Whither thou, Palmeri?

So, when I started this ML career with just the defaults, I left it with one caveat — I’d use the defaults from past and future editions of the game as well. That means Barota up front with Gutierrez, Edingson and El Moubarki prowling the flanks, Vornander combining with Van Den Berg, etc.

A word about our format

In sum: PES 2010 arrives on these American shores the 3rd of November. Those of you reading it probably already have it.

What that means for this blog is that time is not our ally.

In an additional issue, who wants to read two to three seasons worth of “the Defaults try hard, play reasonably well for 60 minutes, fail to score and finally concede late in the match, then spend the next two hours warping the wood of the dressing room’s bench with their salty, bitter tears.”

Why Can’t Johnny Defend, Deux

The following clip sums up Default defending to a T.  Here we have a Toulouse striker with two Defaults hanging off of him like Superman’s cape as he charges with impunity into the box to crack off a shot.  Ivarov is up to it, but he parries it into a dangerous spot.  Luckily, there are two Defaults there to mop up, but what the clip doesn’t show you is that the clearance went directly to the head of an attacker who pinged it immediately back into danger, forcing a repeat of the scenario.

How crazy is a fox, exactly?

It certainly seems like a stupid idea bordering on the masochistic to want to play PES 6 with only the defaults.  You’re not supposed to want to keep them – that’s why you start with them, to spur you on, and make sure that regardless of results, each transfer window feels like a small slice of redemption.

In fact, they are the perfect beginning-state of the storyline that Konami has laid out for us with the Master League; a small club (the worst in Europe, in fact) rises from obscurity through national prominence, to European football, and finally takes its place among the elite football clubs of the world.  Within four to six seasons, you are meant to be winning the league, winning the cup, and finding your name spoken in the same breath as Real Madrid, Manchester United and Inter.

Further, although this has been more hotly  debated than the Magruder Film, this game cheats sometimes.  Call it scripting, call it “match momentum,” call it Seabass’ Cruel Japanese Anima bubbling to the fore, the fact remains that this game manufactures results.  Sometimes, good teams will roll over for you, and other times poor ones will fight like Banshees for no apparent reason, scoring goal after goal until you finally realize you simply had no chance.

Do over!

After having a closer look at the upper divisions, I realized I’d mistakenly registered the Division 2 to the Spanish division, rather than the French/Dutch division that matched the teams in D2! No real harm done, but it’s going to necessitate what little kids in America call a “do-over.”

Emil, a fine place to be from

Our fictional Emil is a small satellite town of Lyon, most famous for its yearly Festival of Silk, and most infamous for losing all the redundancy servers for Interpol in a suspicous fire several years ago.

Gangsters and thieves across Europe had reason to celebrate

Emil Athlétic Club was founded in 1909 primarily as a way for genteel men of appropriate character to arrange tennis matches, but developed a football team in the decades that followed, and by the time World War II erupted, was poised to conquer the French top division. Just four matches away from their first and only French Championship, Emil AC were shut down by the German invasion. By the time football resumed after the war, Emil AC were no longer a national force. Relegation to the third division followed shortly thereafter, and there they would remain, until the Miracle de 2005.

Our Antagonists, a.k.a. Those Other Bastards

Until you’ve had enough in-game accomplishments to begin unlocking the bells and whistles in PES6, Friend Computer picks your starting Master League structure. Based on the other sides who will be competeing with me in the 8-team Division 2, my club is in a France/Holland Pan-Europa league.

Accordingly, I’ve chosen to name my club Emil Athlétic Club, a play on “ML” (short for “Master League”) as well as an homage to my wife, Emily. Emily is a woman who, in a shining example of humanity’s boundless capacity for love, has not divorced me after hearing me repeatedly curse the heritage of imaginary center-backs who couldn’t clear their line with an airstrike. Ceciu, I’m looking at you.

The Setup

This blog will chronicle my attempts to play a complete Master League career in Winning Eleven 2007 (PES 6) using only the default players, with one small catch: past and future default players are also in the mix.

If that sounds like Greek to you, Winning Eleven / PES is a football video game, and Master League is its single-player career mode.  In Master League you simulate (loosely) the ups and downs of European football, rising up from the second division to challenge the greats of the game.  One of the options is to begin with a set of “default” players — imaginary footballers created by the game developers as a starter kit.  If, of course, starter kits were also designed to be the worst possible starter kit.