There's a few reasons as to why I did it.
For the new guys that didn't know, anytime someone new came into the league I auto-gave them any fighter they wanted on my team. I still do that. But lately the league has bought into that in a sort of expansion draft formula with the recent additions and I thought that was great for all of us to rally behind some new faces.
The trades were simple: I wanted to shake things up for my team. I capped some guys, got bored on some developments and certain names weren't as striking to me as I hoped they would be.
A large part of that I think has to do with my complete "no fucks given" attitude about real life UFC since it was sold to the new owners. It's been a few years of it going this way, but it's now reached a point where I am more interested in watching fake storylines on WWE than I am the fake reasons why fighters are getting title shots.
The UFC is boring the shit out of me. And I wanted to adjust my team to reinvigorate my passion for building future legends on this site. Those trades are only the beginning of what is to come from Camp Rocketmen.
As for other team's success, it gets them involved in Grand Prix. It's our version of a chess match. Who doesn't want to be part of that? On the flip side, I've been here from the start. This is sort of my adopted child of a site - or nephew/niece? Regardless, I am here to support what Justin loves to do and in turn I have a blast on here with some great discussions. So making trades to help folks out who are struggling and get them to the Grand Prix or a push in that direction so they can experience the full scope of what this site has to offer is a big part of it.
I don't need to win belts. I don't need to win Grand Prixs. My enjoyment comes from seeing other people have a great time on the site, and I focus on building guys who will eventually be perennial contenders.
My team might be back at it next year, hopefully, but I am just excited to get some fresh blood to develop.
I would love to reunite some of the guys I spent a long time developing, but I've also come to terms that sometimes you build diamonds and the world covets it. I'll start pressing on some more coal.
My team's biggest weakness is when I become stagnant or flustered from what I want to do. Sometimes a fighter could use a tweak, but I'd rather put points into people instead of taking them out.
Have 9 points in celebration of this monumental achievement!