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Dear friends,

As we had promised earlier, we are preparing some improvements in game economy for both hockey and soccer to make the game more competitive and fun. The main problem we were trying to address was the fact that many managers preferred to stay in a lower division where they dominated rather than play in a higher division in the middle of the pack or at the bottom of the table. This problem was brought up by many of you and we decided it's time to do something about it. The changes are designed not to upset long term plans of those managers who play the game to win and we firmly believe that the game will be better after their implementation.

Let me present the overview of the upcoming changes and their planned release date:

1. Change of coefficients for league positions - These coefficients are used for calculation of sponsorship deals and attendance. We have adjusted them so that the difference between the first team and the last team will be smaller than now. Therefore the differences between the best and worst in terms of income of money will be smaller which will give a better chance for the lower placed teams to catch up to the top teams. It also means that the top team from a lower league will not have such an advantage over a team in the middle of the pack in the higher league. This increases the impetus for teams in lower leagues to get promoted. The differences between league levels as a whole were not changed however. This change is scheduled for release just before the first sponsorship deals at the end of this season in both sports.
   
2. Change of calculation of overall team rating (OTR) - The OTR gain for a win, tie or overtime loss will be relative based on your opponent's OTR and your OTR. If you play a team with higher OTR than you, you can gain more OTR points for a win than your opponent. Even though this has always been the case, we will increase this effect significantly. It means that if you dominate your league and refuse to get promoted, your OTR gains will be much lower because of the poor relative quality of opposition in your league. On the other hand if you play in a strong league where most of the teams are better than you, you will be rewarded with higher gains for every point you earn against these tough opponents. The bigger the difference in OTR between the two teams, the bigger the difference in OTR points they can gain as well. This change will be implemented at the start of next season in both sports.
   
3. Change of seasonal decrease of OTR for promoted teams - As you know, teams which are promoted have their OTR reduced by only 15% at the end of the season. We will change this to 20% and only teams that have not yet played in the league level where they have been promoted will be eligible for this bonus. For example: If you played in league II and you were relegated and then promoted back to league II, your OTR will be reduced by the regular 30%. However, if you promote to league I for the first time, your OTR will be reduced by only 20%. This change will be introduced to stop teams from going up and down the leagues on purpose to boost their OTR. It is important to note that for the purposes of this change the league level of your team from this season will be considered as your starting point. So if you played in league I before this season, for example, it will not be taken into account and you will still be eligible for this bonus in case of promotion. This change should be implemented in both sports at the end of the current season.
   
4. Change of sponsorship deals for promoted and relegated teams - In order to give promoted teams better chance to compete in the higher league levels, they will receive an extra bonus for it's sponsorship deals including media partner offers and skybox/VIP lounges offers. On the other hand, relegated teams will receive reduced sponsorship offers, media partner offers and skybox/VIP lounges offers. Please note that this is not aimed at destroying teams playing in the bottom of the table. In combination with changes mention in point no. 1, the relegated teams will not receive less money than they are getting now. However, if you manage to avoid relegation, you will see your sponsorship offers grow compared to what you were getting in the past. This change is scheduled for release just before the first sponsorship deals at the end of this season in both sports.
5. Influence of throwing key games on sponsorship offers - This last change is directly aimed at those who deliberately relegate or avoid promotion. Sponsors will take into account if a manager fields a team with significantly lower team strength compared to season-long average for key games related to promotion and relegation. These key games are identified as promotion and relegation playoffs in both sports as well as quartefinals, semifinals, finals and the first round of 9-16 placement playoffs in hockey. For every one of these games in which you decide to field a significantly weakened team, the sponsors will take note and they will take that into account at the end of the season. This change should be implemented in time for this season's key games.
   

The first two changes are already prepared and just waiting for launch. The other 3 are still under development. If for some reason we are unable to implement any of them in time, we will notify you.

News from soccer

We have implemented the option for national team managers to resign from their function if they do not wish to continue in their position during the second season of their tenure. National team managers can find this option on the Elections page.

That's all, have a nice weekend!