Category Archives: Treble

Coynborough lifts ‘em all

  By not-Greg | February 6, 2013 - 12:00 | , ,
78 Comments

Coynborough lifts them all

The Treble is secured. Ol’ Big Ears up there is being held aloft by the muscular left arm of Captain Coynborough (video below).

I felt from the start of this season—my 8th in Master League on PES2013—that I would win the Treble. And so it’s turned out.

I clinched the League with one match to spare, confounding my pre-run-in prediction that the game would take me all the way to the last fixture.

It was against Villa, a strange match where I had 25 shots on goal, 15 of them on target. The match ended 0-0, ridiculously. I was sure the last-match scenario would come to pass.

But no. Man City, it turned out, could only draw their game. My players clebrated on the final whistle. I watched (and filmed) the generic jumping-about celebration with some quiet pride. PES2013 has rarely been an easy game for me.

The final table—pardon the glow of my night lamp at the bottom:

ML2013 season 8 final table

ML2013 season 8 awards

The individual League player awards saw PES’s strange love of the side-back surface again.

My unassuming RB, Paccini (another Golden Default), scooped the Player of the Season title.

And a bonus there for Niellendner fans: Assist Leader. I’m still not a Niellendner fan myself. That shooting! *Shudder*

Mata as top scorer is, I suppose, a fair reflection of the real player’s current scoring prowess. But I’m sorry to have missed out on that crown with my regular front 3 (Mehmeti, Minandinho, Wroughllen), who have all been great in their own ways.

Team of the Season:

ML2013 seasn 8 TOTS

Next the Cup Final, against Liverpool. Another tough match that was 0-0 all the way and threatening extra time until I scored a strange, flukey goal. (The goal is in the short video below.) Regular readers with long memories might be reminded of the goal that I scored to win the League title in my last Treble—all those years ago on PES2010. A nice spot of symmetry.

FA Cup Team of the Tournament—Jacomorac has played at DMF for the past four seasons, so I don’t know what he’s doing at CB here.:

ML2013 Cup TOTT

ML2013 season 8 Cup player awards

Player awards here were more my style.

Mehmeti scooped something called ‘Most Valuable Player’ (sigh). And getting top scorer was very fitting.

I could argue that Mehmeti has been my single most reliable, consistent performer up front for the past five or six seasons. Probably my best buy of the whole career.

Finally came the struggle against Manchester City for the Champions League. The final was slightly spoiled by being against another team from my domestic league. I’d have preferred to face an Inter or a Real, for atmosphere’s sake.

I went 2-0 up by half-time. I was cruising. Midway through the second half, for no reason, totally against the run of play, and against all reason and logic, Man City clawed me back to 2-2. The goals were… interesting. I won’t spoil the celebratory note I’m trying to strike by describing them. Suffice to say that my thoughts rhymed with ‘crypting’.

I got the winner in the dying minutes. A Mehmeti special.

CCFC European Champs

And so Coynborough got to lift another trophy, his third in quick succession. Except this was the only one I actually got to see him lift. Because of Konami’s stupid licensing laws.

Here’s a compilation video of celebrations, featuring one unusual goal.

In order, you may see: 1) Post-League title celebrations. 2) The flukey goal that won me the FA Cup. 3) Post-FA Cup celebrations. And finally 4) Captain Coynborough lifting the European Champions Cup (as all of us of a certain age will always call that trophy).

The post-season formalities were not concluded. I was expecting to see post-Champions League Team of the Season and player awards screens. Nothing. Did I click through them, or are they missing somehow when you win that Cup?

And so ends at least this phase of PES2013. I may have given the impression last time that I’m walking away from PES2013. Not so, actually. My intentions towards FIFA are honourable, but history suggests that it won’t last. Not with a viable, playable PES at my back. PES2013, for all its faults, is certainly viable and playable.

So this is not goodbye to PES2013. It’s au revoir.

I’ll be back as usual on Friday with… who knows what?

I don’t fancy plunging straight into FIFA13 (and I haven’t got time to anyway). I’ll surprise you. It’ll be footy-game-related, don’t worry.

