Some of you might not know, but GameDev has a virtual soccer1 competition running in Xpert Eleven, an online soccer management game website. The latest season is over, with Kagey's team, the Beatniks, winning top position in a closely fought contest. My team, the Lamington Lemmings, managed a very respectable fourth.

Now the season is over, we are looking for new players. A number of players are retiring from the game, inlcuding Eve, the manager of former champions the Fembot Furies (we'll miss the whimsical managerial reports she used to make). We would love to see some new players come in to the game for the new season.

For those of you who don't about Xpert Eleven, here's the description from the Xpert Eleven FAQ:

Quote: Xpert Eleven is a football manager game where you manage a fictitious football team. The thought behind the game is that you compete with your friends in a league that you create yourselves. You manage your team/teams in good times as well as bad. Your tasks consist of selecting your team and working out some cunning tactical moves.

Basically you set management tasks for your team; deciding who is in the playlist for the next game and what strategies they follow, choosing what players to recruit or fire, and who to give extra training. Then you can see the results of your decisions through a simulated playthrough of the game. You don't need to know much about soccer to play the game. The rules are fairly easy to pick up through experimentation, and everyone one the GameDev league is very helpful to new players. You also don't need to spend that long managing your team. These days I spend a couple of minutes playing around with managing settings each day as I check my email. It's not a lot of effort to keep running.

I'm finding the game a lot of fun, and it would be great to see some new players enjoy the game too. If you are interested, head over to Xpert Eleven and have a look at the site and read through the rules. Then if you want to join, the GameDev league ID is 47992, which you can use to request to join the competition. If you have any questions, you can PM me or Texas Brigade, the co-ordinator of the GameDev league.

Hopefully we can see some of you in the next season!

1For those of you who live in countries where association football rules, I know its "football" rather than "soccer". But in an international website such as this, it's easier to use terms that don't make people think the game invovles scrums, quarterbacks or marks.