{"id":17524,"date":"2017-11-09T15:00:15","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T15:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/?p=17524"},"modified":"2017-11-09T14:21:13","modified_gmt":"2017-11-09T14:21:13","slug":"fm18-league-guide-major-league-soccer-iii-player-acquisition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/2017\/11\/fm18-league-guide-major-league-soccer-iii-player-acquisition\/","title":{"rendered":"FM18 League Guide: Major League Soccer III: Player Acquisition"},"content":{"rendered":"
Welcome back to my MLS guide. In the first post, we went over league structure, and in the second post we covered roster composition. In this post, we’re going to discuss various topics related to player acquisition, including the allocation ranking, allocation funds, the three main drafts that a Football Manager will experience, and the different ways that Major League Soccer teams can trade with each other.<\/p>\n
The easiest thing to explain first would be allocation funds. Major League Soccer distributes an annual allocation fund to each of the teams to serve as funds to transfer in players from abroad, be used to cover agent fees, to use in incentives and options with player contracts, as a part of a trade between teams, and to pay it back to MLS in order to buy down the salary cap impact of higher-value players like the Designated Player, as I mentioned in the previous update. While it can be used in different ways that are specific to MLS, it can be roughly equated to a transfer budget for other major leagues.<\/p>\n
The next important, yet easy concept to understand is the \u201callocation ranking\u201d. Not to be confused with the allocation fund, the allocation ranking determines the priority of clubs in picking players in the SuperDraft and Re-Entry Draft.<\/p>\n
For the SuperDraft, the allocation ranking is as follows: expansion clubs get the first pick of players in their inaugural season, the teams that didn’t make the playoffs are reverse ordered by their record in the Supporters’ Shield, teams that made the playoffs are placed in the order that they were eliminated, and the runner-up and the winner of the MLS Cup are given the penultimate and last picks respectively.<\/p>\n
Basically, new teams or last place goes first, and the winner goes last. This is one of the ways that the MLS structure is designed to encourage competitiveness and parity, by ensuring the worst teams can potentially access the best players first. Note that a team’s pick in any given round of the SuperDraft can be traded away to other MLS teams, which will be covered later, so teams can potentially make draft picks out of order or can make multiple picks in one round, and if a team trades that year’s pick away in a deal that doesn’t involve a pick in return, they will miss that round and have to wait until one where they still have a pick.<\/p>\n
Now that the allocation ranking is understood, we can move on to the three major drafts that will happen during an FM18 save \u2013 the annual SuperDraft, the annual Re-Entry Draft, and the Expansion Draft, which will only happen at the end of the first season when Los Angeles FC joins the league for the 2018 MLS season and onward.<\/p>\n
The SuperDraft is the first draft of the calendar year, and it takes place in early January. You can’t participate in the 2017 SuperDraft, but they start annually occurring in 2018. The SuperDraft is a four-round event where teams take turns picking newgens who are in their early 20s. These are young college-level players looking to step up from amateur school ball to the professional game. They participate in a series of “combines” in the weeks leading up to the event. These are practice sessions and matches that provide a news report saying who’s been doing well or poorly to give teams an idea of who to look out for to select.<\/p>\n
In the draft interface, you can see which team is next up to pick, you can review previous draft selections, and you can review the attributes of draft players to decide who you want to grab. You can pass on your picks and leave the draft at any time and you can ask your assistant manager if he can recommend anyone to select for the team.<\/p>\n