Rubberband on the run

  By not-Greg | February 4, 2013 - 12:00 | , ,
69 Comments

I’ve come to a big decision. I’ve looked deep into my heart, and there discovered… no, not an empty village with tumbleweed blowing through it and the sound of an eerily clanging church bell. What I discovered was that if I win a Treble in my Master League career on PES2013, it’ll effectively be Game Over. (Even if I don’t win a Treble, I’ll take a week’s break.)

This is what I want. I genuinely do want to stop playing PES2013 quite soon now. I’ve realised over the past few weeks that I’m enjoying the game so much only because there is this end in sight. If some evil genie were to appear and tell me I’d have to play PES2013 all the way to the end of August, I truly believe I would burst into tears.

Not because it’s a bad game. It’s definitely not that. I’m just full up, is all. Blame it on PES2012. Blame it on PES2013′s tropical player growth and relatively shallow difficulty curve. Blame it on a lot of distractions elsewhere in my life. Blame it on the boogie. It’s just how things are.

So that’s the ultimate cutoff, then. A Treble: League, Cup, Champions League.

It might just happen this season. I’ve got a great chance.

The prospect of the end of PES2013 seems to have inspired me to play a heck of a lot. I’ve had a couple of multi-hour sessions over the weekend. Early mornings and late nights. Here’s the table with just a handful of matches left in season 8:

ML2013 season 8 after 35

I cannot shake off Man City. PES has always has done this. Rubberband AI, it’s called. If you’re ahead, the chasing pack will stay on your shoulder. If you’re behind, the AI leaders will almost always be catchable.

There are certain things PES does that reminds us we’re playing a game. Things that are designed to give players a certain kind of experience. The phenomenon known as ‘scripting’ is the most obvious example of this. I deplore scripting, but I’m strangely at peace with other things PES does that reminds us it’s only a game. Rubberband AI in ML league tables is one of those things.

ML2013 thru to Cup final season 8

I’m in the final of the FA Cup. I had a tough semi-final against Nitsaloskis—they’re the basement club, barely two wins all season last time I looked down there (I just don’t ever look down there, as a rule).

Yes, you can guess what I’m about to say. Poor, lowly Nitsaloskis gave me my toughest match of the season so far.

They were at my throat for virtually the entire match. After 85 minutes it was 2-2, and extra time beckoned. I snatched a delicious scrambled winner from a corner, and went through. So sweet.

But if I thought that was a tough tie, it was nothing compared to Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final.

I’ve played the first leg only at the time of writing, and it ended 1-1. I swear, in all my years of football gaming, this was the single toughest match I have ever played.

I made the mistake of scoring early. Oh dear.

Messi was inhuman, unplayable, unstoppable. On the stroke of half-time I went down to 10 men trying to break his legs. (The culprit being Youth promotee Veron, this time, not the indefatigable Coynborough.)

Every Barca attack was some insane sychronised ballet of one-touch flicks and stepovers and tricks and pirouettes and God knows what else. I adopted a ‘none shall pass’ strategy where I tried to staunch the flow before it got too close to my box.

The second leg is my next match. I’ve got that precious away goal. I’ll be going for the clean sheet, needless to say.

Oh, and after that, the FA Cup final against Liverpool.

If I can shake off the accursed Man City, the league will be mine. The game will see to it that it goes to the last day, of course.

The Treble is very much on. Wednesday’s post might be the last PES2013-themed one for a while.

Absolutely Febulous

  By not-Greg | February 1, 2013 - 12:00 | , ,
46 Comments

Happy February the first! Personally I’ll be very happy to see the back of this winter. I always enjoy February, as it always has at least one day that’s mild and sunny (when everyone who lives near me starts walking around in shorts and flip-flops). I can’t wait to play PES again with a mild breeze gently blowing through an open window.

Season 8 is slowly—very slowly—wending its way to a conclusion. And the race for the title is one of the most exciting I’ve ever been involved in.

ML2013 season 8 after 27

Manchester City and Coventry City keep swapping places. I’ve been top, but never for more than a couple of games. Every time I get to the top I have a puzzling draw, or even an unexpected defeat. Then I have a stonking win—a 5-1 against Everton being the most notable—and I’m back on top. This yo-yoing has been going on for a good few games now.

