[Hattrick] Houston Hippopotami (III.3); Special 20th Anniversary Thread

[sterlingice]

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Note: Start at 1-23-2013 thru 5-6

Then 5-21 through present (not including today's PA)

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by 1-23-2013

(14:33) Roster Reconstruction Reaches Resolution

The Houston roster has seen an overhaul over the last few days.

Gone are 26 year old "trainee" Niko-Ville Hallasaari, oft underperforming midfielder David Dasí, and aging 29 and 31 year old wingers Gian Paolo Serafino and Norbert Hiermayer.

Joining the team will be 25yo middie #46 Reg Ledford, 23yo wingers #52 Augustin Obereisenbuchner and #58 Marcin Stefaniuk, and one of the owner's favorite players "cash considerations".

Wages are down to $360K, off of their average of $490K last season and high of $627K. The team is younger, too. 27 year old middfielder Mathieu Richard is the only Hippo starter older than 25.

Coach Gilceu Bianco, who was convinced to come back for one more season: "I don't think we can say we're better. To lose players of that caliber- well, they're difficult to replace. However, our newest players are no slouches, either. And we had to get younger."

We'll see how this new lineup fares on Sunday in the team's III.5 debut against the Swords.

Originally Posted by 2-1-2013

(19:13) Hippos Return to Tournament Play This Week

Houston's coaching staff enjoys playing in tournaments as it gives them a chance to try out new tactics. The Hippos begin play in the 49ers Memorial Cup on Tuesday, a 4 team USA tourney, and chance to see what some of the new players can do.

Last season, Houston won 2 different 8 team tournaments, both Columbia Heights Invitationals hosted by squidpants of Columbia Heights FC. In each, the team went 2-0-1 trying out new tactics in group play. The following formations were played at one point or another: 2-5-3, 2-5-3 TDF, 5-3-2 CA, 3-4-3 and, 5-5-0 AIW.

In the first, the Hippos won 4-1 in the finals at Evil Runts, a team that had played Houston to a draw in Group play. Hallasaari tied for the Cup lead in goals scored with 5 and Edelmann tied for 4th with 4.

In the second, Houston won 3-0 at Bucoda United FC in Mielikainen's 4th shutout between the two cups. Patrov's 4 goals lead the tourney and Fuscioni's 3 were tied for 2nd.

The trophies are proudly displayed on the shelf!

Originally Posted by 2-8-2013

(12:53) Everyone's Favorite Returns: Sunday is "Sharp Rocks Day"!

Sunday's game against the Apollos sees the team's promotion department bringing back one of the all time favorites: "Sharp Rocks Day". The standard disclaimer applies: "Everyone gets one upon entering the stadium and we can't be held responsible for what fans do with them. On an unrelated note, remember Hippos are black and green while Apollos are yellow and purple."

This promotion doesn't come around every season and is reserved for longtime rivals of the team. Past teams who have "enjoyed" it have been hrudey's Jacksonville Tea Men, ardententhusiast's North County Raiders, and both iterations of TP6's/EL's Airborn(e) Penguins.

Houston is trying to woo back fans, disheartened by their fall from II. The team's 2765 supporters to start the season is the lowest level since season 27, back when the team was in Div IV.

But Coach Bianco was forgiving: "I guess 25 years in II or III isn't enough for some people. They just need more time to decide if this franchise is a winner."

Originally Posted by 2-18-2013

(17:46) Hippos are FAN-Tastic to 12 million! (Part I)

Maude Mortimer has now one-upped her husband. Her beau Murray gained local celebrity as the 500,000th Hippo Friendly Cup fan in August of 2012.

As she entered the stadium for Sunday's match against the Apollos, she was named the 12,000,000th Hippo home fixture fan. After the balloons and streamers finished falling, she and Murray were whisked up to the owner's private box for personal congratulations and a VIP reception.

At halftime, the raucous crowd of over 50K showed their support for the fan favorites, chanting "let them coach!" But the Mortimers demurred and returned to their season ticket seats at midfield to enjoy the rest of the game.

Also, Maude claims there is no truth to the rumor that she was the one who threw the rock that narrowly missed Jeremy Dean, seconds after he scored the tiebreaking goal: "That's a vicious lie. If I had thrown it, it wouldn't have missed." We believe you, Maude!

Check out Part II for some Houston attendance fun facts

Originally Posted by 2-23-2013

(17:45) Hippos are FAN-Tastic to 12 million! (Part II)

Those 12 million fans (12,004,917) were achieved in 238 home games (fixtures and qualifiers) with an average of 50,441 fans per game.

The largest crowd ever was 81000 in the old Hippodrome configuration . This occurred 15 times. The first time was in season 28 and the most recent in season 46. The most times it has ever happened in a season was 3 each in seasons 30 and 31. Season 31 saw the most fans with 8 games including a qualifier and 522793 fans. The opponents who have seen the highest number of 81K games are the Jacksonville Tea Men and FC Exile with 3. The Hippos record in these games was 8-4-3.

After season 49, renovations removed some of the less desirable seats, added to some of the more popular sections, and lowered the maximum capacity to 68000.

The team's first home game on 1/20/2003 after GM SterlingIce took over the franchise in season 18 saw 7000 fans. Before the next home game, the stadium was expanded to accommodate the soccer hungry crowds.

Originally Posted by 3-11-2013

(15:16) Hungry Hungry Hippos Globetrotting Again

It's difficult to youth flag chase as you can only play a friendly ever third week. It's also difficult to keep track of Youth Flag chasing, but the Hippos PA staff is here to help with that!

After this week's visit to Cabo Verde, the youth squad will have visited all of the top 10 flags. Upon completion of that visit tomorrow, the youth squad will have 38 flags visited for 205 359.61 coolness and 31 flags hosted for 20 708.96 coolness. That visited rating would be good for 32nd in the USA.

The youth squad has now visited 16 of the 23 rarest countries for a youth friendly. I think Kuwait, Trinidad & Tobago, Qatar, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Benin, and Tanzania should be expecting visits soon.

Also, they have visited or hosted all but 2 of the most populous countries (Israel and Romania). Austria and England as well as a pair of teams on the ever changing small country list would make it an even 25 flags at the high and low end of the spectrums so that's probably the next goal.

Originally Posted by 3-23-2013

(15:03) Second Annual Hippo Invitational Begins with VIP Visitor!

Two seasons ago, the Hippos were the first, and still only, team in the USA to collect a complete flag set. In fact, they were only the 62nd team in all of Hattrick to complete the task and still are only one of 104.

But that left the scheduling department with a quandary: what do we do with friendly weeks? The Marketing Department went to work and the Hippo Invitational was born! Each week, Houston will host the highest ranking team that would play them each week. We may start flagchasing #1s.

Last season, the Hippos hosted 11 teams from Top 3 divisions in other countries including 6 Div I teams from Portugal, Honduras, Letzebuerg, Island, Malaysia, and Palestine. Nearly 45K fans and an average of over 4K watched the Hippo Invitational last season.

This season's Hippo Invitational starts out with bilal-08's AbshyrAta. This VIP was Kyrgyzstan's representative in the Hattrick Masters and the #1 team in the Jogorku Liga. They also won the Kyrgyzstan Cup the last 2 seasons.

Originally Posted by 4-17-2013

(19:42) The Monarch Joins the Hall of Heroes

John "The Monarch" King was larger than life. The legendary midfielder had the highest TSI and wage in team history and he is now in the Hall.

Although week to week records are difficult to obtain, his TSI when he transferred to the team was 188120. The Hippos crack statistical analysis team cannot confirm any other Hippos with a TSI above 150K. His wage of $92K edged out longtime midfield friend and rival Carlos Thacker.

His coming was recorded in the Hippos 30th anniversary thread back in season 38 (post 50):
[Hattrick] Houston Hippopotami (III.3); Special 20th Anniversary Thread - Front Office Football Central

He graces many Houston Top 10 Lists:
* His 9 stars ties for 10th all time in competitive matches
* He was 8th for captaincy with 59 matches and 40 competitive matches
* His match count of 234 is 7th
* He played in the 5th most competitive matches at 191, joining a group of All-American middies: Little, Partridge, Vickers, and Thacker

He is the first Hippo to retire with a nickname. Long live the King!

Originally Posted by 4-16-2013

(19:31) Current and Future HHH Roster

Current HHH Members
#01 S43 Tim Kimber
#03-Hnr Quintin Staples (28383532)
#09 S50 Carlos Thacker
#10 S49 Juan Alberto Quijada
#11 S47 Charlie Partridge
#12 S45 Donald Sidorczak
#13 S33 Mick Starks
#15 S41 Carlos Alberto Benito
#14 S51 John King
#17 S44 Erwin Vickers
#18 S42 Thomas Little
#19 S40 Allan Brik
#22 S33 Edwin Phelan
#27 S48 Volfs Treibahs
#31 S38 Vaikhan Satyanarayana
#41-Hnr Koos Teepen (8057500)
#44 S46 Tomas Ovesson
#48-Hnr Kris Jacobsen (46500559)
#72-Hnr Marcin Tetkowski (48395749)
#83-Hnr Sergio Chapin (23361083)
#96-Hnr Adir Weissglass (118357573)
#97 S39 Xacobo Armengol
#99 S30 José María Miquel

Upcoming Candidates
#95 S52 Gilceu Bianco
#05 S53 Birger Manholt
#20 S54 Juan Carlos Carreño (NEW) - 12 season elite wing
#40 S55 Stephen Williams
#21 S56 Giancarlo Schalks (NEW) - 11 season; top scorer in Hippo history

Possible Candidates
#54 Roberto De Bacco - 6 season middie
#38 Yohan Coupard - 6 season backup forward

Originally Posted by 5-6-2013

(19:45) Edelmann Wins Scoring Crown; Hippos Finish 2nd

For the 6th time in franchise history, the Hippos finished 2nd in a series. The team went 10-4-0 but 2 of those losses were to III.5 champion The Red Devils 20.

Damian Edelmann led III.5 with 11 goals, the first series goal champion for Houston since Joseph Pittesser scored a whopping 15 in II.3's season 46. To see a detailed breakdown of all other Hippo 10+ goal scorers in franchise history, check out the Press Announcement from 3-14-2011 (part 2). Fellow Hippo striker Evgeny Patrov finished 2nd in the series with 9 goals.

The Hippo Invitational has been a smashing success with 8 games against teams from Divisions I or II, averaging over 5000 fans per game. The last 3 games against Karachi City, PFC Misicvolizeku, and T_H_E BeAst have all drawn more than 6500 fans!

Finally, Houston GM SterlingIce will be taking a well deserved vacation for a couple of weeks during the start of Season 52. Communication will be limited to non-existent during that time.

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by 5-31-2013

(22:43) Hippos Owner Found but Still Lost as Ever; Edelmann and Schalks Dominate Cup!

After over two weeks of being missing and many HT messages sent, Hippos GM Sterlingice has be located. He was found in his Houston home, muttering in tongues about visiting a foreign land. So, in short, not much different than normal.

Meanwhile, on the pitch, the team has a disappointing loss and home draw to start the season. Coach Bianco, responding to reporters: "Um, yes! That's it! We to their grieving over the loss of our owner. That's why we've sucked." The schedule doesn't get any easier with a trip to the The Ferret Den looming on Sunday.

In the Cup, however, the Hippo strikers have been tremendous. Damian Edelmann, winner of the III.5 scoring title last season only had one hat trick coming into this season. However, he has hat tricks in each of the first three games and is 2nd in the entire USA with 11 cup goals. Giancarlo Schalks has 8, scoring in all 3 games, including 5 in the opener. No Hippo has ever finished in the Top 10 for cup goals in a season.

Originally Posted by 6-11-2013

(15:09) Dirty Play Ends Edelmann's Cup Hat Trick Streak

The Game 2 finally found a way to stop Damian Edelmann's hat trick streak at 3. Having already scored a goal in the 60th minute on a beautiful feed from Giancarlo Schalks, the opposition pressure became relentless. The defense began tackling him again and again until he had to leave the field, in obvious agony, after the 66th minute.

After the game, Coach Bianco was furious with the refs: "We lose 2 guys to injury and we're the ones with 2 yellow cards!" The Hippos still were victorious as goals by Obereisenbuchner and Fuscioni gave Houston the 3-2 win.

The trainers say his status is "bruised but practicing" so he's expected to play in this week's cup game against FC Ottweiler/Saar. The weather is expected to be rainy which could bog down the pitch but that won't dampen his mood. Damian has said he hopes to start a new hat trick streak or, at least, extend his Cup goal scoring streak to 5. His season cup total is now at 12, which "drops" him back to 3rd in all of the USA.

Originally Posted by 6-18-2013

(19:21) Edelmann Cup Scoring Streak Reaches Five

The Hippos keep winning Cup games and Damian Edelmann keeps scoring. The streak looked like it might come to an end as, with only 20 minutes remaining in their 5th round cup match, the Hippos were holding on to a slim 1-0 lead and Damian had missed his best opportunity of the game in the 3rd minute.

FC Ottweiler/Saar's brutal defense had already pressed away another pair of chances but then Edelmann broke free and put one away in the 76th minute en route to a 4-0 victory.

The goal was Edelmann's 13th of the cup and he is tied for 3rd place. However, of the top ten scorers, 7 remain on teams still in the Cup so Damian will need to keep scoring to stay on the leaderboard. He is one behind Ricardo García of AS Skinsu. Both trail current leader Fiorenzo Campetella of III.6's Rising Phoenix.

Wednesday, the Hippos visit the mythical state of Deleware for a match against Lancashire Red Army.

Originally Posted by 6-25-2013

(18:46) Lucky Number 6!

The Hippopotami may not have retired the #6 into the Hall of Heroes but they may have to after this season.

Edelmann-ia is still gripping the fanbase as Damian scored again in last week's cup victory against Lancashire Red Army. This gives him 14 for the Cup this season and ties him for 2nd in the USA.

The win gets the Hippos out of the 6th round and wins them a date with Columbus North End on Wednesday.

Houston also now has won 6 games in a row to crawl back onto the happy side of the relegation line in III.5. But while 4th place is nice, the team still finds themselves 6 points behind Less than Zero for 1st and closer to the 6 points of the Swords, the 7th place team Houston hosts on Sunday.

Even the Hungry Hungry Hippos are getting involved with 6 wins in a row and a 9 game undefeated streak. This puts them in 2nd place in the 6 team USA Juniors.

It's not all roses for the squad, however, as 6 players have been injured during the streak including Edelmann twice.

Originally Posted by 7-2-2013

(20:14) Edelmann's 4th Cup Trick and Hippos Win 8th Straight

Damian Edelmann didn't just score 1 goal. He netted his 4th hat trick in 7 Cup rounds in the Hippos 4-2 victory over Columbus North End last week. He has 17 goals for the Cup, one behind leader Fiorenzo Campetella of Rising Phoenix, whose team is now out of the Cup. He's also got some breathing room as the next highest total of anyone still in the cup is 13.

Meanwhile, after starting out the season 0-2-1, Houston is back up to 3rd in III.3 with 4 straight series wins. The team's overall streak of 8 victories in a row is good for 10th in the USA and 3rd in Div III.

Late last week, Baltiburg from III.6, was 2nd in the USA with a 14 game winning streak. We mention this as they are the Hippos cup opponent this coming week. However, Sunday, the streak was inexplicably snapped after a red card and injury. It was only their 9th loss in their last 71 games, dating back to the start of season 49

Can Edelmann take the Cup scoring lead? Can the Hippos win? See Wednesday at the 'drome!

