I feel like it's a flip a coin

SturmWolfe wrote:

I set my strategies to forecheck and play high pressure defense. What do they do some games? Absolutely nothing.

Who are you controlling in this forecheck scenario? I often encounter players online who are controlling one of their d-man as the first forechecker and they wonder why their A.I. is all out of whack. It's because when you pull players out of their position (which is why it's a skill to know the player you're controlling and what position they play) the A.I. will consume themselves with covering that spot rather than executing a forecheck. 

I would challenge you to control a single player during the forecheck and make sure you're playing to that position. Now watch how aggressive your Ai becomes. It's night and day. 

I am between div 1 and 2 consistently every year. I get 13-14 wins in champs (when I am able to play more than 10 games in those 4 days). 

I play positioning well and often bring back an extra man when my dmen start backchecking. 

I will even switch to my goalie and make saves on the predictable far cross crease pass. 

I do all the right things still something manages to go wrong. Like gold shutdown procs but the puck still bounces back to my opponent's (who is lower overall) stick blade. I dive block (my player has had enough time to go down fully) and the puck slides under my player... What's the point of having it in the game if it's not going to work as intended? I place my wingers on the forecheck on both sides when my opponent goes behind the net and when I go to apply pressure my other winger just skates away... Could easily press him into the boards and fish the puck out and keep the puck in the zone. Is that too much to ask? 

It never used to be like this years ago. If you got beat it was because you actually made crucial mistakes. Gameplay was more balanced.

Ah, you're playing HUT. Expecting realism from that mode is a lesson in futility. 

Yeah I agree. HUT is an afterthought when it comes to trying to make the game realistic. The AI controlled players on your team are completely different in reaction to those of the opposing AI team. Watching players veer away from checks. Non pursuit of beating out icing. And so on. You can only control one player at a time, which leaves the other 5 under the control of the AI. And in Hut. The players controlled by AI on your team. Dont match up to those controlled by the opposing AI team. Especially in the close checking aspect.

Okay? I also play OV and was top 100 for many years. OV is more sim but the same garbage happens when your compy decides to go for a skate instead of helping out. 

The programming is messed up. They even tried to adjust it in one of the previous patches but I haven't noticed any difference. 

To be honest I've not played much of either. Play what you're enjoying but I pretty much only play WoC and try to only play when everyone is human (unless we can't get goalies) it's a much more enjoyable experience. It's not perfect by any means, but the more you take AI out the better the game. Playing AI gets boring fast, you begin to anticipate their movements. It's stale. Humans can make better adjustments OR they can fully blow assignments (not that a computer won't, but it feels much more rewarding when you get a human out of position than it does skating around a cpu) I'd suggest you try that for a bit if you'd like something different. 

SturmWolfe wrote:

The programming is messed up. They even tried to adjust it in one of the previous patches but I haven't noticed any difference. 

Can you provide a video example?