Rockin' Around the World

[britrock88]

Alright! I've come thisclose to starting a few dynasties (in FM or FBCB) since my first, abortive attempt here. But I've had so much fun reading Bryan Swartz's Rocking Rackets dynasty--and playing the game myself--that it just seems like this is the time to write down for your enjoyment (I hope) my experiences with the game.

Bryan's nation-based approach to the game is a really interesting one. It's very impressive that he's had the opportunity to manage players to the level of success he has from such a small nation, and also cool that he's able to exert that amount of influence on Sri Lanka's fortunes within the World Team Cup.

I've taken a relatively more standard approach--working with individual players within their own competitive context and hoping to achieve some goals on a managerial level.

Some of the goals that I established in the early going are:
1. Have a player seeded in a Grand Slam (ergo, be Top 32 in the world)
2. Have a player make the second week of a Grand Slam (Round of 16)
3. Have a player participate in their nation's World Team Cup squad (Top 2 in singles or doubles at U15, U16, U18, and 18+ age levels)

Relatively modest goals, but they all required some planning and persistence.

I play to the max for a free account on this site--I carry two players in two different worlds. I'll be giving the account for both worlds and all players here. I think I'll start with a snapshot of where things are now, and then give a brief history on how I've come to this point.

[britrock88]

We'll start in Game World 2.

1rr2fiser.png

This is Petr Fiser, from the Czech Republic.

RR generates players as 14-year-olds. To maximize a player's potential, it's best to get started with him as soon as possible. I hired Petr at 14y5wk, drawn in mainly by his potential 3.9/5 endurance as a mature player. He's been a great player so far, finishing each year as a Top 5 player at his age and playing for CZE's Junior Team Cup U15 and U16 teams. You can see he's just outside the Top 100 for all U18 players as a guy who's barely 16.

1rr2schelling.png

This is Kevin Schelling, from Argentina.

I hired him... yesterday--6 weeks ago in game time. That was a result of being able to retire Rafael Colomar as my new trainer (and a 5/5 one at that!). His endurance projects to be a bit less as a mature player (closer to 3), so I may drop him for a more mature player if circumstances warrant. That said, he ages slowly (that 97% aging factor), so he has more time to build up his abilities--skill, service, and doubles--before reaching full maturity.

[britrock88]

So why am I mentioning endurance in conjunction with teenagers who are 60-80% developed? Bryan has talked about this, but I'll refresh it. Good endurance simply allows a player to play more before tiring. Ability is the name of the game, and you increase your ability by purchasing it with experience you gain from tournament play, training, or friendly matches. Talent gives you a small measure of experience for free, but endurance allows you to get more matches in to earn more experience.

[britrock88]

1rr2ability.png

Here's an illustration of player development. To be as clear as I can be:

Ability: the holistic concept of Skill, Service, and Doubles
Skill, Service and Doubles: hopefully self-defined, but Skill applies to all play, Service to service, and Doubles to doubles play
Experience: the points earned through play and as a result of a player's talent

Now, there are a few columns to note here, too. Points in an ability category is a raw number. A player's Service and Doubles max out at 100, while Skill goes to 125 or more. 20 adjusted points equals 1 tennis ball in ability.

Age% is a modifier applied to an ability's points total. That's why Fiser's 53 Skill points only amount to 2.1 tennis balls (out of 5)--the 53 is counted at 78%. Age% track's a player's career path, starting around 60% and reaching ~105% in a player's prime before declining. The rate at which a player's Age% changes depends on the player's Aging Factor (see the player pages for reference), which can range from 95-105% but is fixed for each player.

Train Cost is the amount of experience required to improve an ability by 1 point. Cost increases progressively as a player's ability improves.

[britrock88]

Now that I've discussed aging, it's time to circle around to player attributes, which you see in the player cards on the right-hand side of each player page.

Skill, Service, and Doubles are trainable abilities, as I've gone over. Talent is a fixed personal characteristic; so, too, are Mentality (a player's aptitude in break-point and tiebreak situations) and Home Advantage.

Strength, Speed, and Endurance are linked to a player's Age%. Players have a hidden peak for each of these ratings, though you can tease it out with a little algebra. Endurance is a little special in that it is doubly affected by Age%. The formula for calculating a player's peak Endurance is thus a little more complicated--such that my estimates for Fiser and Schelling above are probably wrong .

[britrock88]

I didn't expect to immediately dive into a discussion of the game, but I think it's useful! Let me know as time goes on if there is more that I can attempt to clarify.

[britrock88]

Jumping over to Game World 12...

1rr12hansell.png

Timmy Hansell is the best thing I've got going--fitting for my last original player (hired him 12.5 years ago--3.5 months in real-world time). See that 5.0 Skill rating and 4.0 Service rating? Good stuff! He's #31 in the world with Wimbledon just around the corner. He was the 28-seed at the recently held Roland Garros, and has made a handful of Grand Slam rounds of 16.

It was just at the end of Year 249 that I realized that I had been holding Hansell back in his singles career. He and Leo Benincasa, his doubles partner (who you'll meet below), have been a successful doubles pairing, each peaking at around #30 in the world doubles ranking and racking up 21 Challenger doubles titles and 1 World Tour 250 title. With the new focus on Hansell's singles, he's climbed to 31st from 46th at the end of last year.

1rr12benincasa.png

And here's Leo. At 31, he's my oldest player since I retired Rafael Colomar in GW2 as of yesterday. I've been building up his Doubles rating (to 4.9 now) to assist Hansell as age chips away at Leo's Skill and Service. Benincasa has been in my fold for almost 5 years, and was a World Team Cup doubles participant for top-tier Italy until about a year ago.

One last image here will help demonstrate the difference in ability and Train Cost between teenagers, like Petr and Kevin in GW2, and mature players, as Timmy and Leo are here.

1rr12ability.png

[Brian Swartz]

Thought I'd jump in here with a few comments, hopefully not annoying or hijacking ones.

Looks like a good young player you have there in Fiser. I'm particularly impressed with him being off to a good starting training-wise. 53/28 at that age is excellent, Mooljee in my game is 56/31 a half a year later -- and in a much slower universe, which makes a big difference. So great start there!

