I believe it was 2015 when I started. Something I remember from my first year is that Joe Panik was a stud 2nd round pick. His ratings were 9/3/3. To put that into context, Prime Jose Reyes (a reward for finishing first on a weekend prime event), was 9/5/9
It was far more basic back in 2016. Single digit ratings, bonus games were literally a bonus in opposition to playing every game head to head, and the only workable event was the prime weekend and single day. If you didn't get a high-level starting pitcher, you didn't win. And draft picks had tangible value beyond xp.
It was a lot harder to consistently win games. It also had a ton less glitches, errors, etc., which inherently made it enjoyable to play. No bonus players of any kind, no bonus sets. Points were based on how good your team was, not on external carnival game like influences. It was simple, it was basic, and I enjoyed it much more than what it has become today. If I recall correctly the only 2 players with 9 ratings across the board were Buster Posey and Kershaw.
I started in 17 thanks to my nephew who I saw playing. Funny story with the new mini game taking away auto play. It took me like a month to figure out I didn’t have to manually play every game and every inning.
When I started there also were no bonus players. I miss those days.
It was a lot harder to consistently win games. It also had a ton less glitches, errors, etc., which inherently made it enjoyable to play. No bonus players of any kind, no bonus sets. Points were based on how good your team was, not on external carnival game like influences. It was simple, it was basic, and I enjoyed it much more than what it has become today. If I recall correctly the only 2 players with 9 ratings across the board were Buster Posey and Kershaw.
I never had a legend that year, but remember seeing some 13 and 14 ratings. It was so much simpler.
In hindsight, it was quite bland, but I loved the concept. I never bought a mystery box because it was way out of my league and I used to get super jelly at those who could afford the potw/potm guys.
edit: Oh, I also remember when I thought I was cool because I figured out how to maximize prime bars without using gold. Yup, gold was always real tough and I was such a scrooge with my gold. Again, '18 was fun, but kind of bland(no woh, no cvc, no bonus players, everyone NOT wanting to waste wins, etc.).
Pretty sure it was when the game first came out in 14. The biggest thing I remember is you had the option to play a “short game”, 3 innings. That was pretty sweet cause they removed it with the next update, which I didn’t do 😁. They gave gold to guy with highest wins daily, man I was cleaning up with 3 inning bg still active.
I'm confused by what you mean by 5.7 and 5.8. You mean the round and level?
Okay, semi related, but I want to add that in '19, I saw @Bigpredfan post about his diamond experience(I was silver at the time). He talked about how he'd play a bunch of games and get gold and he could hit every FR. On top of that, the 'impossible' achievements would all inevitably get unlocked. That blew my mind! Opening boxes is my favorite part of the game. I was sold!
Pretty sure it was when the game first came out in 14. The biggest thing I remember is you had the option to play a “short game”, 3 innings. That was pretty sweet cause they removed it with the next update, which I didn’t do 😁. They gave gold to guy with highest wins daily, man I was cleaning up with 3 inning bg still active.
You mean when the daily challenges were actually challenging and rewarding?
Okay, semi related, but I want to add that in '19, I saw @Bigpredfan post about his diamond experience(I was silver at the time). He talked about how he'd play a bunch of games and get gold and he could hit every FR. On top of that, the 'impossible' achievements would all inevitably get unlocked. That blew my mind! Opening boxes is my favorite part of the game. I was sold!
Okay, semi related, but I want to add that in '19, I saw @Bigpredfan post about his diamond experience(I was silver at the time). He talked about how he'd play a bunch of games and get gold and he could hit every FR. On top of that, the 'impossible' achievements would all inevitably get unlocked. That blew my mind! Opening boxes is my favorite part of the game. I was sold!
during the Diaz days. Lol
That just reminded me. Bah. Father time continues to be cruel...Diaz was in '18. I actually started playing tsb in '17.
The first couple years I really only played head to head and part of me really misses that. Felt like there was a tad bit of skill required and pulling players that were even just basic 5 stars was super exciting. Don’t really need to get into a diatribe about what happened next because we already know. But long story short I had a great run playing this game for years and met a lot of great people. I finally was able to decide this season so far that the game has moved on without me and hopeful it stays that way as I have really enjoyed my time back.
But yeah from when I started to where it is now, it really isn’t the same game at all.
As long as my foggy memory is remembering correctly. What I do recall is Kris Bryant was the cover athlete the year I started. The longer it goes the more I want to punch my brother in law in the face for getting me hooked on this game lol.