Originally Posted by 7-18-2013

(14:29) Injury Ends Edelmann and Hippos Cup Run

The Hippos final cup game was the 4th of July. However, there were no celebratory fireworks in the end.

Rough play resulted in Damian Edelmann re-aggravating the injury he sustained back in Round 4. He was in visible agony as he was helped off the field by the trainer in the 31st minute.

Inspired by their fallen comrade, Stefaniuk's beautiful feed was put into the back of the net by sub Giancarlo Schalks a minute later to give Houston a 1-0 lead, its only of the game.

Baltiburg would answer with goals at 33 and 36 and Schalks would tie it again at 37. But the game settled down and the Hippos surrendered 3 second half goals, losing 5-2.

Schalks: "If I could give those goals to Damian, I would. The passes were perfect and he would have scored them easily."

Damian will almost certainly finish 2nd in the USA in Cup scoring this season as no players in the Top 10 are on teams still in the Cup. But he will end one shy of the 18 scored by Fiorenzo Campetella of Rising Phoenix.

Originally Posted by 7-26-2013

(14:22) Crazy Eights!

A Hippos win Sunday against walkover FC Phooeysticks will mark their 8th series win in a row, a rare feat in Hippo history.

The first time it happened was way back in season 19, the team's last in V. The team went a blistering 13-1, finishing off the season on an 8 game winning streak after a loss in week 6 to V.62 rival CC's Dragons.

The only other time it happened was in season 45. In their final season in their second stint in III.3 before promoting back to II, Houston won 8 in a row to start the season. That was part of a 20 game series undefeated streak stretched across 2 seasons, including 5 draws.

Also of note were a 10 game series undefeated streak to start season 39, and a 12 game undefeated series streak sandwiched by season starting and ending losses in season 38. These were the last 2 seasons Houston was in III.3 the first time.

Currently, the team has won 12 of 13 competition matches. However, they are 4 points back of Less Than Zero with 4 matches to go.

Originally Posted by 8-2-2013

(15:15) Letters to the Editor

I think in last week's PA, you missed the 10 game undefeated streak in season 30
Yes we did, how awkward. Even the best PA writers make mistakes. So you can imagine how many we make.

Are you ever going to finish the Hall of Fame Article for HTPress?
About that... first there was that international trip and now buying a house. Anyway, we've made some headway on it this week and hope to have it out in the next week or so. Glad you're reading!

Here are the first two parts, if you missed them (HT-Article numbers):
(16885)
(16988)

What's coming up the rest of this season?
* Speaking of the HOF, Birger Manholt will be joining, provided we can ever buy his replacement.
* Hungry Hungry Hippo flag chasing update
* The Third Annual Hippo Invitational is a hit: did you see the 7000 fans for the Argentini match?
* And we're still 4 points behind with only 3 games to go. Seems unlikely we'll see an article about the series race but you never know.

Originally Posted by 8-9-2013

(00:10) Youth Academy Graduation Day at the Hippodrome

The Hungry Hungry Hippos finished up the first half of their season in USA Juniors at 5-0 for the first time in team history. But this Press Announcement is about those who have graduated to the next level.

All 11 players who started Wednesday's Hippo Invitational game at the Hippodrome against Olympiaturistid from Estonia were products of the youth academy. The team captain was Stephen Williams, the first youth pull in the Academy's history and future member of the Hippo Hall of Heroes. Ed Healy, who scored the first goal of the game: "It was a great thrill just to be able to play on the pitch where so many legends have trod."

Keeper Bradley Walden: "I can't believe it! I got to use Timber's locker and talk to him before the game!" Over the next couple of weeks, most of these players will be transferred or move on to other careers.

The "Home Grown Academy" achievement should give the team 435 points and they will work towards "Academy Lineup" in the next few seasons.

Originally Posted by 8-15-2013

(19:54) Birger Manholt Retires to Hippo Hall of Heroes

Like the legendary Timber who was an "almost" keeper, one week away from excellent, Birger Manholt was an "almost" outstanding keeper at his peak.

Birger was bought in season 38, the Hippos 20th anniversary season, as a 24 year old backup keeper to Bati Ozkutay and established himself as a keeper who could be counted on in the cup and as an affordable injury replacement even in rough and tumble USA Div III and II games.

He kept good form and could be relied upon to get at least 4 and up to 5.5 stars in a match with his formidable. He occasionally struggled with injuries but was tough enough to play through most.

Manholt retires 2nd in overall clean sheets with 97, 4th in competitive games with 31, and first in friendlies with 66, even more than the legendary Timber's 60.

His #5 will be retired during halftime of Sunday's match, the season 52 finale, against Sutra. And he will pass the backup keeper torch onto #8 Giuseppe Oppes who was acquired this past week.

Originally Posted by 8-26-2013

(16:22) Hippopotami Looking Good at Season's End

First, the Hippos are seeing double with another 2nd place finish in III.5. Patrov and Edelmann were both on the leaderboard with a pair of double digit goal tallies of 10.

Less than Zero is gone and we are glad to be rid of him. However, it doesn't get any easier as another familiar looking face replaces him: former II.3 seriesmate and 12 season MLS'er emmpee.

Another thing to check out are the redone categories on the Hippos "Players" page. After waving goodbye to most of the Youth Academy Graduation Day players, some minor roster housekeeping is ongoing.

As seen in Manholt's PA, Giuseppe Oppes is the new and has a connection not only to that roster move and HHH announcement but to another. Gilceu Bianco is expected to step down as coach and enter the HHH next season but you'll have to be on the lookout for that news in a future PA.

If you have time, witness a game at the Mud Pit and check out the 1st place Hungry Hungry Hippos!

SI

[sterlingice]

So, yes, we fell down into III.5 but have placed 2nd each of the first two seasons. Both seasons, we've also lost in round 8 of the cup. The team has been mostly on autopilot, doing enough maintenance to stay where I'm at but not enough time invested to get further, tho I still have $8M in the bank. The second season, in particular, I was out of the country for over 2 weeks to start the season so I was /really/ on autopilot. And the chase with Edelmann getting 2nd leading scorer in the entire cup last season was really fun.

I suppose one of these days I'd like to make it up to MLS, even if just to get clobbered but staying up in III burns just enough cash that I can make money but not much so the cash reserves won't be swelling anytime soon.

I finished the flag collection a couple of seasons ago and I saw this past season 2 other USA teams did it. I think I'd like to get some of the silly achievements like "happy team" or whatever. And I'd also like to put 3 players in my Hall of Fame. I've kicked around doing platinum supporter just to do that but I have no real desire to play a 2nd team. I guess I could kick in the extra few bucks for it just to do the empty cupboard I've considered for quite a while. I also need to finish my 3rd article about the Hall of Fame- it's annoying me that I haven't finished but it's just not finished enough to be happy publishing it.

Any thoughts from anyone else on the future of the Hippos? Or what to do with a second team for only a year?

SI

[MIJB#19]

To me, a second team is perfect for those who find HT too slow or want to do something entirely different without blowing up team#1. The trap would be to fall in love with team#2 so much that team#1 suffers from lack of attention, but it could also rejuvenate the overall interest in HT or the team#2 experiment eventually looks too much work to do it all over again.

But then, I still consider myself a newbie to Hattrick.

[sterlingice]

Below are part 1 of the the season 53 PAs. There are still a couple to go this offseason but I think the season wrapup sums it up perfectly: just a game short in both the Cup and Series (that one will be in part 2). Still, it was a fun season and Edelmann was great, yet again.

I've spent a good part of the early offseason retooling a bit, getting younger and better but it won't show for a season until all the loyalty catches up.

Originally Posted by 9-5-2013

(16:58) Edelmann's Encore

(Ed Note: PA was originally going to be about the Hungry Hungry Hippos battle for first but then this happened)

What does one do to follow up finishing 2nd in USA Cup with 17 goals? Why, you score 6 goals in the first game of the next year's cup!

Damian Edelmann picked up where he left off last year, scoring goals in the 26th, 37th, 52nd, 75th, 79th, and 80th minute of the Hippos 12-0 win over Buzzdocko. The most he scored in any of the 8 Houston cup games last year was 5 goals. His 6 goal outburst ties him for 7th after week 1.

Let's take a look at the "competition":
* Last year's top scorer, Fiorenzo Campetella, started off with 3 goals in Rising Phoenix's 11-1 win
* Last year's third place scorer, Rick 'The Franchise' Irvin had 5 for the CA Golden Beers.
* This season's leader is Kerewin van der Star with 8 of The LP reds's 11 goals in week 1.

In other news, pack the Mud Pit today for the Hungry Hungry Hippos first place battle against Little Friends.

Originally Posted by 9-10-2013

(19:16) Hungry Hungry Hippo Flags

The big club now has been joined in the USA by two other teams with complete flag collections. The Harrisburg Bees (222464) finished in June while Cottbuser FC (226121) notched number 256 last month. We salute those fine teams but we're here to talk about the kids.

The Hungry Hungry Hippos have done their own flag chasing and the junior stats department has compiled the following stats and ranks, if they were a senior squad
Visited: 45/289475.26 (29th)
Hosted: 32/21398.19 (167th)
Host+Visit: 77 (319th)/310873.45 (40th)

They have either hosted or visited the 22 most populous HT countries. They have also visited the 19 rarest flags and 3 more in the top 30. The missing top 30 include Ghana and Armenia (T-20), Uganda and Benin (T-22), Mozambique, Lebanon, Nicaragua, and Tanzania. That's a lot of renditions of 99 bottles of beer on the wall!

In series, they have 2 games left in the season and have been promised a PA if they win 1st place!

Originally Posted by 9-21-2013

(17:24) Hungry Hungry Hippos Win USA Juniors

(We'll return to the "usual" Edelmann insanity next PA. Yes, he has 11 goals, and yes, that ties him for 2nd in the USA Cup)

The Hungry Hungry Hippos win USA Juniors for the first time in almost 5 years! The last time the team won a series was 2008 and you can see more about that in the HHH PA.

251 parents and friends braved the pouring rain to see the final game of the season, a slightly disappointing 3-2 loss to 2nd place Luckie's Lounge. But it was only disappointing in that it kept the Hippos from going an undefeated 10-0 on the season. They still held a 48-11 goal tally and 27 points.

Keeper Victor Baio was called up to the big club earlier in the week and his loss was felt as it left the team without a true keeper. However, a strong 2-5-3 led by solid potential playmakers Greg Phan, Charlie Hildebrandt, and Alva Nichols and passable potential strikers Irvin Murphy, Duncan Ponder, and Terrence Taylor blitzed through the series.

Cheer them on as they promote soon!

Originally Posted by 10-4-2013

(21:55) Edelmann Takes the Lead in Cup Goals!

Last year was a magical run for Damian Edelmann in the USA Cup. He was in the top 10 for most of the season after 11 goals in the first 3 games, including 3 hat tricks, en route to finishing 2nd.

But this season he has outdone himself, taking 1st after 5 rounds with 14 goals. He holds a 2 goal lead over 5 competitors.

Manuel Tiago Rosa Araújo of popsypop USA is done with 12. Yuly Bokhan of IV.12's Valdez Oilers and Rafael Lindley of III.10's AS Skinsu each have 12 and are very much alive.

For familiar faces, Abdul-Lateef Al-Harbi of former III.3 seriesmate Cabana Mulberries also has 12. While former II.3 seriesmate Hoboken Hitmen places 2(!) players in the top 10: Rocky Aponte with 12 and Antonio Uttiger with 11.

Next up is a tough Cup match with Davanger United. The Hippos are riding a 5 game undefeated streak and 3 game winning streak but Davanger has nearly doubled those tallies with 10 and 5.

The Hippos need to keep winning and Edelmann needs to keep scoring!

Originally Posted by 10-11-2013

(13:10) Hippos Achieve Highest Hatstats Ever

Sunday at the Hippodrome, backed by over 60000 screaming fans, the Houston Hippopotami topped 400 hatstats for the first time ever in their 3-0 win against Sutra, who themselves put up an impressive 392 on the road.

The tally of 409 tops the team's previous hatstats high of 393. This was set in a 2-0 loss to current #1 team in MLS Holy Hand Grenades of Antioch (407369630). That game is now at a 96% rating.

The team also set a record with 93.0 stars, topping the previous high of 92.0 set on the road against the Hoboken Hitmen (407369636). Both of the aforementioned matches happened in Houston's last season in II.3.

This advances the "We're so good" achievement up to an average match rating of magnificent, good for 29 achievement points. This raises the category tally from 25 and moves the team total up to 439.

Coach Yohan Coupard: "I don't think these boys were trying that hard out there. Imagine if they actually thought this was the match of the season."

Originally Posted by 10-26-2013

(18:27) Hippos Still in Cup; Edelmann Still Cup Leading Scorer!

The Hippopotami have played 36 seasons but have only made it past round 8 a mere 4 times. If they could somehow win this week's game against the similarly alliterative Greenfield Gremlins, it would be the second time in history they have made it to round 10. And, if they did win Wednesday, it would likely give the Hippos only their 13th home cup match ever and first since season 44.

Damian Edelmann continues to work his cup magic with goals in 7 of the 8 games so far. He has the USA Cup lead with 16 but Abdul-Lateef Al-Harbi (14) of the Cabana Mulberries and Frederick Mcneill (13) of James' Dream are both still alive and in the Top 10.

Meanwhile, in a crowded III.5 series field, Houston has the highest GD at +17 and is ranked 2nd with 13 points. However, the difference between 1st and 6th is a mere 4 points with LA Crush in the lead at 14 and Sutra in 6th with 10. Coach Yohan Coupard is calling this week's matchup at The Ferret Den one of the biggest matches of the season.

Originally Posted by 11-1-2013

(19:33) Hippos Move on to Round 10!

For only the second time in franchise history, the Hippos advanced to round 10 of the USA Cup. Giancarlo Schalks, in for the injured Damian Edelmann, scored the tiebreaking goal in the 79th minute of the 3-2 victory against the Greenfield Gremlins.

This Wednesday, Houston hosts a rare home cup game. If the opponent Wisconsin Omanis sounds familiar to Hippo faithful, it is because they were the qualifier opponent back in season 49. The Hippos won 3-2 and were able to stay in II.3. Houston finished 7th the next season and relegating into III.5

Frederick Mcneill's 14th and 15th goals of the cup were not enough as James' Dream lost to former Hippos III.3 seriesmate (back in seasons 32-34!) Park Panthers EFC 4-2. Gerdt Sterner of the Cleveland Vipers scored 109 minutes into their match against the Cabana Mulberries, knocking #4 Abdul-Lateef Al-Harbi out with 14 goals. That goal leaves Sterner as the only remaining top 10 player still alive with 13 goals, chasing Edelmann's 16.

Originally Posted by 11-13-2013

(20:16) Hippos Lose in Round 10 Again

USA Cup Round 11 is a small, intimate affair with only 8 teams invited. Unfortunately, the Hippos have never made it past the group of 16 or acquired the elusive 35 achievement points for advancing from round 10.

Hippos management considers all debts to the Wisconsin Omanis paid after this past week. While Houston stole a qualifier from them back in season 49 to stay in II another season, the team was decidedly more unlucky this time around. Cup leading scorer Damian Edelmann missed the game due to injury and stud winger Augustin Obereisenbuchner was in wretched form following a series of injuries. In spite of all that, the pugnacious pachyderms pleased a packed palace of 68000 with an extra period on the pitch, dramatically falling 4-3 in OT.

