I think I have quite successfully hidden my ambitions to head back to storywriting. My previous story just died out without warning, and I feel I still owe The Rider an apology for not using his kit for a story, and all riders for not continuing the story. For the last two months or so I had gotten back my interest in the stories on this site, despite not commenting on them. My last vacation made me think a lot about my future on this site, and my future in general. Luckily, this came with a lot of inspiration for new stories. I had made a few introductions in the past for one-rider stories, but they never really got off. I soon realized my future would be in the team stories, which I have seen losing popularity on this site for the last years (although it's great to see a few team stories being in their baby shoes already).
I also feel I missed the writing. In my first year at university, I had to write the massive number of two (!) research papers. I noticed I really enjoyed writing these two, and in fact the lack of them cost me quite a fair share of motivation to continue my study. That's a bit offtopic, I'm aware of that, but it does demonstrate that I like writing, and I think storywriting is a good way for me to fill up that gap.
Story Setup
Like my previous story, my only career in (and since) PCM13 that lasted a season, this story will be based around your riders, riding for WorldTour team Aegon. There will be a total of 28 spots. However, where the usual your-rider stories are quite 'dead', I want this one to live, with riders having a character, and their 'managers' showing the character of the rider in the comments they make. What I don't need to see is the posts like in Ian's Cross Game, or the Custom Rider HQ posts in EPIC, but commenting in the spirit of your rider would be highly appreciated.
Inspiration
I've obviously not been able to do this without inspiration. This has come from a lot of people, including Ian Butler, Shonak, Smowz, SportingNonsense, TheManxMissile, brewers90, fernando97 and many others. Please do not feel offended if I didn't mention you while you do feel you should be, but I can't mention everyone without this list becoming too long. Of course, I also owe credits to S3nti, who created a wonderful pack.
Applications
Many your-rider stories go on the base of first-come, first-serve. This has, in my eyes, often lead to leaders being claimed early and those who are late seem to lose a bit of motivation due to getting the lesser roles. For this reason, I only give out a limited amount of spots at the time, and will also spread the roles among the files. As I'll take one of the spots, it means I will hand out 9 batches of 3 spots. Before applying, make sure you stay active, as activity will not only be rewarded, but also essential to stay in the story. To participate, fill in the following form and post it in the thread:
First Name:
Last Name:
Date of Birth:
Nationality, Region if applicable:
Specialty:
Role:
FL:
MO:
HI:
TT:
PRL:
COB:
SPR:
ACC:
DH:
FTR:
STA:
RES:
REC:
Biography/Character description:
I would urge you to not neglect the details in character descriptions, as the form does not just create a rider, it also creates a person with emotion, with feelings about others, with arrogance or willingness to sacrifice. This way, it's easier for me to reward good, detailed posts with the character's spirit. This is also a way for everyone to enjoy character clashes or friendships within the team.
I also want to reserve the right to myself to decline a rider due to a lack of detail in the biography, or overpowering the stats. I give you the full creative freedom for stats, I want you to take the responsibility to make a rider fitting your role, and not making him overpowered and/or unbalanced. In the end, riding with unbalanced/overpowered riders will harm my motivation to continue, thus endangering the story. Editing of an application post is NOT allowed, unless after granted permission by PM. If your rider is declined, you must make a new post, but there's no place reserved until your stats and biography are deemed good enough. This is another reason why you should consider your application well.
I'll also go into more detail about the setup of the team. My best careers so far have been with teams which 'lack' a strong GC rider. I've enjoyed the majority of my careers with teams like Giant and Orica, where I would contend for wins in the classics, while stagehunting in the GTs. This setup is also the way I want this team to be set up. You will see more details when I hand out a batch of roles. To confirm you have read this text (it's the most important part after all), I need you to send me a PM after your application with your rider's nationality somewhere, and your rider's full name as title. Until you have I won't accept you yet.
Furthermore, I want a majority of this team to consist of Dutch riders. After all, Aegon is Dutch and wants to mainly be represented here. I don't mind foreign leaders (Menchov at Rabo etc.), and I'll allow them to bring one or two domestiques of their region if they want to (must be specified in biography). Of course, a few Belgians and Germans are not a problem at all in general, we don't want 25 Dutch and 3 Egyptians or whatever country.