What impresses me most about Fiser is his athleticism(3.2 strength, 3.6 speed at max). That's a hair better than any player I've had. Mental game isn't as good as Hansell but I still think he's a better player. Top 20 is probably possible with him.

Schelling is interesting, athleticism almost as good as Fiser and very good mentality! With mediocre talent and endurance you are on the right path with looking for a potential replacement, but he could still be an interesting guy to train.

I find it interesting that Hansell's technical abilities are almost as good as Mehul's(5.0/4.0 vs. 5.2/3.8).

Last thing, by way of suggestion: I think you are overplaying with Hansell. Maybe to get his ranking up? Tis' a very tempting thing to do. Anyway, the reason I say that is you are at 29 form the week before Wimbledon, which means the performance and experience penalties will have kicked in at the 4th round if you made it that far. I wonder if the points from Eastbourne are really worth that? Up to you(of course), but since you a player good enough to get seeded at the Slams I'd want to max them for the big events so they have the best chance to pull some upsets and go deep. FWIW, the sweet spot is 19-19.8 at the beginning of the first Slam week; that way you can play at your peak all the way through even if you make the final. I'm sure that tournament is long over by now, but ...

In any case, it looks like you are definitely making some good progress and you go along and, in one benefit from playing a faster universe, I definitely envy you having a max trainer! I'm very curious to see how Fiser and Hansell's careers compare when they are finished, and who else you manage to pick up in the meantime.

[britrock88]

Glad you're peeking in at this. To hit your most salient point: I'm definitely aware that I'm overplaying Hansell. I did that to get him seeded for Roland Garros, and you know how congested the tournament schedule is continuing into July/August. Hansell defended his 3rd-round placing at Wimbledon, and he carried a 30.4 into that match, so I wasn't too disturbed. I have a little more space to rest Hansell for the US Open while trying to defend his place among the seeds. (He's not required to play the Masters, so I'm looking at a 500/250 or two, max, between Wimbledon and the Open.)

Looking forward to getting some time to recap the decade or so I've put into each world thus far!

[britrock88]

These worlds are so fast. A weekly update means that I have about a full year to catch up on.

[britrock88]

Starting in GW2. My biggest update is that I dumped Schelling when I noticed this gent:

1rr2zabborra.png

I was amazed to see a player with 4.5 talent and 4.4 endurance sitting available. He had just turned 20 when I picked him up ~9 months ago, and he had only been owned for a single week until then (!). A young player growing up with computer management will be underdeveloped, sure. But with crazy endurance, it takes Zabborra slightly more than 2 training sessions to use his 50 fatigue per day--that will help him build up experience quickly.

Already, Zabborra has climbed from outside the top 1400 to his present spot at #616. I'm much more focused on building up his skill through practice than in improving his ranking in tournament play, but he still won multiple amateur tournaments and made himself ineligible for more AMAs by sitting in the top 1000.

[britrock88]

A year's worth of progress for Fiser sees him here:

1rr2fiser.png

He shot up from the mid 80s to 28th just this week, as the 18-year-olds aged out of the junior rankings. You ever read any Malcolm Gladwell--specifically, the essays where he talks about clustering of birthdays for success in sports due to age cut-offs? Petr is the kind of kid who is going to take advantage of that. With a January birthday, he will be 18 for almost all of Year 304 and have a fairly dominant season among the youth ranks before moving up to the general classification.

The highlight of Petr's year was helping the Czech 16U World Cup team win the world title. He posted a 10-2 record in singles as the Czech Republic's #1 player in the age group. A 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 win over the American Mardy Hutson (currently #10 in juniors) clinced the title for the Czechs.

Other highlights:
- a quarterfinals run in doubles at the Junior Aussie Open
- 2 singles titles (on grass!) at Junior Grade 3 tourneys

With his present standing in juniors, the hope is that Petr will have the ability to be choosy about entering tournaments to get matches in and have more time to practice and train. At the year-opening Traralgon JG1 tourney, he's the 9-seed in a 64-man field.

[britrock88]

Meanwhile, in GW12...

When last we checked in on Timmy Hansell, he was #30 in the world on the doorstep of Roland Garros. A runner-up finish at the Power Horse Cup 250 warmup actually pushed him up to the #28 seed, where he defended a 3rd-round appearance before falling to the #4 seed, French clay court specialist Hugo Kaspar, in an uncompetitive match.

At Wimbledon, Hansell also reached the 3rd round, before falling to #16 Jens Griem in a competitive 3-set match. Two months later, Hansell was the #31 seed drawn against the world's clear-and-away #1, fellow American Patrick Rudd, in the 3rd round. That 3-set loss sealed a third straight Round of 32 showing for Hansell at the Grand Slams in year 250.

The rest of Hansell's Year 250 season consisted of solid finishes (quarterfinals to runner-up showings) at tournaments ranging from 500-levels to Challenger+ tourneys when his ranking dipped into the mid-30s.

Year 251 began with a couple 250 tuneups in Australasia. Hansell entered the 251 Aussie Open at #36, so he found himself outside the seeds. Timmy nonetheless avoided meeting a seeded player before the 3rd round. There, he met #10 Alvito Mata, playing off his preferred clay surface.

That match proved to be an epic. Mata brought his serve, to the tune of 31 aces against 4 DFs (18/7 for Hansell). The level of play was high, and each man generated 15 break chances, but they were well-defended, as the match featured only 7 total breaks. Hansell had the edge on points in this match, 179-176, but Mata prevailed in a nail-biter, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, 3-6, 9-7.

Despite the loss, Hansell experienced a boost in his performance. A semifinal appearance at the Memphis 500 helped elevate his ranking back into the high-20s, where it stands in advance of Roland Garros.

[britrock88]

Highlights from the last year of Leo Benincasa's singles exploits (where he's #147) include qualifying runs at all four Slams and a run through qualifiers to the 2nd round at Indian Wells. However, at nearly 33 years of age, Leo Benincasa's career is now primarily his doubles career. He's partnered with Hansell.

At #s 41 and 54, Leo and Timmy aren't quite elite enough to garner a top-16 seed at the Slams (Hansell is maintaining his skill and service, and hasn't yet begun developing his doubles game). Even so, they've made the 3rd round at Roland Garros, while also appearing in the 2nd round on the hard-court Slams. In the last few months, Hansell-Benincasa also made the Indian Wells and Rome QFs. They are definitely a competent pair on hard and clay surfaces.

