PES ML ONLINE

The last few months have certainly opened up my eyes to not only PES and PES ML online, but generally online gaming. I only play 2 games online. PES and MW3. I don't feel that I am the best at either, but one thing I can say is that I play my socks off, to the best I can be at the time (tiredness and illness permitting), and also with utmost respect of any honest players out there.

I have been very pre-occupied, hence the lack of posts these last few months. With this in mind, I do hope to write more and more posts in the future. PES 2013 is very much in my mind and having not let up with playing 2012 (which I will be playing till the release of 2013), I feel my dedication to the franchise will be much better next season. 

But.......back to this seasons instalment. I have undoubtedly been through a journey of thrills and heartache. My funds have been tested, but duly noted and prioritised in order to buy better players. My skills have improved (not quite as much as some encountered players), but most of all I have actually had some fun with PES 2012. 

My current status within the ML online leagues is that of a positive one. Even with a team value (including disposable funds) of approx 115 mil, I have managed to reach a Division 1 ranking. This was an important part of my ML online campaign this season, but there is still one that leaves me let down. 

Back when 2012 was released, as with every player, I ran up a loss to win ratio of about 80 matches. Over time, I have managed to break this down to the 40-45 match gap, but still, the positive numbers elude me. 

After being stuck with a team of 70-75 mil, I had to re-think my funding strategy and tried to work with players for longer, rotating players health, but most importantly..........not renewing contracts when the form was due to drop. This meant I managed to sell players for more than I paid and also managing me to save more each match. 

I could actually manage to save for more well known players!

This is something I was not able to do in 2011. 

Players I managed to buy:

Eto'o

Villa

Pato

Aguero

......They were not all at the same time, but were in that order. Some helped my form improve, some did not do much. But I think it depends on each human player as some in-game players work better than others. Out of the list for me were Pato, Villa then Aguero. Pato was phenomenal, Villa did score a few but let me down in other areas, And Aguero was very strong and good at getting the ball but did not play as well as I had hoped. 

I still have time to play more games and unlike many other people, I am giving the 2013 demo a miss. Until the release, I will continue to play and improve my team, but this could lead to my downfall in the ranks. 

I will be writing a post on my final standings and results, and possibly a few more posts in between, but until then........

Happy gaming and good luck!

BOB

HOW TOUGH IS MASTER LEAGUE ONLINE

Hi to all you PES lovers out there! I write this post in a saddened state. My previous posts had included some decent advice from which I had utilised whilst hoping to progress my ML team into the top ranks of master league online. Unfortunately, the era of good fortune had beckoned a willingness of doom and gloom, of which I did not see coming!

From the change in the style of my team, I had managed to notch up a decent run of wins which out of a run of 20 matches, 70 % were that of a positive nature. I was beaming with happiness. 

From a run down team with a rating of around the 380 mark and a division 5 placement, I managed to propel the team to a div 4 promotion for last weeks division update. Since then, and up until Saturday night (7th April), The rating grew to a very pleasing 512 points. If this had stayed at its current value, I would have hopefully gained div 3 status! Woo hoo!

But this is quite clearly not how this week ended, and I am 100% sure that my team has fallen back into div 5 classification. Sunday night started with a positive venture into an unknown abyss of opposition. My rating had decided to turn on its head and match me up with not 1 but 5 div 1 opponents! All of which harboured the very best in player ability, but also form and health. I was however, going to give my mightiest of strength and battle each match to the very end. 

It was not enough!

The similar level setting had once again run its course and did not help my campaign at all! I lost every match! By at least 2 goals, but one especially, by a 6 goal margin! The outlook was bleak, indeed. 

But all was not lost.

I managed one match without conceding a goal. My 6th match of the evening, and a very tiring one at that. I was run down and fed up. My hands were aching, and my team was ready to quit. I faced a division 3 player. Their team was worth over 100 mil more than mine, but I had speed, and energy on my side. His players were knackered before the kick off and most were blue arrows. 

I won 7-0!

My highest scoring game and best game ever in ML online! But I decided to call it a day. 

Today was started with enthusiasm, much like the night before. I was ready for whatever opposition I faced, but the onslaught was possibly expected as it seemed I go up.........then down, pretty much all the time!

My dominance a few nights before was the best I managed, with the decent win in between, but tonight, although with div 3 and 4 opponents, were much harder to play against. I lost every game! 4 in all! My rating is around 420 now, my funds low, but on the positive side, my team is OK for contract renewals. I have a few players lined up for transfers when I next play, after checking their form. Will I manage to stay above 400? Or will I revert to a lowly 300+ div 5 position? 

This of course is another story! And will be updated in my next post.

What has your form been like? Have you a winning strategy? Or do you manage to grow a team well to earn more? Whatever your story, we would like to hear from you! Please leave post your story in the comment section below or email me at proevobob@hotmail.co.uk.

Thanks for reading and i will see you soon!

HOW TO BECOME BETTER IN MASTER LEAGUE ONLINE

It's a question most of us are faced when we start to play master league online. Some players are naturally adapted to the whole style of online play, whichever game or mode they are in. But for the most of us, it can be a very hard and daunting task to become one of the great players, or even making our way into the top flight.

So what are the best ways to become better in master league online? 

