This is a hypothetical that I've always assumed to be true but I actually have no idea.

Scenario: You're recruiting a player and immediately get to Very High with another human coach at Very Low. You offer the scholarship immediately, the other coach has not offered a scholarship. You have yet to put any visits into the player and are hoping to sign this player without having to spend money. Peaking around, you aren't sure what the other coach is planning to do (he has several scholarships, you don't see anyone considering him, etc.). He could realistically have put been putting in roughly the same AP as you this entire time.

Question: Signings are starting at 5pm - could this coach offer 20 HV, 1 CV, and a scholarship to sign the recruit that cycle or is there some time between getting to very high and signing the player?

I usually protect myself by putting 5-10 HVs into the player going into signings (incase another coach makes a push, hoping the 5-10 visits can give me time to fight back) but I have yet to ever have this situation happen so I don't know if it has just been pointless spending. In Knight, I was just able to sign two guys without spending any money, but I was concerned throughout that another coach was going to sneak in and take them away.

Poaching is real and is a great strategy when you are going for a recruit out of your league so to say.
To answer the question above, yes that coach could go "all in" on the player if they have spent enough AP to unlock all of those options.

Posted by Nick_Bennett on 3/9/2020 4:39:00 PM (view original):
Poaching is real and is a great strategy when you are going for a recruit out of your league so to say.
To answer the question above, yes that coach could go "all in" on the player if they have spent enough AP to unlock all of those options.

Interesting, I was expecting some time between their 100% push and their ability to sign, but it makes sense. I'll have to start taking that into account when looking at the other coaches on the recruits.

Follow up: How do you guys go about dealing with this? Defend your recruit with some visits, react only when something happens? I assume it depends on who is on your recruit and what their situations are.

Posted by upsetcity on 3/9/2020 4:45:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Nick_Bennett on 3/9/2020 4:39:00 PM (view original):
Poaching is real and is a great strategy when you are going for a recruit out of your league so to say.
To answer the question above, yes that coach could go "all in" on the player if they have spent enough AP to unlock all of those options.

Interesting, I was expecting some time between their 100% push and their ability to sign, but it makes sense. I'll have to start taking that into account when looking at the other coaches on the recruits.

Follow up: How do you guys go about dealing with this? Defend your recruit with some visits, react only when something happens? I assume it depends on who is on your recruit and what their situations are.

Nick is correct. If the system was better, it would make all teams that have unlocked recruiting actions set at Low which would help prevent them from hiding completely before dropping the bomb. But oh well.

How to defend? if he's your top guy, go heavy on him. If you're okay with losing him then roll the dice and hope he doesn't try poaching. No way to know for sure.

Posted by Benis on 3/9/2020 4:54:00 PM (view original):

Posted by upsetcity on 3/9/2020 4:45:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Nick_Bennett on 3/9/2020 4:39:00 PM (view original):
Poaching is real and is a great strategy when you are going for a recruit out of your league so to say.
To answer the question above, yes that coach could go "all in" on the player if they have spent enough AP to unlock all of those options.

Interesting, I was expecting some time between their 100% push and their ability to sign, but it makes sense. I'll have to start taking that into account when looking at the other coaches on the recruits.

Follow up: How do you guys go about dealing with this? Defend your recruit with some visits, react only when something happens? I assume it depends on who is on your recruit and what their situations are.

Nick is correct. If the system was better, it would make all teams that have unlocked recruiting actions set at Low which would help prevent them from hiding completely before dropping the bomb. But oh well.

How to defend? if he's your top guy, go heavy on him. If you're okay with losing him then roll the dice and hope he doesn't try poaching. No way to know for sure.

Excellent. Appreciate the feedback! I just wanted to make sure it was indeed possible and it sounds like it is. I haven't been wasting money after all.

The best defense against a sniper is unpredictability. Zig zag a little. As Nick alludes to, this strategy is more viable for teams reaching up; an A level team consistently using a surprise from behind approach is begging for more battles than they probably need. This gamble will only have a chance at payoff for a team reaching up when they correctly guess that the higher team has backed off considerably. It’s also worth noting that the only time you *know* when a player will sign is when you’re targeting a player in a higher pool who wants to sign early, but has no qualifying schools at the appropriate level to sign in the first session. In all other cases, there is at least a very decent chance the player will not sign before giving other teams a chance to match.

The game doesnt tell you exactly what your opponents are doing or thinking. You can only control what you control. Bid what a player is worth to you, and you’ll never worry about being hit by a sniper without having a chance to put your bid in.

https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=0&pid=4477679

I sniped this player last season. It's one of the best feelings in the world if it works.

Posted by Nick_Bennett on 3/9/2020 11:08:00 PM (view original):
https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=0&pid=4477679

I sniped this player last season. It's one of the best feelings in the world if it works.

I’ll just add it is *also* a great feeling when a sniper aims at you, and fails.

In case anyone has been wondering (unlikely) or cares (VERY unlikely) why thewizard hasn't been around- my poaching tactics in Tark caused him to spaz the eff out and go on an offensive tirade on the coaches corner. He has now been banned.

So for anyone that doesn't like this tactic, it CAN do some good

I tend to not F around in poaching and defending. If a recruit is worth signing and I a see another human lurking I will load up and hit the max effort.

I think cubcub said it best, "I rarely submit between 1-19 HV's".

Benis, Lil' Wizzy quit Phelan because he "did not expect the A10 to be so strong."

Funny to hear you got another rage quit episode out of him!

Also, I never ever do the "poaching" method. So if you see me at Very Low on one of your recruits, there is absolutely nothing to get worried about.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 3/10/2020 11:06:00 AM (view original):
I tend to not F around in poaching and defending. If a recruit is worth signing and I a see another human lurking I will load up and hit the max effort.

I think cubcub said it best, "I rarely submit between 1-19 HV's".

This is 100% the way to go. If he's one of your top targets, max him out, even if no one else has offered a scholarship. One of the worst feelings is losing a top guy when you had money to spare.

When I go into recruiting, I usually calculate how many players I can max based on their distance. For instance, if I want to max out this recruit at 500 miles, i know that I have to look for another player within 200 miles for me to be able to max out both.

Posted by dillon_b12 on 3/10/2020 1:13:00 PM (view original):
Benis, Lil' Wizzy quit Phelan because he "did not expect the A10 to be so strong."

Funny to hear you got another rage quit episode out of him!

Wiz went full 0nly, man. Never go full 0nly.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 3/10/2020 11:06:00 AM (view original):
I tend to not F around in poaching and defending. If a recruit is worth signing and I a see another human lurking I will load up and hit the max effort.

I think cubcub said it best, "I rarely submit between 1-19 HV's".

There are definitely players who deserve max effort, generally the top-tier targets for any team. And there are certainly attainable guys who can be scored with no effort beyond AP.

But I think there are also players who can’t necessarily be had for nothing, but may be had for a handful of HVs, or a CV and a couple HVs. These players can be noticeably better than the latter group above, so if you’re using something other than a 4+ Star or Bust strategy, they can be worth considering.