[britrock88]

Benincasa's ability breakdown now stands at 111 skill, 87 service, and 100 doubles. He has the potential to make a fine trainer someday--I've already begun prioritizing development of his service over his skill.

Why is that notable? Well, service affects half of a player's game--his aptitude while serving. So skill would ordinarily be twice as valuable. But for training purposes, service is 75% as important as skill. The training cost for developing Leo's service currently stands at more than 50% of the skill development cost, but less than 75%. So by choosing to develop service, I'm prioritizing Leo's development as a trainer.

[britrock88]

FTR, I know Bryan's reading, but if anyone else is following along and needs clarification, I'll be happy to give more explanations, screenshots, whatever!

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by britrock88

At the year-opening Traralgon JG1 tourney, he's the 9-seed in a 64-man field.

This became a big development. Fiser rolled to the title without dropping a set, benefitting from only having to knock off the 4- and 10-seeds on the way. The result of that win is this:

1rr2jrtop10.jpg

Very cool to get a 16yo in the Top 10. The #7 spot has the effect of allowing Fiser to be a presumptive quarterfinalist at any tournament he enters, with seed protection to match. My comment about pickiness in entering tournaments rings even truer. There are the 4 junior Slams, a handful of Junior Grade A tourneys... Whatever number of JG1s is necessary to keep Fiser's form in the yellow will probably be the limit of what other tournaments he enters. This is a great opportunity to give Fiser more time to spend developing his abilities.

[britrock88]

Quick GW12 update: I didn't enter Hansell into the Power Horse Cup to defend his points from last season, in order to keep him in good form for Roland Garros. I knew the points would be coming off, but I did not expect him to slip all the way to 35th!

Outside of the protective womb of the seeded stratosphere, Hansell could have been drawn against anyone in the first round... and he has been matched up with #16 Alan Shearer, a hard-court specialist with 4.7 skill, 4.4 service, 2.9 strength, 2.4 speed, and 3.9 mentality. Should be a good matchup, as Hansell is a 4.9/4.0/2.0/2.6/3.7 with more clay-court affinity. It would be an upset for Timmy, though.

[britrock88]

I was traveling last weekend and didn't have a chance to do an update, so what comes after this is going to cover a lot of ground. Here goes!

[britrock88]

Remembering that both of these worlds move at 4 real hours / game week, we push through 42 game weeks / real week. A 2-week update means I have little more than a year and a half of history to recap!

[britrock88]

GW2

First, here's what Samuel Zabborra looks like after some more development:

1rr2zabborra.png

His record of late includes singles and doubles titles at a FT1 clay-court event in Israel, a 2nd-round appearance at the Australian Open, another sweep at a clay-court FT2 tourney in Portugal, an FT1 doubles win on hard court in Italy, an FT2 singles title at a Spain clay court, an FT1 doubles win on clay in Tunisia, a handful of FT3 titles from early in year 302... He's done really well. From 1400th when I hired him, to the 600s in the most recent screenshot above, to the mid-200s now.

I captured his W-L record in the screenshot to give a broader impression of how well he's done in the futures-level tournaments. The more deep runs he makes, the fewer tournaments he has to play in to stay in decent (yellow) form. That's better because it gives him more time to practice and to train with Rafael Colomar.

I mention practice and training distinctly because of the difference in their efficacies; Bryan's gone over that in his dynasty. What's really interesting for Zabborra (and also for Petr Fiser) is that their endurance is so high, typical practice sessions don't use the 350 fatigue per week that they're allotted. (Players recover 50 fatigue per day). Combined with the fast rate of progress in this game world, that means I have to check in on these guys fairly constantly to get extra training sessions in. And because their endurance is great (both above 4.0), they require more training sessions than the average player to get tired!

All this to say that I definitely am leaving some opportunity for development on the table, which is really too bad. But given the constraints of this game world, I'm doing my best. Zabborra's just left his peak in physical form, but his skill is up half a tennis ball, and his service is up more than a full tennis ball. The next step for him is to enter challenger-level play.

[britrock88]

GW2

The last year and a half has done nothing to dissuade me that Petr Fiser will see some success as a full professional tennis player:

1rr2fiser.png

No complaints with QF/RUP/SF appearances at this year's Slams thus far. It's fine to be a high achiever at the junior level, but the real glory/money/etc. is at the full level. His 101% aging factor means he'll peak a touch earlier than average. At the same time, though, he may some day surpass the undisputed #1 in juniors, Florian Aramendi, and his 104% aging factor. Aramendi hasn't lost a match this year, and is the only player in the junior classification to have won junior A-level or Slam tournaments. (He double-bagled Fiser in the final at Roland Garros! Three weeks after breadstick-bagling Fiser in the Italian Open final!) He's that dominant. Looks at the points among the players in the Top 10 for reference:

1rr2jrtop10.jpg

Aramendi nearly TRIPLES #2 Lohmeyer in points. I'm very happy with Fiser anywhere in this Top 10--again, the focus is not so much on peaking now as it is to stay in form and develop. On that note, the 35 tournaments that show for Fiser is really an overrepresentation--Fiser has been a mainstay on the dominant Czech JTC squad, which accounts for at least a third of his competitive play. I'm essentially only playing him in JGSs, JGAs, and whatever JG1s are needed to keep him in form.

[britrock88]

GW12

A day later, I have some more time to write up on tennis exploits! And only a year and a half to catch up on in the careers of mature pros -- a little more involved than for young guys like I have in GW2.

Here's Timmy Hansell:

1rr12hansell.png

You'll notice a few things here. First off, as he's pushing 30, his physical skills are regression more quickly than I can train him to maintain them. His once 5.0/4.0 skill/service spread is now a 4.9/3.8... I guess that's not a ton of regression, but it's happening. The second significant thing is the change in emphasis from singles to doubles. He's at a 3.3 in doubles after starting from about zero just over a year ago.

Why that change? Well, I read the tea leaves about the time Hansell couldn't earn a seed for Roland Garros 251. He did make the 3rd round of that tournament, but couldn't break though in warmup tourneys for Wimbledon or the US Open, so he bowed out in the 2nd round of both tourneys to seeded opponents. He did win both titles at CH1 Segovia and CH+ Sao Paolo as the end of 251 approached.