Well the truthful, one-line answer would probably be to win games. This way you will earn more money and therefore be able to buy better players for your squad, effectively becoming the better player. But isn't this a bit too vague an answer??? Of course it is! The fact about PES ML Online is that there are many ways to become a better player. It just depends which ways are better suited to you and whether or not you know what these are.

For an example, if you were a player that preferred a fast style of play, much the same as Barca, you would effectively buy some fast players, set your team style to speed and away you go. But for this to work, you still need each of the other factors such as stamina, fatigue, form, etc, to be maintained and carefully monitored. 

There are factors to consider for every team which need to be nurtured before and after each game. Then you will have to work out how you need the team to work for you. Once you have this and work hard to keep it going, the results should show the more positive form. 

I have gone through many changes with my team over the weeks and months since the game was released. I think I have now neared the 500 match mark in MLO and have steadily gone between div 4 and 5 (currently in div 4). With this in mind, it has only been the past month or so that I have really been achieving greater success. Saying this, my team is only worth about 30-35 mil (£'s), but still I continue to amaze myself when I am paired with a div 1 opponent and manage a few wins. 

My main changes to the way I manage my team have been the following.......

1) I check my player's for sign of fatigue before each match

2) Players with fatigue are rotated with fresh/rested players

3) When I first sign in online to play a few games, I check the team for losses in form and contract status.

4) Players with blue arrows or below are sold (unless a long standing player awaiting form to come back), and a new player in this position is bout with the funds gained, plus a little of any accrued fund

5) Sometimes when many players are on a dip of form (blue arrow or lower), I try to spread them out amongst players on top form, and/or play them first half and swap for players on top form in second half.

6) Playing a much higher rated opponent (after checking their teams form and team itself), I make sure I defend on either defensive or super-defensive level (for the first half - A MUST!). 

7) If I have a team whose stats are nearly all on form and contracts are up to date (3-4 match remaining minimum), I save funds till my earliest contract renewal being 3 games then use the accrued funds to buy a new player. The player will be an addition to whichever position is most needed after checking the game plan and fatigue levels of current players. This allows me to have at least 3 games left for saving funds for contract renewals of a few players or a longer contract for a more long standing player.

These are just a few that come to mind, but hopefully I will have more to come over time. 

How do you manage your team? Do you play a speed team like myself, or a balanced team? 

Whichever way you play and manage, we would like to hear from you! 

Thanks for reading and don't forget to bookmark and return for new posts!

MASTER LEAGUE ONLINE - A NEW ERA?

Welcome back once again to THE PRO EVO MASTERS LEAGUE! To those of you that are new to the site, I welcome you also. 

The full emphasis on today's post is MASTER LEAGUE ONLINE in PES 2012. It shocks me to say this, but I have probably had the most fun playing this mode recently, but also feel the element of PES 5 back in my system once again.

Some people may not be thinking the same way I am about this version of PES, but compared to last years dismal effort of a game, this version has definitely brought me back some memories of the better eras. I haven't however always thought this was the case, especially a few weeks into playing it. For me, this week has seen a turning point in my campaign for online domination.

At one point in my playing career, I could easily beat other players with my speed and dribbling skills, but over the years, something happened to the game itself. My skills faded into the depths of oblivion, leaving with me the remnants of a forgotten time. Was I ever going to reclaim glory for myself? Or have I had my time and with it leave the legacy to the new breed of players?

Well for some reason, I had a brainwave. I have used many tactics and strategies over the years. My skills added to those factors, allowing for multiple winning streaks. But the past few versions have been seen to blow up the amount of tactical changes you can make or adjust, with added skill combinations and newer player stats.

This year, I tried to implement my usual strategies and set-ups. They seemed to work on certain games, but then, low and behold, the opponent always gets their fill and steals the show. I was all but lost and felt like the breaking point of my campaign was about to snap! I had written many articles to compliment the achievements I had earned from a lower valued team, with added suggestions from fellow players, but there was always going to be a limit to the help I could give others in the same situation.

The recent events have shocked me beyond comprehension. All I made was one little change to my team and the series of matches that followed were truly amazing! From the last 6 games, I had one 5 and lost one. Not bad you say, but the real factor in these games, was the opponents I faced. 

Do you remember the times I have written about the setting that can be changed to pair you with similar level opponents? Well this does not always work! In my case, 70% of the opponents I end up being matched with were div 3 or higher (I am in div 5) and their teams were worth well over 200 million, compared to my 30 million team. 

What is the one thing I changed to counter the many losses I had conceded? Changing my team to a SPEED orientated team from the usual BALANCED side. Why did this affect the play so much? Well for a start, My faster players with TOP SPEED  stats went from around 86-87 up to 92-96! Having 5 attacking players with added speed stats boosted the hell out of them! 

I honestly thought that some opponents I had were cheating, but the truth is, they just had the speed based team with fast players. The same players I had, but seemed to run like they had a firework stuffed in some awkward place!  

So the moral of the post is that if you prefer to play with a fast team, then change your setting. Your low value team could certainly come up trumps. Will my fortune last however? We will see!

Thanks for reading, Pro Evo Bob!

BOBS MASTER LEAGUE ONLINE

Hi all, it's Bob here again!

I have been so caught up with life, fun and PES that I have lost track with posting here in THE PRO EVO MASTERS LEAGUE blog! My apologies go out to all of you that visit, and also to those that visit regularly.