As for the Cup goal title, Edelmann is hanging on to the lead with 16 goals, despite the injuries. The only remaining player still alive in the Top 10 is Erik Kettula with 13 goals. His II.1 Hennes United host III.15's FC Minot tonight.

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by 11-23-2013

(20:17) Too Close to Call!

While teams aren't quite as clustered as they were earlier in the season, nothing is decided in III.5, the #1 team could realistically finish as low as 5 while the #7 team still isn't mathematically eliminated from winning the series.

Those aforementioned teams, the league leading Hippos stole a 3-0 win on the road from the #7 Valencia United FC last Sunday, giving them 22 points on the season.

This week, the team needs a packed house of crazy fans as they take on the 2nd place Zurich Zebras, only 1 point behind Houston. Then, in week 13, a road match at #4 AS Laguna, a team only 3 points behind the Hippos. A win both weeks will make the week 14 walkover against Spocker a victory lap but anything less will result in a very nervous game at the Hippo Hut.

Meanwhile, on the small pitch, the #1 Hungry Hungry Hippos visit #2 Luckies Lounge for the last match of the season. A win or draw secures the youth squad its second straight series win after a 5 year drought.

Originally Posted by 11-30-2013

(18:03) Hungry Hungry Hippos are Back To Back!

At Luckies Lounge, a couple of minutes before halftime, Hippo youth parents were starting to get discouraged as the team was down 4-2. But, like (really slow) lightning (five minutes apart), Gregorio Escobar struck in the 42 and 47th minutes to tie the game and the Hippos scored 4 unanswered goals to win their second consecutive USA Juniors title.

Of course, everyone remembers last year's victory, but what about the team's history? The last time the team won a series was in 2008, when they won Major League Soccer Juniors in its second season. That series would eventually change its name to USA Juniors which they just won in seasons 26 and 27. The team actually enjoyed much success in their early days, winning two other leagues in 2008: RED MAD DOGS and USA Cup Battlers.

The players from these two teams will graduate in the coming season, if they haven't already. The Hippos will need to begin building their next winning youth team.

Originally Posted by 12-6-2013

(21:19) Coach Gilceu Bianco named to Hippo Hall of Heroes

The longest tenured coach in Hippos History takes his place alongside the greats in the Hippo Hall of Heroes. Gilceu Bianco's 7 seasons as coach may never be eclipsed and he presided over the franchise's longest stretch in Division II.

Bianco was bought from Bulgarian club Dimchevo1 for over $150K despite no real football talent. He apprenticed under Honorary HHH member Adir Weissglass and replaced Adir after his unexpected retirement at the end of season 45, the autopromotion back into II.

In the five seasons in II.3, Houston was 25-32-13 for 4th, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th. A controversial decision at the time, he was brought back, and the team went 19-7-2 in two 2nd place finishes in III.5 but was force to retire after a horrible +9 injury. He was 41-7 in the Cup with a 9th round finish in season 47.

Gilceu's #95 will be retired Sunday at the final home game of the season against Spocker.

Next up: Closing out the season and an new Honorary HHH member to start next season

Originally Posted by 12-11-2013

(15:23) Edelmann Captures Cup Scoring Title; Hippos Not Quite Enough This Season

While season 53 was a good season, it left the Hippos one victory short in both the cup and series.

In III.5, the team finished 2nd for the third season in a row, this time coming up 2 points shy of series winner Zurich Zebras. For only the second time in franchise history, the team made the round of 16 but lost, denying the team the "advance from round 10 in the cup" achievement.

Management is not disappointed and was careful to point out that it was a good season. However, the team is hungry and wanting more so they will be reaching into the $10M war chest to improve the team on the field. New wingers have already been brought in and the team is looking to get younger and better on the midfield and at forward.

One thing that did not come up short: After finishing 1 goal shy last season, Damian Edelmann claimed the USA Cup scoring title with 16 goals! It's been one heck of a run with a 2nd place 17 goal finish last season and a 1st place 16 goal finish this season.

Originally Posted by 12-15-2013

Ricky Braden (7583297), Long Overdue Honorary HHH Member!

The honor is a long time coming as #25 Ricky Braden has been honorarily retired into the Hippo Hall of Heroes. He guided the Hippos in their most formative years from seasons 18 until 22 as a great Div V coach and leading them into IV before they had the players to play there.

He was a solid/weak coach back from the days when you had to "redraw" and at his hiring was noted: "he has led to many an FOFC'ers "I hate you" for the pure dumb luck of being drawn after only two firings".

He was a ruthless disciplinarian who did a lot of stamina training in the early days but his players loved that he took part in it himself. He was known for his mean streak, installing fiery Mick Starks as team captain. Finally, he was a teacher whose sole focus on training rather than winning friendlies in the early days helped mold many future Hippo greats.

S18 V.62 4th 8-2-0 in partial season
S19 V.62 1st 13-1-0
S20 IV.21 4th 7-6-1
S21 IV.21 5th 6-7-1
S22 IV.21 2nd 8-4-0
Cup Rounds: 5, 3, 4, 4

Originally Posted by 12-15-2013

(19:39) Hippo Hall of Heroes Roster (Early Season 54 Edition)

Below is the list of current and future Hippo Hall of Hero Members

Current HHH Members (19 + 7 Honorary)
#01 S43 Tim Kimber
#03 S42 Quintin Staples (28383532), Hnr
#05 S52 Birger Manholt
#09 S50 Carlos Thacker
#10 S49 Juan Alberto Quijada
#11 S47 Charlie Partridge
#12 S45 Donald Sidorczak
#13 S33 Mick Starks
#15 S41 Carlos Alberto Benito
#14 S51 John King
#17 S44 Erwin Vickers
#18 S42 Thomas Little
#19 S40 Allan Brik
#22 S33 Edwin Phelan
#25 S54 Ricky Braden (7583297), Hnr
#27 S48 Volfs Treibahs
#31 S38 Vaikhan Satyanarayana
#41 S49 Koos Teepen (8057500), Hnr
#44 S46 Tomas Ovesson
#48 S49 Kris Jacobsen (46500559), Hnr
#72 S49 Marcin Tetkowski (48395749), Hnr
#83 S42 Sergio Chapin (23361083), Hnr
#95 S53 Gilceu Bianco
#96 S46 Adir Weissglass (118357573), Hnr
#97 S39 Xacobo Armengol
#99 S30 José María Miquel

Upcoming Candidates
#20 S54 Juan Carlos Carreño
#40 S55 Stephen Williams
#21 S56 Giancarlo Schalks
#54 S57 Roberto De Bacco
#38 S58 Yohan Coupard

There are two more PAs slated to come out this offseason. One will be about the roster moves and the other about coaching stats through Hippos history as we have recently retired 2 more coaches to the HHH. Then it's onto next season.

Also, I started a second team in Angola with my year of Platinum supporter. I may update that in this thread, too, as I have picked up some achievements from that team and have had some fun playing with them. I have picked up 5 of the 7 achievements I was aiming for and am on track for the other 2. And I've done a lot of buying and selling so it will be an empty cupboard team when it's all said and done and I've always wanted to try that. We'll see which way I go- I think I'm only going to keep the team for a year and I'm still kicking around what I want to do with it.

SI

[sterlingice]

Here are the aforementioned Luanda Leopards PAs for the first season. We picked up the first 6 achievements I was hoping to get. Next, I need to start building the team for the future.

Originally Posted by 11-15-2013

(19:39) Welcome to the Neighborhood!

The Luanda Leopards begin their first season sluggishly. Unfortunately, for the fans and those in III.3, it will be hard to predict what will come from the team week-to-week.

There will be a lot of comings and goings on the game as the first item on the agenda will be to collect some of the more oddball achievements in the game.

Soon you will see squads that are Nice, Honest, Nasty, Dishonest and Youthful. Lastly, in Spring or summer of next year, the youth academy should have produced an Academy squad. All this games will net a total of 165 achievement points. And to keep fans interested in the games and the players cycling through the team, there will be a promotion with each game.

This week, the team will field a veteran squad for this week's game with G.D.CACUACO. Any fan over 35 years old gets in for half price! After the game, stick around for fireworks celebrating Angolan Independence, as the club was founded on November 11th!

Go Leopards!

Originally Posted by 11-23-2013

(19:26) Nice Guys Finish First!

While the Luanda Leopards are mathematically eliminated from finishing first in their inaugural season, nice guys still can!

The franchise notched their first win Sunday, a 9-1 victory over bot G.D.CACUACO. It happened with a veteran lineup, players over 35 years old. Meanwhile, the club moves onto their next achievements. Next up are "Nice Squad" and "Youthful Lineup" followed by Honest, Nasty, and Dishonest.

Luanda is hosting a pair of VIPs at "The Spot", as the fans have taken to calling the Luanda Lyceum. In the interesting of being nice, every season ticket holder received a second free ticket to last week's and this week's Div I matchups. Last week, the Leopards hosted Club Sport EMELEC from Campeonato Ecuatoriano in Ecuador. Next week, we will host the Scarlet Devils from India's I-League.

Originally Posted by 12-1-2013

(16:55) Honesty is Appreciated!

Continuing theme weeks for the Luanda Leopards, this week will be "honest week". The squad's average honesty was "righteous" and it showed in this week's 7-0 loss to Urskoven Angola as the team received no cards.

Fans can play along at this week's friendly against Pop Stars from Guatemala's Liga del Quetzal. The first 2000 fans will receive giant foam yellow cards to help the refs know when the other team's players are not playing honestly.

Next week for the team and the promotions department: youthful. Look for an announcement ahead of next week's season finale against White Stroke FC at The Luanda Lyceum.

Next season will bring "Nasty" and "Dishonest". However, these will take a little longer than the past few which have come weekly. There will be some training and selling first during the offseason and upcoming season as the youthful achievement brought in some highly trainable 17 year olds and it would be foolish to squander this opportunity.

Originally Posted by 12-8-2013

(00:32) Leopards Finish 5th as Youth is Served

The Leopards lost their final home game of the season, 6-0 to White Stroke FC and finished in 5th place. The fans, however, seem to be enjoying themselves as supporters continue to sign up in droves.

A franchise best 7896 attended the home finale. Though the crowd might have been helped by the new promotion. While at the inaugural home game against G.D.CACUACO, anyone 35 or older got in for half price. This time, the promotions department wants to top that. So, for the season finale against White Stroke FC, anyone under 17 got in free with a paying adult!

This commemorates their "youthful lineup" achievement from a couple of weeks ago against the I-League Scarlet Devils, a game wherein all starters were 17. Some have left the team and others have stuck around for the next achievement "Nasty Squad", which should be next week. "Dishonest" will be after that before finally "Academy lineup. However, the team has mixed in some training to go along with the achievement chasing.

Originally Posted by 12-12-2013

(15:07) Luanda Leopards Have a Nasty Streak

The offseason can be a nasty time for football fans. Matches are few and far between and exciting series rivalries go on hiatus. With the final sale of some of those nice players, the Leopards should record the Nasty Team achievement at the end of the week.

As this is such a nasty time of year, for the offseason friendlies, any fan gets in for half price. This week, the Leopards will host A.C Falcons from Malta's Kampjonat Premier. The team hopes to host another Div I team next week before Cup play starts up the following week.

For achievements, this leaves just the dishonest and then academy lineup. As previously stated, it might take a little longer to get to dishonest as some of the recently purchased 17 year olds are very trainable. Management has mentioned something about "not running a charity" which we took to mean that they want to skill them up to make some extra cash for the team so that it is better for next season.

SI

[sterlingice]

Hopefully, Part III of my HT Press Article will be published soon to the USA forums as I submitted it yesterday. Parts I and II were from last year and it's a 3 part series about the Hattrick Hall of Fame.

Originally Posted by article

The Hattrick Hall of Fame, Part 3: Where Do We Go?
Submitted: 02-16-2014


In the first entry we looked at the past and in the second, the present. In the final part of this three part series, we look toward the future, asking two questions. For your own team: What kind of team planning do you need to do? And for Hattrick: what are some changes which could make this feature even better?

For those who missed the first two articles

[articleid=16885] The Hattrick Hall of Fame, Part 1: Who To Add - Possible Hall of Fame candidates from your team as well as various buying and selling paths your players can follow

[articleid=16988] The Hattrick Hall of Fame, Part 2: What to Write - Ways to make the most use out of the current Hattrick Hall of Fame




First, let's look at the official rules for the Hall of Fame and plan around them. These are not in the manual but instead can be found on your Hall of Fame page under the link "Hall of Fame rules"

Official Rules:
These are the rules that apply when retiring a player to the Hall of Fame:
* You can only retire one player every 12 hours.
* Up to 3 slots are "free". After you have filled these slots, you have to wait each time for 16 weeks (one season) before you can retire another player to the hall of fame.
* The player (or coach) must have been in your team for the last 3 seasons (48 weeks).
* The player may not be your current trainer, on the transfer list or on a national team.
* Players in the Hall of Fame cannot be sold or play in any matches.

Aside from what we talked about in Part 2, there are 2 major "planning" challenges with the Hall of Fame.

The first is plotting out when to retire your players. If you have platinum supporter, you can just skim the next paragraph or two as the "wait 16 weeks" provision is waived. You still have to wait 12 hours between players but you could add an entire team of 11 players, 3 years’ worth otherwise, in a week, provided they meet the other criteria such as being on the team for at least 3 seasons and not on the national team.

For gold supporters, you can only do one per season and there's no catching up so planning is required. Also, I retired a majority of my non-coach players between 39 and 41. However, with the aging curve getting steeper, I expect the range to be closer to 35-40. With those ages in mind, think about the future of your team and plot out which players to sell, which to keep for the Hall of Fame.

For expensive players, you'll be able to get significant money and you may have to make the hard choice between selling a player to improve the team or keeping them for sentimentality. For players you elect to keep, you don't want to retire a player too soon, while he is still useful, even if it's only for early cup rounds or friendlies to avoid injury to your starters. However, you don't want to be wasting wages either.

When you come up with your list, create a Hall of Fame section on Notes. Then, each season, revisit it to see if it needs to be revised.

The other major planning challenge is how to spread out your team’s accomplishments across the Hall of Fame to tell the story of your franchise. This is a bit more abstract but makes for a richer experience.

In Part 2, we listed a number of items to include with a player entry such as picking major games in your franchise's history and assigning to players. Spread those important games and seasons out.

Maybe there's not a particularly notable game for a player. Pick an important game from a team's season they promoted or deepest cup run where they had a goal or important save and make the entry as much about the team as the player. This may not glorify the player as much but it tells a richer story about your team.

In your Hall of Fame section in Notes, add a note or two about these best games and achievements so you don't have too much overlap and so that you can ensure all of your team's highlights are covered.

=====

Finally, there's the question of "How can we make this better?" The Hall of Fame has been static since its inception. Below are five suggestions to make this feature even better.

(1. Better Slotting)

For Gold supporter, make Hall of Fame slots like supporter or federation slots. You get 1 per season but don't have to use them all at once. Conceptually, you may not want to retire a player every year. However, maybe at the end of three years, you could retire your complement of 3 middie teammates into the HOF at once. Just like adding a supporter or federation slot, there should be a calendar on the HOF with the "next time you can retire a player". The database keeps track of it so just make that hidden field visible to owners. As it is now, the "easiest" way to figure out when you will have another Hall of Fame slot is to either search through your HOF and find your last added player, counting 112 days and make a reminder. Either way, this should be an automatic mechanism rather than requiring manual steps.

