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thefatcyclist abandones
Hi guys,just a note to say i've abandoned the fantasy game. I've been thinking about it fo a while, and decided I can't do this anymore. reasons.
1. Time,
2. Whilst many of you find playing the gane enhances your enjoyment, I have increasingly felt the opposite. Instead of enjoying the racing, all I can think of is,"Damn I was going to put him in my team>"
3.I have not gotten to grips with the key on a daily basis, picking the winner is now secondary to picking the breakaway guys. This is no reflection on Dave and the Game engine, just i'm crap at it.
4. It's all gotten a bit serious on the forum and the banter has gone out of it.
5. I missed the american premier race completely through stupidity.
So today is my last day, and i'm asking Dave to remove me from the game, because I can't bear to see me drop like a stone till season end. Unless i'm on page 1 no good for me.
All the best guys and I will drop in from time to time to see how things are going.
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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26 comments
Come on, come on, it's just a game.
http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/were-playing-a-game-it...
Ha ha!
Good one! But, no, it's not just a game, it's a competition. It's about testosterone. It's about guts and glory and knowledge and world domination. It's about your self esteem! You put everything! 
at stake every day at this game. It's life and death. It means more - at least to me - than my marriage! 
Well, at least my wife thinks so! 
I have no life! 
I've resorted to a pin and blindfold
That's the way it goes sometimes, I made random un-researched changes for a Tour de Suisse stage and ended up winning it... The more I research the worse I usually do
I forgot to change my team over the rest day and scored my highest this tour FFS, have lost 2 TT changes tho'
I am no procycling expert....i wztch it on eurosport when I can and itv4 whenit is on...and I just try and pick those that wikipedia said did well last year....is that why my sock drawer s empty??? But its fun...and the odd day when you pick voight and he rides away to win makes others think you know more than you do.
Where I'm not sure who to pick I check the stage odds and use that as a guide, generally bookies are sensible and its easy to pick up on whose in form like Degenkolb, Bouhanni and Davis which helped me pick the top 4 for stage 2.
Any consolation, I forgot to put in a team for the USA race. I am languishing in the premium league. However, I do enjoy putting a team together and read everyone's forum comments. Glad you are still in the game.
Would I stick around if it was finish line only? The game engine is fine.
That is part of the game and real racing. It is not the weighting in this respect per se that is affecting me, it is my obvious lack of a deeper knowledge than just the headline participants. Clearly I don't know as much about the procycling,as I need to, and do not have the time to increase that knowledge, and due to my nature that is a demotivating point. I could just follow trends, research the top players teams, look at the dream teams etc, but that is being wise after the event. Degenkolb in the Vuelta is an example. I had Viviani and Swift in my pool of sprinters, Bennati, Bouhanni, Degenkolb were in my mind, but I was not in a position to include them, as any strategy I have for this race is mountain based.
YeahH!!!!
Thanks for all the comments guys. I'll see it out till the end of the Vuelta and then see what is what.
I suppose everyone has different opinion's. To me, someone being out in the break all day, even if they don't win, Its worth some glory.
If there was no bonuses, in the racing, not the game. No-one would go in the break, If there was no KoM or sprint points, you'd have a VERY boring race, where everyone just take it easy at half the speed and worked up to the sprint at the finish or drag up hill.
The game, while not being exactly like pro racing. Mirrors it to that extent having break away points.
Take those away and the game becomes pointless, excuse the pun
It would make for a VERY boring game if all anyone was playing for was finish line points
Ok not quite. I thought he had double on the day he scored 100, but next best was 59
http://fantasy.road.cc/stages?sid=79
I personally don't play for the prizes, but was gutted the purist in the TdF was not just for premium aswell
I don't think the premium has taken anything away from the forum as its the same 5-10 guys posting ALL the time and hardly anyone else. But during the day, alot of people will be working. So I understand that.
Tru Dat.
I don't think any changes are needed. The only a breakaway guy can outscore the stage winner is if there 3 cat 1 mountain climbs and some sprint points.
Other wise it is only if the break away stays away and wins. Thats the only reason that ONE rider this season has scored double what any other rider has scored on a stage
Who was that? I can't think of any rider that's done that and I've had quite a lot of the big breakaway guys, including Voeckler.
I LOVE breakaway guys, they've saved me from disaster on many occasions. It's the sprint stages I'm not so good at.
