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Hairy Chinese Kids are in the quarters!

Written by rbir83

After pulling off a 3-2 win in R10 over Obsidian XI, rbir83 has become the lowest ranked manager left in the cup. He acquired his team "Hairy Chinese Kids" on 31/01/11, less than 3 years ago, which makes a quarter final spot all the more impressive. We are delighted to be able to publish his answers to our standard interview questions, in the build up to his game against Low Fogrigg...

1. Your team, Hairy Chinese Kids, is now the lowest ranked team left in the cup, facing Premiership contenders & s49 Cup winners Low Fogrigg next. How does it feel?

It feels great to have made it this far. I knew at the start of the season that I would have good chance at a deep cup run but I never expected to reach the quarters. I love the cup; I love the challenge of having to rotate players around two games, managing all the suspensions and injuries, planning when to use TS and when to save it, finding out who the next cup opponent is and testing myself against some of the highest ranked teams.

2. What is the last album/track you bought, please also provide a link to vimeo/utube/soundcloud for us to listen?

I have such a backlog of music to listen to that it's been a while since I bought anything new, but one compilation I always pre-order is EQ's Balance series. It's one of many series of DJ mixes but what makes it stand out is the freedom given to the DJs to more or less do whatever they want. My favourite is Joris Voorn's Balance 014 in which he stitches together over 100 tracks across the two mixes. Both mixes are on youtube:
CD 1 -(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W84iW77sNA)
CD 2 - (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWbaM23q9H4)

3. Who is your favourite ht-player and why?

I have a soft spot for all of my homegrown wingers but my favourite is probably Dom Hopkins (360678991) who has been with my team for 6 seasons and will probably still be here by the time I stop playing. I'm hopeful he will one day make the NT as an IMTW.

4. How much is a pint of beer in your local & what's your usual tipple?

I had to stop drinking a few years ago for health reasons but when I did it was usually lager and the average price is probably around £2.80 in Oxfordshire.

5. What's been your key to success in the cup so far?

Undoubtedly it's been my midfield.

6. What skill are you training at the moment and why?

I'm training winger at the moment because I wanted to focus on a small group of players and I had a batch of good wingers coming through my YA. The ultimate aim of my training plan is to have the most efficient way of choosing whatever formation gives me the best chance of winning and then selecting the training type around it.

7. Please list the contents of your glovebox/downloads folder.

I recently graduated so my downloads folder is mostly full of university documents that I haven't bothered to move or delete; lecture notes, exam revision, timetables etc. But I also have a lot of high resolution panoramic photos of the surface of Mars which were taken by a Mars rover and later stitched together. You can see the interactive version here: (http://www.panoramas.dk/mars/greeley-haven.html)

I also have an amazing HD stabilized video of Apollo 16's LRV driving on the moon which I found on reddit, available here: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cKpzp358F4)

8. What's your view on 2nd teams?

I think it was a nice idea that would have provided a lot of money for the development of Hattrick without much downside - it's a shame that all that money was lost. I may start a second team at some point in the future but for now this one takes up more than enough of my time.

9. Tell us how you met your OH (or last 'conquest' if single)

I wont go into details but one of the perks of having to adopt a healthy lifestyle are the girls who come to the gym!

10. In a resource management game, some say it is unacceptable to hoard resources. Discuss?

I think both sides have a valid argument. On the one hand players should be able to do whatever they want as long as they play within the rules, but at the same time I can see how it detracts from the competitive aspect of Hattrick. I do think that the slow nature of the game alleviates a lot of the problems - it takes so long to hoard the amount required to rise up the divisions that most users will probably just give up at some point. And of course if you're stuck with a hoarder in the bottom division you can always change series. Perhaps this is a bigger problem in some of the larger leagues, in which case it might be beneficial to implement some kind of financial fair play restriction based on team income and wages.