Ice029

Finland is weird man. In the season we got promotion to 2nd league we also won the cup (EUROPE BABYYYY) cuz every big team kept losing to teams slightly weaker and some nobodies from the 3rd tier with a bit of tactics just swooped in and yoinked the trophy: Other worthy updates: - All intakes are golden generations cuz team bad and recruitment got better (I am paying half a mil a year for the youth setup, europe money are a godsend) - No incoming transfers (no screenshot to avoid spam, you have to believe me) - We going professional next season Mennään Pallo-Iirot

Without further to do, Finland here I come. I'll try to post updates but I can't promise anything. The team, chosen because of the color scheme. All 3 promoted team were equally good (read bad) so we go for the yellow-blue bois: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallo-Iirot - wiki page for who cares about them : Starting state of the team, poor as expected. We will be above Real Madrid some day. Some day in the quite distant future: The manager, a nobody with a big dream: The save state, valid for this challenge of course:

I never knew about that screen... Took me a while to find it but here we go, the team I want seems to be eligible

I ended up simulating another season, I got 3 new teams but something looks very weird... Find below the proof that the team I picked is not playable in S2 and S1 and if you are happy it satisfies the rules IT'S ON (the loops and hoops I need to get through just because of a pyramid change) 15 dec 2023(start of season 2): End of season 2 results(all 3 teams with R and red background have gone unplayable): Start of season 3: The teams that remained in the division are marked with the R The teams that got relegated from the 2nd tier(Ykkösliiga) are marked with P (JJK and Honka) Teams that were unplayable in S2 have no letter I will be using P-Iirot (Pallo-Iirot) beacause of the colors which were unplayable in 2023(S2) or at the start of the save:

@darren1983 @XaW(forgot to tag you xD): I need your judgement as arbiter of the rules for this challenge. I wanna go to Finland now but there is a change in league structure there. Digging through the database and irl articles, what seems to happen is that they are adding a 3rd tier which will contain the best teams from the old 3 tier which had 3 groups (now becoming the 4th tier, first unplayable in the game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_football_league_system - for reference the current pyramid Now my question is: are the teams in this new tier that were not playable at the start (10 out of 12 as 2 got relegated from a playable league) valid for this challenge or should I sim another season and pick one of the promoted teams to this new 3rd tier?

@darren1983 do I get a cookie?

One small step. I haven't updated much (if anything at all) but the youth-only Romania edition team just won the first european title in the year 2044. UCL and first to do Romania here I come!

What if we try this challenge again, this time in the country I love managing the most in: Spain. (this time I promise to at least try my best to finish it and not get distracted by sideprojects. Also regular updates here). Without further to do: Salamanca in Spain, might be on the easy side when it comes to first season (or first few) due to the team being what I can only describe as 'eh, not that bad for this level'. Media prediction is 7th by the way The Manager: Some starting details: (I know the team is eligible but the more I read into it the more overpowered as a starter it seems) No shenanigans in the DB: This will either be the most fun I had in the videogame or it will break my spirit completely.

So I guess it is time to suffer: This will be my big save for FM24, youth intake only or not. (Pray for me it is intake only, I need all the prayers)

Huston, I think there is a problem in Japan. I hired all relevant staff and did a sim until December, after the japanese teams get the intakes and: (I've added myself to a few teams and saw both October and November as intake months, still looking into this). Some team that was previously in J3: Team relegated from J2: Team promoted to J2 from J3: Same as above, I will skip screenshots to not create big spam Team that started in J2 and still in J2: Same Team relegated from J1: Same Team promoted to J1: Same Team that started in J1: Same There are no intakes in Japan after one full season. Tho there are a few teams that seem to have generated 15/16 yo players, will investigate tomorrow as it's getting late and I need my smarty sleep.

So I have a dilemma. When I joined the club I got an email with some ongoing transfers and of course I canceled everything. But I did not check other transfers and few weeks later when the season started these 4 dudes showed up uninvited at the club's door. Question is: since I had no saying in signing them, are they eligible or being transfers in season 2 they fall under the 'board signed players, send to 2nd team and get rid of asap'? The dudes:

I didn't initially wanted to go with the hype but I did a few resets in Japan and after far too many Hondas I found a team with a 12/10 badge so I have to attempt a Japan completion: Also manager:

Milestone 1 achieved. Now the real hard work starts.

'tiz but a minor setback.

So the year is 2030 and we are a mid-table team that sometimes plays in Europa Conference League thanks to a weird quirk in the Romanian league rules. But that is kinda all. Relegation is on the cards only if I somehow get a particularly terrible season, every year one of the best players either leaves or complains about wanting to leave, all the good stuff. In a way I've hit the grand grind and I am actually looking for it. And the question in this case is: are there any tips and tricks I am missing, other than waiting for the stars to finally align? Random picture with some stats:

