Hi. Ask any competitive FM player at gun point as to what community competition they would wish to win and they would probably agree to say either Latte Quarterly's 'La Copa' or the newly formed 'The Byline Invitational' tournament.

Previously, I had a crack at La Copa in the FM22 cycle but failed miserably (finishing bottom with my Inter Miami side).  But for FM23, I've been fortunate enough to have been invited to The Byline Invitational.

Q&A

What is 'The Byline Invitational'?

The Byline Invitational is a coming together of Sports Interactive’s The Byline writers in January 2023 at Sports Interactive HQ.  Such is the glamour and prestige in winning this Football Manager tournament, some writers have come as far as Buenos Aires, the Canadian tundra, a Dublin bar and even the suburbs of Glasgow.

How does it work?

Managers play Football Manager as a network save using the FM Versus Mode. It's a 14-team league with Europe’s best sides based on UEFA rankings.  It's a league, with each side playing one another once (in a total of 13 games for each side - although we will never play all the games as somebody aka me took too long in the matches, apparently).  3 points for a win, one point for a draw.

What do I want from this tournament?

I would like to do better than Dan Gear. I would also prefer to not be humiliated by Guido Merry’s strikerless tactic.

What would I do if I win it?

I would probably pay thanks to the other writers for forfeiting the tournament to let me win (not at gunpoint, I might add).  Also to the Coffeehouse writers for always supporting me and Dan Gear for allowing me to fulfil my content destiny.

The Draw

The draw takes place in a lively Stratford shopping centre bar, carefully chosen by one of our guides for the weekend so that we do not hear a thing.  Dan Gear seems a bit stressed about whether there is enough food for the weekend, but generally the mood is good.  We draw the teams out from a tupperware I had brought along with me for the evening, containing the best teams according to UEFA rankings…

What happened?

So, I drew FC Barcelona. But with this being a Versus tournament, there would be no time to pull economic levers and sign anybody. In the most predictable FM Grasshopper fashion, I would bastardise the club and go with a flat 442. It would be anti-Barca too: Counter, Pass Into Space and Waste Time [sometimes] selected to kick-off the matches. Robert Lewandowski as the Advanced Forward and Memphis Depay as the Deep Lying Forward (both on attack), it was relatively boring elsewhere with CM-D, CM-A, Winger and Inverted Winger making it a throwback to the 90s.

I kicked off with a 6-2 win Vs PSG against SI Employee #3, so I was hopeful of winning the tournament…but then I quickly learnt how powerful home advantage was. I failed to win any of my four away games, losing all four. It finished with 12 points (4 wins and 4 defeats), as people wanted to end the tournament after eight matches and head to a bar. My highlight was probably beating Guido’s strikerless Real Madrid system 2-0, after I moved my 422 into a higher block and relied on faster CBs to win the foot race Vs Karim Benzema ✅ The most enjoyable match I played was seeing the quick interchanges of Ihor's/Crusader Tsar’s Ajax, who beat me with a nice 4222 box system.

The leader of the league after eight matches was SI Employee #2’s Liverpool with 19 points (with silver place going to SI Employee #4’s Juventus, a valiant effort with 17 points). #2’s prize is an invite onto the GrassNGear podcast, which they can reject.

Did I beat Dan Gear?

GrassNGear finished on equal points, but sadly MaddFM’s Roma allowed Dan to sneak pass me on goal difference after his 10-2 defeat to Gear’s Red Devils ❌

The Weekend

Overall, it was an amazing weekend. The whole point was to chat about The Byline, which is a growing resource for Football Manager players, and also discuss with SI about the game itself.

It was great to meet so many I had spoken to from far away after all of these years and the squad dynamics were perfect 👏🏻

The new office could easily double up as a museum. There’s a great timeline, charting the game’s history and you get the feeling the people love to work there. Such is the care and attention that has gone into each room. I did not take too many photos, but I sign off with a display case of CM memorabilia, which is bloody amazing.

Thanks for reading,

Tony / FM Grasshopper