Finally, after having to win 15 successive leagues, I've made it to the big boys table. Now I know I'm gonna get spanked left and right to people with poor strategies and big bank balances who have the ability to move a slider. But now I will be on a level playing field I want to know...

Who, in your own opinions, are the best clean players on the game? I've barely been able to improve for many seasons now due to not being able to test myself, so I want to be playing all these guys in clean friendlies next season so I can start improving again inbetween all the MB spankings I'll be receiving. I know several of the top guilds I'll be playing (even had an awesome draw this season in the league against a team from a guild I highly rate) but incase I miss any what teams and managers impress you?

That is a very objective question as you'll get different answers from different players.

I suggest check the rankings on the game and start from there. There might be some sliders involved inbetween but they still need to do something right to not get pipped a 1000+ fans every 2 days in the GC.

And as for my opinion of highly rated players have a look at Rhinos from Brothers in Arms, for the life of me I cannot beat him in a competitive game

See this is what I wanted!! Ok so Rhino's shall be on my list of targets... Any more? Gotta aim for the best if I wanna get myself into that elite class too

Like I said go through the rankings, majority of those guys will give you a fairly hard spank if you're not up to scratch

Rankings just says the guys play mb to not loose fans!that would be the last place I'd start!just my oppinion

Croxton I admire your ethos and your skill at this game but I'm not impressed by your suggestion that it's dirty to use a feature that's clearly contained within the rules of the contest. Please use a term other than 'clean'.

Reminds of the time when some Aussies complained about other team's use of scrummaging power as a weapon as if that was somehow unsporting because they'd chosen not to do this.

Anyhow, you'll find lots of players at the top level who are extremely difficult to beat in friendlies but it's hard to say how skilful they are because their players are all maxed out. If you can start beating these guys, you'll know you've reached the very top.

We refer to mb as a performance enhancing drug which is the closest real thing to mb. And guess what, it isn't clean. And guess what else, every player has the option to move to France and get a doctor to state that it is medically necessary. So I will side with croxton that it is not clean in respect to playing a realistic rugby game. However, it is not cheating just like Dan Carter being on peds in france isn't cheating. But it also isn't clean. If you remove the slider it makes it where we know best teams advance, or we can all break down and all use peds and have the same result unclean. Once again, not cheating and not clean both.

Monks is pretty bang on with his analogy... MB is basically a PED. If it isn't illegal in a specific sport (TRT is legal in many sports) the athletes who are not on it are still considered and referred to as clean, even though the people on it are not considered cheats. This is the same principle. In no way am I saying its cheating or underhand at all, and if you want to use it then more power to you. But non MB matches (or max MB matches) are the only way to test out my skill and strategy against another person's

Ok forget clean... looking for the best tacticians to face who, whether they supplement with MB or not, have the best strategies and teams to win on an even playing field so I can test myself and try to get to that elite level

Owners who don't use MB are taking advantage of a loophole in the game because players paid under the market rate don't have freedom of contract and can't demand a transfer to another club. These owners underplay their players in order to make huge profits so they can unfairly advance their buildings faster than everyone else.

Now I don't believe any of that but you see it is possible to produce a diametrically opposed narrative to yours. The real point is that this is a game, not the real thing and people are entitled to play it as they wish without being told they're not playing clean. You don't have the moral high ground because you choose to play in a particular way.

And incidentally, there are lots of things about the game that are not particularly realistic. Heal kits, guilds, stadium sizes and the number of games that players are subjected to for instance. That's because it is only a game rather than a simulation.

Okay, rant over. I really like you guys and hope we stay friends. Croxton, well done, you've leapfrogged me now, which I knew was coming! BM, perhaps we'll meet next season.