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03-26-2009, 08:27 AM
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#51 | ||
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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nice new middie, SI...
I realize I"m going to have to upgrade midfield maybe next season if I make it to II. |
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03-26-2009, 01:09 PM
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#52 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Supporter Goodies
Introduction
Some things have always been true of the Hippos since we started. The logo featured playful Hippos, our uniform colors were green and purple, and the stadium was called the Hippodrome. As we've been playing for five years, some things have changed. The devs have been adding little things here and there to keep players wanting to be a supporter. Houston's green and purple uniforms have more splashes of color. Our logo is now much larger- we'll go into that more when we get to friendlies and flag chasing. And the Hippodrome, named for the famed stadiums of old, has been expanded and fleshed out with a SimCity-like editor. Our supporters used to be the Hungry Hungry Hippos (courtesy of AE, I believe) but that was later changed to the Hippo Helpers. The Hungry Hungry Hippos became the name of our Youth Academy team and that's a whole other post. I know, a lot of you are familiar with supporter. It's been around longer than anyone at FOFC has or had played hattrick with maybe an exception or two. You pay about $30 a year now (damn Euro is killing the dollar) and you get a bunch of stuff to flesh our your team. A list of features can be found here (hattrick wiki) or here (hattrick page). But basically, they are either items to "personalize" your club like logos, press announcements, player faces/numbers, kits, and guestbooks or ways to save time such as bookmarks, stats, and saved transfer searches. Most of this is going to focus on the former rather than the latter as they're a lot more interesting. Quick note- the files are in a couple of different formats since they're from different eras of hattrick. Also, so that the rest of the thread isn't thrown off horizontally, I have put in thumbnails of images that are screen-wide. The full screen shots are linked to the thumbnails so just click on the thumbnail to see the whole image. Minor Items I'm not going to go into much detail about a lot of features so I'll just touch on them here. The statistics are something I'll sprinkle in here from time to time but most aren't worth mentioning (i.e. "Biggest Spender in Sverige last week" or that there are currently 2 team in Barbados training scoring). Still, I have a little spot on my spreadsheet for a weekly tally of my team TSI, wage, age, experience, etc. I've had a couple of posts with press announcements already. I enjoy writing those from time to time. Same with writing in guestbooks of teams and owners I know- fun to do from time to time. You've seen some of this on the writeups I've done so far such as player numbers in the "Meet The Hippos" posts. They have new face designs that they made either last year or two years ago which are "cartoony" but not really worth posting here. I used to use player statements a lot but haven't really updated them much (not so witty and urbane stuff like "I'm the starting middie of the Hippos. I like to play defensively. Maybe I wouldn't be so defensive if people would stop making fun of my mullet.") On to the more "interesting" stuff... Logo  The story of the original logo starts here at post 72 and continues on until the end of the page (well, thru 87). That just consisted of the Hippo picture. As I have played longer, the logo has gotten larger and the current logo is hosted here at flagcreator.org. The Hippo logo is still there but a lot has been added below it. There are our three first place medals- once each for Div V, IV, and III. They have newer medals in the game but I like the older ones, too. Then there's name, series, and country. Lastly, there's my flag collection and map- we'll get to those in a week or two when we talk about flag chasing. Uniforms Next up are the uniforms. You can't just put your logo somewhere on your uniform but I was happy to have a blank canvas to design our new jerseys. That said, kits weren't always as elaborate as they are now. Look at these pixellated beauties from the archives:  So, maybe you couldn't do a whole lot- there were a handful of options and a few colors- but you could make them your own. I also remember we had some "bets" from time to time. I don't remember the exact context of this one, but I had these images sitting around:   Damn puke green socks. I even remember what most of those icons are (I can't place the brown on tan one, tho). And it looks like I was running Win2K. Now to our current logo. You have to keep in mind that I'm a socially inept engineer so no real sense of fashion. I was playing with the gradient look and went with it to make something sharp. Or at least what is sharp to someone who thinks putting on three shades of blue is ok or that a serviceable wardrobe consists of about 40 t-shirts and 5 pairs of blue jeans with 5 more of blue jean shorts for summer. So here's what we've got:  You have more than a few colors and patterns to choose from. The editor (below) is robust and you can do a lot of interesting things if you're creative enough. I have seen some really nice uniforms out there but I didn't think to take screenshots.  Arena Lastly, there's home sweet Hippodrome. It's a little big and a little gaudy. I don't fill it all that often as it takes something like 6 straight wins for my fans to be remotely happy. And the colors are a bit garish but back when they created the arena designer, it's what I went with. It's home:  You can actually change the look of things and maybe I'll do that one of these days if I ever do construction on the stadium. Anyways, here's the complete stadium page:  SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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03-27-2009, 07:34 PM
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#53 |
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College Starter
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Bay Area
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Hey SI - I'm following along - good luck in the second half of the season.
I've had my second team for about two months now and am enjoying my return to hattrick so far. I've finally got a feel for the youth squad which just annoyed me the first time. I decided to train goalkeeping since it is probably the easiest to train, and I was not sure how much time I was going to spend. I quickly bought to 17yo high inadequates at the start of the current season. I sometime later discovered that not all players have the same birthday anymore. Now I have 2 18yo nearly excellent keepers. I also keep changing my mind about what percentage of my training to devote to stamina training. I think I am back at 10% now. Since I'm in a division with 4 bots, and 3 non-active players, I should have no trouble winning - so stamina isn't important now, but I want my trainees to be in good shape in a season or so when I sell one off and switch training types. Probably my worst move so far was hiring a passable coach and firing him a few days later when I realized I had pleanty of money for a solid one. I checked out the cost for expanding my arena and now one thing I really miss from my old team was my maxed out stadium. |
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03-27-2009, 09:09 PM
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#54 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Cup, Round 9: Houston Hippopotami - Max's Marauders
Cup Game Preview
I posted these words in the US forum's Cup Round 9 thread: Quote:
After coughing up 2 all-important points to The Bridgemen this week, series points and GD are going to be more crucial than ever. I keep think that if I had played Thacker the entire game against The Bridgemen, I would have done things differently here. Next week's game against The Wahoos will be crucial and if I can win in the cup this week, I'll be able to build my team spirit back high again. I also checked to make sure there was sun- sun is good if you've got a big midfield advantage like I should and want a high scoring game. So, looking at the percentages, I'm about a 45/20/35 to win this week with a PIC versus roughly 60/15/25 on normal. If I have about a 10% advantage (i.e. 45 to 35), I feel pretty comfortable and rarely lose those games. So, I went ahead with the PIC, not quite assuming this game was in hand but that I really liked my chances. Then I could pile on The Wahoos who just are bad luck for me and seem to be able to steal points. Then I could PIC next cup game, most likely, having reached round 10, and then MotS on the road and steal the game at T Hills FC. That was the mindset going in... Cup Game Box Score Kits
Hippopotami 1 - 2 Marauders (220259794)  3-26-2009 01.00 The 81000 fans in attendance at The Hippodrome were roasting in the hot sun. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Hippopotami. The following players had been chosen: Özkutay - Linneberg, Huenul, Cyburt - Partridge, Marsh, Thacker, King, Regúlez - Tetlie, Angulo. Marauders tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. The following players took the field: Langley - Johnson, Mcneil, Cerry - Ptak, Dickinson, Mcneill, Tucker, Maher - Strong, Ulrich. Hippopotami demonstrated their creative tactics on the field. After 13 minutes, Ryan Linneberg sent the corner kick right to Zacarías Regúlez who headed it sharply past the keeper. 1-0! Some brilliant football from the visitors' right wing resulted in a levelling of the score as Marauders's Brent Ulrich put the ball in the net after 18 minutes to make it 1 - 1. The referee showed Marauders's Brent Ulrich the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Aurelius Huenul was the unlucky victim and couldn't continue the game, so Hippopotami's Chema Delcarte had to come off the bench. 1 - 1 was the score after the first half. This half belonged to Hippopotami, who controlled the ball 55 percent of the time. Slack defending gave Hippopotami a chance to take the lead with 78 minutes played, but Tor Tetlie's cross from the left flank was fumbled in front of the goal and easily dealt with by the opposition. Hippopotami's Tor Tetlie tried to break through in the middle repeatedly, but couldn't get past the visitors' defenders. Hippopotami's Oliver Angulo left the field after 85 minutes because of a nasty blow to the shin. His replacement was Erwin Vickers. Given a free kick at a sharp angle, Marauders went for a variation that loyal fans may recognize from training. A sideways passing move moved the defence out of position and let Ernie Mcneil slip through on goal. No hesitation - and it's 1 - 2, 86 minutes into the game. Brent Ulrich of Marauders got sent off for kicking the ball after the whistle, a completely uncalled for move, earning him his second yellow card of the game. A series of fine plays up the middle should have led to a goal for Hippopotami, but Tor Tetlie's shot went over the bar. Gabriel Maher of Marauders was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. Marauders's Gene Mcneill missed a penalty shot 89 minutes into the contest. The shot produced was way too weak, allowing the keeper to collect it at his own leisure. This half belonged to Hippopotami, who controlled the ball 58 percent of the time. Hippopotami's best player was Carlos Thacker. On the other hand, Erwin Vickers's play was disheartening. Marauders's best player was George Tucker. Ernie Mcneil was a disappointment, however. The match ends 1 - 2. Rating details
Highlights
Possession 55%   45% 58% 42% Cup Game Recap It's been a while since I've been this invested in a hattrick game. Over the last few seasons, my biggest diversion has been getting new flags and staying in series- both relatively easy goals, tho each with a frustration all their own. So this week really hurts- at least as much as a web game I play an hour (probably up to 3 or 4 this season with the writeups) a week can. I mean this isn't life or death. It's not even real sports, in terms of "importance". But I just sat there dazed after the loss and thought about it for a while. I guess I'm happy to have cared again in this game but I went from a pretty good high last week, crashing back down this week. So, now, in a couple of days, I've gotten kicked out of what was pretty much a sure trip to round 10 of the cup for the first time ever and I now need a lot of help to win the series. I just don't know when I'm going to have another good chance to go deep in the cup with 2 (essentially 3, tho I drew one of them) dead teams in the series. And all of this is because I overthought some long term strategy- trying to do too much that wasn't necessary. I could probably have just played Thacker in series and normal'd this game and won both. That's the hard part to swallow. Anyways, hattrick moves on. We get to focus on series now with The Wahoos coming to town. For the dynasty, lots to keep everyone interested with a writeup about Achievements already done (but I wanted to wait until I had posted the cup game). I've also started what will be a fairly lengthy bit about flag chasing since next week will be our first friendly of the season (I'm ok with that!) as I'm pretty good at it  SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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03-27-2009, 09:18 PM
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#55 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Quote:
There's one big decision I'm not sure about if I tried to start over- would I try to sandbag and stay in VI a long time, build up some cash over a few seasons (enough for a GK, strikers, and defense). I'm pretty sure I'd do the latter and then move up to IV over the couple of seasons I'm training my middies from ~solid/formidable up to ET/mythical for keeps (while training another set to sell for cash to have the cushion I need to go back to training defense at an upper level). Then I could make a serious run at III or even II. SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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03-27-2009, 11:09 PM
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#56 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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I signed up to support your team, Masked, I think. Did I pick the right team (I saw someone called MaskedOne, I think, visited the III.3 page)?
SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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03-28-2009, 07:47 PM
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#57 | ||
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College Starter
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Bay Area
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Quote:
Yep, that's me. Quote:
I'm still thinking about what is the best move. I messed around with my lineup enough in the first few weeks that I shouldn't autopromote if I end up winning the series (5-3-2 can't even beat a bot). From a pure strategy perspective, staying in 6 is probably optimal, at least until my fan club nears the cap. However, I am the only active team in my series, so it's rather dull. I'll probably end up moving up to 5 at the end of the next season and camping out there for several seasons. I'd have less profitable cup runs, but the series would provide a better challenge and I'd actually have to think about line-ups and tactics. |
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03-30-2009, 10:56 AM
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#58 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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well, another week, another virtual walkover win 8-0.
up 9 points with 5 to go. Ranked as the second autopromotion slot form III into II (II.4, currently). training defense an dplaying a variety of 3-5-2, 5-4-1, 4-4-2, and 5-3-2 depending on home/away, midfield, etc... We'll probably see the 5-3-2 CA this weekend in an away battle at the 2nd place team in iii.14. |
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04-01-2009, 09:03 AM
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#59 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Supporter Goodies Addendum: Achievements
Introduction
I had mentioned achievements a while back. The devs decided to raise supporter price for the first time in a while this week. But they've been building up to it. They've been trying to give players "more bank for their buck" and you saw from the last supporter goodies bag how things have changed and evolved in hattrick. One of the things they've introduced to try and get more tenured players to do more and try more is achievements. It's a good idea- think XBox achievements- you get points for completing differing tasks with your team and some of them will involve completely reshaping your team in one way or another. The list is here: Achievements - Hattrick However, it's not the best implemented. You can realistically get less than half of the points available. There's no chance of really getting some of the points as they are things like winning the MLS, win the Cup, or coach a Natty team. And there are a lot of things that could get players some points that would be midly difficult to attain but something worth working for. Not only that, but about a third of the points have yet to be discovered because the devs have been coy about what gets points. This is just plain stupid two years after a feature's release. Now maybe having a few scattered point unavailable- stuff that's exceptionally hard to get- that would make sense but 848/1275 is just dumb. Lastly, the learning curve on points is kindof silly- you can get most of your points within you first couple of seasons of hattrick. They couldn't retroactively give you achievements so I just now got 70 stars even tho I had done it before, but most of my points were gained within a week or two of achievements being implemented. All that said, I think they're something I could work with once I decided I'm tired with III or wherever I may go and try empty cupboard. You'll see below that some of them are "team sculpting"- where you have to get a team that averages a certain value with certain attributes. Others, I think I can attain currently but a lot of those are long shots. Here's it all breaks down: Achievements Tally Team Achievements In their classification of "Team Achievements", I have a bunch of easy ones: bought player, sold player, skill up, pulled youth player, rebought a youth player, and promoted player to HOF. With the number of my youth academy players floating around out there, especially ones who aren't very good and thus are cheap, I think "Sold a rebought youth player (10 pts)" should be pretty easy. I have maxed out fan club size (3000+) and cash is king ($10M+). Last season, I got up to team rank 46 so I broke the 50 barrier (+50) at one point. I was close this season to "Advance to Cup Round 10 = 35 pts" (up from 20). I don't think I'm ever getting past that (round 13 is 45 points and round 14 is 65 points) but I guess there's a chance I could eventually get back to that point. I doubt I'll ever get the points for 1.2M TSI (30 -> 50 pts) or Team ranked #1 (50 -> 100). Already: +10 (bought) +10 (sold) +10 (skill up) +10 (youth pull) +10 (youth pull rebuy) +15 (HOF) Also: +30 (600K TSI) +35 ($10M cash) +30 (3K fans) +50 (team rank 50) +20 (cup rd 7) Likely: +10 (rebuy) Possible Beyond That: +15 (cup rd 10) +5 (rank 50) Match Achievements In "Match Achievements", if I go Empty Cupboard or just forego training/winning for a while, I can pick up quite a few points here. First, the harder stuff. I just reached 70 stars in a match and I'm not sure I can hit 80 without a huge outlay of cash. Similarly, I've been sitting on the "average match rating of excellent" since they pretty much unveiled this so if I don't top that this season with a formidable (14 -> 17), then I'm not getting it. I've already got the points for the "international friendly match" (10). Then there are some wacky ones where you have to cater your team to get them. There's veteran lineup (+35) for average age over 35. Youthful lineup (+35) for under 18, including one player from outside your club. Academy lineup (+35) is for under 18 and all players are youth pulls- that has to take some planning as you can only pull so many guys in a season and you still have to have an average age under 18. And then there's home grown lineup (+25) where everyone is from the youth system but average age is 18 or above. So, if you're really good, you can get all 3 of the bottom ones in about a season but you have to tailor your team towards it. Already: +10 (intl friendly) Also: +30 (70 stars) +14 (exc match) Possible: +3 (form match) Long Term: +35 (veteran) +35 (youthful) +35 (academy) +25 (home grown) Manager and Special Achievements Then there are the "Manager Achievements". I doubt I'll ever get the elected coach of U20 or Natty team. I have gotten my award for "conference post" and press announcement", 10 each. I guess any FOFC hatties that are left could take turns making a little fed and getting maybe 5 (+5) or 10 (+10) people to join but that's about the extent there. Lastly, we have "Special Awards" where you again have to tailor your team to average nice, nasty, honest, or dishonest. Also, there's one for having 0 expenses (no players, staff, and stadium, I guess...)- again, part of an empty cupboard experiment. Already: +10 (conf post) +10 (press) Possible: +10 (fed) Long Term: +15 (nice) +15 (dishonest) +15 (nasty) +15 (honest) +15 (0 expenses) Raw Data
Achievements Tally Already Total: 95 Also Total: 209 (+95 = 304 total currently) Likely Total: 10 Possible Total: 33 Long Term Total: 205 Absolute Possible Total: 552 That would be good for #3 in the US but I'm sure by then a lot of people could have topped that. If I started today, I could start working towards those 205 and max out at 519 (304 + 205 + 10) but even that would take a few seasons and I'm having too much fun where I'm at. So, again, ultimately, it's a fun little diversion but nothing to completely revamp my team over. SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" Last edited by sterlingice : 04-01-2009 at 11:36 AM. |
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04-01-2009, 08:54 PM
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#60 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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I realized as I went back to do a cut-and-paste (I do that a lot for formatting), I noticed the week 6 fixture had the wrong title and text! Probably made that one a bit confusing. It's edited now and probably makes a lot more sense
 SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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04-02-2009, 01:25 PM
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#61 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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I let my supporter subscription last and I don't think i'm going to renew it ever...
