As promised, this week's presser is on the topic of watching "the game". In truth, I am going to barely touch on that rather mundane practice and focus more on what it means to me to "watch the game".
A little history first, and at the end I will give some explanation for why this presser and why now.
I came to the game in the latter part of 2008. I arrived and was given a random team in the Euro League. Right off, I felt lost in the community and in the job of being an X11 manager. Everything was a mystery; back then there weren't alot of instructions on the website, and things like guidebooks or even the rules section of the site were in their infancy. Worse still for me, I was in a league where at that time less than 20% of the managers even spoke my language.
I suspect that this is familiar to X11 devotees of all times. We arrive and have so much to learn. And for most of us, we don't start with a large community to support our development in the game. Maybe that is why it is so easy to start in X11 yet so hard to actually stick around for any length of time. "Xpert Eleven; a game that is easy to start, but hard to keep playing."
A few things enabled me to gain enough traction to actually stick around. One was a guide written in English by a manager named Leftblank. His compendium of knowledge (which can still be found today) was helpful, but not earth shattering, or as I learned more, not even particularly accurate about some aspects of the game.
The other thing was the decision to leave the Euro League for the Ultimate League. Nothing was ever wrong with the Euro, but in the UL I at least had a couple of friends which served as an opening into becoming a part of the scribble community that now regards me as the elder statesman; the old guy in the back that mutters platitudes and talks about the days of yore. Yeah, it doesn't sound all that great, but it is something that is central to holding me here in a game that I have long since (mostly) figured out, something that ceased to be truly entertaining some time ago.
The final thing was something that is for me; mildly embarrassing and not related to being an X11 manager in the slightest. When I began my time in the UL with GR FC, I took to watching my matches each week. "The game" is not all that entertaining or exciting. As most of you know, you click on a link, an applet launches and you can watch a timeline of events in your match. In a way, its simplicity is part of its charm. You get a rough approximation of an X11 match but instead of getting all the info at once, it is spread out over a couple of minutes, perhaps heightening the entertainment value of a head to head battle of wits between managers.
Back in those early days, for all of my teams I had a slightly different routine for watching the game. Some were watched at lunch, some in the morning after I had fielded all of the student emails, some in the afternoon before the bike ride home. Each was further differentiated by the choice of music that I listened to during the match. Let me confess, I have listened to the canned applause of "the game" only a few times. I grew weary of it instantly and went to listening to music as I watched.
This process became habit, and that habit grew into superstition. Certain teams could only be beat with the right band, playing the right track. In a way, the importance of "the game" was amplified by my superstition and adherence to this routine.
This went on for a very long time (probably much longer than most managers on this site). I watched and listened to Death Cab for Cutie as the Heroes of Mackinac won the VIP Invitational, I watched and listened to The Arctic Monkeys as the Black Forest grew to prominence and finally vanquished the hated SocCarolina Spiez. And in the UL, I watched and listened to We Were Promised Jetpacks as GR FC climbed from the bottom to the top of the UL and accomplished more than I ever thought possible.
We won the UL Cup to "Quiet Little Voices". And at that time, I couldn't imagine not watching the game, not listening to the team's band as they reached that milestone.
But as it is for all of us, somewhere along the way, the routine began to slip, superstition gave way to cold logic, a sense of wonder was replaced by the cynicism that comes from trodding the same well worn path day after today.
So why all this now? What is different for me in a game that hasn't changed in any appreciable way since Freddd took over?
What is different is that I have a new team, a new long term goal and alot less pressure with a team that is far from competitive.
So last week, I did something familiar, but something I was long out of practice with. I sat down on a Monday morning and played WWPJP new demo for their upcoming album release. And lo and behold as the strangely mellow sounds of Safety in Numbers played, I watched the game. We lost, but in the end I won, I rediscovered something. And for however fleeting it might be; I have rediscovered a love of the game.
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