/sci/ 2014 Autumn Babby Cup Recap v1.01

Alright, it's been some time since the cup's been over, thought I might as well do some post-cup recap like other people have done. First thing, I honestly did not expect to do so well. Fifth place in my first cup? I would've

never dreamed of such a finish. It would've been fool-hardy of me to believe I'd finish 8th or above. I really couldn't have done it without the people around me as well as a whole lot of luck. Now, onto actual recaps.

Going into Autumn was a bit maddening at first, with the whole Smugleaf debacle. After a very unimpressive round of Summer Friendlies, I wasn't very confident in our abilities. We were a perpetually mediocre team whose

only claim to fame was an intellectualist shitposter and a 3rd place trophy from 30 odd months ago. Now with the whole managerial madness as I called it, /sci/'s small reputation was tarnished further. But, nevertheless I

looked at the draw the day after it happened and was actually fairly surprised. We were with always-bad /o/, yo-yo /lgbt/, a /soc/ side with new, inexperienced management; and a fresh-out-of-the-crater /m/ team. I

wasn't too worried for all except /m/ and /soc/. Everything seemed fine.

So, we got our roster done, demoted Bill to a silver winger, and set our sights on tactics. We were both fairly incompetent at it, Aitor and I. We bumbled through a few tests, hoping something would stick. That's when I

suggested, as a joke, 4-6-0. I falsely explained that anti-football is the way to REAL football, and that everyone else is expecting offense. I probably thought that in my head and didn't actually say it. It was more or less

"Hey let's do 4-6-0 for shits and giggles." Turns out PES can't do less than 1 forward so we settled on the next best thing, 4-5-1. Aitor explained to me that, from experience, CMFs are basically worthless in PES. I trusted

the guy, all of our setups before had CMFs and look how well they turned out. So we did a setup with silver wingers, and a non-medal AMF, a bit unorthodox if you were to ask any other manager. Our midfield was LMF, DMF,

AMF, AMF, RMF. For the first few tests, it looked pretty good, churning out 2-0, 3-1 results consistently. Then it got even more consistent, and we realized we have a winning formula. Honestly,  I have no idea how it

happened.

As the cup drew nearer and nearer, I was a bit worried about our first match. It was against /soc/, a historically competent side who new their way around a ball. I saw the opposing manager as my first real test of the cup,

seeing as how he came in after the great (sic) Sexcopter. Finally, the day came. It was like 2 PM, I got some pizza rolls for lunch, I was ready. I cracked opened my tactics thrown together after a few days of midnight

testing and watched the game unfold. I wouldn't say the game had a good start, all in all. Sure, scoring first is always a good sign but when you're down 2-1 at the half it's never a good thing. Aitor was skeptical of what I

was doing, giving me halftime tactics and just said "Here do this.". So I did, it seemed fine on paper, until I heard Feedback say "I have no idea what /sci/ is doing here, they're parking the bus it seems but they're down 2-1."

Free advice from the current summer champ was a pretty nice thing to get when losing. So I remembered "Oh shit Aitor sucks at tictacs" and changed them around minute 52. Nothing major, just a few bumps here and

there. All of a sudden we were tied, then it was 3-2, then 4-2, and somehow through sheer luck and false brilliance, /sci/ won a game. Everyone was celebrating the comeback.

Next up, /m/. Fresh off of a recent colony-dropping in Spring, I wasn't expecting an outright terrible performance, but nothing too much to worry about. We busted out our HYPER-OFFENSIVE GO-GO-GO Preset 3, looked

through some game footage, and formulated a plan. Looking from the previous match /m/ played, they have a huge weakness on the wings, which /sci/ was specially designed to penetrate with BILL and GARL TSAGAN. I

was fairly confident in myself, having solidified (in my head at least) as the new hotshot manager in town. After a bit, we were down 1-0 at halftime. Honestly, I was slightly worried, but not too worried. I had faith in

what I planned. I also noticed a few people greentexting >/sci/ in the thread. One other post was >inb4 /m/ drops the colony in the 2nd half. Sure enough, that happened. Feynman scored the first to equalize, and Bill

scored on the most perfectly executed play I've ever seen. Studies estimate there were 10,000 BILL BILL BILL's that day. So there we stood at the top of the table: 6 points, 2 games.

I feel as though I need to point out that going into the /o/ match a lot of people expected a win after a 5-2 crush by /m/. I'm honestly not sure how we drew on that game. I wasn't actually there to manage, so I left Aitor

in charge. I trusted the guy. We pulled out a 1-1 draw on the spookiest of pitches and the power of radioactivity on our side. I feel like I should mention, I know we don't have a good thing going when Tesla is the 1st or only

person to score. But, with that draw, we actually got promoted for the 1st time in 2 1/2 years. I still cry about it today.

Next up, /lgbt/. I didn't wanna throw this match away because the fate of 3 teams rested on this 1 match. You know how it went, there's a whole thing about it in the /sci/ history. Anyway, I pulled out a 1-1 draw in the

1st half before I had to leave, so I left Aitor to do the second half. I return an hour later, we won 4-1 and we finished the group in 1st place with 10 points. Also /soc/ got themselves eliminated (lel). I think the best part

about this match (and /sci/'s entire cup run) was Sun of Fire & Ice, a non-medal centerback not meant to join the attack, scored his first ever goal. The best part about the best part was Boris yelling at the top of hist

lungs "SUN OF FIRE AND ICE. SUN OF FIRE AND ICE SCOOOOOORED IT'S 4-1." I've never seen him so happy. Also, you're welcome /m/.

Then afterwards, in the Round of 16, /t/. I kinda slept on /t/, didn't know much about them, never got to see them play, didn't know how the manager's like to put things around, so I was in the dark tactically. I loaded up

their export, and I immediately saw the 4-5-1. See, from experience, the best thing to use against 4-5-1 is in fact 4-5-1. I had a lot of trouble in tests, barely scraping draws, securing a few wins. One of the /t/ players

Free Anakata always intercepted passes from us, leading to shit possession and undeserved goals against us. Still, we pushed on to the match. It started off fine, up 1-0. I wasn't the most comfortable with it, so I took a

risk and played our Preset 3 with 2 DMFs. Not a good idea, almost conceded instantly. My only real tactical blunder to date. I instantly reverted back to the old formation and prayed to Sagan above that we'd at least go to

penalties. And we did, and what a set of penalties it was.

1-0
1-1
TESLA MISSES. YOU SERBIAN SHITLORD.
1-1
2-1
UTORRENT MISSED. WORST TORRENT CONFIRMED.
2-1
BILL YOU AMERICLAP LEARN TO TAKE PENALTIES.
2-2
3-2
YELLOW FEVER MISSES. /sci/ ADVANCE. IT IS AN AMAZING DAY FOR SCIENCE.

So that's how it went down.

Finally the game versus /n/. I stayed up until 2 AM testing for this shit, and nothing worked. Aitor and I were pulling our hair out trying to see if ANYTHING would work. I just decided fuck it, I won like once with this

setup, let's use that. Game starts, /n/ look dominant as usual. I'm watching the game closely, and then out of nowhere, Tite Gapz scores, 78th minute. I knew we weren't coming back after that. Feynman almost equalized

but he choked and we were eliminated. Hey, if we were to lose to any team, I'm glad it was them. In the end, we accomplished our goal, to entertain people.

So that's it. Notes for next cup:
-Lock up defence.
-Sack Jung.
-Stay out of /4ccg/.
-Make Bill good again.

See you in Winter,
Ordinate