here's my achievement list: Date Achievement Points How common Team * 12-3-2006 Cash is king 25 81 712 * 12-4-2006 Pulled a youth player 10 798 319 * 12-7-2006 Sold player 10 737 462 * 12-15-2006 Player's skill increased 10 843 213 * 12-18-2006 Bought player 10 865 065 * 1-14-2007 Squad total TSI reached 616410 30 38 378 * 4-12-2007 Advanced from round 3 in the Cup 10 181 180 * 9-5-2007 Rebought a former youth player 10 34 714 * 9-8-2007 Sold a rebought youth player 10 43 742 * 1-18-2009 Promoted player to Hall Of Fame 15 31 204 * 3-2-2009 Team was ranked 48 50 12 530 * 3-16-2009 Fan club size reached 3001 members 30 9 547 Matches * 12-1-2006 Played international friendly match 10 773 687 * 2-5-2007 Team reached an average match rating of formidable 17 6 669 * 6-12-2008 Academy lineup 35 1 464 * 9-29-2008 Team reached 70 stars in a match 30 16 057 Manager * 11-28-2006 Wrote a forum post 10 475 069 * 11-29-2006 Wrote a press announcement 10 200 008 Total 332 of 1275 possible points |
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04-05-2009, 11:47 AM
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Fixture, Week 9: Houston Hippopotami - Wahoos
Fixture Preview
After all of the disasters of last week, this game is as much a guaranteed win as is out there. The Wahoos are prone to upsetting teams but beyond that, I have every advantage: being at home, having built up a huge team spirit edge, and I even have good form and almost all of my players available (Quijada is still nursing an injury but King can more than adequately fill in). Kits
Hippopotami 3 - 1 Wahoos (217931305)  3-30-2009 01.00 56856 spectators had come to The Hippodrome this cloudy day. Hippopotami started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. They fielded: Özkutay - Linneberg, Huenul, Cyburt - Partridge, Marsh, Thacker, King, Regúlez - Tetlie, Angulo. Wahoos decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. Starters: Tuttle - Vanhove, Cavini, Houser - Dänzer, Hollis, Farmer, Gates, Braz - Suitts, Nix. Hippopotami displayed their ability to play creatively. Hippopotami broke through on the left 10 minutes into the game, with Tor Tetlie firing in from an acute angle to give the home side a 1 - 0 lead. Oliver Angulo should probably have put his team up another goal after 34 minutes, but some great goalkeeping by Jayson Tuttle kept the visitors in the game. A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased Hippopotami's lead to 2 - 0 as Arkadiusz Cyburt finished it off competently, firing from an acute angle. By now, Hippopotami were drawing the troops back in order to defend their lead. Charlie Partridge's experience almost gave Hippopotami a goal after 38 minutes but the keeper made a great save. After 42 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by Ryan Linneberg might have resulted in another goal for Hippopotami. However, Jayson Tuttle made a spectacular save. Wahoos's Charles Gates was shown a yellow card after 43 minutes for slicing down an opponent. Unfortunately for Hippopotami, Oliver Angulo was injured when the game became more physical, and he had to leave the field. Volfs Treibahs replaced him. Halftime score was 2 - 0. Hippopotami enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 66 percent of possession. After 59 minutes, Hippopotami sent a free kick in high over the penalty box. In what looked like a well-rehearsed move, the ball was headed backwards and reached Carlos Thacker, who had plenty of space to place a well aimed shot and score the 3 - 0 goal. A great save by keeper Jayson Tuttle after 79 minutes kept the visitors in the game after Tor Tetlie struck from the left with a real cannonball. Wahoos's Jakob Dänzer got himself booked for a foul. Hippopotami were forced to a substitution as Carlos Thacker couldn't continue playing due to the rough treatment, forcing Thomas Little to come in from the sidelines. The visitors replied 81 minutes into the game, scoring the 3 - 1 goal, as Marc Nix dashed up the middle, easily lobbing the ball over the home team's keeper. Hippopotami claimed to be the more dominant force in the game, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 64 percent. Hippopotami's top performer was clearly John King. However, Arkadiusz Cyburt made a disastrous appearance. Most important Wahoos player was Marc Nix. Wilbur Houser on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 3 - 1. Rating details
Highlights
Possession 66%   34% 64% 36% Series Standings
Fixture Recap So the 2 match "I got a worse result than expected result" bug is gone again, only to be replaced by the "here, have some more injuries and cards" bug again. Thacker isn't a big deal as he will be out less than a week but Angulo will miss the game next week against T Hills FC. Speaking of which, I'll be MotS'ing that game next week in an attempt to pick up some road points as I have two walkovers after that to build my team spirit back up. Elsewhere around the league, Selma knocked off Supra and will probably be on top to stay now unless I have something to say about it. Next up, the start of Hippo Friendly Cup #18. SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" Last edited by sterlingice : 04-05-2009 at 12:01 PM. |
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04-06-2009, 10:15 AM
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#63 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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Well a 2-1 loss with a catastrophic +7 to my 31 yo starting forward, so the search is on for a replacement.
still up 6 with 4 to play and facing the current #2 at home this weekend. |
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04-06-2009, 01:23 PM
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#64 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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Apparently #1 in III with a close 2-1 loss when "they have the edge" results in no gain or loss of supporters at 3016.
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04-06-2009, 08:43 PM
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#65 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Well, you've seen me talk about the "smart fans"
SI
__________________
Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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04-08-2009, 01:39 PM
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#66 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Flag Chasing the Hippo Way
I enjoy flag chasing. Sure, it's virtual, but it's a chance to envision my team going to or hosting teams from another country every week. Apparently, I'm pretty good at it, mainly on the grounds that I've been doing it since before they were keeping track. That and early exits from the cup- that helps, too *sigh*. It's the one really big pursuit I've made over the past few seasons.
Here are a couple of quick definitions for the uninitiated. "Flag chasing" is basically playing friendlies against teams from other countries, either by "visiting" them in their stadiums or "hosting" them in yours. Coolness is a calculation based on the number of users in a country versus the number of users in the entire game. It's basically a ratio which helps show rarity, found by dividing the total number of players in hattrick (965K) by the number of users in a given country. For example, Spain and their 98K users is worth 9.76 "coolness" points while Suriyah (Syria) and their 16 users are worth over 60K points. Here are my flag chasing statistics and then it's my 50c guide to flag chasing. Rankings: Maptrick Visiting 4th in USA Coolness Visited (1001885.81 of 1109645.99) 83rd in the World Coolness Visited 3rd in USA Flags Visited (121 of 124) 41st in the World Flags Visited Only team in USA with 100% is Lilliputians in V.141 Other teams above me: FC MTU Huskies (V.187: 1.040M/122) and FC Drakkar (II.1: 1.038M/115) There's only one other team over 800K coolness in the US so I think it's fair to say we're the premier flag chasers in the US. The Lilliputians are one of about 25 teams in the entire world with a complete set of visited flags. Hosting 15th in USA Coolness Hosted (204906.79 of 1109645.99) 785th in the World Coolness Hosted 105th in USA Flags Hosted (36 of 124) Highest in coolness and flags is 588670.87/111 by Oshkockers in IV.49 I started hosting teams after I was down to only a few teams left to chase. At that point, it was no guarantee that I would get a new flag to visit each week so I started trying to collected hosted ones. As you can see, I'm not that prolific on the flags list as I didn't start in earnest all that long ago. However, I've been targeting rare countries so my coolness is high up the list. Another couple of weeks of good luck and I'll break into the top 10 there. Visiting PLUS Hosting 2nd in USA Coolness (1206792.60) 117th in the World Coolness Coolness- trailing only Lilliputians 6th in USA Flags (157) 210th in the World Flags For flags, there are 4 teams not already listed- all with 170+ flags, led by III.5's Mountain Kings with 178. I'd like to keep moving up this list or at least stay put on the coolness chart. Some lower division teams who lose earlier in the cup will keep passing me in flags as they have more opportunity. Or they will until they hit the hard flags but we'll get to that and how there's a "skill" to flag chasing. SterlingIce's Guide to Flag Chasing Introduction I almost hate to write this as it poaches some of my best flag chasing ground and increases my competition with players who haven't thought this though. I don't worry for the FOFC'ers who snag these ideas but for others who might stumble across here and then repost it elsewhere (please don't). Then again, it's in my typical rambling incoherent style so perhaps that will act as a deterrent. Really, tho, I hope I put this in a well flowing and organized treatise for your perusal. It's going to sound like a lot of common sense stuff but not everyone has a good method for their madness. There are a lot of teams that just try to shotgun their way throughout this process without thinking and they're going to run into a wall eventually. Thinking about how I've done it so far and continuing to improve my methods is why I continue to do pretty well. Oh yeah, that and a ton of luck. Basic Pitfalls and Lessons in Flag Chasing The biggest takeaway is that those rare flags are so damn hard to get. Anyone can get any flag from any country that has more than III divisions (168 teams). And I do mean anyone. It's those countries that have III or less that are next to impossible and require patience and luck. Especially if you're just some nondescript Div III team in the USA. Being, say, the Kawasaki Tigers during their dynastic run in Japan probably helps to bring some flags home (they have all 124 visited). Being in III helps but only so much. Being in the USA doesn't help a lick. And it's a lot easier to visit than to host since teams would rather you foot the $6000 bill for traveling than themselves. It's kindof silly since if you're in a small country and only have 1500 or so fans in your fan club, you'd get more cash traveling to someone with a 3000 fan club than hosting them at your place even after the $6000 cost. But teams don't think that way. Most of those teams in smaller countries realize they are rare and sought after so they extract a premium for getting their flags. Some want you to join pyramid scheme feds they started so they get achievement points. They promise teams a friendly if they enter crazy drawings and contests but only once the fed size reaches a hundred or two. Many have "agents" who arrange their friendlies- I'm not sure what their angle is except maybe that they have two teams or something like that (anyone know?). Some will only play other rare countries (<30 users). And, my favorite, as it happens every couple of months: I'll get a spam from a team that I challenged who will play me if I pay for their supporter for 3 months. Those get reported to GMs. "Good" Teams Since I can't challenge every team out there, as I can only have 25 at a given time, I need to choose my challenges wisely. Otherwise, they will never get fulfilled and those spaces are just going to waste. Before challenging a team, I like to look at their match history. If they have played friendlies the previous 4 weeks then they're a pretty safe bet. There are times when you need even more granularity than that. In that history do you see them only playing all road games or all home games? If so, they probably also collect flags in some fashion or have some set thought about their friendlies. If you're looking to host a team at your arena, don't pick a team that only plays home games because they probably won't make an exception to travel and visit you. Initial Challenge Methodology I have two "methods" for filling out my 25 challenges. First, I pick some "good" teams from the three countries I'm still lacking (Dawlat Qatar, Dhivehi Raajje, and Uganda). Again, this definition of "good" goes back to the previous paragraphs- teams that have actively played friendlies, particularly where you want to play them. I like to use this to fill up my first 15 or so friendlies. Those are the countries I most want to play so I want those to have the "longest" time possible on the challenge board. What about those other friendlies? This is where the work comes in to increase your odds. When do you start? Well, midnight ET on Wednesday is the first time you can schedule international friendlies and the early bird does get the worm, in theory. First, you can check the pool about 10 minutes to midnight- there are usually a couple of interesting locales with under 100 users who might have, say, any Div III as one of their options. I open a couple of tabs and try to furiously hit those at midnight on the dot but I have yet to beat the other hundreds of users probably doing the same. It's kindof funny to watch as anything with under 100 users is gone in about 5 seconds, under 300 is gone in under a minute, and under 1000 is another couple of minutes, tops. You can almost see people clicking to accept those friendlies. When that invariably fails, I add myself to the pool with one of the three countries I still need and any location. I have yet to get a hit this way but it's a "free" challenge that doesn't take up one of my 25 spots so I keep trying. At this point, I fill in the first 10 or 15 teams as stated above. In those countries, some of the "good" teams will be traveling so I put bookmark them to challenge in the morning when they have returned home overnight. Then I go to sleep with challenges to about 20 teams in the three countries I need. After the First Night Odds are I haven't gotten a hit and some of those teams have already accepted challenges so I'm back down below 15. I add a couple more from the traveling teams from the previous paragraph. Then it's time to fill out those other 10ish spots. So, if it's hard to get anything less than ~100, where should you start your search every week? I ask myself "where would I be happy getting a friendly from this week"? That answer typically starts around the 40 user mark (Oman's 39 for me right now), grows to 60 (Senegal's 64) by Friday, and then if I haven't heard anything by Monday morning, we're up into the 100+ range (Chinese Taipei and 143 is currently the big cutoff since I have UAE's 146). Maybe that needs some clarification. When do you know that a team could be considering grabbing a friendly and is an active team? When they're online. So, I go through the list of countries above, depending on how deep into the friendly week we are, and just search for online users in those countries. If they are open for a challenge, I challenge them. If they are "good" teams, then I leave them on the list usually until the end of the week. If they don't play friendlies that often, I bookmark them to be unchallenged the next time I need space for challenges. These teams cycle through a lot more quickly as, again, teams that are online, particularly on Thursday and Friday, are looking to square away their friendly schedule. If you challenge, say, 6 online teams- the next time you check in a couple of hours, all but 2 of those teams have accepted other challenges (or maybe yours and you're done) and you challenge another 6 teams. The other prime times seem to be Saturday when filling out lineups, Sunday during fixtures, and Monday when checking fixture results. But, those events occur at vastly different times for different countries, so you typically have a pool of a few new teams to challenge every couple of hours. "Sorry, but international friendlies cannot be arranged at the moment. This is only possible from Thursday 0600 to Tuesday 1800, Hattrick Time (CET)." About Monday at noon becomes desperation time as you're down to 24 hours left. Sometimes you're just unlucky. This is the part of flag chasing that requires patience and persistence and can ultimately be maddening. You have to be able to know when to cut your losses and who you would be ok with playing when. This past week I held out a little longer than I normally did and snagged a friendly with a Div I team from 49 user Lubnan. I could have just as easily logged in Tuesday morning and still had nothing and scrambled to grab a friendly with some 10000 person country like England and Israel. I got lucky this week. Next week, maybe not. Why Go Small If you make your net too big early in the week, you'll miss out on your change to get a really good flag. For instance, you can challenge or accept a challenge from someone in Espana pretty much any time of the week from the minute friendlies open up to the last minute you can arrange an international friendly on Tuesday. Why? Because they have almost 100K users so at any given time, there's someone looking for a friendly. Back when I started doing flag chasing, before it was "big business", I tried to organize themes like the Hippos European Tour where I'd only visit countries from Europe. Or I think I had a "6 continents in 6 weeks" Tour one time- that sort of theme. However, nowadays, for me, rarity trumps everything. Think of flag chasing like a marathon fantasy baseball draft. If you think a player you could snag in the 20th round could give you 5th round production you don't grab him in the 5th round, you wait until about 18. Why? Because what's better- 5th round production from a 18th round guy *and* 5th round production from a 5th round guy or 5th and 20th round production from 5th and 20th round guys? If I can get a rare flag now and spend time trying to get it- that's one less rare flag I have to get later. And it's a lot easier to spend 10 weeks trying to get that Lubnan flag with some fallbacks when you don't rather than trying futilely to get it for weeks in a row when you've already used up all of your Frances, Germanys, and Italys and those do you no good. After all, those easy flags will always be there to snag during the weeks you can't get the rare ones. But the rare ones won't always be there. Closing Lastly, if a team does accept a friendly, show some gratitude. I know that I am happy for every flag that I get so I try to show it. If they have supporter, this one is easy- leave a guestbook note either before or after the game. I'll throw in something about a good crowd, no injuries, thanking them for vising- those sorts of things. It's just the polite thing to do. I think a PM might be a little over the top unless they sent you one, but a guestbook note is perfect. Well, I hope you've enjoyed the long-winded flag chasing tour. It might have given you some food for thought or cured insomnia. Either way, just don't go stealing my good hunting ground SI
__________________
Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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04-09-2009, 04:55 PM
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#67 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Friendly, Round 10: Houston Hippopotami - Falasteen FC
New Trainee I had been floating both Delcarte and Linneberg to see if one or the other would get a bite for a few weeks now and someone bit on Linneberg to the tune of $3.25M. So, with one of our divine set pieces guys gone- that means Delcarte will be with the team long enough this season to hopefully reach world class defending before we sell him off. But that opens up a new training spot. After a couple of bidding battles, Li Yunxin came to us at a slightly overpriced $1.53M. He will be the new Hippo defender who will plug in at the backup set pieces defender until we sell off Delcarte. He's only excellent defendering but nrg pop has him -1 from formidable so he should pop next week. I also like having a head specialist defending our goal from set pieces attacks so all is good. 李 (Li) 云欣 (Yunxin) (206770792) 22 years and 5 days, Next birthday: 7-25-2009 Born in: China In inadequate form, excellent stamina. A pleasant guy who is balanced and infamous. Has poor experience and weak leadership abilities. Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 4-5-2009 (10/38), 4d) Total Skill Index (TSI): 1 020 Wage: 684 $ (570 $) US/week including 20% Bonus Warnings: 2 Injuries: Healthy Speciality: Head Stamina: excellent Keeper: disastrous Playmaking: poor Passing: weak Winger: wretched Defending: excellent Scoring: poor Set pieces: divine Friendly Preview So now that you've gotten the crash course in flag chasing, you'll understand some of the random countries that I'm visiting. This week we will be hosting Falasteen FC from II.4 in Al Urdun. That's Jordan for you English speakers. It's a country with 70 active users so it's pretty sparesely populated and worth over 13000 coolness points, good for 29th in the world. Like early cup games, there's not much to say about friendlies. Speak to the flag being chased, hope for no injuries, and get some training. I'll run a 5-4-1 or 5-3-2 to maximize 5 defenders getting training along with keeping my useful subs in good form. I'm going to try to work in some youth academy players during friendly season so I can basically day train them up to the next level from where I pull them and get some more cash. Friendly Box Score Kits
