Ten years of Hattrick

I wrote this article in Danish almost ten years ago on my first ten years of playing Hattrick

As I am getting close to 20 years now, and HT also has a anniversary coming up, I have translated it to English, and wrote another one on my next 10 years.

11 / 11-2002: An email with a confirmation that 'CoachOle' was now a real manager was received. Vejgaard Forest was born, and the road to greatness began.

Here are a few fragments of my experiences over the 10 years. :)
It is a little more than ten years ago that I could not get a hand in the obligatory game of Hearts at University, and I therefore instead looked my fellow student ‘S04Allan’ over the shoulder and "could just as well try that Hattrick-game myself." Although it might look a bit simple compared to CM, which I had played a lot. In fact, so much so that I didn’t study as much as needed, and I had therefore imposed a ban on football manager games. But Hattrick was simple, and only one match a week, so - quite frankly - how much time can you spend on it?
Now we stand here ten years later, and so much smarter! Hattrick takes time - a lot of time. E.g. I just bought a new goalkeeper because my existing one had no set pieces ability. For each of the prospects I looked at, I was inside counting how many DB goals he had conceided in the past 1½ season.

August 2003

I am now sitting in a copper pipe factory in the 'outskirts of China'. At the factory, there are currently two Chinese students. As far as I know, they are the only two people in the factory - yes maybe in the whole city - who speak English. Maybe there is someone to talk to at the Hattrick conference? And boy, was there. In the Danish part, there were some seasoned users who filled a lot with their boost discussions, while every week exactly the same questions came from newly started managers. In the Chinese - which at that time was primarily a playground for ex-pats and therefore took place in English, there was a cozy togetherness. I also ended up giving the Chinese U-20 coach (whose name is now forgotten) a hand by scouting all the Chinese clubs for young players. Vejgaard Forest has been a trip down in V, but moves up again after a season in V.

January 2004

Returned from China and ready for the final semester of study. Included in the bag is a beginner's guide which covers the questions that came up again and again at the conferences. I have no idea about programming websites, but got it published via HT-arena, and it was well received. I must have hit a void. In parallel with the studies, the guide was expanded (including rough copy-paste from the Bottom Division Federation's website) and translated into English.
The user 'CoachOle' was moving from 'new' to 'experienced' at the conference.
Vejgaard Forest plays for middle places in IV. However, the study period ended with a relegation to V.

September 2004

The studies have been completed, but the dream job is long overdue, but it just means that I can then 'work' full time on Hattrick, maybe just apart from an ½ hour in between to write applications. Everything is read at the conference and most of it is commented on. The Danish, the Global, still the Chinese as well as selected other English-speaking. "You read it all anyway, so you do not want to lend a hand as a MOD?" came the question from the sitting Danish MOD. And yes, I could do that.

Despite the great time spent on Hattrick, this time it took two seasons in V before Vejgaard Forest could again call itself IV team.
Despite the non-impressive success with own team, the praise for the beginner guide continued to come in. It must be a classic example that Those Who Can’t, Teach as they saying goes. Yes, to this day I occasionally meet managers who say they have received their HT upbringing on the orange-brown website.

August 2005-January 2007

Once again I am 'abroad', this time in Greenland in the twon Qasigiannguit. Some of the city's residents can speak Danish, but most stick to Greenlandic, so Hattrick's conferences are still an important social media for me.
The girlfriend had left in the spring, she did not think it was okay that I sat all day on Hattrick and even occasionally woke her up because an SMS came with a message that the player I had in sight was offered, and who of course had deadline in the middle of the night. And when the dream job turned out in Greenland, there was nothing that held me back.
Vejgaard Forest (or renamed Qasigiannguit Forest) played their way to a whole series of 4th and 5th places in IV, until just around our 4-year-old birthday, when the team had to accept that they had again relegated down to V.