So first of all, I thought I would fill you in on some of the new things that have happened with the blog and also what will be happening from here on in.

Some of the regular visitors may have noticed that the look of the blog has changed. I have changed the layout, design and also added a new header at the top. Within the header, you will probably notice that there is also a new addition to the team as well. I have not yet formally introduced the new member of the team, so here goes.....

Please welcome "THE MIDNITE KID" ! A fellow PES enthusiast, who loves nothing better than getting stuck into a good game of PRO EVO, especially online. He plays PES on the XBOX 360 and lives in Ireland. You will be seeing more from him, so if you have any questions regarding PES on the 360, feel free to ask any questions by posting comments on his posts. I play on the PS3, so in the same regards, please direct any PS3 related PES questions to me in my posts. In general though, any questions will be answered by either of us.

We are currently working together to bring you a better blog relating to PES and hope that if you have any ideas, you can let us know. This will help improve the blog for us, but most importantly for all you Die-hard players out there.

Posting days are going to be shown once we have decided when the schedule should be, but we need your support to make this one of the best PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER  sites on the net.

Now on with the post...........

I have been currently playing around with 3 modes in PES 2012. ML online, ML offline and BAL. Obviously, I cannot play all of these at the same time, and can only make so much progress with each one, but I wanted to make sure I had a decent start before 2011 was out.

In Master league Online, I have grown my team from the lowly 15mil default, to a fairly decent 38mil force. I have not yet had much real luck with my strikers, but from the funds I could use, there have been a few that have filled the slots when on form. I have strengthened my defence as much as my funds would allow and bought better players  by selling current 'out of contract' players and using some accrued income.

Income from games has grown from 600k (loss), 800k (draw), and 1.2m (win), to 900k (loss), 1.2m (draw), and 1.8m (win). So to round up, the more expensive your team, the more money you will receive, regardless of how the game ends. I think it has been programmed like this, to allow you to TRY and keep some of your more expensive players, even on a losing streak.

Sometimes it is hard to build your team further, especially on a run of defeats and when your players are all seeking new contracts at the same time, but you can allow for this by buying new and extra players when contracts run out in these positions. Other players may have different suggestions, but this seems to have worked for me.

I have not played anywhere near the same amount of games as most players have, due to concentrating on the other modes from time to time. This has left me undeterred though and I am quite happy sitting in division 4 with my current team. I have good and bad days when my run of games leaves me happy or not, but I always manage to bounce back from a run of defeats. I try and set my matches to play against a similar level, but instead of doing this, the game seems to give me a much higher division opponent with a team worth at least 10 times the amount of my own. I believe it all comes down to the rating which can change dramatically with a win/loss streak. This is wrong and should be addressed by Konami, and I am sure going to contact them about it. The similar level should be linked with the statistical value of the team and monetary value, not with the ratings. Seeing players with a team of top class players in a division 4 cup or even div 5 is wrong, because those players may have purposely lost games so they can easily win cups and gain money.

Is any of this fair? I will let you be the judge of that, as you know I have my own thoughts.

But without sounding too defeated, I will keep trying, and keep playing. I play honestly and will try my best. I am not the best player in the world, but I always like a challenge, especially a fair one. What is the point in cheating?

Well that is all from me for today my PES friends. Keep checking back for more updates on a future posting schedule, and I look forward to your questions and comments.

BOB

MASTER LEAGUE ONLINE FORM ARROWS

It has been a while since I have had time to reflect on my progress with my master league online campaign, but I thought I would make sure I got at least one post in at the beginning of the week.

My team has grown from a lowly 15 milllion in value, to a 29 million force within the space of a week. This is the result of saving my match funds and rotating my players to enable to buy more players, but most importantly, better players in the positions that I need them in. I know that to a lot of players, 29 million is not much compared to their 100-200 million teams, but unlike you, I do not get as much time to play and have not notched up hundreds and hundres of matches. I do however feel pretty good about my efforts!

I have managed to fend off some div 1 teams that host a variety of top named and very expensive players, by using the "super defensive" feature. This manages to hold up some top teams but not all, and I have had to tweak a few positions and players during half time  to achieve the best results. 

I think the key to growing your team is to rotate players, save your funds, and buy new players. The players you buy in, need to be better statistically but most importantly have a red or orange arrow when you first buy them. You will be using them for a minimum of 10 matches, so the best bet is to rotate until their contract is up. If they have played well and their form arrows are still good, then renew their contracts when you need to, if not, then sell them and use funds saved to buy better players once more. This will enable your tesm value to rise and your team to get better.

Sometimes, I rotate the team so I have a few under-performing players starting the match, then sub them at half time for higher performing players. This adds to a better team game in the second half and could result in a come-back to win, or just to add to the tally of goals you have already achieved. It also helps the fatrigue levels of your players and makes sure you have longer to save funds befor the need to renew contracts.

Hopefully my results will carry on and gain me promotion to div 3 soon. I am currently in div 4 after being promoted due to a run of wins and draws. My points have gone up nearly 100 in the past week or so and have set me just under the 500 mark. 

The news may be short lived, but I hope I can tell you that I have gained promotion some time next week.

Untill the next time folks..........keep on scoring!