Hippopotami 2 - 1 Falasteen (220630513) 4-2-2009 01.00 The 5547 spectators at The Hippodrome were in for an afternoon of sunshine. Hippopotami had chosen a strategic 5-4-1 formation. The following players took the field: Mĺnholt - Delcarte, Armengol, Kavelashvili, Gafni, Williams - Sidorczak, Brik, Vickers, Weissglass - Benito. Falasteen decided to use a 5-3-2 set up. They fielded: Putz - Pinilla, De Schijnkel, Wassell, Grosmüller, Cortazar - Anderson, MacCrie, Dumitrascu - Rosário, Bister. Using their counter-attacking abilities was the strategy of choice for Hippopotami on this day. The home side put themselves ahead 1 - 0 after 2 minutes courtesy of a breakthrough from Stephen Williams, who, unaided, came in from the right wing hooking the ball over the visitors' keeper. The home side's Adir Weissglass came close to extending the lead 5 minutes into the game. His shot came in from the right hand side but Maximilian Putz managed to save it with an unbelievable reaction stop. Donald Sidorczak almost managed to score another goal for Hippopotami, coming from the right, but his header was tipped to a corner by the visitors' keeper. Good work by Falasteen's defensive line produced a couple of good counterattack chances, one of which cut elegantly down the middle of the pitch and found José Manuel Cortazar alone in front of the goal, but his shot whistled just wide. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, Hippopotami's Stephen Williams got himself booked. Halftime score was 1 - 0. Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 72 percent of possession. Roberto Pinilla's technique was perfect on this sunny day and led to some amazing plays that fooled the defence. Xacobo Armengol unleashed a swerving effort from the right that the visitors' keeper did well to tip wide. After 76 minutes, Dylan MacCrie sent the corner kick right to Marek Anderson who headed it sharply past the keeper. 1-1! After 80 minutes, Hippopotami's Chema Delcarte fell awkwardly, but was determined to stay in the match. Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 72 percent of possession. After the regular 90 minutes, the agony of overtime followed. The defensive line of Falasteen created a counterattack through the middle that gave Daniel Dumitrascu a good look at the goal, but his shot glanced harmlessly off the crossbar. The referee signaled a penalty for the home side after 110 minutes, amid vocal protests from the visitors. Hippopotami fans erupted in celebration as Chema Delcarte rifled the go-ahead goal into the the top corner. 2 - 1! With that Hippopotami had won the game in extra time. Hippopotami's top performer was clearly Donald Sidorczak. On the other hand, Xacobo Armengol's play was disheartening. Most important Falasteen player was Marek Anderson. Maximilian Putz on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 2 - 1. Rating details
Highlights
Possession 72%   28% 72% 28% Friendly Recap A nice crowd of over 5000 netted our visitor almost $25K so even after travel expenses, that's $19K. It's a lot better than most teams would get at home since I have a big fan club and they're happy. Like I mentioned in the flag chasing post- no one wants to view it that way. They just see that they aren't spending $6K never mind that they only made $10K at home. No new injuries this week, except for a bruised so that's good. No idea where we're heading next week. Actually I do since we're about a week behind, but work with me here (hint: it rhymes with Bebanon). Until next time... SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" Last edited by sterlingice : 04-10-2009 at 11:55 PM. |
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04-10-2009, 11:10 PM
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#68 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Fixture, Week 10: T Hills FC - Houston Hippopotami
Fixture Preview
If we want to have any chance of winning the series, we need to flip some road points here. T Hills FC is probably the 5th best team in the series, ahead of the two dead teams and the Bridgemen. However, the gap between each team in the top 5 is a lot smaller than the drop to 6. We have the two walkovers coming up so I'm going to MotS to try and steal these points. He had a walkover last week and has one next week, so if he wanted to, he could MotS me and I probably couldn't do anything about it. But, if you're him, unless you've been really paying attention, you have no reason to believe I'd MotS so a normal should be just fine. Angulo is out so Treibahs will be playing the second forward spot. Quijada is still out, too. We're going to flip things around and strongly defend the left and attack on the right, a mirror image of what we normally do. He likes to get tricky and try to change things up. In most games, I play the same sides and lineup so teams can stack sides against me normally. However, I take teams by surprise when I change things and that's more useful to me in the long run. This one is going to be close... Kits
Hills 2 - 3 Hippopotami (217931310) 4-6-2009 01.00 A brilliantly sunny day had enticed a crowd of 60634 to the 50 Meter Pool. Hills had chosen a strategic 4-5-1 formation. Starters: Santos Lima - Tison, Česonis, de Bertole, Donchev - Eifert, Pavón, Lacy, Blackburn, Irzykowski - Bălănica. Hippopotami decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. The following players had been chosen: Özkutay - Cyburt, Huenul, Delcarte - Regúlez, Marsh, King, Thacker, Partridge - Treibahs, Tetlie. Hippopotami decided to play creatively. Given a free kick in a difficult position after 27 minutes, Hills did not go for a direct shot but instead aimed for the area just in front of the keeper. The attacking players made several runs as the ball was played and made it hard for the defenders to protect their goal. After a short tussle with the defender, Marvin Eifert could finally lay the ball to rest behind the keeper. 1 - 0, and proof it can pay off to come prepared. Tor Tetlie finished off a quick charge from the left of the field by chipping the ball just past the home side's keeper, making the score 1 - 1 33 minutes into the match. Hippopotami's Aurelius Huenul was shown a yellow card after 34 minutes for slicing down an opponent. Hippopotami's 1 - 2 goal came on a questionable penalty, but Chema Delcarte struck that one home without a second thought. With 39 minutes played, Charlie Partridge nearly put the visitors another one up as he broke through in the middle and fired from just outside the box, but his shot passed just over the bar. 1 - 2 was the halftime score. Hippopotami enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 54 percent of possession. Marvin Eifert's speed was clear to see after 47 minutes as he darted past his marker and struck an opening pass to Valeriu Bălănica who scored the 2-2 goal. Hippopotami's Chema Delcarte managed to lose the defenders as he came down the right side and scored, putting the visitors ahead, 2 - 3. A series of fine plays up the middle should have led to a goal for Hills, but Eloy Lacy's shot went over the bar. Unsportsmanlike behaviour by Aurelius Huenul rendered him his second booking of the match, and Hippopotami had to finish the game with a reduced squad. A great pass from the defensive line of Hills resulted in a counterattack that was smoothly brought under control by Valeriu Bălănica in the centre of the opposition's penalty area, but his finish went high. Hippopotami enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 52 percent of possession. The most dominating Hills player was without a doubt Nate Blackburn. However, Franck Tison made a disastrous appearance. Most important Hippopotami player was Carlos Thacker. Chema Delcarte on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 2 - 3. Rating details
Highlights
Possession 46%   54% 48% 52% Series Standings
Fixture Recap It was indeed close and I was worried most of the game. If we had lost here, any hope of winning the series was gone and a draw would have made it almost impossible. In a perfect world, next week we'll win 9-0 to help the GD, get team spirit from the PIC, and get yellow cards for all of our players with 2 so that they can sit the next week in the second walkover. Those could be a little problem down the stretch as Thacker and Partridge both have 2 and each are starters for a reason. Heunul and his red card will have to sit out next week but that's no big deal. There were really no other important matches in the series this week. Wahoos and Supra had the two walkovers. Bridgemen and Selma were scoreless for almost 60 minutes before the Sumorats picked up 2 goals. I would have loved a draw there as it would have put me back in the driver's seat and what better than the Bridgemen getting their only non-walkover points against the two teams battling for 1st. I hate to say it, but for the next couple of weeks, things are going to get boring. Two walkovers and some friendlies. There will be a lot of scoreboard watching as there are only 4 weeks left in the season. However, after the walkovers, we finish up with games at Selma and the finale is at home against Supra. I'll get to work on another feature to keep the readers interested. This one is going to be a real page turner- it's all about the front office, training, and finances. Get your pocket protectors and taped together glasses ready! Next up, the Hippo Friendly Cup (#18) rolls on... SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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04-10-2009, 11:56 PM
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#69 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Friendly, Round 11: Houston Hippopotami - FPM
Friendly Preview
This week, we get a friendly visit from FPM. They're the #3 team in Lubnan's (Lebanon's) Div I, called Al Dawry Al Aam Al Lubnani. I love playing Div I teams. Back before I went for rarity- I tried to challenge only Div I teams for quite a while. One season, I hosted a bunch of teams rather than traveling for the HFC. I had 11,078 fans attend a game against the top team in Vietnam at the time (Saigon Saints) and saw the value in playing top ranked teams. After that, I really tried to play Div I teams both for money but also for prestige. By my count, I believe I have played 72 Div I teams to date including in some rather large countries like Argentina, Belgie, Chile, Portugal, and Suomi (all 20K fans or more). Again, this was a lot easier before flag chasing became "big business". As for the friendly itself, we'll be running out a lineup full of trainable youth and substitution-y goodness. It's another 5-4-1 to maximize training. We will probably get killed, but it's just a friendly. Friendly Box Score Kits
Hippopotami 0 - 6 FPM (220985714)  4-9-2009 01.00 Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and The Hippodrome saw a crowd turnout of 7848. A 5-4-1 alignment was the formation of choice for Hippopotami. Lineup: Mĺnholt - 云欣 (Yunxin), Kavelashvili, Armengol, Gafni, Williams - Sidorczak, Little, Vickers, Brik - Weissglass. FPM decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. Lineup: Bindels - Bino, Al-Dahhan, Ozeri - Ardeleanu, van der Pol, Guedes, Traberg, Claesson - Ońez y Loyola, Risi. Hippopotami preferred to finish off their attacks from a distance. Intentions were certainly good, but the FPM indirect free kick combination after 7 minutes was easily anticipated by the defenders. That was a textbook example of how to defend a free kick - the attackers were left with few viable options. A penalty was given after 16 minutes, allowing the visitors to gain the lead: 0 - 1. Samuel Risi was the scorer. FPM's Hadad Bino received a play slashing through the home side's central defense after 21 minutes, and chipped it past the keeper to score the 0 - 2 goal. The home crowd was not pleased with that one. By now, FPM were drawing the troops back in order to defend their lead. The visitors' Leif Traberg took advantage of an error due to a misunderstanding between the home side's goalie and central backs 31 minutes into the match. 0 - 3 for FPM. It was 0 - 3 at the break. FPM held the ball, with a clear 66 percent of possession. Some fine manoeuvring on the left led to a FPM goal after 55 minutes, making it 0 - 4. Hĺkan Claesson was noted down as the scorer. The visitors' Patricio Ońez y Loyola took advantage of an error due to a misunderstanding between the home side's goalie and central backs 56 minutes into the match. 0 - 5 for FPM. The visitors' Abdulah Qasim Al-Dahhan took advantage of an error due to a misunderstanding between the home side's goalie and central backs 57 minutes into the match. 0 - 6 for FPM. FPM claimed to be the more dominant force in the game, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 69 percent. The most dominating Hippopotami player was without a doubt Donald Sidorczak. Xacobo Armengol turned in a dismal performance, however. Samuel Risi performed admirably for FPM. On the other hand, Hĺkan Claesson's play was disheartening. The match ends 0 - 6. Rating details
Highlights
Possession 34% 66% 31% 69% Friendly Recap Yup, lost. No injuries. Great crowd. New flag. Can't ask for much more. By some freak occurrence, the 7848 matched our second highest friendly total ever, a match back in season 27 against a Div I Jamaican team. Press Announcement After the game, I did a little advertising. The game really was quite profitable and there's an off chance a prospective challenged team could accept if they see some good results. We still have those lone 3 countries out there to visit Quote:
Oh, and it turns out, we'll be taking a week off of flag chasing. We'll be playing some Div III USA team that has been stalking us for a couple of weeks. FF CC or something like that SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" Last edited by sterlingice : 04-10-2009 at 11:57 PM. |
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04-13-2009, 12:36 AM
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#70 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Fixture, Week 11: Houston Hippopotami - amblerabsbestos
Fixture Preview
Next week is the true walkover but this week is the one where we run up the score to help our GD as most teams have been beating amblerabsbestos 9-0 lately. I'm hoping for around that but I'm PIC'ing and just hoping for no injuries. Also, a moment of silence for our longest running rival in III.3. This will be our 14th and final match and while I have a somewhat lopsided record of 9-2-2 against him coming in, 9 of the 14 matches have been decided by 2 goals or fewer. Our 35-16 GD was badly distorted by the 8-0 win I had earlier this year. Kits
Hippopotami 8 - 0 amblerabsbestos (217931317)  4-13-2009 01.00 Due to an all-day shower, 46495 paying spectators got to see a match on a pitch-turned-bog at The Hippodrome. Hippopotami started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. Starters: Özkutay - Delcarte, Kavelashvili, Cyburt - Partridge, Marsh, Thacker, King, Regúlez - Tetlie, Angulo. amblerabsbestos decided to use a 4-4-2 set up. The following players had been chosen: Robles - Kowalski, Noyes, Caudillo, Hollis - Kenney, Granado, Burnett, Sparks - Waldron, Scales. Hippopotami took a creative approach on the field. Hippopotami took the lead after 13 minutes, as a result of Tor Tetlie's awkward, but ultimately successful, shot from the right. 1 - 0. There wasn't much opportunity for rapid movements on this wet day, which hindered Charlie Partridge in particular. The defenders were clearly outwitted by Hippopotami after 18 minutes. The disciplined free kick combination shifted the ball quickly to one side of the box, then back to the other. Oliver Angulo appeared on cue near the post, and steered it past the goalie. 2 - 0. Volfs Treibahs was called on to replace Hippopotami's Tor Tetlie after 20 minutes following a nasty collision. Oliver Angulo gave Hippopotami supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 3 - 0 after 25 minutes, following a good exchange of passes on the right that the away team failed to deal with. The Hippopotami free kick 28 minutes into the match seemed wasted, as the shot was both short and off target. But there was an idea to it - the misdirected ball was turned into a cross towards Volfs Treibahs, who was waiting for it in the box. That's 4 - 0! Don't forget to thank the assistant coach for that gem of a routine! Hippopotami's Volfs Treibahs got himself booked for a foul. The player down was Richard Waldron. The amblerabsbestos bench looked worried for a while, but in the end he managed to get up. Things were deteriorating for the away team as Hippopotami scored another to make it 5 - 0 after a left side attack resulted in a goal for Volfs Treibahs after 43 minutes. By now, Hippopotami were drawing the troops back in order to defend their lead. Hippopotami's Volfs Treibahs left the field after 44 minutes because of a nasty blow to the shin. His replacement was Donald Sidorczak. It was 5 - 0 at the break. This half belonged to Hippopotami, who controlled the ball 90 percent of the time. After 57 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by Oliver Angulo might have resulted in another goal for Hippopotami. However, Lawrence Robles made a spectacular save. Marciano Caudillo was uncomfortable with the soggy pitch as he couldn't move the ball around with his usual grace. With 70 minutes played, Oliver Angulo could have brought this one home for Hippopotami as he charged up on the left, but his hooked ball went just a bit too high. A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased Hippopotami's lead to 6 - 0 as Donald Sidorczak finished it off competently, firing from an acute angle. Hippopotami solidified their lead at the 80 minute mark, as Oliver Angulo manoeuvered the ball through the opposing central defence and finished for 7 - 0. That was his third goal of the match - a hat trick for Oliver Angulo. Ricky Kenney didn't let the weather get him down and made some great moves on the pitch in spite of the rain. A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased Hippopotami's lead to 8 - 0 as Charlie Partridge finished it off competently, firing from an acute angle. amblerabsbestos's Richard Waldron got himself booked for a foul. Hippopotami claimed to be the more dominant force in the game, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 92 percent. The most dominating Hippopotami player was without a doubt Batı Özkutay. However, Donald Sidorczak made a disastrous appearance. Ricky Kenney performed admirably for amblerabsbestos. Kermit Scales turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 8 - 0. Rating details
Highlights
Possession 90%   10% 92% 8% Series Standings
Fixture Recap Seriously, can I buy a break on the injury front? As soon as Angulo gets back, Tetlie and Treibahs both go down with +3s. Thankfully next week is a true walkover so it doesn't matter who I put at forward. Hopefully Tetlie, or at least Treibahs, can get healthy in time for the huge match in two weeks at Selma. Nothing really interesting on the scoreboard this week. The Wahoos held back and got hammered 5-0 by Selma. The Bridgemen put up another good fight, this time at Supra, but it wasn't nearly enough, losing 4-2. T Hills had the Kickers walkover that we will enjoy next week. Speaking of which, that will guarantee us 29 points and 3rd place at worst. I can easily sandbag and get a guaranteed 2nd by PIC'ing Selma and MotS'ing Supra. But let's see how next week turns out. Supra has to visit the Wahoos and Selma visits T Hills FC. Both games have huge standings implications for all teams involved. Another event of note this week is that Selma just slipped above the autopromote line into 8th place. Let's see how that affects their judgement, too. SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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04-13-2009, 01:42 PM
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#71 | |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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Quote:
Nice.. I just challenge you every week (if you hadn't noticed) and if you get a flag, i accept whoever challenges me. i also had to buy a new forward last week: Keeper: 1/20 disastrous Defending: 3/20 poor Playmaking: 4/20 weak Winger: 6/20 passable Passing: 5/20 inadequate Scoring: 16/20 extra-terrestrial Set pieces: 4/20 weak Last edited by finketr : 04-13-2009 at 01:43 PM. |
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04-13-2009, 07:27 PM
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#72 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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How much and how old?