I have to admit there have been times when I've felt the same as thefatcyclist especially after a bad day. But when you get 1, 2, 3, and 5 like today you feel quite good even if it's silly.
There have been times when I've thought I won't bother next year but winning a prize helps especially if it's useful (I hope the Bryton will enhance my training) and it's definitely enhanced my understanding of cycling, which wouldn't have happened if I was only interested in who won GC. Now I understand all the minor triumphs of riders who aren't great climbers but can still win a stage or have a jersey for a day or two.
It has its frustrating side though. I took out Danielson before he did his break yesterday, and I find the Premium tours a bit of a distraction during the grand tours.
I think the lack of action on the forums is due to the Premium payment as now only a few hundred people are going for the bike whereas before there would have been loads more and some of those would have joined in some banter.
I haven't had much time to watch stages live and so can't comment on the action. I just watch highlights which is never the same even if you don't know the result.
If you give up something you're not enjoying any more that's sensible - hope you have more time to enjoy your real cycling as that is what is really important. This game should just enhance your enjoyment of that by giving you more insight into what pros can achieve.
Oh FC. Please don't!!! You'll be missed
says he who rarely appears in the fantasy forum mainly due to work more than anything else and the threads have exhausted themselves when I get to look at them! Though you do seem to have thought it out but hopefully you won't be too much of a stranger....
I agree. Sometimes I think it's ludicrous that a breakaway guy can get double or more points than the stage winner gets.
Maybe next year we can limit the amount of points breakaway riders can get.
Maybe just award points for only the top three riders over any climb or lower the points on offer for the climbs.
Yeah, it's nice to get points for a breakaway rider, but I agree with the notion that a breakaway rider should not be able to get as many or more points than a stage winner.
EDIT: I stand corrected below.
Yeah, I stand corrected. What I meant to say was that I find it a liitle 'out-of-whack' that a rider get more than the 35 points a straight-up stage winner gets, no matter how many points he gets for the intermediate points or the KOM points along the way.
The higher glory, and the higher points, in my opinion, should always go to the stage winner.
Fatty, out of curiousity, if the game switched to just finish line points, would you stick around?
Sometimes I get frustrated, too, Fatty. I wish there was a game level, like the Purist leagues, where one could just pick the top 9 finishers, no budget constraints, no Star Rider/Domestique restrictions, no transfer limitations...
In all seriousness, what would be the point in that? I score average, am placed not too badly. But I enjoy the challenge of pulling a team together with the constraints there is. Otherwise you would pick the top 9 big guns for a particular stage and leave it at that. I'll never win a bike but hey who gives a stuff. That's why it's called fantasy cycling
I felt the same just after the Giro, the Criterium and Tour de Suisse just felt like pointless races that just weren't fun so I made stupid transfers, took loads of penalty points and ended up winning a stage through pure luck. For me, the only fun is in the three week grand tours, the rest don't interest me as much which is why I only put in purist teams for most of the premium races. Nothing is as fun for me as the Giro, TdF or Vuelta.
You'll be missed and I agree, some of the fun has gone out of it (and the forum does seem to be less fun with more people complaining) but if that's the case, take a break and see how you feel next year.
I don't know what's lined up for next year but the game is always changing and progressing so don't give up on it entirely.
Will be sad to see you leave, but dont make a drastic decision, but ultimately you do leave, you have your reasons, and hope to see you on here every now and again
Go for a long bike ride and mull it over.
Couldn't you at least make up some story about how you broke both your collarbones trying to log onto the website, or ate some contaminated steak while mulling over your next set of transfers?
Go purist. It's the only honorable thing to do.
Oh but fatty......You cant just leave the game....
I understand some of the points though. At the start of the TdF I felt a bit the same, I didn't have time nor connection because of a job I was doing. So just put in a purist team and did not to bad. But saw my season total drop like a stone.
I still think picking the winner of a stage is the way to go, but in some cases, the breakaway stays away and I lose a shed load of points, twice i've seen it happen this season. With Voeckler in the TdF and today with Danielson in the USA.
It has gotten a little serious on the forum's, but it also doesn't seem to be attracting anyone new posting. Last season there were a few of us involved in banter like my "tip of the day"
but lately its the same few guys day in day out 
Can you not just play purist races till the end of the season and forget about being on the first page??
I think if you do that and see what next season has in store, you might just keep yourself slightly interested. I understand that there will be some changes a foot for next season
If not, then all the best and see you around the forum from time to time.