FM 2012 Contest — The Winner Is…

Here we go folks, it’s time to announce who gets a free copy of Football Manager 2012! But before revealing the name of the winner I would like to thank all those who participated in the contest, your messages were really nice and I can confess that at least half of them really impressed me. And that makes my choice very difficult, probably one of the toughest choices I had to make until now. For those who haven’t read the entries on our Facebook page, here they are…

Thomas White
What I love about Football manager is the vast contrast of emotions that hit you throughout the course of a game, most other games have their moments but the way football manager has you leaping off the chair when your centre forward bangs in the winner in the play-off final or the despair when your side is in turmoil and nothing can stop the slide, no other game has an emotional involvement anywhere approaching Football Manager. I have played the games from the 93-94 edition to the modern day and have lost count of the late nights i have spent knowing i could not go to bed unless I knew the fate of my team in the last few weeks of a season. What a game and it just gets better and better, there is no game like it and no other computer game gives you the sense of satisfaction and feel good factor when you read your name is on your teams supporters lips.

Tiago Carvalho
I love Football Manager 2012 because i am in charge, i am the boss and i am in the CONTROL! What can i say, i am on the best job in the earth. The great task of taking a small club in a small town to the glorious nights of the Champions League to drive the fans crazy and dreaming. Becoming a icon and a legend of a club, that’s all about glory and winning. With Football Manager 2012 you can be a hero and touch the sky!

Mikulas Nemeth
I just love those emotional moments. When you turn around a game where you’re 3-0 down, when you beat your rival, win the promotion, win the title, Champions League. When you lose and you turn off the computer and can’t sleep beause you’re thinking…»What do I do with this guy..sell him or not..where do I play him..» etc… It’s part of my life. Friendship that goes for ages. The community around complements it and makes it even more complex experience that sometimes really draws me in. :) You all guys know what I’m talking about. And how could I forgot…those 30 metres long screamers that makes you stand up from the chair :)

Svetoslav Varbanov
Football Manager is part of my life.SI make the best game’s.If I need to chose from FM or another game i will chose FM.This is the most realistic game ever.I’m sick and tired of people who say that Football Manger suck!Wish you luck and happiness.I love your story,forum and facebook. This is for me bye.

Amanda Huan
Football manager brought me and my boyfriend closer together. Though we’ll squabble over which keeper is better (De Gea’s my choice; he’s is Reina), which striker is better (Balotelli’s his man; mine’s van Persie)…. it’s brought us so much closer. I love football manager, not because my boyfriend loves it, but because it has allowed me to appreciate and love the beautiful game a whole lot more.

Dudy Iskandar
I love Football Manager very much..do you know why???Because Football Manager is the game for the world..

Jake Smith
iv got it on windows iv got championship manager 01-02 iv got fm 2005,06,07,08,09,10,11, and championship manager 09 10 11 on the ipod thats my i like fm manager :)

Tom Delgado
Football Manager is not just a game. It is a way of life. How so, you may ask? Well it’s pretty simple if you think about it. Football Manager lets you live the life of a manager, who could be anywhere from Jose Mourinho, to a Sunday League guy who comes to the games dressed up like he hasn’t showered in days. The beauty of it is that it’s NEVER the same game in all of its playings. One simply does not play Football Manager. One who plays Football Manager, lives Football Manager. The addiction is endless, and so are the possibilities. For instance, you could start a game as the likes of Manchester United and continue their excellence at the top of the Premier League. On the other hand, you could start in the last playable tier and chisel out your own dynasty, which I have been told is so much more fun. Personally I like putting my own spin on the big clubs, but the beauty of this game is that you can play it YOUR way, and YOUR way is always different. You can’t beat that! Most of all, the euphoria that comes from winning the league, whether it is with a big team, or one you’ve brought up from the bottom to the top is tremendous. When a game makes you get so stuck in that you live and die with the team’s ups and downs, you know you have a classic on your hands. That is my story, and I’m pretty sure that’s anybody’s story. March on, Football Manager, and continue to inspire the manager in all of us.

Dudy Iskandar
I love Football Manager very much..That’s my favorit game..In this game I as a manager.i can feel how atmosfer around the stadion…win, fans, players. money..As a manager i must win every game with my squad.I must create tactic, buy / develope / use player..and then i must give them spirit…If i can do that…my squad always be champion…..

Allan Dardart
I love football manager because it is a mindset.
I love football, I like being a manager. Lead my team to see it evolve over time.
I start playing with the 2009 version and it was a Rival for me this game and simply amazing. I rant because my team when we take a goal because I am French, I jump for joy when my team wins, I cry when we lose ..

