A Talk With a Champion

This article covers an interview with the reigning Major League champion of season 78, manager arsenalwz! Arsenalwz is the manager of Disgustin. The article will go over multiple topics such as what the beginning was like for team Disgustin, the measure of success in HT, dealing with team expenses and many others. Give this article a read to venture into the mind of the most recent reigning Major League winning manager!

First of all I would like to thank Arsenalwz for the time and dedication to answer all of these questions and share his thoughts on these varying topics. Hopefully anyone that reads this finds some enjoyment and maybe learns and thing or two. It is always nice to hear from other managers that have succeeded at such a high level. And without any further ado, let the interview begin!


- Could you please introduce yourself?
I am a 34 years old super soccer fan from China. After I graduated from college I went to the US to pursue my doctorate degree in statistics and became a risk management data scientist at a credit bureau. I joined HT in 2013 and quickly attracted by its training mechanism and balanced gaming experience.

- Tell us about your team. What is the inspiration for your team name? And how did you learn about Hattrick?
I just used the same name of my first World of Warcraft character, a ‘handsome’ ORC warrior. From my perspective, this name describes an ORC precisely, LOL. My team promoted to the Major League for the first time in season 65 and finished at 3rd, that was only 11 seasons after it was founded. However, I suddenly realized how lucky and weak my team really was, and decided to rebuild it with 2 great homegrown trainees and about 30m dollars (not much though) after I tear it down. Lay out a long term scheme, purchase great trainees, make good use of the money, reinforce the lineup, that’s what I have done. Team Disgustin came back to the ML in season 76, and finished 5th, 2nd, 1st in the past 3 seasons respectively. Honestly, team Disgustin is in its prime and probably the best team in the US now.

- Did you have a mentor at the beginning of your career to help and guide you through the first steps of running your team?
No, I started this game completed blind, but there were a lot of empirical articles available on this website for the beginners. Just read them carefully and be patient.

- What motivates you to continue in Hattrick after so many years?
Accomplishments from long term team-building and becoming competitive in the top level. Joys of searching and waiting for the players I need. Satisfactions of managing the lineups or scouting my opponents in depth to gain a marginal win probability. All these game elements are enjoyable to me, and there are still a lot of things I wanna try in HT, like building a long-shot team or becoming a NT coach, etc.

- Tell us your worst newbie mistake / your worst mistake in your HT career.
I really don't recall any serious mistakes I’ve made in my HT career, the only thing worth mentioning is that I would rather build my team based on Normal Forwards or wingers rather than TDF’s, the comprehensive contribution from a TDF is relatively impractical now.

-What was the road like from beginning to winning the Major League?
Making a detailed and achievable long-term plan is the most important thing. In my second ML trip, I started with 6 17 y/o forward trainees and trained their scoring up to 14, sold/exchange 3 of them to midfield trainees with high defense and winger skills, then focused on playmaking and passing for about 9 seasons. At the same time, don’t forget to make benefit from the other training spots, that’s how I got 6 ML level players in my lineup and the money to reinforce my squad. My ML championship came down to the very last week, I got a lucky win over The Outfit in a home game. We were neck to neck throughout the whole season.

- How do you deal with your expenses? Training, trading or just hoarded money from the past?
In my first ML trip, I had two principles that are “do not have cash in hand” and “do not let a player staying on your roster for too long”. Once you got enough money, buy a quality player who fits your squad and sell the old guy at a proper price, keep refreshing your roster like that. According to this process, you can have your team getting stronger little by little, and avoid losing player’s value as he getting older. My second trip to ML is easier since I had great trainees and 30m dollars hoarded. I didn’t pay much attention on trading unless the board wants to steal the money away, I would rather store my resources by “players” that can exchange to cash easily.

- How long does it take you to earn the money you need? How much time do you spend on transfer market each day?
I don't want to make HT a “Monopoly” game, so I spend time on transfer market only if I need a prospect for my team. I would like to make money from matches and training rather than frequent wealth-driven trading.

- In your opinion can any manager with a money bag and good Hattrick knowledge "win" the game?"
Honestly, I think the answer is Yes.

- What is your definition of "success" in HT?
Achieve the goals you set for yourselves, the goals could be either magnificent or inconspicuous, like being a world cup winner coach, qualifying for hattrick master, making a certain amount of money, collecting national flags, upgrading to the next level, etc. When I started my rebuild plan, I aimed for 3 things, ML championship, National Cup, and NT representative (José Guadalupe Álvarez), hopefully I can have some more luck and win the Cup this season.

- What's your recommendation for those who newly started playing HT?
For new managers, firstly I think that reading the manual is crucial. The game engine does not work according to what you think it should work. By learning more in-depth knowledge from the manual or the forum, you can have a better understanding on how the skills contribute to the overall rating, how the specialties work in the game, how the man mark tactic effected with respect to the player positions, etc. All these little elements together give you a higher win probability. Secondly, as I mentioned above, making a long-term plan and sticking to it is quite important. Basically, all the resources in the game, such as NT level players, money, grand stadium, trophies, can only be gathered by your dedication of time. Last but not least, matches in HT are literally gambling of probabilities, you will have good days, you will also have days that things don’t work out. So, be patient, enjoy it, and reap what you sow.

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