Hansell's Year 252 can be summarized in my next post, about the other guy in my GW12 stable...

[britrock88]

That allusion refers to the fact that I have a new second man--Andrew Farr:

1rr12farr.png

Basically, what happened was... Farr was fired at the end of 251. Leo Benincasa's skills were deteriorating with age, and Farr seemed like a way to pair Hansell up with a partner who would fare better over the next few years.

Forcing Benincasa into retirement at the beginning of 252, I was fortunate to have in him a 33-year-old trainer with refined enough abilities to be a 4.6 trainer. A nice ancillary benefit to this change in Hansell's doubles partner.

In the long run, I would imagine that Hansell can max out (though Bryan, I have come across a 5.1 trainer, so there must be a different upper limit!) as a trainer. But it'll be nice to have Benincasa for the years until that becomes a possibility.

[britrock88]

The Hansell-Farr duo got off to a great start, reaching the 252 Aussie QF, beating the 10-seeded pair before yielding meekly to the 3-seeds. Their next big splash was during clay court season, at the Estoril Open. They entered this 250 as the 4-seeded pair, and avoided facing a fellow seed until the finals. There, they prevailed in a 2-6, 6-3, 10-3 fight to take home the title!

That victory was not quite enough to get Timmy and Andrew into the seeds for Roland Garros and Wimbledon, but they made 2nd- and 3rd-round appearances regardless before bowing out to favored seeded pairs.

Hansell-Farr did well in the run-up to the US Open, with 2 RUPs in 250s. At the US, they earned the 16-seed, and stomped the 6-seed pair 6-3, 6-2, to earn a QF matchup with the doubles #1s, Mauro Ferri and Dino Agosti. Putting up a great fight, the upstarts lost 2-6, 6-3, 3-6.

After the US Open, the tourney appearances slowed. Year-end tune-ups at the Helsinki indoor CH+ and Sao Paolo hard-court CH1 saw Hansell and Farr make title runs.

Getting into form for the 253 Aussie Open, Hansell-Farr entered the Sydney 250 as the 6th-ranked team in the field, but unseeded. Their QF match was against the 3-seed, and featured a truly epic second-set tiebreak. Despite the loss of that 30-point affair, Timmy and Andrew prevailed, 6-1, 6-7 (14), 10-3. After that, Hansell-Farr got an easier win against the #2 pair in the semis. The title match against the 4-seed was the toughest fight of all. Hansell and Farr won 74 points to the opponents' 75, and converted 2/9 break points against 4/9. But it was their endurance that pulled them through to a 2-6, 7-6 (4), 11-9 win and another 250 title!

Hansell and Farr have settled into the 31 and 32 spots in the world doubles rankings. That earned them a 16-seed into the 253 Aussie Open, where they met little resistance until running into the 5-seed in the 3rd round. Hansell was gassed from a tough singles loss of his own*, and the 5-seed pair cruised.

Hansell and Farr will lose some points by falling a round shorter than last year's result in the Aussie, but they should be able to make regular runs in major tournaments over the course of the season.

* (Hansell, despite dropping out of the world top 100 in singles, is obviously still very talented. In the 2nd round, he met fellow American and 29-seed Chad Butcher. Hansell fought gamely, defending 16 of 20 break chances Butcher earned and converting 5 of the 7 chances he generated. The tiebreaker was cruel to Hansell, though. Butcher won by a line of 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4).)

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by britrock88

though Bryan, I have come across a 5.1 trainer, so there must be a different upper limit!)

Well ... arglebarglezorz. Thanks for this info, looks like I need to adjust my strategy(and probably pop back into rr2 for more testing). Also interested to see what happens with Zaborra, quite bizarre that he was just sitting ther e for the taking.

[collegesportsfanms]

I'm enjoying reading this, I admit my curiosity made me go check out this game. I'm intrigued. I signed up for 2 worlds (can't remember the exact world numbers, but they are the very slow and the slow world). Unfortunately I spent way too many points hiring 1 guy in the very slow world, and I can't hire another. I got 2 younger guys for the slow world.

Maybe you or somebody else familiar with this game can help me out, what do all the different tournaments mean? I mean there's major, amateur, junior, challenger, and I think one other type. What do they all mean, and how do I know which would be the best type of tournament to put my guys in?

Also, how do I earn more hiring points so that I can hire a 2nd guy for my very slow world?

[Brian Swartz]

You've really asked for it here. I'm sort of the self-appointed strategy guru for that kind of thing . There's lots of strategy stuff in my thread(Legends of Sri Lanka) if you want more details, though it's not all in one spot.

To answer your questions specifically:

Tournament Types

Juniors -- Young players start here. Players who have not yet turned 18 as of the start of the calendar year can enter these. A 'junior' player can still play other types of events on the 'pro' tour though.

Amateur -- Lowest level of 'professional' tournaments. There are usually 4-5 every week, most surfaces available every week. Restricted to those ranked outside the Top 1000. World-class players will already pretty much be beyond these by the time they are done in juniors. Less talented players may find them useful for a while.

Futures -- The next step up. All players outside of the Top 200 can play here. For many journeymen players, this is where they will spend their careers. Hopefully your players will be better.

Challengers -- I think of these as the 'bridge to greatness', so to speak. The Top 32 are barred from participating but anyone below that can, so only the elite players are too good to be found here. Until you get to the 200-300 range playing futures, these should be off your radar completely.

Major -- Slams/Masters/500/250, the four main categories of fully professional events, along with specials like the Olympics and Tour Finals are found here. This is where you go when you've reached the top of the sport. Don't even think about it until you're in the Top 200.

What Events Should I Enter?

I have come to realize there are two fundamentally different kinds of players to answer that question with.

1. Elite Players. By this I mean those who can't play challengers and will be seeded in Slams. These are those in the Top 32. Their schedule should be made, in my opinion, primarily to maximize performance in big events. From your description it sounds likely you don't have one of these yet.