(2. "Former Player - Now in Hall of Fame")

On the Players page, we have links to "Raised in this team" and "Raised here- now coaches". It would be great to have a link either there or, ideally, on the Hall of Fame page that says "Raised here- now in Hall of Fame". As it is, when your players get promoted to Halls of Fame, they are no longer visible, as is the case with [playerid=59349947]. I found him when searching through my transfer history- so those players still exist in the system unlike when they get changed to "(Fired player)". Former teams are tracked in the HOF entry so this information is still available somewhere in the database.

While this may be more difficult to implement, ideally, if they are in a Hall of Fame, the highest honor in the game short of being on a national team, we would not only be able to see players originating on our team but also a category of "Former Player - now in Hall of Fame", documenting any player who used to be on your team and is now retired into a Hall of Fame. For the Hippos, this would include a player like [playerid=8057500]. Even if a players was just a trainee or youth pull for you, it's fun to see the value they had to another franchise.

(3. More Statistics)

While this suggestion may apply to all players, I think it's especially important with retired and Hall of Fame players. We need much more robust statistics! I'd love to see something like a baseball card-level of statistics, especially for these players who were good enough to retire into the Hall of Fame. There would be a link on their Hall of Fame page under "More Info" to a "Statistics" page just like “Memorable Moments” and “Transfer History”.

For coaches, there should be a special "coaching" statistics page which is a year-by-year breakdown of how the team did while that player was coach. It should have a link to the series historical standing, win-loss-draw record, cup week, and any medals won for each season as well as career totals. These statistics are kept for teams and the start and end dates of a coach's tenure are kept as Memorable Moments so this should be available. Coaches would also have the same statistics for their playing days as any other player.

For keepers, they should also have a win-loss-draw statistic. To keep it simple, tally the record based on a set criteria: either for every game they played no matter how many minutes. Or create some sort of statistic where only one player gets a W-L-D for the game, based on whichever player played the most minutes and, in the event of a tie (i.e. 45/45) the player who was in the game first gets credit. Keepers should also get credit for clean sheets. Also, we should see a statistic for "save percentage" (i.e. one minus the number of goals divided by the number of chances) and goals allowed.

For everyone else, goals and cards are good. Special event goals and assists would be an added bonus. For all of these tallies, they should be broken down by type of game like fixture, cup, and friendly. We should have tallies of each and even include exhibitions like tournaments or ladder matches on separate tabs, also broken down by year and game type. These should all be broken down year by year and look something like the back of an old baseball card that's online sortable so you can lose yourself in looking up old things about a player. To go above and beyond, each year could be broken up into a game-by-game tally with links to a game to go back and look. How about including training level history?

In short, there is a lot that can be done on the statistical front to make things much more immersive but, of course, this needs to be balanced with game speed and database size. It just feels like there are very few statistics in the game and there are a lot of opportunities to improve.

(4. Honorary Hall of Fame Members)

This one is probably the most pie pie-in-the-sky. As we mentioned in part 2, I've been fortunate to have a couple of my older players such as Benito [playerid=7555476] and Ovesson [playerid=35470436] put back out on the market after they were 35 just for an HOF buyback. However, you have to wait at least 4 seasons to retire them as Hattrick sometimes does not register that they were on your team previously. I even regret that I couldn't buy a few of my players back before teams went defunct. Which leads me to the idea of "Honorary HOF Members".

For the Hippopotami, I have tried to execute this idea but it is limited to press announcements as there is no official mechanism. These press announcements serve as a player's Hall of Fame entry and give you those 1000 characters to talk about the player and tell his story. With a little bit of outside work, I can keep carrying this through in other Hall of Fame PAs (like to a HOF list). However, there is no official mechanism to keep track of this.

A rough sketch of what that mechanism could look like demonstrates the feasibility issues, however. One possibility would be the ability to recover dead players, especially those on teams which have gone defunct. Another would be to honor players who have gone into the Hall of Fame on other teams or honor players on other teams who have been away from your team for 4 seasons but are not retired or in another team's Hall of Fame.

This mechanism would also take away the necessity to buy back former players if they were being given their due by another team. Alternatively, it keeps you from having to choose between the financial well-being of your team or sentimentality.

(5. National Hall of Fame)

When I surveyed the USA Forum about this topic, the most popular suggestion, by far, was to have a National Hall of Fame. Just like national coaches, players could be nominated and voted into the National Hall of Fame. It should be fairly easy to implement as the mechanics for elections are already in place. As it is more of an honor, it could even happen outside of the game mechanic and only active players could be nominated for the Hall of Fame. Or, to help promote the use of the Hall of Fame mechanic, players may only be nominated for the national Hall of Fame if they are in a team's Hall of Fame. Set up some base criteria such as a player must have played at least 10 seasons, require the player to have played for the U20 and/or national team (or not, as this might be too restrictive), be born in the nation for the Hall of Fame, and then let the team owners take it from there with nominations and voting. Each player's owner can put in a description just like a campaign speech and the leading vote getter each year is added to the National Hall of Fame. In fact, since there are so many players in a country, let the top 3 or 5 vote getters in per year. We'd get to learn about all sorts of players, known and unsung, and the best would be honored.

=====

In the first half of this article, we touched on planning so you don't waste your slots and use this feature to better tell your team's story. For the second half, I suggested five Hall of Fame improvements including better slotting, "Former Player - Now Hall of Fame", more robust statistics, honorary Hall of Fame members, and a National Hall of Fame.

It's been a joy to write this series, long as it has taken. I really enjoy the Hall of Fame feature as it helps with game immersion and can be made even better with a few changes.

Finally, I'd like to leave all the readers with a challenge: I could not find any other large HOFs with at least 10 players fully written up. If you know of any, please add them in the comments or in the forum thread so we can see what ideas others have to make all of our Halls of Fame better.

SI

[sterlingice]

Splitting up the Houston and Luanda PAs for the season so if you get a little whiplash reading, check which team it's about

Also, I still enjoy a lot of the mundane stuff in HT like running the team and cranking out PAs but it's such a big time sink. With Supporter at the crazy prices it's at, I'm probably checking out for good when my supporter runs out in about 6 months ($90 for gold, $110 for plat!). Silver or free just aren't worth it to me when I use a ton of the other features (flag collection, Hall of Fame, bookmarks, tournaments) and I'm even enjoying my second little team in Angola.

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by 12-24-2013

(03:57) The Leopards Want You to be Dishonest, Honest The Leopards have picked up the sixth of their initial achievements: Dishonest Squad. For Luanda's season opener against Red Dragonflight, any fan fibbing will receive terrace seating at a discounted rate.

As an added bonus, the team's promotions department will be reprising the promotion from Honesty week. All fans at the game will receive foam yellow cards to assist the referees in avoiding dishonesty.

Later on this season, the Leopards hope to have an Academy lineup. However, that will not happen until some of the Little Leopards graduate to from the youth squad to the big team. This will move the achievement points of GM SterlingIce past the 600 mark to 604.

The first chapter of the team comes to a close as they move past the achievement and promotion phase. Next up, the team will begin building towards the future, bringing in trainees and some better players at non-training positions. There will be a lot of player movement over the next few weeks as the team transitions.

Originally Posted by 1-7-2014

(19:53) Leopards Getting Down to Business
The achievement dust has mostly settled and the Leopards are now starting to train for real. About $250K has left the team coffers and many players have joined the squad.

The big spend was on new Serbian solid keeper Damir Krmpotic who is both young and very good at set pieces. Like backup keeper Wilbert Bohnsack, forwards Terence Luyckx and Glyn Shields are both future coaches, while forward Mathieu Verhelst was very inexpensive for his skill level. The team has also toyed with finding a TDF.

Wingback Andre Grater is pretty good at set pieces and a head specialist. And the team is still searching for another defender who is good at set pieces and a future coach.

The team is still young and not very good but they delivered an unexpected win in week 1. We'll cover the new trainees next PA but that's it for everyone 19 and older.

Finally, for any last minute shoppers, we are still selling a trio of "infamous" players for $0 for any team looking to get that achievement.

Originally Posted by 1-17-2014

(16:54) Training Wheels
Luanda's training program is starting to hit its stride. A trio of 18yo middies bumped to solid playmaking to compliment their solid passing in Edoardo Putzu, Maurice Heer, and Yazid Fikri. Two of them are out testing the market but the team has said they'd be very happy to keep them onboard.

17 year old winger trainee Firouz Afzalian bumped to passable playmaking to compliment his passable winger skills. Similarly, 18yo Carlos Macías bumped to passable playmaking to compliment his solid passing and inadequate winger skills. Both fan favorites, with their workman-like attitudes and $1000 transfer price, will move to primary friendly training slots.

Lastly, when 20yo wingback Ivan Varziev was told he improved, his response was "I did?"

Hopefully the Leopards can pick up their second win on the season as they reach a little softer part of their schedule. Three teams in III.3 are 3-0 while the others all have 0 or 1 win and Luanda faces 3 straight of the "lower tier".

Originally Posted by 2-12-2014

(20:22) Leopards Limping But Providing Respectable Showing
At the halfway point of the season, Luanda is in 4th place in III.3. Sunday's 8-0 loss to 3rd place White Stroke FC snapped a 3 game winning streak and reminded the Leopards they have a long way to go to break into the top 3 of the series.

Meanwhile, a rash of injuries has exposed the lack of depth on the team with injuries to forwards Glyn Shields and Terence Luyckx causing middies to be played out of position at forward. However, that depth is now being challenged as middies Raz Ravid and Amílcar Uribe are also now injured.

The team has shifted a focus with trainees to secondary skills as the five most recent trainee acquisitions have had excellent or better passing. This past week's game has made the front office consider spending some of their considerable cash reserves on better forwards and defenders. However, the financiers are less optimistic the clubs finances can support the wages just yet. The supporter numbers continue to swell but are not where they need to be yet.

Originally Posted by 3-5-2014

(18:59) Youth Squad Begins to Bear Fruit
When Martinho Maia Santos first laid eyes on The Luanda Lyceum, he was a dreamy-eyed wee lad of 16. Now he will get a chance to play there as he is the first youth pull in Luanda Leopards history.

Over the next couple of months, at least 10 more players for the Leopards youth squad will join Martinho as the team attempts to get an Academy lineup. The entire team should be in place around the second week in May.

With 4 games left in the regular season, Luanda is in 4th with 18 points. They have 2 more games against the top half of the series and 2 more against the bottom half so management is cautiously optimistic for a top half finish and some needed prize money.

Training is also going well with Yazid Fikri leading the way with excellent playmaking. 7 other midfielders have solid playmaking and there are two more with lower playmaking but much higher passing.

The future continues to look bright at the team builds for the future!

Originally Posted by 4-9-2014

(19:49) Luanda Finishes Fourth in First Full Season
In their first full season, the Luanda Leopards finished fourth in III.3. The series doesn't get any easier with Magic Dragonz promoting and Inter Acacias demoting. But the Leopards are hoping to leap ever higher in the series.

Supporters now number nearly 1000 with an average of 40 joining the ranks per week. By the end of the season, the coffers contained nearly $2M and team management wanted to give by with some new players on the field.

The team will say goodbye to strikers Manuel Dreyfus and Glyn Shields as well as defenders Vidin Zhelev and André Gräter. All were part of the scrappy "Millennium Club", players bought for $1K (or slightly more) so that the bulk of the team's finances could be put into the future and trainees.

The first of those higher level trainees was sold as Casper Van Hecken fetched over $300K on the market. Joining the team and expected to start next year are defender Sebastian Schildknegt and forwards Guido Hernán Orellana and László Vizi.

Originally Posted by 4-15-2014

(19:21) Luanda's Offseason Notes
The early seasons of a franchise all seem very transitional and it is the same for the Leopards. After the last PA, Yazid Fikri was sold, adding more cash. However, management has again stressed a desire to see how the team performs before making any more big moves.

On the training front, Uribe (20.10 exc pass), Viisteensaari (19.42 exc pass), and Di Carlofelice (20.43 form pass) already have excellent playmaking. Meanwhile, Fekete (sub), Afzalian (pass wing), Sciuti (19.73 form pass), Ravid (20.10 out pass), and Nikodemski (21.50 bril pass) are all up to solid playmaking. Progress is swift with these eager beavers!

The team should reach the 11 players required to get the Youth Academy lineup. There are already 6 players on the team from the squad and Vale should join this week. Teixeira, Rocha, Godinho, and Lopes will join in the following weeks.

Lastly, a cosmetic change will be coming with numbers and a numbering system being added to the Luanda jerseys. More to come!

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by 12-24-2013

(02:56) Roster Reconstruction Rehash
The front office has kept busy this offseason, rebuilding a roster for the future that is younger and better. This PA is more of a list as there are so many changes.

As team philosophies continue to evolve, wingers #58 Marci Stefaniuk (26) and #52 Augustin Obereisenbuchner (26) are out, replaced by #50 Cosimo Masnadiero (24) and #52 Tobiasz Kosma (23).

Strikers Yisgav Mendelboim (31, sub) and #36 Evgeny Patrov (28) are gone, replaced by #33 Fabrizio Santoriello (23).

Longtime middie ### Mathieu Richard (30) is also gone and #43 Stefano Fuscioni (28) could be on his way out. #49 Ivan Holka (24) has joined the team and they are actively seeking a high quality American middie.

Defense Trainees Douglas Vandekerckhove, #74 Cédric Léonard, and hopefully #61 Farbod Chaman Khah (26) are sold while wingback trainee #63 Tobias Fredriksson has joined the team.

Performance will probably go down this season as players adjust to the new team but it should be go up by next season.

Originally Posted by 1-2-2014

(20:00) Edelmann At It Again!
We at the Houston PA department should not be surprised but we have been by yet another extraordinary performance in the USA Cup by Damian Edelmann. After finishing 2nd in season 52 with 17 goals, last year's Cup scoring champion (16 goals) is looking repeat.

Though 2 games, Edelmann is tied with 7 other players at 9 goals, 1 behind leader Tommy Stapleton of III.8's Chimeres USA. He is ahead of his "usual" pace as he had 8 goals after 2 games the previous pair of seasons.

Damian put up 4 goals in the 8-0 Cup opener against bspslow and added 5 more in the week 2 tilt against the New York Wolves. He must like minutes 65 to 72 as 6 of his goals have been scored at that time.

Next week will pose a stiffer challenge with the non-bot Footballers hosting the Hippos. The Hippos are onto the elimination round in the Totti's Champions League tournament after a 3-0 record in group play. And they could have used some of those goals in the 5-1 series season opening loss to PitRules88.

Originally Posted by 1-17-2014

(15:54) Early Season Mixed Bag
Like the timeless classic western, we're going to break down the early season into three categories

The Good
In the Totti's Champions League tournament, the Hippos will be playing Man City for the title this coming week. They had a dramatic win against LaSquadraAzzurra to end group play and have won 2 games in the elimination round to reach the finals.

The Meh
The Hippos have started with 4 wins in the cup. After a blistering first two games, the team has only scored 3 in each of the last two games. With only 1 goal Edelmann has fallen off the leaderboard. But the defense has yet to allow a goal. CSKA NY provides a stiff challenge this week.

The Ugly
The season series has started rough with an 0-3 record including a home loss and being beaten in stars every game, meaning there's a talent gap. The newcomers are taking more time to adjust but the silver lining is newcomer Fabrizio Santoriello has a goal in each of the first three games.