Bob

BEST CHEAP PLAYERS IN MASTER LEAGUE ONLINE

Whether or not you are a fledgling MLO player or Veteran, you will always want to be buying some decent players at a cheap price. MASTER LEAGUE ONLINE certainly gives you the impression  that you will not be able to compete against the top flight players equally until you have played your fair share of games, which in turn sends some funds for your team upgrade options.

Starting out, you are faced with the task of sorting through your default players to give you the best possible formation for your style of play. Some players opt to keep the starting default's, but some sift through and sell those players that can give you some initial funds for slightly better players.

So can you really have a chance at building a decent team early on with little funds, or will it take much longer for your master league team to house some good cheap players?

Well the truth is, YES you can purchase some decent players at a cheap price. You may not get the likes of Messi or Ronaldo (these are valued around the 30m-35m mark each!), but you can still buy players cheap that will, in effect make your team better.

I will not list all of those players within this post, as I do feel there are many to talk about. In this post I just want to mention a few names with an approximate value (at the time of writing) just to get you started.

I wanted to do a bit of a write up on this subject, along with some more in depth posts about Master league online, due to the many messages I have received from YOU, the visitors to THE PRO EVO MASTERS LEAGUE.

Well here goes! I firstly want to mention about a player that seems to change in value only ever so slightly, but is valued at around 3.5m. Belasie seems to be a favourite amongst both noob MLO players and veterans. He is very fast paced with TS and ACC at 93 and with a shot accuracy of 79. I have used this player since my early MLO campaign, and he has not let me down much. Definitely worth the price, and if he is on a red arrow, he is top class!

If you are looking for a CB that can be used as a SB, A. Hughes is a decent buy at around 2m. He still has a 71 OVR whether playing in either position and has good pace. His passing accuracy is high in the 70's and gives a top class attacker a run for their money.

A well known AMF/SS Van Der Vaart is a very decent buy at around the 5-5.5m mark. Shot accuracy is 83, along with decent passing stats, and good dribbling skills, he is a very good long term buy for any team.

Anderson (M Utd) is a good price at around 4m. What he lacks in speed, he makes up for defensively and as a good play maker. He may even give a decent amount of shots and score a few, especially after you attack and the opponent clears the ball. Kind of like a Scholes-esque long range bullet. 

One last player I would like to mention, is Sigediz. Not very well known at all, as he generally has a 20-30 OVR! This surely cannot be for real, right??? Well to tell you the truth, I will let you take a look for yourself. He is one of those players that you can pay pocket change for, and still have enough left to buy a new house! Do a search in the transfer market for him and check out his price. He does not seem like he has very good stats either, but when you start with default players and look at their stats, you will see that most of those players have stats of 60's - 70's. He has TS of 80 and i think ACC of about 71ish. I played him as a sub for Van Den Berg. He was on a red arrow, and managed to keep Agbonlahor and Del Piero at bay for most of his time on the pitch. I also still have him in the squad should I feel the need for him to come on, he will always be ready.

I hope this brief post about cheap players for master league online helps you. In the upcoming week or so, I hope to give some more in depth reviews of PES 2011 MASTER LEAGUE ONLINE - BEST CHEAP PLAYERS.

Thanks for reading and please come back again soon!

BOB

ONLINE MASTER LEAGUE - IT'S NOT OVER YET!

Since I wrote the last post, I had made myself think I was not going to play PES 2011 again. I went to sleep that night and as far as I had told myself, this was to be the last post, but also the last time I ever played Pro Evo!

Well, I woke up today and still had that feeling, but something did not seem right. I went ahead with my day and this afternoon decided to give PES another go.

Am I glad I did you say? Well yes and no. I actually managed to have some decent games and have climbed the point rankings to 486. I am pretty sure this is where I needed to be for promotion to division 4. I did however have a few silly games against some middle eastern opponents (I do not know why these always seem to give me and others problems).

You see, generally I go into a game with the urge to play my socks off and try my best. Whether or not they have a better team or not.
The problem I really, really get P*%x*d off with is me having a team that has decent players, and on red arrows, and the opponent is on fully default players that manage to run rings round my players. Yes I am talking about the middle eastern players. I do not know why this is, but you really grind my gears.

They seem to have the ability of players like Messi and Ronaldo, but on paper (statistically) should not be able to do the things they do in the game. I mean come on!!!! Having a player like Agbonlahor who has like 97 top speed and acceleration, running against Van Den Berg. Side by side with Agbonlahor (on red arrows!) and yet Van Den Berg actually catches him and takes the ball! Here is the clincher though, he catches him, takes the ball, launches a counter attack and the other player scores. Now I don't believe it is the scripting of the game in this instance, just something to do with CHEATING! There was also a lot of juddering with the screen when I seemed to have the ball, especially if I was on the verge of a shot.

Now I as a player have a rule about playing games or competing. I try my best, but if I do not win, I feel I am generally beaten. If I win however, I feel a sense of achievement, as you do in these situations. I do not and have never cheated whenever I have played or competed. Why? Because what is the point? If you are going to cheat, then there is no reason for taking part in the first place. You haven't achieved anything, you have just screwed over someone who actually put the effort into it. So you might gain a new trophy for your PS3 collection, or gained loads of points in your Xbox account, but if you tell people HOW you did it, they are not going to be impressed. 

You are lonesome people who for some reason don't even try to put any effort into what you are doing. My guess is you don't have any friends and you never will.

