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hattrick's 20th birthday

Written by HPE-Bink286

Today marks the 20th anniversary since hattrick was released. To mark this occasion a number of England's longest serving managers have kindly answered a few questions. This article combines answers received from:-

Hip Priest 04/02/2002 (60263)
Joelholden 27/01/2002 (58134)
Mike456 27/01/2002 (58190)
Evans 05/11/2001 (44298)
PirateWolf 30/11/2001 (47604)

Please tell us a bit about where and who you were and what you were doing 16 years ago when you first started playing, and how your life has progressed since then (RL work/relationship/location)

Hip Priest

When I started playing hattrick I was studying at Northumbria University at the age of 18 (I dropped out and went to Manchester the year after). I was travelling to Uni each day from my parents’ house, which was an 80 minute bus journey away. My classmate Lee introduced me to both hattrick and to another game which I think was called Non-League Manager or something... hattrick immediately became a bit of an obsession. Since my dad wouldn’t really let me go on the internet at home as he was suspicious of “viruses”, there were occasions when I made the 2 hour+ round trip to Uni just to log in!

Joelholden

16 years ago is a long time to pass and an even longer time to be playing a game. Since then I have doubled in age and probably halved in sense. I was still in school at the time I started playing. One early experience whilst I was still a Hattrick newbie was scoring off school in order to meet a girl in Cardiff I had met on holiday earlier in the year. Back then smart phones didn't really exist and I had to go 4 days without logging in. I don't know what I was most scared of:- getting in trouble with my family; or, missing the match on the Sunday.

Mike456

I lived about 2 miles away from where I live now in Manchester with my girlfriend, who is now my wife. We've now got 3 girls (9, 11 and 13) and I'm still doing the same job as I was back then ... although I now own part of the company.

Evans

My name is Karl Evans, I live in Kent in the seaside town of Ramsgate. When I first started playing Hattrick 16 years ago we lived in Margate just a few miles away from where we live now. I have two boys the oldest is 10 the other is 8. I have been married to my wife for 17 years.

PirateWolf

I was 20 years old and in my final year at university when I joined hattrick. I found the game on mpogd.com when I was looking to see if there were any online football games. hattrick was one of the few available, and top of the list. I had few commitments and was able to freely waste away many hours trawling the transfer lists and later became a GM for a couple of years.

Obviously a lot has changed and I now have many more commitments - a family, a job, a house - so I can't spend as much time on hattrick nowadays. From what used to be probably 4 or 5 hours a day, and the most imporatnt thing on the internet, hattrick has now become an activity I undertake just on matchdays, often at the last minute and only for about half an hour each week. I just couldn't bear to see my team die after all these years.

Please tell us a bit about your most memorable match and/or player and why it/he meant/means so much to you?

Hip Priest

(394498778) the first Cup final I won against Alie Land United

Buddy Durham, was a youth pull from years ago (probably about 2003?) who had Excellent Defending and who I trained up to become the first and only homegrown talent I’ve had with a (U20) cap. In my fantasy world, a stand at my ground is named after him!

Auzzie hitman Steve Ambler, opened the scoring in my cup final win. Also my current player, Max Easton (395843120), who was a below average Academy player and now has ET Playmaking, WC Defending and O/s Passing!

Joelholden

I have had quite a few. I remember I spent a fortune on George Mulvey. Dmitri Sparta, Neil Tinkler I trained to make their NT and my first star player, Magna Svarva was the first player I trained to Divine playmaking with absolutely no other skills. My best ever player has to be Alan Osbourne England u20 player and almost world class in scoring, winger and passing. He in some way gives me the most pride of all my achievements.

In terms of matches, I remember getting to one round before the quarter finals in my fourth season. Back then there was a bit of challenge to have the biggest stadium, I had that once with a 150k capacity, in that cup match it was the most full ever with about 90k fans.

Mike456

I did get through to the 9th round of the cup one season (23544557)

Evans

In 16 years I have had so many good matches, and players I couldn't start to begin to tell my best. I hope for many more in the next 16 years.

