HT-Lietuva blog

(or beginners guide for Hattrick kamikaze)

The recipe is pretty straightforward. Someone playing Hattrick for a year should have a team worth roughly 40M €. Exactly 3 days before the MOST important game in your life, you need to put all (or at least most valuable players) on transfer market. Don't worry, they will still be able to play in coming game. Put starting price something like 75% of his market price. Now wait, till someone bids for them. (Honestly, it would be really good, if you would ask someone you know - friends, federation mates, guys from your group to bid for them) From the early bids, you get something like 27M € on your disposal. Buy the best players you can find on the market. and then put them immediately back on the transfer market. After 4-5 iterations you will have the team with at least 9 divine players. Who can stop such a team? Yes, it will be a kamikaze tactic, but then everyone remember you for the best team, that was ever fielded.


This kamikaze tactics is based on the rule, that if someone bids for your player, it's possible to spend that money right away, even before the player actually leaves the squad. In many federations it's pretty common that someone asks for an early bid, in order to buy some other player. So far it looked for me absolutely normal. I admit I never needed this kind of help myself, but I once in a while occasionally give an early bid for someone in D_T federation, or if someone asked for such favour on IRC chats. Anyway, what now is happening in Lithuanian Cup finals, leads me to thinking, that it's not that innocent rule.

The events, that rolled before Cup Finals has been widely discussed in Lithuanian conference, so I just present some basic facts:

It all started when one of the cup finalists Karutis(241309) bought Swedish divine midfielder - national star Fredrik Sörensson (1428881) and later on announced about his plans of leaving Hattrick right after reaching his goal, that is winning the Cup. His opponent in final game - Juodoji Gvardija (241321) first kept low profile and everyone admitted, that it will will be a hard job for him to bring Karutis down. Suddenly, exactly 72 hours 0 minutes before the Cup finals Juodoji Gvardija (241321) puts the most valuable players on the market. Karutis (241309) answers fights fire with fire and answers the same. Community reacts not less spontaneously - Juodoji Gvardija (241321) in really short time receives bids for all players, just as a sign of support from players who do not want to let Karutis(241309) die holding Cup in his hands. And in few more hours Karutis(241309) get his part for early bid from the ones, who want to oppose so called Mafija. I will not get into further details, since they are less interesting and remind more search of a shirt in a dirty laundry.

Most of the things which happening now, are pretty legal. I mean, there were no overpriced bids. All bids came from persons not directly related to any of teams, etc. Both teams will suffer consequences of such trading. The most sad fact for me is that the early bid rule can be used in such unnatural way and it can spoil game fun for one of teams and everyone who follows the cup competition. Another obvious danger is, that the group of people can practically legally (bidding just normally) to push the team and help to win the finals.

Do we need to prevent this kamikaze tactics? I think, yes, and at the moment - I see just one solution for it. Why not give the money for team disposal only after the player is actually sold?

In order to give the other views at the situation, I talked to both Lithuanian Cup final participants and few well know Hattrick officials.

Interview with Onagras (Juodoji Gvardija)
Q: Your route to the Lithuanian Cup finals looked really impressive - you managed to beat more than one extremely powerful teams. And now, when there is only one step left to the top, you took desperate measures. What/who inspired you to do that?
A: Yes, I came really a hard way to the finals. I did not expect to meet there the opponent, who has decided to quit Hattrick and want to slam the door, e.g. win Lithuanian Cup. One can understand such wishes, but he decided to use the situation. Money is not that important to him, so he bought divine midfielder, whose wage is higher than 625000 €. A normal Lithuanian Hattrick team could afford such a player for no longer than one week, otherwise the team would bankrupt. He says, that he has enough money to pay his wage, but it's only because he has sold few perspective players. He does not need to train anyone, he does not see the future. (...) So, what choice do I have left? I could either give up and admit that I got really stronger opponent, because he is in really better situation right now. Alternative was, that I could just sell my midfielders and buy few more powerful players. I did that, few people gave early bids for them. Those bids do not violate any rules, and I just bought few new midfielders.

Q: You were few times accused, that many of your friends helped you to prepare for the finals. What's your view on this situation?
A: If a person made an early bid, that does not mean, that I wouldn't find any other early bidders. Moreover, at the same evening many of those players already had bids from foreign teams. So, my friends do not have anything to do with it. My true friends do not play Hattrick. Anyway, those are senseless accusations

Q: Practically all players agree, that your and your opponent actions do not go against official Hattrick rules, but at the same time do not fit moral standards. Does it make sense to talk about morality issues in Internet games?
A: Yes, these actions are not moral, and that saddens me. All I did, I answered to MalBo actions using his weapons. If I would face a normal team in the finals, a team which thinks about future, I would play normally and would not do all of this. It is very important to keep being moral in Internet games. We just sometimes go too far trying to reach our goals.

