First off let me make something totally 100% clear. If you want a pee wee team, you will get it. Although it isn't as 100% as it used to be, you still have a good chance if you sign up early. I'd say if you sign up before day 20 you'll get a team almost 100%. Copper went from 16 teams in s13 to 12 in s14, to 8 in s15. I doubt the trend will continue, in fact I'd bet next season you might see more teams as Bort might allow people to buy 2 teams. ( *updated for s15)
So if you want to get a team, throw down your 400 flex and it is yours. I made the mistake thinking that I wouldn't get a team, and when I did I wasn't exactly expecting it. Generally speaking there are a few keys to success in pee wee. The biggest one is good builds with early made players, another key is booster and custom players, and the last and probably the most important is the coordinators (offense and defense are really important).
Let me make 5 general assumptions.
a) You will get a team.
b) You don't want to fill the entire team yourself.
c) You are willing to make some players.
d) You'd like an almost full custom/boost team, but it is too much flex for you.
e) You decided to make your team around day 30, to sign up for drafts, or are willing to wait until the next season.
That being said here are some good ways to get a solid team:
1) Your own flex. A lot of successful owners will fit the bill for their own team. The typical team costs around 10k flex (50 players at 200 flex), but with boosting and CE can run much more (think boosts 10k x3, and 600 flex x 50 so basically 70k flex or about $405 dollars)
Many good owners will make 10-20 players on day 40/41 and sign them on day 1 if they can't find the players by then, or if the agents they already signed aren't working out for their builds/needs. So even if you don't want to make a full roster, you need to be prepared to make a lot of guys.
2) Team recruitment adds. If you place adds on the forums you can get a few guys to sign up. I want to be clear that it is pretty easy to get a boosting/CE QB. So if you don't have a specific build in mind and defiantly want a booster/CE agent, you will find one pretty easily. There is a "teams looking for players forum" and a pee wee recruitment forum, look in both. Bump each one every few days or so, but make sure to respect the rules of the forums and wait until it gets to page 2.
3) Players looking for teams adds. A few of the best agents that I have I responded to their player adds. Look for post like "Looking for Pee Wee team", or such and you can find amazing agents this way as well. As a pee wee owner you can offer a lot of money to players, and this isn't the best way to get players to join your team, but it is an advantage over cap 4 and development leagues. I honestly could offer a player 1,000,000 dollars. Not to shabby, but money is pretty much worthless in GLB as any decent team will buy your EQ.
4) Drafts. LordEvil and the ILOF both run pee wee drafts. I only have experience with LordEvil's and cant' really comment on the ILOF draft. For LordEvil's draft you need to actually donate 2 players, but typically you will get 5+ in return. Donate 200 flex, get thousand of flex worth of players in return. This is a no brainer people. Sign up, even if you are a first year owner. It is a lot of fun as well. Again, you will get your team and the agencies know that. Also plan on making many players yourself here, and then sign the player that you draft instead of your own. Again LordEvil does this with his team, so it is in the rules of the draft. (the players will be signed 6 days after the draft due to needing to be released)
5 Networking This is difficult to go into and we could speak about this for ages. But you must try to get friends to build for you. You need to recruit real life friends, teammates, co-workers, and others who know pee wee and such. The saying "it's not what you know, but who you know" is important here. You are recruiting agents, not dots. You can make the dots, but the agents are vital parts of the team.
6 Marketplace This isn't a good way to get people, but a solid way if you have nothing. I would try sending out contracts, and gathering agents this way. Make sure your offers are personal and max money. Send out a personal message to them telling them about why you want them on your team. Let them know that you like their build, and remember you are trying to find people to game with, not just a player on your team. You want lifetime loyal agents. Ask them to join your team. Remember that a player that you make on day 41 is so much better than a guy who doesn't know what he is doing. Only 1 out of 10 contracts that you send out will be acepted here, and only half of those agents will be any good. For about every 2 hours you spend here, you get one player.
The order of what you want is simple Good agents that boost/CE > good agents that dont' boost/CE > poor agents who boost/CE > poor agents who don't have any clue what they are doing.
Also be sure to stay positive and active in your team and league forums. A silent owner is no fun to play this game with.
Priority for recruitment!
Typically for me at least in order of hardest to easiest....
1) WR they are costly and not so effective in a passing role in pee wee. If somebody says "Hey, I'll make one or two players whatever you need." Ask them to make 3-4 WRs.