PirateWolf

After nearly 16 years there are many memorable moments. My favourite player has to be Yuki Koruba (6999754). He was a week one 17yo youth pull - before players even had ages in days. It was also a time when the maximum bid you could place on a player was 20 times his TSI. Japan were a tiny nation and he was 17yo, solid scorer - massive potential for their future - so as soon as he was listed I bid the maximum amount that was permitted and no-one else could outbid me. He has spent his whole career with me, playing u20, national team, and masters football whilst at my club. I'm quite proud of him - there can't be many players who've been at the same team for as long as he has with mine, nor scored as many goals he has with me.

There have also been many memorable games - Peru (when I managed them and they had zero active users) drawing 1-1 with England (then 2nd mightiest in Hattrick) (3597661). That was quite a surprise result.

As England manager my best match was the world cup semi-final against Finland (24627742). We had used a 3-4-3 formation in the previous round to beat Oceania and back then midfield was pretty much absolute king - everyone used 5 in midfield (Finland actually used a 6 man midfield in that match to boost their midfield rating). To use 3-4-3 in a critical match against Oceania was almost insane, and the fact that it got us through was quite amazing. In the semi-final I went with 3-4-3 again, against all expectation, and pulled off a great 4-0 win to take England through to their first final. There was no chance against the force of Sweden in that final though, but to get that silver medal is quite an achievement.

The cup semi-final victories (2 legs) vs Hackers United (bum_um_tiss) in season 21 was a highlight as I had a quite intense rivalry with him which could go from friendly banter to intense bitterness and back again in a moment's notice. Unfortunately I had 6 injuries to key players in the following couple of matches which contributed to me losing the final and also losing in a relegation playoff to end up being demoted from the Premier. That season ended really badly.

Bizarrely, I couldn't even recall who I played in the final of the cup that I won in season 31 (I couldn't even remember what season I won it in - I thought it was low 20's!).

(Ed. In s36 Pirate trashed yours truly 6-1 in the Final (189467177))

What was the funniest or most memorable moment you have had playing hattrick, please tell us a bit about this?

Hip Priest

My first cup final came when I was watching LCD Soundsystem's film Shut Up And Play the Hits at the Electric Cinema in Birmingham. On the way to the cinema, Steve Ambler opened the scoring for me against a very defensive (long shots) team. During the film, I couldn’t get my phone out to check what was happening, so it wasn’t until the end that I managed to go to the toilet to check what had happened. I have to say that after about a decade of wanting some silverware, I was quite emotional to see I’d won 2-0, and I may even have done some mock lifting of cups when I got home.

Joelholden

The most fun times in Hattrick were whilst I was a member of the non league fed, the community there was amazing. We used to do a competition called the challenge cup. Some challenges included making up songs about players and singing them about other teams, others involved modifying pictures and making funny comic strips about fellow members. I even got into trouble with the GMs for hijacking other series message boards leaving stupid messages.

Mike456

My most memorable moment was getting a message from a Roma fan (Gianluca Vesentini) just before the quarter finals in 2007 asking if we were going to Rome for the Roma/Utd game.

We met up for the afternoon with our respective families in Borghese park and have been friends ever since. He is now the proud owner of an XXXXL T-shirt proudly proclaiming the "Fall Of The Roma Empire 7-1" (which he now claims to have lost). The T-shirt was proudly displayed in a bar full of Roma fans on the afternoon of the game we played over there during the following season. I did get him a ticket for the Champions League final that season to help him get over the shame though :) ... the Roma fans I have met are great folk and we save each other a lot on hotel bills whenever our teams play each other.

PirateWolf

I went to Euro 2004 with HT-Johan and HT-Hasse. In the square in Lisbon there was an internet café and someone was in there wearing a Hattrick t-shirt whilst browsing the hattrick site. It was quite amusing that they were totally unaware of the HT greatness (i.e. HT-Johan) in their presence.

On the same trip in Portugal, Johan, Hans (Hasse) and myself were pulled over by police - routine checks. Johan (Swedish, registered home address was Gibraltar), Hans (Swedish), myself (English), in a hire car from Spain, travelling back from the France vs Croatia group stage match. The policeman was just really confused and couldn't get around what the hell we were doing, where we were from, why we were there. The look on his face was priceless.

There have been other memorable events at GM meets but I can't divulge.

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