Originally Posted by 2-12-2014

(19:51) Hippos Halfway Home
The Hippos PA team would like to apologize for their early season hiatus and remind you that they will be taking a midseason hiatus as SterlingIce goes on vacation in a couple of weeks.

After a bumpy 0-3 series start, Houston has a modest 4 game undefeated streak which finds them in 3rd. However, the difference between 3rd and relegation is a scant 3 points so the Hippos need to keep winning. Meanwhile, the stay in III.5 for II relegee PitRules88 looks looks to be short as they are above the auto-promotion line.

Houston fell 2-1 to CSKA NY in an HTRF special in round 5 of the USA Cup. It was only the 6th time in the last 29 seasons they have not made it past round 5. Damian Edelmann finished with 9 goals and will not be in the Top 10. But over the past 3 seasons, he has 43 goals!

Over the next couple of weeks, we'll talk about some new faces around the clubhouse and a New Hippo Hall of Heroes member. We might even start on a series about coaches through Hippo history.

Originally Posted by 2-14-2014

(15:17) Perpetually Prolonging Player Pipelines
With the retirements of Gilceu Bianco and Juan Carlos Carreno and coaching duties of Yohan Coupard, the team needed some new reserves and future coaches. These moves also came on the heels of Giuseppe Oppes taking over for Birger Manholt late in season 52

First, #59 Arvo Talv a versatile and quick winger has joined the team, giving them a consistent backup in the event of any wing injuries. Also, like all subs, he spells the starters so they do not have to risk injury in friendlies or some easier cup matches.

Middie #46 Vladimir Makedonski and forward #35 Peter Gellen join the team as potential future coaches, both in their mid 20s and both with solid leadership abilities. Coach Coupard has a good few years to play and Oppes is his heir apparent. They will be next.

Finally, wingback #79 Baldassarre Bottone has also come onboard as a trainee with #81 Tico Holtman ready to move on soon. Raunkjær will also be gone soon enough so refilling the trainee pipeline was imperative.

Originally Posted by 2-16-2014

(19:48) "Bad Luck Charm" Carreno Becomes Third Winger in HHH (20th Overall)
Juan Carlos Carreño has an odd reputation, becoming a cult hero after it was leaked that the talented winger was known as "Bad Luck Charm" in the locker room.

His world class playmaking and magnificent winger skills arrived at the hefty price of $5M back in season 40 and his talent was undeniable.

However, in his first match, Houston lost 5-0 and only made it to round 4 of the Cup that season. In season 41, despite his 4 game series scoring streak, he is most remembered for scoring the last goal for the team in the cup that season, a 4-2 loss.

From there, his "legend" grew as his "Man of the Match" games only seemed to come in losing efforts. For instance, he scored the only goal in a loss against HT celebrity and longtime FOFCer TP6 (360958337). Or that his highest ever recording rating was in a 5th round cupset (377543152).

His #20 will be retired at halftime next week against Club Atletico de Futbol Saavedra so it can never curse the team again.

Originally Posted by 3-5-2014

(20:04) Up From the Farm Project
With backup keeper Giuseppe Oppes out with an injury, the Hippos have turned to their youth squad and picked up Rosendo Gaona to fill the void for the next couple of games. With some of the wage cost cutting going on, the team has found themselves a little thin for substitutions so expect some farm prospects to get some time with the big league club. Coach Yohan Coupard: "It's great to give the kids a chance to play with the big club before they move on."

The Hippos are barely holding onto 3rd in III.5 after a painful loss last week at the feet of the 4th place Intercourse Ball Kickers. PitRules88 and LA Crush are the clearly established top teams while 3rd through 8th is separated by 9 points with 4 to play. The schedule does Houston no favors with a visit to 5th place Sutra next week.

Lastly, the Hippos are in the championship match of the Totti's Champions League for the 2nd straight season. We'll have more coverage on that next week, win or lose.

Originally Posted by 3-13-2014

(18:29) Hippos Repeat at Totti's Champions League, Part I
We have a new first as the Hippos win back-to-back tournaments for the first time in franchise history.

Organized by Totti010, the tournament boasts 16 international teams including many from top III divisions. Houston has gone undefeated both times.

Group play was brutal this time with the Hippos winning their 3 games by a combined 4 goals. Only through new AIW and CA tactics was the team able to survive.

In the elimination round, Houston defeated Akagami Kaizokudan, host team LaSquadraAzzurra, and DODO F.C. for the title.

As he often is in the cup, Damian Edelmann was the star, scoring in all but one game. He took home the scoring title with 8 goals in the tournament. With that feat, he has the unique hat trick of being the top scorer in USA Cup, his series, and a tournament. It is unknown if any other player in all of hattrick can claim that feat.

If you missed the first Totti's Champions League, be sure to check out Part II of the writeup.

Originally Posted by 3-13-2014

(18:29) Hippos Repeat at Totti's Champions League, Part II
For those who forgot, here's a flashback to the Hippos first Totti's Champions League title.

5 seemed to be the team's lucky number. In group play, the Hippos won 5-2, 5-0, and 5-4. In the third game, host LaSquadraAzzurra had leads of 2-0, 3-2, 4-3 but Santoriello scored at 79' to tie and Holtman at 81' to win.

In the quarterfinals, Przylecki, who finished the tournament tied for 3rd with 5 goals, extended his goal scoring streak to 3 games in a 4-0 win against Cup II group member Spencer Eleven.

Houston would have a 5 chance advantage in the semifinals against gousgounis but only win 2-0 with Edelmann, who also got 5 goals in the tournament, and Holtman providing the margin.

In the final, Mielikainen stopped three shots and Przylecki scored the only goal of the game to notch win number 6 and a complete sweep of tournament games.

The Hippos tournament trophy case now numbers 7 after adding these two. We hope they invite us back to defend our crown.

Originally Posted by 4-6-2014

(18:59) Hippos "Refresh" Continues
The second part of the Hippos "refresh" is underway after a disappointing 3rd place finish. 23yo keeper Fatih Güniz has been brought in and 27yo Miika Mielikäinen has asked and been granted a transfer. Miika has been gracious throughout the process, saying "it's just business" and even giving his #7 jersey to Fatih and wishing him well.

Wingback trainees Tico Holtman (sortof trainee as he's 27) and Egil Raunkjær have moved on and will be replaced once the cup run is over. Middie #45 Dušan Poddaný is on the market and the Hippos have been searching for a replacement. Last season, the Hippos brought in wingers Masnadiero and Kosma, striker Santoriello, and middie Scroggins joined the team.

All eyes are now on extremely popular star forward Damian Edelmann as, at 29, he is the only starter on the depth chart currently older than 25. Even he may not be immune to the changes swirling around the Hippodrome. There are rumors that he may retire rather than go elsewhere.

Originally Posted by 4-15-2014

(19:44) Santoriello III.5's Leading Scorer, Part I; Other Offseason Notes
For now the changes to the team are complete with Mielikainen and Poddany indeed leaving and new middie #56 Anno Schelling and striker #26 Ab van den Nieuwendijk joining the team along with the aforementioned Guniz and Scroggins. Aging star forward Damian Edelmann is on the team but his role this season and going forward is to be determined.

The Hippos continue to bang their head against the Houston ladder with often comical results. We thank MrHands for his understanding and patience.

A major accomplishment that has gone unmentioned so far this busy offseason was that Fabrizio Santoriello led III.5 last season with 10 goals. It is the 10th season a Hippo has led a series in goals and 3rd in the last 4 in III.5. Check out part II of this PA for more Hippos double digit goal scoring history.

Here's a 10 season old PA about our legacy at that time that we continue to build on:
http://www.hattrick.org/Club/Announc...ageId=34157971

Originally Posted by 4-15-2014

(19:43) Santoriello III.5's Leading Scorer, Part II
Below contains a list of all double digit series scoring seasons in Houston Hippopotami history. The list contains the season, number of goals, player, rank in series, and series.

S54 10G Fabrizio Santoriello (1st, III.5)
S53 13G Damian Edelmann (1st, III.5)
S53 11G Evgeny Patrov (2nd, III.5)
S52 10G Evgeny Patrov (4th, III.5)
S52 10G Damian Edelmann (5th, III.5)
S51 11G Damian Edelmann (1st, III.5)
S46 15G Joseph Pittesser (1st, II.3)
S44 17G Giancarlo Schalks (1st, III.3)
S43 11G Giancarlo Schalks (1st, III.3)
S43 11G Joseph Pittesser (1st, III.3)
S41 10G Giancarlo Schalks (7th, II.1)
S39 11G Tor Tetlie (5th, III.3)
S38 11G Tor Tetlie (1st, III.3)
S34 12G Kris Jacobsen (4th, III.3)
S32 13G Marcin Tetkowski (3rd, III.3)
S31 10G Kris Jacobsen (4th, III.3)
S27 11G Ingo Kettich (2nd, IV.21)
S23 11G Eric Peiffer (5th, IV.21)
S20 10G Edwin Phelan (4th, IV.21)
S19 15G Edwin Phelan (1st, V.62)
S19 15G Derrick Solomon (1st, V.62)

SI

[sterlingice]

My second team, the Luanda Leopards, keeps creeping up the charts in III.3 Angola. So far, they have finished 5th, 4th, and 3rd. The team reeled off a nice, long winning streak and I finally collected the last of the "team achievements" I set out to with the Leopards. The last PA should give you a good idea of the talent level for the team as that was from this past week.

Originally Posted by 06-01-2014

(17:30) The Luanda Lyceum is Under Construction

Due to overwhelming fan support, it's long past time to upgrade the stadium. 8 of the last 9 home competitive games were sellouts or near sellouts (>11.5K of 12K) and the one that was not saw 9700 fans brave the elements in driving rain.

Fans keep joining up in droves as the team has averaged 35 new supporters per week. At this rate, the team should be near 1500 by season's end.

To accommodate these football hungry fanatics, the team has pledged over $1.2M to more than double the stadium size. The stadium is expanding from 12K to 30K and will boast state-of-the-art amenities.

While it will not be available for the team's next home game against Wisla Namibe, the team hopes to be riding high for their first home game in the upgraded stadium against bot Esperança do Zaire. Currently the team boasts a 4 game winning streak and 5 game undefeated streak, which lands them in 4th in III.3. The week 12 match the following week at PATAS LARGAS ANGOLA will possibly decide 3rd place.

Originally Posted by 06-13-2014

(04:28) Academy Lineup is a Reality
Last Wednesday, in the Luanda Lyceum, in front of a large friendly crowd of 3514, the Leopards achieved a rare feat against Fürstliche Liga team Fortuna Benedurum 08. No, it wasn't for any feat of play as the top shelf Liechtenstein team won 5-1.

No, much more significant was that the entire team was composed entirely of former Little Leopards. Middie Serafim Costa Saraiva scored the only goal of the game for the Leopards but all enjoyed the experience.

Some, like Luís Nobre Cepeda, have been sold to other teams. Others like Duarte Ivo dos Santos, Mário Godinho, and Brás Mira Silva have lived their dream and now gone on to other careers. Others like Agostinho Maria Santos Guilherme will remain with the squad, apprenticing to more senior members of the squad. Other Leopards who played were Salustiano Cunha Teixeira, Martinho Maia Santos, Adolfo Vale, Aurélio Guinote, and Arlindo Rocha.

The team hopes the talent flows through the pipeline and continues to fill the senior squad.

Originally Posted by 07-01-2014

(14:59) Largest Crowd in Luanda History Watches Record Win Streak Hit 8
Even with the threat of rain, a record 25832 fans filled the newly re-opened Luanda Lyceum to watch the Leopards run their win streak to 8 in a 7-0 win against bot Esperança do Zaire. With the renovations complete, the stadium now seats 30000, more than double the previous 12000 capacity. Check out the stadium images to see the new design and fan friendly accommodations.

The team hopes the support will follow them on the road. This week's match at PATAS LARGAS ANGOLA will likely determine 3rd place in III.3 this season, a ranking the team has never achieved before. They are up to 74th in Angola, also a high water mark.

The win streak of 8 is the longest in franchise history and the 11th longest streak in Angola right now. The 9 game undefeated streak is good for 15th. If the team can get the win this week, the streak will all be challenged in a couple of weeks when the team visits Inter Acacias, also owners of an 8 game winning streak, and likely winners of the league.

Originally Posted by 07-06-2014

(17:56) Luanda Wins Rough Battle for Third Place In the most important game in franchise history, the Leopards fought hard to win their 9th in a row. The 10 game undefeated streak will almost certainly end next week but the 5-1 win over PATAS LARGAS ANGOLA may have secured 3rd place for the Leopards this season.

Last week, GM SterlingIce transferred in striker Emanuele Menetti and keeper Juan Malamata. These moves paid instant dividends as Malamata allowed only a 5th minute goal while Menetti tied the game at 1 and then scored the go-ahead goal at 66'.

The game was chippy with Juuso Viisteensaari injuring PATAS LARGAS keeper Artur Brito at 20' and getting sent off. There were 2 more injuries and another card during the game.

The team is now ranked 74th in Angola, an all time high. They have not locked up 3rd yet, however, as they have only a 6 point lead with 2 games to play. Luanda has games against 1st place Inter Acacias and 2nd place White Stroke FC while PATAS LARGAS faces 5th place Athletic lerdos and Inter Acacias.

Originally Posted by 07-28-2014

(19:40) Luanda Leopards Finish Third in Third Full Season
In their 3rd season and 2nd full season, the Leopards continue their slow ascent. When GM sterlingice took over partway through season 24, the team finished in 5th. In season 25, they placed 4th. This season, they finished 3rd, edging out PATAS LARGAS ANGOLA.

Relegee Gindungo dos Kotas could follow in the undefeated footsteps of auto-promotee Inter Acacias last season. However, if Luanda wants to continue up to 2nd next season, they will have to do something they have never done: beat White Stroke FC. In fact, until their most recent match, Luanda had never even scored against them and is on the wrong end of a 24-1 GD across their 5 meetings.

Luanda has also hired locally renowned doctor Marco Assis to deal with the rash of injuries the team has suffered in recent week. Currently 3 players are on the injured list in the offseason, 2 of which were injured in minutes 88' and 89' of Sunday's friendly against aptly named Mad Dogs Valcea.

Onward and upward.

Originally Posted by 08-04-2014

(20:11) Team Continues to Improve, Uribe First Brilliant Trainee
The Leopards just reached another small training milestone: Amílcar Uribe hit brilliant playmaking, the first in franchise history.

Other primary trainees Armando Sciuti, Juuso Viisteensaari, Tristan Nikodemski (he of also brillint passing), and Umberto Di Carlofelice are all outstanding while Raz Ravid should bump soon. Potential wingers and half-trainees Firouz Afzalian, Bertrand Begue, and Tétény Fekete all at formidable playmaking.

Starting strikers Emanuele Menetti and Guido Hernán Orellana have formidable scoring and outstanding passing and fellow striker László Vizi has formidable scoring, as well. Juan Malamata is a formidable keeper with a team high set pieces of world class and starting central defender Sebastian Schildknegt used to be able to boast the only outstanding primary skill with his defense.

Only team captain Amadeusz Zagaja doesn't have a primary skill above excellent but his leadership, defending, playmaking, and set pieces make up for his lower defense.

SI

[sterlingice]

The Hippos, on the other hand, have backslid a bit. After 3 straight 2nd places finishes, they've been 3rd and now 5th. Also, the recent staff change has finally done some pretty substantial damage to the flexibility of our economic model. Other teams won by tactics or taking advantage of a particular loophole. The Hippos were designed to win with cold, hard cash: we would out-earn, out-spend, and then out-talent others. Still, lots of fun stuff happened this season and big changes for the Hippos coming next season. I'll post about those shortly as season 56 is about to get underway (season 37 for the Hippos unless I'm counting wrong).

