made it to another qualifier in v.130.

2nd place in III.5. I'm curious what's coming down from II, what's coming up from IV, and how my season is going to be affected by an inability to check my team for 2 weeks while in Russia

SI

So my series next year will be much of the same. We will have five teams each capable of beating each other, with three having a chance of winning the series. But I am thinking of retooling my team. My frontline trainees have reached that awkward age. I could raise about $20M by selling them and some spare parts. So I have listed a bunch of guys with pretty high price tags to see if any team desperate to win a qualifier takes the bait.

After that, I will start trying to acquire some new pieces. Defenders seem cheap right now. HT is most fun when you are able to buy new players.

None of my players sold which was half expected. It is kind of a downer though, because there was a WB that I really wanted but didn't have enough cash to bid for him. All I needed to do was to make one sell.

MIJB, do you want to play a friendly this off-season? Can't remember if it is my turn to host or yours.

D'oh, just saw this, right after arranging a friendly for next Wednesday.

I think we're even in hosting, so I think it's my turn to take the plane. ;)

Why not give it another go? Team spirit doesn't reset until Mon or Tues, right?

SI

Part 2 of my 3 part HT Press series on the Hall of Fame was published today. Check it out on the USA front page :)

SI

:(

nothing like a golden goal in the 97th minute.

Well, then...

WTF Hattrick?

http://www94.hattrick.org/Club/Match...2199,437612201

So I took the plunge and fired up my team again. Been about 5 years or so, anything I should know? It looks like you don't need to upgrade your stadium immediately, but otherwise a lot seems the same.

I finished the new manager orientation thing and loaded up with 6 17yo Passable scorers to establish my training program. My VI only has one other active team, and it looks like they'll wipe the walls with me. I should walk all over everyone else though.

Any input on whether I should go full on youth academy or stick with the scouting network?

Vince! let me know which team, so I can send my guys over for a friendly.
Edit: never mind, I think I just found you. ;)

Weclome back, Vince!



Same old hattrick, GE.

It's kind of like poker, you will occasionally get dealt a bad beat that you just can't explain.

sadly, yes.

Any advice re: youth systems? Since I've gotten my whole team up and running for about $10k total and I still have upwards of $200k in the bank, it doesn't look like I need to worry about dropping $20k/week on my youth squad...or do I?

With the new(ish) homegrown bonus, I think I would start a youth team. Not because the players are better if you do that, but more along of the lines of it gives you an advantage of knowing what is coming through your system.

Four of my current six trainees are homegrown. I have two more coming up the pipeline who will be 17 soon and I can promote them. It just allows me to plan things out better.

It also gives you another match per week to prepare for, which makes it a little more fun. Although most teams don't take these games as serious.

Overall, I would say go for the youth squad. You have to spend 20k a week on building up your YA anyway, right?

True. The question is whether or not my economy can sustain $20k/week right out the gate. I'll have a home match this weekend to give me a better idea of what my home draw will be, but right now I have no idea what the weekly take from ticket sales will be.

I expect to be 12-2 this year. Series full of 6 bots, me, and one other team that will cream me.

So my first match netted me 4600 punters, which is far less than I was expecting. That being said, we killed it at 8-1 with only an unpredictable event giving them a goal. And the 4k was worth $40k, so it looks as if $20k is going to be a drop in the bucket, and we'll be re-instating the Isla Vista Vandals effective immediately.

I forgot how much fun this game can be.

Edit - Looks like it was an inexperience event (is that even a thing?), not an unpredictable event.

So our first competitive match included a natural hat trick by young Russian striker trainee Anatoly Shonov, earning him a permanent place in Wreckers lore.

Made it to the 5th rd for the second straight year. Awaiting my draw now.

We drew a team from II. If they trot out the lineup they did last night, we will have a chance. If he sends out his A team, no chance. He has a tough league match, so I guess we will see.

Oh and I also have a tough league match on the road that I really need to win. But I would love to make it to the 6th round of the cup.

Good luck!

Nice win after a shaky start for you.

Glad to see that bots are still easy to walk all over, as I had a (fairly) pedestrian win away from home today.

I'm happy that my main team managed to beat the second best team in the series tonight not even playing my best team. I had 6 defenders on the field, 2 in each sector and still managed a 3-2 win. Now if only I'd have trained defense in week one and CA'd the hell out of the leader of my series...

Hindsight and all that. I knew what he'd do, and still thought I'd win it in a 253, but nopes.

Anyways, winning tonight puts me in great shape to win my series since by the time the tough games come back around I'll be playing my best team in league and be out of the cup.

Cup opponents best watch out, though. I've got a damn studly team.

Tell

Yea, it was a good win for us. Just to put it in context, we won 4-1 on the road against one of three teams (including us) that could win the series. If HT didn't screw me over in that one match, I would be in great shape with 12 points and winning on the road against two of the better teams in the series.

We also did it without playing our two best players up top. I put them on the wing so that I can start them up top in the cup match. One of my starters did play up front though, so he will move to the wing for the cup match. I am going to give it go and MOTS the cup match since we have two easy league matches over the next two weeks.