You, as manager, will be involved often throughout the season. I'll have you have influence on your schedule, but also on relations of your rider within the team, race strategies and a lot else. Make sure to pay some attention, as it might happen at any time.
Finally, I'll go into more detail on the batches of 3. As the activity of Daily is highly spread across the European day, I would like to give everyone around the world a chance to obtain the desired role. I'll therefore spread the batches of 3 throughout the day, with handing out leader roles in the morning (once I'm actually able to get up ), in the afternoon and in the evening.
Game Setup
DB: Expansion Pack V1.6 2014NC (of course slightly modified)
Prize Money: 1.0
Crash Frequency: 150% (may be subject to altering)
Difficulty: Hard
Random Potentials: On
Team Setup
I don't think revealing this could harm
3 leaders (no GC men among them)
3 key domestiques (think of Kristoff-Paolini)*
2 good climbers
4 u23 neo-pros
16 domestiques, varying in strength and type*
*If one of the leaders is a time trialist, at least 6 other good time trialists are required, including the key domestique.
Of course, these domestiques can have different characters. They could be quiet Cheng Ji's, or cult heroes like Hoogerland or Voigt. Just make sure you won't exaggerate the amount of cult heroes.
If anything about any of these walls of text is unclear, please ask. Before asking, or not asking, do make sure to read everything, except maybe the personal background. Some further details, like schedules and progress, will be explained when the time is ready.
Finally, an apology for this wall of text. Enjoy reading over 1200 words As said before, reading the entire Applications part and Team Setup part is most important. Make sure to read all of that before sending in application. It could mean the difference between getting a spot or not getting a spot. The provisional team will be in post #2, if you find your rider in it, you can consider yourself confirmed.
Edited by Selwink on 16-09-2015 19:30
First Name: Anne
Last Name: Bakema
Date of Birth: 05-aug-1987
Nationality, Region if applicable: Netherlands, Friesland
Specialty: Rouleur/Non-climber
Role: Domestique
FL: 73
MO: 60
HI: 66
TT: 75
PRL: 75
COB: 69
SPR: 66
ACC: 69
DH: 74
FTR: 68
STA: 74
RES: 73
REC: 70
Biography/Character description: Anne was born in rural Friesland, in the lake area, where he grew up with farmer parents. Of course, with the lack of high schools in the area, it was a choice between public transport and cycling to school. It became the latter. He soon joined a cycling club as well, where he started without a very strong kick, but demonstrated he could hang on for long distances. After joining the pro circuits he became a guy of the first 100km, with a seemingly endless stamina he could work for his team. Aegon was proud of having him as first signing, as hard, loyal workers like him are very much in need for any team (and he's not asking too much money). Anne will always be willing to sacrifice himself for the team, no matter where in the race he'll try to give anything he has to help his teammates on the flat. Except if the terrain is high. Then he'll cry in a corner. Don't expect Anne to win too often, but do expect him to be happy for teammate wins. He's considered very friendly, both on and off the races, and is known as one of the best team mates to have.
Waiting for leaders to be filled to be a key domestique
#FREELANDA #FREELIA MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
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That'll be hard, as I won't open a leader spot until someone has a key domestique: the idea is to have the key domestique chose the specialisation of the leader, instead of the other way round. Don't know if it's clever or stupid, but it's just an experiment on my end.
To everyone, please note that I made an addition to the first post, saying that the application form goes into this thread. It's one of the things I always forget to mention, but at least I didn't get anything in so far
This sounds like a nice game and obviously unbiased a great sponsor. So might as well join.
First Name: Johannes
Last Name: Löw
Date of Birth: 18/08/1989
Nationality, Region if applicable: Germany/Hessen
Specialty: Climber
Role: #10 Domestique
FL: 68
MO: 75
HI: 72
TT: 68
PRL: 64
COB: 58
SPR: 63
ACC: 72
DH: 72
FTR: 68
STA: 69
RES: 72
REC: 73
Biography/Character description: Johannes was born in 1989 in a town called Kassel. It`s a hilly area and he used to ride bike since his childhood. When his parents divorced he was forced leave Kassel following his father`s move to Rosenheim, close to the German/Austrian border.
Since then the hills became mountains and he started to participate in some junior free for everyone races.
Early on he was seen as solid domestique being able to keep contact with older riders in the mountains. His home team as junior saw him riding in leader roles for those kind of races. But when he turned 17 he somehow stagnated. Instead of hard training and daily/weekly trips, he went to clubs enjoying the drinks too much.
