Hi everyone

The first month of the new fixture system from the Duel Update has worked really well. There has been around a 20x increase in the number of competitive PvP matches over any previous system we have utilised in the game. There’s also a very similar amount of matches with 1 user online compared to any of the previous systems used, meaning that we have seen a huge increase in online competitive match activity compared to any previous systems. All in all it has been extremely successful in generating PvP matches and going forwards it should be the case that the larger the userbase, the increasingly more official PvP matches the new matchmaking system will be able to provide.

There are some issues with the new system in the mid/lower divisions that don’t have many active teams. This is something that we’ll be keeping tabs on and should naturally sort itself out over time as more active users end up in these divisions.

We’re in the process of fleshing out other parts of the game to fit/work with the new fixture system. We have begun the process with the addition of some features/improvements in this update, and plan to add more in the next month.

A few things to be aware of:

• The Club Profile layout has been temporarily disabled in the game as we’re currently working on overhauling it
  
• We added a ‘Season Report’ page which has been written by Steve (who hosts the podcasts). If there is sufficient interest in this type of thing we’ll look to keep it in the game and flesh it out over time
  
• During March we will be applying an update that will allow you to spend Fever Tokens to customise the appearance of individual players
  
• The ability to customise/assign squad numbers has been added to the game as part of this update as a new Supporter Pass feature. This is a feature that we have often been asked for and have intended to add for some time, so we are very pleased to include it in the game!
  
• There are balancing changes to the transfer bid amounts to make it a lot more difficult to buy players and sell them for a big profit after a short amount of time
  
• There are significant balancing changes to Manager Skill points distribution. There are now a lot more points for clubs just starting up or at the bottom (who typically really need these points), and a lot less points at the the top (so that picking/choosing is a lot more important and makes decisions you have to make in this area more interesting). Note: you still receive more points the higher you are in the structure, but the difference has been narrowed. There are still many other significant advantages to being higher up the structure!
  
• There are a number of important changes to the new user experience to give users a lot more opportunity to progress their club forwards by actively playing matches and looking for players to improve their squad. This also makes the game a lot more forgiving for those who have never played the game before

Thanks, and good luck for the new season!




Update Changelog:

• Added new Supporter Pass feature to enable manual assigning of specific squad numbers to specific players
  
• Added new league progress widget to Overall League table layout
  
• Added previous season winners to Overall League table layout
  
• Added ‘Season Report’ layout under the ‘World’ menu
  
• The amount of points required to avoid relegation in the senior overall league has been increased from 75 to 80
  
• The amount of points required to avoid relegation in the youth overall league has been increased from 50 to 53
  
• Manager Skill Points are now received at a rate of 1,000 per senior league point in the previous season + 10,000 per division above the bottom division. With a minimum possible amount of 75,000 manager skill points total
  
• New users now start with a flat amount of £5m (rather than a variable amount between £6m and £10m that depended on their starting squad)
  
• New users now receive cash injections of £5m after playing their first 12/24/36/48 official senior matches (£20m in total)
  
• New users starting squad now start on minimum player wages
  
• New users now receive 75,000 manager skill points (was previously 30,000)
  
• Balancing changes to the value of transfer bids made for players
  
• Club profile layout temporarily removed whilst we overhaul it for the new league/game structure