2023-08-17, 12:42 PM - Word count:
State of the League A bit delayed but we are finally ready to announce this season’s State of the League and it is a massive one. A lot of the departments have been hard at work behind the scenes for the past couple of months to produce the results that are announced in this post.
Last week marked the start of the eleventh season in SSL history and we are fast approaching our two year anniversary as a league. The league’s growth has been relatively stable these past couple of seasons, compared to its initial four, and with the addition of the SSL Academy, we are in a great position to not be overwhelmed if we should see a massive influx of users at any point in the near future.
SSL Academy
The intention with the SSL Academy is to provide users to learn how the league operates both for the user and the player while being able to see the effect their player has on the field right from the start. There have definitely been some bumps along the way and we have adjusted some aspects both on the back end and publicly to be able to provide the best experience for all those involved. If you are interested in helping out in anything regarding the Academy, introducing new users to the league, helping out with filework or recording/commentating games, just send me or anyone in the BoD a DM.
The allocation of players to the different teams in the Academy has been semi-random when the SSL branded teams was introduced but our long-term goal is to be able to have Academy teams based on the region from where the player is from. As part of this goal we are now proud to introduce four Academy brands based in four different geographic regions. We are not yet ready to use the regional allocation method but with some brands it will be clear what the intent is. The process of selecting the cities was focused on finding regions of the world where a majority of our player base comes from while at the same time finding new local areas where the SSL has not yet had any presence. Massive thanks to @Thunder39 for the work on the logos and kits!
Representing Oceania and Asia:
Spoiler (click to show)
Representing Africa:
Spoiler (click to show)
Representing Europe:
Spoiler (click to show)
Representing the Americas:
Spoiler (click to show)
These teams will be shown on the first day of the SSL Academy scheduled to air next Monday, the 21st of August, filled with new S12 players eager to get their first touch on the pitch. This season will also increase the number of games played in the Academy from 12 to 16.
New Player Store We have hinted at this forever but we are now ready to open the doors to the new Player Store of the SSL. This new store uses the same type of functionality as the revamped Player Builder and Player Updater in order to provide a clearly formatted text output that can be posted in the bank threads. We are unfortunately not at a place to provide an automatic store (yet) due to limitations within the forum infrastructure but this will hopefully be a better solution for all involved parties.
As part of unveiling the new store we can announce new types of purchases available:
- Weak foot upgrades: For 7.5 million you are able to upgrade your weak foot by 5 XP. When building your player you start off with 20XP in your preferred foot and 10 XP in the other so by purchasing this upgrade twice you will be able to use both your feet interchangeably on the pitch!
- Positional upgrades: With the change to the system of primary and secondary positions, it is now possible to purchase secondary to primary upgrades or plainly just additional secondary positions if you want your player to be very versatile. The costs of these purchases might seem steep, but the average earning of a mid to high level player is around 50-60 million just based on minimum salary contracts alone.
We have also voted to add some traits that were not included in the initial list of traits available to players when the league was created.
Uses Outside Of Foot
Increases the likelihood of a player trying to use the outside of his stronger foot rather than his weaker foot, even if the weaker foot is the more natural option for his body position.
Context: A useful trait for all avenues of the pitch - as long as your player has the abilities to do so. This can lead to wasted opportunities, misplaced passes or miscued shots. There is a time and place for everything, so make sure your player is capable of actually passing with the outside of their foot before teaching this trait or removing it.
Winds Up Opponents
Increases the likelihood of a player trying to improve the morale of his team by attempting to impair that of his opponent in attempting to distract them from giving full focus.
Context: This trait can build the morale of your own team up while attempting to demoralize the opposition at the same time.
Tries Tricks
Increases the chances of a player displaying more flair during matches and can result in a greater array of skills being used.
Context: This trait is great for getting by defenses or creating glorious opportunities seemingly out of nothing. However this can very easily be a bad trait, players with not good enough ability can continuously lose possession and defense players should avoid doing tricks which can make the team vulnerable.
Likes Ball Played To Feet
Increases the likelihood of a player showing and asking for passes into his feet rather than into space or a different part of the body.
Context: This could be a good trait for holding up players and strikers in order to allow players running by and to open up space. However this can be seen as a real negative trait; rather than trying to open up space and run beyond to create room or better passing opportunities, a player will request the ball to be passed directly to them and spoil creative opportunities.
Gets Crowd Going
Increases the likelihood of a player seeking a positive reaction from the crow in appropriate moments when the ball is not in play.
Context: Changes morale and influences your team's performance.
Likes To Beat Opponent Repeatedly
Increases the likelihood of a player opting to dribble with the ball regardless of how many opponents are positioned to try to dispossess him.
