Hattrick

[sterlingice]

Best I've pulled in a long time- I need to make sure I can train him up right.

SI

[MikeVic]

I went to the site to see if my team was still there... found Wildcats FC and they still have quite a few of my old players! It's a bot team, but it was kinda cool to see a bunch of 41-year-old guys that I recognized.

[GoldenEagle]

Is there a way to tell what series you are going to promote to? It seems like there use to be a way, but I can't remember now.

[Tellistto]

You can try akickku.com or alltid.org to see if they have information on the matter. I know that it's not always correct on who goes where in terms of tie breakers, though.

[Masked]

I sold the first of my solid forwards last week (17.0 solid scoring, inad passing) for only $150K. I was expecting him to at least cover 1 seasons of youth expenses. I guess I'll just focus on training players for my senior squad.

[Tellistto]

Interesting. Sold a 17.0 passable scoring solid passing forward earlier this season for 567k or something like it.

[OldGiants]

Interesting first full season. The other real team in my league had made a glaring error in one when he only fielded ten players and lost. That allowed me to catch up and go into first on goal differential going into the last game. I only needed a tie, and a 1-1 was what I got. I knew I would get a qualifier, but decided qualifier payout was worth getting at all costs, so MOTS'd that one and it was obviously needed. My qualifier opponent was able to PIC his game (against the relegated last season champ of my series, no less!) and even though I had a slight edge in possession, I went down 3-2.

So it is back to D VI again with the same lineup of one old, decent team and me. I've got three keeper trainees due to injuries, and the worst just went Solid, so he will be sold because he's 20. The youngest trainee is FORMIDABLE, 18 and the #2 is EXCELLENT and 19.

I'm sitting on 600k and should get ~150k for the Solid. I think I'll expand the stadium, and then look for an EXCELLENT forward to help my attack. My MF is already the best by a bit over my main competition, so I think attack is the way to go. My MF is Solid, EXCELLENT and FORMIDABLE, while I have only one Solid winger and one solid forward.

[GoldenEagle]

Can you not go into debt anymore when bidding on players? I have about $200,000 in the bank but was going to try to spend around $400000 on players and just go temporary into debt. But it is telling me I don't enough have cash to make a bid?

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by GoldenEagle

Can you not go into debt anymore when bidding on players? I have about $200,000 in the bank but was going to try to spend around $400000 on players and just go temporary into debt. But it is telling me I don't enough have cash to make a bid?

No, you can't bid more than you have on players. I've tried several times and no go.

[Poli]

I'm getting hacked at the people that keep swooping in at the deadline stealing deadbeat, American keepers from me.

I mean, I could normally care more (I hate the concept of caring "less"), I'd assume I'd get one out of 10 or so just by blind luck without being there at the deadline. However, I've been trying off and on for two weeks now and I'm like Oh-for-30 on getting one.

Gah!

[Erik Holland]

just raise your price with more than 10% a lick and do it exactly 3 minutes before deadline. mental prices work good also. a player will more likely get another bid at 99,000 than 101,000

Do of course alway keep a set price in mind that you want to pay for a player.

[GoldenEagle]

Kind of a weird, stalkerish story about my HT team.

I pulled a couple of players as youth pulls when I first started (about three years ago) and trained them up as forwards. Neither were really spectacular talents, but they were cheap and I kind of like the idea of raising players from within. Fast forward to now, the players are 20 years old and I have some more trainees coming out of my youth academy and I need to make room.

I listed Jackson Landers last week, as mentioned a 20 year old outstanding scoring/poor passing. I listed him for $750k and figured myself lucky to get that. A fifth division Bulgarian team offers $1.04M shortly after I listed him. No other team placed a bid.

Yesterday, I listed another one of my youth pulls, 20 year old Jared Alexander with outstanding scoring/weak passing. He had a 2000+ better TSI than Landers and is probably close to popping, but I wanted to go ahead and bring up a solid trainee from the YA. The same fifth Bulgarian division team bid $1.1M on him shortly after he was listed.

I thought it was odd that the team was bidding on the players so early in the process and the fact that they bidded on almost the same exact player.

[sterlingice]

Weird- I dunno. You just hope that someone doesn't look at it and think it's cheating of any sort.

Had a pair of my better youth trainee sales ever over the past 2 weeks:
Neal Watts 2500000
Leonard Alford 640000

SI

[Erik Holland]

Of course it could be your alter ego second team you made when you were on vacation in Bulgary...but...

If the palyers are almost the same as you said it's not that strange. The Bulgarian is probably looking for oustanding scoring 20y trainees to train passing or wing.

[sterlingice]

That's the likely answer: if you're selling the same type of players, he's looking for the same type of players to train

SI

[kingfc22]

Saw this thread bumped up today and I'm about to jump back in.

Royal Knights FC is back up and running in USA VI.275

[GoldenEagle]

Do players get credit for training if it is a walkover? I can't remember.

[sterlingice]

Yeah- as long as they are in the lineup.

