Once the pre-season is over, you’ll want to start the game proper. For this, you have many options. The game is broken down into a number of gameworlds, with each gameworld having about 1000 managers involved. Each of the gameworlds are further broken down into various FAs – extreme for players who want to play manay games a day, FAs for time-specific players (e.g. weekend, evening, daytime) and ‘Social’ FAs for community-driven players. Once you’ve selected one of these, you’ll enter the Qualification round for you FA – you’re finishing position will determine which tier of the league you’ll eventually join. I love the idea of the social FA, and will probaly be joining this next time (I’m currently playing the Evening FA, which whilst good for my usual time on-line, doesn’t have a great deal of spirit).
Games are played on a ‘challenge’ basis – if both players are online at the same time, they will be reminded about the upcoming fixture and can challenge the other at any time. If a challenge is not met by a certain time, however, then the AI takes control to generate a result. This can have adverse affects on your prize money, however, so generally it’s best to choose an FA that fits your style of play. What’s great about this system is that it gives you a little flexibility in when you play games and doesn’t force you to be at your computer every night of the week. You can get away with postponing matches for a few days, or playing ten in one night – it’s all up to you.
