I promised some friends I would try to stop complaining so much, but this sure is a hard game to play.
I am as passionate as one could get about this game, as I'm sure most people here are. It's amazing how one could go from an emotional low, to a high, and back down to the lowest of lows in such a short time.
The daily anxiety I feel wondering how tomorrows playoff games are going to go, keeps me up at night, which causes me more stress than I already have (not strat related), which I don't need.
Yet at the end of the day when you check your team at 12 midnight, with extreme confidence that you could take this series down and go to the finals; like a smack in the face, you find out that you lost game 5 and your excitement just disappears and turns into sadness, anger, or both.
Interestingly though, along with the emotional low, there's a sense of relief knowing that you'll actually be able to sleep tonight as the anxiety is now gone.
After the feelings have time to set in, you then step back and realize how stupid it is to feel this way over a lousy game when there are real problems in life to deal with. Though it doesn't change a thing because its human nature to feel sad when something you enjoy so much does not go well.
That little dose of reality though is enough to allow you to shrug it off, congratulate your opponent, start up another team and try again.
I love this game.
P.S. The above statement applies mostly (but not completely) to the mystery game and/or people who don't play a large number of teams. You devote a lot more time and effort to running a successful 70s or 80s team than a 200x or ATG team.