If, however you are putting a few cheats into an offline game that has been played 50 times on the same level, just to help get past a boss so you can carry on with your game, then I do not see a problem. You are only giving yourself a little nudge and are not tampering with anyone else's game. 

I think most of the online problems in games are NOT mainly due to the glitches in games (i am not saying that these do not happen), but with players actually cheating. Be it somehow hacking the game in order to up the stats of players, or messing around with the connection to cause lag or jumps in the game, thus causing you to lose the ball and for them to score against you.

Like I have said in previous posts, I do not believe I am a top class player, but I can play well and I have played enough games in all sorts of genres against other people (not AI) to realise when you are being duped out of an honest result.

I will keep playing the game as long as I see fit, and keep trying to work my way up the rankings. All of this progress of course will be featured here in THE PRO EVO MASTERS LEAGUE BLOG.

If you have anything you would like to mention, or have any ideas for the blog, please feel free to contact me or leave a comment below the post.

Thanks for your time and I hope you come back soon.

Please subscribe and bookmark the page for future updates and posts.

BOB

MASTER LEAGUE ONLINE - FRUSTRATED!

OK, so I have been working on building my team in MLO. I have been playing as many games as I can.

Until recently, 90% of the players I have come up against in quick match setting for master league online have been higher divisions than me. I of course am in division 5, but have always been just off a promotion place to division 4.

I have worked very hard in my games and still manage to score, although being up against stronger teams, I feel inadequate compared to their strike force. My defence is still mainly default apart from A Hughes who gets me out of many scrapes. This definitely seems the area I need to focus, but also I believe my shooting skills are pretty dire in PES 2011!

Yes I do score in most of my games, but I also concede many. I have plenty of shots, but more often than not, the shots just do not want to go in. Is it the way I shoot, am I bottling it last minute and finding me bumbling the few chances I get of actually winning the game? I have a few options. 

Firstly, my shooting needs practice. If I am obviously getting the chances, I need to be putting them away. This is where the training mode comes in. Practice, practice, practice is the only way I can achieve this.

Secondly, I have seen in many places on the web that the scripting issues in PES 2011 can directly affect the result of the game, regardless of the way you play. We have all seen the stumble animations, the way our defenders are pulling away from the opponents as they attack, and also the amount of times I have seen my players look at the ball and do nothing is unbelievable. The other scripting issue I have found, can affect your scoring ability. Perhaps my version of PES 2011 has been set so I can never enjoy a decent run of wins, or maybe when in game, certain strings of events on my behalf can start a pre-set video of my downfall towards the end of the game.

The last thing I would like to mention is the effect your players form arrows can affect the outcome of the game.

If your players are on green arrows for instance, and your opponents are mainly on red (even though they have a much weaker team) I think you can definitely be sure you will not win the game. Either that, or the opponent is cheating somehow. 

You can never know how your opponent form arrows are, and the same goes for them, but if you have a bad set of arrows, then you will have a tough match. 

Hopefully my next post will be of a more positive nature as I hope to get some decent practice in training mode (an area I have not tried in 2011). Will the form rise and give me a decent chance of promotion, I do not know.

The one new area I did tinker with, was the online match settings. As you know, I was coming up against opponents higher than me about 90% of the time. Tonight I changed the settings and received 5 opponents in div 5! I still didn't win a game, but was glad to come against these opponents. 

Until next time folks, good luck to you all in your modes of PES 2011, and I hope you have more positive news than I have of late.

BOB

PSN NETWORK DOWN.......

The last few days have been a bit dull for my online gaming. I had been hoping to make up some ground on my progress with MASTER LEAGUE ONLINE, but being a PS3 user has left me in a bit of a pickle!

At first, I believed that I had been having problems with my wireless router, or my general Internet connection. When I turned on my PS3 and logged in with my user account, I was receiving an error message which notified me I was unable to connect to the PlayStation Network and was logged out. I did the usual procedure when web connections seem unable to connect and turned each gadget off, all the way to my modem. I then turned each one on, starting with the modem, but left at least 30 seconds between each.

Did this sort the problem? Nope!

The process got repeated a few times, but yet I was still getting the same message! Gutting! So what was I to do next?

I decided to check my PC connection to the web. This turned out to be fine, so I knew there was no problem with either the modem, or the router. Still wanting an answer, I then turned to the net itself and searched for the latest feeds related to the PSN. 

Low and behold, I had found the answer. Apparently the network had been hacked! The official PlayStation site had released a comment regarding this, but the only news they had, was the network would be down for at least 1-2 days while they worked on getting it back online.

Well as you can imagine, I have been pretty annoyed with the fact that my progress with MLO has been officially halted, but I am sure they are working as best they can to rectify these problems. Until then, I have reverted back to playing my offline master league and BAL modes. These have kept me occupied, but I still can't wait to get back online. 

This is the latest message from the Official PlayStation site:

"We sincerely regret that PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have been suspended, and we are working around the clock to bring them both back online. Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure. Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security.

We thank you for your patience to date and ask for a little more while we move towards completion of this project. We will continue to give you updates as they become available.

Follow us on Twitter @PlayStationEU for live updates.

Thank you for your patience."

I will try to keep an update of their progress over the next few days and lets all hope they get it sorted!

