I really hope we'll see a positive change come launch day. I really, really hope so, because I very much enjoyed the Demo and was planning on getting the game at launch this year. However, this will most likely cause me to hold back as well, at least until we know all the details for certain.
The worst thing is, if Konami really did remove most of the fake teams from the "Other European Teams"-section, it wouldn't come as a surprise to me anymore. It would be just another example of "Konami being Konami in the most Konami way possible".
Well, to say the truth, I was already expecting this exact move from Konami. Do you know why?
In PES 2017 we had 9 licensed teams, and 21 fake teams. Why 21 fakes? Why not a more "simpler" number, such as 20? Because 21 fakes + 9 licensed equals a total of 30 teams for use in the Master League european competitions.
Well, in PES 2018, they licensed 25 teams, and knowing that Konami is lazy as hell, they wouldn't change the european competitions format, or even adding new teams (they edited over fake teams, like we do). So, 30-25 = 5 fake teams to edit.
This is what I feared, I still had hope they wouldn't do it, but unfortunately now I see that it became true.
I still have hope we'll have a good surprise on the final game, maybe a North American league, or a 2nd PEU League, I don't know. If they only remove things instead of adding new leagues and teams, I think this will be the last PES I'll buy for a while.
I still didn't give up. I have a way of making my plans in PES 2018, but I am sure a lot of people wouldn't like it because it will be a big re-do of some of the PES european leagues. It will be my way to play this game, and make it as great as I can for me, and for anyone that shares the same taste regarding teams. If anyone's interested I will share it.
- First, my Portuguese Leagues project, which I know a few people will be interested:
Serie A teams will go to PEU League, where I will keep the 1st italian league. Liga NOS teams will be transferred to Serie A, where I will make 1st portuguese league, so I can have promotion/relegation between Liga NOS and Ledman Liga Pro. Of course, since Liga NOS has only 18 teams, I'll have to complete the 2 remaining teams with the teams that were relegated last year, Nacional and Arouca.
I am going to kick out Serie B of the game, and replace it by Ledman Liga Pro (2nd Portuguese league, I never seen it in a game, I will do it by myself). I won't do the 5 'B' teams because it would be weird if they get promoted; instead, I will replace them with some historic teams from portuguese football that are now playing in lower divisions, such as Beira-Mar, União de Leiria or Fabril Barreiro (CUF).
- Then, maybe, I'll make another project with smaller european teams, like I did on PES 17. But, to do that, I will have to kick 2nd Spanish League and 2 teams from La Liga, so I don't think many people wouldn't like it:
I will transfer most of the La Liga teams to the Liga NOS slots, where I will keep La Liga (unfortunately, I can't keep 20 teams, only 18 teams because Liga NOS only has 18 teams).
Then, I can use teams from PEU League (and some of the licensed ones in the "Other European" section) to make a 20 teams league from several european countries, like I did on PES 2017 (The "Europe+ League"). I can also use 2nd Spanish league to create a "European 2nd division", with weaker teams like Dudelange, Santa Coloma, Ventspils, etc.
- Of course, we still have 2 'B' teams on 2nd Spanish League that can't be promoted, I'll replace them with 2 of the "Other European Teams" so all of the "European 2nd Division" have a chance to promote for the 1st league.
I'll still keep some strong teams on the Other European section so we still have interesting teams competing on CL and EL on Master League.
- Then I'll also do teams from South and North America, Africa, etc. But I will need to know more about the leagues and teams we will have available to edit. So, for now, I only make plans for Europe.
So, you see I still didn't give up. But Konami really screwed up my original plans, which were much better. But I still have hope that 2018 will be a good year for PES, specially because of the game play. If I didn't like the demo so much I would stick to PES 2017.
I think it was based on the team's ratings.
Maybe, but it would be boring to have same teams from Other European teams in CL and EL. If they were random, it would be better. I'll check it and tell something later.