[Hat] So How'd You Do?

[sterlingice]

We're at the end of another season (34), so I was curious how everyone did and kindof do an informal roll call.

-The Hippos won 6 in a row to end the season and claim 2nd in III.3. Got lucky this season as 2 of the 8 teams were walkover/inactive so we were all guaranteed top 6. Started out the season slow but made the best of it.

-We're up to 110 out of 120 flags after this week. Unfortunately, we only have 2 "easy" flags left to get and then it's 8 countries with under 40 users, most of whom either love to extort 3 month supporter for friendlies, arrange most of their friendlies through flag chasing feds with other really rare flags, or are horribly inactive and you pray this week that team who logs in once a week might decide to pick you. In short, progress will now screech to a halt.

-Next season, we have some trainees to sell off (soon-to-be world class defenders) and will need to try and get a little younger at midfield and maybe get a legit winger instead of a pair of WTM's. Already swapped out the keeper, saying goodbye to longtime Hippo legend Quentin "Q" Staples :(

-The youth squad is going well. Sold off quite a few players this season and will end up netting 600K or 700K, depending on my current sale. Another season and the new youth squad will have paid for itself. Nevermind the level of fun it has introduced as yet another thing to occupy time during the week. Really like the addition of it. What is everyone training? I'm doing individual and short passes (2-5-3) or individual and set pieces, for the most part. The faster training of the youngsters more than offsets the half training and it lets me train all 11 players per week rather than trying to randomly help out just a handful.

SI

[TazFTW]

Three bots in my series and I win promotion into III.14.

[finkenst]

tazftw,

i've got a qualifier against a iii.14 team...

won iv.23 and missed auto by 5GD

[Tellistto]

Three ties in III.6 that could have been wins spelt auto demotion for the team that has never lived up to it's name till now. Ah well, down to IV.52 with no real clue what I'll do with the team.

Tell

[Mr. Wednesday]

I missed out on a qualifier to promote to III by 2 goals differential. Tied on points and goals scored, I won 7 - 0 on day 14 and they won 5 - 0.

[Alf]

Won IV.28 in France and back up to III again. Made a nice 10 rounds Cup run. Got some decent trainees from the Academy.


Curious about how to get those rare flags without sending out supporter (no way I would pay for that) ? Any hint ?

[the_meanstrosity]

The MoKan Mighty Bastards finished second in series IV.59. This is our second season in IV.59 and also our second second place finish. Creepy. The series itself is pretty soft due to a couple of bot teams these last two years so it's not a very challenging series and I have held the Bastards back in both seasons since I didn't believe we were ready for promotion. Heck, I'm just happy to be staying in IV after the last few times in IV I was immediately sent back down to V, lol.

I'm in wait and see mode this coming season as I want to see how the recent changes to fan support affect my squad. I'm a squad with a good chunk of change in the bank so I'm hoping that the "fan expectations" aren't too demanding killing my attendance and thus killing my bottom line.

My economy was stable this past season and I'm worried that with the new changes I'm going to be hit pretty hard. My team made a profit of $800,000 last season and unless I sell some of my top midfielders I'll probably take a big hit this coming season. So I will probably sell an Extra-Terrestrial and a Titanic midfielder to lower costs. I have three World Class defenders I may put on the block as well and possibly upgrade to Titanic defenders. The previous season I had upgraded my forwards so I'm thinking it's time to upgrade the defense or the Mythical goalkeeper.

Anyone have any thoughts on preparing for a team to stay in III?

[Mr. Wednesday]

To stay in III, you need to be able to push 300 in your Hatstats in your home games, basically.

[finketr]

i promoted to iii.14 after winning a qualifier.

[TazFTW]

Hurray smart fans. :)

<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=2 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Season expectation:</TD><TD>Every day in this division is a bonus (http://www74.hattrick.org/Common/gameRules.asp?find=labels&lt=FanSeason&ll=7#FanSeason)</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

[Chubby]

4th in IV.36 which is my favorite position to finish besides 1st (for the schedule)

[finketr]

Hurray smart fans. :)

<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=2 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Season expectation:</TD><TD>Every day in this division is a bonus (http://www74.hattrick.org/Common/gameRules.asp?find=labels&lt=FanSeason&ll=7#FanSeason)</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

likewise.

[sterlingice]

The MoKan Mighty Bastards finished second in series IV.59. This is our second season in IV.59 and also our second second place finish. Creepy. The series itself is pretty soft due to a couple of bot teams these last two years so it's not a very challenging series and I have held the Bastards back in both seasons since I didn't believe we were ready for promotion. Heck, I'm just happy to be staying in IV after the last few times in IV I was immediately sent back down to V, lol.

I'm in wait and see mode this coming season as I want to see how the recent changes to fan support affect my squad. I'm a squad with a good chunk of change in the bank so I'm hoping that the "fan expectations" aren't too demanding killing my attendance and thus killing my bottom line.

My economy was stable this past season and I'm worried that with the new changes I'm going to be hit pretty hard. My team made a profit of $800,000 last season and unless I sell some of my top midfielders I'll probably take a big hit this coming season. So I will probably sell an Extra-Terrestrial and a Titanic midfielder to lower costs. I have three World Class defenders I may put on the block as well and possibly upgrade to Titanic defenders. The previous season I had upgraded my forwards so I'm thinking it's time to upgrade the defense or the Mythical goalkeeper.

Anyone have any thoughts on preparing for a team to stay in III?

I think you get a lot more bang for your buck with keeper than with defenders. Keepers are expensive to buy, but have cheap wages. Defenders are cheap to buy and have... cheap wages. But there are 3 of them. And you get a lot more value with that keeper due to how the match engine works. I'd skimp on the defenders, bulk up the keeper, and do whatever you can to get 3 titanic+ middies (from the US, to keep wages down). At the end of the day, it may not all be about middies as it was in the past, but if you don't have them, you're not going to be able to compete.

SI

[finketr]

you mean like these three guys:

Henry Shipley
Merlin Woodson
Jerome Dent

all ET and american