Thanks for visiting,

Bob

Master league online best cheap players

In PES master league online, you start off with the default players. These players are ok, but may not be quick enough to go head to head with other players lend good enough with shot accuracy to score against a decent keeper.

The aim of course in MLO is to gradually build your team into one that you can be proud of, but also to be able to compete against the better players out there.
So where do you start?

The advice I have received from many players is to scrap many of your team when you first start. Some of your default players can give you 500k + each when sold. Selling the top rated default players until you are left with the minimum of 16, should give you around 6 million in funds.
Once you have these funds and are left with the remaining players, you can then start to work on building your team.

Your midfield and attack are the first places to start. Only you can decide which area to go first.
You don't want to splash all the funds on 1 player as its the whole team you need to strengthen. So the best bet is to split the funds and try to sign 2 players.

You may decide to get a couple of strikers, or maybe one cf and one cm, its up to you. After all your team will be better if you sign players best suited for your ability.

Once you have decided where you would like to spend, go to the transfer market and go to advanced search.  When there, you choose to look for the chosen playing positions and how much you can afford.
Make sure you leave yourself a couple of hundred k in your funds so you can afford to pay for a match.
Once the search is done, it will show the player you can afford in the positions you want. The tedious part is trawling through the players until you find the ones you want. Make sure you add the ones that you are interested in to your favourites. This way you won't have to search through all the players again.
In the next post, I will feature some of the best value players for these prices within pes master league online.

Master league online problem

Ok so I go to play an online master league game against someone in the Philippines. Everything going ok until the game starts after the gameplan screen. The game does not start and is stuck on the stadium scan screen.

The other player obviously won't disconnect and neither will i! So what do you do?

I wanted to play a game, so I had to disconnect and receive a loss, to which the other player automatically gained a 3-0 win and I lost 8 points!

To top it all off, my 3 game winning streak came to an end, which means I have to start again! Gutting!

My plan is to play at least 2 games tonight in MLO.

Let's see how I get on.........

Bob

MASTER LEAGUE ONLINE - WORTH IT?

As I sit here writing this, I am thinking of changing the whole outlook of the posts. My career on my offline master league has no doubt been fun, as is BAL. But the truth is, I have played these modes in all the other versions (where available). The fact of the matter is, YOU don't want to be reading what my progress is against the computer AI. What you really want to read is......................

MASTER LEAGUE ONLINE!

I never played the beta version that was released of PES 2011. I had however seen plenty of posts from people who had. Most seemed to like the game, but you are bound to have a few that didn't.

The general hype that surrounded MASTER LEAGUE ONLINE had pushed me to buy the game and have a dabble!

When I first received the game, I was excited about the new modes that awaited and couldn't wait to get the wrapper off! Although MLO was first on my mind, I did not want to jump into it straight away. I played a season on BAL and started playing a master league (offline) just to get used to the new style of play.

When I did however start MLO, the team you get is the usual default from ML offline mode. The interface was OK to use, and games did not lag like previous versions did.

My first point to make is not to use your original players. Sell a few of the players with most value, until you stop at the 16 player minimum. You should have around 6 million to buy a few decent-ish players that will get your new team off the ground.

I will be making regular points in future posts.

The main reason for this posts is to get you up to date with the blog. You may still see the schedule for blog posting days, but this is all going to change.

With getting bored with a pointless blog about something you DON'T want to hear about, I am hoping to dedicate the remainder of PES 2011 to regular posts about PES 2011 ONLINE MASTER LEAGUE.

Anything about this particular mode will feature. It may be a few of my own experiences, but mainly about all aspects of the MLO.

I hope you keep visiting for regular updates. please bookmark this blog, and subscribe to the feeds!

Many thanks

Bob

Master league online

So this the current status of my progress with MLO.

The posts will come as I get used to blogging by smartphone.

Thankyou for your patience and I hope you enjoy.

Bob 

PRO EVO MASTERS LEAGUE HAS GONE MOBILE!

I have finally done it and decided to get a new phone! It has been 3 years since I last had a new phone and I felt it was time to catch up.

There were lots of reasons for this, but the most important was that I was lagging behind! Badly.

I wanted to be able to keep up with the current trends, but also be able to get more mobile on the web. 

My phone is not a smart phone, and I did not want Internet access at the time I got the phone.

Now though, I have been getting myself more web wise, and beginning to have a presence on the Internet. I have been updating this blog regularly (although not as much as I had hoped!) and needed something more mobile that I could use for updating when I want to, not when I get chance to.

Having a new smart phone, I am now able to do this. The plan is to leave more posts on the blog, but reduce the size of each post. I will still be writing more posts that have been a decent length, but not as much as my mobile posts. 

Pes is definitely a game that has a lot to talk about, and I aim to do just that. I will be aiming for more posts on all of the modes featured in PES, especially the newer, for instance master league online.

As many of you are mentioning, pes online master league brings many challenges, but also leaves you wondering where the answers are. Come back for more regular posts on this mode and each of the others when I take them more in depth!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you keep playing!

Bob

A GUIDE TO PES 2011 MASTER LEAGUE ONLINE

Today's random post focuses on PES 2011's online master league.

I have had my ups and downs with this mode, but generally I do enjoy playing it.

The whole process of pro evo's master league online is to be able to build a team, starting from the usual line up of pro evolution soccer's own created players, into your very own dream team to play against other PES players.

