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How I won the Masters

Written by Romanian_Cracka

For the first time in history, an additional club wins the most prestigious trophy in Hattrick, the Hattrick Masters.
There is no doubt such a result in such a competition takes a lot of effort. 'After all, when it's all said and done, there can be only one', to quote a classic film and TV series from the '80s and '90s.
Yet, it is a premiere. The first additional club that grabs this trophy is Ancient Wolves (2045393), club managed by Mr-Alex (2043077).
An adventure like this, under the given conditions, with a rather limited amount of time in order to build such a competitive team, it's worth perhaps being shared. Here is how the encounter went.

Hi there, Alex!
First of all, my congratulations for this amazing accomplishment, a remarkable one indeed. Please tell us the story from the winner's perspective, the story of how you won the Masters.

When I decided to get an additional club, I did it with one goal in mind: to win the Hattrick Masters one day. My previous experience in Liga I (the highest series level in Romania) - as well as some things I lacked - came in quite handy, as I knew exactly what I have to do with my new team.

During the first year I trained two defenders in Goalkeeping. I sold them and with the cash I got I bought some players with U-20 potential. I sold them once they finished with the U-20 and I bought some players I wanted to use to get to the Pakistan Premier League and win the Pakistan Cup, too.

It was rather simple to win the Pakistan Cup. I had the best team, played only eight rounds and also PIC in my league. This way, I would have gotten my first presence in the Hattrick Masters.

I remember I was eagerly waiting for the first round draw, hoping to get to play against dude_ro (5896527) (the winner of the previous Liga I in Romania), who sold everything in the meantime and decided to rebuild his team instead. All this because I knew it would guarantee another round in the Masters (I have to admit, the 5 experience points per match were quite tempting). But - a major surprise! - I qualified directly for the second round. It is mentioned in the Rules that some of the luckiest teams will play directly in the second round. I was pretty angry, my goal of playing 2-3 rounds was reduced to only play 1 or 2. Maybe the only good thing happened to be the fact that I may have dodged a bullet with MOTS written all over it (many of those who play in HM for the first time tend to play MOTS for those additional XP points, getting to play an extra round).

In the 2nd round I came across a team that played 4-4-2 CA, I won playing 2-5-3 (596574682), Normal. 4-3 and my team has always been in the lead.

In the 3rd round I played against a team that often used 2-5-3, with rather low defensive ratings. Considering the ratings, I was a little bit ahead in terms of chances to get further and so it happened: (596653152). Same result, 4-3, my team has been again always in the lead.
Until then, everything went as planned (considering the opponents) and every extra round would have been some kind of a bonus.

In the 4th round things started to get complicated, I was facing a difficult opponent. Even more complicated, as I played PIN in the previous round of the Pakistan Cup. So I decided to play a 4-5-1 Pressing (596683073). A bad idea. I found myself down by 2 goals after the first half, then I switched to a 2-5-3 and with 5 minutes left to play I was still down 0-2. But during the last 5 minutes I managed to draw it 2-2 and took the match to extra time, where I scored for 3-2, which qualified me.

In the 5th round I was going to play against a user that I knew pretty well, the manager that won the Championship in the top league in Moldova. It was a 3-5-2 vs. 2-5-3, where everything went perfect for me, final result 4-2: (596744954).

So I was going to play the quarter finals and I was ready to face anyone, except for Ercanto. Obviously, the Gods wanted me to play against him. An amazing team, that I had no idea how to beat.
This was the first time I got a message since I started my adventure in the Hattrick Masters. It was a PIN deal offer. I didn't want to accept it, I knew very well that by playing PIN vs. PIN I would end up losing the midfield, so my only chance was a MOTS versus a PIN or PIC from him. I had to say No to this deal in a way that he wouldn't get my intentions of playing MOTS. I answered him something like this: 'I have no idea what I will play tonight but I'm not really a fan of these deals (don't blame me :D). You have an incredible team and I have the Cup finals next week. I'd like to play in the HM next season as well, so I'll see what I can do about it.'.

The match was going to be played on Thursday and I didn't touch the training intensity for it, the TS was at 8. I think I played the match well (596787029), 3-5-2 versus 3-5-2, while switching to 2-5-3, if down. If I would have switched the sides, as I intended to, I could have said I played it perfectly (considering my team's resources). I left my right side of defense intentionally undefended and he scored twice in the first half. Nevertheless, after the break and the substitutions, I managed to get the result in my favour, 3-2; and I have just beaten the main favourite and I was going to play the semifinals.

I played PIC in the league and MOTS in the semifinals. Right there, my dilemma was to find whether my opponent played MOTS on Thursday. I asked some of my friends and the opinions were divided. I went with the fact that he played MOTS (keeping in mind at the same time that back then he didn't have leadership on his coach), therefore I chose to play 2-5-3, defending only the center of my defense and attacking his central defense only, AIM.
The ratings are shown. Had I sent the match orders myself for him, he couldn't have 'read' me better. But there was a flaw: he chose Pressing, so the final result (0-3) speaks for itself: (596850625).

So, this way, after my most convincing win so far, I was in the grand final. The TS was at 5, I had to play in the Pakistan Cup final and after that in the HM finals.
I MOTS-ed in the Cup final and I lost. My opponent only had a 2% winning chance. So, with an already lost final, with the TS at 2 and the TC exaggerated, I lowered the training intensity to 2%.

But no matter how I would have played it, I couldn't have won the midfield. The opponent from the final had divine central attack and utopian midfield (even if in the semifinals he played something else). What was I going to do? I chose to defend as much as I can the central defense and one of the sides, while leaving the other side undefended. I knew that I could get both sides in attack but the main problem was that I needed my central attack to be better than his central defense as well. It was 3-5-2 vs. 2-5-3. He played exactly what I was expecting. I invested exactly where I should have, considering the limits of my team. I set substitutions if down and in case I get to the penalties. Nothing regarding stamina. Not because I didn't consider it, but because the players on the bench wouldn't have got me any plus.

If in the semifinals the weather special events were all in my favour and the negative special events went to my opponent, this time the situation was quite the opposite. I thought it's over and I would lose, but I didn't have any regrets. I played as well as I could have played. But, against all odds, I was in the lead three times and every time the equalizing goal came up. Final result: 3-3 (596898644) and my opponent made substitutions because of the stamina and he also replaced his set pieces taker. I managed to stay in the game in the extra time and in the 119th minute of the match I sent in a TDF, for the penalties.

I can't put in words what I felt during these penalties, my team was shooting first. There has also been a little bug in the Live because I received the text when I was scoring, while in the live report it was announced his goal. All this until my tenth goal, when - after a whole minute of clicking refresh and experiencing all sorts of feelings - waiting for the text with his tenth goal, his missed penalty report finally appeared.

It was an amazing sensation! Basically, with my first attempt, after three and a half years of owning this team, I literally won the most wanted trophy in Hattrick. A remarkable journey when it comes to approaching the matches, as well as being lucky when it's needed. Because without a little bit of luck you can't succeed in this game.

A few wonderful days followed, with lots of messages, thousands of visits on my team's pages and also two Press Announcements, thanking three users that supported my team during this adventure: pompei, dude_ro and Zibling. Once again: thanks, guys!

And to you, our readers. Thank you for having the patience to read my adventure in the Masters, where there were combined - without false modesty - experience, game knowledge, inspiration in the key moments and some help from the match engine.

I'd like to thank Cracka as well for persuading me to write this article.

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