Hat trick (computer game)

Hat trick

Publisher	Extralives Spelkultur (from 2011)
Senior Developer	Björn Holmér
Erstveröffent- lichung	August 30, 1997
platform	Web browser
genre	Manager simulation, browser game
control	Keyboard , mouse or touchscreen
language	various, u. a. German

Hattrick (often referred to as HT is abbreviated) the world's largest free football - Manager - Browser Game (also called managers) with around 250,000 players from 128 nations currently. The website is available in 54 language versions (as of May 7, 2017). It was developed by the Swede Björn Holmér and has been running since August 30, 1997. Originally it was intended as a "small" online game for friends who could not meet regularly to play games. At that time, 16 Swedish players played against each other.

Hattrick is operated by the Swedish company Spelkultur , which offers the game free of charge after the original operator, Extralives AB, ceased operations in 2011. For a fee (from 3.33 euros for one month), interested parties can purchase a so-called “supporter” group, which is offered in four stages, which is intended to increase the fun of the game with extended functions, but does not offer any direct advantage over non-supporters. In addition, so-called "credits" can be acquired, which can be exchanged in notifications via SMS or small additional functions, such as the distribution of nicknames for players.

Game start

After registration and verification by a gamemaster (game master), a newly registered player is assigned a team. With this he starts in one of the two lowest divisions in his country and replaces a team (bot) formerly managed by the server or a team whose manager has left the game. The manager starts with a (randomly composed) 18-man squad (including coach), a stadium with 12,000 seats, a 100-person fan club and a start-up capital of 50,000 (virtual) euros, which he can obtain by purchasing a "manager license" , for which some questions about the set of rules have to be answered, can significantly increase.

This capital can be used to improve the team, to sign new players and coaches, or to expand the stadium. If a team goes bankrupt, they have two weeks to settle the debt. Otherwise the team will be irrevocably deleted and the player may only start again after a waiting period of seven weeks.

Hat trick week

Hattrick runs in real time , the managers can constantly make decisions in their club. There is a league and a friendly game each week. In the case of cup participation, a second competitive game, the cup game, will be played instead of the friendly game. The form of the tournament, which is always held on Mondays, has existed since April 2012.

The exact playing times vary from country to country, but league games generally take place on weekends (in Germany: Saturday evening). From 20 minutes before the start of a game, a manager can no longer influence the game. During the games, the game can be followed with the help of a text-based live ticker. As in real football games, goals , missed opportunities , injuries , warnings and other special events occur.

In the time between games, the managers can buy and sell players, change the type of training , manage the club's staff , expand the stadium or set the team line-up for the next games.

Games

Based on the skill values of the players, the selected formation and some other tactical settings, the overall strength of the individual team parts, the so-called ratings, are determined. The game system, the so-called match engine, generates game events from these ratings with the help of probabilities. So it can happen that games can end differently despite identical conditions.

For example, the distribution of the chances of scoring results with the help of probabilities from the possession of the ball, which is determined directly from the comparison of the midfield ratings of the two teams.

League system

Division	Leagues	Teams	Places in the country ranking
I.	1	8th	1-8
II	4th	32	9-40
III	16	128	41-168
IV	64	512	169-680
V	256	2,048	681-2,728
VI	1,024	8,192	2,729-10,920
VII	1,024	8,192	10,921-19,112
VIII	2,048	16,384	19.113-35.496
IX	2,048	16,384	35,497-51,880
X	4,096	32,768	51,881-84,648
XI	4,096	32,768	84,649-117,416

According to the real role models, points and goal differences are fought in several game classes. The largest countries are Italy , Germany and Poland with eight divisions each.

Each league consists of 8 teams that meet twice on 14 match days, with each of the two teams receiving home rights once. Unlike in most soccer league operations, the order of the rounds is not identical, but reversed. So you play the last game of the season against the same team you met on matchday one.

At the end of the season, a team either holds the class, promotes or relegates. From the second to the sixth division, only the respective league champion can advance. A ranking of the champions of a certain division determines whether the club in question has to play a relegation game for promotion against a team from the higher division or not. From the seventh grade onwards, all masters are promoted directly, plus the runner-up in divisions VII, IX and XI. From the first to the fifth grade, the seventh and eighth place in each league must be relegated immediately, while the fifth and sixth must be relegated to a potential candidate for promotion. From the sixth grade there is only direct relegation for the last two in each league.

season

A hat-trick season lasts 16 weeks; The 73rd season is currently running in Germany and the 60th season in Austria and Switzerland (as of November 22, 2019). Before the first and after the last regular league game day there is a week free of games, in the week after the last game day the relegation games take place here.

More competitions

In addition to the normal league competition, there are a number of other competitions in which managers can measure themselves and their teams against each other.