Originally Posted by 05-09-2014

(20:45) Hippos Start Out Season Undefeated, Denied in Request for Season End Today Hattrick's governing body has declined GM SterlingIce's request to end the season early. His claims that this rare event required special action including a share of 2nd place prize money, a USA Cup win to all 512 teams still in the Cup, and the III.5 scorer title to Ab van den Nieuwendijk (with prize money for the team, of course).

The Hippos have a reputation as a slow starter with this being only the 7th season since the team moved up to III back in season 28 that they have started the season undefeated through 3 games.

Then again, the last time the team started with more than 3 undefeated games, they started 1-0-5 in the maddening tie-filled season 50. But they promptly lost 6 of 7 were demoted from II.3.

Instead, the team reported that Houston fans will have to be content with their 8 game undefeated streak, which ranks as 12th longest in Div III and the 8 game losing streak in Houston ladder matches, which is the longest in that esteemed tournament's history.

Originally Posted by 06-01-2014

(17:01) Not a Familiar Face but a Recognizable Neighborhood
The Hippos will play a rare home USA Cup game this coming week after a thrilling 4-3 win over the Cape Coral Dolphins on Wednesday. Houston held a 3-2 lead most of the 2nd half until Samuel Barros equalized for the Dolphins with just 2 minutes left in regulation. But Ab van den Nieuwendijk scored his second goal of the game 1 minute later to send the Hippos into the next round.

The opponent this week will be FC No Cows Go. They hail from III.3, the longtime home of Houston. Our longtime success in III is a point of pride with ownership as they have played a staggering 210 games with 401 points and a 616 goals scored. All of these were III records for a single series until Clarion Taffurs second run in III.14 as Farmboy now stands at 216 games played, 747 goals for, and 400 points. jimrtex's Mountain Kings has an astounding 308 games, 853 goals scored, and 522 points if you add up his time in III.4 and III.5. These three teams are the most prolific Div III teams in USA history.

Originally Posted by 06-07-2014

(17:22) Cup Win Tarnishes Otherwise Perfect Week
The Hippos found a way to ruin a perfectly bad week on Wednesday, winning 4-2 against FC No Cows Go and advancing to round 9 of the USA Cup. This will be the 6th time in franchise history the team has advanced past round 8. Houston has twice won in round 9 and never advanced out of round 10.

On Sunday, the team was crushed 8-0 by the LA Crush. The team risks a 3 game series losing streak with the return match this Sunday, a disappointing stretch after a 3-1-1 mark to start the season.

Sunday also saw the Hippos lose 4-2 to III.10's The Crop Circles in season 2 of the Columbia Heights Invitational. This disappointing semifinal loss means the Hippos will not be able to defend their season 1 title.

Finally, on Friday, the Hippos collected their unlucky 13th straight Houston ladder match loss to American Dreams. This one was in brutal OT shootout fashion, much like Battle XI. If the Hippos ever make it to the top of the Houston ladder, we will have more PAs about it.

Originally Posted by 06-13-2014

(04:11) Cup Heartbreak Finds Hippos Again
Perhaps the franchise and GM's most coveted attainable goal right now is to make it out of the Cup Round 10, to win a game in the USA Cup's Sweet 16.

Two seasons ago, Houston made it to Round 10 (454011844) only to surrender the equalizer in the 79th minute and lose 4-3 in OT to the Wisconsin Omanis.

This time, in round 9, against former III.3 seriesmate Clarion Taffurs, the Hippos took a 3-1 lead in the 56th minute. However, disaster struck as the team pulled back and A.J. Perez and Buster Hood scored within 2 minutes of each other to tie the game.

Overtime was scoreless and the game went to Penalty kicks. Houston scored on each of their first 4 shots. However, a visibly exhausted Fatih Güniz let by 4 Taffur goals, as well.

In the 5th round, with injured set pieces ace Ryszard Przyłęcki watching from the sidelines, Pat Scroggins missed. However, Clarion's Wayne Richmond scored, sending them on to the next round and sending the Hippo faithful home disappointed.

Originally Posted by 06-23-2014

(20:22) Hippopotami GM Achieves More
You wouldn't know it from their play on the pitch, but the Houston GM has achieved a lot this past year. GM SterlingIce has broken the 600-point achievement barrier and now has registered part of 27 of 30 achievements.

Many gains have been made by the GM's second team in Angola, the Luanda Leopards. Earlier this month they notched the 35 points for an Academy lineup. But the Hippos contributed last year with a 409 hatstat game that was good for the 29 point achievement of "average match rating of magnificent".

SterlingIce's 604 achievement points fall outside the US leaderboard as the 5th place team has 664 points. Of the possible 983 points, many seem out of reach as the GM will not have a team make it to #1, be National Team or U20 coach, or Meet Bob at the Bank.

The rarest of his achievements have been done by <⁠2K teams and are of the "special" variety such as "Honest Squad", achieved by Luanda, or "Join my revolution", done with the assistance of the now-defunct YMCA fed.

Originally Posted by 07-09-2014

(13:11) Hippos Defy Time and Space, Play Two Games at Same Time
The Houston Hippopotami have done a lot of strange things in their franchise history. They can now add breaking the laws of physics to their resume.

At 01:00 HT time on 7-7-2014, the Hippos beat Revenge of the Mathochists. What happened next gets a little confusing.

At 16:31, the team started a ladder match with American Dreams in Houston. The game would conclude 1:45 later at 18:16.

However, at 17:00, the team would start a game in Ontario, Canada against London United Football Club as part of the Totti's Champions League tournament. This game would have an almost identical lineup as the ladder match.

Houston would lose the ladder match 5-1 but win the tournament game 6-0. Most baffling was Ab van den Nieuwendijk, who scored at 17:22, 18:27 in one game and 17:58 in the other

Said Roberto De Bacco, on the plane home, looking up from his book Relativity for Dummies: "This is confusing. I guess this is why I'm a soccer player and not a rocket surgeon."

Originally Posted by 07-25-2014

(21:02) Hippos Lose Battle Against Time and Space (Again)
After the previous week's impressive feat of losing games a half hour apart in two different places, the Hippo scientific team tried pushing the envelope even further in the interest of SCIENCE.

(The PA team would also like to be commended for pushing the boundaries of time and space by only publishing this a week and a half late)

The trouble came in when the stadium was double booked on July 17th. At 16:59, Houston started a ladder match against American Dreams. At 17:00, they started a tournament match against FK Korner as part of Totti's Champions League. Both teams featured identical lineups and Przylecki even scored goals in each game.

In the end, they would go on to lose their 16th straight Houston ladder match to American Dreams and lose their first ever Totti's Champions League game, being eliminated from the 3rd season of the tournament after winning the first two (more on both games in other PAs). Playing two games at once may have taken its toll on the team.

Originally Posted by 07-27-2014

(17:02) Waterboy Williams to Hippos Hall of Heroes
Stephen "The Waterboy" Williams was promoted to Houston days after his 17th birthday, the first player ever pulled from the Hippos Youth Academy, the Hungry Hungry Hippos.

The team is used to more polished trainees bought on the transfer wire. As legendary Hippo Mick Starks was leaving the training complex for retirement, he was heard to quip "Are they giving the waterboys uniforms now?" and the nickname stuck.

Williams worked hard to develop his raw talent and reached world class defending. He's also always been known for his friendly attitude and his positivity is a fixture all around the Hippos team from autograph lines to bench cheerleader to welcoming new players.

He called it quits this past week on his 40th birthday and his #40 will be retired during halftime of Sunday's qualifier against Harlem's Henry.

His loyalty to the team has been rewarded with a contract for life and he will join the Hippos broadcast booth next season, alongside fellow HHHer Birger Månholt.

Originally Posted by 07-28-2014

(21:03) Hippos Win 5th Place Qualifier, Somehow Promote to II.3
Harlem's Henry was kind enough to go bot prior to the Hippos relegation qualifier, turning the potentially tough affair a laugher. Tobiasz Kosma scored 4 goals in a 15 minute stretch as Houston romped 11-0.

The next day, when he got to the office, GM SterlingIce looked at the new series for the upcoming season and was hear to quip "Did we just promote to II.3"? Longtime Hippo faithful will remember the team's time there in seasons 46-50. PitRules was there more recently in season 53.

However, all 3 of the III.5 newcomers have been in II.3 at one time or another. Relegee Garden State Gnomes were there with the Hippos from seasons 48-50. Of course, while the Hippos were on their way to demoting back to their current III.5 home, the Gnomes relegated from MLS only to win the Cup.

Both autopromotees played in II.3: Sudbury United was there in season 44 and White Hot Blizzard was with Houston in 46.

Stay tuned for a major Hippo announcement prior to the start of the season.

Originally Posted by 08-04-2014

(19:56) Houston Fail in Three-Peat, Will Not Have to Pay Royalties to Pat Riley
Back on July 14th, the Hippos lost 4-3 to eventual champion FK Korner in season 3 of Totti's Champions League. Houston had won the previous 2 Totti's Champions League trophies and had gone 3-0 through the group stages (see 03.13.14 for previous PAs).

Houston never led, training 1-0 and 3-1 before tying the score each time, the last at 71'. Nemanja Ćorović scored the tie-breaking goal at 84' and Riivo Saula got sent off 2 minutes later, removing any realistic chance of a Hippo equalizer.

Damian Edelmann ended the tournament with 6 goals, tied with 2 others atop the leaderboard. He has 19 goals in 16 tourney games and has been in the top 3 all 3 seasons.

For now, the Hippos will have to be content with 7 tournament trophies in their case:
* Totti's Champions League (03.10.14 and 01.13.14)
* Columbia Heights Invitational (11.05.12 and 12.17.12)
* 49ers Memorial Cup (02.26.13)
* II. Eagles Cup (10.29.12)
* International Cup (07.23.12)

Originally Posted by 08-06-2014

(19:38) Falulous Ab van den Nieuwendijk Scores with Houston
Ab van den Nieuwendijk, or "Ab Fab", as he has been nicknamed, becomes the 13th Hippo in franchise history to score double digits in a season. The PA team has written extensively about this in the past and you can see the most recent listing of all top scorers in the PA from 04-15-2014.

Ab van den Nieuwendijk scored 10 goals which ranked him 3rd in III.5 last season. He scored 7 goals in the first 5 games including a hat trick against the Intercourse Ball Kickers and cooled off as the season heated up. The Hippos, as a team, only scored 14 goals in the final 9 games last season.

Ab added 4 in the cup last season, 3 in the Columbia Heights Invitational tournament, and 5 in season 3 of Totti's Champions League. He has also scored in 11 of the last 12 ladder matches against American Dreams including an 8 game scoring streak.

(Ed note: This will be the final housekeeping post from season 55. Season 56 is right around the corner with big news.)

SI

[sterlingice]

It was bound to happen one of these days so I needed to just pick a season and there are some external reasons why this is as good a time as any to stop.

Originally Posted by today

Houston Hippopotami Announce Final Season

In a press conference that has stunned their fans, the Houston Hippopotami have announced that this will be the final season in franchise history.

Team owner and General Manager SterlingIce cited other business ventures competing for his time: "In the future, I will no longer be able to run this team the way these great fans deserve". In the hour long press conference, he talked about an increased price of supporting the team as a significant factor. He also was a little negative about changes to the game's economic system but also praised the HT Governing Body, stating "their heart is in the right place".

Season ticket holders need not worry as the team will play competitively all season long: "It wouldn't be fair to the fans or to the series to not give it our all." The front office has designs on some potential surprises for fans, if they work out: "While winning the Cup seems pretty unlikely, we have some goals that we'd still like to accomplish in this, our final season".

I'm going to hope to update this thread, similar to the 20th anniversary thread, as I finish off my time in the game. Here are some potential topics:

Hippo Current Team - Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - [Hattrick] Houston Hippopotami (III.3); Special 20th Anniversary Thread
Hippo Cup History - Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - [Hattrick] Houston Hippopotami (III.3); Special 20th Anniversary Thread
Hippo Series History - Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - [Hattrick] Houston Hippopotami (III.3); Special 20th Anniversary Thread
Hippo Achievements - Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - [Hattrick] Houston Hippopotami (III.3); Special 20th Anniversary Thread
Any Nuts and Bolts? - Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - [Hattrick] Houston Hippopotami (III.3); Special 20th Anniversary Thread
Tournaments and Ladder - Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - [Hattrick] Houston Hippopotami (III.3); Special 20th Anniversary Thread
Youth Academy including Youth Flag Chasing - Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - [Hattrick] Houston Hippopotami (III.3); Special 20th Anniversary Thread
Hippos Hall of Heroes (towards the end) - Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - [Hattrick] Houston Hippopotami (III.3); Special 20th Anniversary Thread

SI

[thealmighty]

SI,

I have just won a promotion game into series III.3. It isn't one of the better series in III but it looks like I am overmatched somewhat and was hoping, if you get any time (and if you still look here), you could look me over and give me a tip or three.

Fear of God, id# 229331.


Thanks either way.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by thealmighty

SI,

I have just won a promotion game into series III.3. It isn't one of the better series in III but it looks like I am overmatched somewhat and was hoping, if you get any time (and if you still look here), you could look me over and give me a tip or three.

Fear of God, id# 229331.


Thanks either way.

Team looks in good shape, age-wise. It's not old but it's also not young- most players are in the 24-26 sweet spot. Really curious about one thing, right offhand. Those wages look brutal. I'm treading water in III at half that and put up similar wages. You have 17 players at 20K wages or higher. So what are you training?

I have exactly 11 at over 10K, tho that's a bit misleading as 2 of the cheapest are backups who I felt I got more value keeping than selling off. I train defense and only 1 costs over 10K and another pair are almost there. I can't conceive of a team where I have 17 players leaching wages: that's going to just suck away money. You can only play 16 tops (1 of each sub) and if your trainees are that expensive wage-wise, they probably should be churned for more money.

I'll never quite understand a team that doesn't have 3 IMs (maybe a wing) and GK as the 4 highest wage earners as midfield is still the most important rating and you can pay a keeper to improve all 3 defense spots.

SI

[thealmighty]

I wasn't worried about money this past season because I had 60 million in the bank and wasn't sure what it would take to win my series so I just kept all my 2nd teamers/trainees around for an extra season.

I trained set pieces for 10 weeks and then passing since they were too old to go for any more playmaking. Most of the second group will all be sold now and I'll be bringing in a new crop in midfield.

Still have over 45 million left, before any sales (selling 17 yr old now that is at 500k with 2 days to go for-excel defend/passing).

[sterlingice]

Wow- with $45M in the bank, how much can you use nowadays? I thought there was some limit to how much you can spend in a week. In my mind, that seems like enough to go for MLS but I just don't know- I've never been that high. And I think I've mentioned it here but maybe not- there was a great thread in HT a while back about winning in Div III and above. And how what worked to be a great Div III team means a lot less at Div II and probably won't get you to MLS.

(More coming in the next post - I started typing it here but didn't want to make it all part of an edit)

SI

[sterlingice]

Unfortunately, my team was based on finance more than tactics. At its height, it got me to a middling Div II team but I never had enough money to push past that. I'm not even sure I would know what would get me higher. Maintaining a training program weakens your team tactically so you can make more money. But it's somewhat of an inverse relationship: the more you specialize your training program for profits, the lower your performance. At its core, hattrick is still a lot about balance. I found my comfort zone to be training mid-level trainees (formidable-ish with a strong secondary) up to higher level and selling off so I didn't make as much profit but my depth and team did not suffer.

