Q: Help!?!?
A: FUMBBL has a help site available. It's a wiki written for and by other coaches. It's that HELP item on the top menu on FUMBBL. I use it almost daily on here. A lot of folks have spent a lot of time writing/updating, and it changes as folks discover it needs to be, or something needs to be clarified. It's not perfect... but it's almost always improving. It'll have more general answers... and I'll have some additional answer that are mostly specific to 145 Club. If something isn't clear... ask here, or in one of the Discords listed below.

Q: Where's the 145 Club site?
A:145 Club site link

Q: Why is the 145 Club?
A: FUMBBL is a somewhat challenging site to join. There's a lot to it, not all of it is immediately visible, Blood Bowl is tricky and there are parts of the FFB Java client which isn't intuitive. The 145 Club is here to help you get accustomed to all of that. For some folks who might already be familiar with Blood Bowl from another environment, it's just a matter of asking some questions and they're ready to go. For other folks, it might take a few games in the client... still others might be around for several seasons.

Q: But why is it called the 145 Club?
A: Once upon a time (before January 2023), the Coach Rating (CR) system used a different system from our current system, and the starting point for new coaches was around 150. Folks who were struggling to get accustomed to the client, or who had little to no experience would drop below 150. From koadah, who originally founded the 145 Club: "Originally, you did have to drop below 145 CR to be admitted to the Club. Though, in those days I think that most people dropped below 150 when first joining. Getting back to 150 was a sign that you were finally making proper progress."

Q: So what's the target CR for the 145 Club in the new system?
A: Generally, it's for folks at or below the lower half of the bell curve of site coach's CR. JAR and I looked at some numbers, and it appears 1337 lands at about the right spot on the graph... and that'd be a "'leet"-line.

Q: How accurate is CR? How much stock should I put in that number?
A: The current version of CR does a pretty good job of giving a general indication of a coaches skill at the game of Blood Bowl. But remember that Blood Bowl includes a lot of random elements, and while a good coach manages that randomness Nuffle sometimes takes a hand. Comparing CR also requires assuming other factors are equal, which isn't necessarily a safe assumption. As an example, one coach might play more lower tier rosters in the competitive division more frequently for whatever reason. Importantly, I'd advise folks not to let the number get in the way of your enjoying playing Blood Bowl. It is an interesting number, but that's about it.

Q: I've heard there's a Discord. Where is it?
A: There's a lot of FUMBBL Discord servers. Follow both of these links:
ㅤㅤㅤ-- Main FUMBBL Discord, and more information is in the FUMBBL Help
-- 145 Club Discord

Q: How do I join the 145 Club?
A: Answer One:(and this will be the general answer for joining any league on FUMBBL... just the links will change.)

1. Create a team. (Generally, on any league's page, there will be a link in the upper right corner of the group, 'Create team for this league'. This is different from the procedure for creating teams for the competitive environment. You can always refer back to the team creation help page.
   
2. Go to the group's team page (navigate to the group (link above), and select the third tab). At the bottom of the page, find the drop down box next to the "Apply for membership". Find your team, and click "Apply for membership." (If you can't find your team, make certain you've finished the team creation process.)
   
3. If you want to make certain you're submitted, you can check your Group Applications page. (This is also available on your coaches page, under 'More'.)
   
4. And if you really want to make certain you've submitted correctly, you can go to the 145 Club Discord, and send a message to @admin in the #tournament-entry channel.

a: Alternate team creation page instructions -- some folks will notice they can create a team from the 'Create team' link on their home page. Sure can! Click that link, then select the big 'L' for League division. The 145 Club has its own option there. Don't forget though, that just gets you thru the team creation. You still need to pick up at step two above, to join your new team to the group.

Q: Once I'm in the 145 Club tournament, how do I find a game?
A: The 145 Club tournament is a little different from most other leagues, which would tell you directly who to play next. You'll be in an Open Round Robin, which means you can play any/all the other teams in the tournament in any order. But you can only play each opponent once. So, the question is just a matter of finding someone in the tournament who can/wants to play! Three main methods:

• On the 145 Club Discord - #matchmaking channel... just ask if anyone wants to play. Folks might not answer immediately, because they may not see the message immediately... you may get responses minutes or hours later. Consider posting when you can play... and the convention is to use Blood Bowl or Server Time, which is on upper right corner of the FUMBBL site. This is Stockholm time, which is where the server is hosted. This is a convenient common time for many... especially since you could well be communicating with folks anywhere in the world.
  
• With the start of the tournament, there will be a FUMBBL site PM in which all the members of the tournament will see. Feel free to post there with times in which you want to play. Watch the FUMBBL site for message notifications and coordinate times to play.
  
• You can send PMs on site or DMs in Discord to individual coaches in the tournament to initiate contact and coordinate when to play.

