BuzzerBeater Forums

Cheers for the welcome. Am working my way through the nooby guide and will take a look at that site a bit later on. It certainly looks like I need to invest some time in this to get good.

I presume D4 is quite strong and I've zero chance of surviving?!

Thanks for the nod on the preseason ranking i did before the season everybody. Snce i'm getting so much positive feedback, what ive decided to do is do a pregame evaluation for what I think is the most interesting game during that week, along with an explanation for my choice and the keys to victory (KTV) for each team, as well as a mid-season revised ranking.

@Mix, once again, thanks for the comments, and i agree with you on the reliability of preseason ranks. With all of these new teams joining, the ranks will obviously change over the course of the season. Also i haven't been on the offsite, but ill check it out.

So without further ado, ill do the first pregame review of the season, which since we are halfway through the week, will just be for the Tuesday game:

Week 2 (01/7/2014):
Big Big Gulps vs The Blood Suckers

After finishing the last three seasons with the number 6th seed, Big Big Gulps are of to a hot start, albeit it was against some pretty poor teams. The Blood Suckers have lost to the two toughest teams in the BIG 8, but begin a three game home stand tonight and a win tonight against a 2nd seeded BBG team would definitely help in filling the stands during that stretch. Neither team is playing a formidable opponent in the cup this week, so this might be a game where we see one of the teams use something other than TIE, since it will have attendance implications moving forward.
KTV for TBS: Play an outside zone defense to stop BBG's outside attack. BBG have been effective moving their players around to different positions, so playing man and trying to lock down a one of their scoring threats with either Zhao Xiuguang or Tim Barnes might result in one of BBG's top players, especially Vsevolod Averchenkov, being guarded by a young or ill-equipped player.TBS does not have the advantage inside, so TBS's three outside starters will need to put up big numbers if they want to walk out with a win.
KTV for BBG: Run a uptempo offense. It seems that BBG has the better roster,despite the injury to Görkem Ferzan, which will leave a glaring hole that TBS will want to take advantage of. Generally an uptempo offense will allow for the better team to make more buckets, and with a balanced attack like they have, that should be sufficient to pull out a victory. BBG's PF and C should be able to shut down any inside game, so keeping Xiuguang, Barnes, and Torres from draining three's all day will result in a win this week.

Final Score: TBS- 83, BBG- 97
I believe TBS will play either NORMAL or CT, but even with that I dont think they have enough overall talent to contend in this matchup.

Hey dback, welcome to BB. As a newbie, i definitely suggest going through not only the tutorials and rules, but also some of the discussion boards in order to see what other, more experienced players are doing.

Just a couple of tidbits from what I remember/regret from when I started:

1) Clear out any junk you have in your roster. fire any old players that dont have any reasonably good skill and any young players with a potential of 6th man or lower. This will not only allow you to focus on training your future stars, but also decrease the amount of salary you have to pay. ( The salary floor doesn't apply to you in your first season) Remember, money is king in this game.

2) Acquire a decent trainer, and train only your young players. At the beginning, an advanced trainer will be all you need, as higher level trainers are expensive to not only hire, but also keep. And keep in mind that the older a player gets, the less he win respond to training, and training a player beyond the age of 26 or 27 is a waste of precious training time. And most importantly make sure your trainees get at least 48 mins of training time each week.

3) Acquire your future stars, either through the draft or free agency. The lower your record during the season, the better pick you will have during the draft, and a season like this season, where you might end up getting a top 3 pick, might land your stud. However some claim that the draft is too unpredictable, and there is no guarantee that your #1 pick wont be the future waterboy. Personally, I prefer to get my trainees through the transfer list. It might be more expensive, but at least you know exactly what your getting, and you don't need to tank in order to get a good trainee. But I'll let you decide what you wish to do.

4) Bring in talent where you need it. The most amount of players you can train effectively each week is 3-6, so you will need to fill gaps in your roster through other methods beside training. Older players are not only relatively cheap to acquire past the age of 32, but they can make an immediate impact and bring experience to your team. Be careful not too load up on veteran players however, as this will cause you to be really good quicker, but you will either drop off into terribleness when they get old or bankrupt your team trying to bring in more players. You need only to compliment your core talent.

5) Get through the growing pains. you will lose a lot this season, and probably next season too. but gradually building your roster through smart training and tranfers when necessary is the best way to have success in the future. Be careful with your money and your players.

I hope I can help in anyway, other than telling you how ill beat you in our upcoming matchups :) Good luck

Many thanks, very helpful! You guys are all so nice and welcoming :-)

I've played a similar game to this for 6+ RL years in Hattrick and it looks quite similar. Be patience, and train, train train! There's just so many thing to read, its all a bit overwhelming on where to start. One thing I won't be doing is spending any cash until I do a lot more reseach.

Quick nooby question. I have an 18year old Allstar and a 21 year old perennial allstar. You mentioned age is a key factor in the training, would it be better to focus on the younger buy less potential chap, or should I try work on the slightly older one?

It would be wise to save your money until you know how to properly spend it. I made the mistake buying a bunch of players 5 seasons ago, and im still wishing i had learned more beforehand.

As far as your trainees go, I would focus on training both of them. the 21 yo will progress slower than the 18 yo, but you can still make him into a decent player. Personally I would focus on training their outside defense (pressure) most of this season, as that one becomes quite hard to train as the player ages, and make them into your future starting guards. But train both of them and try to find one more trainee over the next few seasons. A great way to see how training works is the Training Simulator. you can find it in the English forum under the Help Programs tab. Play around with it some, and you will learn alot.

Yea Ive never been in a league that was active in the forums, so I just started doing this at the end of last season. And I think I will check out the offsite. And I definitely look forward to playing against you next in a couple weeks; should be a good game.

As a side note, too bad I cant bet on the scores for some of these games, I might make some money. :D

Week 3 (1/11-1/14)
B.I.GBallers vs Georgia PowerRiders

Two of the most dominant teams go head to head this week, and this match could end up determining which one holds the top seed come playoff time. This match is quite intriguing because of the individual matchups. B.I.GBallers has a quality lineup that may be able to go toe-to-toe with GEO's own formidable lineup. The only question is if BIG can stop the scoring phenom, Donát Gubán.
KTV for BIG: Do not put everything into stopping Donát Gubán. GEO's starting frontcourt is shooting a combined 54% from the field, and they rely on defenses swarming to the outside to get easy buckets. It has been proven over the past season and a half that trying to blanket Gubán will not necessarily reduce his scoring, as he takes sometimes as many as 40 shots a game, and about half go in. But if they can make GEO a one man show, then it will be much easier to beat them. Also it is important to notice that just because Gubán is an excellent scorer doesn't mean that he is an excellent defender, and his average game shape rating means he wont be at his best. GEO's average perimeter defense rating is awful, while their inside defense rating is respectable, and they really like to run a 2-3 zone. All of this points to an outside based offense.
KTV for GEO: Limit Turnovers. GEO turns the ball over 13.2 times a game, 2nd most in the Big 8, while BIG allows only 8.5 turnovers a game. This wide margin could mean the difference when playing an evenly matched team like BIG. Antonio Cicuta is the cause of most of these turnovers, so perhaps moving him to the C position where he will handle the ball less is a patient offensive scheme will result in fewer turnover, not to mention that his rating at the C position is 1.6 better than at PF. Also it would be wise to limit Gubán's minutes in this game; not only will it allow him to perform better at the end of this game, but also in the future.

Final Score: BIG- 107, GEO-112
BIG's strength is their inside attack, which unfortunately is GEO's defensive strength, and I don't believe they can outscore GEO without big games from Urmas Nael and Temel Öndüç.