HT-Lietuva blog

For many thousands of Hattrick players this running girl evokes memories not about Hayao Miyazaki animation, but one of the most memorable teams in Hattrick history. Shirayuri Sky, one of the Teams, that should be written with golden letters in Hattrick Hall of Fame made another surprise. One of the most nominated teams in Hattrick, unbeatable champion of J. League and winner was preparing for Hattrick Masters - The Ultimate Hattrick tournament for champions. Many HM participants were buying players just for this tournament. So was Saheki, manager of Shirayuri Sky. In the morning of 20th of February Shirayuri Sky fielded team of Lee Dick, Peter Pan, Jack Chan, and other celebrities, that didn't stand a chance against Albanian FC Atletika. Let's put it straight, manager of the team showed that he does not care about the competition.

Question: Saheki, many Hattrick managers are curious what happened to your team? On 17th of December you started selling out your team. On 19th of December Hattrick developers announced about Hattrick Masters. Was it coincidence? Didn't you regret, that you started your team reforms at such moment?

Saheki: Sometimes changes take ages to arrive... But I realized that the hattrick position towards daytrading and the wage policy which hurts national trainers and top league users wouldn't change... Unfortunately enormous wages have made it impossible for anybody to play at high levels without successful daytrading... Change is a hopeless hope... They don't see daytrading as a problem... As stated, daytrading is even considered as the necessary evil to keep the market flowing... Anyway, I was going bankrupt by the end of season and couldn't even keep my favourite players... I'm a baseball fan and I was too stubborn to sell the players I liked at time... In baseball like in football's romantic age, you believe players make history, players that are cherished and have their numbers retired, players like Mantle, Lou Gehrig, diMagio and Babe Ruth, a loyal Yankee fan can never forget; you remember Lou Gehrig retirement speech word by word, the grief never goes away; you feel sad when someone like him passes away... What saddens me the most was having to sell Jens Ole Schaffer, Toyokazu Sugitani, Jacob Kalmer, Brian Jensen, Thomas Skov, Miklos Pomahazi, one after the other, season after season, just to avoid immediate bankrupcy.


Q: The team, that you fielded today, can be understood as a silent statement, that you refuse to compete at Hattrick Masters. Is it true, or did you have some other agenda?

S: It's true, I didn't know or care much about Hattrick Masters... I played it just for fun... What surprised me was the reaction of people writing the words "pathetic", "stupid" and "sad" on conferences, and having to read a flood of abusive mails that were promptly erased and forgotten... But through the week I just got used to it... I would probably deserve it all if I were managing the National squad but that's my own team... Never mind... I thought I tried to make the kind of positive Murray (Bwahahahha) statement that I felt was appropriate in that situation.... But I suppose I was wrong... At least, for a while, it was great to see people like Peter Pan, Jack Chan, Nilton Santos (1958 and 1962 WC champion winger), Raul Castro (brother of Fidel Castro), Alberto Granado (friend of Che Guevara), Pablo Escobar (famous drug dealer), Santo Aletti (friend of Saint Random) and the sisters Joan Aragay and Lee Dick playing the HT Masters... It's a pity that Michael Jackson, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and George Best couldn't join the squad... ;)

Q: Similar situation is in J. League - will you try to be competative in the near future?

S: It might seem selfish, some said it's even pathetic to give up, I've received tons of messages like "you're a loser", "beltxis is better" (hey, I always knew that, OK? ;p), "I'm disappointed", etc... I'm not looking for excuses... I really had a good time playing hattrick and enjoyed each day's event till some day ago... I wish the best to those who stay struggling with the absurdity of it all, and those I had the pleasure to know through the years, Burnt Out Koalas, beltxis, Indy Racing, Ibb&Agge, etc... I can't pretend enthusiasm when I feel dispirited and down-hearted on this situation... When you can't even stick on the players you like nor train for a National Team... They keep saying training a national players is senseless as the butterfly kick, and keep punishing national trainers and old users with wages that easily outpaces any number of sponsors, supporters or prize money... While the spread of daytraders and the damage they cause are heavily denied, remain unchallenged and left without response... Some might see a reason to keep playing it... But I'm running my own way, and it has been hard to retire... Perhaps a farm team would suit me best... ;)

Q: Few times in interviews you mentioned that you support another famous Hattrick team beltxis. Do you support him because of his achievements, or you made friends with him?

S:You don't have to be a close friend to admire him... As someone said: "A fool always find a greater fool to admire him"... ;)

Q: Japan is an old, but at the same time not too active league in Hattrick. Being and insider, could you explain why in a country like Japan, where Internet gaming culture is quite widespread, Hattrick is growing very slowly. Do you think, that after Japanese interface was introduced, the things will improve?

S: I left Japan years ago... Apart from the agening of people, you see, most of Internet contents are written in English... Some might say the only thing widely popular are the phone-based and wi-fi internet (which aren't yet applicable to hattrick), some might write to argue that there's a mix of dumb bucho/kacho, middle-age man and oyaji culture among active internet users, the PC based boom seen in the US and the rest of the world didn't happen at the same rate in Japan, there's a lag in the internet usage, even computer games aren't nearly popular as console games, the hattrick boom experience in other countries were mostly related to newspaper publicity (and we haven't seen Yomiuri, Asahi or Mainichi Shimbum writing an article about hattrick so far)...;p Will things improve because of the japanese interface? I think it all depends on adaptation to the Docomo cell phone internet, which is only thing really popular in Japan... Only God knows... Hard to say...

Q: Will you follow Hattrick Masters closely? Quite a few top teams dropped out after two rounds. Would you dare to predict a winner?

S: beltxis was knocked out in the third round of the Hattrick Masters, Burnt Out Koalas and Kilangoola are not taking part in it... I will just follow it through the conference messages... It will be fun to see if Barentin (going bankrupt because of Hattrick Masters) succeeds... It will be fun, just like watching on TV a dead man's winning a lottery... Go Go Barentin! ;)

Q: Thanks for the interview. Any last words?

S: Sorry if I hurted someone's feelings, I had absolutely no reason to do that... :( Hopefully, I won't play the HM again... ;)