Well, congratulations to SotD. A deserving winner of the PT title given your long participation in the game, and the amount of posts that you make throughout the season. Just a pity about the way in which you won it. Couldn't you have waited til next year?
I never set out at the start of the season to challenge for the PT title, so while it is of course very disappointing to miss out in such a freak way, there can be no complaints about the season. Praha and Lombardia aside, all my team leaders (and some of the helpers too) had pretty perfect seasons, in terms of what they could have achieved. The Giro win for Andy, TdF stage win for Frank, TdF sprint wins for Swift over Bewley, and the fact that Gastauer beat Skujins in the individual standings all stand out (As much as I do cheer Skujins on, it's nice to see a sale justified!). And that may well be as close as I get to the top of the PT for many seasons, given I intend to be weaker next year without Swift, and will probably relegate in a few seasons once Andy starts stat decreasing too
A real shame that this was the final season for Good Energy, but Ponzi sure made it memorable. And congrats to Metinvest, Oz, Quickstep and Movistar for managing to stay up in your first PT seasons.
Well thank you for the opportunity to be in the PT in the first place. Unfortunately I didn't stay up, even though I tried. Obviously I wanted to keep the identity of my team the way it was, so adding the Italians was my best option and it didn't pay off. I had hoped for a lot more from my sprinters, but they didn't perform.
The brightest spot was definitely Cunego for us, but Kinoshita is showing a lot of potential for next season as he reaches his max this offseason, so will only be getting better and going down to PCT as well, he could be in for a big year.
Yes congrats to SotD indeed, you definitely deserve the win as one of the masterminds of the game. I think all of us here would have been equally happy to see SN win also, as we have you to thank for another excellent year in the game. What a wild way to end the season, but I guess Vesuvio will be back in the hunt for the win next year as well. I'll also just post my congrats to rjc for taking out the win in this thread as well, and thanks to matt for the report.
Job well done by Mre in taking the final PT spot. I guess I will see jph/Heine/valverde in the PCT.
Overall I have to say it was a pretty miserable year for us. I don't really understand why, I don't think I'm that poor of a manager as I've been very decent in years past and my team is probably the strongest it has ever been.
I guess my main problems were with Schumacher and Nibali. I know they aren't supposed to be winners at this level, but it seemed like in the vast majority of races that they should have been easily top-5 or 10 they were finishing in the 20's and 30's with no explanation. It made for an extremely frustrating year, and I'm sorry if it seems like I was just bitching non-stop
But I'll shut up about my team and make a later post in my much neglected HQ this weekend.
A huge thanks to all the reporters and the people who helped with the organization behind the scenes. SN, you did an awesome job once again and it seemed like this was one of the smoothest years we've had.
A disappointing season, with some glimpses of hope. Pre season we had two definite goals: Win Giro and Top 10. We failed both and even though Madrazo was second he never looked a threat in the mountains so for me it was a big failure.
Angel had a decent season as a whole without winning a single stage race but he did improve from last year, however he again looked well below par to the other 85 climbers which is obviously not nice at all
Froome as 82 disappointed as well, with so many hilly races and opportunities he rarely picked up Top 10s which for his stat is very disappointing. Aziz was no factor throughout season.
Cicero 10,000$ = 1 point
To the highlights, Barbins stage win at Paris Nice and Deutschland Tour are by far our favourite moments, Houle's win at Tour will go in history of the team, a year after winning first road stage with attack by Vanbilsen. Cicero and our failed lead outs were also a big amusement.
Gratz to Sotd for finally getting that title, and other teams on achieving their set goals, sad to see rjc go, but at least Ponzi made it a remarkable finish. Hard luck to the relegating teams, but I'm sure you will all bounce back next year. Thanks to SN and all the reporters who made this season remarkable, I can't believe how fast (and still detailed) reports were coming out. Just amazing.
Thanks to everyone for a great season. Not just because of the win (which is clearly amazing), but the effort that some people have put into this game is spectacular! The game found it's place with the fast tempo and the lesser detailed reports. I think it is clear to everyone that the reporters are well equipped to make high quality reports without making an essay out of it. They were spot on, throughout the season, and the work behind the scenes have been absolutely fantastic.