2. Everybody Else. Your goal should actually be to play as few tournaments as possible. Why? Because this allows you to maximize practice time. When you aren't in a tournament, you should be entered into a 'practice tournament' to gain experience so you can improve your player. Every tournament you enter should be in both singles and doubles. In order to gain the maximum(100%) experience from matches, you have to be at least at 15 form. Since you lose 8% from your form 'status' every week, that means if you are at 16.2 or higher, you should play a practice tournament the next week(since otherwhise you'd dip below that 15.0 level). If not, you should be in a competitive tournament. There are relatively rare exceptions, but that's the basic approach.

Originally Posted by collegesportsfanmas

Also, how do I earn more hiring points so that I can hire a 2nd guy for my very slow world?

You earn them in tournaments. You can see the amount you earn for each round by clicking on a tournament and then 'Prizes'. Prize money shown there as well. Practice tournaments give you points for each win as well.

As you are new, I took the liberty of taking a look at your player in rr1, since it's the world I compete in and I'm highly familiar with it. Of course you can take the concepts and apply them to other worlds, and should . Jack Priest. First thing I notice: 32.1 form. This is bad. You'll notice that he has the following affects:

** Skill -0.2, Service -0.2. That means that in those basic categories, he's playing like a 4.2/2.7 player instead of a 4.4/2.9. He's handicapped because he's been overplayed. So the first thing you want to do is do practice events with him. As he's just lost in the first round of the Queen's Club 250, he's going to give you 0 points this week . The first thing you want to do is play him in practice tournaments for a while to get that down. You won't get a lot of points there, but you will get some.

** He's almost 31 years old, or past his prime. Your goal with this kind of player isn't really going to be to accomplish anything great, but to turn him into a trainer. Right now he'd be about 3.9(out of 5) on that scale.

** Since you just started, one option would be simply to fire Priest and reset your points(I forget exactly where to do that, but I've done it a couple of times some while ago). Or you could keep going with Priest and work on hiring more players. To make a top player, you need to hire them while they are young, usually 14. New players come into the pool every few game weeks, on Monday. Either way, what I recommend is to use an established player and a young player. The young player you are going to build up as best you can in the juniors; the established player, who will typically be the best you can afford in their mid-late 20s(or Priest for this purpose), you can use to earn points so you can get an older player to turn into a trainer. The sooner you have a quality trainer, the better you can improve your youngsters.

I'm sure by this point I've probably just created more questions than I've answered, and I don't want to completely hijack this thread. Let me know if there's more you want to find out, but above all enjoy your adventures in Rockin Rackets.

[collegesportsfanms]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

You've really asked for it here. I'm sort of the self-appointed strategy guru for that kind of thing . There's lots of strategy stuff in my thread(Legends of Sri Lanka) if you want more details, though it's not all in one spot.

To answer your questions specifically:

Tournament Types

Juniors -- Young players start here. Players who have not yet turned 18 as of the start of the calendar year can enter these. A 'junior' player can still play other types of events on the 'pro' tour though.

Amateur -- Lowest level of 'professional' tournaments. There are usually 4-5 every week, most surfaces available every week. Restricted to those ranked outside the Top 1000. World-class players will already pretty much be beyond these by the time they are done in juniors. Less talented players may find them useful for a while.

Futures -- The next step up. All players outside of the Top 200 can play here. For many journeymen players, this is where they will spend their careers. Hopefully your players will be better.

Challengers -- I think of these as the 'bridge to greatness', so to speak. The Top 32 are barred from participating but anyone below that can, so only the elite players are too good to be found here. Until you get to the 200-300 range playing futures, these should be off your radar completely.

Major -- Slams/Masters/500/250, the four main categories of fully professional events, along with specials like the Olympics and Tour Finals are found here. This is where you go when you've reached the top of the sport. Don't even think about it until you're in the Top 200.

What Events Should I Enter?

I have come to realize there are two fundamentally different kinds of players to answer that question with.

1. Elite Players. By this I mean those who can't play challengers and will be seeded in Slams. These are those in the Top 32. Their schedule should be made, in my opinion, primarily to maximize performance in big events. From your description it sounds likely you don't have one of these yet.

2. Everybody Else. Your goal should actually be to play as few tournaments as possible. Why? Because this allows you to maximize practice time. When you aren't in a tournament, you should be entered into a 'practice tournament' to gain experience so you can improve your player. Every tournament you enter should be in both singles and doubles. In order to gain the maximum(100%) experience from matches, you have to be at least at 15 form. Since you lose 8% from your form 'status' every week, that means if you are at 16.2 or higher, you should play a practice tournament the next week(since otherwhise you'd dip below that 15.0 level). If not, you should be in a competitive tournament. There are relatively rare exceptions, but that's the basic approach.



You earn them in tournaments. You can see the amount you earn for each round by clicking on a tournament and then 'Prizes'. Prize money shown there as well. Practice tournaments give you points for each win as well.

As you are new, I took the liberty of taking a look at your player in rr1, since it's the world I compete in and I'm highly familiar with it. Of course you can take the concepts and apply them to other worlds, and should . Jack Priest. First thing I notice: 32.1 form. This is bad. You'll notice that he has the following affects:

** Skill -0.2, Service -0.2. That means that in those basic categories, he's playing like a 4.2/2.7 player instead of a 4.4/2.9. He's handicapped because he's been overplayed. So the first thing you want to do is do practice events with him. As he's just lost in the first round of the Queen's Club 250, he's going to give you 0 points this week . The first thing you want to do is play him in practice tournaments for a while to get that down. You won't get a lot of points there, but you will get some.

** He's almost 31 years old, or past his prime. Your goal with this kind of player isn't really going to be to accomplish anything great, but to turn him into a trainer. Right now he'd be about 3.9(out of 5) on that scale.

** Since you just started, one option would be simply to fire Priest and reset your points(I forget exactly where to do that, but I've done it a couple of times some while ago). Or you could keep going with Priest and work on hiring more players. To make a top player, you need to hire them while they are young, usually 14. New players come into the pool every few game weeks, on Monday. Either way, what I recommend is to use an established player and a young player. The young player you are going to build up as best you can in the juniors; the established player, who will typically be the best you can afford in their mid-late 20s(or Priest for this purpose), you can use to earn points so you can get an older player to turn into a trainer. The sooner you have a quality trainer, the better you can improve your youngsters.