Speaking of balance, in II, and to an extension MLS, it goes without saying that there are no bad teams. The bad teams were the vanilla teams like mine: ratings powerhouses with no real edge. We could upset someone and were never an easy game, especially at home, but I was never a threat to win a series and make it to MLS. In my 8 seasons in Div II, I never finished higher than 4th. Back to what I said in the previous post, I don't know what wins in II or MLS but I can help with what doesn't win and what beat me. Unfortunately, I have no silver bullet but hopefully if I throw a lot of my thoughts your direction, you can see what might work for you.

Being a pretty good team doesn't beat the best CA'ers in the US or the team tailored to have the best attack in the US or a team with $50M in savings or a team bleeding $1M in wages per week. I was pretty good ratings-wise, able to put up a top 100 in the USA rating on the cheap with balance across all 3 parts of the game. However, I couldn't specialize in much because to keep at the cheap level, I had to take what I thought gave the most bang for the buck. There's a three dimensional graph of performance vs wages vs acquisition cost for every position, in my mind. So, for instance, a mythical naked midfielder has cheap acquisition cost, high wages, and mediocre performance whereas a titanic middie with formidable passing and had a slightly higher acquisition cost, significantly lower wages, and better performance. However, if you had 3 of the latter, you would probably be below the threshold of what you needed, midfield-wise, to compete in II. Similarly, keepers have a huge performance impact for their wages but their acquisition costs are very high. Also, if I was going to have high wage players on the midfield, I would get USA if possible, but that would depend on the price premium of "buying local".

Also, playing in the high levels, the floor for primary skills starts around supernatural and goes through divine. I never felt wages were justified in paying utopian or divine players so that only leaves 5 levels (SN/Ti/ET/My/Ma) to play with and everyone was on that plane. Plus, you wanted to only have them from around age 22~29 before you started seeing performance degradation, so that eliminates some players. But what really limits the pool is a real lack of supply of the players worth having at a price you're willing to pay. You can get around this some at the expense of your money machine: other teams tailor their entire training program to creating elite uberwingers whereas I felt it was better to pay for less-than-uber wingers that were expensive but not too expensive and the tradeoff is that they were not nearly as specialized.

But those are the basics and if you're where you're at, you should probably have a pretty good sense of that. You can win Div III just by being a ratings powerhouse and I would spend a season retooling the team with an eye towards the higher levels.

Looking back, though, the things that helped me win games and punch above my weight were the little edges that are undervalued in the game. One that really helped me outperform my profile was to make sure almost all of my players have a beneficial speciality. You're should have elite set pieces (titanic+) on at least one player so take advantage of that with a few guys with head specialitiy (I think I had 4). Quick wingers, quick strikers, and unpredictable strikers all can get you a goal when it's not expected or not in the ratings. Everyone at the high level is going to have a decent set pieces guy so a good set pieces keeper (i.e. titanic+) seems like a must, too.

I underrated skills on my defenders until I bought up some different ones to train. I've trained set pieces defenders for quite a while but that has become less and less profitable. But Wingbacks with some good wing do put a nice little boost to your attack. I think a really underrated way to steal some midfield is to have formidable or so playmaking on your central defender. You don't even need to play OCD to get a little boost there that almost no one else has. If you can pair that with head speciality, that player is worth his weight in gold.

Like I said a post or two ago, I tried to only play the guys who were on the field and pay a doctor so they were on the field as much as possible. However, I saw teams that had an additional player or two for flexibility. I don't have a sense of how to deploy it and make it fit within a wage structure. But when you run against that awesome CAing team, you can rest a middie and add a forward. Against that all midfield team, put in a stronger midfield WTM, a TDF, and/or, an OCD. At that level, you almost have to sacrifice somewhere to be good somewhere else. So if a player is all midfield, that means there aren't wages or good players somewhere else (defense, most likely).

Those are the ramblings I have for now. Unfortunately not a lot is actionable as I was never more than a mediocre Div II team so I'm really not sure how to succeed at the highest levels.

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by 8-6-2014

(19:27) Leopards with First Ever Cup Win Luanda won the first game in their Cup history this week against the quasi-walkover, non-existent-in-HT Equipa de rua. László Vizi picked up a hat trick and Emanuele Menetti and Tristan Nikodemski each scored a pair in the 11-0 rout.

The game was not without its costs as starting keeper Juan Malamata and starting striker Guido Hernán Orellana will be out for a week or two, which could prove costly for the season opener. The Leopards face the Bisons of Belvedere who moved to III.3 from III.9 in the offseason.

The first home Cup game in franchise history awaits next week as Luanda wil play host to Dominator from III.6. The Leopards had lost in their two previous cup openers: 7-0 to Tarrachinha F.C. last season and 8-0 to Rap&Soul the season before. As both teams were in series II the season after beating the Leopards, we expect big things from Equipa de rua this coming season.

Originally Posted by 8-20-2014

(21:50) Leopards Cup Win Streak at 3 In their first 3 seasons, the Luanda Leopards had 0 cup wins. This season, the team has 3 wins.

In week 1, Luanda won 11-0 against bot Equipa de rua.

In week 2, Dominator took a 2-0 lead in the first 10 minutes. But the resilient Leopards clawed back, typing the game on goals by Viisteensaari and Menetti at 56' and 63'. In overtime, Juan Malamata made a huge save and then László Vizi scored the goal that sent fans home happy.

This past week, Malmata had 4 big saves as Luanda beat Sporting Clube do Lobito 4-0.

The win streak will almost certainly end next week against Petro United in Angola's top league Girabola. However, management is extremely pleased to have made it to the final 32 teams in the Cup. They expect this experience to be great for the fans, team, and players going forward. In addition, the team hopes to see their first ever full house of 30K at the remodeled Lyceum this coming week.

Originally Posted by 9-15-2014

(17:07) Leopards Disappointing First Half to Series Season The Luanda Leopards had a great cup run, winning 3 games despite never winning a single cup game in their history. They were awarded $200K for being one of the last 32 teams in the cup. However, this has come at the expense of league play.

The team finds itself in 4th place with a legitimate danger of ending the first half in 5th after this week's match against 1st place Gindungo dos Kotas. They and 2nd place Athletic lerdos have run away with the series.

The Leopards started off the season with a disappointing 2-2 draw at home to the Bisons of Belvedere. After winning on the road against 6th place Dirty Old Town FC, they dropped the next week at home to Athletic lerdos by a whopping 5-2 margin. The following week, they lost a tough 1-0 game to White Stroke FC as they converted on their only chance while Luanda failed on 7(!) attempts.

Wins the last two weeks over 7th and 8th place Wisla Namibe and Esperança do Zaire may be a sign that the team is starting to turn around.

Originally Posted by 11-11-2014

(13:18) Leopards Take a Step Back in Final Season Fans can't help but feel a little disappointed with the results in the Leopards final season. After finishing in 5th, 4th, and 3rd places in the first three seasons, Luanda was back down to 5th in III.3. While it was unlikely they would catch undefeated Gindungo dos Kotas, the Leopards had 2nd place in their sights. They picked up points against every team in front of them, but could not do so consistently.

Still, there was a lot of good news to come out of the season
* The team had 3 cup wins, making the final 32, after 0 cup wins in the first 3 seasons.
* The franchise ended in wonderful financial shape, with profits every 2 week cycle and $5M in the bank.
* The training program ended with 6 magnificent or brilliant playmakers. Some would have been sold to improve the club elsewhere on the pitch.
* Supporter numbers are at 1800 and still climbing.

It's been a fun 3 full seasons and change and we wish all of our seriesmates the best going forward!

Originally Posted by 11-15-2014

(22:15) Final Leopards Roster After 3.5 seasons, here is the final Leopards roster. This also includes a $5.5M bank. They are on sale now!

Keepers
Juan Malamata (form/wc sp, 24)
Wilbert Bohnsack (future coach, 32)

Defenders
Sebastian Schildknegt (out/sol pm, 23)
Amadeusz Zagaja (pass/exc pm/sol pass/mag sp/future coach, 32)

Forwards
Emanuele Menetti (form/out/head, 24)
Guido Hernán Orellana (form/out, 22)
László Vizi (form/sol/head, 22)
Mathieu Verhelst (sol/exc, 22)
Terence Luyckx (pass/sol/quick, 26)

Midfielders/Primary Trainees
Tristan Nikodemski (mag/bril pass, 23)
Umberto Di Carlofelice (mag/form pass, 22)
Armando Sciuti (mag/form pass/pass wing, 21)
Juuso Viisteensaari (mag/exc pass, 21)
Amílcar Uribe (mag/exc pas/head, 22)
Raz Ravid (bri/out pass, 22)

Wingers/Backup Trainees
Bertrand Bègue (out pm/sol pass, 20)
Firouz Afzalian (out pm/pass wing, 20)
Ivan Varziev (exc pm/sol wing/pass def/quick, 22)

Coach
Armindo Chaves (passable)

Originally Posted by 11-23-2014

(04:09) Farewell from the Leopards! Over the course of a calendar year, it's been fun.

In the partial season, we picked up a number of achievements to put the GM's total to over 600 points. Then in the first two full seasons, the team finished 4th and 3rd in III.3. By the final season, this team has gone from a bot to over 200 hatstats and 50 stars (488769363). And we had a memorable cup run, making the final 32 with 3 wins. When we were all done, the players were sold off for over $12M in cash. Not bad for a year's work.

I'm not sure what happens from here- what happens to a second team that goes dark. I purchased players to facilitate the game but they may disappear and the team may go bot.

I learned a lot from this 2nd team: about training at the lower levels and about competing in a small country. As a flag chaser, I tried to give away this flag as often as possible, knowing how hard it is to get one this rare.

I have enjoyed my time with hattrick. Until we meet again...

SI

[thealmighty]

Unfortunately for me, my team is also money based.

I spent many seasons where I just got bored with Hattrick and wallowed in V and VI for a long time, not even paying attention to the game. I obviously made a shitload of money, up into the top 3 in US for a while I believe, since I didn't need much payroll to win most of the games.

The major problem with that is I didn't follow the changes to the game. I have no idea how to build a team besides high midfield 3-5-2. I have no idea how to put a team on the field to counter an attack on wing or in middle or a counter attack team.

Anyway, I really appreciate your advice, the above as well as anything else you may think of.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by 8-26-2014

(22:45) Hippos Players Ready to Begin Final Season NOTE: The Hippo PA writers have been worried about unemploymen-- the impending dissolution of the team and apologize for their recent absence.

Losses to American Dreams in Houston Ladder matches are nothing new and probably to be expected with 18 in a row. However, 2 listless losses and a 6th place start to the III.3 season are not what the team had in mind for its finale season.

Hippo players have been reassured their final paychecks are at the end of this season, not end of last season. Thus they have decided to attempt to play meaningful games again.

Expect to see upcoming news shortly as the PA authors catch up:
* Hungry Hungry Hippos globetrotting
* This season's HHH inductees

To follow along with more Hippo detail, check out the thread on FOFC:
[Hattrick] Houston Hippopotami (III.3); Special 20th Anniversary Thread - Front Office Football Central
We'll be starting this season at post 215

Originally Posted by 9-7-2014

(16:41) Fabrizio Santoriello on Cup Top Scorers List With play reminiscent of Damian Edelman's runs at the top cup scoring title, Fabrizio Santoriello has put himself squarely in the running for the US Cup top scorer this season. His 10 goals currently have him tied for 3rd. Hippo fanatics will, of course, remember Edelmann's runner up finish in season 52 and cup lead scorer in season 53.

Cup leader Leo Ferrer has 13 goals but FC Walosy was knocked out of US Cup play last week. At 2nd place with 12 goals is Luca Musante, a player on III.9's Team Cokey.

Santoriello picked up a hat trick in the 10-0 opener against All Systems Go and another 4 goals in the 9-0 win against Lake Charles Spades. His only scoreless game was a 2-0 win in week 3 against the Quackers. He has 1 and 2 goals, respectively, in a pair of 4-0 wins against GBsHibs USA and TuS Pewsum the last two weeks.

This week, the team faces Ac Questo from III.13. If they win, they will advance to the round of 64 and likely get a home Cup game the next week.

Originally Posted by 9-15-2014

(16:54) Hungry Hungry Hippos Best Flag Chasing Youth Team in Hattrick The Houston Hippopotami became the first team in the United States and one of the first 100 teams in the game to collect all hosted and visited flags. Since then, flag chasing ranks have swelled as 3 other teams in the USA and 510 teams globally boast complete flag collections.

The youth squad travels also travels well and, while no complete records exist in the game, we are claiming that the Hungry Hungry Hippos are the best flag chasing youth team in hattrick.

Using team records, we have been able to reconstruct that the youth squad has visited the top 27 countries and 33 of the 36 rarest (missing Hong Kong, Tunisia, Morocco). They have also either hosted or visited 41 of the top 50.

Status: Flags (%, US Rank if adult squad) Coolness (%, US Rank)
Visit: 61 (47.66%/183rd) 92,427.15 (67.12%/39th)
Host: 32 (25.00%/520th) 12,669.84 (9.20%/210th)
Visit or Host: 85 (66.41%/110th) 104,720.43 (76.05%/37th)
Visit plus Host: 93 (36.33%/225th) 105,096.99 (38.16%/56th)

Originally Posted by 11-12-2014

(04:51) Houston Hippopotami Begin Their Farewell The Houston Hippopotami are in their final couple of weeks of their existence. It's been a long run since January 2003, but it's time to walk away from the game. Our recent 6 seasons in III.5 have felt just as cozy as many of our past homes but recent and upcoming life events are keeping the GM from spending as much time at Hattrick as he would like.

Still have quite a few orders of business before the team goes dark:
* PA about Ab van den Nieuwendijk's double digit goal series scoring title
* Many Hippo Hall of Heroes retirements: Schalks, De Bacco, Edelmann, Coupard, and maybe more
* One final concentrated assault on the Houston ladder (32 losses in a row!)

Who knows what else we will have time for in the next few days but the Hippos need to go out with a bang. We gladly welcome Guestbook comments from all Hippo faithful in the next few days and wish everyone the very best going forward!

Originally Posted by 11-14-2014

(15:29) Nieuwendijk Wins Series Scoring Crown in Hippos Final Season, Part I In the final season in franchise history, Ab van den Nieuwendijk won the franchise's 11th scoring title. Following up last years 3rd place finish with 10 goals, his same tally won him the crown in this year's depressed scoring environment. The Hippos 37 goals were 2nd in the series, behind only Intercourse Ball Kickers's 40 goals. Series champion White Hot Blizzard was the only other team with more than 22 goals.

Teammate Fabrizio Santoriello, who won the III.5 scoring title in season 54, was 2nd in the series with 8 goals. Don't feel bad for him: he doesn't! He's quick to remind Ab that he scored more goals on the season as hiis 11 cup goals tied him for 6th in USA.

Other Hippo scoring tile winners are Derrick Solomon, Tor Tetlie, HHH member Edwin Phelan, potential honorary HHH member Joseph Pittesser, and future HHH members Damian Edelmann and Giancarlo Schalks.

Next up: some HHH inductions and the continued assault on the Houston Ladder (33 losses in a row and counting!)

