Gameworld Clough launched on Thursday November 6th at 8pm under the 1.00 ruleset, unlike modern gameworlds there were no provisional squads meaning that opening night was a race to sign the best players with low acquisition fees. As the minutes ticked down towards 8pm the excitement grew, but those looking forward to being first across the line to nab their favoured stars were to be disappointed as the opening night descended into chaos.
The gameworld's doors creaked open at approximately 8:10pm, just 10 minutes late and within minutes over 450 managers piled into the fledgling world. Yet such was the perceived advantage at being first into the world that some managers were already demanding that the world be reset. Within 10 minutes 600 managers had entered and more were still trying to get in. Those that managed to get in and opted to use the team auto-select were faced with yet more problems though, with the process taking upwards of 1 hour due to the unprecedented demand in the gameworld on opening night.
The laws of the time rewarded teams who could keep their wages very low, it was not uncommon for teams to pad their 16 man squad with poor players with a wage demand of £300 to generate a daily profit in excess of £80k/day with the goal of being first to save enough to bid for a star player. This very tactic gave us our first in-game controversy, when Matt 'Moddy' Fletcher's Droitwich FC signed Cristiano Ronaldo for £2.6m on November 20th 2008. All kinds of accusations were thrown around; 'moderators should not use exploits', 'they should be setting an example', but at the end of the day the tactic was within the laws of the game even if some did not approve of it.
Towards the end of November the mid-season update to 1.01 caused widespread protest when it eliminated a number of tactics considered exploitative: Firstly, the trialling of high profile players was banned (acquisition fee of more than £100'000). Many teams had been repeatedly trialling players who they could not afford to sign on a permanent deal to gain an advantage in climbing the world rankings. Prior to 1.01 the only restriction on trial players was that their wage demand was less than £10'000 and success in the world rankings meant increased daily income.
The second change had an even greater impact on the gameworld; daily income was tuned so that teams could no longer gain improportionate benefits from artificially low wage bills. Overnight, teams that were previously "earning" £80'000 per day suddenly saw their profit margins reduced to a level similar to that of teams with much higher wage bills.
Despite the numerous rule changes, season 1 will be remembered by many for one thing alone: POZZI!!!!!!!1111!!!!!1!!!1!!Argentine manager Taha Berjawi spent a small fortune flooding the market place with adverts for Nicola Pozzi, a young Italian striker, during the opening week of the season trying to build interest in the player's transfer auction.
The advertisements were characterised by outrageous claims regarding the player's ability and a tendency to title the post "POZZI" followed by a string of "!!11!!!!!!!!1!!!1!".
At £5'000 per post, and having sent at least two dozen messages over the course of the auction the cost of advertising the player was over a quarter of the £425'000 transfer fee received when he finally moved to F.C Barrett on November 16th 2009. From that point on "POZZI!!1111!!!!11!!!1" has became a running joke in the gameworld, and the player somewhat of a cult hero in the community.
It is still common to hear his name shouted when someone is over-stating the ability of a player for sale.
The world's first recorded match took place between Sergei Novitski and Lancashire United, and saw English midfielder Isaiah Osbourne score the first ever goal after just 33 minutes. Paralimni United topped the first ever UFFA world rankings.
The star player of the season was undoubtedly Brazilian striker Brandao, whose goals kept Fonejacker atop the UFFA world rankings for most of the season, lethal in the air Brandao scored an incredible 1'192 goals in 1'502 appearances. Season 1 also saw the emergence of Skylar Locke's Katalyst FC as a dominant force in world football, by the close of the season they fielded a team of superstars including Lenny, Sergio Aguero & Silva.
The Major Trophies:
- UFFA Game World Cup: Terror Pigs beat Dueling Dragons FC
- UFFA Game World Youth Cup: Real JUVENILES beat The Birmingham Bearded Women
- AEFA Cup: FC Excelsior beat Auchinairn Athletic
- CWA Cup: Motherwell Synthonia beat Swansea Jacks AFC
- PFA Cup: Ljiljani FC beat SMEG HEADS
- MLFA Cup: BG United beat CF Barcelona
- NFA Cup: All BiDoNs Fc beat Arsenola F.C
- SFA Cup: Tied in Notts beat IMT Fairground
- SEFA Cup: Phantoms beat F.C. Porton Kenshin
- WCA Cup: Band of Brothers beat Welwyn Wanderers
- XEFA Cup: Whitstable Galaxy beat Myth FC
- XFA Cup: Zigire FC beat AVN United
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