I'm sure by this point I've probably just created more questions than I've answered, and I don't want to completely hijack this thread. Let me know if there's more you want to find out, but above all enjoy your adventures in Rockin Rackets.

Wow! Thanks for all the info. I've been playing it all wrong then. The first thing I need to do is either get rid of Priest or get him in more practice tournaments. I've found that it's hard to get an established vet and a youngster right off the bat with just 150 points to start, so I could fire Priest, get a youngster for about 60 points, then get the best established guy I can for 90 points, which would be an option I suppose.

In my other world, I have a 14 year old and I believe an 18 year old. I suppose I should probably get rid of the 18 year old and get an older, more established veteran?

However, I'm assuming if I fire a player, I don't get those points back that I used to hire him, so it would make more sense just to roll with what I've got for now until I build up enough points to fire someone and hire someone else. Or in the case of rr1, I can keep Priest, but I still need to build up enough points to hire a youngster.

Am I confusing you? Because I think I'm confusing myself. lol

[Brian Swartz]

I could fire Priest, get a youngster for about 60 points, then get the best established guy I can for 90 points, which would be an option I suppose.

That's what I would do. You are right that you can't get the points back when you fire a player, but you can reset your points to the starting 150 after doing that. In the other world I'd get rid of which ever player is the weakest in terms of potential, that's probably the 18 y.o. but it depends on the player.

[britrock88]

I'm willing and (somewhat, perhaps? let Brian judge) able to pitch in with ideas and strategies too. Because this dynasty moves so fast, I don't do a whole lot more than give results while touching on important aspects of the game. But I can certainly slow down to be more instructive.

That said, no disagreements with what Brian's post above said... except that I always enter the Slams, because they're slams.

[chesapeake]

I got inspired to join when I started reading this dynasty as well. I started with 14 year-olds in rr4 and rr12. The documentation for the game is weak, so I've been using a lot of trial and error. Am I correct in thinking that the mentality, talent and home advantage rating you start with will never improve?

[Brian Swartz]

You are correct. Those are what they are and don't change.

[ntndeacon]

I was inspired as well, though I recently hit reset and started over in rr1

[digamma]

I have two guys in rr8. Just starting up with them. Under Digamma, Hans Kramer and Clavet Landry. Would love any thoughts.

How do I see the results of practice?

[Brian Swartz]

More later tonight or tomorrow, but you click on the score after the match to see the results of any match, whether practice or otherwhise.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by britrock88

I'm willing and (somewhat, perhaps? let Brian judge) able to pitch in with ideas and strategies too.

You're definitely able. Sure, you do some things a little differently than I would, but that can be beneficial(the contrast, so people can choose and not just be told what to do). Most of what I've learned has been by trial and error -- more error than I'd like, and I'm still finding out new strategic wrinkles.

Originally Posted by digamma

Hans Kramer and Clavet Landry. Would love any thoughts.

Ok, this will be a bit long but I'll try to keep it reasonable. I did a similar rundown in my thread; I'll take a look at your players and tell you what I'd be looking for. First off it's good that you have players of two different ages.

Clavet Landry

** Age: 15y 4w(71%), 102% Aging Factor

Aging Factor ranges from 95% to 105%. Higher is better for juniors, lower is better for a pro; the lower the number, the more longevity they will have after their physical peak, but higher aging factor means the player will develop quicker physically, so they'll be better when they are young.

So Landry is going to be a bit better as a junior than a pro most likely -- relatively speaking. The 71% is a really important number. It means he can use that amount of his skill, service, speed, and strength. It affects endurance double(in other words, his endurance is multiplied by 71% twice, not once, to get the current value).

We can use this in reverse to get some important information about his peak abilities. By that I mean, how high his speed/strength/endurance will be when he's at his physical apex, which is usually age 20-22 roughly depending on the aging factor.

Strength: 2.9
Speed: 3.5
Endurance: 2.5, maybe 2.6

Athletically(speed and strength) he's going to be good but not great. Endurance is only going to hit average at best. That's a problem if you are going for a top player. I consider endurance to be the single most important rating, because it impacts how much you can train. It's not a complicated thing: 2.5 endurance means you get a point of fatigue every 2.5 points in a match. Generally speaking you want a max of 3.0 endurance, at the very least and most world-class players will be closer to 4 at a minimum.

Those three, strength/speed/endurance, are the three that vary with age that you can't train, making it very important to get a handle on them. To run through the static ratings(i.e., those that never change):

Home Adv(3.3) -- only important for low-ranking players and therefore not all that important at all: it has no effect in Slams, and increasing effect in smaller events. It's nice to have of course but I wouldn't base any decisions on it, and there's nothing wrong with this above-average level.

Mentality(3.1) -- This is quite important as it helps with break points and similar vital points in a match. It's one of those things that seems to show up sometimes and other times not. This is a solid score, not great but credible.

Talent(4.4) -- Amount of 'free' experience points per day that you get for training is determined here. This would give you 28 or thereabouts. Definitely Clavet's best attribute and will help to make up for the relative lack of endurance.

And then there's the stuff you can train:

Skill(0.2), Service(0.2), Doubles(0.2). I would say Clavet is definitely behind the curve for his age.

All told, he's set to be a pretty good player but nothing special. Probably the peak here is to be a Top 200 player(I'm guessing, but I doubt I'm far off), a challenger-level competitor but the combination of 'starting off behind' and fairly low endurance means that it will be tough to any better than maybe close to 100th at best.

Landry should be playing a juniors tournament next week, not the Mexico practice tournament. Practice up till now has definitely been the right move, but his form will drop under 15, resulting in an experience penalty. Best to play both singles and doubles to maximize the benefit, and I'd say the JG5 in either Lublin or Cusco makes the most sense given he's just starting out.

Without all the digression, let's look at Hans Kramer:

** 19y 26w(97%), 96% aging factor

Set for a long pro career, and nearing his physical peak. It's easier to see when they get this close:

Strength 1.2, Speed 2.9, Endurance 1.7

I'll just say here as nicely as I can that I don't even have to look at the player pool to know you can do a lot better than this. He's got the firepower of a flimsy noodle and the dedication of a couch potato . And he's a bit quicker than most. Whoopee-freaking-do.

Mentality(1.7) ... so he's adept at raising the white flag, that won't help either; Skill(2.9), Service(1.6) isn't horrid for his age I don't think but it's pretty bad.