Also, on other weeks, don't worry about waiting around for me- I usually hold out until Monday or Tuesday if I don't get a friendly early to try and get those rare flags SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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04-14-2009, 11:52 AM
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#73 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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Juan Guillermo Tuta (127417550)
USA 26 years and 86 days, Next birthday: 5-10-2009 for 3.3 mil not great, but USA so wage is 42k. |
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04-16-2009, 03:32 PM
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#74 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Friendly, Round 12: CCFC - Houston Hippopotami
Friendly Preview
We took a little time out of the flag chasing grind to play a supporter of ours. I have his name here somewhere *dusts off some folders and adjusts glasses*. Ah, yes, CC FC a team owned by someone called *squints closer* finketr. Oh yeah, him. The only person reading this thread (and Masked, too) Last season we played the Cowtown Seacows, which has conspicuously changed its name to the stronger pedigreed "Airborne Penguins". Now isn't that peculiar Prior to that, you'd have to go back 10 seasons to a season ending date with the North County Raiders, managed by some AE chap who fell off the face of the earth.I kindof wish I had put some more forethought into our friendly. We could have had an old school bet of pink uniforms. Heck you could get really creative with the uniform kit nowadays. You know the drill by this point. Training lineup in and hoping for no injuries (both teams this game, in particular). Quijada is back for the first time in a couple of weeks so he'll get some action. Huenul will also play since he had a red card for this past week's fixture. The game is of the upmost importance and if we do not succeed, our team will disband in a fit of disgrace for his team is clearly not worthy to defeat us. Oh hell, I just can't deliver lines like that with a straight face, even while typing  Friendly Box Score Kits
CC 2 - 0 Hippopotami (221118169)  4-16-2009 01.00 2714 punters turned up at CC FC Arena, and despite threatening clouds on the horizon, no rain came. CC decided to use a 5-4-1 set up. The following players took the field: Vajda - Oxenstierna, Pedersen, Gyngell, Lindvall, Popescu - Carr, De Cristofaro, Candando, Magee - Berman. A 4-5-1 alignment was the formation of choice for Hippopotami. Starters: Mĺnholt - 云欣 (Yunxin), Huenul, Gafni, Williams - Benito, Vickers, Little, Quijada, Brik - Weissglass. CC was determined to use their long shot ability. Despite having a free kick in a decent position 6 minutes in, Hippopotami tried a variation that brought the ball through to the other end of the penalty area. However, Juan Alberto Quijada did not manage to connect with it, as his team mates had hoped, and the ball went out. A long pass from the defence of CC resulted in a counterattack that set Jerome Magee free through the middle, but the keeper made a spectacular diving save. It was 0 - 0 at the break. Hippopotami claimed to be the more dominant force in the game, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 54 percent. CC took the lead 51 minutes into the match after a magnificent free kick by Markus Lindvall that made the score 1 - 0. Adir Weissglass of Hippopotami was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. Jonas Pedersen tipped the corner kick right to the keeper, who mishandled it, giving CC's Urbano Candando a chance to knock it in for 2-0. CC had to make a substitution after 80 minutes. Jaime Oxenstierna limped off the field and was replaced by Tony Bull. The game was a stalemate so far, with possession split evenly between the teams. Tullio De Cristofaro performed admirably for CC. Markus Lindvall on the other hand, had a terrible day. Hippopotami's top performer was clearly Juan Alberto Quijada. However, Carlos Alberto Benito made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 2 - 0. Rating details
Highlights
Possession 46% 54% 50% 50% Friendly Recap As we lost, the outcome, of course, was mostly meaningless except that we are playing a mutual supporter so there's some bragging rights on the line. Almost 3000 fans turned out for a domestic friendly. Not bad at all. Now, if we played them when it mattered, we'd crush them, of course FOFC Hattrick Get Together Check out the Ping: Current and Former Hattrick Players thread. If you're interested in getting together to chat or play some games against other FOFC'ers, check it out. The date is May 13th and it would be great if anyone interested responds in that thread to keep it bumped. Even if you don't have a team but are interested in chat, toss a quick post in there to let people know you'll be there and that we might have a crowd SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" Last edited by sterlingice : 04-16-2009 at 03:33 PM. |
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04-17-2009, 09:32 AM
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#75 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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at least that injury was only +1.
with one more win then we clinch iii.14 |
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04-17-2009, 03:25 PM
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#76 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Nuts and Bolts, Part I
Introduction
This is basically the nuts and bolts of running the Hippos. It's a catch-all post for a bunch of the little details we haven't delved into already and to get a snapshot of the team at this time. I basically am going through the economy and training as well as giving some supporter stats and details found on many of the more "mundane" pages that are behind the scenes of running a hattrick team. So, get out your abacuses, slide rules, and actuarial tables and let's get ready to compute! The Hippodrome You saw pictures of it earlier, but here are the stats. It's probably a bit big because of how fickle the fans are. I used to fill it up more regularly but not so much any more. Of my 7 fixtures a season, I tend to get 2 in the 60K+ range, 4 that are 45-60K, and 1 that's got a 3 in front of it. It all depends on how the season goes. I have gotten as many as 488K fans per season (70K per game) and as few as 339K (48K per game) last season. This season the three previous, I have averaged 52K fans per fixture. One of the arena optimizers suggests that around 65K is the ideal size. It would cost around $500K to make the changes and would save me around $500K per season. I guess I could do this but I do like the larger arena. Plus, if I ever do promote, I'll need the extra space for the season I get beaten senseless in Div II. Then I could shrink it when I fell back to III. The Mud Pit is where the Houston youth academy team, the Hungry Hungry Hippos, plays. You cannot change that arena at all. Arena
Youth arena
Staff The staff is simple as it always has been. Max out on spokespersons, physios, and coaches (9/1 if you don't train keepers). Also, use doctors if you have someone hurt. As I always have someone hurt, there are pretty much 10 doctors always on retainer. They bumped the cost of these up to 1000 then 1500 and now 1800 but not much has really changed. This is the price of doing business as a team in hattie. Being in a higher division allows you to spread that cost out over other expenses much easier.
Fans Ah, the poor maligned supporters. That they weren't so stupid. You'd think they'd be happy to be in Div III. Not only that but they wouldn't throw themselves off a cliff by the tens and dozens when you lose to a Div V sandbagging team in the cup. But, alas, they aren't that smart. Sure, my trend looks good this year because we have two walkover teams to cushion our fans every fall. But a couple of seasons ago, I started out 1-3 and those jerks couldn't run away fast enough. Or last season, I went 7-6-1 and finished in 4th place. I started with 2995 supporters, peaked at just over 3000, but ended at 2897, losing almost 100 in a mediocre but not even bad season. With my amazing 9 week cup run and a 9-1-2 record this season, I'm "back" up to 2932. Way to go "smart" fan "algorithm" writers. Hippo Helpers Fans of Houston Hippopotami
Played Matches Upcoming Matches
Fan updates
Transfer History A lot of players have worn a Hippo jersey at one time or another and there are 58 former Hippos actively on other teams. Below are the simple Hippo transfer stats. Transfers for Houston Hippopotami
I also went through and compiled a list of the top 5 transactions of each type in Hippo history. As you can see, I hold onto my players if I pay a lot for them and 4 of those 5 are going into the Hippo Hall of Heroes Sales 5.700M Hans Didriksen 5.500M (Fired Player 02.07.05) 5.060M (Fired Player 10.10.05) 4.924M Martin Cameron 4.800M Roland Janni Buys 7.400M Donald Sidorczak 6.350M Quintin Staples 5.300M Erwin Vickers 5.100M Charlie Partridge 5.100M Martin Cameron Part II Part II will address training and some more supporter statistics that I didn't have time to get to today SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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04-20-2009, 09:38 AM
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#77 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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another week, another 3-2 loss...
4 points up on second place with 2 to go. MOTSing this week at home to secure iii.14 and then figure out week 14 pic for a qualifier, probably. |
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04-21-2009, 12:15 PM
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#78 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Fixture, Week 12: Houston Hippopotami - O.G. Kickers
Fixture Preview
I don't know why I'm even bothering to put up the match report for this one as it's a walkover but I guess it's for completeness's sake. Tetlie is down to +1 from +3 last week so we should be at full strength for next week. I was a little worried about that as my #1 and #3 forwards got +3's last week and they aren't really young but +1 now is good enough. Even better if he can get to bruised by friendly time to get in some work there for form's sake. No one has a red card and we aren't going to pick up any this week so that's good. This week's game time was spent scoreboard watching: Selma visits T Hills FC and Supra plays at the Wahoos. With all due respect to our fans, for some reason we had over 67K hairbrained Hippo fans show up to watch us not play a game Kits
Hippopotami 5 - 0 Kickers (217931318) 4-20-2009 01.00 Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and The Hippodrome saw a crowd turnout of 67251. Hippopotami tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Özkutay - Delcarte, Huenul, Cyburt - Partridge, Marsh, Thacker, King, Regúlez - Quijada, Angulo. A 0-4-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Kickers. They fielded: Vidal - - Temkov, Moeller, Pipała, Roberts - Mobley, Alhinho. The game couldn't be played and the referee had to declare the home side the winner with 5-0 due to a walk over. This was caused by the visitors not having 9 players fit for the game! The match ends 5 - 0. Rating details
Highlights Possession 0%   100% 0% 100% Series Standings
Fixture Recap Yay! No cards or injuries! Around the league, we weren't so lucky. Selma held back against T Hills either with a norm or possibly PIC yet were always ahead in their game, winning 2-1. Supra and Wahoos were tied for about half of their game but Supra pulled it out. So, here we are, down the stretch with 30-29-28 for the top 3 teams. I'm not feeling good about our chances. Currently Supra is at 6th on the auto-promote list with the walkover Kickers in week 14 so I'm getting a MotS from them. If they win out, they're in II no questions asked. A little bit of good news on that front is that if I were in first right now instead of Supra, I'd be in a position to autopromote (I'd slide in at 9th but with Supra off the list, I'd be 8th). So I can go all out as well. We'll see what I'm getting for win% chances next week but I don't think it will be good at all. The easy answer is to pull back, PIC and take our loss next week, then hammer Supra. That minimizes the damage to the supporters. If I lose the next two weeks to Supra on the road with an MotS and then at home against Selma because my team spirit has taken such a beating, then I will probably lose all ~30ish fans I've gained across this excellent season. Sad how "smart" the fans are, isn't it? 9-3-2 with a 9 round cup run is break even territory, at best. I might actually lose fans. That said, aside from losing supporters- there's no real harm in going for it. The worst case is that I get 3rd, which actually sets my schedule up better for next season (3rd place schedule versus 2nd place)- a season opening game against T Hills or Wahoos rather than whoever the Div II relegee is. So, I guess my decision is made for me even if it's a long shot. Lastly, lucked out with a friendly late Monday afternoon- got an accept from a team in 36-user Kuwait (20th most rare) coming to Houston. Thanks go out to Ad Maiora for accepting the friendly. SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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04-21-2009, 12:15 PM
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#79 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Quote:
Oof. Was that overlooking someone or were you on the road last week? SI
__________________
Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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04-21-2009, 01:18 PM
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#80 | |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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Quote:
on the road and maybe semi-overlooked. I guess I could have normalled on the road and picced the rest... oops. a normal might be good enough to get through to at least a qualifier.. any thoughts on my next game? |
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04-22-2009, 04:01 PM
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Nuts and Bolts, Part II
Part II
Just a continuation of Part I of the Nuts and Bolts with some more minutiae. This one concerns just Supporter Statistics as there's a lot of ground to cover. Part III will concern Coach/Training, Manager Page, and the Youth Academy. Supporter Statistics: Team Stats Hattrick gives supporters quite a few statistics to play with. This first group concerns the Hippos, their current players, and some of the team records. Summary - Your Players
Best Game Ever
Highest Rating Ever
Most Matches Played
Clean Sheets
Captaincy
Supporter Statistics: National Ranks These are stats where we are on top lists for the United States. Earlier this year we were pretty high on the undefeated streak, for instance. Currently, we're on the win streaks one for Div III so we'll start with that as an example. I'll list where we are and any other interesting names on the list for comparison. I don't think there is a whole lot as we are pretty non-descript as Div III teams go. We probably won't be in the top 15 or 20 out of 128 in too many categories. Consecutive Victories: Div III
Top Salaries: Div III
And here's some random stats to give you an idea of the state of hattrick today. Div III Team Averages
USA Team Averages
USA Training Statistics
World Training Statistics
SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" Last edited by sterlingice : 04-23-2009 at 02:57 PM. |
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04-25-2009, 01:30 PM
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#82 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Quote:
Taz doesn't exactly get much midfield on the road so a normal here probably gets you the win. As long as you don't hold back, your scores across the pitch will pretty much be universally better than him except for his one good attack so you'll win. Then see where you are on the qualification table before deciding on next week. If MotS'ing and beating Blue Wave gets you into autopromote territory, you take that chance. If it doesn't... then the decision gets a lot tougher but PIC'ing this week doesn't seem to gain you much. You'll just get better TS for next week, but it will be gone by the qually week. Wrap up your series this week and then start doing the qually math once you have more info. Also, looks like you won't be playing any FOFC games after the qually week? USA-Canada cup? SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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04-25-2009, 10:18 PM
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#83 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Friendly, Round 13: Houston Hippopotami - Ad Maiora
Friendly Preview
I had to wait pretty late into the week to get this friendly arranged. A lot of times, getting rare flags is like that. It's not until enough teams are out of the pool, having settled for lesser flags or having already arranged friendlies, that you get lucky challenging a team who is checking for the first time in a week or since the weekly fixture. This week's friendly finds Ad Maiora traveling from Al Kuwayt's (Kuwait) Div III.10 to Houston. Kuwait is the 19th (out of 124) rarest flag in all of hattrick with 37 teams and a coolness score of 25,766. As in pretty much all friendlies, we will be playing a training and sub lineup. It will be a 4-5-1 with future coach Adir Weissglass playing forward since we don't have any non-injured non-starters with Tetlie and Treibahs both still out with injuries. Friendly Box Score Kits
Hippopotami 6 - 4 Maiora (221488722) 4-23-2009 01.00 The weather was pretty good, and a crowd of 4741 had shown up at The Hippodrome for the match. Hippopotami tactics involved an interesting 4-5-1 combination. The following players took the field: Mĺnholt - 云欣 (Yunxin), Kavelashvili, Gafni, Williams - Sidorczak, Benito, Little, Vickers, Brik - Weissglass. Maiora had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Lineup: Mufid - Qannad, Jaber, Ribers - Golimowski, Debbouze, Kostovski, Bacher, Östing - Haj-Shareef, Al-Mansoor. A well placed corner kick from Jonas Östing was followed by Dejan Kostovski's hard but accurate header. The nice combination marked a goal for Maiora, the score now 0-1. After 9 minutes of play, Allan Brik equalised for Hippopotami after an elegant attack from the right. Itamar Gafni seemed highly inexperienced when, after 17 minutes, he was caught dilly-dallying with the ball and allowed Ubaid Haj-Shareef to intercept and strike home the 1-2 goal for Maiora. An amazing free kick flew past the home side keeper 30 minutes into the match, putting Maiora ahead with the 1 - 3 goal. Jonas Östing was the scorer. Hippopotami supporters cheered as good work down the right got the ball to Adir Weissglass who reduced the visitors' lead after 30 minutes to 2 - 3. It might be a while before the fans see Hippopotami's Adir Weissglass again, after he had to leave the field in great distress at the 31 minute mark. He was replaced by Zacarías Regúlez. Thomas Little became the new Hippopotami captain. 2 - 3 was the halftime score. Hippopotami enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 67 percent of possession. 51 minutes in, and Hippopotami was able to score the equalising 3 - 3 goal when Zacarías Regúlez picked up a pass coming in from the right and chipped it past the away team's keeper. Hippopotami took the lead after 56 minutes, as a result of Erwin Vickers's awkward, but ultimately successful, shot from the right. 4 - 3. Things were going to get worse for the visitors. Donald Sidorczak squirmed himself through their central defence after 59 minutes, bringing the lead to 5 - 3. A speedy charge from the left side of the field increased Hippopotami's lead to 6 - 3 as Itamar Gafni finished it off competently, firing from an acute angle. The home crowd was silenced as Jonas Östing took a successful penalty shot 63 minutes into the game, reducing the home lead to 6 - 4. Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 64 percent of possession. Hippopotami's top performer was clearly Donald Sidorczak. On the other hand, Carlos Alberto Benito's play was disheartening. Maiora's top performer was clearly Jochen Bacher. On the other hand, Haddad Qannad's play was disheartening. The match ends 6 - 4. Rating details
Highlights
Possession 67%   33% 64% 36% Friendly Recap This may have been the last playing match of Weissglass's career as he picks up a +3 at almost 36 years old. He is the next coach of the Hippos, barring something crazy happening so I hope he enjoyed his last day in the sun without a clipboard. I never would have guessed a 6-4 score in any game involving a 4-5-1. How we got 6 goals out of that with a non-striker playing forward is a mystery. Also, the crowd was a little lighter with "only" 4700 and change showing up for this match but that was still good for over $22K. We have already lined up next week's friendly. It came in early Friday and I was quite happy about that. Our next visitor will be Sonyers FC from Div III Honduras. With the Kuwait flag, we move up another couple spots to 11th on the USA coolness ratings with 239,744 coolness points for teams hosted. That's with only 38 of 124 flags as we've been shooting for the more rare ones. Honduras, the 26th rarest country with only 53 users, will get us #39 and another nearly 18,000 points. 10th place has 263K while 9th has 277K. We might be able to get up to 10th by the end of the season if we are very fortunate. Also, I am still missing only 3 flags for visiting but i have had absolutely no luck getting a game in Dawlat Qatar, Uganda, or Dhivehi Raajje. They are my last 3 flags and I haven't played an away friendly since Suriyah over 2 seasons ago. But there's always next week. SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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04-27-2009, 01:11 PM
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#84 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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College Starter
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Bay Area
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Good luck to everyone in Week 14.