Q: But I want to play more Blood Bowl! Where do I do that?
A: Awesome! You can create additional 145 Club teams, and ask around on the #matchmaking channel for folks who want to play in the 145 Open Play environment. Or you can create a team or teams in the Competitive environment and start playing there. There's both a random scheduler and gamefinder available in the Competitive environment. Tournaments in Competitive are starting to get more active too! Or on the left hand side, above your coaches page is my League News blog... which will list what's going on with other leagues, which will likely be recruiting... and at the bottom it'll list the other Open Play environments and active Metagroups.
In addition, 145 Sprints have started on 1 April 2023! Check out the 145 Sprint page for more information.

Q: When will the tournament end? Will there be another?
A: Normally with an Open Round Robin like this, the teams will break in to strata of teams with similar strength and folks will be reluctant to play between strata and have already played within their own strata. The result is, the number of games played over a given period of basically stops. When that happens, the tournament ends. And yes, right on the heels of the tournament, a new tournament will be announced. Crunch all you like, we'll make more.

Q: "Holiday Pie", "Special Snowflakes", "Season of the Angry Squirrel"... what are these, and is there a list?
A: They're just the season names I've been assigning to the seasons as we go to have a little fun, and to provide incentive for folks to play more games. They're also intended to be a little memorable -- a name folks can easily remember, so they know what season/tournament in which they're playing when they ask for a game on the Discord. Playing eight games entitles the coach to fly the graphic of the season... And perhaps I should start a list of the seasons/graphics:

"Holiday Pie"	"Special Snowflakes"	"Season of the Angry Squirrel"	"Lost Nut Tournament"	"Cats Eyez Bowl"
23 Nov-26 Dev 2022	29 Dec 2022-30 Jan 2023	2 Feb-13 March 2023	15 Feb-5 Apr 2023	15 Mar-30 Apr 2023
"Tuna Cup"	"Dog Bowl"	"Spectacular Sprint"	Black Box Challenge "Dark Horse"	The Gathering Storm
3 April-19 May 2023	5 May-14 June 2023	14 June-31 July 2023	perpetual	Aug-Sep 2023
Halloween Goblin	Mid-Holiday Season Cuddle	New Beginnings	Et tu Grak?	Shark Awareness
Sept-Oct 2023	Nov-Dec 2023	Dec 2023-Jan 2024	Feb-Mar 2024	March-April 2024
Go Gnome	Just Desserts	Bone Dry Cup	No Kneecaps	No Whining
May-June 2024	June-July 2024	Aug-Sept 2024	Sept-Oct 2024	Nov-Dec 2024
Pitch Clear Afternoon	Web of Friends
Dec 2024-Jan 2025	Feb-Mar 2025	after that

Q: My team has outgrown the 145 Club, but I want to keep playing them. What can I do?
A: It's expected to become somewhat attached to your team. A few suggestiosn if you do want to continue to play your team:

• You can continue to play other folks in the BB20 Open Play environment. It's often challenging to find good opponents, especially as your team gets bigger and more experienced though. In open play, you can join the 145 Sprint! There may be additional opportunities for teams in the 145 Open Play environment in the future such as larger tournaments.
  
• The Isle of Misfit Teams: Next Generation was created specifically for 145 Club teams which outgrew the 145 Club, but want to play in a scheduled league. (The original IoMT grew out of my desire to play my old 145 teams, but slowly morphed to allow any compatible orphaned team, which is the direction I assume IoMT:ng will go as well.) Please note, the IoMT:ng is currently shutdown due to a lack of interest. If there should be sufficient interest in it at some point in the future, it could easily be resurrected.
  
• Koadah also suggests: "If you don't mind a wide variety of unofficial races, you can move your teams to Secret League 2020 for open play and tournaments." Just join your team to the group and poke Koadah or razmus to import your team. The SL20 open environment also has the advantage of having it's own set of tournaments.

Q: I'm getting slaughtered on the pitch; can I concede this 145 Club game?
A: [Answer courtesy of dentface!] In the 145 we follow main FUMBBL rules with the exception that we don't time out and we are a bit more forgiving of concessions, it would be a brave soul to define a strict criteria for concession, that same poor sod would then need to spend most of their time working out exactly what the words they had written actually mean in the face of the doubtless plethora of gray areas.

Having said that if you are learning and new and getting mauled we will be more forgiving here. It's is a question of fine balance
(Raz note: If you're not clear on the FUMBBL concession rules, refer back to the FUMBBL Rules.)

Q: I'm an experienced coach, and want to help newer coaches learn Blood Bowl/FUMBBL. How can I help?
A: 145 Club is intended as a safe space for less experienced coaches to get comfortable with the game and client without feeling farmed for easy wins. To support that goal, a few suggestions to help out:

• Join the 145 Discord, and give advice on strategy, team building/selection, skill selection, offensive/defensive setups, provide match reviews
  
• If you choose to play in 145 you should use an all lineman team and generally NOT take inducements
  
• Contact @Admin on the 145 Discord to discuss additional avenues to help.

Got more questions? Ask me... and I'll try my best to answer them and possibly tack them on here!