When you start your online master league, you will find that your players are not very good. Your funds are 500k (you can change the currency, depending on your location).

You use your funds to buy new players.

But here is the bad news! If you think you will be able to buy decent or top class players early on in your master league career, then you are wrong! 

To be able to build your team, you must play many matches against players of different levels. To play a match, you must go to next match, much like when you play Master league offline. Once selected, you can choose to play either a quick match, or you can play in a competition. Below explains what happens in each match format.

QUICK MATCH  

If you select quick match, you will have to pay a match fee which relates to the value of your team. You will then be paired with another PES player that is available to play at that time. 

You are then taken to a pre-match screen which allows you to check the fitness levels of your players and what your gameplan, formation and any other settings are needing to be done before the match. You have a time limit in seconds which appears at the top right area of the screen. 

Once each player is happy to play within the time limit, you can both select start match, or wait until the time runs out, in which case the game will automatically start.  You then play your match.  

After your match, your points will change accordingly in relation to the result. Your points are used to determine which division you are in and are updated weekly.

You will select return to main menu when finished taking a look at the match stats etc. On the way to the main menu, you will then be given match revenue. Both players receive this regardless of the result, but how much depends on how much your opposition's team is worth, and how well you did against them. I personally managed a 4-2 win against a division 1 player who had the likes of messi, Eto'o, Rooney etc (A team of great value), and I was in division 5 with a very low valued team as I still had many default players in my team. This brought me over 350k revenue. My match fee was about 64k.

COMPETITION

In Competition mode, you pay a one off fee when you start the competition. The fee is generally higher than the quick match fee, but you can play as many games as you can fit into the qualifying period. The qualifying period is 1hr from the opening of that particular competition. 

There are 3 different competition modes. Division cup mode, where you play in the cup related to the diviosion you are in at the time, Division cup coach mode, where you let your players play, but coach from the sidelines and make decisions on gameplay and subs etc, and master league open which is a cup that anyone from any division can enter. Be warned though, as there are some very good players that may knock your chances.

You generally want to keep an eye on the time for the next competition, as places in the competitions go fast. There are 400 alocated places, so when all 400 have been taken up, you will be unable to enter. The trick is to enter as soon as the time changes to the opening time of the competition.

In the qualifying round, as I mentioned before, you have about 1hr to play your qualifying games. You will be paired with the next available player, much like quick match. When the qualifying round is up, you will be placed depending on your last 3 results in your qualifying match games. The best advice is to stop playing until the qualifying period is over, if you have managed to win 3 games in a row. The better the results, the more likely you will qualify. Any player that qualifies will be placed in the knockout stages amongst the last 16 players, and like many knockout competitions, teams will go through to each phase dependant on their results.

You may also receive price money whatever position you finish in the tournament.

This is a good way to generate revenue, but you may also lose money if your revenue is less than your match fees. This will only happen if you lose to a team that is a lot lower in value than yours.

So one last piece of advice is to keep playing, no matter what the result is. You will get better as you go along, and eventually, you will be able to buy players.

To my current knowledge, I believe Christiano Ronaldo is about 28 Million to buy, although if you are only receiving about 50k profit per match, you may be waiting a while to buy him. There are other players out there that you may be able to afford sooner, but that is another post.

Until the next time

Enjoy yourselves!

Bob!

PRO EVO MASTERS LEAGUE - GUEST POST

Sunday's is guest post day! 

Unfortunately there are no guest posts for today as no one has been brave enough to write a post.

Not to worry though, as I am sure there are a few of you that will come through and tell everyone in the PES community how you have been getting on.

The whole concept of the Guest post, is to give other players the chance of their say about PRO EVO. What are your likes and dislikes about the game? Do you have a great story to tell about your progress in your Master league, on or offline? Or do you have a group that enjoys regular meet ups to play tournaments or cups? These are just a few ideas on what you could write about.

Don't be afraid to speak your mind (just watch the language!). Pro Evolution Soccer is one of the best football simulation games on the market, and although Konami do not have all of the licences to the team kits and player names etc, you can still find decent option file updates that others in the community have kindly created and made available for free, so others can enjoy playing PES without switching to the rival game that is fully licensed.

I myself am an avid Pro Evo player, and love to participate in matches against other players. I do have gripes about the game itself, but it doesn't stop me playing! There are of course those out there that decide to cheat somehow when playing online matches. I don't know as of yet how they do it, but generally I don't see why they have the need to cheat. The whole point in playing the game is to have fun and try and win. If you have a good match and lose, but the other player is a decent individual that has not cheated and has won the match just because they have scored more goals, then I feel that is a good game. If you play your socks off and the other player somehow influences the game into letting him, or her win without putting any effort into the game, then in my eyes, that counts as a void game! There should be a way to weed out these individuals, and give the good, honest players a chance of some decent games.

Until next time peeps.......................Keep playing!

BOB

MASTER LEAGUE ONLINE - POINT SYSTEM

Hi and welcome back to the Pro Evo Masters League. 

It has come to my attention recently that the whole point system within the online master league is completely loopy!I am sure that I am not alone on this one either!

There is also the issue with the money earned per game during your online matches.

To me, it is very confusing.

Now here are a couple of examples of what we are up against. The whole point of the master league is to try and compete with other players for a chance to move higher up in the ranks. You do this by playing others with your master league team that you create, and the same goes with the other player. OK so we know what to do.