2) LB, DE, DT not so much fun, hard to recruit. You need a lot of them, and typically people don't like making defense.
3) DB/OL/FB/TE The semi-glory positions, hard to find exactly what you need here, but a little easier.
4) KR/PR, K, QB, HB easy spots to find. You can fill these in a day or two, no problem.
Also we must talk about coordinators. As the owner you will be responsible for the sucess of your team. I'd suggest doing either offense or defense, and I'd suggest you try to learn something about both in case it is needed. The success or failure of the team boils down to you, so you might as well start learning one of the sides of the ball. Try to find someone invested in the team, a co-owner or friend who can do one side of the ball for you, and learn to do the other. A good OC is hard to find, but it's not too hard to find a really basic one. A good DC is worth their weight in gold.
Gerr's guides are just amazing:
Defense: http://goallineblitz.com/game/forum_thread.pl?thread_id=3701165
Offense: http://goallineblitz.com/game/forum_thread.pl?thread_id=3723780
I had a lot of coordinators burn me, and quit. It can take a good OC or DC almost an hour to prep for a game, easily much longer. Nobody should be more invested in your team than you. If you cant' commit to that, don't sign up for a team.
A few points to remember, and some quotes from "famous" peewee guys.
>You will want your 55 players for ST and such. They may not get max exp, but the depth is helpful. A few guys might also get banned or have real life issues, or just have terrible builds. Hopefully all the slow builders have gone cap 4 or dev league, but a lot of teams have 1-2 guys that are just bad, be ready to deal with it.
> You will want a rushing QB in pee wee, in can be very helpful. Rushing is king, you will want 2-4 HB, depending on what you want to do with them. Just make sure you have at least 3 good rushers total, and one inside rusher. A lot of teams can crush the running QB, so don't rely on it too much. A good powerback to keep them honest is important.
> CBs use a lot of energy, I'd recomend 5+
> Not everybody has to boost, you can still have a really successful season if 20-25 of your players boost and custom. I even know teams that have made it to Gold with only 12 boosters/CE. A well made player on day 40 is about even with a CE player made on day 1 in terms of total points. Don't forget good agents > CE/Boosters.
> Don't let an agent build too many guys. You can easily get burned that way. I'd say only let someone make 2-3 unless you trust them or they have a good peewee reputation.
One QB is 300 Flex and entire Offensive Line is 500 Flex. But again, If I were you I'd make a full OL and defense (16 players 2700 flex) just to make sure you have someone in those difficult spots.
>Also from RaphaneKnight: "Recruiting and developing agents: This is really important unless you are planning to build all the players yourself. You have to keep in mind that if you are not affiliated with any of the gold league teams, it's going to be hard recruiting agents with any significant experience in pw. So what you have to do here is look for guys that might be inexperienced but are very active and have the dedication and willingness to learn. I know a lot of owners pass on agents that are new but they are missing on some good opportunities. From my experience, newer agents tend to be more loyal to the team than the older agents. It takes time and patience but it's a lot more rewarding at the end."
>Originally posted by LordEvil
Here is another trick.
Find an agent in the big leagues that is unhappy about a team cheating or just unhappy and bitching about this or that (AA, AAA, Pro whatever)
PM him and tell him about how great the pee wees are, He could retire his level 42 and make about 3 players and be able to customize EQ and boost them and have more fun with thopse 3 players than in some louzy cheating league. Let him know that at the pee wee leagues the games are the same. The dots are a little slower but hell its easier to watch. Also all the players are at the same level so his level 42 WR isnt going to be matched up against a level 58 CB.
Worked for me for many seasons.
>Stwcjj's Guide to pee wee recruiting-
"Stage one- OH! I now have a pee wee team! Never saw that coming!
Stage two- Determine how many players you are willing to build on your own (this is assuming you received your team after day 31)
stage three- contact agents that you are friends with to see if they will build any players for you.
stage four- check the marketplace. Send out a MAX offer and a pm to the agent. Check the pee wee recruiting board. I only do this to players who are online (green)
stage five- check the players looking for a team thread.....this isn't usually very succesful as everyone and their brother checks this forum and competition is high.
stage six- When the talent pool drains down and their are only a few players in the market place, use the "Search" tab to look for players that are <a>active <b>on a cpu owned team <c>human look for Pee Wee teams that have gone CPU and send out a pm/offer to the agents. This is usually a good place to find players as there isn't usually too much competition, and you've got players who have already signed with a pee wee team at one point.