Small threadjack My new team, SJ Wildcats, are nearing the end of their first season. Conveniently, I took over right before the current season started. After 13 weeks, SJ is in first place with 36 points and holdsa 3 point lead over Just Visiting. Appropriately, we are on the road in week 14 against them. In week 1, we escaped with a 1-0 win at home despite being outplayed. Visiting went bot around midseason (every team in my series is a bot). I have a 7 goal differential advantage, so as long as I don't lose by 4 or more goals, SJ will win the series. The other key number (and perhaps more important number) is 37 - the autopromotion lines (512 autopromotes, 512 does not).
I suspect a lot of current division leaders are going to throw their last game to avoid promoting or to grab a qualifier, so with a win, I'd have a decent chance at autopromiting. So what should I do this weekend? My team is simply not ready for division 5. I'm currently training keepers - I have 2 18 year old american, nearly formadible keepers and then a mix of original and <$5k transfer buys. The plan with the keepers is to continue training them for another season before switching to defense which will benefit the one I keep. I have a little under $600K in the bank currently, so I could buy 3 excellent IMs with no secondaries or I could upgrade my stadium. I sold out my last match after nearly selling out the previous few. So what happens if I promote. Unless I land one of the few terribles series, I'm going to lose badly and often. Since my fan club is tiny, it will still grow, albeit, slowly. My financial situation will almost certainly be stronger if I stay in division 6 (more fans, bigger crowds due to better results offset the increased sponsor money and 10% bump in fan number). The only reason to promote is to get into a series with other actual players but this would be at the expense of the short (and long) term health of my club. Currently, I'm thinking of playing for a low scoring game or tie (5-4-1, press) so that I win the series and don't autopromote. I'd get the qualifier for the extra income and training and face the small risk of facing a walkover. Assuming I stay in VI, I'll expand my stadium in the offseason and avoid buying any players until I sell my first trainee and start to build the defense training program. |
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04-27-2009, 02:11 PM
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#85 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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Well, we won a 2-0 with lots of missed chances...
going into week 14, cc fc have a 4 point lead on #2 in the series so we've clinched iii.14. The autopromotion line: 5. Nomads 46 - 17 33 6. Houston Hippopotami 49 - 16 32 7. Lucas Losers 44 - 18 32 8. Members Only 58 - 19 31 9. CC FC 49 - 14 31 10. FC ZUCKERHUT 03 51 - 18 31 11. Tulsa Roughnecks 48 - 24 30 12. Kids Next Door 55 - 25 29 so, we're basically a win and a loss by the next 5 teams above us from autopromotion. I'm sure that FOFC's own Hippopotami will be MOTSing to secure their autopromotion into II. What do I do? I think I'd have to PIC and mots next weeks' qualifier if there is one. |
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04-27-2009, 03:18 PM
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#86 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Masked, I think it's pretty simple- if you're not ready, PIC and lose "respectably" on the road. You might lose some fans- obviously you want to minimize that. However, your best bet at this point is to stay in Div VI until you're ready to move up, trying to get up close to that soft cap.
Personally, I think the ideal training order is as follows: Div VI - Whatever you can afford to make some quick cash is best. GK works if you don't have much seed cash. But other stuff works better once you can get some decent cash flow as you get a better return. Div V - Roll up some more cash with best training available. I think IM is best since you can show some improvement in the team with rolling training (i.e. don't sell them all at once- stagger them). When you "damage" your team by sending away your most valuable pieces in middies- you'll turn around and buy a team upgrade at striker or defense to offset it Div IV - Buy some super trainees who will be your middies for a long time to come. Sell off your secondary trainees for maximum cash and upgrade up to Div IV/III level strikers and keeper. Div III- Switch to defender training since trainee cash is only part of your lifeblood. Keeping your team good is the more important part. You can train 6 max during cup run and then probably 8 (3 in games, 5 in friendlies) the rest of the season. You just don't care as much about maxing out the training bucks as deep cup runs and success in series is more important. SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" Last edited by sterlingice : 04-27-2009 at 03:19 PM. |
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04-28-2009, 11:12 AM
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#87 |
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College Starter
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Bay Area
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I really can't find a benefit to moving up to 5 - it's just a bit ironic because in my first go around, I hated the teams that deliberately stayed in division 5 or 6 because they always killed my cup runs. Now I'm that team (except for the part about ruining cup runs).
Originally I chose to train keepers because it was the easiest path - I wasn't sure how much time I was going to devote to HT and I didn't feel like searching for trainees. I also didn't want to commit to one of the more involved training paths until I had learned how the engine has changed (I've learned PM is still important). Fortunately, b/c the trainees were so cheap (and I sold off two old solid forwards with passing), I was able to buy a solid coach immediately. I have gone back and forth on what to train after switching from gk - PM or defending (obviously this week, I'm thinking defending). Defending worked very well back when I was in division 2 and 3, but PM is what got me there. |
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04-28-2009, 11:59 AM
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#88 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Fixture, Week 13: Selma Sumorats - Houston Hippopotami
Fixture Preview
Well, finketr might have spoiled the results with his last post but that's ok. Just to set the stage coming into this game, we're at 29 points. We're visiting the Selma Sumorats this week- they have 30 points. Next week, we host Supra Supreme who has 28 points. No one else is within striking distance of any of us. Supra hosts T Hills FC this week while next week Selma has a walkover so it means our next two games will determine the series. We control our season, but- I just couldn't come up with a cliche to follow that up with that sounded good to form the infamous sports double cliche. You get the idea- two games, this one particularly difficult- if we win both, we win the series and auto-promote. However, we're definitely not favorites in this game and if we MotS and manage to win, we're going to be at a disadvantage going into the next game. If Selma MotS's, I think we're probably finished. I'm not sure why he wouldn't with a walkover next week but there's an off chance he doesn't want to promote. I think he can put up a low brilliant midfield if he MotS's with great defensive stats and at least one good attack. The one useful thing is that he always puts his strong attack on the right side so I can load up on the left with Delcarte (which, after the fact, I did incorrectly and put him on the right) and neutralize a lot of his attacking power. I tinkered with the lineup a lot. Regulez isn't going to play at winger. Since I have one too many quality middies, I ran all of them in this game with Partridge and Marsh both at wing towards middle to maximize the midfield. Quijada will play XIM since he has good secondaries and that will bump up both attack and defense a little. This should bump my midfield up to low magnificent. Without a wing attack, I'll be doing AIM instead of PC, which might cost me a special event or two but will maximize my other events. If he plays with a low brilliant midfield to my low magnificent and I leave all other ratings the same (minus my wing attack), HO gives me a 40-26-34 shot. The 34% is my chance to win with 26% draw (which does me no good) and 40% loss. It's the best I could squeeze out. The ratings I used for him are based on a game against Supra a few weeks ago which were after a pair of walkovers. Hopefully, I'm overestimating because a 1 in 3 chance, using my MotS isn't all that encouraging, but it's the best I can do. Kits
Sumorats 1 - 2 Hippopotami (217931324) 4-27-2009 01.00 A brilliantly sunny day had enticed a crowd of 95921 to The Rats' Den. A 3-4-3 alignment was the formation of choice for Sumorats. The following players had been chosen: Valenzuela - Guilloux, Keating, Verlugo - Anderson, Walters, Ferreira, Holman - Busnot, Iltis, Kulik. Hippopotami decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. Starters: Özkutay - Delcarte, Huenul, Cyburt - Partridge, Thacker, Quijada, King, Marsh - Tetlie, Angulo. Hippopotami clearly preferred using their ability to attack in the middle. Hippopotami had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially 19 minutes in when Tor Tetlie came up alone against Noah Valenzuela who managed a block. 31 minutes into the game, Carlos Thacker almost gave the visitors the lead, as he clipped a delicate lob over the keeper, but the ball glanced harmlessly off the crossbar. 36 minutes into the game, Tor Tetlie had a great chance to put his team ahead, but his kick from the left went wide. Melvin Iltis of Sumorats was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. It was a hot and sunny day, and several players seemed worn out. Maybe this was why Melvin Iltis found an unusual amount of space for his snappy footwork. After 45 minutes, Hippopotami's Oliver Angulo made his way through the middle and nonchalantly placed the ball out of the keeper's reach, putting the visitors up 0 - 1. With 45 minutes played, Sumorats's Sylvain Busnot found an opening in the visitors' left side defence, but his shot was handled easily by the keeper. The game was close to savage at times, and Sumorats's Melvin Iltis received a second yellow card after 45 minutes, his ticket out of the game. 0 - 1 was the score after the first half. This half belonged to Hippopotami, who controlled the ball 56 percent of the time. Charlie Partridge found it hard to catch his breath today in the stifling heat. An indecisive 'keeper looked on as a free kick by Hippopotami's Chema Delcarte put the visitors up 0 - 2 after 49 minutes. Sumorats's Tory Ferreira was shown a yellow card after 60 minutes for slicing down an opponent. Tor Tetlie came close to extending the visitors' lead when he found himself completely unmarked in front of the goal after a pass through the middle, but he lifted the ball over Noah Valenzuela and it was a little too high and hit the bar. Sumorats didn't give in and with 71 minutes played Sylvain Busnot was able to put the 1 - 2 goal away after a play on the right. Oliver Angulo came close to extending the visitors' lead when he found himself completely unmarked in front of the goal after a pass through the middle, but he lifted the ball over Noah Valenzuela and it was a little too high and hit the bar. Tor Tetlie of Hippopotami was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. Hippopotami enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 56 percent of possession. Noah Valenzuela performed admirably for Sumorats. Sylvain Busnot turned in a dismal performance, however. Hippopotami's top performer was clearly Batı Özkutay. Aurelius Huenul was a disappointment, however. The match ends 1 - 2. Rating details
Highlights
Possession 44%   56% 44% 56% Series Standings
Fixture Recap Towards the end of that game, even with it in HT Live, I was hitting refresh every 20 seconds or so to see if something was happening. We finally caught some huge breaks, in so much as we didn't have things go badly against us: no injuries, no cards, good form. He even had a striker get carded out. We missed a lot of chances- 2 of 7 on the game, while he was 1 for 2. But with his striker out the entire second half, they couldn't manage enough of an attack to steal away a point or three. The win was all we cared about and that's what we got. Elsewhere around the league, the only "big" score is that the Bridgemen upset the Wahoos which will pretty much ensure the Wahoos have a qualifier while T Hills FC will get 4th. The Bridgemen have climbed up to 16 points and face 19 point T Hills on the road. However, Wahoos will win with a PIC walkover and are guaranteed 21 points. So, the Bridgemen have to PIC because even if they win, they can get no higher than 5th and still face a qualifier. Next Week and Promotion? Next week, things are simple. If we win, we autopromote into II. If we draw, we take 2nd. If we lose, we get 3rd. Team spirit's a bit low already, at irritated, but that should recover up a level to calm during the week. Then we MotS as there's nothing to lose. I'm going to guess that Supra will also MotS since his high GD would also put him into an auto-promote slot. I'm on call at work this week through Sunday, but if I'm around, I think I'll open up an #fofc channel on Undernet to watch the Hippo game, CC FC, Masked, and anyone else's. It's going to be a fun week of games and everyone's invited. I'll mention this in the Ping:HT thread as well. SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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04-29-2009, 03:52 PM
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#89 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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Sorry, SI... didn't mean to spoil the results as i was surprised to see you up there...
here's hoping I can autopromote.. masked, for training, i would do like SI suggests: train up your set of starting PMs then switch to defending.. that's what i've switched to. |
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04-29-2009, 07:04 PM
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#90 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Quote:
I didn't mind at all As for autopromote, I think you're out of luck for one of us dropping down. The only way is if we draw and Selma steals the top spot back. As for others in Div III, have to check the schedules. See if a team or two has a strong #2 on the road for this week. That does happen a lot since the previous year's 1/2 play in weeks 1 and 14. SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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04-30-2009, 09:07 AM
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#91 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Friendly, Round 14: Houston Hippopotami - Sonyers FC
Friendly Preview
I got lucky this week as a friendly offer was accepted on Friday, a rare occurrence with flags this rare. As I mentioned last week, I picked up a friendly with a team from Honduras, Sonyers FC, the leader of III.10 there. I'm trying really hard to keep all of my starters healthy for next week's huge game so you will see nothing but subs in this game. Not only that but even the subs in this game will be coaches, the guys at the end of the bench, etc- I don't want to risk any injury for anyone who has already played this week. I did put Regulez into this game to keep his form up and Treibahs has his first game back from injury. I like his away kit- it's pretty sharp. Friendly Box Score Kits
Hippopotami 5 - 0 Sonyers (221605327) 4-30-2009 01.00 A scorching day at The Hippodrome, where 4944 spectators were in place for today's match. A 5-4-1 alignment was the formation of choice for Hippopotami. Lineup: Mĺnholt - 云欣 (Yunxin), Kavelashvili, Armengol, Gafni, Williams - Sidorczak, Little, Vickers, Regúlez - Treibahs. Sonyers decided to use a 4-5-1 set up. The following players took the field: Gundersen - Morse, Kenens, Leponis, Neviani - Sahakangas, Martineero, Kesper, Iaquinta, Zamora - Tinoco. Today, Sonyers's strategy involved concentrating on the flanks for their attacks. Many thought Volfs Treibahs ought to have been awarded a penalty shot 27 minutes into the game, as he went down trying to dribble around Tommy Gundersen after a determined run through the middle. Many in the crowd felt the referee was being too lenient when he only showed Sonyers's Simo Sahakangas a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 29 minutes into the game. The referee signaled a penalty for the home side after 36 minutes, amid vocal protests from the visitors. Hippopotami fans erupted in celebration as 李 (Li) 云欣 (Yunxin) rifled the go-ahead goal into the the top corner. 1 - 0! The referee showed Hippopotami's Thomas Little the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Hippopotami put themselves up 2 - 0 when Zacarías Regúlez broke through on the right, leaving the entire defensive box behind him. After 38 minutes, speedy Simo Sahakangas dashed past his marker, making plenty of room for the second wave of attack. However, Gustavo Tinoco failed to score. With 39 minutes played, Hippopotami's 李 (Li) 云欣 (Yunxin) tried to nail the coffin shut, but his shot from the left glanced off the top of the bar to fall behind the net. A magnificent combination in the middle resulted in Hippopotami's Xacobo Armengol putting the lead up to 3 - 0. 3 - 0 was the halftime score. Hippopotami claimed to be the more dominant force in the game, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 68 percent. With 46 minutes played, the Sonyers coach decided a substitution may help turn the game around. Tanausu Balladares came on, Hannu Martineero had to leave the fray. The Sonyers captaincy was handed to Tanausu Balladares. Zacarías Regúlez of Hippopotami received a yellow card after 65 minutes for unsportsmanlike behaviour. A magnificent combination in the middle resulted in Hippopotami's Donald Sidorczak putting the lead up to 4 - 0. Hippopotami put in a good effort on the right, but Thomas Little saw his volley fly wide of the mark 82 minutes into the game. Hippopotami solidified their lead at the 85 minute mark, as Volfs Treibahs manoeuvered the ball through the opposing central defence and finished for 5 - 0. After this, Hippopotami lowered the tempo in order to concentrate on their defensive efforts. This half belonged to Hippopotami, who controlled the ball 68 percent of the time. The most dominating Hippopotami player was without a doubt Volfs Treibahs. Xacobo Armengol on the other hand, had a terrible day. The most dominating Sonyers player was without a doubt Carlo Iaquinta. Cesare Neviani on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 5 - 0. Rating details
Highlights