Now a few years later he realized that this was a big mistake. For more than a year he is back on his bike a lot to train as hard as never before, willing to play a good team mate for the team. His earlier party life for a couple of years stopped completely and his dream is to ride with the biggest riders in the pro peloton.
If 75/72 mo/hi is too strong for a domestique, make him key domestique. Though with weaker backup stats I thought, he would be domestique only.
@selwink, do the key domestqiues really decide the speciality for the leaders?
At least in this case it does. I'm not sure yet if I'll do it with the other two, I just throw out some random-ish batches once it's a different time of the day and the other batch is filled. So it's just a matter of randomness in brain, and possibly positive/negative response on the idea. As said, it's just an experiment after all.
First Name: Mathis
Last Name: Vanoverschelde
Date of Birth: 08/08/1995
Nationality, Region if applicable: Belgium, Vlaanderen
Specialty: Sprinter
Role: #25, Neo-Pro
FL: 66
MO: 52
HI: 56
TT: 59
PRL: 63
COB: 56
SPR: 67
ACC: 66
DH: 68
FTR: 53
STA: 61
RES: 62
REC: 55
Biography/Character description: Born in Lombardsijde, Belgium, Mathis is a younger nephew of Kobe Vanoverschelde who never made it past the amateurs in cycling and who has already retired. Mathis got dragged into the sport of cycling 8 years ago, when watching Kobe participating in the GP Waregem, which he finished in 100th. Mathis loved the sound the bikes made when they rode by, and was amazed by the speed the guys could reach. His parents were basically left without a chance to say ‘no’ when Mathis asked them if he could have a racing bike on his birthday, as he has no other real hobbies. The kid had always been pretty much alone, never fitted in his class at school and only had 2 friends. During his first race at the club Mathis found out that riding fast isn’t the only thing important to being a cyclist, tactics and preserving energy are just as important, if not more important. He managed to ride 8 kilometres alone ahead of the bunch before losing all power, and forced to give up not even 15 kilometres into his very first race. In the races afterwards he spent his time in the pack, not worrying about the first kilometres, but only the last few metres, which is how his coach found out Mathis is quite explosive. Now, eight years later Mathis has won several races in Belgium, and even in France and The Netherlands, and he’s looking for a new adventure to gain more experience, and to turn his only hobby into his job.
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
First Name: Julian
Last Name: Verkerk
Date of Birth: 26/11/1988
Nationality, Region if applicable: Nederland, Zuid-Holland
Specialty: Breakaways / All-round
Role: #4 Key-Domestique
FL: 78
MO: 66
HI: 75
TT: 76
PRL: 76
COB: 75
SPR: 76
ACC: 74
DH: 77
FTR: 76
STA: 73
RES: 72
REC: 77
Biography/Character description: Julian was born in 1988 in a town called Gouda. he lived in a town nearby called Schoonhoven, which includes a few cobbled sections in the park where he and his father trained on almost everyday, but as a child he also wanted to do other things like being explosive and cycling as a solo cyclist. after 12 years of living in Schoonhoven the family had got into some trouble with the neighbourhood and were forced to move to a town called Doesburg, which lies next to the city of Arnhem. this city lies next to a hilly area were Julian trained everyday. the problem was that his cobbled skills decreased as there were no cobbled sections close to his town. after a few years he got scouted by Rabobank Development Team, where he competed in races together with his young teammate Bauke Mollema. although he couldn't keep up with him in the mountains. they trained together and they both became succesfull after years of training.
I've took the stats of Edvald Boasson Hagen. he is probably a great key-domestigue
Applications are now temporarily closed. I'll open them up either this evening or somewhere in the course of tomorrow. Those missing out now can try their luck then
Due to the all-round specialisation of Verkerk, rider #1 has free choice of specialty (except climbing/stage racing ofc).
Please be a bit more detailed about the rider character. It'll be very useful for interaction of the members, as well as deciding race strategies for me (yes this means I won't always go for optimal result ).
And finally, read the first post thoroughly. All those in already have been reading it correctly so far, and thus they are granted a spot. In post #2 the available spots will be visible as soon as this thingy is open again. Make sure to pay attention to this as well. Oh, and some older riders, who aren't born in August (God what have I started) would be appreciated
), in the afternoon and in the evening.
).
