The FM Library

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Creator name & what made you choose it?

It’s FM Rensie currently, and the original was Keysi Rensie, but I don’t use “Keysi” for a couple of years except some websites where I can’t change it. “Keysi” was some kind of mutilation of my surname too in combination with my nicknames “Eis” or “Easy”. “Rensie” is my real-life surname backwards. That’s the main reason why I’m using it. 

Real name?

My real name is Ondřej. Or Ondrej for English speaking people to be able to say it without the “ř”.

Favourite football team?

My favourite football team is 100% AC Sparta Prague. My favourite former footballers played for this club, and my model player Pavel Nedvěd was a Sparta Prague player, and most importantly I played for Sparta youth teams, and I also worked for the club for seven and a half years in the communication department. Most of my best football memories are connected to this club. Probably the same as many other people I also have one favourite club abroad. It’s Reading FC and I like to follow them for almost twenty years already. My long-term dream is to visit their stadium/match no matter of the competition they will play in.

Talk me through your FM journey – where does it start?

I started playing football manager games already during the 90’s when my father bought the first PC after I played many games on Commoder 64 and the Sega Master System and Mega Drive lately. I remember I played many different “football manager” simulations with my uncle and on my own. I think the game like CM 01/02 and CM4 were crucial for me stay connected to this game. I played many other games when I was younger, including FIFA, FIFA Manager or some RPG and strategy games. But the older I am, the less time I have, so the FM is the only game that stayed with me. 

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

As I mentioned in the answer above, the CM 01/02 & CM4 were crucial for me, as a player but also as a creator-beginner. I had to end my football career when I was 17 years old when I played for AC Sparta Prague U18s team after I broke my leg three times in one year and had screws in my leg for one year. It was time when I had a lot of time for reading, playing games home alone and I also started writing a lot to pass exams during my high school. I discovered the most famous Czech CM/FM related website with the forum at that time and I started chatting about the game here. I became one of admins in next months and I also was an co-owner of the website in the future before the website completely disappeared because there was zero activity and the main owner wasn’t interested in developing the website. I decided to make my own blog/website during FM15 and I started to write in English. It was not easy to start writing in other than my native language but it helped me in many ways. The beauty of this “journey” is that I made some friends within the community and it ended with the move to the CoffeehouseFM website some time ago. The big part of my FM journey is also making the custom skins. I started making the custom skin(s) during FM17 and I can’t play the game without my own changes since that moment.

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.

This has changed a lot in recent years. My saves usually lasted twenty and more years in the past. I had a lot of time to play in work but also at home. As I have two small kids, the time is not my best friend and my usual aim is to play ten seasons with one club. I like to do most of the things within the save on my own and my assistants/DoF/HoYD are more likely for decoration. I remember I didn’t even have DoF for main part of my FM23 save with VVV-Venlo because he did nothing and I didn’t need him. I did experiments, tests etc. in the past too, but I have no time for it now.

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

I wrote a blog post about it recently and it will be released on CoffeehouseFM website in November. It’s about my FM24 save as I decided to make some kind of honorary save and I went through my memories of this game throughout the previous 20 years. I had many great saves, I loved many editions but the FM17 and my save with Reading FC is probably the best one. The save with BFC Siófok and the transfer policy named “Around The Lake” (signing only players born around the Lake Balaton) would be among the best three too. 

Which bloggers do you always make sure that you read? 

I had a lot of bloggers within my WordPress Reader in the past and I enjoyed many of them. I remember there were around 100 bloggers once. It was impossible to read everything sometimes. If I would have to select one blogger, my top choice and my always first go-to would be FMGrasshopper. It’s not a secret that Tony and some other bloggers like FMSamo, FMPressure, Shrewnaldo, Ed Wilson (formerly DLP podcast, now the CoffeePodFM), Diego Mendoza, Lee Scott, FM Adventure, According To FM, Il Mediano, Guido Merry and many more. They were crucial at the time when I started reading/writing about the FM in English and I learned everything. There are many talented authors now but I don’t want to forget someone. 

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?

If I take it from the writing perspective, I was always jealous of some bloggers because they write in their native language and they know the right words and grammar. But I would say this was more in the past. I don’t want to sound conceited, but I think that in the time I’ve been writing in English, I’ve developed to a level where I don’t need to be ashamed of my blogs. Stylistically and graphically. I’ve never had ambitions to become a YouTuber or a streamer, so I watch Football Manager videos more out of curiosity than to get inspired for my own content.

What puts you off reading other creators blogs – what makes you click that “X” button in the top right of the page?

Non-clickable pictures. That’s probably the first thing that comes to mind. But a lot of bloggers don’t even know that option exists. It’s just a few clicks while creating a blog, but man is lazy and comfortable by nature, so he doesn’t pay attention to such details. But the key for me is, that if I want to read five or six posts, to use the time I have available for it. When I spend more time manually opening images in a new window, especially on a mobile phone, it’s more of a depressing experience than a pleasure. But even on the official website of Football Manager, in articles with news about the new edition of the game, it is not possible, so we cannot expect miracles from bloggers 🙂

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…

I mentioned the CoffeehouseFM website a couple of times already. It’s not about me but you (and other FM enthusiasts) should visit this website because it’s a group of great people and great writers who are able to talk about their FM experiences in many different ways and you can find many useful things in all posts. No matter if it’s a guide or just a save update. It also serves as a home of the new CoffeePodFM by Shrewnaldo and Ed. If nothing else, this is worth a visit.

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I’d like to thank Ondřej for taking the time out to complete our 11 question set. I have the same request as usual, please give him a follow on Twitter and make sure to bookmark the CoffeehouseFM website as it is a constant source of incredible Football Manager related content between the various bloggers, skin downloads, Latte Quarterly, and the new podcast.

As always, if this is something you would like to take part in then either drop a comment underneath the post, DM either ourselves @TheFMLibrary, @FM_Burt or message us on our discord server, here.