Possession 68%   32% 68% 32% Friendly Recap We dominated possession and won 5-0. There were no injuries and another nice crowd near 5000. I'd still like to get one of Dawlat Qatar, Uganda, or Dhivehi Raajje next week but it's unlikely. Then in another week will be the FOFC Cup with chat. Check out the Ping:Hattrick thread for more details. But, of course, the big story this week is our match with Supra Supreme for the III.3 title. If work permits me to be around, there will be a chat open on Undernet on Sunday. Hope to see you then. SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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04-30-2009, 10:23 AM
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#92 | |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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Quote:
yeah, i know... i'd not be surprised if someone in slots 3-8 loses but I need to take care of business as they say first. So I need to win to have a shot. |
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05-06-2009, 09:16 AM
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#93 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Fixture, Week 14: Houston Hippopotami - Supra Supreme
Fixture Preview
It's been a long and winding road but here we are, one step from the end. This season has produced its share of ups and downs. Yet here we are, where I didn't think I could be. In one of the first posts in this thread, I typed the following: Quote:
My realistic best case scenario had us at L/W/W/W/W/L/W D/D/W/W/W/L/W. We even exceeded that, going L/W/W/W/W/D/W D/W/W/W/W/W/??. As I said at the beginning of the season, all the spare team spirit and points laying around from 2 dead teams is going to lead to someone racking up a lot of points. Three of us did. The stakes are high and the results simple. The winner of III.3 will autopromote. A win today gets us into II for the first time ever in the history of the franchise. A draw drops us to second and Selma wins the series as they have a walkover today. A loss to Supra and they promote. I'm a full strength- no cards or injuries, finally. A couple of guys are in inadequate form and I wish they could be higher. My team's confidence is "wonderful", the result of 5 straight wins. However, my team spirit is "irritated" thanks to last week's MotS. I was hoping to recover a level during the week as it normalized but I was not that lucky. Strategically, going into the game, I still have an extra midfielder on my team. Using HO, my win percentages drastically go up if I play a wing towards middle over Regulez. This lowers one of my wing attacks- but my primary wing attack isn't all that strong and getting an extra chance or two in the middle could make the difference today. It doesn't quite play to one of the strenths of my team in playing creatively, but it does really impact the midfield rating. Plus, I can still get set pieces, head, and quick events- just not as many as if I were using PC. In short, the chances gained by focusing my attack in the middle and strengthening midfield should be greater than the number of extra special events I could get. In running the numbers in HO, I used one of Supra's better matches of late as a baseline and bumped them up a full level to outstanding(l) midfield. Even with that, I'm at around 50% to win the game. That's a really nice percentage and I've won many games this year with a lot lower chance to win. For the first time since our season finale 2 seasons ago, there was a full house of 81000 at the Hippodrome. Kits
Hippopotami 0 - 1 Supreme (217931327) 5-4-2009 01.00 81000 spectators had come to The Hippodrome this cloudy day. Hippopotami started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. Lineup: Özkutay - Delcarte, Huenul, Cyburt - Partridge, Quijada, Thacker, King, Marsh - Tetlie, Angulo. Supreme decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. Lineup: Debbouze - Bergeon, Boavista, Billi - Azevedo, Bourgeois, Fischer, Culver, Woudenberg - Zauder, Hove. Hippopotami seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. Supreme tried to focus their attacks down the middle. Zurab Kavelashvili was called on to replace Hippopotami's Chema Delcarte after 16 minutes following a nasty collision. Almost all the way down to the corner flag, Supreme's Fabio Woudenberg somehow managed to get a perfect pass into the middle, impossible to miss for Zvonimir Zauder, who struck for 0 - 1. Supreme's Fabio Woudenberg got himself booked for a foul. In a fantastic display of determination, Hippopotami's John King forced himself to his feet, after an opponent viciously knocked him down. Carlos Thacker made a superb strike after 30 minutes with a shot straight in front of the goal after a long ball through the middle, but one of the visitors' defenders got a foot in at the last second and warded it off for a corner. 0 - 1 was the score after the first half. The forty-five minutes were dominated by Hippopotami, with an impressive 55 percent possession of the ball. Joshua Fischer was, after 65 minutes, almost able to extend the visitors' lead with a well placed diving header after the ball had looped into the centre, but home side's keeper Batı Özkutay made the save. Hippopotami's Zurab Kavelashvili was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 67 minutes. This half belonged to Hippopotami, who controlled the ball 55 percent of the time. Hippopotami's best player was Batı Özkutay. On the other hand, Zurab Kavelashvili's play was disheartening. Most important Supreme player was Joshua Fischer. On the other hand, Joăo Luís Azevedo's play was disheartening. The match ends 0 - 1. Rating details
Highlights
Possession 55%   45% 55% 45% Standings
Fixture Recap What can I say? Looking at HO, my estimates were pretty much dead on. Heck, I had an even better chance as I overestimated his midfield. But it was just not to be today. The estimates I used before the game were not of by much- only one rating, a defensive wing, was off by more than one partial level (i.e. solid-l might have been solid-vl or solid-h as those are a partial level off)- other than the midfield that I estimated myself. And that even accounts for Delcarte being injured early in the game- tho the biggest contribution there is that I lost a divine set pieces taker. I ran a HO simulation using the exact ratings we had for the game. In theory, I should have won 54%, drawn 20%, and in this universe, we happened upon one of the 25% where he won. The 0-1 result had only a 3% chance of happening. It's a bit of a bitter pill to swallow- HTRF at work, to be sure. There's a good and bad side to this, like most things, and I think I'll get the bad out of the way first. Realistically, I'm not sure I'll have another shot this good at II. My team is aging and, while I'm pretty good at buying low and selling high to make my team younger, I've cut some corners that are going to catch up with me eventually. The addition of the Hall of Fame has also cost me some money over the last few seasons as I have kept players at advanced ages that I normally would have sold off to get some value. The good is that this season, as a whole, exceeded my wildest expectations, a lot of which is documented in our latest press announcement. Quote:
I hadn't even been following this all season long, but Tor Tetlie was named the top scorer for our league. When was the last time we had a top scorer for the league? It was our first full season, hattrick season 19, when Derrick Solomon and Hippo Hall of Heroes member Edwin Phelan tied with 15 goals apiece to lead V.62. My fans were so excited for this season that they didn't even leave in droves, as per usual, after a loss: "No supporters joined or left the fan club." Some things don't change. In the back of my mind, the second best benefit from moving up to II- the first being that I'd be in Div II!- would be that it would shake up the "smart fan" expectations. They've been angry at me for being in III for quite a while now. I gained 53 fans this season from a great run. But that's dwarfed by the over 100 I lost last year and the basically 0 growth I've had since moving up to Div III. I started Div III with 2815 fans and reached 2893 after my first season. I'm currently at 2944 and have been over 3000 for one half of one week last season. Denouement I realize for some, this may be the final chapter of the story that you read. The main story has reached its climax with the end of the regular season. However, there's more to come. For everyone else, here's what's left on tap:
I hope this season has been just a fraction of fun to read about as it has been to write about and play. As I've stated a couple of times this season, I haven't been as excited about my team in a long time. At it's core, it's not that complicated and it doesn't take too long to nagivate to the depths of the game. However, the FOFC community is what made a lot of us keep coming back to this game and it just hasn't been the same since everyone left. Thanks to everyone who has read and contributed to the dynasty this season. And a big thanks to the FOFC hattrick community as a whole, both past and present. Hattrick has been a fun game to play but it wouldn't have been nearly as fun without being able to share it with others. It was a fun season but we fell short. So, time to finish off the friendlies and start preparing for next year. SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" Last edited by sterlingice : 05-06-2009 at 09:24 AM. |
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05-07-2009, 01:56 PM
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#94 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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yeah. we lost also and have a qualifier against ahly on sunday.
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05-07-2009, 04:34 PM
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#95 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Friendly, Round 15: Houston Hippopotami - lazioDK
Friendly Preview
Mondays are starting to be my most frequent friendly day. Presumably, teams from rare countries that are trying for other rare flags strike out and "settle" for the Div III USA team. This week is Senegal's lazioDK from II.1. Senegal has 72 users and is the 28th rarest flag in hattrick. Recent youth product Clayton Cassidy will get a start as I try to get him up to inadequate defense to give him some better value. I have a spare spot for him, so nothing is lost. Otherwise, it's a lot of subs as this will probably be their last game for 3 weeks. Next week, I will only have a friendly and the week after will just be the cup game so that will be almost all starters to keep form up. I think that was a huge consideration to our big start last season- sacrifice some training for good form. Friendly Box Score Kits
Hippopotami 1 - 1 lazioDK (222006847) 5-7-2009 01.00 Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and The Hippodrome saw a crowd turnout of 4750. Hippopotami started off with a 5-4-1 lineup. Starters: Mĺnholt - 云欣 (Yunxin), Jürgensen, Binst, Gafni, Cassidy - Sidorczak, Little, Vickers, Regúlez - Treibahs. lazioDK tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. The following players had been chosen: Dacewicz - Faran, Hallstad, Shtrauber - Depakakibo, Diong, Frijlink, Benodis - Reisenauer, Xiuquan, Sopp. lazioDK mostly ignored the flanks in favour of their ability to attack in the middle. With 10 minutes played, the home side managed to get a 1 - 0 lead as Volfs Treibahs flipped the ball in after a cross from the right. Hippopotami's Clayton Cassidy swung in a good chance from the left, but the visitors' defence were able to clear the ball. After 34 minutes Hippopotami's Zacarías Regúlez had to be carried off on a stretcher in agony. Carlos Alberto Benito came in to replace him. After 35 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by 李 (Li) 云欣 (Yunxin) might have resulted in another goal for Hippopotami. However, Michał Dacewicz made a spectacular save. The home side's Volfs Treibahs came close to extending the lead 35 minutes into the game. His shot came in from the right hand side but Michał Dacewicz managed to save it with an unbelievable reaction stop. Halftime score was 1 - 0. The forty-five minutes were dominated by Hippopotami, with an impressive 57 percent possession of the ball. With 48 minutes played, the visitors could have scored the tying goal after Dirk Sopp came through the middle, but his kick went wide. lazioDK tied it all up, 63 minutes in, after a spectacular goal by Herbert Reisenauer, who miraculously broke through the home side's central defence, making it 1 - 1. The home crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief when Niv Faran was unable to give the visitors the go-ahead goal after his attack from the left 67 minutes into the match. Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 52 percent of possession. Hippopotami's best player was Volfs Treibahs. Carlos Alberto Benito on the other hand, had a terrible day. lazioDK's best player was Timmy Frijlink. Michał Dacewicz was a disappointment, however. The match ends 1 - 1. Rating details
Highlights
Possession 57%   43% 52% 48% Friendly Recap Hrm. a draw. Again, it's a friendly so results don't really matter. Yet again, another good 4500+ crowd. That's 27,830 in 5 games for an average of over 5500 per game. The Regulez injury puts a real monkey wrench in our offseason plans. He was probably a piece that was going to be sold so I'm going to hold off on that. More on that in an upcoming post about the Hippos future plans. Hippo Friendly Cup #18 This completes a very abbreviated Hippo Friendly Cup for this season. We won 2, lost 2, and drew 1 with a 14-12 GD. Next week we'll be playing Masked's SJ Wildcats and we played CC FC earlier this season. Between those FOFC games and the deep cup run, we only collected 5 flags this season instead of the usual 10ish. Can't complain at all- flags are nice but cup games and FOFC teams are better. Here's the list for this year's flags and games, all at home.
Those represent the 29th, 23rd, 18th, 26th, and 28th rarest flags in hattrick- all between 35 and 75 users. I'm up to 40 hosted flags to go along with my 121 visited flags. This has me up to 262876.36 coolness visited, good for 11th in the USA. I'm still at 4th on the visited list and will be until I get 2 more flags or the teams below me get about 10 more. The History of the FOFC Cup World, Part I Here's what I can best piece together as FOFC Cup history. FOFC Cup I FOFC Cup History I-IV FOFC CUP(s) history Cup Records Thru FOFC Cup VI Cup Records - Completed Notable Finishes Winner: Gargoyles (RavenHawk) over Cedar Pond Horned Toads (Horned Frog Purple), 1-0. Gargoyles defeated MoKan Mighty Bastards (the meanstrosity) 4-0 to reach the final. Horned Toads defeated the North County Raiders (AE) 6-0 to reach the final. This happenened in December of 2002. The cup was completed after both teams were knocked out of the USA Cup on December 26th, HT time. FOFC Cup II Couldn't really find anything about this cup but what's below: Notable Finishes Champion: MoKan Mighty Bastards 70338 USA IV.40 Meanstrosity (Cup II Winner) Runner Up:Ruskies 70282 USA V.13 The_herd (Cup II runner-up) Final Four: Gargoyles 70991 USA IV.19 Ravenhawk (Semi-finalist lost to Meanstrosity) Midwest Ice Storm FC 70500 USA V.40 Pilotman (Semi-finalist lost to the_herd) Consolation Champ: 3. Bees 70510 USA V.41 ausonny (Consolation Cup winner) FOFC Cup III OT: Superping all hattrickers (re:FOFC Cup III) Roll call when does the FOFC III Cup start? The truly Officialish FOFC Cup III rankings and groups The officialish FOFC Cup III website! http://webhome.idirect.com/~stevegougeon/FOFC-cup/ Predict the FOFC Cup winners FOFC Cup: 1st round game thread FOFC Cup week 2 FOFC Cup III ---- Speculator FOFC Cup week 2 FOFC Cup III ---- Speculator FOFC Cup Unwritten Rules Round IV of FOFC Cup III.. FOFC Cup Advancement Consolation Bubble Watch Please post your FOFC cup week 5 final results here Officialish FOFC Consolation Cup Were are down to the field of 32 in FOFC Cup III and here are the matchups FOFC Cup Elimination Round 1 FOFC Cup elimination week 1 results & week 2 matchups FOFC H-trick Wednesday (6/26/03) FOFC Cup elimination week 2 results & week 3 matchups FOFC cup quarterfinals results & semifinals matchups We are the Champions! This might have been the peak of the FOFC Cup. It's organized to the point where it even had its own website, done by HFP and FM, I believe. There are tons of threads about it and the above are just a sampling. There were a whopping 84 teams set up in groups A-N for the first round. This seeded 32 teams for the elimination bracket and there was also a consolation bracket. Notable Finishes Hippo Results: 5-0 in group play with 20-4 GD, but we were crushed by the Raiders run-and-shoot in the Sweet 16. Championship game: Gargoyles over Slumlords Final Four: Concord Assassins, Chesapeake Cheapshots Consolation: Rochester Roosters over Lancre Wowhawks FOFC Cup IV FOFC Cup IV Brackets FOFC Cup Elite 8 FOFC Cup IV was a 64 team bracket (well, 61 teams and 3 byes). We were taken down in the second round by upset minded West Henrietta FC. Three of the number 1 seeds made it to the Final Four, but the real stars of the show were longtime Hippo mutual supporter ausonny and his Bees. They won the Cup coming from the #7 seed. Raven Hawk made the F4 for the 4th time in 4 FOFC Cups. Notable Finishes Hippo Results: Was #3 seed but lost in 2nd round to West Henrietta FC 5-4 on a goal in the 86th minute Championship game: Bees (ausonny) defeat Intercourse Ball Kickers (YoSoySean) Final Four: Gargoyles (Raven Hawk), Intercourse Ball Kickers (YoSoySean) FOFC Cup V FOFC Cup V FOFC CUP V - Consolation Cup FOFC CUP V - Official playoffs brackets http://tcyfof.free.fr/FOFCUP5/consolation.htm http://tcyfof.free.fr/FOFCUP5/tournament.htm FOFC CUP V Winner - South Bay Saints ! FOFC Cup V went back to group play before brackets, organized by Alf. There were 16 groups of 4. The top half went to the Champions Cup while the bottom half went to the Consolation Cup. Once again, the Bees were a middle of the pack seed and again they made the title game, their run starting with a first round win over the Gargoyles. However, this time it was Masked's South Bay Saints coming away with the title. Notable Finishes Hippo Results: Didn't even make it into the championship bracket and lost in the first round of the Consolation Cup, oof Championship game: South Bay Saints over Bees Final Four: Arkam Avengers, North County Raiders Consolation Cup: Dead Rabbits FC over Hobo Chunks Looking Ahead Hope you enjoyed the features about the FOFC Cup as there's more to come. Again, next week will be the 2nd part of the features and a game against Masked for "FOFC Cup XI". But first, it's qualifier weekend for many teams including CC FC. SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" Last edited by sterlingice : 05-16-2009 at 02:55 PM. |
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05-08-2009, 12:42 PM
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#96 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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and then a freidnly against AC team the Burninators who have a qualifier themselves.. so clearly will not be much of a midfield in that game.
