How am i supposed to start winning blitzball?

[Leezeebub]

I won the first game on my second attempt and it wasnt too hard. Now im playing exibition and it seems literally impossible... im facing a goalie with a catch of 18, even with jecht shot my shoot is only 16.
Never mind the fact that the enemy teams stats are about double mine, even when it comes to blocking/tackling the "random" rolls 100% of the time work in the enemies favour. If they have an attack of 5 they will always hit for 6-7 but if i have an attack of 5 i will always hit for 3-4.

I know my team are noobs but I dont understand how im supposed to get any traction with games this unfair... Tips?

[Hinnyuu]

The only goalie that is a problem is the Al Bhed Psyches' Nimrook, who is the best goalie in the game pretty much. While he may be a bit of a nut to crack at the very beginning, you will still be able to get in a shot or two with some luck, and by the time your strikers have leveled up two or three times you'll find it much easier to score against him. Against literally any other goalie, you will have no problems whatsoever (particularly with Jecht Shot).

The RNG is a thing, but I do not believe it's biased against you. The range on the random hidden factors can be quite large, but that can benefit you as much as hinder you - often it's simply the fact that you tend to see more action against you than your actions against others that skews the perspective a bit, so it looks like you lose a lot.

If you want to completely stomp the enemy, it's all about recruiting the right players. The two forwards and the center player in particular are quite crucial, and if you pick the right players for the job you'll soon find yourself without any competition of any kind. In fact, Tidus + Brother alone is probably enough to just roflstomp the vast majority of games (though you do need the Airship for Brother to be recruited) for a long, long time - longer indeed than most people play Blitzball because they simply stop once they get Wakka's overdrives and ultimate weapon.

[Leezeebub]

Ok thanks. So to get started youd recommend just playing league to level up my guys and not worry about losing?

[ShinkuTear]

Winning the very first match, quite a feat for newer players, gets you a Strength Sphere or such, letting you fill an empty node with a Strength+4. These are available infinitely later in the game, and the story will continue regardless of how the first match goes, so there is no need to worry about it.

If you can pull off a win, it is nice, especially in story since Wakka leaves with the much desired victory and some pride, and you get to knock the Goers down a peg.

Winning later matches, the best advice is to ditch the Besaid Aurochs for other players. The Aurochs eventually become powerful players, but you would have to cheat, or play a LOT, for that to happen, so you are better off just ditching them for better.

[Hinnyuu]

One of the most crucial parts about Blitzball may be blindingly obvious to some, but maybe not so for others: use MANUAL controls, not auto. The AI is not particularly good, especially when it comes to swimming...

Otherwise as was suggested, recruit some other players immediately. There are some in Luca and Mi'hen that are pretty decent if you want to start playing right away, otherwise you can just wait until the airship and build your super destructoid team. I tend to wait until that point, and can't even remember the last time I had a playthrough where anyone scored a goal against me. Ever.

If you want to REALLY make sure you're winning, use Brother - he is significantly faster than anyone but the Guado at low/mid levels, meaning you can use him to "fish" for enemy players and train them behind him all the way to the opposite end of the field; then pass to Tidus and sink it without any defender present. Makes games very boring, but virtually unloseable.

[Leezeebub]

Thanks. I was hoping to play straight away but ill push a bit further into the story first :)

[Popinfresh]

Yeah the Al Behd seem ridiculously powerful early on. The Luca Goers are easy in comparison.

[Hinnyuu]

It's one of the great ironies of the story that a team you're supposedly beating fairly easily once the hostage crisis is over is actually loaded with monster stats, while the supposed best team in the world has terrible players you would never want.

The Blitzball stat distribution is a bit weird in general, pretty much all the best players are humans or Al Bhed and the Guado and Rhonso players are largely useless. Kind of sad.

[Moridin]

I normally grab Wedge from near the entrance to the blitzball staidum and Jumal from near the sphere theater. Wedge is a nice forward, good def and shot and can learn some nifty moves like sleep shot. Jumal makes a good keeper early on with a 16 catch. or you can wait till you get on the airship and recute Wakka.

[Hinnyuu]

There's also Ropp from behind the counter at the Mi'hen travel agency, who is a pretty monster defender.

[GinkoBiloba]

NEVER use the Besaid Aurochs default team (except Tidus). They are the worst for a reason.

Good players:
- Tidus
- Vilucha for forward (or Shaami)
- Brother for midfielder
- Ropp for defense
- Kyou for defense
- Jumal is a good early goalkeeper

The Al Bhed Psyches are all monsters, so if you can, you should use them too.

[Hinnyuu]

Blitzball is fairly interesting in that it doesn't exactly come with one perfect solution as to what the best team is; largely because the stats of the various players vary so much throughout the levels. Some are really good early on but don't grow much at high levels, while others go through a complete change at late levels (for example, the Aurochs' Keepa ends up with 99 SH at lvl99 for whatever reason, the highest in the game).

There are, however, some characters that are more or less supreme for large portions of the level bracket. These include Tidus (due to Jecht Shot, not due to his stats), Ropp, and of course Nimrook (who is truly a ridiculously good goalie). Personally, though, I never bother actually recruiting Nimrook. It takes a lot of reloading to get the Psyches to drop his contract, not to mention a ton of games before it's even up for renewal. And in the end, much of my strategy is extremely aggressive and will virtually never have the enemy even get a chance to shoot, making my goalie fairly irrelevant.

The team I usually go for is:

LF Tidus
RF Vilucha (Besaid)
MF Brother (Airship)
RD Ropp (Mi'hen, travel agency)
LD Wedge (Luca, stadium)
GL Miyu (Moonflow, North Wharf)

A combination of great power during early/mid levels (since I only tend to play until I get Wakka's overdrives/weapon) and being easily recruited, i.e. no need to forfeit 30 games and then reload 20 times just to get a hire on a contracted player. But there are tons of options available, and most will do fairly well.