The Sport of Fastball

Ever wondered what the sport of Fastball is? click the link to open up a PDF file outlining the basic and technical laws and rules of the sport.

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RULES

The Blitz League is a simulated Fastball manager game, where you as manager select your team line up, tactics and formation from your squad of players.

So what do you need to do?

You will be required to submit your team orders before midday on the day of your games using the form provided on your teams page


When are my matches available to see?

On the day of your matches, the Results page will be updated with the days results and you may then look at the statistics of your game by clicking on the result section of your match.


How do I fill in a team sheet?

Firstly, fill in your team code, this will be a three letter abbreviation of your team, as supplied by the admin.


Then select your tactic: Attacking, Passing, Long Ball, Running, Defensive or Counter Attack (see 'Tactics' below for more information)


Once, you have selected formation and tactic you can start to add your players to each position (see position abbreviations below). The best way is to simply scroll over and copy/paste the players name from your squad section (it is important that spelling is correct and the underscore symbol '_' is placed between first name and second name)


There is also a spot at the bottom of your sheet for an 'Injury' replacement player and he will only be used in case of injury. The match simulator will automatically replace an injured player with the 'Injury' player.


Finally, add your FT (Free Throw taker), this must be a player from your starting line up (can incluse Interchange players).


When you have finished adding players, click 'submit' and the sheet will be sent.

Tactics

These are the tactics you may employ The letter in brackets after the tactic name is the letter you must put on the team sheet (for your desired tactic) on the second line, just after your three letter team code.


Defensive (D) - A team playing D focuses a lot on defense. If you want to keep the score down, giving a strong fight in the defense, but also not taking much opportunities in the offense, D is the tactic for you. With this tactic your General and Runners, and even your Deep to some extent will focus more on the defense, hence your opponent will have a hard time scoring, but so will you.


Attacking (A) - The most offensive tactic. Your team is eager to score - the Deep and Runners play up towards the opponent's goal, the General and Stops take a lot of chances to help join in. This all gives good offense, but your defense will suffer greatly.


Passing (P) - Your team will push forward, driving slow but efficient attacks with many passes, with all players joining in the attack, but also quicker to recover defensively, should they lose the possession. A balanced all round tactic.


Running (R) - Your team will attempt to run with the ball as often as possible, making few short passes between runs to try and maintain possession, getting your attacking players into optimum shooting position at the expense of opportunities. All of your players will attempt to run with the ball where possible, making it a good tactic if you lack passing skills, but also at the risk of loosing possession in your own half.


Counter Attack (C) - The team concentrates on defense, but seek opportunities to drive forward quickly with stinging counter-attacks using a combination of Passing and Running opportunities.


Long Ball (L) - The most direct way to attack. Your attack is driven by long passes right from the defense up to your Deep and Runners, with the General only playing a minor role.

Player Positions

A player has a set of skills which makes him more suitable on some positions than on others - it is up to his manager to decide on which position to play him. The positions in Fastball are:


Backdrop. The most defensive of your players, he will tend to stay back centrally and look to protect the goal area as much as possible. Players with high Tk (Tackling/Blocking) skills are good Backdrops, although players with good Ps (Passing) also make good Backdrops for certain tactics.


Left or Right Stop. These are the main defending players in your team. They support the attacking play from behind the ball when necessary. Players play best as Stops when their Tk (Tackling/Blocking) skill is high.


General. General’s are the main link between your defence and offence. Players with a high Ps (Passing) skill are good Generals. Depending on your tactic, the General will support the offence more or the defence more.


Left or Right Runner. Runners mainly play offensively, trying to score goals and support the Deep, but they also get back to defend, depending on the tactic chosen. Players play best as Runners when they have good Ps (Passing) and Sh (Shooting) skills.


Deep. The major fire-power of your team. Deep's are fed with passes and score goals. Players function best as Deeps when their Sh (Shooting) skill is high.


Interchange defender / mid / attacker. These three players will come on an off the pitch to interchnage with players who will leave the pitch to take a rest a various periods of the game. The defensive interchange will rotate with your Backdrop, your stops and occasionally your General, depending on the tactic. The Interchange midfielder will rotate with your General and your runners, whilst your Interchange Forward will rotate with your Deep and your Runners.


Injury Replacement. This player will come on and automatically adopt the role of the injured player that he is replacing.


Free Throw. This is the player (selected from your ten selected starting players) that will take any 'free throws' that your team is awarded. A free throw is awarded for serious foul play and means that this selected player will attempt to score with a shot into an empty net from the 'Free Throw line' (See diagram for Pitch dimensions). Players with good Sh (Shooting) and/or Ps (Passing) make good free throw choices, but Composure (hidden ability) is also important.


Players also play on different sides of the field. The sides, as you have already seen are Right, Left and Centre. Any player can play on any side (just like he can play in any position) but players will perform much better when playing on their preferred side. For example, when a player plays as a Left Stop it’s typically a better for a left sided player to play in that position, whilst a Right Runner is better suited for a Right sided player. Backdrop, General and Deep are essentially central positions (better for Central players), but the handicap for using Right or Left sided players in these positions is lessened.

