How Do You Manage Your Roster?

[daddy_shelton]

I'm just curious how some of you guys manage rosters to keep them from getting too bloated or to make sure you get your matchmaking nice and clean.

 

I got to the end of my first year of my first game and despite winning Company of the Year as XCC, my roster got pretty bloated. I opened everything from Welterweight up to Super Heavyweight and by the end of the year, every division except FW and BW had 35 to 40+ fighters in it. I got a bit carried away as I play with Fog of War turned off and I signed a LOT of prospect types that were low-value but highly skilled and it created a prospect bloat that I got real bad at.

 

To combat this, at the start of 2003 I cut every fighter who had 3 consecutive losses in XCC, then limited my roster down to my Ranked 25 and 5 select prospects. Had to make some tough calls there. Then I divided each division into 3 groups. 1-10, 11-20, and 21-30. These aren't sorted by ranking, but by personal importance to my plans (usually starting by name value, then by excitement value of the fighting style and I'm heavily biased towards strikers). Then I ONLY hype the guys in the 1-10 group so I don't end up with that time I hyped half my roster.

 

I'm looking to do a dynasty thread for the board at some point, so I'd like to know how you guys manage your rosters to get them nice and clean and not confusing and creating dead weight.

 

EDIT: I actually just restarted that game to apply this logic from the beginning to see how it compares. Sadly, the three strike policy means cutting Azor Portela Nunes, Rafael Tavares, and Jackson Gray at the start of the game. That's really gonna hurt my booking, but I'll live.

[Pimpasaurus]

I like to go in cycles of one hiring year followed by one firing year. At the start of my hiring year I will sign up a bunch of top prospects be it from other promotions or free agency even some odd ball fighters who might not go on to do anything but flesh out the lower card. The next year I start cutting anyone with a bad record after each card, depending on how many shows I wanna run I keep my divisions somewhere between 30-50 fighters.

[BHK1978]

I don't manage my roster all that well...like you I end up with huge roster bloat. I do try to adhere to the UFC three losses in a row and you are done logic. Or if they are in a two fight losing streak I may not re-sign them (That has come back to bite me in the ass often, as those fighters tend to get a win during their last fight with the company and then I am screwed).

[daddy_shelton]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Pimpasaurus" data-cite="Pimpasaurus" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="45769" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I like to go in cycles of one hiring year followed by one firing year. At the start of my hiring year I will sign up a bunch of top prospects be it from other promotions or free agency even some odd ball fighters who might not go on to do anything but flesh out the lower card. The next year I start cutting anyone with a bad record after each card, depending on how many shows I wanna run I keep my divisions somewhere between 30-50 fighters.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I do like some new year house cleaning. Cut the chaff at the back end and bring in some new blood. Keeps me from hanging on to guys who aren't worth it for too long while cycling in better fighters.</p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="BHK1978" data-cite="BHK1978" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="45769" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I don't manage my roster all that well...like you I end up with huge roster bloat. I do try to adhere to the UFC three losses in a row and you are done logic. Or if they are in a two fight losing streak I may not re-sign them (That has come back to bite me in the ass often, as those fighters tend to get a win during their last fight with the company and then I am screwed).</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> The three strike rule is mostly a hard and fast rule for me. My only notable exception is a "last chance" fight for guys starting with three losses when I come in. The only really blatant exception I made to that rule is in my current XCC game. Jackson Gray put on a Fantastic fight in his featherweight debut. That was supposed to be his last chance fight, but with that being a Fight of the Year contender, it'd be a bad look if I cut him, so I set him to one strike and I'm only counting his featherweight fights. Dude basically saved his job with that fight.</p>

[Munit]

Depending on the stituaion. If someone loses like 3 in a row, wins 1 and loses another 2 he's probably getting cut. If I like someone ill let them get to 4 losses in a row. Than when the division is starting to get smaller I'll hire people to fill it.

[BrokenCycle]

From my experience, the game world isn't deep enough to just fire people all willy nilly based on 3 fight losing streaks. It's a little better because they are willing to come back faster than in the other games, though.

 

Usually I won't fire people that often month to month. What I do is randomly say "Booooriiiinng" and just fire like half of the guys in the division that I'm sick of booking, and hire the same amount in new talent. This happens about once a year.

 

I also find it a little more compelling to not hire a whole ton of amazing talent. I prefer having a lot of average fighters to have a clear hierarchy of talent.

[Paul_Heyman_Guy]

I like to limit who I can hire based on popularity and momentum. So I'll only hire fighters who are at least *** momentum if they're low regional popularity, ** momentum if they're mid regional popularity, or * momentum if they're high regional popularity(or 66.0 mid pop). That limits me to a handful of signings at the beginning of the game and what I really like about it is it keeps me invested in local shows...I'll look at the results of every local show and check in on the winner of every fight. Then I'll shortlist fighters who are potentially one fight away from being hired and watch their next fight.

 

As for firing fighters, I also do three losses in a row and they're out rule, but not at the beginning of the game. Fight histories aren't complete other than the last year, so those are the only fights I count. I'll make exceptions for popular fighters, especially if their fights are entertaining.

[BHK1978]

I also find it a little more compelling to not hire a whole ton of amazing talent. I prefer having a lot of average fighters to have a clear hierarchy of talent.

 

I tend to do that as well. Playing as GAMMA, I usually have five to ten really top notch fighters. Then I have maybe ten or so average fighters and I then round out my division with say ten or twelve fighters who are just cans and are there to eat losses. Sometimes the cans win and that extends their stay in the company.

[daddy_shelton]

I may have to set what I thought were hard and fast rules later. Playing as XCC (and what will probably help me for the KDM run I plan on doing) is that if I try to hold onto guys too long while my popularity grows, my drawing power starts to suffer. I'm constantly hiring guys on par with my new popularity, which leads to the bloat.

 

So for a company on the rise, I constantly shuffle in new fighters at my company's level or higher to get my drawing power up to the new standard and at the end of the year shuffle out the old guard and get my divisions back down to 30 each. When I'm a good-sized National company with an established roster, maybe I can afford to be picky. As things are right now though, I need to keep things moving.