Congrats to Becherovka for making a great top 3, although they looked set for the win at one point. I am always happy when my compatriots do well. So I am also extremely happy to see Aker making the top 5, Red Bull making the top 10 and Oz with a good run in aswell. Also a congrats to Pendletons and Orange who survived, while no one believed in them.
Likewise I am sad about a few things. I am extremely sad about SN and Vesuvio missing out of the win like this. No matter how thrilled I am about the win, it just doesnt feel right. I have been in the other situation before, and can easily get the perspective of how bad it sucks. Luckily, though, SN seems to be one of the very best to cope with such things - hence also keeping the amazing job when I, and others moan and bitch about the little things. I am also sad for Metinvest to løse out on the top 5. Two races down I said that it probably couldn't be - but then Aker and Good Energy won one each. Yet 6th is great and it has been a wonderful season for the promoter. I am sad that Heine and Wolkswagen are going down. One of the great personlities, and a great team that really should have been able to fight better. And in that close of a battle... Also I feel bummed for my mate Bushwackers for an unexplainable shitty season. The team might not be top 10, but underperforming race after race have been a dreadful experience, and I fully understand the frustration.
A final farewell to rjc and his Good Energy seems in place aswell. A huge Man-Game personality, and a great grea team will leave. That is really a shame. Good luck in the future, and I hope to see you back in the game at some point.
I have probably forgotten something along the way, so to everyone else: Thanks for being a part of this game, and making it the most enjoyable game I have ever played. This game is easily my favorite game, well above Football Manager, PES, FIFA, GTA, Fallout and whatever game is out there. So once more, a BIG Thank you to the guys making this possible and a special round of applause to SportingNonsense!
Congratz to SotD for finally achieving the PT-crown!
It seemed like SN had it in the end, but just shows how much one bad race changes everything.
Still obviously great season for Vesuvio. Bewley was also amazing and delivered Becherovka in 3rd place mostly by himself.
Aker in 4th is also really impressing considering how much usually EBH performed under pair.
Volkswagen, Bacardi, Swisscom relegating are small surprises. Meiji and Ayboman not so much. Cant see I look forward to facing any of them in PCT(Except for Bacardi I assume)
Just want to say I feel bad for basically deciding the fate of the PT. When I reported Praha and Lombardia and saw Vesuvio failing so hard in both I hoped it wouldn't cause so big sideffects. Spoiler: it did, goddammit. Sorry SN
Sad to see rjc go so suddenly. Probably was my favourite team in PT for various reasons and Rick was a really likeable guy as well. Life catches up...
Congrats to everyone who did well and my best wishes to the teams who had to deal with the bad luck. Will be nice to face you all in PCT the next season
Well as I predicted Festina win at beginning of year - I guess the last race shananighans should not have been in doubt
But man that was a wierd end - just no way would you have had Festina outscoring Vesuvio so dramitically in Lombardy. So often the scene of Vesuvio triumphs, it turned into a nightmare with Festina rather sneakily and lets face it luckily cramming high scoring positions from bunch sprints. But in the bigger picture we do know that SotD has suffered some absolute shockers in his time too.
SotD Spilak tactic was a key element to his triumph - I rather think he would have been dominated by Pluichkin/ Schleck if he had dared go to the GT's against them.
Becherovka will be up there next year too, but Festina you rather think are going to be out there if Vesuvio rebuild. Tinkoff and Aker have solid leads, Metinvest should be able to strengthen too. Of course there will be a big Good Energy chasm - rjc was one of the first transfer deals I had when I landed a young Carlos Manerelli - it is fun to see him still screwing up sprints!
Red Bull have slipped down into the mid table crud along with Bouygues, Pokerstars, Project, the tedious testers and the flukey ice cream bastards.
We all need to analyse and consider next year, I have a old cobbler codger, slight climber, fat useless tub of lard sprinter, gutsy sprinter and virgin hill guy. Sort of freshened things up last year but whilst it was not terrible and had some real nice moments we missed the Monument and GT superb 2014.
Hardly a hug shock Jim Bowen have slipped down, in the end 1000 points is actually a smaller chasm then I thought they would be from safety and they nearly avoided wooden spoon with Meiji's old timers brigade also pretty much no good. Swisscom and VW should be favoured like Jim Bowen to bounce back, though Swisscom do have a few old farts to dispose of.
Movistar and Quickstep will be challenging soon for midtable positions so teams like Orange will have to keep on their toes.