Q: Do you think, you'll be able to recover and successfully play Hattrick? How much such strategy will cost you?
A: I think, I will recover, maybe coming season will be more difficult, but I already one season ago promised to myself, that my primary task is to go as far as possible in the cup, even if I will need to sacrifice league for that. I can not say how much I will suffer, because it will depend on how much will I get for my players. I hope I will be able to fight for top 3 in II division group (of course if I get there)

Q: Do we need changes in Hattrick rules?
A: It's hard to answer. Some changes can be made, but the game will have to stay in some frames. It's not reality, therefore it will never fully reflect reality. It would be possible to forbid to use the money before the end of bidding, but the team, who does that already get some disadvantages, thus it's should be dependant on a team, does it wants to take the risk. I personally would not be against such a rule.

Interview with MalBo(Karutis)
Q: All this scandal began when you bought Swedish NT member. One have to plan and prepare for such decisions. When have you decided, that only this way you can win the Cup??
A: I did not plan to buy a divine player and did not think, that I would win the cup this way. Almost one week I was looking for titanic midfielder for 4-4,25M€, and just accidentally found divine player for sale for 3,5M €. I had only 15-20 minutes to decide. I calculated how much he will hurt my budget and decided to risk. I bought him on Saturday (right after updates) and put him on sale right on Monday, so I could sell him after quarterfinals, because the wage looked a bit scary. No one bought him, thus I decided to keep him till the end of the cup.

Q: Did you keep on training this Swedish superstar?
A: Before I bought him, he changed 4 clubs in 25 days, and I don't think, that any of those clubs were training his main skill. I wan not doing that as well

Q: Later, the first player, you put on Transfer List just one minute after Onagras did that. Do you really follow so closely all actions of you oponent?
A: I was thinking, that Onagras might do this, but did not expect that he would do it in this manner... I was not spying on him. I just had no time on that weekend. This game meant to be the last for the team, thus I put all players, so that the deadline happens during the last game.

Q: Do we need changes in Hattrick rules?
A: I think that it is a necessity, because Hattrick does not correspond with reality. Hatrick team, GMs, and other related persons have to think about the best possible solution. Just like they solved daytrading problem, they have to address this problem. Possible solution would be following:
- allow to bid for player only when 24 hours left to the deadline
- or
somehow increase the percentage
how much it is allowed to bid for player (similarly to max bid rule)
- or limit the number of players sold during the last 24hours.

Q: The last question - maybe you won't leave Hattrick?
A: I enjoyed playing Hattrick. And it's the only Online game, which took so much of my time. Recently I got a bit bored of it, and also have some other personal reasons, why I have to say farewell. Maybe some day I will some back and will try to reach the top again.

What officials think
I also asked few well know Hattrick players, what they think about the problem:
Q: The thing, which is happening now in Lithuanian Cup. Is it according the rules?
GM-George: Well, it's not illegal.
CHPP-Emma: It's not an uncommon practice. I've seen it a few times in England. Short term gain, long term pain. As long as the bids aren't overpriced, it's quite legal. It's just a modified version of daytrading.

Q: Have you been asking for early bid yourself?
GM-George: I have done the same in the past.. Meaning, I put a guy on the market that will come up after my game at a price that would ensure a bid (never asked anyone to bid though). That way I get to use my new player and exiting player in a big game.
CHPP-Emma: No - I've never been past the 4th round of the cup.

Q: Is it moral to end up Hattrick carrier in this way? And should we speak about morality in Internet games at all?
GM-George: Good question.. not sure. I do think there is a place for morals, but I also think that there some things we just can't control.
CHPP-Emma: I think it's up to the individual manager to decide if they wish to risk their team

Q: Do you think, that it would be more fair to change the rules in the way that it's possible to spend the money only after the transaction is finished?
GM-George: Do I like it? No. I don't think one should be able to spend the money before the transaction ends.
CHPP-Emma: I think that would punish a lot of genuine transfers for something that only affects two teams per country per season.

Cup statistic
To end up the article, I'd like to present some statistics from best cup finals from last season. Let's see how Lithuanian Cup Final rating will compare to that:

Apollo - Durham City FC (England) 2 - 1
Hatstats 374-384
Stars 79.5-82.5

Sverige Oriole United - IFK Livergården (Sverige) 0 - 6
Hatstats 300-427
Stars 83-88

NK Metalac - Dalmacija u srcu (Hrvatska) 0 - 2
Hatstats 311-376
Stars 58.5-78

South Hooligans - Burnt Out Koalas FC (Oceania) 3 - 1
Hatstats 361-325
Stars 78-65.5

Husum Dreamteam - fc Zarewitsch (Deutchland) 0 - 4
Hatstats 307-353
Stars 59.5-70.5