Gameplay Tips
- For your first save/years, manage one player only. That way you can put all your focus on him/her and figuring out what works. More players will require you to hire coaches so they can get guidance, and you can only directly coach one player anyways.
- Smurf the tournaments early on, it’s better to easily win J30 than lose early in J100, it improves morale and form, which in turn improves growth and makes it easier to win more respectively.
- Forget about making money with a youth player, the tournaments are simply not paying enough. Focus on his development until he is 17/18, maybe accepting some senior tournaments if you get wildcard offers (getting those first points is imperative to get into more tournaments)
- Avoid very high intensity training, it can get you better yields, but it will negatively impact your player’s morale. Bad morale = worse playing AND worse growth!
- Aim low with goals, your player will get morale hits, but it will save you headaches when your 15yo gets angry they’re not a top 50 player already. (Take the morale hit early, so you won’t get worse hits later)
- Fire your scout and analyst. Have your agent get your player a sponsor contract, then fire them too. It will save on running costs, and early on you’re not using them anyways.
- Don’t fire your physio, in fact, hire as many as you can get. When they are not working with your players, they are actually working in the physio department as freelancers and will basically break even on their wage or even make a tiny profit.
- Don’t be afraid to spend money on a good trainer if you can find someone good who wants to negotiate, give him a big signing fee and lower the monthly costs as much as possible. Their expertise will help the player improve faster, and it’ll pay itself back in the long term.
- At the end of every season, you will get a set amount of money from your academy owners. First year that is ~250K or more based on your objectives. When you get in really bad money, you can get a once-a-year 500K loan, too!
- When investing in infrastructure, assume the actual income to be ~60% of the max income at the start. Good early investments are balneotherapy and a padel court to get a little bit of profit.
- Write down what pre-match, post-match, and post-set comments get a positive reaction from a player. Even if they don’t make sense in context, good reactions tend to be consistent across matches, but different amongst players. So if you know player x likes certain comments, use them liberally to ensure good in-game attitude and higher win chances!
- Write down and remember when the Grand Slams (and qualifiers) are held, if your player is not eligible you can potentially slide him into a higher than usual tournament those weeks, because the top players will be at the Grand Slam. Which can help you get good points on an easier bracket.
Gameplay FAQ
JTL30/60 differences?
Basically the number says how many points the winner gets if they win the tournament, higher points attract better players. Depending on your player’s rank, they might not be accepted into the tournament if it’s too low. But sometimes you can get a Wildcard entry (special entry, basically) because the player has had a good run of tournaments, or it is the player’s home country.
Some higher tournaments are MANDATORY if the player is applicable for it, for example a top 50 youth player will have to attend any of the four junior grand slams. In the seniors, all 1000 and Grand Slams are mandatory for top 64 players End-of-year tournaments are also mandatory, but only count for the top 8 in rankings.
How many tournaments?
It’s a bit obtuse, but basically as much or as little as you want. The more tournaments, the more money you can earn and the more chances to increase your rankings your player gets. But it gets in the way of training time. So basically depending on the age of the player, try to focus on training early on because they will grow faster, and every year you ramp up the amount of tournaments… Also remember your player has their own goals, so make sure you put them in tournaments so they can go for those goals.
Game Plans?
The game plan is based on the player and their skills. A player with really good serving should obviously go for the big serve & attack. Whilst a player with lots of physical abilities can be really good at defensive plays. It’s a learning process, and young players will be bad at anything until they get trained to become better.
Training?
I personally aim for a “High” intensity for every single week. I have had consistent success with doing medium/heavy training in the first slot, then light/medium training in the second slot, then doing a recuperation (stretching, etc.) in the final friday slot, then giving them the rest of the weekend off. That way they will start the next week at 100% energy. Try to get Natural Fitness and Stamina high, it increases their energy regen. Technical/Physical is important early on, but mentals is important for them later on.
Example training for Stamina & Natural Fitness:
(11 sessions = Heavy)
- Morning: Mon-Fri – 5x Endurance Test
- Afternoon: Mon-Fri – 5x Swimming
- Evening: Friday – 1x Stretches
- Sat-Sun = rest only
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