TM Ireland - Trophymanager Ireland

Well if you pay any attention at all to the goings on of the International forum, then Bobz United 1888 is a name you are likely to have come across.  A bloke with strong opinions about the machinations of this game and indeed with his own distinctive forum posting style, he was recently made a Game Teamster and is NT of Croatia (hard luck mate…!).

So first up may I call you Bob?

-- yes you can hehe

-- my real name is Boris, and my real life nicknames are Boro, Bobo, or just Bob (in English)

-- this is where Bob's or Bobz name came from

Bobz United 1888 - One of the few TM teams named after a Hairstyle

What’s the 1888 reference all about Bob, you’re not 123 years old are you?

-- I wanted it to sound like a club with a long history, like some famous club hehe

-- so, I love number 8 (it is similar to letter B), so my name was in the past Bobz Boys 1888, and later Bobz United 1888, basically, a lot of Bs and 8s

What is a game teamster and what do they do?

-- people probably think that we have much impact on game development and similar things

-- but the truth is that we only handle cheating, IP adresses, teamsters problems and random user reports about Forum teamsters, forum problems and game cheating in general (2 or more clubs, cheating on transfers and similar)

-- basically, as some say: We are "just" a TM's police

The game's development, ideas and similar things are in the hands of the owners (MTs) and new rank of teamsters "Development Teamsters"

So, no money in it then?

-- no money

-- we just help to the owners in our free time (when we can) to keep the game fair and clean

What brought you to TM in the first place?

-- my real life friend

-- he found a game at his work (he was bored hehe)

-- at first, I didn't like the concept of manager games with "imaginary" clubs without Real, Barcelona or Manchester United

-- but after a few days, I came back and then I fell in love

What keeps you here?

-- my Goal from day 1 was to become the best or one of the best in my country (Croatia)

-- I started in Div 6 in Season 7

-- back then I had some doubts about will I ever reach 1,1, but I did it very fast

-- now I am already 9 Seasons in 1,1 and I am slowly improving my team and fans (20 000 currently, I think I will be at 30 000 in 3-4 Seasons)

-- anyway, now my Goal is to be in TOP 3 in the future, but I will try to play the game until I will win my 1,1

-- I don't care, I can wait until the Season 40, 50, 60

-- no problem hehe

Will you still be playing TM in five years?

-- if I don't win my 1,1 until then:

= I will still continue, because I will be trying to win it hehe

-- if I DO win it till then:

= I will still stay

-- why stop after only one title ?? :))

What will the game be like then, in your opinion (regardless if you are playing or not)?

-- it is hard to tell

-- MTs have some huge plans (new TM and a lot of nice new things like 2D matches etc), but it is hard to predict:

-- in the best scenario, TM could be a 300 000, 400 000 or 500 000 Users game

-- on the other hand, it could stay on 100 000-200 000 Users forever (competition is hard, and it is hard to attract new users)

The numbers of managers in TM has stagnated for a good number of seasons now, why is this?

Huh, my opinion is that it really hasn't stagnated

-- before, inactive clubs were not deleted for 3-6 Months (2 Seasons)

-- today, MTs delete a lot more clubs than then (much faster)

-- basically, before we had 100 000 active users and 200 000 bots

-- today we have 100 000 active users and 40 000 bots

-- imo, the number of active users is the same, and only the number of bots is much smaller (they are deleted faster)

-- again, MTs promised to invest a lot of money in advertising once the new TM will be launched (September 2011)

Heard of any any initiatives in the pipeline to bring more managers to the game and keep them here?

-- I am only a GT hehe, but from what I have seen on Announcements and Game Development forums, the game will be even better in the future

-- conditional orders

-- new design of TM

-- 2D matches

-- new Live match viewer

-- more stats in Live matches/Match reports

-- improved Match engine with routine tweaks and some other "secret" tweaks (red card "bug" ??, mentality tweak, only MTs know that)

-- and after that MTs will advertise the game on internet which should bring more new users and more fun/competition/addiction to the game

Where do you stand on the whole ‘Routine has too much impact on the game, particularly for keepers’ debate?

I stand exactly there hehe:

= routine is extremely overpowered

-- in my opinion, it is currently the single most important skill in the game

-- GKs without routine 50 can't save any shots

-- FCs without routine 40 will hardly score Goals against routined GKs

-- DCs without routine 40 will have problems against routined Midfielders and Forwards

-- basically, we all have players with 18-20 in skills, but then the routine level 10-20 or 50 is what makes the difference

-- I know, someone will say that this is how it should be, and I agree that routine has the impact even in the real life

-- but, my opinion is, that here that impact is at least 2-3 times bigger than in the real life

-- but since there are no instruments to measure the impact of routine in RL, it is somewhat pointless to discuss about that

-- but again, the good news are that MTs have promised to lower/tweak the impact of the routine in that Match engine "patch" that will come soon with conditional orders

We’ve chatted a bit about NT games and such (yet you refuse to throw our matches…!), and I detect that you are less than happy with them, what do you think is wrong with NT matches…?