SI

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by GoldenEagle

Do players get credit for training if it is a walkover? I can't remember.

As SI said, they do. And they better 'cause I had a walk-over last night and play the same 2-player team next week. The fans had best show up in force, too.

I'm solid to stay in D V this season. When my top goalie becomes a $6 million man in a couple months of real time, I'll sell him and improve my attack and wingers.

[GoldenEagle]

I got to strengthen to more to make it to V. We went up last year and got promptly sent back down. I bought magnificent midfielder that I feel like I got a bargain on, but bought a magnificent defender that I think I overpaid for.

I got $3mil in the bank and should raise another mil before the end of the season. I plan on buying a winger and another defender. I should have three world class forwards going into next season if I don't sell. I really don't have any trainees in the youth academy though.

[sterlingice]

I'm still somehow able to train and still make a profit up in III (and II when I was there). I don't make a ton of money but I have $15M in the bank and spend it well when I have it. I basically buy higher end trainees (formidable and 19 with sellable secondaries) for about $1M each and train them up to WC and then sell them off at that point a couple of seasons later for $3-3.5M. It keeps the caliber of my team up but I can still turn a decent profit.

SI

[GoldenEagle]

I think my goal is to only pull trainees from my youth system. I know long-term that is not the best financial goal, but it more fun for me that way.

[sterlingice]

It just doesn't work for me and staying up in a higher level. If I have to go for guys who are custom trained even to, say, solid of a primary skill and a passable secondary- I won't be able to compete in III so my youth guys are geared solely for selling. I'm just trying to not lose money or even gain a little bit so that the experience of the youth academy is worth it.

I've had an amazing year in the selling this season, tho. But my youth system has been gutted to sell people off so it's time to rebuild again.

SI

[Poli]

I'm enjoying trying to play HT trying to make money instead of climbing to the top.

[sterlingice]

Round 10 of the Cup for the first time ever in 25 seasons

SI

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Round 10 of the Cup for the first time ever in 25 seasons

SI

Congrats! Keep it up.

Sitting third in my series, likely to finish fourth unless I upgrade here and there. Currently sitting on 800k and making nice money from net revenue.

Good news today. Both GK trainees popped. I now have a Supernatural (age 20) and a Formidable (age 18). they both get a year older in mid-April, so the older one will get sold when he gets to ET. The younger should be BRILLIANT by then and capable of first team action.

[TargetPractice6]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Round 10 of the Cup for the first time ever in 25 seasons

SI

Congrats SI! Now I feel even worse about getting bounced in round 2.

At least I'm still undefeated in league play (knock on wood)...

[sterlingice]

Well, I'm undefeated in the Cup but lost in week 1 in League play so we're even

SI

[TargetPractice6]

I'm probably going to have to remain undefeated through week 13 if I want to win the league. My main competitor has a team that is nearly as old as my previous team (started in season 20), and seemingly an unlimited bank account. I have a 4 point cushion now, but I play him week 14 on the road so I'm treating it ostensibly as a 1 point cushion.

[sterlingice]

FYI: lost in Round 10 of the Cup but still a very cool accomplishment for my team

SI

[GoldenEagle]

How many days is it before you can promote a player from the youth academy? I have a solid keeper at 17.01 but I can't bring him up because he is only been with the club for 67 days.

[Tellistto]

Full season, so 112, I think. On his page it will tell you how many days until he can be promoted as well, can just add that number to however long you've had him. Though, perhaps that's a foxtrick feature I see.

Tell

[GoldenEagle]

Originally Posted by Tellistto

Full season, so 112, I think. On his page it will tell you how many days until he can be promoted as well, can just add that number to however long you've had him. Though, perhaps that's a foxtrick feature I see.

Tell

Ok. I will be able to pull him up at 17.46. He will still sell for a decent amount.

[sterlingice]

Any fun news for anyone? We took 2nd in series and will be spending our 15th(!) season in III.3 next season.

I'm not real happy about the 4 new flags because I was down to just 2 hard flags left to host (and about 40 easy ones) and was at a full 124 flags visited. And I just hate how crazy of a "business" flag trading and chasing is now.

SI

[GoldenEagle]

I promoted back up to V. My squad is stronger than the last time we were up, but looking to add another defender and maybe a really good keeper.

I am playing a bot in the Cup, and want to train passing another week. But my trainees (I train strikers) are not good in the mid or wing. Not sure what I will do yet.

[GoldenEagle]

We managed to squeak by. We had to go to OT to beat a bot on the road, but we are moving on. I played three of my strikers in the midfield, and we PICed.

[GoldenEagle]

We advanced to the 3rd round of the cup, which is a new record for the Arkansas Cobras. With my old team, Golden Eagles FC, I got to the 6th round of the cup. I had to look that up. That was a pretty amazing run that ended with 4-3 heart breaking loss.