I remember you could always get the top of line player from hitting the top tier of fan rewards. That's how I would build my team. If I didn't need that player from that week's FR I would save my gold and wait till the next week. Now FR has been become a mute point because of the oversaturation of bonus players. I also remember the feature where you collected certain players and then attempted to trade them in for a 5* player. I remember spending almost 10000g trying to get a trade to go through for Joakim Soria because I needed a closer badly.
I remember you could always get the top of line player from hitting the top tier of fan rewards. That's how I would build my team. If I didn't need that player from that week's FR I would save my gold and wait till the next week. Now FR has been become a mute point because of the oversaturation of bonus players. I also remember the feature where you collected certain players and then attempted to trade them in for a 5* player. I remember spending almost 10000g trying to get a trade to go through for Joakim Soria because I needed a closer badly.
I was trying to remember how trading in worked. I now remember saving a certain number of 3-star players to get a #1 overall pick.
I remember you could always get the top of line player from hitting the top tier of fan rewards. That's how I would build my team. If I didn't need that player from that week's FR I would save my gold and wait till the next week. Now FR has been become a mute point because of the oversaturation of bonus players. I also remember the feature where you collected certain players and then attempted to trade them in for a 5* player. I remember spending almost 10000g trying to get a trade to go through for Joakim Soria because I needed a closer badly.
I was trying to remember how trading in worked. I now remember saving a certain number of 3-star players to get a #1 overall pick.
I liked the feature it actually gave other uses for the lower ranked players other than for XP.
2016 for me. Each year I’ve learned more and more how to play. The early days were a struggle for sure, but without bonus players someone could crush events easily. I could play in a club by myself and win the bracket on Slugfest days. One cycle would do it, maybe 2 if another good club was there. That may have been 17, I’m not sure. But there were also ways to take advantage of the game and allow you to avoid the big clubs. I’m not talking about cheating either. The rules allowed you to hop clubs and find the right bracket. Either me by myself or the club I was in, we would jump until we found a good bracket. I think they fixed that in 18, and it made it harder to compete with top clubs.
2016 I believe just seems all the years blend in together hard to separate early ones but it was definitely before any WoH modes , sets, and you had decent odds plus grinding videos was a decent way to compete if you didn’t spend on the game. I also remember when Slugfest was a decent mode as the player and rewards were worth playing and it was nice change up having a home run derby type mode . Remember first year of CvC being added was fun as it was more balanced scoring plus there was no subscriptions like now where can buy extra boosts , retries and lower costs for cvc . Seems my best memories were less in game purchases the better and modes were new . Just amazing remembering how the game was before field pass, subscriptions , lots players in spend only specials and all the ways changed to today rewards nerfed WoH / Slugfest etc , modes nerfed (BG only one counts now) / not important , amount of vip players and all the extras Glu gives you if you spend the gap just too big for guys only spend a few bucks to compete with clubs stacked with 20/20 Vips get weekly field pass, CvC subscriptions, buy players for sets from specials, use enough money to get event sets , buy weekend field pass , all the all star vip level bonuses , get monthly vip gifts and added this year the 2-6x multiplier on free boxes everyone gets . Makes you really wish for older years back not just outspend competition had to grind it out yourself also didn’t have all the club hopping , gifts for points , or full 20/20 vip clubs resetting every week so they could dominate minors levels .
2017- I ended the season with a Gold 3 team and a TS of 55,000- and I thought I had done well. I remember being stoked when I saved up enough gold to buy legend boxes and pulled Luis Gonzales. Played a total of 3000 games back then and thought that was spending way too much time on a mobile game. Fast forward to 2020 and I think I played that many in one week with a field pass.
I played in 2015 and then didn’t play again until 2019. What I remember from 2015 was the ultimate glitch where you could could stockpile as many #1 draft picks as you wanted so your whole team could be all of the best players. Then it got boring because you essentially “beat” the game and there was no longer any challenge.
Similar to @baseball2020 for me, but not quite the hiatus. I played in 2017, made like 10 teams with bullshit emails, and even got my wife to make a team on her phone. Then realized I had no idea WTF I was really doing and got over it. Came back with vengeance in 2019 and fell in love with it, mostly due to finding this forum (so I have very ambivalent feelings toward you all, lol) and learned how to be at least somewhat competitive...which was about the time Glu started systematically ruining the game and turning it into the pile of shit it now is. However, I was already hooked at that point and it’s still a better and cheaper (both in terms of money and life damage) addiction than my previous battle with alcoholism...let’s say it together now
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– The Great Houmy
edit: Oh, I also remember when I thought I was cool because I figured out how to maximize prime bars without using gold. Yup, gold was always real tough and I was such a scrooge with my gold. Again, '18 was fun, but kind of bland(no woh, no cvc, no bonus players, everyone NOT wanting to waste wins, etc.).
**** YOU GLU 🖕