January 2007

The MOD work provides both positive and negative experiences. Some of the negatives hang on: The night before Christmas at the global non-HT forum where an innocent discussion about basketball ends in terrible racist remarks (‘I wish Hitler had finished his work’ in a discussion with an Israeli); to enter as a new MOD into a hitherto unregulated forum and try to take the lead; having to give the last warning and even eviction of otherwise active users who just get logged in when not-quite-sober once too much; to try in vain to argue against GMs who were thought to be unfair in a case or actively being threatened. But “I know where you live”, doesn’t take so much when you live as far away from everything as I did.
But also some of the positives hang by i.a. a discussion with a user who after a lot of written back-and-forth ended with: “Ah, I have not had my morning coffee. You're right, and I'm sorry I've been making trouble. ” The collaboration with the other MODs must also be emphasized, but especially the feeling of having done my bit to make conferences a nice place to come, among other things, with a game like HT-Robinson.
But a new girlfriend had come into the picture. This time complete with bonus kids, so it was time to pass on the MOD cap after 814 days.
Nor was this girlfriend fully understandable of the need to get up at night to take part in a bidding war, and one of our quarrels was based on mysterious text messages at strange times of the day. However, they helped a little when she saw that they did not come from a secret mistress. Little did she know…

Qasigiannguit Forest this time got 3 seasons in V before we got to take the elevator to IV again.

January 2008-October 2011

Hattrick involvement fluctuate. Sometimes my engineering background takes over and I sit and try to crack the formulas behind Hattrick, at other times the so-called RL is busier and the Hattrick team is controlled with only the left hand.
Although there are many auxiliary tools on the web today, and that with Foxtricks they are only a click away, I still use some of the tools I have developed myself: Team spirit, seasonal economy and training lengths are calculated in Excel
The Technical defensive forward was the must-have in the pursuit of success and we bought a few youngsters to train the next big Danish TDF. However, something could indicate that Hattrick itself was controlled with the left hand, at least there was some twisting course especially on this type of player. However, I am one of the few stubborn people who did not let go of my technical attackers when they were otherwise nerfed, and Søren Søndergaard - nicknamed Tupinnaannartoq (Greenlandic for Legendary) still has a role on the team almost 5 years later.
Sometimes when the desire for Hattrick was minimal, I found strength and unity in small, closely linked federations, such as Nordkraft, Operation Transformation, 100% Danish and SWOT. In Operation Transformation, the foundation stone was laid for what the team is today: Focus on specialties and multiskill - as well as low salary levels, in 100% Danish, another of the team's basic philosophies was cemented: All players must be Danish, so we save 20% in salary, and in SWOT, the strategy is constantly being refined with the help of skilled people. Through Nordkraft, I was able to maintain my connection to Aalborg, but that association has unfortunately gone completely dead, perhaps except that my youth team still plays in a league that started in Nordkraft.
After the TDFs got the nerf, we shifted our training focus to wing, then defense and now playmaking. It could indicate that the strategy almost changed from season to season, but in fact there is meaning to the madness. Among other things. The club now has three extremely competent backs, while there are a couple of defensive players with good game distribution side skills on the way, of which especially the club's own YP Tejs 'Nuunu' Dalum should be highlighted as he played a season on Denmark's U-20 team.
In 2008 the club was a single season in V, and again in 2010 - after winning IV in season 39 (but losing the qualifier) we became number 8 in season 40 - and then it took three seasons to get back to IV.
And then - in October 2011 - the miracle happened - promotion. Qasigiannguit Forest were now a III team.

October 2011 to now (=november 2011)

The desire to play Hattrick is as high as ever. The team did really well in the recent season (more due to a friendly ME), and a promotion to II is now within reach - and with something close to the lowest salary budget in III.
But thanks to the team's long - term strategy, there really is not much to do in the many hours I spend on Hattrick. We do not trade, but train players for our own team, so there is no point in looking at the transfer list. The team is flexible, so it can take a lot of time to look at the opponents and get the team set.
I stick to the two big Danish forums (as the conferences are now called) as well as my favorite federations, so here too my Hattrick thirst cannot be completely quenched. At non-HT, a new kind of forum game has emerged: Mafia. Here you can also spend a few hours or three.
I have been so lucky in the time I have worked in Greenland to have a boss who has accepted that I spend a few hours a day on Hattrick - as long as I make an effort for the company when required. Now I have become a boss myself, and therefore have more than a few hours during the working day for HT. And I log on Hattrick every day.
When I am traveling without internet or just sailing around the Greenlandic waters for a few days, I can feel the HT fever rising in me when I approach an internet connection again: Did the player pop as intended on Friday? Uh, I have not raised a new player on the youth team - is it this week we catch the gold (again-again)? Has the form changed on the opponent's key player? Is El-Barto the Mafia again? Should there be a new quirky episode of the Leo Lummerkrog saga? Did I finally win a tournament match in the SWOT federation?

It was the first ten. Now the next ten are waiting.
Maybe it's now that the road to greatness finally ceases to be a road and we reach the goal? Thanks to everyone who has been a part of my Hattrick experience - especially Allan for introducing me to the game.

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