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For me, there is no walkthrough to become HG … you just have to stick to it, be flexible and anticipate opportunities:

- I came from nothing, economically totally broke, I demoted twice to DIV.3 with my HG-NT-player (42515541).
- I was a little bit lucky and drafted some players which I sold „due to economical reasons“, some others got trained with Pomper.
- „the others“ formed a good basis, I somehow managed „late draft positions“, drafted bigs and trained them.
- was able to buy back drafted players, finished their training or integrated them in my roster.
- managed it to good draft positions again, got „good enough“ trainees for PG-SF.

Training of the PG-SF will finish this season, so at present:
- I have my top 8 for 5-6 seasons in their prime for long PO runs
- every player on my roster was drafted and 100% trained by myself
- I have enough credit to pay their salaries (at present 615k) for these 5-6 seasons
- the next big (and possibly upcoming NT-star) is already there and will be trained (53729043)

This took me about 15 seasons.
And yes, if you look through my transfer history, one time I became weak and bought two foreign players to promote to DIV.1 … and failed.

So my advices:
- have perseverance
- be patience
- dont be afraid of demotions, they are an opportunity!
- keep eye on your sold drafted players
- be flexible
- draft wisely

All the best for the new year.

Last edited by LA-flaterik123 at 12/29/2024 2:28:07 PM

Yeah, I agree...and I would also like to hear about their 'failures'. These are where the lessons occur.

As for my interest in competing with my main roster...absolutely!

I have a tentative plan at present:

Train / Build Arena / Build War Chest

However, if I can gain some knowledge into how people have gone about training (specific methods) a 'team' (something I have never tried) rather than individual players, or if it is purely dictated by the rookies drafted, then I will have a better idea of 'when' I can pivot to the HG focus. I currently only have 5 HG players, none of which will help me become successful. Therefore, I am relying on training a little more, selling them all for a nice profit, spending maximum on drafts, building arena and then switching to HG. I have 2 Aussie U21 NT hopefuls and 2 others that, with 2 more seasons under them, would turn me some nice profits.

So, yes...it is definitely in my thinking. Learning more about the training is important right now. Do people train the team, or still focused on individuals? I have been playing BB for a very long time and trained many players, including U21 NT players from different countries; training up a HG team would require careful planning of what to train, how many to train, and when to flip from bigs to small training or vice versa.

Looking forward to getting more insight into how teams have gone about it.

For me, there is no walkthrough to become HG … you just have to stick to it, be flexible and anticipate opportunities:

- I came from nothing, economically totally broke, I demoted twice to DIV.3 with my HG-NT-player (42515541).
- I was a little bit lucky and drafted some players which I sold „due to economical reasons“, some others got trained with Pomper.
- „the others“ formed a good basis, I somehow managed „late draft positions“, drafted bigs and trained them.
- was able to buy back drafted players, finished their training or integrated them in my roster.
- managed it to good draft positions again, got „good enough“ trainees for PG-SF.

Training of the PG-SF will finish this season, so at present:
- I have my top 8 for 5-6 seasons in their prime for long PO runs
- every player on my roster was drafted and 100% trained by myself
- I have enough credit to pay their salaries (at present 615k) for these 5-6 seasons
- the next big (and possibly upcoming NT-star) is already there and will be trained (53729043)

This took me about 15 seasons.
And yes, if you look through my transfer history, one time I became weak and bought two foreign players to promote to DIV.1 … and failed.

So my advices:
- have perseverance
- be patience
- dont be afraid of demotions, they are an opportunity!
- keep eye on your sold drafted players
- be flexible
- draft wisely

All the best for the new year.

Some good advice and info here.

Yes, I have contemplated just 'going for it' but it's a big move and I want to do it right.

I still want more info on the training side of it.

You would be wanting to spend maximum on the draft every two years I'm thinking...?

When I think through it, you would have to, as you mentioned, 'draft wisely' but with a focus. Get a gun big or two, for example (hopefully 3), train them on their primaries for two seasons, switching over to secondaries with a new batch of draftees (smalls or forwards) for example and keep working the training in a tactical manner. This is just one example of many possible methods.

I take my hat off to those teams who have found the greater success with a HG team; you would have to have a strong knowledge of training (elastic effect etc) with an equally strong determination to persevere as you mentioned.

Not sure I'm ready to take the leap yet, however, the preparation for the leap is forming in my head

So my advices:
- have perseverance
- be patience
- dont be afraid of demotions, they are an opportunity!
- keep eye on your sold drafted players
- be flexible
- draft wisely


.

I had forgotten to think of this! Nice :-)

I have decided to go Home-Grown, starting in Season 68.

I have decided to go Home-Grown, starting in Season 68.

Start it now … it’s floating … a process.

Sell whoever is not needed now and/or in the future, add HG players every draft.

No one will blame you if you train foreign players the next seasons to earn some money and build a war chest.

I have decided to go Home-Grown, starting in Season 68.

Start it now … it’s floating … a process.

Sell whoever is not needed now and/or in the future, add HG players every draft.

No one will blame you if you train foreign players the next seasons to earn some money and build a war chest.

Yep, already onto to it!

see my BBmail response, LA-flaterik123.

And thanks again for your email and info.

Should be fun.

I have decided to go Home-Grown, starting in Season 68. B)

Sir, I'm sure many in this Homegrown-community would agree, that this is the best decision you've done all year regarding BuzzerBeater. :) And even if not all would post a message about it here in the forum, I'm sure I´m not alone when I want to warmly welcome you to this "club" of ours! :)

Great to hear you'd be willing to participate with your main roster!

As for other topics you introduced (training/drafting specifically), I'd need to take more time to give a proper reply (should I decide to try to write about them more - many more skilled managers than me have discussed about these matters in forums before, so I'd basically only possibly add couple of observations I've had about their writings/theories/training tables etc.).

