So I began writing this press not sure what I totally had in mind or where it would go when I was finished with it. How apt then that the topic of the press is in general about my love/hate with the Official Leagues system. I think it is valuable to remember that X11 is a game, nothing more. To that effect, I'm not going to criticize the game in this press either, as after 3 years away from Official I am back, and that was my choice, so to complain would be a fool's errand. Off we go then!
DISCLAIMER: This might not be interesting to some, but it is my tale, so learn from my mistakes and laugh at my misfortune I guess if nothing else!
I started playing X11 at the beginning of 2008. I got an official team a few months later, confident in my own abilities after winning my first private league with friends, it seemed the most logical step. The random hand I was dealt was the Zurich Avalanche, languishing down in D7 of Ultimate League. The team was ok, but I felt no real attachment to it. Overall, D7 bored me and my team was nowhere good enough to climb up or challenge in the cup. The concept of building my own team never even entered into my brain, I was way too new to the site to care about anything but trying to experience everything all at once, and as quickly as possible. So with my sub 5000 rank, I jumped.
I jumped to the Daedric Princes in Golden League. The team was leaps and bounds better than my old team, but man was it cursed. Not in the superstitious sense, but in the real sense in that it had 5 moody players...and one was the goalkeeper. Couple that with the fact that with my 5000 rank I was the worst MANager in this division and this was a tough experience for me at the time. It always seemed that when I won games handedly, the GK was a monster...but then when I needed him he went missing, it was truly a grating experience. The greatest thing about this jump was I got to play against and meet one of the most entertaining and great friends I ever encountered here, CosmicRichie. His Hassled Hoffs were in my division, and they were famous. Richie had amassed a team chalk full of multi-SQ players. Not all of them were that great, but they were pretty to look at! Richie and I had great PR battles, but we both ended up staying in D5. I had decided that I could not rock a team with FIVE moodies, so when I got my 6 months I was in the top 500 and decided to move.
Now in Dream League, my team (the Hallbo Flames) had a great foundation and I stayed here for over a year. I loved it! I was surrounded by friends and I had an unbelievable undefeated run while climbing between D4 and D3. I was breathing down the neck of the top division at this point and my team was about to peak as well...but for some odd reason it felt hollow to me. I felt I didn't deserve it or something; total rubbish of course and maybe too many xpert forum rants from certain MANagers sunk in, but I felt I had to let them go and start my own team. So I resigned, near the top of it all. DUMB.
I took a brand new team in the Classic League, and I wasn't the only one doing this. I believe Duffster, Gildar, Daisy, and a few others had dumped their sides to build from the bottom. I think all of us abandoned these projects, because playing in then D8 was not fun...at all. It was a lot like how D6 is now for me. Nobody is playing. Since coming back, I have played against ONE manager who appears to set tactics. Anyways, I got bored with the project...pulled them up to D6 and then just had enough. It wasn't fun, and as I mentioned earlier this is a game so why play a game that isn't fun? The team was mine for sure, but I felt I didn't belong down here. Egoist of course, but I don't think I was wrong...
So I cashed in my ranking again in 2010 and took over a side managed by Holidays and then Easy_boy, two MANagers I had great respect for. This side was a monster down in D5, but it became clear to me why they were down here...their home factor was so insanely large that winning away was impossible. Iwe all but told me this after I released a huge rage presser about it. I flipped out. I had left a side I built myself for over a year for this...I left it as soon as I could and went back to Classic...just grabbed anything that was there, didn't care...and then left the xpert leagues a month later in the middle of 2012.
The point of this unfocused, A.D.D. rant is that I never stayed the course on any one path and it killed me. I didn't keep ranking it up to get the best team possible, I didn't stay in a league I loved with a team I took as far as anyone ever had, I abandoned my own project, and I rage quit when I took a super team I didn't build when things went pear-shaped. I have nothing to show for my 4 years in official...and now, I am back...in D6...playing inactive managers. I hate it, but I love the open-endedness of what I can do and I think the real point is to try to make the best of it. I get to try to do any of these things again, and maybe I will actually stick with one path for once!
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