Player attributes and Stats

Name: The player's name (duh!!)


Age: The player's age (double duh!!)


Prs: Preferred side - one or more of R (Right), L (Left) and C (Centre) that specify where on the pitch the player is most effective. Combinations of these 3 letters signify players who are good on more than one side: RC, RL, LC and RLC.


Tk: Tackling/Blocking skill - how well the player tackles or blocks, important for defensive players.


Ps: Passing skill - how well the player passes and receives the ball, important for all, but mostly Generals and Runners.


Sh: Shooting skill - how well the player shoots to goal, important for offensive players.


Sm: Stamina - how enduring the player is. Players with high stamina get tired less quickly.


Ag: Aggression - how aggressive the player is.


Ch: Charisma - how charismatic a player is. Players with high 'Ch' are generally more exciting to watch and they will bring more people to watch games, as well as attracting more sponsorship income. Players with high 'Ch' can be very effective in certain games and often are a teams better performers, although is some circumstances having a high charisma can be a problem for some players or even their team mates. 'Ch' values range from 0-5 and then 'Star players' are valued at 10. (there are no 6, 7, 8 or 9 level Ch)


TV: Transfer Value, please see the Transfer list page for more information


These abilities have the biggest effect on how players play, and on which positions they perform best. It would be boring, however, if the abilities of players were constant throughout their career, therefore, abilities can improve over time, see Training Points below


All players also have a certain amount of 'hidden' abilities, that managers will have to ascertain themselves. This includes 'Experience' (players with higher experience will tend to perform more consistently) and 'Mentality' (a player can either be offensive minded, defensive minded or balanced).


The following are ``statistics'' - they may be reset for each new league season, and in general represent some ``state'' of the player in the league, opposed to the attributes that stick with the player.


Gam: Games - how many games the player played so far in the league.


Ktk: Key tackles/blocks - how many important (goal saving) tackles or blocks the player has made.


Kps: Key passes - how many important (leading to a scoring opportunity) passes the player has made.


Sht: Shots - how many shots at the opponent's goal the player has made.


Gls: Goals - how many goals the player has scored.


Ass: Assisted - how many goals the player has assisted.


DP: (now, now, don't be rude!!!!!) It means Disciplinary Points - how many disciplinary points has the player accumulated.


Inj: Injury - for how many games/weeks is the player currently injured.


Sus: Suspension - for how many games/weeks is the player currently suspended.


Fit: Fitness - on a scale of 1 - 100, how fit the player is to play in the next game.

Stamina, Aggression and Other stats

Fitness - while playing, a player gets tired. For each minute he plays, a small amount of fatigue adds up, and this makes a player generally less effective over time. The players' fitness rating is a number between 1 and 100 (100 means the player is 100% fit, etc) that tells the fitness level the player will start his next game with. On each minute he plays, the player's fitness goes down a little bit, and he ends the game less fit. Between games, some amount of fitness is added to each player.


Stamina - stamina is a rating between 1 and 100 denoting how endurant a player is. It is a constant rating that affects how quickly a player loses fitness while playing. A player with stamina 80 will be generally more fit after a full game than a player with stamina 60. Stamina does not increase as a player progresses, it is a fixed element of their character; however, after the age of 31 a players stamina will decrease each season by 5, this then doubles to 10 when a player reaches 40 years old.

The meaning of Fitness and Stamina is quite simple - players get tired and should get some rest from time to time, therefore it is desired to keep an eye on your players' fitness. Sometimes it is better to play a lower-skilled player with fitness 100 than a higher-skilled player who is very tired and has fitness 50.


Aggression

Each player plays aggressively to a certain degree. Aggression is a constant rating between 1 and 100. A more aggressive player will sometimes perform better (because he's so eager and has a lot of motivation to win balls), but will usually commit more fouls.


Other Stats (or hidden stats)


As well as the abilities that can be seen, your players also have a number of 'hidden abilities' or characteristics that are hidden from you, and for you to work out. These hidden abilities/characteristics include things such as Mentality (attacking or defensive), Experience and composure level, Star-Value (I will leave you to figure this one out) and Potential. For obvious reasons, I won't go into specific details on each of these, but some of these 'hidden stats' will affect the way your players perform, this may affect his positions or tactics, and if you can get an idea of where and how each player plays best, it could help you........

Discipline

When players commit fouls, occasionally it may lead to them getting (yellow or red) report cards, and sometimes concede Free Throws. The amount of disciplinary points of each player accumulates is 2 points for a Yellow report card and 10 points for a Red report card.

Depending on the amount of points he has accumulated a player can be suspended for one game or more. He will be suspended for one game upon reaching 10 points and two games after 20 points etc.

Squad size and Roster

You may have up to 24 players in your First Team squad.

Your first team must always have a minimum of 15 players. Any attempts to sell players or move players that would reduce your roster to less than 15 will be prohibited. This number can contain injured or suspended players, but you must ensure that you have 11 players to select for your next game (7 starters, 3 interchange and 1 injury replacement, as in the orders guide). It is therefore recommended to have additional players in your squad as injuries and suspensions are common.