So I decided to try this challenge at the start of this FM. And it almost broke me and my will to play the video game, which I actually did for about 3 months. Now... I got back to trying like a month ago and on my 5th attempt I managed to stay up in Romanian's 1st tier. Context: money are hard to come by in Romanian's 2nd tier (read that as you have no money) and the TV revenue in the 1st league you only get from the 2nd season onwards because it makes sense I guess so the play is really just create a save point at the start and then restart until you achieve this. Then it should be easy. Now let's stop wasting time. The team: Bucovina Rădăuți. The reason: I was born in the Bucovina region and I thought there is some special connection there. I was right cuz with any other team I would have just give up and look elsewhere. (in most, if not all of the in game photos there will be the old, yellow badge. at some point I will change it. maybe. I do not make promises I am not sure I will keep) Short summary so far: Season 0 - Save scum a promotion for Bucovina Rădăuți ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Season 1 - Writing this out of memory cuz I never expected this save to be the one >Easy promotion, we blasted our way in the regular season and a bit of a scare in playoffs due to a bit too many draws >Lost 3-1 away to Poli Iasi which ruined an invincible >Intake was lacking at best, only 2 players worth mentioning at that time, in the end I do not think they will be anything more than emergency backups >Got National C licence and I think I also started for National B, if not then it happened at the very start of S2 >No upgrades of any kind to the facilities ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Season 2 - And so it begins >Highly expected to drop straight down as it happened in the past >A bit of background: this is the 5th time starting from scratch, 2 of them were mid table finishes in 2nd league, other 2 were promotions followed instantly by relegation. 5th time lucky as they say >Youth intake was better this time, 4 players straight in the 1st team (mainly due to a lack of general personnel) >Got National B licence >Yet again no facilities improvement of any kind ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Season 3 - Smash your head against a wall and something will crack eventually. In rare cases the wall. This season the wall lost >Europe baby. How bad can it be... (foreshadowing?!) >I feel like I consumed most of my luck in this season, there were quite a bit more FMs than the average, mostly in the Europe Playoffs. There is a rule in Romania. The short version is: after all team play eachother twice the teams split into champions and relegation group (6 and 10 teams respectively, with the points halfed from the regular season). Then the 1st and 2nd place in the relegation group play a game. The winner plays against 3rd or 4th from the champions group (based on who won the cup) and the winner of this game gets to play in Europa Conference League. We were the team this time. >Youth intake was questionable at best, a few squad options here and there and a new HOYD hired >Got National C licence >Board decided to build a new stadium which could spell not so great times ahead ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Season 4 - The current one. Updates will come when it is over (for now I am in January with a golden generation of youth lined up). ---Relevant pictures from the first 3 seasons--- S1: S3: Notable youth players:

Time for another try on this challenge (take 6 or so), this time in Finland. I'll try to document the journey here as much as possible and in one google drive (will be posted at a later date). The team:

Another season gone, we making progress boiiiissss Progress in the playoffs (next season we go for championship group): Intake which I should rather not talk about but here it is: Best intake player goes straight into my team and straight on the pitch 3 days later because injuries and/or suspensions and...

First season with the Yellow-Green boys ended exactly as expected: no chance of promotion of course, but we won the battle for relegation as expected. Plans for next season: the same as there are a few big names that will be leaving us in order to play with better quality players. So without further to do: Final Table: (2nd tier of Romania does the teams play against each other once then it splits into 1 Champions Group and 2 Relegation Groups) Intake: (not great, not terrible) Best intake player: (due to regulations of under a specific age player in playing 11 and a lack of left back, I present you my new main left back)

OK, since lnc files are a thing, I am back in the game. The team: The transfers: The proof that the database changes are equal to 0: If I fail this challenge too because of any reason I quit

I love you and I wish you and your family eternal luck. I forgot that lnc is a thing.

So somebody up there really does not fancy me as my hard drive decided to die and I cannot really recoup my Nitra save. So time to (re)start again. They say 3rd time lucky. For this attempt of not being bad at the game I shall pick a team somewhat closer to me as in I was born less than 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) air distance from their stadium (or 34km/21 miles on road). Also I shall be using the editor to change the name as the team got a different name starting with 2016 which is not reflected in the game and I shall provide evidence that is the only thing I am doing. @darren1983 time to bother you again: am I eligible for the challenge? I will do it regardless of eligibility but it would be nice to have my name (and the teams one too) on the list. Proof of real life change: Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACS_Foresta_Suceava Flash Scores: https://www.flashscore.es/equipo/foresta-suceava/4frVUGHF/ Editor changes: In game: And the team (I shall do the sim until it is available tomorrow, same for kits and badge):

As soon as I add myself to the team the moment it becomes available there are always there as future transfers arranged. I shall continue with them then, I at least have a (somewhat) competitive team

Ok. Iceland is not going well, time to go Slovakia. Team in question: Nitra FC. Reason? I have a friend that lives in the city, I have 2 reasons to visit him. But from the setup there might be a problem. I tried to start and restart and I always get a lot of incoming transfers. And I tried to get Nitra to be playable 5 times, always the same result: too many in transfer. I've sent them all to U19 and they will be sold eventually and play no games for the main team. @darren1983is this ok with the rules? I do want to end up on that list and thus I need to be sure.

Did a bit of a fast forward of season 2. 2 games before the end of the league with nothing else that can happen the table looks like this: Transfers: still bleeding good player but the intake players are not far behind them(the perks of playing football at such a low level): Talking about intake, this year there is no clear best player but at least there are some decent squad options, something to build on: And the 'best' of them, as in the one that will play a lot since he's now the best right winger at this club: