Dugout Online was clearly inspired by the classic Championship Manager - you can see it in the details of the tactics and the way player parameters are set up in the groups. But while the game offers some unusual options the main part of the game lacks flair - for example you have actual youth team at your disposal with all the players fully simulated, but at the same time it takes long months and years for you player to develop, so it isn’t as much fun as it may sound. It’s just like you have two separate squads playing once each week, but it isn’t actually twice the fun, especially since the match reports are very dry and player ratings system is a bit over-simplified. The best way to describe it is through example - a lot of games end with high results (from 4-0 to 12-0 or even higher) and it is hard to find a game that would be actually interesting - usually one side gains advantage and makes use of the it from the beginning until the end. At the same time the winning team players have ratings between 5 and 9, while the losing team between 1 and 5. Of course the way I described it is perhaps not fair for the creators, I guess they put some effort into match engine, but that’s how it looks for the users. Another problem of the game is separation of the users - you have to join league in the country you live in real life, but in some countries it means you will be wasting a lot of time playing against robot teams that have no human manager, which is no fun at all.
Dugout Online was most likely inspired by Championship Manager, but while the game is very precise and methodical lack of atmosphere is one of the drawbacks. There are some interesting options (like construction of the stadium and its parts, team meetings, youth tournaments), but all of them are calculated and lack a bit of fun.