MIJB, I think it's pretty awesome that you've scored 2 goals in 4 league games and only lost one of them :)

So, this made me go back and look at past seasons because I know there some inept seasons in there.

Somehow, we scored 9 league goals in 14 games and still won 5 and drew 4. In those 14 games, we also got shutout 7 straight times and got 8 shutouts.

crazy season that was.

Thanks. We're playing so undutch (read: ultra-defensive), it puzzles the opponents. ;) I haven't made any friends either, MOTSing against the division leaders in week 13 last season, costing them the title. The eventual champs drew 1-1 with us last weekend, so we showed we can frustrate anybody. The way I raised this team, it looks like it's all my boys can do: sit back and hope to score on a counter attack. :devil:

It's about time to start selling some of those quality defenders though. I was warned about this, some of these players will grow on you and will be tough to sell. Especially USA's Gaylord Younger, my third (1K) signing back when I started and improved to like 1.5M of value, he would be missed...

I am still trying to work out my plan for my cup match for tonight.

Part of me says to play defensive since I am going against a team from II but the other part of me says I have an attacking team and I should go for it.

Here are my options:

4-3-3 with one winger to one side which would generate an ET attack on that side but noting really to the other side.
3-4-3 with two wingers but no fullbacks balanced attack, little light on D as just three guys with one pushing slightly up
4-3-3 no wingers, heavy on defense and would try to score in the middle with a mag central attack

Close match GE.

I squeaked through to round 6 on a quick event goal to my forward. Very evenly matched teams in that round. Next round? Up against Westchester Fire. Current 21st seed.

My team:
The squad consists of 28 players. Together they have a total TSI of 1 820 890 and the total salary is 398 014 US$.

Their team:
The squad consists of 27 players. Together they have a total TSI of 1 361 880 and the total salary is 429 768 US$.

I should win, huh? Both of us in inadequeate average form.

It all comes down to which team he puts out there, league or cup. I can probably own his cup lineup, and even compete against his league lineup.

My poor leadership coach might bite me in this one.

Normal all the way.

I've got like 5 open supporter slots. Who on FOFC am I not supporting?

Heck, I think we have enough people we might need to make a quick little team list again

SI

Willow Glen Wreckers, in VI.815 :)

So I just realized my back-to-back at mid season is against the only team in the series that is human controlled, and I'm likely to lose pretty handily in both matches. How much is that going to crap out my supporter base?

I got a couple of prospects coming out of my youth system that I need to decide what to do with. They will be 17 yr old passable scoring and passable wingers which fits well with my forward toward winger training model.

But all of my training spots are occupied and if move to IV next season, we are going to need all the help we can get. So I got to decide if I want to sell the prospects or sell the better players.

Are they actually good enough to be in your training program (17yo pass/pass)? If not, you have to, pardon the pun, pass. Unless there's some other benefit like the wage savings but I doubt that's a lot on FTWs

SI

MIJB,

The team I am trotting out against you today is pitiful. You should crush me, although I do have two starters playing in training positions.

I couldn't risk injuries before two critical league matches.

We'll have to see about that, as we'll be playing with our projects and over the hill veterans here. Except for my goalkeeper, he'll be in the lineup at central defender to improve his defensive skills. :D

Was checking out the match today and saw that MIJB has an "anonymous" supporter. What's up with that?

SI

If we would have today's HT world back during the FOFC HT heyday, then that would have been quite interesting.

I am guessing there would be some FOFC tournaments, ladders, etc.

I dunno who it could be, I'm unable to see who my supporters are. :D

Yeah, definitely!

Probably me. My free supporter subscription ran out, and I had supported him before it did. I'm really missing many of the features already, and it's only been three or four days. Not sure if I'm missing it enough to pay though...

I have got a true study in my YA. Potential for Excellent winger, solid defending, and passable passing. The only downfall is his age at 16.71.

Sigh. 0/4 on chances, give up a goal in the 83rd minute on the opponent's first chance. Lose 1-0.

Not a game we should have won by any means, but still frustrating.

I won my game pretty easily, 6-1. Also took the lead in the series on GD after an epic 89th minute comeback from the third place team to topple top ranked junior tu papa.

84th minute on, 4 goals, one missed chance. Went from 2-3 to 3-3, 3-4, 4-4, missed chance by away team, 5-4 win. Last three in the 89th.

Just epic.

Now I can just win out and not have to worry about GD anymore.

Tell

Nice, Tell!

Anyone recall what the typical V->IV promotion line usually is?

I'm looking at buying some wingers and/or IM to improve my team but not sure if i can still auto-promote...

it sure would surprise people in v.130 if i did anything besides CA since that's all we've done for the last 1.5 years or so

How is a bot team fourth in your series? They must have just went bot.

I think around two losses is the normal auto-promote line. You will be cutting it pretty close.

We swept the mid-season series against the division winners last season. We took the road game 4-1 and scored two unanswered goals to win the home match 2-1.