I've been called a cherry picker once or twice. I find this quite amusing as for years I have been the cherry. If offered a game on gamefinder I would take it blind - without looking at the team or the coach offering. that might have something to do with the Coach Rating of 138 I was down to, or I might just be crap. Since I started taking a look at the teams/coaches I play my Coach Rating has gone up steadily, it's also earned me the title of being a cherry picker.

If a game gives no handicaps to either side and isn't an obvious mismatch (Dwarves vs Halflings etc) there's a good chance I'll take it - I just want to play, and I harbour no ambitions of being the best coach or having the best team.

I just want to play better than I did. So I watch games far more often than I play now - I'll watch 3-4 games a day sometimes, just to see how to position players and so on, and play maybe 1 or 2 tops.

The problem with that is it takes the fun out of playing 'blind' but I had so many games where I'd turned up and been surprised to have been given 3 or 4 handicaps that proved little or no use, and my team got crushed. I'd gotten to the stage where I'd had enough, and took a number of years off. I've done this several times now, the longest break being from 2006 to this year, 2009.

So you can call me what you want, cherry picker or whatever. I prefer that I don't get cherry picked, and have fun chatting to the other coach, which is the best of all. If I can chat, have a laugh, the result is unimportant as there is nothing worse than playing a silent coach or a whiner that wants everything to go their own way and tries their best to foul your guys off the park when the game is lost. What's the point in that? To make you feel better that you made another persons black list?

I will generally try to play coaches from 140-160 coach rating too as that's what I am - I'm a 140 coach who took years to get back up to 150 but I have no delusions about my ability. I'm not as good, nor will I be, than the coaches in the top 400 or so but it gives me pleasure to watch and learn from them.

So back to the question, am I a cherry picker?

If the game gives no handicaps either way, there's no obvious mismatch with teams (if a team has less players they may have more experience than my guys, which I consider ok-ish - it's tougher trying to take down a couple of blodgers than a full team of unskilled linemen) and the coach seems chatty and friendly, I'm happy to play the game.

So yeah, I look for those things every time, I'm a cherry picker.