Re: The increased competitiveness of new teams.
One addition that has been introduced in the last year is the increased competitiveness of new teams in HA.
Prior to the change, new teams were slotted into any of the lowest three tiers with a pretty terrible beginning team whose AI (top 22) may have averaged out to over 100 (if they were lucky.)
Because of the regular turnover in HA, I found that with this setup, I could easily remain competitive 1 or 2 tiers above the bottom even carrying and rotating in to the line-up many many youths. I did this as part of how I play the game.
For new franchises, this meant getting blown away by all competition for 1-3 seasons until the team dropped to a tier where it could be competitive. This was often demoralizing for new managers and they often quit after a short time. The continual losses piled up at the start was allegedly a cause for lower retention for new managers.
The change involves starting the new franchises with teams that have an average AI adjusted to match the average AI of the division they are being placed into. Although the team still needs to build up its facilities and figure out the game, they are now immediately competitive.
This is a great thing for new managers. Take the Saskatoon Knights for example, a brand new franchise, that have been given a team with higher AI (top 20) than my team which is now 8 years old. They are immediately competitive and can concentrate on facilities and learning the game while their team doesn't really do that poorly.
What does this mean for me, though? Well, because I keep a lot of youth and play them instead of my top players (for experience and training,) it means I have a highly-inflated team AI compared to what players I ice. That high team AI is factored in to the league average when calculating the average AI for players for new teams. As a result, new teams are given fresh teams with higher average AI and I cannot compete against them. My team, for which I was happy staying above the bottom tier with really young players, will be dropping to the lowest tier this year.
Makes for a better time to join, I guess. Or rejoin if that interests you.
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