I know. The game is leading me along by the nose. My tussle with Manchester City is being ‘guided’ from behind the scenes by a few lines of programming code. I’ve already played Man City twice this season, and beaten them both times. If there’s any justice…

The results are just a bit too perfect, maintaining the tension all the time. It’ll most likely be this way until the last few matches of the season—perhaps even the very last match.

I’ve seen this phenomenon in PES so many times over the years that it’s become part of the landscape. I’d have jumped ship from PES many years ago if it really bothered me.

I’m scoring goals again, and starting to bring my goal difference into line with Man City’s. I haven’t scored any single goal that I felt was worth recording and showing off for a while now. I’ve scored plenty of good goals, like ones I’ve posted before, but nothing really novel. You can be sure that any goal replays I post from now on will have to be exceptional in some way.

My squad remains a very settled little nucleus of a family. Coynborough has now served two suspensions this season. Nouhei is still getting odd goals here and there from corners. Wroughllen’s left foot is threatening to out-Schwarz the Schwarz. Castolis is going through a quiet spell. Niellendner still might as well be blowing at the ball when he shoots. None of my new guys are really showing me anything good yet.

And the Treble is still on. I beat Schalke away, 0-1, in the first leg of the Champions League knockout phase. I’m in the FA Cup semis. My general form is good enough that I know I could really do this. I could win the Treble this season.

And if I do, what then? I feel that I would walk away from PES2013 if that happens, and play other games. FIFA13′s Ultimate Team for one. But would I? I don’t know. I’d have to see how I felt when I got to that point. I’ve won nothing yet.

Title cancelled due to snow

  By not-Greg | January 21, 2013 - 12:00 | ,
26 Comments

Ball in flight

PES2013 doesn’t want me to be happy. A Treble would make me happy. PES2013 doesn’t want me to have a Treble. Therefore PES2013 doesn’t want me to be happy.

That is the only conclusion I can come to after a puzzling few sessions where the game seemed to tie a tourniquet around my throat.

I had two of those sessions where nothing seemed to really work out. I’ve started playing a bit more regularly, too—almost every day now. Really enjoying the game again. PES is one of those games, like a favourite book or film, whose very sameness is most of its appeal.

Which doesn’t mean it’s always the same. Oh, no. Every time you revisit the well you can pretty much depend on finding something new. It changes because you are changed. But on the whole, things are going to be the same.

There was this one match agains Reading. Good old real-life Reading have found their balls, and as so often happens, spookily, the version in my ML is now proving just as difficult to beat.

I scored early and mentally rubbed my hands, thinking, this is it – should be a cricket score from here on in. Alas, everything I tried failed. Every cunning through-ball. Every speculative cross. Every well-worked corner. Every patient passing build-up. Nothing led anywhere, hardly—and the things that did brought great saves from the Reading keeper.

And then Reading got their equaliser. 1-1 after 55 mins, and I had that certain sinking feeling. As expected, the rest of the game played out according to the routine with which we are all so very familiar.

1-1 it ended. For once, the fleeting thought passed through my mind: fuck this, I’m reloading.

It didn’t get beyond the random thought stage though. Actually reloading would forever taint my ML, no matter what I went on to do.

I met Manchester United, and wow: they blew me away. They were fast, skilful, and who should turn up playing for them in midfield but a certain Mr De Bruyne—my old free agent signing whom I moved on over a season ago now.

De Bruyne didn’t score—that would have driven me almost mad with some kind of embarrassment—but he more than played his part in one of the best CPU performances I’ve ever come up against.

I lost 2-1, and I was lucky that it wasn’t a whole lot worse. I got my goal against the run of play.

In the Champions League I met Benfica, away, and did this straight from kickoff:

That’s Wroughllen again. It’s probably significant that it’s only him who ever gets close with those. He’s got two now. I cannot resist trying them occasionally.

I’m definitely going to qualify from the CL group, that much is clear. In the League table I’m holding steady in the top 4, lurking on the shoulders of the leaders. Also still in the FA Cup. The Treble dream is on, but it’s going to have to be worked hard for.