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A spring of new forces!

Written by wild_canary

Only a few teams won their first ever top league titles last season. We founded three of those new champions to discuss about their successful campaigns, their future plans and of course, hattrick in general!

In Trinidad & Tobago, kerry_b managed to win the trophy beating both old users with strong teams and the newcomers, who are thirsty for wins with their second teams. San Juan Kings (793480) became T&T champions winning the title by one point!

In Qatar, having already dominating the Dutch league, robbierodie decided to bring his second team to the top as well. And he did! Qatarodenburcht (1906473) rapidly climbed to Al Dawri Al Aaam (Qatar's top league) and then in their second season there became champions!

In South Africa, “once there was only dark”. But after last season’s results, it seems like “the light’s winning”! (from club's announcement). The Darker Side had the impressive record of 22 straight SA Premier League titles, when Republic of Namibia (552477) stopped this dynasty and occupied the throne.

All three very successful managers agreed to share their experiences with us. Champion of T&T, kerry_b, of Qatar, robbierodie and South Africa, Autobot. Let's start:

1. This is the first time you win the championship. How hard was to become the number one?

kerry_b: It was hard for me, but I guess it is much harder in big countries. Here in T&T, we are small community, but since platinum users can join our league with second teams, it is competitive and I had two very strong opponents.

robbierodie: To be the #1 in a small country such as Qatar is not extremely hard. The hardest part is that I wanted to become champion as soon as possible. I almost had a perfect score promoting from IV to III, to II and to I in one go. In my first season in the highest league, I ended as runner up but one season later I managed to win it, in my 5th season of the club.

Autobot: As you can see, we had the same champion for a very long time. It is obviously very difficult for anyone to win the championship. We deserved to win it a season back, when we needed only the draw and we end up losing a weird home match (476730386). But we finally got what we deserved some months later.

2. Who was the toughest opponent and what was the most difficult match?

kerry_b: The two toughest are Real Pecora and Room 237. They have one league title as me and all three of us have won the cup, too. So all the matches between us three are big and tough, in both league and cup. I have probably the best team, since I'm here for a longer time and saved quite a lot money to buy really good players, but I'm surprised what the other guys made in just few seasons - what a teams to compete with!
The most memorable match is the season finale: (494857923).

robbierodie: Basically there are 2 very good opponents: Jadeed and Canucks and all matches against them are very tough. Jadeed was a bit unlucky this season in his matches against me and unfortunately he decided to quit his team!

Autobot: My toughest opponent was FC Mizarre. Umbuu is always unpredictable. So this match against him (491173438) was the most difficult one, for sure. Our win there was crucial.

3. After this great success, what is your next target?

kerry_b: I want to repeat the double - to be league and cup champion for the second time in a row, which should be feasible (I'm really close). And the next target is to show my best in HM. I played 3 matches this season and lost in a very even game, so I can be better!

robbierodie: As a target I now have getting as far as possible in the Masters. This season I was eliminated in round 4 but there still is a lot of growth in my team.

Autobot: After winning the championship my next target was the cup but FC Mizarre (yes, this guy again) won the final against our brave men. Never mind, we'll be back for the double next season.

4. Which one is the best system in Hattrick?

kerry_b: The one that win ;)

robbierodie: My playing style is always midfield oriented. In my view you can better target 1 tactic to the max than spread out between several tactics. Having both players for midfield domination and players for counterattacks in your team for example is very costly.

Autobot: The "best system" is to make sure you have the right tools to play many different systems and be unpredictable.

5. Is there anything in Hattrick that could be better?

kerry_b: Yes, of course. But that's in all games. I like Hattrick and I have friend who helped me at the beginning, explained all the tactics and how it works, so I was able to have fun and enjoy the game without the learning frustration. Instead of saying what can be better, I will say, I want to have more time to play and have all the fun (I'm not very active on forum etc.)

robbierodie: Improvements for Hattrick could be in the visualization of the match: instead of immediately showing a goal they could first have a sentence: "you get a chance", then something like: "a chance on the left wing" and then if it is a goal or not. Also I think is it fun to have more tactical options as a manager like changing the attitude (offensive / defensive) of a coach per match. Balancing specialties of players (so that Head is not always the preferred option for a midfielder) is also something that could be done.

Two special cases when playing in top divisions: HT should definitely make ratings above divine very high visible! Those high ratings are no exception nowadays, you see them every week in higher leagues. Also the Financial Director is too restrictive. A superb keeper is around 10M while the lower limit for an FD is 15M. As a result, a top team can not buy 2 top players at once without using the FD. FDs were introduced to limit expenditure of excess savings but they've overdone it.

Overall I believe that HT is pretty balanced and is a good game. You need to understand the game to reach the top, you can't just "buy" your way in.

Autobot: Yes, there is always room for improvement. Not so many weird results and not so expensive supporter packages would be a great start.

6. Your favorite team and favorite player in real life?

kerry_b: San Juan Jabloteh and Kerry Baptiste. If you don't know him, google him :)

robbierodie: In real life I support Ajax although I'm not a die-hard supporter. Dennis Bergkamp is my favorite player of all time.

Autobot: I support Barcelona and the greatest player of all time, Lio Messi.