Before you start reading, I post these regularly to all supporters of my Patreon, you can check it out here if you’re interested: patreon.com/DoctorBenjy
That said, I will occasionally share one of these with everyone.
Hello friends!
We’re back again with another blog post, I think getting the hang of this, it’s been a incredibly stressful few days! At the back end of last week my computer decided it’d had enough of my nonsense and stopped functioning correctly, so as a result I had to buy a brand new one. Not ideal, but I was hoping to upgrade next year anyway so it’s been brought forward 6 months. It’s a lovely little machine though, and it’s got cool looking lights on it as well so that only adds to the enjoyment of it. Worth mentioning that without my friend Matt (Nerdphonic) I’d still be deciding which piece of the computer goes where.
Considering I lost everything on my hard drive earlier this year me and computer based technology haven’t been getting along too great, but with everything in place now we should be on for a good finish to FM19 before kick starting my videos for FM20!
It’s curious, so far we’ve heard next to nothing about the new Football Manager game, Sports Interactive usually leave it a little late to announce what’s happening but it feels different this year, even later?! Typically this can mean one of two things. 1. They’ve got something really big that’s being kept quietly under wraps until it’s ready or 2. It’s set to be an underwhelming year in terms of game changing new features. You know what, I say all of this, it’ll probably turn out to be somewhere in the middle, rarely do they let us down when it comes to a new release and if last year is anything to go by, it felt like the most ‘complete’ beta version I’d ever played. Regardless of the features that come with the game I’ve finally settled on my opening two series for the year, last year I was utterly clueless for a long old time, in meant the start of my FM19 cycle was all disjointed and made me realise that not having a plan, potentially even a bad one, meant I wouldn’t hit the ground running like I normally have done, this year is different.
So, time for the reveal if you haven’t heard already…
My FM20 BETA save is going to be with Spurs, I’ve done stuff with Man United, Leicester, Arsenal and Liverpool during the BETA in the past and I think of the ‘Top 6’ teams Spurs are the closest to challenging the top two of Liverpool and Man City, while fending of challengers from below, they’ve the big rivalry with Arsenal that can be a constant narrative and a squad that is ALMOST there, so it’ll be my job to do what Poch has been unable to so far, win stuff. It should be a good 2/3 year project to kick things off before we venture into something very different from myself.
The plan is to do a series where the challenge (because I never set challenges really) is to win the league and major domestic cup in England/Spain/Germany/Italy/France with the same manager, and the Champions League, Europa League, European Championships and World Cup. I do know which team I’ll be starting at, but I’ll save that for when it all begins in November/December, and the kicker? I’ve only 20 years to complete the challenge, I’ll have some ‘cool’ graphics to go along side the series so we can keep up with what I’ve won etc, I was actually inspired by a poker twitch streamer (@jaimestaples on twitter) who I watch regularly, he keeps track of his tournament progress in a similar fashion. I don’t think it’ll be easy and the fact it’s an ‘elite journeyman’ series means it won’t be like anything I’ve done before. I’ll be bringing back a story lead element too, using my intros as I have in the past with Parma, Salford and RoadTrip. I have actually intentionally stop doing them for a while so that when they return it feels like a big deal! It’s not just me being lazy! To keep some mystery, I do know which team I’ll be starting with, but you’ll have to wait and see for that, it’ll be a top division club in one of the five nations listed so you can already start guessing!
Blimey, writing this I realise it’s really nice to have some clarity after a really challenging year for myself professionally, it can be a lonely place doing this line of work at times because rarely do you have the ‘staff night out’, if that makes sense at all? I wish the community came together more for different events, hopefully we can do more of that during the FM20 cycle. I’ll do my best to be active within that.
That’ll do for now, I’ve got a wedding this weekend, and I’m absolutely not miffed that I’ll be missing the Liverpool vs Arsenal match, in fact I’d rather make small talk with extended family for 7 hours. In case any extended family are reading this… I’m obviously kidding (that should do the trick)
With love, with care
Ben
DOCTOR BENJY | BEN CARR 