Roturn, Count, DD all will be desperate to avoid drop next year too so it should be quite the scramble with hopefully a brave attempt by the other new managers joining the PT ranks too.
Congrats SotD. In the end a quite lucky win this year but also very impressive seeing your amount of unmaxed riders! The next years will be bright for you with a huge core. Best next to Becherovka surely. So you should also fight for the title in years to come.
For SN it`s really unlucky. It was a great run for his team and a good effort by Gastauer in his first big year as leader. Will be interesting if a Andy Schleck team next year can fight for it again. Gastauer surely will support him but if you really decide to lose your other scorers, it will be interesting to see with what riders you are going to compensate it.
Next year I guess Becherovka will come closer making it another thrilling fight.
Mid table I love to see tsmoha staying up! Love that team and it`s great to see depth having a chance. Unfortunately not for me the year before.
Also Pendletons and Orange are nice surprises being up there.
Down the table a shame to see VW go down despite such incredible depth. Biggest shock for me this PT season. Also a pity as I had nice fights last year against them and was really looking forward to more fights next season. Unfortunately those will need to wait and I already fear that a year later we are again in different divisions when I struggle.
Movistar staying up though is also nice to see though, while Meiji and Ayubowan should have nice PCT seasons ahead. Together with VW obviously big favourites as usual for direct promotion. Prio though might give them a nice fight.
For Swisscom it`s about finding the right moves and good renewals of course.
Thanks SN for doing all the work and lots of ranking updates after every race. This is always highly appreciated late in the season.
Congrats SotD for the PT title, and unlucky SN! It went down to the line, and it was a great battle to read about
Commiserations to the relegated teams, and I hope life in PCT doesn't hit you as hard as it has for some this season, and you bounce back to the big time soon
Thanks for this season SN, all the reporters and all of those behind the scenes who helped things run smoothly. Congratulations to SotD, a deserved winner and a manager who has been a huge source of advice and support since I joined the Man-Game, so much deserved.
Unlucky for Vesuvio in the end, but I'm sure they'll bounce back - for all SN's claims that they won't be up there again, I'm fairly sure he said that last season
Also congratulations to our fellow promoted teams who managed to stay up. Look forward to seeing them continue to improve, and hopefully start challenging for the title in the near future. Also well done to Pendleton's, who I expected to finish behind us and managed to pull of the greatest of great escapes.
As for our fellow relegated teams, I fancy them all to be up there next season. Swisscom should be in with a shout with Amador on board - barring a Prio style disaster. VW have the squad to absolutely cruise through the PCT, and while Meiji do have a lot of declining leaders, they have a fantastic core for next season in Ji, Shikai, Kinoshita and Appollonio. I fancy our chances, but I'm already resigned to going for 5th
Relegation obviously is no surprise to me, in fact as Smowz said it's amazing how close we were to staying up - it wasn't until September that all hope seemed lost. It also makes me glad to see that even had I signed Sicard, we would still have relegated, because it shows that sticking with the long-term plan and not blowing the budget on him was the right plan. Now onto next season, and hopefully the trifecta of Pinot, Gautier and Vanderbiest will fire us back to the PT.
jph27 wrote:
Thanks for this season SN, all the reporters and all of those behind the scenes who helped things run smoothly. Congratulations to SotD, a deserved winner and a manager who has been a huge source of advice and support since I joined the Man-Game, so much deserved.
Thanks a lot mate. So much for my advises though. I would have preferred to see you staying up - But I hope to see you again in a season
jph27 wrote:
Thanks for this season SN, all the reporters and all of those behind the scenes who helped things run smoothly. Congratulations to SotD, a deserved winner and a manager who has been a huge source of advice and support since I joined the Man-Game, so much deserved.
Thanks a lot mate. So much for my advises though. I would have preferred to see you staying up - But I hope to see you again in a season
Wait...It was your advice that he only spends PCT budget on wage? Good tactic then.
Thanks for the final rankings SN and thanks for yet another season filled with great work of both you and all the reporters, fantastic pace and still the very high quality maintained, chapeau!
Feel sorry for you SN, i was sure you have it in the bag, then again i am happy for SotD. Festina is a deserved winner and after all that work and thoughts he seems to put into this game and his team, it is great to see his passion being rewarded.