Next week, we play a team from IV. They don't look totally unbeatable, but it would be a cupset if we managed to squeak past them. They have a weaker defense, which we may be able to exploit if we play our best strikers. The thing is I am not sure if it is worth it to keep pushing on in the Cup. The extra money from matches is nice, but an extra $150k or so is not going to make a huge difference.

On the league front, we are in a pretty tough series. We played the other team that promoted last week on the road and lost 1-0. I played two of my non-starters in the game. There is only one team that I think is a win, so it is going to be tough to stay up, which is my goal this year.

We still have some positions that need investing. The priority for that is a couple of stud wingers, another anchor or two in the backline, and a world class to super-natural inner mid. That is going to to cost some money though, which we really don't have.

Our three strikers will soon be world class/passable. We could sell them for about $3M each or wait a year and sell them for $4M at supernatural/passable. All of them just popped in passing, so another round of passing training won't do much for these guys.

So I guess I am trying to decide if I want to sell them now for $9M, invest in the squad in the midfield and defense but lose some attacking, or wait another year, make $12M and risk relegation.

[Alf]

Still in division III.2 in France. Played the Cup and got beaten on round 11 last season (still no home game though).

playing to remain in III this season and hoping for a long Cup run again.

[OldGiants]

We got knocked out in the third round of the Cup, 2-1.

I'm about to sell my #1 keeper trainee, who will turn 21 next Sunday. He's close to popping to Extra-terrestrial, (16) so when that happens in a 3-4 weeks, the common wisdom is he should be sold. My #2 keeper popped to 11 this week and will turn 19 in a few days, too. So I'm covered there.

#1's salary should double to close to 30k per week, he's 14,770 per week now, and he doubled to that on his last b-day, but that was after going up three levels. He's only up about 2.5 this year. Holding on to him won't be that big an expense though. I would be down 40k per week before ticket sales even after his salary doubling, so I cover easily.

For me, the really cool part is a bought him for 1k and I'll sell him for around 6 million or more.

He's a USA-born kid, so I'll notify this thread when goes up for sale.

[GoldenEagle]

We also lost in round 3 of the Cup, 2-0.

I decided to play my starters in the league match and my trainees in the cup match. In hindsight, I should have reversed it. We had a shot at winning the cup match with our starters, but didn't really have a chance of winning the league match.

We are going to be struggling to avoid relegation. I only see one team in my series that I think we can beat.

[Masked]

I won my cup match surprisingly easily (0 - 5). I just missed a home game and am on the road next week against a team that also finished in first place in division 5 last season.

After all these years, this weekend I may very well have my first competitive match against a (former) FOFCer. I'm on the road against Mr. Wednesday's Brays Bayou FC. My fan club simply states "We will lose".

[sterlingice]

hrudey is finally out of my series so there's a chance that the luck vortex of HTRF in the series might at least spread out a little and give me a chance to fight for promotion. Probably not, tho- still a tough series with one easy win but everyone else is a challenge.

SI

[Masked]

My spot on this list is probably coming to and end this afternoon.

Consecutive victories

1. Quick Kicks III.12 17
2. OSORIO RC IV.11 17
3. TM Lazy IV.5 15
4. SJ Wildcats IV.22 15
5. Hasty United FC IV.50 13
6. Joe's Show IV.9 13
7. UES Buccaneers IV.27 12
8. Houston Hippopotami III.3 11
9. D|NAMO III.4 11
10. Orienteers SC IV.43 11
11. Buzzbanana V.217 11
12. Bucksnort FC V.182 11
13. FC No Cows Go V.83 11
14. VfB Terminator V.234 11
15. Balls' United V.37 11

[sterlingice]

I won Wednesday and probably will win Sunday. After that it gets a lot more uncertain. Next week, my cup opponent put up a 289 hatstats while I'm on the road against a quality series team so odds are quite slim that will get to 15.

SI

[TargetPractice6]

Still kicking in round 7. That helps take the sting out of losing in the second round last season.

[OldGiants]

My number 1 trainee reached extra-terrestrial this week, so he's on the TL for 4.6 million. Comes due tomorrow.

[GoldenEagle]

I had a couple of players just pop that I am looking to sell. My question is should I list them now or should I wait until the new season starts? I know there will be more money flowing around at the start of the season.

[Masked]

Originally Posted by GoldenEagle

I had a couple of players just pop that I am looking to sell. My question is should I list them now or should I wait until the new season starts? I know there will be more money flowing around at the start of the season.

Typically, you get higher prices at the beginning of the season; however, if you are looking at immediately reinvesting the proceeds in a player at a non-training position, it doesn't matter if you sell now or later (i.e. sell low, buy low now versus sell high, buy high later).

[GoldenEagle]

Thanks. I went ahead and listed them since both are in solid form. I figured they may go for more since owners may be looking to pick up players in good form before qualifiers. Of course with the site being down, who knows what kind of deadline they will have.

[sterlingice]

Back up to II

Probably will be a brief stay but who knows. Dynasty report updated with last season's press releases

SI