Within your master league team, you can buy and sell players at any time you wish, providing you have the funds to do so.

Firstly I will address the revenue system. You have to pay a certain amount based on the popularity of your team. My team at present costs me about 45k to enter a quick match. I know I have the money to enter, so I carry on and progress to the match. When the match has finished, I get to see how much I have earnt, then the process to take my fees and give me my revenue goes ahead and voila, I have my profit. Do I get much profit? Well you would have though that by winning a game you get more than  you would if you don't.

One thing I noticed was that whether I win lose or draw, my revenue does not seem to be affected by the result. The only time I have seen the revenue change substantially is when I end up being drawn against a div 1 or 2 player. The most I have gained from an online master league match was about 150k, giving me 100k profit or thereabouts. My worst has been 42k giving me -3k after fees! The 150k was after a 2-2 draw against a div 2 player. The 42k was against a div 4 player that beat me 1-0. But I have received 80k from a losing match against a div 5 player before. 

So the point is, is there an actual structure to the revenue system? Because at the moment, I cannot seem to find one!

As for the points, They seem well up in the air! You may gain 10 points from a win against a fellow division player, but they seem to lose 7 points. Why? I am still stumped. The only major differences I have seen is when you manage a win or draw against someone much higher in the ranks. But there still seems to be no proper and fair system!

I may not be the best at realising things, but keep us informed Konami! Let us know what is actually going on!

I will try and do a bit more research about the master league online soon. There must be some way of finding out how you can improve your rank or at least know how it is worked out.

Until next time PES fans, 

Catch y'all laters!

PES 2011 ML ONLINE 2

Since the last post, I decided to keep up the flow by improving my finances within my ML online team. PES 2011 ML online is not the easiest place to play. You really need to be playing from the moment the game comes out to enable you to buy the best players at the cheapest price. I think I recently mentioned that Ronaldo was a steep buy at around 20 million, so to enable a team with just default players to buy him, you will need to play a lot of matches and possibly sell a few players to come up with the funds. 

I logged in to ML online last night and played a few games to top up my finances. If I am going to get promotion to division 4, I really need to strengthen my team to enable more wins. I would say that my playing ability has improved, but with Pro Evo changing over the years some people have to also change their styles and may take some time to get used to the game again (me included).

My first game was a decent one which I won 2 - 0. The other player definitely had the edge on me, but I managed to fend off any sort of an attack and my keeper was solid. 
The next 2 were not so easy. I lost 1 - 0 and 4 - 0.  In division terms I started against a division 5 player, then division 3, then division 2. My finances were helped though as I had earned a decent 200k, but the last only netted me about 20k profit after match fees.
I did have a game the other day that I drew 0 - 0, and after the match fees, I was down 1k which was surprising. I think from the way the revenue is set, the amount you receive depends on many factors. The division your opponent is, how many you concede, and how many you score. What the ratio is, I do not know. If anyone can help with this, please let me know.

My next post will hopefully be about my progress within my offline Master League that I play with Blackburn Rovers. 

You will see the post at some point tomorrow.

One last note before I go.............I will be adding pictures to the site and more and more content as the weeks progress, and if there is anything anyone would like to see on the site please let me know. I would also like to hear of any suggestions of challenges that I can undertake. 
Please feel free to leave any comments. I will reply to any questions and comments you have asap as I log in most days.

Thanks for visiting and I hope your PES 2011 campaigns are as fun as mine are!

PES 2011 ML ONLINE

PES 2011 master league online was always first on my mind when I purchased my copy. Instead of trying an exhibition match or 2 when I first got the game, I decided to jump straight in and try out the all new mode that is ML online! It was not the best of starts and I lost a few games. I managed to draw a couple along the way, but remained far behind as far as the wins were concerned. 
I had not been prepared for the challenges that awaited me and overlooked all of the tactics and strategies that PES has become famous for. I saw my team, which, was not what I expected. Default players to start, with the dullest of stats. Undeterred, I wanted to make my presence known and gave it a go.
Since those first early games, I became disheartened and swayed away from playing online. I had since concentrated on Become a Legend, and Master League offline mode. 

Recently I had been thinking about playing online again. The main reasons were that I felt as if I had given myself a bit more of a start and had improved my game play. 
I decided to give it a go and signed myself in. I checked out my team. Worked out where to strengthen my side. I then went to the transfer market and had a look at the players. On my budget, I knew there was no way I could afford the likes of Messi or Ronaldo priced at around the 20 Million mark! My team itself is only worth about 15 Million! 
Still determined, I made a list of any players within my price range that I could benefit from, and a few that I could sign if I were to sell a few, then set a plan.
I got rid of a couple of players that I no longer needed. I then bought in 3 new players. 2 CF's and a winger. I worked out my tactics and styles based on my offline master league and went to my next match. This was just a quick match. I am ranked down in division 5, so any player who I came up against was probably going to beat me. The only thing I had on my side was a few new players and the dream of winning.
Did any of this help me? YES! My first game back in online mode and I won 2-0! Also may I add that the player was a division 4 player, so I received more revenue for beating them. I then played another 2 games which were against division 5 players. The first I drew 0-0, the 2nd I lost 1-0. Not a bad few games, but I was happy with the results. Hopefully there will be more wins in the future and I may even manage to get promoted!