It’s mid February in Almelo, Netherlands. It’s still very much winter, temperatures rarely get above 6 degrees. The lake running through the city is frozen over, but the cold shiver running down the spines of Heracles fans isn’t from the weather. Their team is bottom of the league with 5 points, winless after 22 games, 15 points off safety.
Their last point came more than 2 months ago. Striker Thomas Verheydt did his cruciate ligaments in the last game, the first game after the transfer window closed, no time for a replacement and he doesn’t stand a chance of returning in time to add to his tally of 1 goal for the season.
What hope would you give Heracles of survival now? 30 points is often enough for survival in the Eredivisie, but with only 12 games to go they’ll need to win at least 2/3 of their remaining games. Fortunately there’s no cup games to worry about, that's one less game for this knackered squad and one less chance of humiliation for these beleaguered fans.
Your charge is to take charge of Heracles Almelo and guide them to safety over the remainder of the season.
If you do you'll be added to our FM24 Challenges Leaderboard with a chance to win a copy of FM25.
How it works
Every week we will release a new FM24 Challenge.
Each challenge is designed to be quick to play. Usually half a season or less.
Complete the challenge to score points and be in with a chance to win prizes.
You do not have to complete the challenge that week. Each challenge will remain open until FM25 BETA is released.
All you have to do is play FM for a few hours and then submit a few screenshots of how you got on. Easy right?
Point Scoring
The scoring system works the same as the Olympics. You have the chance to win Gold, Silver or Bronze. Fail to make it to Europe? You won't get a medal and will score 0 points.
Gold 🥇 - 5 points - Survive relegation with positive goal difference
Silver🥈 - 3 points - Survive relegation whilst avoiding the relegation play offs
Bronze 🥉 - 2 points - Survive relegation
These points will take you on to the Overall Leaderboard. Each week we will release a new FM24 Challenge giving you more chances to win Gold, Silver and Bronze and total up your overall points.
Each Challenge has its own leaderboard. Since lots of people will inevitably win gold there are a series of tie breakers to decide your position.
Tie Breakers
- Total Points won (including FA Cup 3 for win, 1 draw, 0 for loss)
- Distance in FA Cup
- Total Games Won
- Total Goal Difference
- Total Goals Scored
- Total Chances Created
- Total Average Possession
God help me if we actually get to Total Average Possession as a tie breaker, i'll make something else up at the time.
Prizes
Overall Winner = A copy of Football Manager 2025
Weekly Challenge Winner = Premium Membership
The winner will be chosen before the FM25 BETA is released so the winner can play FM25 straight away. We do not know the date for this yet. If the date is given as something vague like “Roughly 2 weeks before full release date” we will conservatively announce the winner the Saturday before 2 weeks. I know this is vague but we will get given an official announcement by SI soon and this text will be updated and made clearer.
Rules
- You must use the manager already in the save file. You cannot create a new manager. This so that all managers have the same attributes and experience.
- You cannot use the in game editor.
- You cannot create any new managers.
- You cannot save before a match and then reload.
- You cannot use Genie Scout or FMRTE.
How to install
The download is a .fm file which is an FM Save Game.
Option 1) When you open FM and click “Load Game” and click “browse” in the top right hand corner. Then find where you saved the file, probably your downloads folder.
Option 2) Move the file to your default saved game folder, it should then appear when clicking “Load Game”. The location is:
Windows: Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2022/editor data
Mac: /Users/<yourname>/Library/Application Support/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2024/games
On mac you may find it easier to Open Finder > Click Go in the toolbar > Go to folder > Paste this “~/Library/Application Support/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2024/games”
Youtube / Twitch Creators
If you run a YouTube or a Twitch feel free to drop a comment letting us know what time you're streaming or linking to your video. We'll give a shout out on Twitter as well. Also feel free to send me a PM on here or DM on here with any other queries.
Changing Your Manager Name
The manager is called “Sort It Out SI Challenge”. You cannot retire and create a new manager.
However if you find being called “Mr Challenge” annoying then you can set a nickname to give yourself a new name.
- Click “Club Info” in the sidebar
- Right click on “Sort It Out SI Challenge”
- Navigate to Misc > Set Nickname
How to submit results
You must submit the following information. Where screenshots are required you must upload an image.
Do not take a photo on your phone. You can take screenshots in FM by clicking FM > Print Screen or by following instructions for Windows or Mac.