Neil Birkitt
Ever since I was introduced to FM i was in love. From Scouting the lower leagues for hidden talent to helping a lowly non league team that have no budget what so ever to win promotion by an overwhelming margin. Also going to a place or hearing that my team has signed a player and them checking them out on FM to see what there like. There is nothing like scoring a 97th minute winner against your biggest rivals on FM in the world.

Byron Allen
I love FM for 2 main reasons. First I live an breath football and watch every premier league game every weekend staying up till the wee hours of the morning due to the time difference in Australia as well as enjoying any other league I can get my eyes on. FM is amazing due to it’s amazing depth and it’s immersive game play. I loving finding hidden gems and taking lower league teams to top-flight success. I love this game secondly for it’s following and the FM Stories sit ein particular. It’s such a close and friendly community for a game that is more than just a game. I am a big FIFA fan and tried to FIFA Manager andonly played it for 5 minutes as can’t even compare to immense feeling that FM gives you.

Andrew Macey
I love football manager before its the one game Skidrow cant crack or whatever his name is. Shame about Fifa Manager aye EA ;) I also love Football Manager because it isnt just a game, its a community.
Thats why if I dont win the compeition I shall buy the game, but I hope I win :)

Norman Logan
The question “Why do you love Football Manager?” is a complex one which depends on how and why you play. Through FM you can get the opportunity to make your favourite team the success that your real-life manager does not; or cannot achieve.
You get the chance to take lower league teams to take them to the top of their respective countries leagues. You get to sample the delights of foreign leagues, with different rules to what you know and love.
On a more personal level you get to understand the thinking behind certain tactics, styles of play and how to man-manage people … to understand the complexities of the game. Let’s be honest, how many would have even heard of terms like trequartista or catenaccio, let alone understood their meaning?
So to sum up FM is what I would call a total game … immersive, ritualistic, addictive and longer-lasting than any other gaming franchise (?Madden?).

NaKonr Ps
because i can learn English language from this game.

Rodd
I love FM because I can live the dream in the game. Watching your own tactic working, your youth players, etc… FM makes me full in those hours that i’m not with friends or studying, because i love football, and i had bad luck with my health, that made me unable to continue my real football career in a First Division club in my beautiful Argentina… and this is the closest way to feel that, the details of this game are incredible, its the real deal.

Sean Curzon
I love FM because well its FM.From sudden shriek of uncontrollable joy after scoring that 90th minute equaliser to the other passengers on the train staring at you in the aftermath. The fact after a long depressing day I can turn it on and delight myself in the fact that I have just won the Blue Square Premier.The relief you feel when you avoid relegation by that single solitary point.When you grow youngster like he’s your son and take pride as he single-handedly destroys the oppositions defence.The fact that I feel attached to every team I play as.As if I am part of its proud history.The fact that I can make stoke play like Arsenal and vice versa. To the late hours trying to balance your clubs books while still attempting to achieve your ambitions.From the crushing blow of defeat to the smugness of victory but most of all the feeling that you are there sitting in the dugout on FA Cup Final day with the crowd chanting your name and achieving the dreams you never thought were possible.

André Dias
I Love football manager cause it brings into football more than anyother game. It makes you feel you are in the dressing room, in the board room..and it’s so so cool when a few years down the line the new star of world football pops up and you remember..hey i signed him as a youth in FM a while ago :)

Marcus Adityawan Bahroen
I love football manager since the CM era. One of the earliest PC game I’ve ever played, I played it day to day, month to month, year after year and yet still I find it interesting. This is the game that wasted thousand of hours of my life. Surely fantasizing being a football manager, wastes time, but I don’t know why, I just keep playing it.. And what I like the most that the reality is really poured into this simulation. A huge scouting network, and even my small hometown football team in Indonesia is in FM. If games were women, then football manager is surely my wife.. LOL. I tried lots of games but eventually, again and again I found myself playing this game again.

Thomas Ofman
I love Football Manager because it brings people together. They make the game, sell the game, buy the game, talk about the game, win the game, lose the game, write about the game, read about the game, love the game and finally, really want to play the game. Thank you for an awesome website.

Jake Foggitt
I love football manager because unlike most sports games, it’s incredibly tactical and a little non league team can beat a big team like Manchester United in the FA Cup and it gives you a whole new perspective on what football is like :)

Lemuelinho Lim
I love FM series as I can manage Asian sides that are unavailable in the FIFA and PES series. I love the thrill of managing unknown Singaporean league teams to the pinnacle of Asia and also to win a chance of playing in the club world championship. Somemore, it is also realistic as players will respond to how you treat team during training and interactions and also having to hand in transfer requests if they are fed up. Lastly, FM 11 is about YOU alone, no one ELSE!