Hope this helps!"
So if you want to get a team, throw down your 400 flex and it is yours. I made the mistake thinking that I wouldn't get a team, and when I did I wasn't exactly expecting it. Generally speaking there are a few keys to success in pee wee. The biggest one is good builds with early made players, another key is booster and custom players, and the last and probably the most important is the coordinators (offense and defense are really important).
Let me make 5 general assumptions.
a) You will get a team.
b) You don't want to fill the entire team yourself.
c) You are willing to make some players.
d) You'd like an almost full custom/boost team, but it is too much flex for you.
e) You decided to make your team around day 30, to sign up for drafts, or are willing to wait until the next season.
That being said here are some good ways to get a solid team:
1) Your own flex. A lot of successful owners will fit the bill for their own team. The typical team costs around 10k flex (50 players at 200 flex), but with boosting and CE can run much more (think boosts 10k x3, and 600 flex x 50 so basically 70k flex or about $405 dollars)
Many good owners will make 10-20 players on day 40/41 and sign them on day 1 if they can't find the players by then, or if the agents they already signed aren't working out for their builds/needs. So even if you don't want to make a full roster, you need to be prepared to make a lot of guys.
2) Team recruitment adds. If you place adds on the forums you can get a few guys to sign up. I want to be clear that it is pretty easy to get a boosting/CE QB. So if you don't have a specific build in mind and defiantly want a booster/CE agent, you will find one pretty easily. There is a "teams looking for players forum" and a pee wee recruitment forum, look in both. Bump each one every few days or so, but make sure to respect the rules of the forums and wait until it gets to page 2.
3) Players looking for teams adds. A few of the best agents that I have I responded to their player adds. Look for post like "Looking for Pee Wee team", or such and you can find amazing agents this way as well. As a pee wee owner you can offer a lot of money to players, and this isn't the best way to get players to join your team, but it is an advantage over cap 4 and development leagues. I honestly could offer a player 1,000,000 dollars. Not to shabby, but money is pretty much worthless in GLB as any decent team will buy your EQ.
4) Drafts. LordEvil and the ILOF both run pee wee drafts. I only have experience with LordEvil's and cant' really comment on the ILOF draft. For LordEvil's draft you need to actually donate 2 players, but typically you will get 5+ in return. Donate 200 flex, get thousand of flex worth of players in return. This is a no brainer people. Sign up, even if you are a first year owner. It is a lot of fun as well. Again, you will get your team and the agencies know that. Also plan on making many players yourself here, and then sign the player that you draft instead of your own. Again LordEvil does this with his team, so it is in the rules of the draft. (the players will be signed 6 days after the draft due to needing to be released)
5 Networking This is difficult to go into and we could speak about this for ages. But you must try to get friends to build for you. You need to recruit real life friends, teammates, co-workers, and others who know pee wee and such. The saying "it's not what you know, but who you know" is important here. You are recruiting agents, not dots. You can make the dots, but the agents are vital parts of the team.
6 Marketplace This isn't a good way to get people, but a solid way if you have nothing. I would try sending out contracts, and gathering agents this way. Make sure your offers are personal and max money. Send out a personal message to them telling them about why you want them on your team. Let them know that you like their build, and remember you are trying to find people to game with, not just a player on your team. You want lifetime loyal agents. Ask them to join your team. Remember that a player that you make on day 41 is so much better than a guy who doesn't know what he is doing. Only 1 out of 10 contracts that you send out will be acepted here, and only half of those agents will be any good. For about every 2 hours you spend here, you get one player.
The order of what you want is simple Good agents that boost/CE > good agents that dont' boost/CE > poor agents who boost/CE > poor agents who don't have any clue what they are doing.
Also be sure to stay positive and active in your team and league forums. A silent owner is no fun to play this game with.
Priority for recruitment!
Typically for me at least in order of hardest to easiest....
1) WR they are costly and not so effective in a passing role in pee wee. If somebody says "Hey, I'll make one or two players whatever you need." Ask them to make 3-4 WRs.
2) LB, DE, DT not so much fun, hard to recruit. You need a lot of them, and typically people don't like making defense.
3) DB/OL/FB/TE The semi-glory positions, hard to find exactly what you need here, but a little easier.