It seems that your team is relatively new to BB, so may I ask if you have any previous experience in BB?
And more importantly, how much time and effort would you be willing to put in to ultimately be able to create a team that you want?
Also I think, to create a lasting strategy, it'd be beneficial to know what kind of person(ality) you are, are you geared towards more methodical/analytical/stick with the plan-style, or towards intuitive/reactive/adapting style (or something in between)?

There are so many ways how you could approach drafting and training (and again, those should be discussed in length if more/most used approaches would be tried to be presented in such post), and also so many functioning strategies (I'm sure).
But to scratch the surface, and to state the obvious, it's definitely beneficial if you have a chance to:
- hire good enough coach (personally I think that for HG teams coach special ability of "extending careers" is especially valuable). Many well respected/successful managers say that level 4/5 is good enough, so I'd go with at least either of these (unless you have cash to spend for level 6 coach, but at least in some post it was estimated that each level would bring 3% more effectiveness in training so difference is not huge if that estimate stands)
- buy maximum amount draft points each week (6 per week)
- in terms of drafting positions (league position at the end of regular season), unless it's not economically viable option, it would be beneficial to be one of the least successful teams in the league for many seasons in row to acquire an optimal drafting positions. (Of course at the same time it's best to win at least 1 game (3 in season) in every third of the season or your fans will vote with their legs and you will lose money). For me this hasn't been an option (as I can't afford to be relegated, or I have to change certain things in my playing strategy/philosophy, which I try to avoid at all costs) so I've lost so many good players that could've been my cornerstones in the future, when having had draft positions about 5-9 recently.
- in terms of drafts, I think for homegrown teams it's especially important to be able to have even some control over what kind of players (skill wise) you'd receive to begin with. So therefore I find it a good strategy to reveal all player skills in draft... There are some skills that are dreadfully slow to get raised from level 1 to a preferable level, and also consider that even if you'd be able to do that (train someone from skill 1 to 10 for instance in a single skill, or 2 skills from 1-5 or 6), it could screw all of other training plans you had for the coming seasons. So knowing skills of players that you will get is important in my opinion - not necessary necessarily, but beneficial for sure. Also consider, that if your player has for example skill 1 OD or ID (or I could continue the list, level 1 IS gives you horrible shooting percentages, etc.) and if you'd want to train 2 or 3 positions on each game while at the same time being successful enough in the league (should it be necessary to avoid relegation at all cost for instance), it would make you more "vulnerable"/weak if you didn't have any control on players skills that you're going to get from a draft
- buy a gym (from Arena designer-page) if you can afford it (3 levels to choose from)
- buy a doctor that´s decent enough - you don't want to give away any unnecessary training weeks AND your league success could take hit in the case of long injuries

...To continue scratching the surface, I'd add as being beneficial:

- build a larger arena than what you have at the beginning (optimal arena size has been discussed in many posts, but DO NOT do what I did if you want to save money, in terms of building an arena or, well, roster as well... but the arena needs to be big to accommodate all my players, and those that do not fit 12 player roster will be spectators, so it's a win-win, right? xD)
- acquire some cash after you've got good enough personnel, arena built as large enough, and gym(and possibly other stuff bought) as that would allow you to play in lower divisions for extended time (if need to get good drafting picks arises/becomes acute)
- if league success is critical (sometimes it could be so critical that you're going to have to sell your biggest stars if relegation would otherwise cause your team to go bankrupt in the following season) in addition to training, maximize success in league with little things - optimize who you train against which opponent and at which position, be open to the idea of changing your training positions(/training) from week to week if it suits your bigger picture (sometimes it causes your team less "damage" in terms of success in a single match if you play a trainee in 1 position instead of 2) to make you more competitive and harder to read tactic wise, hire a PR personnel with special skill (any of the two skills that you prefer) etc.
- as far as personnel goes, some managers think youth coaches are very beneficial - but they need to be high enough level to be beneficial
- as for drafting points used each season, it might be wise to be flexible and optimize which seasons's you´re going "all in"

As for planning training, several different considerations would need to be made, for instance:
* how much current age and length of player affects training speed (approximated tables of how much each of these affect training speeds have been sent to forums in the past, I have found those tables very useful)
* how much personnel level (regular and possibly youth coach) affects your training results
* in which state is your team now (and does it need to be successful now in terms of winning?), or in 5 or in 10 seasons from now? Can you train 2 or 3 positions in a match and simultaneously be successful, or possibly only 1? It depend on so many things, but in general I wouldn't recommend 5 player training (15 players trained weekly), the gain per player is just too weak and it's way more important to have 6 well trained players (2 position training) than 15 so-so players (5 position training). Training speed table (mentioned before) is useful here
* remember elastic effect in training to optimize training effectiveness
* keep in mind which secondary skills each main training type develops (for instance if you train OD, it gives training to ID and something other)
* Do you have some current or future NT players in your roster that you want to/need to give training priority to (and how will it affect your other team in the following seasons - are you able to combine training that NT player needs with the needs of your own team?)
I've trained couple of players for NT (not all that many considering my long BB history), and while it's one of the greatest achievements you can have in BB to have your player play in a NT in an important role, as a homegrown team there might be challenges to combine those both aspects at least partly optimally. (Also consider that if you train player for adults NT, then your player wage will likely skyrocket through the roof at their prime so be ready for that economically, or in the worst case you could be forced to sell the brightest star of your franchise to avoid bankruptcy).


So here it was, a 8000ish character scratch about the topic in total.. ;D I'm sure I forgot many things, and other would need to be discussed in even greater length and/or given links to forum posts to be completely useful...