Originally Posted by 11-14-2014

(15:11) Nieuwendijk Wins Series Scoring Crown in Hippos Final Season, Part II Double digit series scoring seasons in Houston Hippopotami history: (season, number of goals, player, rank in series, and series)

S56 10G Ab van den Nieuwendijk (1st, III.5)
S55 10G Ab van den Nieuwendijk (3rd, III.5)
S54 10G Fabrizio Santoriello (1st, III.5)
S53 13G Damian Edelmann (1st, III.5)
S53 11G Evgeny Patrov (2nd, III.5)
S52 10G Evgeny Patrov (4th, III.5)
S52 10G Damian Edelmann (5th, III.5)
S51 11G Damian Edelmann (1st, III.5)
S46 15G Joseph Pittesser (1st, II.3)
S44 17G Giancarlo Schalks (1st, III.3)
S43 11G Giancarlo Schalks (1st, III.3)
S43 11G Joseph Pittesser (1st, III.3)
S41 10G Giancarlo Schalks (7th, II.1)
S39 11G Tor Tetlie (5th, III.3)
S38 11G Tor Tetlie (1st, III.3)
S34 12G Kris Jacobsen (4th, III.3)
S32 13G Marcin Tetkowski (3rd, III.3)
S31 10G Kris Jacobsen (4th, III.3)
S27 11G Ingo Kettich (2nd, IV.21)
S23 11G Eric Peiffer (5th, IV.21)
S20 10G Edwin Phelan (4th, IV.21)
S19 15G Edwin Phelan (1st, V.62)
S19 15G Derrick Solomon (1st, V.62)

Originally Posted by 11-15-2014

(21:22) Bid Farewell to Fan Favorites! Own Some Hippo History! (Part I) While there will also be one final match (#35) against American Dreams for the Houston Ladder crown, Sunday's friendly against Ribbaldar will be your last chance to see your Houston heroes in action. The standard starting lineup will be playing as well as the usual subs. There will be ceremonies and presentations galore.

The Hippopotami will also be hosting a garage sale. All merchandise must go: shirts, caps, and jerseys, of course. However, there's also a once-in-a-lifeteime sale and auction as parts of the Hippodrome will also be up for sale. Own the actual stadium seat you were sitting in when the Hippos promoted into II for the first time! Buy a section of the pitch, walked on by franchise greats!

Also, if you're another team, friend or foe, this is also your chance to own a piece of Hippo history! Every major player who will not be retired is on sale for below market prices.

Many players will be retired at halftime! This is a game any Hippo supporter won't want to miss.

Originally Posted by 11-15-2014

(21:19) Bid Farewell to Fan Favorites! Own Some Hippo History! (Part II) Final Houston Hippopotami roster, seemingly a "blueprint" for a perpetual USA III team:

Keepers
#7 Fatih Güniz (myth/myth sp, 25)
#8 Giuseppe Oppes (form, 26)

Forwards
#26 Ab van den Nieuwendijk (titan/mag/head, 26)
#33 Fabrizio Santoriello (titan/out/quick, 26)
#30 Damian Edelmann (titan/out/head, 31)
#35 Péter Gellén, 28

Wingers
#50 Cosimo Masnadiero (titan/mag/form/quick, 27)
#52 Tobiasz Kosma (mag/mag/out/quick, 26)
#59 Arvo Talv, 29

Midfielders
#49 Ivan Holka (et/out/head, 27)
#56 Anno Schelling (et/form/head, 27)
#58 Pat Scroggins (titan/form, 26)
#43 Stefano Fuscioni (titan/out/head, 31)
#46 Vladimir Makedonski, 28

Wingbacks
#77 Gonzalo Valdivieso (brill/out/head, 22)
#79 Baldassarre Bottone (wc/out, 22)

Central Def
#76 Riivo Saula (wc/form pm, 23)
#68 Ryszard Przyłęcki (et/mag sp, 26)
#62 Baybars Özhakan (sn/mag sp, 26)
#67 Werner Grimmig (bril/et sp, 21)

Coach
#38 Yohan Coupard (solid)

Originally Posted by 11-17-2014

(15:01) Memorable Moments in the 34 Game Houston Ladder Losing Streak With the Hippos 35th and final try to win the Houston ladder, a look back at some memorable games:

* Battle I (03.22): Tied at 3-3 at 80' after trailing 2-0 and 3-1; Lost 5-3 in OT; Did not realize the first would be one of the closest

* Battle XI (05.19): Hippos up 2-0 but tied 2-2; AD scored at 104' but Nieuwendijk tied at 108'; In shootout, Przylecki missed 1st and all others made

* Battle XIII (06.06): Hippos took 2-1 lead at 78' but AD equalized at 85' and took lead at 98'; Hippos tied at 100' but were 2/5 in shootout vs 3/4

* Battle XIV (06.22): Hippos up 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, and 4-3 but AD equalized every time within 10 mins; AD scored at 85' and 88' for the win

* Battle XVII (08.03): Hamed Werhani scored all 5 goals for AD, putting them up 1-0, 2-1, 4-2, and finally 5-3; Nieuwendijk with a goal in 9 straight ladder matches

* Battle XVII (10.25): Saula carded at 70' but Hippos scored equalizer at 78'; AD scored 2 goals at 92' and 93' in extra time and Hippos only 1

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by 11-18-2014

(17:38) Giancarlo Schalks, Leading Scorer in Hippo History, Added to Hall of Heroes
Forwards are an under-represented in the Hippo Hall of Heroes: Ovesson, Phelan, and Treibahs and honorary members Jacobsen and Tetkowski. However, the franchise is hoping to play catch up this week, honoring three, starting with Giancarlo Schalks, the holder of almost all scoring titles in franchise history.

Schalks retires as the Hippos all-time leading scorer. His 167 total goals, 143 competitive goals, and 74 league goals are franchise bests. His 66 cup goals tie him for the top spot with legendary Cup scorer Damian Edelmann. He also leads with 15 total hat tricks, 13 of which were competitive, and 6 in league. His 7 Cup hat tricks are second to, of course, Edelmann.

In season 44, he authored the best goal scoring season in Hippo history. His 17 series goals still stand as the franchise record. Unheralded at the time were his 15 cup goals, tied for 3rd that season.

His #21 was retired yesterday during halftime of the final Houston ladder match with American Dreams.

Originally Posted by 11-19-2014

(16:07) Hippos Staff Limp as it Decreases in Size
As the Hippos move to the hibernation state, there has been a natural shakeup of the staff under these odd conditions. Medic level 3 Everett Wilbur, Sports Psychologist level 4 Burt Arthurton, and Form Coach level 4 Calvin Schmidt have retired from the Hippopotami. Spokesperson level 4 Wallace Good left the team to follow his true calling of writing commercial jingles and was replaced by Spokesperson level 3 Travis Penrice.

Head coach Yohan Coupard retired and has been replaced by Franciszek Zychowicz. Coupard retired straight into the Hippo Hall of Heroes and we will have another PA about him later in the week.

In light of this, assistant Coach level 4 Damion Ranieri asked to be let out of his contract. Caoch Zychowicz brought in three new level 2 Assistant Coaches in Nathan Altman, Ward Westerberg, and Todd Barfield. The final staff position has yet to be filled, but, as it stands, the staff expenditures have gone from $54K per week to a more manageable $15K per week.

Originally Posted by 11-20-2014

(15:01) Joseph Pittesser Named Honorarily to Hippo Hall of Heroes
It is rare to have an active player enter the Hippo Hall of Heroes, but Joseph Pittesser (202772416) is a rare player. At 38, he currently plays for NIMIS C11 (1726962), boasting 204 career goals and 17 career hat tricks.

He was the fourth highest scorer in franchise history with 106 and 2nd in league goals with 60. He also had 34 cup goals in 33 games, ranked 4th behind now-fellow-HHH members Edelmann, Schalks, and Treibahs.

In season 43, his 21 competitive goals tied the franchise mark set by Edwin Phelan back in season 19. It was shattered by Schalks's franchise record 32 the next season. His 18 in season 46 was also a top 10 all time with 4 of Edelmann's, Tetkowski's S32 (20), Tetlie's S39 (19), and Santoriello's 19 this year.

Speaking of longtime teammate Schalks, Pittesser joined Houston the season after Giancarlo, as the 16th highest buy transfer in franchise history ($4.331M). His #60 was also retired at halftime during the final American Dreams match.

Originally Posted by 11-22-2014

(05:02) Roberto De Bacco Rates Highly as Hall of Famer
Roberto De Bacco was one of the most skilled players to ever wear the green and purple. He tied for the 2nd highest rating ever with 10.5 stars and the highest midfielder. Forwards take up the other top 5 spots: Damian Edelmann and Fabrizio Santoriello had 11s while Ab van den Nieuwendijk and Evgeny Patrov had 10.5s.

He retired at 37, still with magnificent playmaking, excellent defending, inadequate passing, passable set pieces, and a technical speciality. He will join Carlos Thacker's multimedia empire promoting the Hippos. The two have a lot in common, both being longtime midfielders in Houston who put up tremendous ratings.

His #54 was retired at a special ceremony on Wednesday along with Damian Edelmann and Yohan Coupard. The free event was attended by tens of thousands and was both a "goodbye" and "thank you" from the team. The popular ownership and management groups were there as were all Hippo Hall of Heroes members, past and present.

Originally Posted by 11-23-2014

(05:54) Damian Edelmann Scores Entry into Hippo Hall of Heroes
What more can be said about Damian Edelmann? He is the youngest Hippo inducted into the Hall of Heroes at age 31, taking his place among the great forwards on the team. His 11 stars ties him for the highest Hippo rating ever with teammate Fabrizio Santoriello.

He is 3rd in franchise history with 133 total goals. With 126 of those being competitive, he and Schalks are the only two with over 100. He is 3rd in franchise history with 57 league goals, behind Schalks and Pittesser. His seasons 51-54 are 4 of the top 10 scoring seasons in franchise history with 18, 27, 29 and 18.

But he will most be remembered for his cup scoring: He averaged over 1.5 per game over his career with 66 cup goals (tied with Schalks for lead) in 42 games. In his memorable 3 season run from seasons 52-54, he was runner up in USA cup goals with 17, won the USA cup scoring title with 16, and then had 10 and was in the Top 10 when the Hippos were bounced early in round 5.

His #30 was retired Wednesday.

Originally Posted by 11-23-2014

(18:13) Coach Yohan Coupard Becomes Final Member of Hippo Hall of Heroes, Part I
Coach Johan Coupard was never the best player but he was sharp. He came to the team in Gilceu Bianco's first season as a veteran backup forward. Bianco, who would become the longest tenured coach in Hippo history, saw the leadership potential in Coupard and leaned on him to help mentor the team.

When Bianco retired, Coupard was the obvious choice as the next coach, guiding the franchise through its final four seasons. However, he stuck with his #38 rather than switching to a 90s coaching number, remembering his playing days. He scored 78 career competitive goals, including 29 with Houston and another 22 friendly goals. His 22 cup goals rank 6th in franchise history.

Coach Coupard now joins his mentor Bianco in the Hippo Hall of Heroes as its final member. He is the 8th and final Hippo coach in the HHH and 33rd overall member, including 25 full and 8 honorary. His #38 was retired Wednesday.

Originally Posted by 11-23-2014

(18:02) Coach Yohan Coupard Becomes Final Member of Hippo Hall of Heroes, Part II
With Coupard now retired into the Hall of Heroes, all Houston coaches have been inducted or are honorary members. Here's a look back at the franchise's coaching history.

*18-22 Ricky Braden, HHHH
Cup Rounds 5, 3, 4, 4
Series V62 1; IV.21 4, 5, 2
*18 not included

23-27 Jose Maria Miguel
Cup Rounds 6, 5, 5, 8, 7
Series IV.21 3, 3, 3 3, 1

28-32 Mick Starks
Cup Rounds 8, 6, 7, 7, 8
Series III.3 1, 4, 2, 5, 4

33-37 Xacobo Armengol
Cup Rounds 6, 6, 6, 6, 3
Series III.3 4, 2, 4, 3, 4

38-42 Tim Kimber
Cup Rounds 9, 7, 4, 7, 4
Series III.3 3, 1; II.1 6, 5, 6

43-45 Adir Weissglass, HHHH
Cup Rounds 9, 10, 6
Series III.3 2, 2, 1

46-52 Gilceu Bianco
Cup Rounds 7, 9, 5, 7, 4, 8, 8
Series II.3 4, 4, 5, 6, 7; III.5 2, 2

53-56 Yohan Coupard
Cup Rounds 10, 5, 9, 7
Series III.5 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 3rd

Originally Posted by 11-23-2014

(18:01) Coach Yohan Coupard Becomes Final Member of Hippo Hall of Heroes, Part III
Complete HHH Roster

Retired Number/Season Retired/Name
#01 S43 Tim Kimber
#03 S42 Quintin Staples (28383532), Hnr
#05 S52 Birger Manholt
#09 S50 Carlos Thacker
#10 S49 Juan Alberto Quijada
#11 S47 Charlie Partridge
#12 S45 Donald Sidorczak
#13 S33 Mick Starks
#15 S41 Carlos Alberto Benito
#14 S51 John King
#17 S44 Erwin Vickers
#18 S42 Thomas Little
#19 S40 Allan Brik
#20 S54 Juan Carlos Carreño
#21 S56 Giancarlo Schalks
#22 S33 Edwin Phelan
#25 S54 Ricky Braden (7583297), Hnr
#27 S48 Volfs Treibahs
#30 S56 Damian Edelmann
#31 S38 Vaikhan Satyanarayana
#38 S56 Yohan Coupard
#40 S55 Stephen Williams
#41 S49 Koos Teepen (8057500), Hnr
#44 S46 Tomas Ovesson
#48 S49 Kris Jacobsen (46500559), Hnr
#54 S56 Roberto De Bacco
#60 S56 Joseph Pittesser (202772416), Hnr
#72 S49 Marcin Tetkowski (48395749), Hnr
#83 S42 Sergio Chapin (23361083), Hnr
#95 S53 Gilceu Bianco
#96 S46 Adir Weissglass (118357573), Hnr
#97 S39 Xacobo Armengol
#99 S30 José María Miquel

Originally Posted by 11-23-2014

(18:42) So Long and Thanks for all the Fish
After more than 10 years, it's time for the Houston Hippopotami to close up shop and say goodbye to all of our friends from the game (you can still find me over at FOFC: http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...d.php?t=70515).

In taking stock, we never made it to MLS, never won the Houston Ladder, and never made it past round 10 of the cup. But we were the first team in the USA and one of the first 100 in the game to have a complete flag collection. We did spend 8 seasons in Div II and, until recently when Clarion Taffurs completed their III.14 run, had the most games, goals, and points in a single series in III.

We also hit some lesser goals like 600 achievement points and a 400 hatstat game. Two that we can't confirm but are pretty sure about: Best flag chasing youth squad (top 30 flags visited) and best Hall of Fame (full writeups for 25 players and more via PA).

We've spent a lot of time here and really enjoyed all the friends, the fun, and the challenges. Farewell!

SI

[sterlingice]

And now the Hippos are no more

After more than 10 years, I'm going to let them go bot now that supporter has run out. It was way too expensive and too time consuming for what it was, but at least I had a chance to finish it all off via PA and retire a whopping 25 players into my Hall of Fame. Maybe I'll go back someday but this is probably it.

SI

[MIJB#19]

Ah, bummer, SI.

[sterlingice]

It was time to stop- just have too many other things going on right now and I was busy dumping too much time and money into it for the amount of enjoyment I have gotten out of it

SI