Well with qualifiers over, I thought I'd make a thread asking people what they now think about their new series. There are 4 new teams in mine, one team for some reason played a 0-6-4 and lost his qualifier 2-0. I'm actually a little worried about two of the teams that are coming into my division. The team coming down pulls down a few rankings around formidable or higher a game, which is kinda scary, along with a passable midfield. Then a team that just promoted from VI also pulls a passable midfield, along with some formidables in defense and outstandings in scoring, it's not looking as good as I thought it would for me in season 23. The other two new teams I'm not really worried about although the other autopromoting guy has a weak midfield, my division will be a lot tougher this year, I am actually pretty worried about it.
The two autopromotes are not too scary---both have poor/weak midfields and really good defenses (bringing the number of teams with good defenses and no offenses to 4). the autodemotee has a passable midfield and his defense is awesome; he's an ownerless team though, so I hope he gets replaced before I have to play him in weeks 4 and 11. Overall, the series doesn't look too terribly difficult, which is good since I'm still trying to build up my team. The goal this season is to finish 3rd or 4th, sell my first trainees, and develop an offense.
I won my qualifier to promote in IV.40, and it's a little bit of a chore pulling all the info together to scout the series. First, we have the demotee from III. They're autodemoting, but I still expect them to be a bit over my head. Average ratings in the 90's show that I'm right, but it could be worse. They seem to pull an outstanding midfield consistently, which is a level I could reach but I'm unlikely to try to get that against this team. Next, we have the two through five finishers. Bay Area at #2 is only a shade better than me. I can certainly take this team at home, particularly after I upgrade. I definitely need to check this team for expenditures, they could be dangerous if they spend some money; if not, they're not that impressive. OC Berserkers at #3 look nasty, I'm not sure how they finished behind Bay Area. They've recently switched from 3-5-2 to 3-4-3, if that indicates a change in training, there may be a window of vulnerability (not all that big judging by their ratings). Whackers United at #4 look just like Bay Area -- right around my level or maybe a little above. Like Bay Area, this will be the first time they've put two consecutive seasons in IV together, previously they yo-yo'd. The #5 finisher was Buckeye FC, whose ratings this season look like a mirror image of my own (starting in the 60's and posting a high 70's at the end of the season). And then, there's the autopromoters. First, LA Skullkickers. They've been around a while, and are making their second trip to IV after a season in V.153. LA is promoting out of a cupcake series, I would have autopromoted if I'd been there. They put up low 60's ratings and show no sign of improvement over the last three seasons. They should be getting a return ticket to V at the end of the season. Next, InsertCoin F.C. out of V.130. This team has an interesting history, going V-IV-V-VI-V-IV under the current ownership (probably the promotion was out of a super-weak series before they were ready). Their situation is the same as for LA (mid-60's, promoting out of a cupcake series), but InsertCoin, at least shows signs of improvement -- prior to this season, their NSI averages were in the 40's. All things considered, I'll be pretty disappointed if I don't finish at least sixth.
Either the Hattrick Cup Rank site is off by one or I just can't read, but instead of going down to VI.46, it appears I'm in VI.603. 46 was a good series with actual people playing in it. 603 is all bots.
HTCR doesn't handle ties right. If you were tied with a team or your replacement was tied with a team, then it's possible to have gone to a different series.
I kind of like my series. Just scouting the teams and their last season fixtures shows that their defenses are horrendous and their midfields wretched. I could possibly have the best frontline and midfield in the series. Although I'm not getting ahead of myself. I sold a couple of key players though in the offseason so that could affect me.
My series will be interesting. The team that's dropping from div III is a walkover. One of the autopromoted teams will be easy to beat. The other used to be in div IV and is pretty good. And one of the 5/6 teams lost its qualifier, the new team is about the same. I finished second last season, I'm hoping to finish first or second this season - depends on how much I can improve my team after selling off my defender trainees.
I ended up in the series I first thought I was going to end up in. V.139. It should be quite entertaining. The owners seem fairly active. It will be nice to have some actual competition as opposed to the bots I had been playing.