Context: A trait which seems more habitual and selfish but rather can be great for players with great technique in their dribbling skills. It can create space for other players or for the player with this trait to break free and create an opportunity; however they can just as easily ruin an opportunity by easily losing possession or dribbling when they should have passed. Make sure that your player is capable of doing this consistently throughout a game with good attributes or that your tactic does not restrict them from doing so.
Brings Ball Out Of Defense
Increases the likelihood of a defender running with the ball into midfield
Context: Defenders now we see more often are required to have dribbling skills. This is great and can work well with many tactics - but make sure your players are capable of doing so via their attributes. It may be all well and good that a defender wants to dribble out, but poor dribbling stats or a tactic which finds other avenues of transition from defense to going forward means that this trait can be not useful.
Crossing Early
Increases the chances of a player crossing from a deeper position, rather than seeking to find a better opportunity higher up the pitch.
Context: This trait can be of great use depending on your tactic and for players going forward on the break to find teammates. However this trait can also not be of use if your players are not up to scratch in meeting the ball coming in early from the wing. Make sure that whoever is at the end of the cross has a good enough first touch, vision, anticipation, bravery and finishing ability to fully utilize this trait - if your tactic allows. This trait is more useful in a player as one of several options rather than being just a sole focus in going forward.
Long-awaited we now have dedicated goalkeeper traits that can be purchased from the store. A newly created goalkeeper will still start with no traits but can now purchase traits listed under Goalkeeper in section of the dropdown.
Uses Long Throw To Start Counter Attacks
Plays Ball With Feet
Remember when you started reading this announcement. That was a while ago. Take a break, stretch your legs, grab a drink and come back because there is still some things remaining.
SSL Jobs
There are still quite a few job opportunities available for anyone interested. We currently have two teams with open applications for manager, Athênai F.C. and CA Buenos Aires. We also have open positions as simmers, updaters, budget (both department head and “regular” budget person) and we are also re-opening for BoD and BoD Intern positions within the week. As I mentioned earlier in the post, if there is something you would like to do for the league, you can always reach out to anyone in the BoD and we will see if we can find something that works.
Super Sub Bot
When the league took its first steps teams were able to sign BOT players that would act as injury substitutes for anything happening on the pitch if the amount of players did not fill the teams. As time went by, the league brought in a lot more players than the number of roster spots available so all BOTs except a goalkeeper were removed. We have recently identified a scenario where FM requires the simmer to substitute out an injured player even if the only available substitute is the goalkeeper BOT, who is not well suited to play in the outfield.
The BoD proposed and after feedback from managers voted in a rule change that would switch out the goalkeeper BOT with a “Super Sub” BOT instead. This BOT would be the average player (10 on every attribute), capable of playing in every outfield position and in the extremely rare case they need to fill in for GK, they should be able to do that with some reasonable performances. The BOT will only be used as an injury substitution when no other SSL player on the bench is capable of playing at the injured player’s position.
The Lifespan of FM22 When the league started almost two years ago, we accompanied the release of Football Manager 2022. Having a sim league centered around FM has its ups and downs as we have experienced throughout the first ten seasons. FM is a great combination with lots of player and management details while providing a 3D engine that is entertaining to watch. However it does not come without its bugs and issues. FM gets a yearly “upgrade/update” that usually means that development and bug fixing of earlier versions grinds to a halt and makes older versions impossible to purchase after a set point in time.
We have had lots of problems with managers losing access to FM22 due to it being removed from Game Pass and the like while new users that want to help out with the FM side of things are required to already own FM22 in order to do that. In order for the league to continue to grow, we will need to move on from FM22 at some time in the future.
During the summer the developer of FM posted this announcement. The announcement of FM24 brings a lot of promises which I personally hope that they will keep and provides us with a difficult decision. FM24 will be “the last of its kind” while FM25 will provide new and exciting features especially to the 3D engine side of the game. During our internal discussions within the BoD we have long indicated publicly that we are starting a move to a new version of the game and we have decided that we are planning to move to FM24 for S13. Our hope is that we are once more able to use the same version of FM for at least two more years so as to not completely bankrupt the entire League Office of users.
The SSL Calendar shows that S12 will end on December 10th and we unfortunately expect that the transition to a new engine (with an entirely new database to boot) will take some extra time compared to the normal off-season processes, so there might be a small break between the end of S12 and the beginning of S13 to get everything in order. But don’t fret, we have plans in place to commemorate the last use of FM22 within the SSL during those weeks!
![[Image: 0HMDG8L.png]](https://i.imgur.com/0HMDG8L.png)