Cup

There is a national cup competition in every country. This competition is held weekly in the knockout system . If a game is tied after 90 minutes, there will be two extra times of 15 minutes, and if there is another tie, a penalty shoot-out . A maximum of 15 cup rounds take place per season, which limits the maximum number of participants to 2 = 32768. Since the number of teams is quite different in the individual countries, the number of cup participants is linked to the number of divisions in the country. ${\ displaystyle ^ {1}}$ ${\ displaystyle ^ {5}}$

In eight and more divisions: 32,768 teams in cup competition
In seven divisions: 16,384 teams in cup competition
In six divisions: 8192 teams in cup competition
With five divisions: 2048 teams in cup competition
In four divisions: 512 teams in cup competition
In three divisions: 128 teams in cup competition

In the individual cup rounds, the strongest and weakest teams according to the previous year's ranking meet each other, in Germany for example the champions of the Bundesliga as 1st in the national ranking against the team in 32,768, whereby the weaker team enjoys home rights. This is to prevent the strongest teams from meeting in early cup rounds and thus eliminating each other prematurely.

Hattrick Masters

Similar to the UEFA Champions League , Hattrick has had an international cup competition since the beginning of 2006 with the aim of determining the best team in the world. The national champions as well as the cup winners of each country are qualified for this competition. Should a team win both national competitions, they will represent their country alone.

World championships

Each country has a national team and a U20 national team in Hattrick. Both teams take part in world championships. A national coach chosen by the other players is responsible for appointing players to the national team and for the formation of the team in friendly and world championship games. The same applies to the U20 national coach.

World championships of the senior national teams

In the history of the game, 15 world championships for the senior national teams have already been played. The world championships start every two seasons in a different country. Due to the high number of users in the land of hattrick creators, Sweden had the most potential at the beginning and was able to win the title six times. In the meantime, however, other hat-trick nations have caught up. In addition to the six-time world champion Sweden, only Germany, Norway and Chile won the title several times.

World Championship	Date of the final game	Venue (s)	World Champion
World Cup I.	04/28/2002	Japan / South Korea	Sweden
World Cup II	12/08/2002	Argentina	Sweden
World Cup III	07/20/2003	Netherlands	Sweden
World Cup IV	02/29/2004	United States	Norway
World Cup V	10/10/2004	Spain	Sweden
World Cup VI	05/22/2005	Brazil	Sweden
World Cup VII	01/01/2006	China	Sweden
World Cup VIII	08/13/2006	Germany	Germany
World Cup IX	03/25/2007	Russia	Estonia
World Cup X	04/11/2007	Portugal	Portugal
World Cup XI	06/15/2008	Belgium	Czech Republic
World Cup XII	January 25, 2009	Colombia	Russia
World Cup XIII	09/06/2009	Greece	Germany
World Cup XIV	04/18/2010	Thailand	Greece
World Cup XV	11/28/2010	South Africa	Norway
World Cup XVI	07/10/2011	India	Denmark
World Cup XVII	02/19/2012	Trinidad and Tobago	Chile
World Cup XVIII	09/30/2012	Israel	Poland
World Cup XIX	05/12/2013	Norway	Bulgaria
World Cup XX	12/22/2013	Tunisia	Finland
World Cup XXI	08/03/2014	Brazil	Chile
World Cup XXII	03/15/2015	Andorra	Chile
World Cup XXIII	25/10/2015	Indonesia	Canada
World Cup XXIV	06/12/2016	Estonia	Netherlands
World Cup XXV	January 15, 2017	France	Netherlands
World Cup XXVI	08/27/2017	Guatemala	Italy
World Cup XXVII	04/08/2018	Oceania	Italy
World Cup XXVIII	11/18/2018	Latvia	Romania
World Cup XXIX	06/30/2019	Croatia	Luxembourg
World Cup XXX	02/09/2020	Benin	open

World Championships for the U-20 national teams

One season delayed from the World Cup for the senior national teams, the World Cup for the U20 national teams also takes place every two seasons. Since the length of time each country has been a member of the game is not a very important success factor, but mainly the tactical skill of the national coach as well as the luck in pulling new youth players and the ability to train these players effectively, Sweden was able to maintain its lead, in contrast to the senior national teams, do not defend long in this competition and win the title three times. Romania, Italy and Norway also succeeded, and Germany even won five times.

