I decided that it would be best if we were all in the same FA - more chance of finding an opponent online. In the end, this FA (BEFA) got 128 members.

It was a remarkable success, and I received a lot of thanks from the managers, which was nice. Barely anyone has played a game though...

Still, anyway - GW4 is finally closing, and the end will come soon. We're all off to GW23 to play in a full Gameworld with a more up-to-date database. It will be a big test to see how new gameworlds cope with lag etc, as SI have been making massive in-roads there.

Amalgamating worlds means a lot of mods, and GW23 will have around 40 mods. So I will be taking something of a backseat until launch, so I can focus on my real job, and maybe even get in the gym. I will keep trying to get online though - the Blades, and this blog, will live on!

Silver Linings

I'm always one to look for a positive - and one that has improved already since last night's exodus from GW4 is my ranking... The Blades are up to 9th!

Organisation of the new super FA, with all teams in the gameworld all under one roof, is going well - I was 'told' that we were to expect to have 65 teams left, but over 90 have already signed up to the new FA... With all these guys pretty active, it's going to potentially make for an active and interesting season. Plus we get to meet new people in the chat, rather than the same old rabble we were used to!!

Exodus...

Well, today sees the start of the new GW22, with users from GWs 2, 4, 8 and 9 migrating over. These worlds will be losing the majority of their players, and so will from now test how a properly dying GW copes.

Phil and I will be the sole mods in GW4 from now on, looking after 60 - 80 users, I guess. It could be a bit quiet and desolate, but we're determined to make the most of what may be the end of our time in GW4 and the FML Beta.

I've organised all the remaining teams in to one big FA (The Big End FA, or BEFA), and will be organising plenty of different types of competitions for all different types of user. Hopefully this approach will make sure that when people log on, they always have a game to play.

Will it work? Time will tell - it will need users to get involved - to chat, to accept challenges. I think it can work - but only if we all make it work.

On the bright side, the exodus hasn't even started yet, and I'm up to 19th rank.