Recommendation

To start out you, I recommend a player close to their prime(that being late 20s) that can earn you some points, and a youngster. The point of the 'prime' player is to earn you enough points to hire the best available trainer candidate, then once that exchange is made you work on getting at least a decent trainer up and running. Once you have the trainer, you get a second youngster and it's off to the races. Younger players haven't wasted their potential yet, and top players near their prime are never available.

So from here, if you want to follow that plan you need to either fire both players and reset, or hang on to Kramer just long enough to get a quality player in their prime. If so he needs to be playing amateur tournaments(since he has no ranking) like crazy, singles and doubles both, to get his form up. Right now he is horrible at everything he does, note under form a 55% experience yield(YUCK!) and -1.5 to skill and serve, making him play like a 1.4/0.1 player(in other words, any decent junior would destroy him) instead of a 2.9/1.6. In a few weeks he could actually be doing something after that rises.

A quick glance at the available players notes you'll need about 300 points or a little more to get the best available prime players. That would be your goal whether you fire both and hire a new youngster/points earner combo or stick with Kramer. Then after that you'd want to go after the trainer player.

So yeah, if you have any more questions after this novella, fire away.

[digamma]

Thanks for this. A little overwhelming but sounds like I need to fire and reset. Will ask more as I digest.

[britrock88]

Update time! Starting in GW2:

rr2zabborra.png

Samuel continues to do very well in his tournament chances--see his 75% win rate in singles. Even though he, at 23yo, has passed his physical peak, I still consider him a developing player and am prioritizing practice and ability development.

Tournament highlights include a sweep at the FT1 tournament in Holland in week 5 of year 304 and 3 other singles titles at FT1 tourneys at the end of year 303. Those notables belie the fact that Zabborra is playing at a competitive level (by which I mean regular QF appearances) in CH2 and CH1 tourneys at this point.

A brief aside about signing up for tournaments. By trial and error, I'm finding that the site has some level of intelligence about signing a player up for a tournament among multiple choices. I think what it does is register a player for the most advantageous tournament (in terms of the player's seeding) at the highest level he registers for. See the CH2 and CH1 tourneys in the sidebar, both in week 31? I think the game signs the player up for a CH1 tourney--but if there are multiple CH1s, the game picks the best one for the player to enter. Might be worth keeping in mind as you get players into tournament play.

[britrock88]

rr2fiser.png

We left off with Petr Fiser having made the semis at junior Wimbledon. Nothing about the second half of his final juniors year was any worse. He got 2 singles wins to help CZE clinch yet another Junior Team Cup championship. He made the semis in singles and doubles at the junior US Open. He was a runner-up in singles and doubles at the A-level tourney in Osaka. He swept the 1-level tournament in Merida, Mexico. And he made the semis in A-levels at the Orange Bowl and Casablanca. All of those tourney finishes had one thing in common--losses to runaway junior #1 Florian Aramendi.

Just to give you guys a glimpse of how freakishly good this guy is...

rr2aramendi.png

An undefeated singles campaign last year. Swept the junior Slams and A-levels. Two title match losses in doubles (at the US Open and the Orange Bowl) were the only blemishes on his record. Sheesh.

The good news for me is that Fiser is not far behind this kid in terms of ability. Portends well for the future!

Anyway, Petr got a couple Amateur titles under his belt early in the year to vault him into the top 1000. He's still practicing a lot and getting into FT3 tourneys now.

[britrock88]

GW12

When last we checked in on Timmy Hansell and Andrew Farr, they had just sneaked into the seeds for the 253 Aussie Open, at #31 and #32 in the world doubles rankings. The rest of 253 offered evidence of continued improvement as a doubles pairing.

rr12hansell.jpg

Here, I've given you a snapshot of Hansell with the pair's Masters results beneath it. With a lone hiccup in Rome, Timmy and Andrew found more success as the year went on. The SFs in Madrid, Cincinnati, and Paris were especially encouraging.

The duo also earned titles in the early 253 Sydney and San Jose 250s and Memphis 500. That did a lot of the work in vaulting the pair into the positions they finished the year in. (Did you see Hansell's #13?)

[britrock88]

For some more detail, here's Andrew Farr and the partners' Slam results:

rr12farr.jpg

Solid round-of-16 and QF finishes throughout the Slam season.

The big story for the pair, though, was the chase for the World Tour Finals in doubles. The WTFs take the top 8 pairs; Hansell/Farr was the 9-seed in the US Open. Six weeks later, they were the 9th-ranked (but first unseeded) pair at the Shanghai Masters. A tight win--4-6, 6-2, 10-8, got them to the QFs there and earned them an important 180 points. When the Paris Masters came around in another 3 weeks, Hansell/Farr found themselves as the 7-seed. Luck was in their court, as the 2-seed they would have met in the QFs was upset, so Timmy and Andrew ran to the SFs. That was enough to clinch their spot in the WTF.

For a quick reminder of how the Finals work, there are 2 groups of 4 that conduct round-robin play to determine qualifiers for a 4-team tournament. The 1- and 2-seeds and 3- and 4-seeds are separated. There are a LOT of ranking points involved--200 per win in round-robin play, 400 for winning a SF, 500 more for winning the final. (For comparison's sake, Hansell and Farr have ~4400 ranking points to position them in 13th/14th.)

Hansell and Farr had a great run of play at the WTFs and somehow came away with nothing to show for it. They took one set against all of their opponents and lost all 3 tiebreakers. A quick scoring rundown:

Against the world #1s: 6-2, 4-6, 9-11; 62 points for, 58 against
Against an unseeded pair (#5/#16): 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-10; 83 for, 89 against
Against the world #3s: 5-7, 7-5, 4-10; 75 for, 79 against

The set wins are great--as tiebreakers. Frustrating as the losses were, Hansell and Farr clearly belong here. Hopefully they'll make it back and make some more noise in 254.

[Brian Swartz]

I've never gotten anybody far enough yet to make them a top doubles player. Looks like you are doing quite well at it though!

