Has anybody ever compiled a collection of fun custom team challenges?
If they didn't, below is my humble approach.
Please feel free to rank, rant, and propose your own.
I'll add them to the opening post if they sound cool.
Hell, if you ask nicely, one of those could even become my next story
Some tidbits:
The main reason behind this collection is that the game can get easy even on extreme, thus additional self-imposed roster&recruiting limitations become necessary. Also, all but one begin on Conti level for the full rags-to-riches experience, while future recruiting focuses on GT potential. (That's why you won't find here the Caribbean or the African challenges that worked in PCM19, because neither Rivera nor Biniam have GT GC potential anymore.) FYI I'll be flipping between DanielDK23 and World DB's based mostly on who has more faces of obscure riders.
Brother'n'Twin [DB: DanielDK 23]
Yep, I know it's an idiotic name, but gotta invent the reason to wear the B'Twin logo on our chests. So I'm thinking there must be quite a few pro cyclists out there constantly witnessing their brothers' success and wondering why they don't seem remotely as talented themselves. Y'know, being so-and-so's bro forever remaining their first Wiki sentence. Equally successful siblings like Yates/Izagirre/vDijke/Barbier/Scotson thus excluded. Roster: originally limited to either older bros or those who are old enough for us to know for sure they'll never match their famous sibling. Let them finally taste some glory! Recruiting: younger bros in Colby Simmons, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Leo Hayter, Joseph Pidcock, Brayann Barguil, Mauro Brenner, Enekoitz Azparren, Arno Claeys, Thijs Aerts. Actual twin Anders Halland Johannessen. Then maybe bros of pro sisters in Paolo Longo Borghini, Matthias Norsgaard, Davide Persico, Simone Consonni, or Ryan Jastrab. Finally, the big bros joining for WorldTour.
Air Malta [DB: DanielDK 23]
According to the list of the smallest countries and territories, the 10 smallest available in PCM22 are: Monaco (233), Bermuda (226), San Marino (225), Liechtenstein (215), Malta (205), Grenada (204), Andorra (198), Guam (194), Singapore (191), Bahrain (189). The choice of sponsor is inspired by my getting married in Malta later this year, but just think about all the miles we'll collect Roster: Representing the 10 smallest countries. Recruiting: expand by a bit each season, e.g. 2024 - Hong Kong, Mauritius, and Luxembourg (177), later (FYI this is the order) Trinidad & Tobago, Brunei, Palestine, Puerto Rico, Cyprus, Kosovo, Jamaica, Qatar, Montenegro, Bahamas, East Timor, Kuwait, and finally - once in WorldTour - Slovenia (154).
For extra miles, the programme could be limited to 1 race per country per year.
Nutella Track Team [DB: World 23] Roster: This is a restricted area. Only junior track world champions allowed: Mattern (scratch '21, omnium '22, individual pursuit '22), Kadlec (madison '22), Jochum (team pursuit '21), Kessler (points '22), Belletta (elimination '21), Delle Vedove, Fiorin, Giaimi (all team pursuit '22), Ratajczak (scratch '22), Erzen (elimination '22). All still u18, giving you plenty of time to teach them how to skip the Nutella and climb a bloody mountain instead Recruiting: others who came from the track. FYI those who can climb are Simon Yates, Vauquelin, Plapp, Hayter, FFB, Wright, Raul Garcia Pierna, and Tarling.
Multi-sport Future Stars [DB: World 23] Roster: the most promising riders who combine on and offroad racing.
Christen - Cyclo-cross junior WC 2022 1st and MTB junior WC 2022 2nd.
Dockx - Cyclo-cross junior WC 2022 2nd, EC 2021 1st.
Wyseure & Verstrynge - Cyclo-cross u23 WC 2022 1st & 2nd.
Del Grosso - Cyclo-cross u23 WC 2023 2nd.
Bisiaux & Remijn - Cyclo-cross junior WC 2023 1st & 2nd.
Magnier - MTB junior WC 2022 3rd.
Boichis & Gomez - MTB junior WC 2021 1st & 2nd. Recruiting: other riders who followed the same path.
Multi-sport Champions [DB: DanielDK 23] Roster: an homage to the most decorated multi-sport athletes.
Nino Schurter - Olympic Champion, 10x World Champion, 8x World Cup winner, best MTB rider in history.
Lachlan Morton - gravel specialist, ultra-distance adventurer, once an Everesting record holder.
Ivar Slik - the new gravel sensation, winner of the 2022 Unbound Gravel 200.
Sam Gaze - a New Zealander Of Māori descent, 2022 MTB World Marathon Champion and Short Track World Champion.
Cameron Wurf - triathlete and rower, a 2004 Olympian who won a World Rowing U23 Championships title in 2003.
To round up the team, no fewer than 5 accomplished Cyclo-cross specialists, who have all won World Cup overall standings, EC and WC medals. Recruiting: other riders who followed the same path.
Multi-sport Hall of Fame [DB: DanielDK 23] Roster: a Pro-Conti version of the Champs above, including the original 10 as well as:
Anton Palzer - ski mountaineering World Champion.
Jason Osborne - rowing World Champion, cycling Esports World Champion.
Ander Okamika - ex-triathlete.
Zdeněk Štybar - 3x Cyclo-cross World Champ.
Thibau Nys - 2013 u23 Cyclo-cross World Champ, half-decent genes.
Timo Kielich - Cyclo-cross u23 WC medallist, MTB NC to boot.