Davy Doyle
I love football manager because it brings me straight into the action of being in the dug-out and it is the only game where it is ok to wear a suit while your playing….It adds to the already magnificent managerial experiance

Bryn Holt
I love football manager because I have a rubbish life and the only thing I have ever achieved is winning the Champions league with Weymouth, this makes me feel better in myself :)

Louis Hall
I love football manager for the same reason I love watching TV or being on facebook: I love procrastinating! A few years ago I made the choice that I would rather spend all my spare time on football manager, trying to become the best manager I can be (and dream of doing it in real life), instead of revising my school work or trying to get a job, and I have to say, I’ve never made a wiser choice. Thank you Sports Interactive and my football manager story for both creating the game I love and accompanying me along the way respectively.

Sercan Çali
I love FM because it allowed me to learn English much faster than I think when I was in my early teens. The thing is though, I had to play the game with a huge dictionary with me, trying to understand all the news coming through so I won’t do something wrong :) Took me a few months to get used to the general language when I had a very small vocabulary back then and I got my father hooked up as well, competing with each other. And that was what made me a FM fan for life. I hold a BA Management now and I’d say gaming and especially FM made a big impact on it.

Ruth McCauley
I love FM because of the level of detail. It’s not like other football games where the only clubs accurately represented are the ‘big’ clubs like Man Utd, Barcelona, etc.;small clubs are in there with all their info,including the usually-forgotten Irish League!!Great to be able to take charge of your local club who you watch every Saturday!!!

Vaibhav Chandrasekhar
I love Football Manager because I get to make MY decisions. I am in control and no one can actually tell me what to do. The feeling when you win a title is just so good, and that is when you realize that you won because it was your decisions that helped you win. I love FM because it teaches me so much about football as well. I love managing a team and then making them one of the best teams in the world. I love FM because it is challenging, fun, and insanely addicting!

Tim Hardy
I love Football Manager as it allows me to build up a relatively small club into something massive- along the way, legendary players are found, stars are sold by the board (much to my fury) and I come to love what are essentially generated names with numerical values attached. In short, I love FM as it somehow transforms a glorified database into one of the most engaging, challenging and ultimately rewarding things I could possibly do. ?

Kyle Richman
I love Football Manager because i’m in control.

Alex Scott
I love Football Manager because it is the best game in the world!

Richard Ineson
FM is my Favourite video game and I love how i can turn on my laptop and lose myself in trying to get my team to the top. How can i save money? what positions need to be strengthened? how can i tweak my tactic so i can keep the ball, or close down the opposition? 2 hours are already gone and i havent even started a match!. i love the way my local team basingstoke town can be taken to the premier league, and how the welsh premier league can become the best league in the world! but most importantly, i love how i punch the table when i score in the champions league final after god knows how many hours of playing. this is the only game i have ever spent 200 hours playing ;)

Jonathan Cheng
I love FM because it is one of the best simulation games. I absolutely love soccer, and by owning FM I can now take over my favorite team (Man City) and lead them to glory. I also love how FM is realistic, and I love the nitty gritty of football; the tactics, transfers, youth system, and that everybody in FM is real. FM also allows me to know more about the different players that play in different clubs etc… It’s great to have a database that I can rely that provides me information on a unfamiliar player by searching his name! In short, FM allows me to really feel how a football manager feels like. :)

Johan Jakobsen
I love the FM series because it was the first game i learned 100 % by my self, that was when i found it a a sale at the local library. In the beginning i didn’t even know where the continue button was, but i stuck with it and to this day i love the series.
Also when i was younger i had a friend from another city which meant we didn’t get to see each other often. but when we did we could play FM for 12 hours straight and i will never forget how we always played with FCBarcelona or how we always named our manager José Gucci.(which is strange as we are from Denmark)

… and the winner is…

… drum rolls…

… drum rolls again…

The winner is…

Bhargav Rajamannar
I love FM because it helped me get through the toughest time in my life. I had 2 loves in my life: football and a certain individual. When I lost this person I threw myself into football and discovered FM. FM helped distract me from the pain of loss so I cherish it a lot more now. In addition, FM helped my love for football grow and fill the void that was left in my life. FM is like a friend that is always there for me. Whenever things are bad, I know I can fire up my computer and waste a few good solid hours in FM and afterwards I can try and make things better.

I know that most of the other participants will probably hate my guts for not choosing them but unfortunately I have just one copy to give, if I had 50 I would have given one to each of you. I chose Bhargav Rajamannar‘s entry because it captures the very essence of this game, the fact that it’s so good that it can become like a parallel universe. I know that I’ve caught myself thinking about tactics or transfers in broad daylight or while lying in bed at night and those thoughts surely beat the hell out of thinking about the ever increasing bills piling up on your desk. Big thanks again to all of you for the entries and congratulations to Bhargav Rajamannar, you will receive the Steam code in a few minutes in a private message on Facebook.