Not exactly achieved with french leaders, but we have already discussed that and success does not always cope well with over-strict focus. Still french riders were important for the PT rankings win, which could be also seen in Lombardia decider.
Regarding Metinvest, what can i say, was there someone who could see us challenging the long established teams like Aker, Good Energy or Tinkoff prior to the season? I was confident about late top 10 finish, but this went much better than expected. I have to say i see us as one of the teams of the year.
Missing a top 5 by that slight margin because of last race is a bit bitter experience, but then again we lost it to the coolest guy i met here in the game, who became nr.1 partner for several transfer seasons and his team inspired us in the beginning of the MG journey. You will be missed Rich!
Biggest personal set goal of the season was to beat Quickstep, our old D2 days rivals and first time in my time in MG, it happened, but i am sure Alak is already building up for the revenge.
Sad to see some of favourite teams going down a division, but someone has to be it and i know i will see them again in PT soon. For now, i will enjoy the influx of great dedicated managers into PT. The division will see some great racing next year, no doubts about that.
What summary from Avin it would be without some criticism right?
The PCM 14 is absolutely ridiculous engine and i am happy season with it is over, i am still not over TTs being random dice roll fest, bring on the PCM 15!
Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 21-11-2015 11:16
jph27 wrote:
Thanks for this season SN, all the reporters and all of those behind the scenes who helped things run smoothly. Congratulations to SotD, a deserved winner and a manager who has been a huge source of advice and support since I joined the Man-Game, so much deserved.
Thanks a lot mate. So much for my advises though. I would have preferred to see you staying up - But I hope to see you again in a season
Despite being MG mastermind, you should lern to forecast. First we should relegate, then you had no chance for the title and we could not have been caught for 5th place.
Comparison with my ranking preview. Some pretty accurate, some horrible fails. In especially Volkswagen or Metinvest.
My Ranking
Real Ranking
1
-1
Vesuvio - Accumalux
2
-8
Red Bull - Huawei
3
+2
Festina-Canal+
4
+1
Becherovka - Petrof
5
-1
Aker - MOT
6
-1
Tinkoff Bank - Tinkoff Insurance
7
-11
VolksWagen - Andritz
8
-6
Quickstep
9
+1
Pokerstars.com
10
+1
Bouygues Telecom
11
+6
Good Energy
12
-7
Bacardi Limited
13
-7
Swisscom - UBS
14
-1
Orange - KLM
15
+4
Oz Cycling Project
16
=
Venchi
17
+5
Project 1t4i
18
+12
Metinvest-Dacia
19
+2
Movistar - US Postal
20
-1
Meiji - JR East
21
+8
Pendleton's
22
=
Ayubowan!
Clearly Metinvest fooled me here by sending Pluchkin to 2 GT`s only. Then again I mentioned this option in my preview but thought it was not realistic. Well done Avin.
Pendleton`s another big fail as this was really unexpected for everyone I guess.
Volkswagen was a huge surprise the other way. Possible the biggest. Really failed there as I expected a lot more from their young guns. Most of them failed though.
Red Bull...I expected Alarcon stronger to be honest. So instead of repeat his great 2014, he calmed down a bit. Skujins was solid but not as good as I had thought. Then Cancellara had problems to score higher due to this Kiwi beast Bewley and Guearo/Holloway were weaker than I thought as well.
jph27 wrote:
Thanks for this season SN, all the reporters and all of those behind the scenes who helped things run smoothly. Congratulations to SotD, a deserved winner and a manager who has been a huge source of advice and support since I joined the Man-Game, so much deserved.
Thanks a lot mate. So much for my advises though. I would have preferred to see you staying up - But I hope to see you again in a season
Wait...It was your advice that he only spends PCT budget on wage? Good tactic then.
Haha. I guess I was one of those speaking in the highest pitch about how bad that was though
jph27 wrote:
Thanks for this season SN, all the reporters and all of those behind the scenes who helped things run smoothly. Congratulations to SotD, a deserved winner and a manager who has been a huge source of advice and support since I joined the Man-Game, so much deserved.
Thanks a lot mate. So much for my advises though. I would have preferred to see you staying up - But I hope to see you again in a season
Despite being MG mastermind, you should lern to forecast. First we should relegate, then you had no chance for the title and we could not have been caught for 5th place.
I almost had the top 5 right from the beginning though
Couldn't you have waited til next year? 