Koretzky, Vader, Colombo, Flückiger - MTB pros. Recruiting: not many obvious targets left. Venturini and Doubey are half-decent on and offroad. Carl Fredrik Hagen once was the U23 world champion in winter triathlon. Then it gets serious: Gianni Vermeersch (2022 gravel World Champ), Jay Vine (Zwift dreamer evolved into elite pro), Mike Woods (ex-runner), Tom Pidcock, MVdP, WvA, junior footballer Remco, and a ski jumper named Primož.
Just Win Once [DB: World 23] Roster: inspired by the Giro stage win by Davide Bais, here are all 21 current World Tour or Pro Conti riders aged 31+ who never won a race. Recruiting: You must resign all riders on August 1 until they win once or retire. You may not sign or resign any riders who already won once during your career or IRL before that. (Hint: the PCS page of each rider has their total number of wins in the right column.) On top of that, no cheap wins: you may only participate in the following races: NC, WT, European HC (apologies, Tour of QingHai Lake) and West European .1 (no former Communist Bloc or Greece).
FYI, young talents who still hasn't won as of 01.01.2023: Cian Uijtdebroeks, Matteo Jorgenson, Fred Wright, Ben Turner, Marco Brenner, Hugo Page, Finn Fisher-Black, Kévin Vauquelin, Ilan Van Wilder, Marius Mayrhofer, and 90% of the neos.
Global Champions Network [DB: DanielDK 23] Roster: did you know that 10 semi-major national champions ride on Conti teams, while 2 further ones (Huertas and Jurišević) don't even have a team? Let's show off those jerseys! (Btw I'm ignoring Janse van Rensburg here. No idea how much Denver threw at him, but this dude still has WT legs.) Recruiting:
EASY - former & current national champions.
HARD - only current national champions, meaning you can't resign own riders unless you won that NC again!
Boyz II Men [DB: World 23]
Filippo Cettolin was born on 2006-06-23 and will forever remain your oldest rider. Roster: ten 15-16 year-olds. Recruiting: anybody born after 2006-06-23.
Extra difficulty if desired: forever only 1 rider per country.
Squadra Italia [DB: World 23]
Again inspired by the incredibly talented Mr. Cettolin. And yes, it says Vespa on our jerseys! Roster: youngest Italians in the DB. Recruiting: Italians only.
The Orient Express [DB: World 23]
Cycling champions come from all over the world nowadays... with the exception of the Far East. It's your job to change that. Given limited talent, popularity of cycling, and training structures, this will require patience at first. But it is not impossible to succeed. Plus once you do, your new favourite part of the world will eventually deliver juicy juniors too. Roster: any custom or existing oriental team. Pro tip: aim for a blue+red kit, goes really well with most regional NC jerseys. Recruiting: the 17 nations within the scouting regions of Asia - East, Asia - South East, and Japan.
Deadly Norwegian Beasts [DB: World 23]
Similarly, the recent exploits of Johannes Kulset in the Tour of the Alps beg the question if he is the next big thing, and their first ever GT winner. Move over, Knut Knudsen? Roster: a fun u19 team that does not even steal any other riders from any Norwegian teams. Recruiting: Norwegians only.
(And yes, similar "1st GT win in history" challenges can be created for Portugal with Morgado, or for New Zealand hoping to sign FFB in the future.)
Polska [DB: World 23]
Similar in principle, but might lead to serious substance abuse. (Which would be so thematically Polish )
Now that it's clear our golden generation of Majka & Kwiato is nearing retirement, the void left behind is astounding. Roster: the DB contains 1x 17yo and 7x 18yo. For the final two, you can either go extra suicidal with 2x weak 19yo, or instead gift them slightly older riders who'd at least give the team a reason to show up to races. In this example, I went with a hybrid approach, given how spectacularly Filip Maciejuk has recently introduced himself to the world. Recruiting: Poles only will never get you into the WorldTour. So either include bordering countries, or all Slavs, or Polish riders on foreign licences like Mareczko, or descendants of Polish migrants even. In short, Cian's grandfather to the rescue?
The moment Bahrain Victorious rider Filip Maciejuk caused the crash in the peloton, attempting to ride back onto the road ????#RVV23pic.twitter.com/ixym03232A
Kelme - Costa Blanca [DB: DanielDK 23]
Pure nostalgia, with El Niño and Dr. Fuentes combining forces once again, accompanied by a squad of equally young and vibrant latinos. Roster: ten 40yo+ former stars from 7 Spanish-speaking countries. Recruiting:
EASY - 1 year younger each year, i.e. 36+ for 2024, 35+ for 2025 etc.
HARD - Spanish-speaking, 1 year younger each year, i.e. 36+ for 2024, 35+ for 2025 etc.
ZAG - only from own u23 team and/or scouted.
Old Boys [DB: DanielDK 23]
The only one in the collection starting at the WorldTour level. Roster: the 5 essential 37 year-olds, Impey (38), and then whichever oldies DanielDK has the faces for, all the way to Tomoya Kano (49). Recruiting:
EASY - 1 year younger each year, i.e. 36+ for 2024, 35+ for 2025 etc.
HARD - only 37yo+ (or 36 on August 1)
ZAG - only from own u23 team and/or scouted.
Hi,
There are nice ideas.
On my own I don't force a team scenario but I use the following rules to make the game more challenging in career:
- I can only increase team size by recruiting young riders
- 1 scout in staff = 1 young that can be hired, 2 scouts = 2 possible young riders...
- I can't recruit riders from AI U23 teams
- I can only recruit young riders with full detection (level 10) from scout
- I can replace leaving guys from my team with others (transfers) but due to rule 1, I can't sign more riders than leaving ones.
And no race prizes at all, just the monthly sponsor budget for the team
Squadra Italia [DB: World 23]
Deadly Norwegian Beasts [DB: World 23]
Polska [DB: World 23]
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