League Table
The Full League Table including Goals For/Against (Premier League > Overview > Stages)
Game Status
The Game Status Screen (FM Logo > Game Status)
Manager Attributes
Manager Attributes (Home > Profile > Attributes tab)
Manager Overview
Manager History Overview (Home > My History > Overview)
| # | Manager | Medal | Points | GD | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🥇 | 41 | 14 |
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| 2 |
charliebleghhh
2nd entry
|
🥇 | 41 | 13 |
|
| 3 | 🥇 | 41 | 7 |
|
|
| 4 | 🥇 | 39 | 4 |
|
|
| 5 | 🥇 | 39 | 1 |
|
|
| 6 | 🥇 | 37 | -5 |
|
|
| 7 | 🥇 | 36 | -6 |
|
|
| 8 | 🥇 | 36 | -15 |
|
|
| 9 | 🥇 | 31 | 8 |
|
|
| 10 | 🥇 | 29 | -14 |
|
|
| 11 | 🥇 | 29 | -17 |
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| 12 | 🥇 | 5 | -26 |
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| 13 | 🥈 | 38 | -7 |
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| 14 |
Jamie Aubrey
2nd entry
|
🥈 | 36 | -9 |
|
| 15 | 🥈 | 34 | -7 |
|
|
| 16 | 🥈 | 32 | -18 |
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| 17 | 🥈 | 31 | -14 |
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| 18 | 🥈 | 30 | -16 |
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| 19 | 🥈 | 28 | -14 |
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| 20 | 🥈 | 28 | -20 |
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| 21 | 🥈 | 24 | 24 |
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| 22 | 🥈 | 24 | 20 |
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| 23 | 🥈 | 22 | 8 |
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| 24 | 🥉 | 28 | -11 |
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| 25 | 🥉 | 27 | -22 |
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| 26 | 36 | -9 |
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||
| 27 | 35 | -12 |
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||
| 28 |
Chronoeez
2nd entry
|
35 | -12 |
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| 29 | 32 | -10 |
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||
| 30 | 31 | -11 |
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||
| 31 | 23 | -20 |
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||
| 32 | 17 | -30 |
|
||
| 33 | 16 | -32 |
|
- Date Created
- 28 Sep 2024 08:21:18
- Date Updated
- 30 Sep 2024 10:34:47
- Last Comment
- 30 Sep 2024 19:58:34
Comments
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Socretino
Heracles loaded! hey, ho, let's go!
Jamie Aubrey
Edit: My first entry can be deleted as I think I messed that one up
ashtonwoodicon
Well, first match and we'll take that. I created a 442 to funnel them inwards as my main concern was them crossing towards their 17 jumping ST + I find the wide players to track more than LAM/RAM. They scored from a corner, apart from that didn't test us much.
NFM18
Done 😀
Love these challenges. Thank you.
Footygamer
@NFM18 please can you use the “Submit Results” button instead of attaching them as a comment.
ashtonwoodicon
Socretino
Very very very difficult challenge. People rioting all the time… Rivals hard to beat…
Sometimes I don't understand how the squads made up in the Eredivisie, with reserves, under-18s, etc… sometimes first team players are not available and I don't know why, but this is the beauty of the game!
Many thanks for these amazing challenges!
betondur
How the hell did someone achieve 41 points without abusing save/load? It means winning 100% of the games. Sounds… unlikely.
Matt-K
Hi @Footygamer
nice challenge, we not sure what people do on their offline save but im suggesting that the final top team to playing on draft, thats only can know who is the best among all
NFM18
Yes a lot of people cheating, I noticed in the first save. But whatever. I'm doing it for fun. But I play manager games since Elifoot. And there is no way some of the results shown are done without cheating. And I'm not even saying Load/Reload, I'm talking more about Software to enhance various aspects of the team.
Vikeologist
Results submitted.
Did the hard part, getting into the playoff with the last match of the season, but then went out 7-6 on aggregate in the semifinals. Still, it was an exciting end to the challenge, the first 95% of which I did believe was indeed impossible.
Incidentally, I don't know why my failures keep appearing so high in the leaderboard. I don't think I'm doing anything wrong in the submission.
snafyr
41 points, +14 GD
XDDDDDDDDDDD
NFM18
Yup, that means that person scored 42 goals while giving away only 2 in 12 games with every game won.
It's not even unlikely, it is plain cheating, since at the start of the save, the team has horrible Classification stats + Team morale and cohesion.
He doesn't even fake he is using FMRTE to fix these issues on the software, and the worst part is that he got approved in front of most people. We already know the final winner. I'll keep playing for the fun of it, but it's sad af.
betondur
He even trashed Ajax 7:0 xD Unbelievable that it got approved.
Footygamer
I've asked for the save file 🙂
jmann0201
nikolai laursen has an ew fan in me.
Footygamer
The current leader has deleted his account without explanation 🤷♂️
charliebleghhh
ive dm'ed the admin about that second upload & ill post it here too cause i owe yall an apology for that bullshit result, sorry for the inconvenience guys
NFM18
We all know the explanation xD But he is not the only one. I understand it's difficult for you guys. People just can't be honest. Anyways, it is a lot of fun.
Bob Beveridge
I am a bit confused as to how you get a gold medal. The rules state that you have to avoid relegation with a positive goal difference but does that mean a positive difference within the games you have played or the season overall? If it is the season overall then there are folks on the leaderboard with gold medals but with a negative goal difference. Can anyone clarify please?
Kalle Kutt
Got the last goals needed for positive GD on the final day of the season. Amazing stuff! This was a tough one. Never thought it was going to be possible.
NFM18
1 - The gold medal has nothing to do with goals. It's the position you get in the League.
2 - The total points you make + GD is only going to be useful in terms of draw between 2 users. That's how I understand it.
3 - As for the goals, At least I am posting them as total goals of the team (not only under my management), since you also give the total points of the team overall.
4 - I can understand people getting GD positive, some people are good, but clearly there are people cheating. There is no way, not even with a bugged tactic, that you can win every game for an average of 4 goals or more in the last 12 games with Heracles in their situation. When you pick up the save, the teams moral and cohesion is in the sh*t and you don't get time to work it out… The game is not only about tactics and not even a broken bugged tactic can give you that unless the save was about Man City, and even then it would be difficult to accomplish.
Kalle Kutt
A positive GD in the league after all games played. I got it on the final day. Those aren't approved yet and should be listed as ‘Silver’.
Kalle Kutt
Yeah, I struggled massively to even get close. Never thought it was going to get possible. Only dropped 2 points though after a 0-0 draw against Ajax. It can't be possible to get +5-10 GD without using something. It was a really tough challenge. Had some luck with Free Agents though. £0 relegation release clause for the win ngl.