A sense of renewal and Achievement

Reflections of a perennial underachiever, on finding new joy in the game during the global pandemic.

Drawing close to marking 20 years playing this wonderful game, it seemed that the best thing to write about in this medium would be how my recent time in the game has been reinvigorating for someone who’s never taken a break, even if i’ve never tasted any true sense of top-level success in over 60 seasons of play (my primary team, mostly known as Darkwater Lions FC, started a few weeks into Oceania’s 5th season, and have never been higher than the III tier, nor gotten so much as a sniff of the pointy end of the Cup).

I’ll be honest, there was a looong time there where i was just going through the motions, not being competitive or even looking far afield of the series’ that my two local clubs were in - i didn’t even notice when Oceania’s tier VI was dissolved, thats how oblivious i was to the wider game outside my own stadiums and training grounds. My Youth Academies were sorely neglected, i wasn’t even looking at the forums anymore, much less being an active member of the community. The self-styled underachiever was way to comfortable just swinging in his metaphorical hammock.

Then we all got smacked in the face with Covid-19, and my warehouse job took the step to split the shifts in two for the sake of social distancing etc. Our client closed their retail stores, and the workload slowed from a flood to a trickle, but thankfully i was able to keep working the whole time, many friends of mine weren’t so fortunate. With the quiet nights, i found myself getting into HT much more than normal - i’d always logged in frequently, even when not doing much,, but now i was on for several hours at a time. I started a 3rd team in HTI, but quickly got bored of it, and jumped at the chance to get in to Myanmar from the start. I restarted my YA’s at my two local clubs and founded one at the 3rd team. I started learning concepts like cycle training, how to properly scout YA prospects and target their skill reveals, and chaining 4-team Youth League seasons, and became a bit of a pest on the forums and in series chat rooms.

I flagged two Inner Mids at the Darkwater Cubs who were ideal to base a new "golden generation" on. Those two have just finished their tenure with the U21 Oceania squad, with well over a dozen caps between them in the Continental Cup & World Cup, and now I look ahead to turning some of my Inners into NT-calibre PDIMs. I also have other prospects in coming generations in my other two clubs. I’m very proud of this, and thankful to the scouts who’ve guided and prodded me on the way.

And if all that wasn’t enough for me, HT went and revamped the Achievements list giving us more to do and perhaps shining a light on what hadn’t already been done. Some are as arbitrary as playing league & cup games, logging in regularly or making sure you always book a Friendly. Others need the planets to align just right, like promoting in consecutive seasons, copping a bunch of injuries at once or having two of your players score a treble in the same match. Most have to be earned from scratch, but thankfully the flag-based once are awarded retroactively. And the community in this game bingo what it is, people rallied together to help each other earn the community based achievements, like starting a federation, writing a Press article (*taps nose*) and being followed on the forums. The HTs even threw us a wink and a nod when they said there aren’t any hidden achievements, and not to bother looking for them - which reminded me of Diablo games saying “there is no Cow Level”. I even have a few of them already, woo!

I even found myself planning out my new season for one of my clubs around trying to complete multiple achievements in the one season, and chose my new sponsor bonuses and variable training plans accordingly. One of them got paid yesterday, having ticked off the last formation of The Football Lab, and i’m well on the way to completing Local Heroes.

I’ve made plenty of new acquaintances and even a few friendships, from league play and from flag-trading. Two of my three clubs have won a Division Battle trophy.

I’m constantly plotting & scheming under my breath at work, and have all manner of little spreadsheets on the go… will any of it pan out in the long term? Who knows, but at least i’m actually trying now, huh?

Link directly to this article (HT-ML, for the forum): [ArticleID=22585]