[britrock88]

Fall is a busy time... which is bad news for fun little diversions like RR. The last weeks have seen these arcs, in brief:

In RR2, I didn't have much trouble getting Zabborra and Fiser into the 60-80 range in the rankings. But I really have had trouble getting them farther up. I think part of the issue is tournament selection--that's a range where regular QF/SF/F appearances in CH-grade tourneys start to even out with winning even a match or two in a 250. So maybe I haven't spent enough attention in putting these guys in the right spot.

In RR12, Hansell and Farr have spent a lot of time bouncing around in the teens in the doubles rankings. They've made a WTF or two together. In one strange down year, there were some top-10 players that were retired to become trainers, and the shunned partner ended up pairing with only Farr in a WTF. Farr had also been playing WTC with another American.

In both cases, there was a level of stagnation that caused me to consider switching into slower game worlds (Brian, any tips on how to do this? Just fire players and move, or something more complicated?) or quitting altogether. But then, tonight, I checked in on the guys after a weekend where I haven't been able to manage them at all (costing them a few months' worth of tourney registrations and practice/development), and...

Hansell and Farr won the US Open in doubles! What a great surprise. They were the 9-seed going in, about where they have been thus far this year--just outside the WTF cutoff. After two walkovers, Timmy and Andrew prevailed in an epic 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 match against the 8-seeded pair. The QF matchup was a relatively easy one in the 11-seed, but another compelling match ensued. Hansell/Farr took the first set 6-4 before enduring a 2-6 letdown in the second, but they recovered expertly with a 6-0 third.

They had a fairly easy time of the 5-seed in the SF, notching a 6-1, 6-4 win. The final saw Hansell and Farr pair off against the 3-seed, a pairing of two different managers' guys (interesting) with 3 Masters' titles to their credit.

It was another great, trying match. The 3-seed pair brought more firepower, with 12 aces and only 1 DF to 8/5 for the good guys. But Timmy and Andrew played great defensive tennis (taking 38 of 89 receiving points) and converted 4 of 6 break chances en route to a 6-1, 1-6, 7-5 triumph.

The US Open title vaulted Farr to 10th in the world, and Hansell to 12th. They're safe for the WTF this year, and are now the top 2 in the US, so they are partnered together for the WTC, where the US has reached the semifinals thanks to H/F's contribution toward a 3-2 QF win over Italy.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by britrock88

(Brian, any tips on how to do this? Just fire players and move, or something more complicated?)

It's best to do that, but the key step afterwards is to go Profile(under Account on the left-side menu) and use the Terminate Account option. That's what frees up the 'free world' slot and lets you go into a different one.

didn't have much trouble getting Zabborra and Fiser into the 60-80 range in the rankings. But I really have had trouble getting them farther up. I think part of the issue is tournament selection

Quite correct you are. Zabborra is pretty much past it at this point(28 years old, on decline phase or about to be). Fiser though is still getting better. Once you get their form back up, he should be playing challengers at this point, preferably ones in which he is at least seeded, top-4 seed if you can. I would leave the 250s alone. Obviously the strategy wouldn't work if everyone used it, there have to be some low-ranking players to fill out the 250s and whatnot but challengers give you more matches(more off weeks) for the same or better points. I don't think there's a drawback. I don't start playing 250s now until players get to elite(top 32, and ineligible for challengers).

Hansell and Farr won the US Open in doubles! What a great surprise.

You won a Slam title before me! Congratulations!!

I checked in on the guys after a weekend where I haven't been able to manage them at all (costing them a few months' worth of tourney registrations and practice/development)

I recommend using holiday mode or go on holiday, don't remember what it's called if you know about this ahead of time. AI management sucks, but not as much as no management at all.

[britrock88]

Happy to reciprocate the congratulations to Brian now that Mehul has taken Wimbledon over in GW1! Speaking of GW1...

...I'm probably soon to pack things up and call it a playing career for Hansell and Farr in GW12. They're now 36 and 35 years old, and their victory lap (detailed below) has reached its end.

After their surprise run to the 2258 US Open doubles crown, they peaked as high as #s 7/8 in the world doubles ranking before making the 2258 World Tour Final as an unseeded pair (#s 9/10). There, they came within a minibreak of making the WTF semifinals, settling for a 3rd-place group finish.

2259 was set to be the US Open title defense year, and the chance to see if Hansell/Farr could make another WTF with necessarily having a 2000-point feather in their cap.

In Australia, they acquitted themselves well, making the semifinals as the 5-seeded pair (while avoiding the longtime 1-seeds, Frenchmen Hugo and Nicolas Kaspar, who were upset in the Round of 16). Another semifinal appearance at Indian Wells (as 4-seeds) followed, buoying our team's hopes.

The Roland Garros draw, however, proved unkind. As the 5-seeds, Hansell/Farr had a second-round matchup with the Argentinian pair of Chilavert/Monsalvo--a duo only ranked in the 40s, but that specialized on clay. That match was a tight one, but Hansell/Farr lost 7-6(3), 3-6, 5-7.

After finishing as runners-up at the Halle 250, Hansell/Farr were rather summarily upset by the 14-seeds in the Round of 16 at Wimbledon. They couldn't catch a break during hard-court season, either, bowing out in the QFs at the Washington 500 and the Canada and Cincinnati Masters.

Now comes the title defense in Flushing Meadows. Hansell/Farr were still seeded 5th. They drew the #45-ranked pair for their first-round match. And... Hansell/Farr bit it. 6-4, 2-6, 4-6. Ohman/Ni outscored the pair 95-80, won 38% of receiving points versus 23%... it was a surprise and utter letdown.

With that, 1990 points dropped off from Hansell/Farr's totals, and they immediately slid into the 20s in the world ranking. They failed to gather any momentum in the last tournaments of the season, with only a China Open 500 SF netting them more than 100 points in a tournament.

Age had already begun to catch up to these two. Once a 5.0 in skill, Hansell has fought hard to remain a 4.3. Both players' service is just north of 3.0. Their endurances have slipped to 1.7, as well.

The plan is to have the 2260 Aussie as their swan song, then release these players to their futures as 5.0 trainers. I think I might try the "very slow" pace in GW1 and see if it's a better fit, so that I don't have to check in every few hours. But I'll long remember the fun I had shepherding these two through a rewarding career together.

Here's a screencap from Timmy's page to sum up this pair's work in the doubles world:

rr12hansell.jpg