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05-12-2009, 08:22 AM
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#97 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Nuts and Bolts, Part III (1st post)
Nuts and Bolts, Part III
This will be the final part of the Nuts and Bolts Series, wrapping up with topics on our Coaching, a narrow topic, followed by some long articles on Training and the Youth Academy. vBulletin keeps coughing up when I try to post this in one post so it will be split into 2. Coach and Training Coach You've already met Tim "Timber" Kimber. The former legendary keeper of the Hippos became coach at the start of this season. He had outstanding experience at the time and was made into a solid coach to maximize training. He also still has his passable leadership but you know how that goes with coaches. He has always been listed as "a pleasant guy who is fiery and upright"- in my mind, I always pictured the perfect gamer- good teammate, good guy, and fired up about games. He wears the #1, has always worn the #1, and when he retires, the #1 will retire with him. Training Theory A lot of this is from the post I made to Masked earlier, with some more elaboration. The simple question here is "if I were starting from scratch, how would I do training"? This would be my ideal training order if I started a team empty cupboard. Div VI There are a couple of goals for a new Div VI team. The first is to become the best second place team you can. That way you maximize the return on your fanbase- getting fans as quickly as you can to reach the soft cap. Look around your series, see how good everyone else is, and make sure you have a good team but one that can still lose to the best team in the series. Part of your initial outlay of cash will be towards a pretty good roster. The second bit of cash goes towards some cheap trainees- whatever the type, it doesn't matter. The first generation of trainees won't be anything special as you cannot afford good trainees. I also suggest staying away from midfield as you will be improving your team too quickly. Scoring and defending are probably the best choices. Once they mature, they will be good enough that with that with the cash, you will be able to buy good trainees in the second generation and a little bit of improvement across your team. If you're really, really patient- you could use that second generation for cash in the bank- and repeat that for a third generation. But there you're talking about 3 or 4 seasons, saving up for cash you won't use for another 10 seasons. It's worth it, if you have the patience, but it's gotta be hard to keep interest if you're not really trying. Div V Partway through your second generation of trainees, roughly 6 or 7 seasons, you can move up to Div V. In another couple of seasons, you'll be able to buy some Div V/IV caliber players once you sell off that generation of trainees. At this point, I think it's best to start one of two regimens for training. The first is to get very good trainees- not extremely expensive "bleeding edge trainees" - the return is not worth the money paid. But players who when you buy them with good secondaries will net you more when you sell that player fully trained. For instance, if an excellent scorer costs $500K while an excellent scorer with solid passing costs $1M. It's worth it to buy him if, when you sell a world class scorer, you get $2M but a world class scorer with solid passing nets you $3M. The second is to go straight to playmaking. You have to be very careful about when you start playmaking because it is definitely the lifeblood of your team. Start way too early and you won't have enough cash to spread out around the rest of your team. Time it incorrectly and you'll move up too fast for the rest of the talent on your team. If you haven't brought the rest of your team up to the future midfield's standards or at least close, then you are left with a three part decision when your midfielders mature. You can sell them at the pricing sweet spot and start over but the quality of your team will suffer greatly. You can do staggered training- i.e. buying trainees at different levels so when you're selling 2 world class trainees, you have 2 more at, say, brilliant who can take their place and cushion your fall. However, when you change away from playmaking, you won't have maximized your cash return. Or you can keep your starting middies and just rotate out your trainees but that will start choking off your cash flow because you've cut the number of players you are training for cash in half. Div IV What's the answer to the above problem? One possibility is "both". If you're very good with managing your money, you'll have been incrementally improving your team. In Div VI, you had passable level players. As they were getting old and you finished a generation or two of training, you bought some formidables for Div V. You held on for another generation, saving your cash, and then selling those formidables before they got too old and lost value at, say, 27. Then you use that cash and the cash from the next generation of trainees to bump up to world class at striker, wing, and keeper- defense isn't as important and you might want to go a little cheaper- so that you could field a competent Div IV team. Well, in a perfect world in upper levels, your midfield is somewhere between titanic to mythical. That's another 2-4 levels beyond world class at players who are already at an advancing age. So, again, if you've been smart with your money and not tried to overreach, you could conceivably be ready by the end of your 4th training generation. Basically, your long term starting middies come from your 3rd and 4th generations. It cuts off some of your cash so you'd better be making decent cup runs and finishes. The better idea is to spend an extra generation building up cash but, again, few managers have the patience for that. Div III and Beyond By the end of that fourth generation, you'll have those ET-level midfielders, hopefully maximizing your return for your future team with trainees who have good defense and passing for those extra little boosts to your team. Also, maybe you've raised a competent wing, someone with high wing and playmaking- you can't buy that type of player on the market for a reasonable price. Maybe another strong midfielder for WTM or another strong wing, as well. That doesn't leave you nearly as many players to sell for profit but you just saved a ton of money by making your midfield. At that point, the team needs to have upgraded again, this time to extra-terrestrial (ET) level. Hopefully there's enough left in the bank to snag an ET keeper, maybe a couple of titanic strikers, and buy a new pile of trainees. This is where waiting an extra generation would have come in handy. No need to cut corners or slowly buy those players you need. That money would have been in the bank, waiting to be spent. From there, I'm not sure there's much of a blueprint at all. Maybe some higher level players could tell you but this is close to the formula that got me to Div III and the next section will show you how I have stayed there. Frankly, staying in Div III is difficult but not impossible. However, you do start a slow burn through the cash and player resources you have. I don't quite have the perfect strikers or wingers for my team but I make due and make up for it with my defenders. At this point, there's a fundamental shift with your training. It becomes less important, cutting off your cash flow, but you have ways to offset it, namely winning. If you can manage deep cup runs and good series play- as you now have the team to do it- that will help offset the loss of income from training. To get up to Div II and/or MLS, you have to decide to blow a lot of those reserves, buying even better players and burning through wage money. Oh, and if you don't want to do it at a ludicrous rate, you need a bunch of luck, too. You could easily out-talent your division and not even spend a bunch of money up front doing it because insane level players don't cost that much on the open market. But you'd be bleeding through your cash reserves at an incredible rate due to wage costs. As an aside, always keep in mind the selling values of your players. Maybe passable or solid passing from a defender doesn't really help your team. But when you're looking to sell that player back at age 26 or 27- that will make him much more attractive to a counter attacker. If you can score that secondary on the cheap, it's worth it. Conversely, sure getting a technical defensive forward has some great bonuses but is it worth the cost at a lower level where wages aren't that much of an issue? And does he retain resale value in 5 years? If you have to pay $6M for him at 22 and can only sell him for $2M at 28, was he worth the $750K per season on top of his wages that you paid? Not to a Div IV team but maybe to one on MLS. Always be looking at the market for places to exploit and move up. I know there have been times where I just floated a player at a high price because I thought someone might bite and sometimes it works. Sure, maybe it wasn't in the big picture plans but some offers are too good to refuse. Just keep in mind that if someone is willing to pay big dollars, a player with the same abilities is going to cost almost as much to replace so know what you need to buy as a replacement before you try to sell. Training Hippos We will train defense for the foreseeable future for a couple of reasons. One, we can get some useful players and keep the cash flow going. But, two, and just as important, we can make that cash while minimizing the impact to our team. Defense's importance has been increased greatly since the early days of hattrick but it's still the least important facet of the game. So, fluctuating the levels of players at that position will affect your team least of the three major skills. At the moment, I'm training 3 types of players, usually 2 of each. Then I cycle in some youth players and other half training fluff for after the cup run. Sure, I can train 10 guys but I've lost one too many cup games where I held back and tried to maximize training with a 4-5-1 or 5-4-1 and suffered a horrible cupset that set me back all season due to team spirit loss and cash flow issues. The first type are our OCD's. Both of them start as they are needed to help augment the midfield of our starting squad. I go grab an 18-20 year old formidable or excellent playmaker with excellent+ defending. He's competent at defense and the two of them add between 1-2 full levels to my midfield. Sure, it weakens the defense but adding a level of midfield really helps it. I don't know why more players don't do this. Secondly, we have set pieces trainees. One plays with the starting squad while the other plays with the cup team (and friendlies later on). Since I usually play creatively, these guys are crucial. I tend to get quite a few penalty kicks and good corners that I can feed to my head guy up front. I buy them around 20-22 years old as excellent or formidable defenders but they have divine set pieces. I use them for 4~5 season and then can sell them when they are around 25~27. They have a lot of value, even at that age, as they are now around magnificent or world class with divine set pieces. Lastly, there are the moneymakers. I grab young (18~19) excellent or formidable defenders with solid passing. I then train them up until around 23 or 24, world class-ish and sell them off for good money to counter attack teams. These guys almost always play on the friendly squad unless there are a lot of injuries. I don't gain much benefit to my starting squad from playing them and they exist solely to be bough at around $1M and then sold for around $4M a few seasons later. So, everyone has a purpose in one way or another, helping the team either on the field or in the financial books, helping us rotate out older guys for younger ones who have specialities that better fit our team. Also, since we run negative income over a 2 week period, some of these sales just have to offset our cost of being in III. (cont)
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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05-12-2009, 08:25 AM
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#98 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Nuts and Bolts, Part III (post 2)
Youth Academy
If playing hattrick is like playing franchise mode in Madden, then the Youth Academy is the NCAA series. You get players starting at age 15 and then eventually promote them to your senior squad. You choose to pay either $5K/$10K/$20K either towards the Youth Academy just like you can with your youth pull system. However, rather than making a youth pull every week, you can choose to promote a youth squad player and sell or train them. The youth academy very much adds some control to the random "youth pull" lottery every week. But, more importantly, it's a lot deeper and more fun as it's almost like having a second team. Youth Leagues Let's start with leagues since that will be simple starting point. The leagues have a lot less structure than actual leagues. They can have 4, 6, 8, 12, or 16 teams and joining one is more like arranging a friendly than anything. You can join any open league after your current one is done. If you like yours, you can stay. If not, pick a new league. It doesn't matter who you are playing against Keep in mind that since there are different sizes of leagues, they all have different season lengths. I am currently in a league called USA Juniors, comprised of Div IV, V, and VI teams from the USA. It's not at all active in terms of chatter but the other 5 teams all keep up with their squads so there are no walkovers. That's probably the primary reason I stayed as dead teams were a huge problem until an update a week or two ago. You need live active games to evaluate your players, but we'll get to that. The memory is fuzzy and the record keeping is mostly nonexistent for youth squads so I'm having to go off of previous press announcements. The Hungry Hungry Hippos were born on March 29th, 2007 and we started in FOFC's second youth league. After that had too many inactive teams, I joined a league called USA Cup Battlers. Next were leagues called USA Juniors Cup and RED MAD DOGS, the latter having four teams, the Hippos and one each from Mexico, Israel, and Romania. The last series I was in was called Major League Soccer Juniors, where I was for 2 seasons. And now I've been in USA Juniors for its entire life, this being its fifth season, winning "the title" in the second season. Youth Players Players are temporary, like in college sports. The very youngest you can get are 15 years old and they are rare. As soon as they turn 19, they can't play in youth games so you have from ages 15-18 to train with your youth team. But, like with lottery picks, you get a significantly better return for a young 17 year old than an old 18 year old with the same skills. So, since you get more in return from pulling them sooner, you have to choose when your sweet spot is to promote them. I don't know if I mentioned this but they introduced full ages for all players- not everyone turns 18 at the start of a season, for instance. Players "live" 112-day (length of season) years between birthdays and have birthdays the entire season around. They get a random "birthday" when they are created. So, not all 17 year olds are created equal- a 17y2d player will sell for a lot more than a 17y110d player since the latter is about to become an 18yo player. The balance you have to strike with the sale is that players train faster with the youth squad. If you put a 17yo on your youth squad and a 17yo on the senior team and train them both at defense, the one on the youth squad will level up first. I have yet to see a good rule of thumb or concrete numbers for how much faster. With the youth academy, you can also train 2 types per week. So, for instance, with my current team, I'm usually running a 5-2-3 and training 8 players at full speed with scoring and defense. If you train two skills at once, the training level is lessened. There is no number, but I imagine it to be half training. So, if I had all stud defense prospects, I could train 5 guys at 150%. Instead, I choose 8 guys at 100% as my talent is spread across two different positions. There is also an option for individual training, which trains all players half speed at one skill so you can train all 11 players at once and still train another skill like short passes which could add passing training to another 8 guys if you're running a 2-5-3. In short, they're trying to make the youth academy a place to train secondaries or spread out skills to maximize return. The longest you realistically have a core set of players together is a year and a half or two before they are replaced with a whole new crop, so you have to be willing to be flexible with your training program to maximize profits. The actual speed of training is a bit difficult to measure because your players have hidden skill levels. Again, there was a patch in the last couple of weeks to the youth squad that gives more rating information. However, almost all of your players' skills are hidden. When you recruit a player to your youth squad- you get a rating or two, typically one potential and one actual- but that's all you have to go on. How do you tell how good they are? You play them in games and see how they do. Youth Games The games are testing grounds for HT developers. Most gameplay changes will be implemented in the youth academies for a season or two before the senior squads. If they want to try out a new tactic or game element, it usually shows up in youth games first. I make substitutions all the time in my youth games to maximize training and the information I get. But I've only done it once with my senior squad. There is one game per week in your series. You can also arrange a friendly every three weeks and that game can't be within 24 hours of your fixture of you have to pick a new time. There is not a week between seasons like there is with the senior squad. However, during the week between seasons for the senior squad, there are no games, as they need that week for implmenting changes and server downtime. Once the game is complete, you can see your match ratings and star counts just like a senior squad game. They use the same ratings for midfield, attack, and defense. It's scary how my youth squad now could probably have beaten a lot of my teams back in my first couple of seasons or at least given them a good competitive game. Youth players have blue stars instead of yellow stars and a vague rule of thumb is that one star is equal to one level at that positions. For instance, since forwards are roughly full scoring + half passing, a forward in the youth squad who has inadequate (5) scoring and weak (4) passing would put up 7 stars. By comparison, Oliver Angulo, who typically puts up 7 or 7.5 stars for my senior squad is titanic (15) and solid (7). As an aside, the youth teams are stripped down of a lot of the features of the senior squad. There is nothing like supporter stats or flag chasing. You can PIC, Norm, and MotS, but you cannot view your team's confidence or team spirit. I'm not even sure they're figured in. The Business Side of Things After each game, you get a training report where the ratings, either current or potential, of a couple of players is revealed through some cryptic hints that have mostly been decoded. So, by playing them, seeing their star ratings and getting hints in the training reports, you can start to determine how good your players are. Then you have to determine who is worth training, who is worth keeping to sell, and who gets fired. You are limited to 16 players on your team at any one time. If you have 16, you cannot recruit any new players until you either promote or fire someone off of the team. So no osmosis training or overloading your youth squad. There is no stadium or crowd or supporter to manage. Your only expenses are the coaches and the pull costs, which get tabulated on the senior team ledger. The pull costs are still negligible, $2K, I believe. The coach costs are the same as if you had the normal youth pull- $5K for not much return (1 coach), $10K for medium (2 coaches), or $20K for best (3 coaches). Why that is important will be explained in the next section. With the old style youth pull you can make one each week and are guaranteed a player. In the youth academy, there is more pacing to be considered. I pull maybe 10 players a year tops- it's more like every other week, realistically. You don't want to pull just to have someone that week- you want to try and maximize your return. Why pull a player who is one week away from, say, solid playmaking when you can pull him next week and he'll be able to be sold as solid. Under the old youth system, I remember being ridiculously lucky. Plus, the market was a lot different then than it is today. This was all before the great deflation about 10 years ago. Looking at my spreadsheet, I invested $4,455,000 towards training in the old youth system, not including those $2K pull fees. I made a whopping $8,674,778. That was across 15 seasons, for a roughly $270K per season profit. And that doesn't include future Hippo Hall of Heroes member Thomas Little who could have sold for $5-6M at one point but will end up staying with the team his entire career. Well, times have changed. You can't make nearly that much profit as before and I'm just content to break even or make a little cash. To date, I have spent $1.885M and have made $1.266M, for a loss of about $600K. This is over about 6 seasons and, if you think about it, that includes some startup costs to get my team "up to snuff". I also have Stephen Williams on the senior squad who is worth about $800K at this moment, but he probably won't ever be sold. I don't mind a $100K loss per season, particularly since I'm in the middle of a "training cycle" and I should be selling some high level prospects over the next 2 seasons. Think of it this way, my team is basically the equivalent of a bunch of sophomores and juniors. All the seniors that are haven't been sold are fairly mediocre but I have a good crop coming up behind them that should peak fairly soon. Staff We decided to go with 3 coaches to maximize the talent that goes into the youth system. Each week, when it's time to recruit a player to the youth squad, you call up one of the coaches. Then it's Monty Hall time. If you like the player you get, you keep him and that's it for the week. Even if you have space for 3 players on your youth squad, you can only recruit one per week. If you don't like him, you can go for doors number 2 or 3 with the same condition. If you get to 3 and he's not much to look at- you can either just not recruit someone that week or play him and see if he has a hidden talent not indicated by the initial report. Here is the press release from when I turned over some staff and ended up with the coaches I have now: Quote:
Staff members are pretty much interchangeable so I went with ones who I thought had "cool" names. The head coach is Brain Turner. Not Brian, Brain. Who doesn't want a head coach named Brain? He must be smart! He is in Alabama because it's the largest region in the US, due completely to it being first alphabetically. Lawrence Hightower is a nod to living in Lawrence, KS and he is the Kansas scout. Plus, I have this image of Bubba Smith roaming the sidelines. Then There's Allan Campagne. I got tired of looking for good names as there were only so many and I think had gone through them all. So, my "local" Houston scout is one letter away from Champagne and I'm sure is a high class guy. Conclusion So, in short, training takes a long term plan to succeed, lots of patience, and hasn't changed a lot in the history of hattrick while the youth academy is one of those things that added an extra level of depth to the game that is a very welcome addition. I hope all the readers have enjoyed getting a glimpse at what makes up hattie today. It's still a pretty similar game to what was going years ago with a lot of its strengths and weaknesses, but at least there is a decent amount of change that makes things fresh and interesting. SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" |
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05-12-2009, 08:26 AM
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#99 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Friendly, Round 16: FOFC CUP: SJ Wildcats - Houston Hippopotami
The History of the FOFC Cup World, Part II
Unfortunately, like the last post, vBulletin breaks every time I try to post too much in a post so check out last week's friendly to see the first part of this feature, cups I-V. This tackles VI-X. FOFC Cup VI FOFC Cup VI group breakdowns and picks FoFC Cup VI Group Standings FOFC CUP VI Consolation Brackets FOFC CUP VI Elimination Brackets It needs it own thread!!----Congrats Bees, Your FOFC Cup Champions Airhog organized the 6th iteration of the FOFC Cup. If you look through the threads, it was a classic case of someone asking an innocent question about the next cup being told "hey, you asked, you get to do it". There were 10 groups of 6 teams in group play which led into 16 team Elimination and Consolation Brackets. The Bees did it again, this time winning a 3-2 game against meanstrosity's MoKan Mighty Bastards.Notable Finishes Hippo Results: We sat this one out as we had started trying to play a team in every country. There was no mechanism in hattrick to track flag chasing but it sounded like a neat idea. Championship game: ausonny's Bees over meanstrosity's MoKan Mighty Bastards Final Four: Coffee Warlord's Galesburg Avengers and Havok's Maniacal Misfitz Consolation Cup: RavenHawk's Gargoyles over DamnMikeB's Aviators FOFC Cup VII FOFC CUP VII Group Standings FOFC CUP VII Consolation Elimination Round FOFC CUP VII Elimination Round FOFC CUP VII Semi-Finals After Many Seasons of Near Misses... Congrats to...Me! Airhog ran the 7th Cup and there were again 10 groups of 6 teams in group play feeding a pair of 16 team brackets. However, there was a slight issue that led to "unfinished business" being in the FOFC hattrick lexicon for a couple of months as Coffee Warlord ran it into the ground. The Championship Game was incorrectly scheduled and it had to be the next season. CW's Galesburg Avengers took down ausonny's Bees to win the title. Tho we suspect he rigged the cup as a post in the SemiFinal thread was that Avengers vs Peakers was a father-son matchup so he probably got someone to throw the game. Notable Finishes Hippo Results: We were again globetrotting Championship game: Coffee Warlord's Galesburg Avengers over ausonny's Bees Final Four: Peaker's Peakers and antbacker's Anteaters Consolation Cup: Near as I can tell, the FOFC Consolation bracket fell apart after 2 rounds but maybe I just missed it. FOFC Cup VIII Official Cup VIII Groups A-C Offical Cup VIII Groups D-E If Cup VIII ended after week 3... Cup VIII Consolation Cup Elimination Brackets Cup VIII Elimination Brackets Airhog again had the reins and this FOFC Cup will go down as my favorite- it featured the Hippos return to the Cup in a major way. By this time, the FOFC hattrick community had begun to shrink a bit as many players had been playing for quite a while- for instance, the Hippos celebrated their 2nd anniversary during this season. There were only 5 groups of 6 teams, leading into a pair of 16 team brackets with 2 byes in the consolation bracket. Group D featured a classic match between the Hippos and mutual supporter vexroid, he of the NE Oklahoma Sidekicks in the first game. We broke our losing streak against him with a 2-2 draw that was 1-1 most of the game until we scored in the 84th minute be he answered in the 87th. Both teams advanced, going 4-0 the rest of our way in group play. In the elimination bracket, we were seeded #2 overall and scheduled to face ausonny but he scheduled a friendly and we got a bye. We then got to face the defending champion Avengers in the second round. I might have cheated and played some starters (i.e. my midfield- a "mythical"-old rating) due to injury issues and won 7-0. This set up an epic Final Four game between fellow Group D member and mutual supporter Maltby and his heaters. This is from the hattrick chat thread that week and I don't think I could do it justice to try and summarize it here: Current FOFC Chat In the final, YoSoySean's Intercourse Ball Kickers proved to be too much for Houston, however. We beat them at hatstats and midfield, but got a player thrown out and he won a thrilling 3-2 game for the FOFC Cup VIII title. Regrettably, this would be our last FOFC Cup- until this season. Notable Finishes Hippo Results: See the above- lost 3-2 in title game Championship game: YoSoySean's Intercourse Ball Kickers over SterlingIce's Houston Hippopotami Final Four: Maltby's Heaters and leverb66's West Fargo Stangs Consolation Cup: Katon's Lancre Wowhawks over ntndeacon's Deacons, Airhog's Oklahoma City Rednecks over Fantastic Flying Froggies for 3rd place FOFC Cup IX FOFC Cup IX Groups FOFC Cup IX FOFC Cup IX Elimination Round FOFC*Cup*IX*Elimination*Bracket FOFC Cup IX CHAMPION! Airhog retired from his long and glorious FOFC Cup organizer reign and terpkristin stepped in. There was a bit of a comeback after last year's smaller cup as group play this time featured 8 groups of 5 and a 16 team elimination bracket. The first round of the elimination bracket was pure chaos as only two teams avoided upset, YSS's #2 Intercourse Ball Kickers and the Afoci's #8 Fighting Crawfish. Those two teams made the Final Four but both lost there. Breeze's #13 Confederates beat Vince's #14 Isla Vista Vandals to win the title. Notable Finishes Hippo Results: We played 9 different Div I friendlies in different countries this season Championship game: Breeze's Confederates over Vince's Isla Vista Vandals Final Four: YoSoySean's Intercourse Ball Kickers and The_Afoci's Fighting Crawfish Consolation Cup: None that I could find FOFC Cup X FOFC Cup X - New Info! FOFC Cup X: Preview FOFC Cup: Championship Tournament This marked the end of the "modern" FOFC Cup as we know it. After FOFC Cup IX was played in season 25, there was no FOFC Cup in season 26 or 27. Interest in the game was waning, many teams in FOFC had made upper divisions and were playing deeper into the cup, and flag chasing had hit the game in full force. However, Masked put together one last FOFC Cup in season 28, which still featured some of FOFC's biggest hattrick names. It consisted of 28 teams, split into 7 groups of 4 each and all games were played at neutral sites, a feature HT had introduced a season or two before. The championship bracket was the top 8 teams and the top 4 seeds: ausonny's Bees, CW's Galesburg Avengers, brillig's Slithy Toves, and AE's North County Raiders- all advanced. Ausonny and Brillig both moved on with shutout wins and were tied 0-0 at the half of the title game. But the Slithy Toves scored in the second half, winning 3-0 and claiming the 10th FOFC Cup. Notable Finishes Hippo Results: We ended up going 8 rounds in the USA Cup and played 8 more Div I teams in friendlies. We missed this final cup, tho  Championship game: brillig's Slithy Toves over ausonny's Bees Final Four: Coffee Warlord's Galesburg Avengers and Ardent Enthusiast's North County Raiders Consolation Cup: None Friendl-- FOFC CUP XI Preview So, after a 10 season hiatus from 28 to 38, one game is all we could muster for this "FOFC Cup". But here it is, technically FOFC Cup XI, by my count! It's a the match for the ages! Ok, so not much, but we're still here. Masked is on his second team and his SJ Wildcats are playing the Hippos in Houston. We'll be playing mostly starters but there will be 3 subs in the first 5 minutes to get some key starters out of the game. Plus, that allows 3 more players to have "played" in the game to keep form up. I don't know what Masked has planned but I'm sure it's devious! Friendly Box Score Kits
Wildcats 0 - 5 Hippopotami (222165920) 5-14-2009 01.00 The weather was pretty good, and a crowd of 635 had shown up at The Litter Box for the match. Wildcats started off with a 4-5-1 lineup. They fielded: Tocci - Blankenship, Gimplinger, Santoro, Corona - Upchurch, Stojaspal, Boekdrukker, Bevan, Whitson - Brennan. Hippopotami decided to use a 5-4-1 set up. Starters: Özkutay - Kavelashvili, Binst, Huenul, Cyburt, 云欣 (Yunxin) - Partridge, Thacker, King, Marsh - Angulo. Hippopotami clearly had decided to counter-attack when they could. 4 minutes into the game, 李 (Li) 云欣 (Yunxin) almost gave the visitors the lead, as he clipped a delicate lob over the keeper, but the ball glanced harmlessly off the crossbar. Damion Marsh would have preferred to play on, but his coach decided otherwise. Juan Alberto Quijada entered the game for Hippopotami as the match clock showed 5 minutes. Oliver Angulo would have preferred to play on, but his coach decided otherwise. Tor Tetlie entered the game for Hippopotami as the match clock showed 5 minutes. As the 5 minute approached, the Hippopotami coach decided it was time for a substitution. John King reluctantly made way for Nicki Jürgensen on the pitch. Hippopotami had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially 19 minutes in when Charlie Partridge came up alone against Adriano Tocci who managed a block. After 23 minutes, there was a bit of a mixup on the field as Wildcats found themselves out of position and their organization level dropped to inadequate. The home crowd was not impressed by the fancy moves of Hippopotami's Tor Tetlie after 26 minutes. He converted a pass from the left for a goal, resulting in the visitors taking the 0 - 1 lead. The corner kick from 李 (Li) 云欣 (Yunxin) set Tor Tetlie up perfectly, as he soared to meet the ball, heading it in for 0-2. The teams went for the halftime break at 0 - 2. Hippopotami claimed to be the more dominant force in the game, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 65 percent. Wildcats's coach took some time during the break to go over his strategy, which raised Wildcats's organization to solid. A defender managed to keep the ball from crossing the goal-line after a curling shot coming in from the right from Nicki Jürgensen after 52 minutes, and prevented Hippopotami from going up another goal. 62 minutes in, Hippopotami's Carlos Thacker received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. 69 minutes in, Wildcats appeared unsure on how to play and their organization was only passable. Coming in from the right, Hippopotami had a good opportunity to convert on a counterattack after 70 minutes, but Carlos Thacker's attempt to finish was easily stopped. Although the whole team were struggling to impress, Wildcats's Ron Whitson was singled out as being the problem as he was called off the pitch after 80 minutes. Richard Jackson was given a chance to change things around. Hippopotami came close to extending their lead as Folke Binst delivered a long range shot from the right after 84 minutes, but the angle was too narrow and the shot went harmlessly into the side netting. Wildcats needed a fresh pair of legs on the field, and after 85 minutes Brock Brennan made way for Randy Wheat. Wildcats was now without a captain, so it was left to Randy Wheat to take the captain's armband. Although the whole team were struggling to impress, Wildcats's Manny Bevan was singled out as being the problem as he was called off the pitch after 85 minutes. Shawn Frazier was given a chance to change things around. Charlie Partridge's lightning pace was too much for Eduardo Corona who could only look on as the Hippopotami player blasted one home. 0 - 3. A thrilling play through the middle 88 minutes into the match gave Hippopotami's Tor Tetlie a chance to increase the lead, and he did not disappoint. The score was then 0 - 4. By then Tor Tetlie was a three time scorer - a hat trick! Hippopotami's Charlie Partridge received a play slashing through the home side's central defense after 89 minutes, and chipped it past the keeper to score the 0 - 5 goal. The home crowd was not pleased with that one. Confident in their lead, Hippopotami decided to play a more defensive game at this point. Hippopotami claimed to be the more dominant force in the game, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 59 percent. Wildcats's best player was Randy Wheat. Eduardo Corona was a disappointment, however. Most important Hippopotami player was Batı Özkutay. On the other hand, Folke Binst's play was disheartening. The match ends 0 - 5. Rating details
(substitutions eliminated for brevity's sake) Possession 35% 65% 41% 59% Friendly Recap We are victorious! The Hippos will carry away the unofficial FOFC Cup trophy for all eternity. Or at least until there's some magical HT revival in 50 years when we're on virtual message boards in flying cars on an alien planet. Next up is the last post of the season, a little look at the future of the Hippos. SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" Last edited by sterlingice : 05-16-2009 at 03:44 PM. |
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05-12-2009, 08:26 AM
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#100 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Back in Houston!
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Quo Vadimus
Quo Vadimus
So, where are we going? Who to sell and who to keep? How does the series shape up for next season? Do we have a legit shot at #1 again or should we force a little quicker rebuild so we will be ready again. First, however, here's a wrapup from another of the teams that we have been following in the thread: Quote:
Roster Changes Defense and Trainees Delcarte (27yo WC:13/Divine SP/Head) Huenul (24yo Mag:12 Def/Form:9 PM) Cyburt (24yo Mag:12 Def/Form:9 PM) Kavelashvili (20yo, Out:10 Def/Solid Pass) Gafni (20yo Out:10 Def/Solid Pass/Powerful) Jurgensen (19yo Exc:8 Def/Exc PM) Yunxin (22yo Exc:8 Def/Divine SP/Head) Binst (20yo Exc:8 Def/Divine SP) Williams (23yo Form:9 Def) Delcarte is getting sold ASAP. Williams is a token player who is slated for the Hippo Hall of Heroes and just gets playing time when we have it to spare. That still leaves us with 7 trainees/starters, 1 more than I'd prefer. Heunul and Cyburt will start for this year and be sold at the end of the season as they hit 25 and World Class defending. Either Yunxin or Binst will also start as the set pieces specialist, probably Yunxin. He's old and I want to get him trained and onto the market in 3~4 seasons as Magnificent. I was once told Kavelashvili was a potential U20'er, but I kindof doubt it tho I should check with Sakartvelo. He and Gafni are to be purely for profit defenders. Then there's Jurgensen who is a replacement for one of the Cyburt/Heunul pairing. After we get booted from the cup next season, I'll have to buy the other replacement. We'll be taking a big step back in defense after next year but for this upcoming season, we'll not fall too far. Defense and Trainees Ozkutay (27yo ET:16 Keeper) Manholt (25yo Form:9 Keeper) I know this sounds petty but I've never been a fan of Ozkutay. His form has always been kindof sketchy, he doesn't seem to play as well as his level of stars, and he just never seems to be able to steal a game for us. Oh, and he likes to get hurt. It's irrational but I'd kindof like to "upgrade" him. His transfer compares are between $5M and $6M still and those will fall off a cliff in a season or two. It might be time to swap him out for another keeper in the 21~23yo range to maintain value. His replacement will probably cost in the $6M-$7M range but that's not bad for getting 4+ years younger and the same quality. Manholt basically is a competent backup. Ozkutay is out on the market for a possible sale, if I can get a price I like- I think anything over $5M is a price I would like. Forwards Angulo (25yo Titan:15 Sco/Solid Pass/Quick) Tetlie (27yo Titan:15 Sco/Pass Pass/Head) Treibahs (28yo Bril:11/Solid Pass/Head) I'm fairly happy with my strikers. I have a head and a quick, perfect for my playing creatively. So the question becomes "is it worth it to flip up". Angulo is still a decent age and it would be fairly expensive to replace him as he transfer compares at $3.9M, which doesn't take into account the premium you have to pay to get a quick forward. Unfortunately, strikers quickly lose their value as they age. At 27, Tetlie only transfer compares at $2.7M and at 28, Treibahs is only $1.8M. Back in the day, I would have made some sort of shrewd move to sell them at 29 before they cross the "mental" 30 barrier, still make a decent profit, and get someone younger. That's tougher to pull the trigger on now that there's a Hall of Heroes they could retire to. I think that's still on the table, tho. If I can fetch decent rates for Treibahs next season and Tetlie 2 seasons from now, when they're 29, I'll probably have to do it. But these are not decisions for the upcoming 39th season but for seasons 40 and 41. Midfield and Wingers Regulez (28yo Titan:15 Wing/Form:9 PM/Head) Sidorczak (34yo Mag:12 Wing/Bril:11 PM/Powerful) Partridge WTM (32yo Titan:15 PM/Quick) King (26yo Myth:17 PM/Form:9 Pass) Thacker (26yo Myth:17 PM/Pass Pass/Inad Def) Marsh (27yo ET:16 PM) Quijada (32yo Titan:15 PM/Solid Pass/Inad Def/Powerful) Vickers (36yo SN:14 PM) Little (36yo Mag:12 PM/Inad Pass) The injury to Regulez really threw a kink in our plans. I definitely wanted to sell him in the offseason and upgrade. I still might be able to do that, but I'll either take a hit to cash or team spirit. King, Thacker, and Marsh are definitely quality guys who are going to be old in a couple of seasons but are just fine now. Again, we're probably looking at selling 2~3 seasons down the road and replacing when Gafni and Kavelashvili get sold. The rest of the midfield is being held together by string and AARP. We still have one spot to fill between with either Partridge or Quijada at WTM. Both can still start but are one injury away from retirement and a season or two from being mostly useless at this level. Sidorczak, Vickers, and Little all have pretty high looking ratings still but they're falling fast and should only play a starting game in a pinch. They do still play good enough to win some early cup games without risking the starters and are all patiently awaiting their call at the Hippo Hall of Heroes. Other Fluff Kimber - Coach Weissglass - Future Coach Benito - Future HHoH Brik - Future HHoH Armengol - Future HHoH Cassidy - Youth pull to sell Feldman - Youth pull to sell There's the rest of the roster- coaches, HOF'ers in waiting, and sales. We're looking to get rid of Cassidy and Feldman but so far they haven't sold. Probably one more attempt on Cassidy and he might be fired. I like to throw players out there even for $1000 because who knows when someone might want to train them. I remember I had a player a while back who I sold for $10K originally and I got more than that in mother club money when he sold for something like $5M. Conclusion We have one more really solid season with the current set of the players. Our wages are a bit high, but I think we can withstand the hit with some creative accounting and a good season. This feels like the baseball team who knows they are at the end of their run but has 1 more year left if things hold together and injuries stay away. I added a piece last season in John King. I'm going to try and add another piece or two in an upgraded keeper and winger, if I can make it fit financially. Season 40, things take a substantial step back as the defense regresses and another season or two after and the midfield falls apart- but that's not this year. Let's see if the makeup of the series agrees with that. Update After writing the above, I sold off Ozkutay and got younger in the net and Delcarte and Regulez and kept the cash. I picked up another keeper, Selim Louni, who is ET, like Ozkutay, but is only 21 years old. These moves have knocked my wages down to a much more manageable $450K range instead of up near $500K. Even though I paid $6.9M for Louni, I made $5.7M for Ozkutay, $1.95M for an injured and old Regulez, and an underwhelming $2.6M for Delcarte, so I have $6.6M in the bank. I am dangerously thin at midfield because I'm one major injury away from only having 4 usable guys so I've been half-heartedly shopping around for a winger. However, that would drain most of the rest of my cash reserves and there isn't much relief coming on the horizon, save for the sale of my OCDs, but that would be a major disruption to the team. Series Preview You know some of the cast. The Selma Sumorats are back as are the Wahoos, T Hills FC, and Bridgemen. I'm hoping to split home and away with the first pair as I don't see stealing a point from the Wahoos in the cards like it was last season. T Hills can be vulnerable but they are still quite strong- probably another split. I coughed up a point to Bridgemen last year underestimating them. I hope to not make that mistake this season and get all 6 points from them. As for the new teams, we traded series champ Supra Supreme up to II for a walkover in Dolly Llamas: 6 PIC points. But then we lost our two walkovers from last year for Giallorossi and Ennis RoyalCelt. Giallorossi is very similar to us with a good midfield but they are a little better at offense and a little weaker at defense than we are. RoyalCelt is a little light in the midfield so we might be able to steal a point or 3 from them on the road while winning at home fairly handily. So I'm probably looking at something like 27 or 30 points, worse than last season but could be a better place in the standings since the two walkovers last year hyper-inflated the point totals. I still don't see a series title in the cards for us but I said that last season and there we were in week 14 with a chance to win and promote, so who knows. Closing Thoughts Thanks for everyone who had been reading this dynasty. As I said above, I hope this has been fun to read as it has been very fun to write about and play. I had forgotten how much work it was to write a dynasty but how rewarding the finished product also can be. I will probably update this thread from time to time with major updates but nothing formal or substantially formatted. So, until next time, or as I stated earlier in the thread, until "there's some magical HT revival in 50 years when we're on virtual message boards in flying cars on an alien planet", remember the run and shoot will beat anything else in hattrick SI
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Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" Last edited by sterlingice : 06-03-2009 at 01:18 PM. |
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