If you do not have enough players in your first to play the game, then a randomly generated player(s) from the admin's pool of players will be added to your squad and removed once you have enough players. Any randomly generated player in this instance will not generally be of a very good standard and therefore it is not recommended to allow your First team squad to be too small.


Reserves

Your team may also have up to 24 players in Reserve, these are players who can train (use training points) but they can’t be selected to play unless they are promoted to the first team. A player must be promoted to the first team the week before he is played, so a manager couldn’t promote and play a reserve player in the same week. A reserve player can be promoted to the first team at any stage during the season.

Players in the reserves can be traded as normal

Player Trades

Managers may of course arrange player trades at any point. When two managers agree on a trade they simply email the admin with the details and as long as both emails match then the trade will go through on the next matchday following the two emails. Trades may simply be a player swap or maybe two players for one etc, but players cannot move for free (ie there must be at least one player moving in opposite directions) and any trades will be scrutinised to prevent any potential disadvantageous deals being 'accidently' done.


Managers may also trade with unmanaged teams in Division One, Two or Three (if available) using TV values, as you would when bidding for players on the transfer list; however, unlike players on the transfer list (who are effectively free agents) when bidding for players from unmanaged teams the bid MUST be of a higher TV than the player you are bidding for and only up to TWO players may be offered in exchange. When bidding please use the form on the transfer list page and put the name of the players team next to his name in the 'Player to bid on' box.

Player Loans

Managers may 'loan' players to other managed teams at any time up till the transfer deadline (see below). To do this BOTH managers must simply email the admin with the loan details. A player sent on loan CAN NOT be recalled by his parent team or sent back by the loaning team until he has PLAYED 10 matches or unless the season ends. After the player has played ten matches he will remain at the loaning team until he is recalled, sent back or the season finishes.

The team taking the player on loan will compensate the team they have taken the player from in 'Training Points' for the period he is on loan for; the sum of 1 point of Tackling, 1 point of Passing and 1 point of Shooting.

Transfer Deadline

The transfer deadline will 6 games from the end of the season.

After this date teams will not be able to trade with managed or unmanaged teams, recruit from foreign teams or arrange loans; however, signing players from the transfer list (free agents), will still be allowed.

HOW DO IMPROVE MY TEAM?

You can improve your team by using the Transfer market, doing deals with other managers or recruiting foreign players, whilst you can also 'spend' training points on your players to improve their main attributes (Tk, Ps, Sh), see 'Using Training Points' below


Teams will be allocated Training points every 6 games, each team will be allocated 15 points (5 Tackling, 5 Passing and 5 Shooting). These points can be added directly to your desired player(s), so you can effectively decide where to improve your own team, if you wish.


Using Training Points

Every 6 games, your teams Training points will be allocated and shown on your page under each column for Tk (Tackling, Ps (Passing) and Sh (Shooting).


These are points that you can use to improve any player in any particular area, although only 1 point may be spent any one player in one attribute, although a player could improve in all four areas if you wish. For example, if you were allocated 2 Tk points then you could improve two players by a point each in their Tackling, not one player by 2 points, although if you were awarded 3 Ps points then you could improve one of your players by 1 point of Tk and 1 point of Ps.


All points must be spent that week (before the next game deadline) by emailing the Admin with your requirements, otherwise all points will lost. You cannot train a player higher than 35 in any attribute at present and you cannot train players aged 31 or older.


Academy Players


Players aged 19 or younger that are in the reserves and have not played any first team games this season are considered as Academy players, these players can have a double increase to one of their attributes, so when sending your points allocations, you must specify which attribute will have the extra point added, if you are working on more than one attribute. So if you only add one point to a players tackling for example, then they will automatically have 2 points added, but if you work on Tackling and Shooting, for example, then you must specify which of these two attributes will get the extra point. As soon as they play 1 game for the first team they will be considered as a first team player and cannot benefit from this bonus. They must also be in the reserves on the week that the increases take place.



Releasing Players

Players with a TV value can be released at any time and converted into 'Training Points'. The training points allocated will be 2 points in either Tk, Ps or Sh, depending on the player released's main attribute. So for example, if you released a player whose highest attribute was Passing (Ps) then you would be given an extra 2 training points to spend when your training points are next allocated. If the player released has two equal highest attributes, then you will allocated a point in each attribute to spend. If the player released has three or more equal highest attributes, then the points will be allocated randomly

YOUTH TEAM

Each team will assigned a youth team. This is a group of younger players with low attributes aged between 17 and 19 years old.

Youth team players cannot be trained, but they can be promoted into your Reserves at any point.

To do this a manager must retire (see below) one of his current First Team or reserve players and half (rounded up) of the retiring players attibutes will be added to the youth player being promoted.

Please state which player you would like to promote and which player will be retired



RETIRING A PLAYER


A manager may retire a player at any point, but the player being retired MUST be aged 30 or older and his stamina must be 50 or less to qualify to be retired.

Half of a retired players’ attibutes (rounded up) can be used to add to any Youth player being promoted (see abve)