U-20 World Championship	Date of the final game	Venue (s)	World Champion
U-20 World Cup I.	08/18/2002	Germany	Sweden
U-20 World Cup II	03/30/2003	Australia	Sweden
U-20 World Cup III	11/09/2003	Romania	Romania
U-20 World Cup IV	06/20/2004	Egypt	Norway
U-20 World Cup V	01/30/2005	Chile	Romania
U-20 World Cup VI	09/11/2005	Italy	Estonia
U-20 World Cup VII	04/23/2006	Mexico	Norway
U-20 World Cup VIII	December 3, 2006	Israel	Sweden
U-20 World Cup IX	07/15/2007	Malaysia	Germany
U-20 World Cup X	02/24/2008	Peru	Estonia
U-20 World Cup XI	05/10/2008	Finland	Romania
U-20 World Cup XII	05/17/2009	Kenya	Italy
U-20 World Cup XIII	December 27, 2009	Canada	Germany
U-20 World Cup XIV	08/08/2010	Iran	Germany
U-20 World Cup XV	03/20/2011	Bosnia Herzegovina	Belgium
U-20 World Cup XVI	10/30/2011	Poland	Italy
U-20 World Cup XVII	06/10/2012	Panama	Germany
U-20 World Cup XVIII	01/20/2013	Finland	Netherlands
U-20 World Cup XIX	09/01/2013	Montenegro	Finland
U-20 World Cup XX	04/13/2014	Italy	Italy
U-20 World Cup XXI	11/23/2014	Belgium	Norway
U-20 World Cup XXII	07/05/2015	Romania	Germany
U-20 World Cup XXIII	02/14/2016	Faroe Islands	Netherlands
U-20 World Cup XXIV	09/25/2016	Ivory Coast	Germany
U-20 World Cup XXV	07/05/2017	Pakistan	Switzerland
U-20 World Cup XXVI	December 17, 2017	United States	Denmark
U-20 World Cup XXVII	07/29/2018	El Salvador	Romania
U-20 World Cup XXVIII	03/10/2019	Sweden	Italy
U-20 World Cup XXIX	October 20, 2019	Kazakhstan	United States
U-20 World Cup XXX	05/31/2020	Bulgaria	(still running)

Tournaments and duels

The tournament and duel game forms, some of which are subject to a charge, which were introduced in 2012, are outsourced from normal gaming operations. In a tournament, up to 16 teams from all over the world can play games among themselves, which take place on the basis of the current team squad. These games are completely independent of normal game play, injuries to the players are excluded, yellow or red cards are only valid for this tournament. A duel is the short form of a tournament with only 2 teams.

User roles

At Hattrick there are various official roles that users can be assigned. In particular, these differ in terms of the rights they have in the community. These roles can be recognized by a corresponding prefix in front of the user name. Not every user takes on such a task; on the contrary, only a small number are officials .

HT are the developers of the online game.
GM (Gamemaster) monitor the smooth process as well as the registrations.
Moderators are responsible for compliance with the forum rules.
LA (Language Administrator) translate the game content into the respective language versions.
CHPP are responsible for issuing licenses to developers of external applications.

economy

Hattrick has a relatively complex economy in which the virtual players and the clubs' virtual money are the most important resources. In a transfer market , clubs can buy and sell players by auction. In the past, Hattrick has encountered economic problems such as deflation or inflation . To research the causes, the developers had a scientific study carried out by two economists from Stockholm University . In response to this study, game designers tried to regulate the economy by, on the one hand, changing the amount of virtual money available to managers. On the other hand, they limited the number of virtual soccer players and the speed with which they are trained and sold on the transfer market.

Effect of the game

Some players have developed their own programs to help with line-up and training planning.

Managers meet regularly in the German-speaking community. These range from small regional round tables to elaborately organized multi-day events. These supraregional meetings have been held annually for a number of years; the last meeting took place in June 2013 in Wixhausen .

Hattrick has been reported in numerous classic media.

The Hattrick-based board game Match of the Season was presented at the 2009 International Game Days in Essen.

The Global Football Monitor 2006

On the occasion of the Football World Cup 2006, the largest online survey on football to date was organized on Hattrick.org (as of June 2006). 196,000 Hattrick members worldwide took part.

criticism

Some aspects of the game are criticized by managers. Mention should be made of the in-game handling of criticism, which is often prevented across the board. Another issue was data protection. As a reaction to an article in the Netzeitung , in which the game operators were accused of laxly handling personal data of the players or violating applicable law, the operators announced improvements in data protection with immediate effect. The GMs' access to private messages and saved passwords was prevented.

Web links

Hattrick.org , Official Website
Hattrick Wiki

Individual evidence

↑ "Hattrick Home - International"
^ "Operator's website" ( Memento from February 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
↑ "Spelkultur" ( Memento of 19 December 2011 at the Internet Archive )
↑ "Extra Lives AB has ceased its operations"
↑ International / countries. Hat trick, accessed July 20, 2017 .
^ The largest ever football survey. Archived from the original on April 28, 2009 ; Retrieved December 27, 2013 .
^ Franziska Moor: Collect data like in the game. netzeitung.de, August 23, 2007, archived from the original on May 21, 2007 ; Retrieved December 27, 2013 .

[1] "Hattrick Home - International"

[2] "Operator's website" ( Memento from February 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive )

[3] "Spelkultur" ( Memento of 19 December 2011 at the Internet Archive )

[4] "Extra Lives AB has ceased its operations"

[5] International / countries. Hat trick, accessed July 20, 2017 .

[6] The largest ever football survey. Archived from the original on April 28, 2009 ; Retrieved December 27, 2013 .

[7] Franziska Moor: Collect data like in the game. netzeitung.de, August 23, 2007, archived from the original on May 21, 2007 ; Retrieved December 27, 2013 .