I don't send letters much during recruiting and wasn't aware there was the ability to send unlimited letters or a change in that ability.

they changed it for all players EXCEPT internationals, a few years ago - capping calls/letters (this was pre: seble becoming the new admin). but for long range players, calls/letters are the most efficient tool, by a wide margin (about twice as good as anything else). on 6/26 they put out an update that got rid of unlimited letters on internationals, too, and that was a decent blow to my strategy. i think a lot of coaches didnt use them, so you could basically put in twice the effort as them, for the same amount of money, ignoring prestige. ive used it a bunch of times to take the lead on internationals cheaper, and not long ago, fought a battle with a b+ school with maybe 1 less scholarship and 20K less money money than an a++ school (elite school with a great resume) , and won - i think the letters probably saved my ***. sad to see them go. id tested it enough since the update to be pretty sure it was over (even picked up a d1 program just to test with), and now seble just confirmed it for me, so i guess they are really gone :(

i guess i should have made it clearer in the question, i mean for the purposes of effort only (which is usually d1 only - very few international battles outside d1). those SV responders, i know some are talking d2/d3, where i use basically all SVs too, because you dont need more effort after the initial SVs. SVs really arent terrible for internationals either, from an effort standpoint, but i doubt many people use them for that purpose (i think everyone puts a 1500HV as worth more than a 700SV.

So with the new update do you still use letters in some capacity?  Max them out, then use other avenues?  Thanks

yeah, its not really worth nearly as much, but id send like a hundred or so, in the hopes of getting a free HV ($1500 value). if the max wasnt so damn low, it would be worth more :( i thought for a while you could get around it by sending a **** ton in 1 batch - the message doesnt switch to annoyed, until the next cycle. but it seems the penalty kicks in hard (i played with it on my experimental d1 team for a while, and it seemed i couldnt get around it. i also had a d1 battle where i put like 20k in letters in cycle 1, and based on further effort, the fact i couldnt even show up on the list, it seems like a 95% or higher proof that you can't beat it that way)

Jesus, people use letters to recruit? I'm so out of the loop.

Fairly new...so let me get this straight, letters are useless? Because i feel that i use them a lot along with scouting trips.

no, letters are not useless. they are generally not a weapon you use all the time, but there are unquestionably scenarios where letters have been the best tool in the game (tied with phone calls). however, sadly, admins have over time removed these - they used to be great for pulldowns, and for internationals. you basically got DOUBLE the effort for internationals, compared to someone who didnt use letters - thats a massive advantage! actually, i used to use them for long distance (over 1400 miles or whatever) too, they were by a wide margin, the best tool.

i always wondered how many coaches took the time to figure out that 1) you could use unlimited letters, and 2) to figure out that letters and calls were worth a **** ton more than HVs @ 1500. with only 1 other person responding letters, on a poll of 37 (so far), i guess not many! i guess i never really exploited it like i should have in d1, but i thought it would be suspicious if i was recruiting only internationals... thought people might catch on. oh well, it was fun while it lasted!

i dont think there is a home run use for letters now that the 2 home run uses i knew of have been removed. but they aren't useless, either.

im actually kind of crushed to see another trick out of play so soon. the thing where you could tell who would go pro with coach calls, that was around not long ago. losing that was pretty rough. i feel like seble is systematically dumbing the system down, punishing those who have done the work to research how every available tool works in every situation. kind of sucks!

I was the other guy that used/use letters and as billy said it can be cheaper especially for intl's. I wasnt quite aware of total value until reading billys thoughts on it.

I don't recruit a lot of internationals. I do use a combination of phone calls and letters at long distance sometimes though. Can still be effective to sign a guy far away for not a lot of money as long as no one else jumps in.