My Soccer Manager Worlds Experience

Posted on 19th November 2015

SM-Worlds-Blog

I started playing Soccer Manager Worlds at the beginning of September 2011. I remember going to a barbers shop one Sunday for a haircut and overhearing a conversation between two guys who were discussing their adventures in the game. I quickly typed the keywords into Google, signed up and was hooked from the start.

My first ever club was Schalke but I didn’t last very long there before moving to Hamburg, Marseille and a couple of others before finally settling on Lazio in January 2012.

What fascinated me about the game was the realistic game play which I had never experienced before in any football manager game I had played previously.

Having league matches twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 20:00 gave me the feeling of being a real life manager and I could change tactics, play friendlies, make transfers or even scout for players between games.

Another thing that was exciting for me was that I could play against and interact with real people instead of all by myself against the computer AI.

The suspense I experienced while viewing results from the previous day’s games was simply unmatched especially when it was an important league fixture with a human rival or a cup semifinal or final fixture.

Because the game had predefined days for matches and I could play against human opponents, it had that realistic feel that other manager games simply did not have at the time which made me a staunch fan.

Not long after I started playing the game, I introduced some of my friends to the game. A couple of them signed up and soon stopped playing but the majority were hooked and we often discussed our experiences in our respective Game Worlds.

The best period of my SM experience was the time when I got almost all of my friends in our secondary school hostel to join a new Game World and we started playing each other week after week.

We spent quite a bit of time back then haggling over transfer deals and would collectively troll the unlucky person who lost heavily on the last matchday. I think it just proved that the best way to enjoy SM Worlds is to play it with friends.

It was the tail end of our seconday school days so we were only able to complete a season together but I’m proud to say that I won the league and a cup trophy that season which gave me the bragging rights.

Best Moment

My best moment was when I won the Division 1 title for the first time with Lazio with a 11-point gap over second place. It was amazing because the Game World was particularly competitive that year and I certainly didn’t have the very best players around.

The League title I won against my friends in the other Game World also counts among my best moments in the game so far.

Worst Moment

Worst moment also came with Lazio in my very first season in charge. I was in Division 2 with promotion already secured and the title within reach (I had a 9-point lead with just a few games left). But inexplicably, my team had a dramatic dip in form and lost most of the remaining games while my rival won and the worst part of it was that he was winning with very high margins (5-0, 9-1 e.t.c).

I eventually lost the title that year on goal difference and that really frustrated me so much that I quit the club immediately before returning a few months later to save the team from relegation.

I had another similarly scary experience another time which almost cost me the title but this time I was lucky the other guy drew his final game (because I also drew mine!).

To date, I have 16 trophies in four years which is not a bad return keeping in mind that I utilised only two club slots throughout that period but I have been unlucky in the SMFA Champions Cup despite reaching the final on more than one occasion.

Every now and then when I see my old friends from secondary school, they often ask “Do you still play that Soccer Manager game?”, “I do” I always say.

About the Author – Ayo Isaiah

Ayo is the Editor-in-Chief of One Shot Football. He is from Lagos, Nigeria and has been playing Soccer Manager Worlds for over four years. A staunch admirer of José Mourinho’s football philosophy, he prefers a more pragmatic approach to aesthetics.

Twitter: @O_S_Football

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