The FM Library

It’s another week and another time to introduce you to another member of the awesome community of FM Bloggers – this one always wants to score more..

Say hello to ScoreMoreFM

Creator Name & what made you choose it:

ScoreMore FM. Even when playing with small teams I try to attack as much as possible and as I wanted a name that reflected me, I went for ScoreMore.  If I ScoreMore than the opposition, I win. that´s my simple philosophy 😊

Real Name: Manrico

Football Team: Milan

Talk me through your FM journey – where does it start? When was the moment that you first clicked on that little icon – and when did you realise that you couldn’t stop!

It started 18 years ago when a friend of mine asked me if I had heard of Championship Manager because he had read about it online.  I never had, but what he said interested me.  Within 2 weeks I was already playing the game.  I was hooked from day 1 and apart from a couple of years (FM10-11 and FM13-15) because of studies and life, I never stopped.

Ok, you’ve been playing the game, what made you jump from “player” to “creator” and how have you found the journey?

I love writing and had been writing about my saves for my own for quite some time.  One day someone on Twitter asked me about some tips and details from my save which I had mentioned and that led me to start blogging, to share my perspectives and saves with everyone rather than with just a couple of people.

What’s your style of play? Within the library we have a couple of guys who plough through seasons letting the Assistant Manager’s do the vast majority of stuff, mainly getting into the late 2060’s trying to complete bizarre and random challenges, but we also have guys who are very much into the finite detail and will manage every aspect and would consider a save done after 5 or 6 seasons. Where do you fit within the scale? There is of course, no incorrect answer.

Very detailed. Despite having less time to play, these last years have seen me becoming even more detail-oriented.  I usually play on comprehensive, sometimes even in full when I can´t score or when I am still working on my tactics.  I only use extended highlights when I´m pretty confident with my tactics or when I´m comfortably winning.  I scout extensively, have numerous spreadsheets, analyse loads of different stats, etc.  All for the sake of gaining on the little margins… and because I love playing the game like that.  To give you an idea FM16 saw me play 1000 hours and complete 5 seasons. So far, I have played FM20 for 200 hours and am still to complete my first season. (You can read the intro to my save here.)  I also love building a team so for these reasons I am a one-club man, and almost always 1 save per FM version.

Favourite version/save? Any particular bittersweet/comic/down right depressing memories?

I can vividly remember a Milan, Hamburg, Saint-Etienne and Valletta save, all from 8 or more years ago.  To stick with me like that, they must have been special.  But (perhaps because it´s the most recent), my favourite so far is my FM16 save with Milan (which was also the first save I blogged about.  You can read about it starting with what happened one day in Milan).

To answer the 2^nd part of the question in the same Milan save I lost 3 UCL finals in a row (first one in the last minutes of the game, 2^nd one in ET after I had pressed on the wrong button during the 90 minute team talk, telling the players that there was no pressure and the 3^rd one on penalties).  But then I won the 4^th final and that made the win itself and the save, even more special.  Another disappointment I remember from another save was in 2004 when I had this unknown Brazilian player, I found who became a great player with me, one of my favourite ones in the game.  He then went on to leave on a Bosman on the first day of January.  From the day he signed with Roma (yes, I still remember who he joined) till the day when he left at the end of the contract, he neither trained nor played one more minute.  I never did that again but he was my first CM/FM heartbreak.

Which bloggers do you always make sure that you read?

Too many to mention as I love reading about FM as much as I love writing about it. I will forget some, but off the top of my head (and trying to keep it up to 5): Ressie (from fmrensie.net – there are other good bloggers there), Guido Merry (even though I don´t play strikerless), mikaelinhofm.com, fmstag.com, thefmtechnicalarea.wordpress.com, fmheathen.com, blackseafm.com and numerous writers in dictatethegame.com.  There, that is a list of 8 and I can´t delete more from my list.  Last year I wrote a whole article about people I love to follow in the community (https://scoremorefm.wordpress.com/my-online-football-manager-community/).  Even though it is just over a year old, it needs some updating, but there are many more good ones in there.

Who within the community, seriously impresses you – produces the type of content that you just think “Wow, I couldn’t even contemplate producing stuff to at that level – for me it’s Laura/Chilled Moose and the face packs that she produces – some serious design talent there. This can be across any format of creation.

I´ll just have to copy you here.  Laura´s work is seriously incredible in my opinion and I can´t see myself producing that type of work in 100 years.

What puts you off reading other creators blogs – what makes you click that “X” button in the top right of the page. For me it’s using the correct grammar for team names – I saw a blog about 18 months ago where the blogger named his opponent as oxford united and not Oxford United – I’m still angry about this…

In general, I don´t like blog saves which just have a list of matches with goal scorers, key players and transfers, so those are the ones I usually stop reading.  I have been known to read a couple like that however, so there you go.  I must like reading FM content too much.

Ok, final question. I have 5 minutes and I have a list of blogs in front of me – In 100 words, why should I click on your blog…

My blogs contain a mixture of creative writing (“you won´t know where reality stops and fiction kicks in” according to some readers), my take on how I do things on FM and some content like spreadsheets (which according to WordPress stats are by far the most popular posts on my blog).  So, in a nutshell, you should click on my blog because you are sure to find something which interests you. 😊

It was awesome to chat to ScoreMoreFM – I suggest you check out his stuff and give him the love he deserves..