S13 State of the League

[Canadice]

Beginning of a new era

The start of S13 has seen us do a lot of new things. We recently wrapped up the first World Simulation Football Classic in a riveting final between the Americas and Asiania where the Americas drew the longest straw and can crown themselves World Champions of the SSL! Congratulations to them and to everyone for a successful first international tournament which has certainly given us high hopes that we will be able to do it again in the future.

The WSFC was the last tournament run on FM22 as we have now "upgraded" ourselves to use Football Manager 24 for the first time in S13. With this move we will see some changes internally in what we do and the league as a whole will be able to witness the improved graphics and sim engine when the games start up, beginning with the SSL Academy's first game this weekend.

We have also moved forums, and you are reading this on a hopefully easier to navigate and use forum compared to the old one. This forum has already given us a lot of quality of life improvements and we hope to add on even more in the future. One thing we will be looking into is reaction emotes suggested in the Suggestions Box. If you have any more suggestions about stuff to add or change within the forum, don't hesitate to post in that subforum!

Academy Teams

It was recently announced that Red Star Laos will be rebranded into one of the (former) Academy brands North Shore United. This leaves an empty spot in the SSL Academy for a brand to cover the region of Asia and Oceania. As one Academy team moves into the league, an older SSL brand will take its place in the Academy.

Sydney City will now be the fourth Academy team, with its logo created by @Thunder39 way back in season 3 almost two years ago.

Rule Changes

SSL Cup
The SSL Cup will see a minor change as a follow-up to the Minor and Major league structure implemented a couple of seasons ago. The Cup will still be combining the 16 teams in the league into groups of four, but the minor and major league affiliate of an organization cannot be drawn with each other in the group stage.

Tactics
FM24 comes with a Set Piece "Wizard" that allows for simple choices to a couple of prompts that dictate how the team will run its set pieces. The BoD have decided to allow for one submission of choices for these prompts at the start of the season which then the FM Set Piece Coach will automatically select the best suitable players for the chosen routine's roles during the season.

[C9Van]

Third kit isn't Miami Vice themed? Yeesh.

[RashfordU]

Fun to see the Sydney Branding used again in the league!
especially with the Headquarters and League File showing Australia as the home of the league!

Also that Away kit is absolutely fire!