I've got to do some more research but: V.188 - no one left my series via qualification, so only 2 autopromoters from VI (and a noobie team that took over for 4th place BC Strikers in the last week of the season - will be my turnaround game in week 7) The 2 autopromoters look to be better than the teams that they replaced. But I ought to be able to handle them, as long as they aren't sitting on a lot of cash for improvements. I learned my lesson in season 22. I'm going all out to win my game in week 1 against the #1 team. I may prematurely end my cup run that way but, had I won that game in week 1 last season, I would have been the series champ. The #3 team, Final Strike will once again be my only other challenge for #1. I think he is better than my team now, but not by much. Hopefully when I sell off my extra players next season, I'll have a nice warchest for improvements. Basically, we got rid of two really poor teams from last season due to autodemotion. Replaced them with two better teams. Lost a really good team in #4 due to inactivity. Had real potential to play spoiler and even compete for #1. Overall, I think the series got a little harder next season.
I got a better chance of doing well next season as the team that got relegated to my series is a newbie team and they have only ever signed in once since joining. I think a top 4 finish will be in the bag next season
1. Dallas Red Knights 0 0 - 0 0 2. Real Sociedad 0052 0 0 - 0 0 3. Albito FC 0 0 - 0 0 4. Norge Vikings 0 0 - 0 0 5. Bay County Blues 0 0 - 0 0 6. FC Clydesdales 0 0 - 0 0 7. Madison Maulers 0 0 - 0 0 8. AngerManagement 0 0 - 0 0 That's my series. Should be really fun this year as everyone is active (except for FC Clydesdale who hasn't logged on in a month). Last season was my first full season, and it was the same for Bay County, Real Sociedad, and Madison. It was only Albito's 2nd season. AngerManagement and FC both joined in the middle of last season, and it looks like FC will be replaced soon if he doesn't log on. I don't know much about Dallas but it appears they really suck, as their record in the last 25 games is 1-22-2! So now with a year under all of our belts, and no dominant team that none of us can beat (like we had last year), it should be a really competative series this year. *BTW how do you guys already know who you will be playing first? I've seen people mention that they will be playing a certain team in Week 4 and 11, and someone else said they play the #1 team in Week 1. How do you know? The only "future match" I have on my schedule is my Cup match...
They know who they play, because hattrick uses the same schedule season after season, #1 plays 2 the first game and so on. The schedule is the same every time so it's just a matter of figuring out the schedule in past seasons. It all depends on where you finished last season, you for instance will open on the road against Albito, and end the season at home against them. Some one that remembers the schedule can probably give you your full schedule. BTW, Dallas is a poster on here, arsenalgunner is his name if I remember right. He competed in group a of the bs cup this past year. That should make for an interesting season.
Season 23 doesn't look too bright for me... me and 1 other team auto-promoted and the 6 other teams have all been in the same leauge since season 20 and none of those teams have played in any series other than V.18. Two of them have been there since season 18 and another 2 have been there since season 17. Since season 20 no team has been promoted and no team has been demoted through a qualifier... and the two teams that got autodemoted each season where the 2 teams that had been autopromoted... so if history means anything im probably gonna be playing in a division VI series for season 24. Also the the six other teams seem to get much higher ratings than me and the other promoted team... and they all seem pretty even. Five of the teams have finished either 1st or 2nd during their time in V.18
Look at you disrespecting the mod. Dallas Red Knights is ArsenalTexan3's team. He is currently out of the country.
I won't echo the quotes about respecting the mod, but one thing you have to take into consideration when you look at how good a team is is the level of competition in the series. Not all series' are equal. Some D.V series (like mine) have several crap teams. Some are quite good. Looking at DRK's match ratings, they seem to be able to pull a wretched midfield home or away, and have several poor ratings in both offense and defense. This is comparable to Real Sociodad and most of the other team s in your series. I wouldn't say he really sucks, I'd say he'll be competitive with the rest of y'all.
I know, cut me some slack, I was in a hurry, I was gonna be late for work, and my mind was not totally thinking about hattrick.
Oh Bjorn, great creator of hattrick, forgive me for my sins and please send me that excellent 17 yo PM, with great secondaries and I will build many churches in your honor. "Bart you can't say that!!!!"
Series: IV.4(5th season in the series)-(Hatstats rating in last game of season) 1. Black Stockings 0 0 - 0 0 (74) 2. Tooth Carpenters 0 0 - 0 0 (93) [bold]3. Gainesville Orphans FC 0 0 - 0 0[/bold] (75) 4. Beamers 0 0 - 0 0 (93) 5. Brooklyn FC 0 0 - 0 0 (72) 6. Discarding Sabot 0 0 - 0 0 (85) 7. SpiderLord 0 0 - 0 0 (60) 8. Taillemoi 0 0 - 0 0 (55) I should finish in the middle of the pack again, unless I improve my goalscoring/midfield in the 5-4-1 formation.