-- first of all, I am more like a club manager

-- I have a team, and I have always (for 17 Seasons) improved my team every day

-- I have created 11 players

-- if they weren't not good, I would sell some youths and buy better players

-- if they wouldn't be good, again, I would sell some more youths, and buy even better first 11 players until I would be satisfied with them

NT team, well, I can't do that here hehe

-- I am not too satisfied with my NT team (we are not bad, but we are not anything special either)

-- if I want better FCs = I can't buy them

-- we don't have any good right winger, and again we can't "buy" any

-- so, I am not too pleased with managing NT team too much :))

-- also, what is somewhat annoying is = that all teams are extremely equal, for example our group with Israel, Bosnia and Ireland

-- I am watching the games on Saturday, and before any game, I know that Possession will be around 50:50, and that we can win or lose any game with 3:0 or 0:3

-- you just throw the best eleven and hope that a coin will be on your side

-- there really isn't much more that you can do

The only way to avoid randomness and 50:50 random matches is to have 60:40 stronger team

-- but again, as I have said, you can do that only on a club level (to buy yourself better players)

-- here, if you have 50:50 teams, you can't do too much

This is why I will "give" my position to someone else after this NT cycle

If it was your call, what would you change about TM tomorrow that you believe would improve the game no end?

1. I would lower the routine

2. I would tweak some formations a little

-- for example, 352 is too strong

-- or in the other words, in Real life nobody plays 352

-- yet, in TM, penalties for 3 defenders are not too big

3. I would tweak the mentality

-- after 1000s of Quick matches played it is still very hard to tell what exactly you get get with Somewhat Defensive

-- is it less actions ??

-- is it stronger defense ??

-- is it less shots on target ??

-- is it bigger possession ??

-- it is really hard, at least for me

-- and the way it is explained in User Guide where it says that attacking mentality will create matches with more actions, is not true imo

-- in fact, it is, but some other strange things are also happening which are not explained at all in User guide (some strange boosts to attack/defense, more shots on target etc..)

4. plus, some economy changes, like more money from food and merchandise etc (but this will also be changed soon according to MTs)

5. tweak the fans system

What is the best in-game development in recent times, in your opinion…?

1. New Match engine from Season 18

-- I don't know about the other things

-- I haven't seen anything "big" in the last few Seasons

What is the worst (in-game development or change)?

-- instant scouting

-- too much money for Champions league lately

-- too overpowered routine from Season 18

-- the new mentality from Season 18 (not explained too well)

Why don't you like instant scouting?

-- it is totally against any logic and it is awarding laziness and arcade approach to the game

Would you say that the new match engine (from Season 18) is most different from the old one in terms of the emphasis it puts on routine...? Like what did the new match engine improve?

-- I love a new ME very much, since it did fix the most important problem = randomness

-- but some other problems occurred like:

-- overpowered routine, too powerful 352, strange way how mentality is working now

What is your team’s most satisfying achievement in the game so far?

-- reaching 1,1 and playing in 1,1 for 9 Seasons already

-- and finishing 4th in Season 21

Club History

Is there anything in particular that frustrates you about TM?

-- routine

-- randomness in 50:50 games :/

-- too small red card advantage

-- too static fans system, and too big protection of 30 000 teams (they can't lose fans even if they relegate to Div 2)

-- too huge bonuses (money and routine) for Champions league clubs, which creates elitism after that, since they are creating bigger and bigger gap every Season

And finally:

1. So tell me

-- I have to know

2. Where does your inimitable posting style

-- All the dashes and crosses and such

++ Come from?

Ouch hehe

-- I have been writing like that since my high school and college

-- for example, in TM words, when I had to learn for exam, I would wrote on the paper the most important things in this way:

-- Div 2,2 has 18 teams

-- the first placed team goes to Div 1,1

-- the second placed team goes to the play-offs

-- last 6 teams get relegated

-- basically, this way I was writing the key/most important informations that I had to learn

-- and then I would repeat them 2-5-10 times until I would remember them

-- but then, I started to write this way on forums, and that's it hehe

Sorry :))

Cheers mate and thanks for participating, now go off and lose that match on Saturday...

I can't

My community would kill me

I hope that we can somehow both promote further (I haven't checked 4th placed teams..We still maybe have some chances)

Good luck