Cheating

[bosunmate]

I was wondering if there is a way to cheat. How can a team be winning at a 900 clip did they just spend a lot of cash?

[LeeD]

I have a newish FTP team that's run through the first three levels with records of 158-4, 151-11, and 151-11. Currently 42-6 in Bronze, which is .875. It's very doable at the lower levels. Starting a new team late-cycle is a disadvantage in some ways (mostly due to not having a big backlog of cards built up for instant new-mission completions or generating great tournament rosters), but the big advantage is that you're also not saddled with locked cards that were great three months ago but useless now.

I also have a team that pulled a 103 Skubal Combinator and sold it for two million points. Instant roster upgrades everywhere. Went from Gold doormat to dominating, with 102's and 103's nearly everywhere. That amount of in-game cash also builds on itself through Diamond and Perfect pack pulls as missions get completed.

[bosunmate]

Thanks for the info it will be helpful for next year...

[BusterKing]

Originally Posted by LeeD

I also have a team that pulled a 103 Skubal Combinator and sold it for two million points.

So you are telling us that someone spent $1,000us on one card.

Elon Musk at it again.

[LeeD]

Originally Posted by BusterKing

So you are telling us that someone spent $1,000us on one card.

Elon Musk at it again.

Yep. It's probably the best card in the set right now, and odds are pretty good that it's on a PeL roster.

edit to add: easily the best card I've ever pulled, but it's wasted on a weak Gold league roster. The upside is that it's converted into upgrades at every batting lineup position, four of the five starting pitchers, and I pulled 103 Sutter with one of the Perfect pack rewards (and 103 George Gore with another). The only place I'm still sub-par is middle relief, but I've got nearly 500,000 points left if I cancel my 175,000 buy order on Fernando.

[rburgh]

It could be a guy who has been grinding tournaments from day one and speculating successfully on the monthly live card valuations. There are many ways to build a PeL team here besides cash.

[LeeD]

That's true, but it's a lot harder to do if you aren't spending actual cash, especially now that live spec is dead. In this case, I suspect there was an infusion of cash-purchased points since the buy order of a million jumped to two once I lowered my selling price. A win for both of us if this gets the other team a shot at Perfect League champion and gets mine into Diamond.

[bailey]

I think you need to grind about 10 million points over the course of the entire year to put a team in diamond and keep it there. Which is possible to do without any big scores like CC Skubal. What gets me is the people who don't know how to grind automatically assume deep pockets or cheating.

[bosunmate]

Originally Posted by bailey

I think you need to grind about 10 million points over the course of the entire year to put a team in diamond and keep it there. Which is possible to do without any big scores like CC Skubal. What gets me is the people who don't know how to grind automatically assume deep pockets or cheating.

How do you grind in this game....?

[LeeD]

Originally Posted by bosunmate

How do you grind in this game....?

Live spec, where you load up on live cards that are likely to jump to the next card level. This is dead for PT25, as the season is in the books.

Card shop spec, where you play hedge fund manager. Buy low, sell high. This is ongoing, especially with the mid-level Negro League cards. Buy for 60-70% of L10 and then relist for more than L10. This is even happening with some of the nearly-forgotten Day One missions, where people are submitting multiple buy orders for low-level cards and then relisting.

Future mission spec, where you buy up new cards and then cross your fingers that they end up in a hot new mission. I'm looking at you, Dave Stieb.

Others, of course, but the general idea is to buy or otherwise acquire now and then sell later for a nice profit.

[bosunmate]

Originally Posted by LeeD

Live spec, where you load up on live cards that are likely to jump to the next card level. This is dead for PT25, as the season is in the books.

Card shop spec, where you play hedge fund manager. Buy low, sell high. This is ongoing, especially with the mid-level Negro League cards. Buy for 60-70% of L10 and then relist for more than L10. This is even happening with some of the nearly-forgotten Day One missions, where people are submitting multiple buy orders for low-level cards and then relisting.

Future mission spec, where you buy up new cards and then cross your fingers that they end up in a hot new mission. I'm looking at you, Dave Stieb.

Others, of course, but the general idea is to buy or otherwise acquire now and then sell later for a nice profit.

Thank you for the explanation and Happy holidays....