4) KR/PR, K, QB, HB easy spots to find. You can fill these in a day or two, no problem.
Also we must talk about coordinators. As the owner you will be responsible for the sucess of your team. I'd suggest doing either offense or defense, and I'd suggest you try to learn something about both in case it is needed. The success or failure of the team boils down to you, so you might as well start learning one of the sides of the ball. Try to find someone invested in the team, a co-owner or friend who can do one side of the ball for you, and learn to do the other. A good OC is hard to find, but it's not too hard to find a really basic one. A good DC is worth their weight in gold.
Gerr's guides are just amazing:
Defense: http://goallineblitz.com/game/forum_thread.pl?thread_id=3701165
Offense: http://goallineblitz.com/game/forum_thread.pl?thread_id=3723780
I had a lot of coordinators burn me, and quit. It can take a good OC or DC almost an hour to prep for a game, easily much longer. Nobody should be more invested in your team than you. If you cant' commit to that, don't sign up for a team.
A few points to remember, and some quotes from "famous" peewee guys.
>You will want your 55 players for ST and such. They may not get max exp, but the depth is helpful. A few guys might also get banned or have real life issues, or just have terrible builds. Hopefully all the slow builders have gone cap 4 or dev league, but a lot of teams have 1-2 guys that are just bad, be ready to deal with it.
> You will want a rushing QB in pee wee, in can be very helpful. Rushing is king, you will want 2-4 HB, depending on what you want to do with them. Just make sure you have at least 3 good rushers total, and one inside rusher. A lot of teams can crush the running QB, so don't rely on it too much. A good powerback to keep them honest is important.
> CBs use a lot of energy, I'd recomend 5+
> Not everybody has to boost, you can still have a really successful season if 20-25 of your players boost and custom. I even know teams that have made it to Gold with only 12 boosters/CE. A well made player on day 40 is about even with a CE player made on day 1 in terms of total points. Don't forget good agents > CE/Boosters.
> Don't let an agent build too many guys. You can easily get burned that way. I'd say only let someone make 2-3 unless you trust them or they have a good peewee reputation.
One QB is 300 Flex and entire Offensive Line is 500 Flex. But again, If I were you I'd make a full OL and defense (16 players 2700 flex) just to make sure you have someone in those difficult spots.
>Also from RaphaneKnight: "Recruiting and developing agents: This is really important unless you are planning to build all the players yourself. You have to keep in mind that if you are not affiliated with any of the gold league teams, it's going to be hard recruiting agents with any significant experience in pw. So what you have to do here is look for guys that might be inexperienced but are very active and have the dedication and willingness to learn. I know a lot of owners pass on agents that are new but they are missing on some good opportunities. From my experience, newer agents tend to be more loyal to the team than the older agents. It takes time and patience but it's a lot more rewarding at the end."
>Originally posted by LordEvil
Here is another trick.
Find an agent in the big leagues that is unhappy about a team cheating or just unhappy and bitching about this or that (AA, AAA, Pro whatever)
PM him and tell him about how great the pee wees are, He could retire his level 42 and make about 3 players and be able to customize EQ and boost them and have more fun with thopse 3 players than in some louzy cheating league. Let him know that at the pee wee leagues the games are the same. The dots are a little slower but hell its easier to watch. Also all the players are at the same level so his level 42 WR isnt going to be matched up against a level 58 CB.
Worked for me for many seasons.
>Stwcjj's Guide to pee wee recruiting-
"Stage one- OH! I now have a pee wee team! Never saw that coming!
Stage two- Determine how many players you are willing to build on your own (this is assuming you received your team after day 31)
stage three- contact agents that you are friends with to see if they will build any players for you.
stage four- check the marketplace. Send out a MAX offer and a pm to the agent. Check the pee wee recruiting board. I only do this to players who are online (green)
stage five- check the players looking for a team thread.....this isn't usually very succesful as everyone and their brother checks this forum and competition is high.
stage six- When the talent pool drains down and their are only a few players in the market place, use the "Search" tab to look for players that are <a>active <b>on a cpu owned team <c>human look for Pee Wee teams that have gone CPU and send out a pm/offer to the agents. This is usually a good place to find players as there isn't usually too much competition, and you've got players who have already signed with a pee wee team at one point.
Hope this helps!"
Edited by Moogz on Apr 11, 2010 00:50:40
