Champions League
Throughout most of Hattrick's history there have been numerous proposals requesting the developers to create a Champions League, however to this point they have all been rejected for various reasons. There are some serious obstacles which need to be overcome before a Champions League could be implemented. Several of these obstacles depend on the format and would include the possibility of a third game during the week, additional training for higher level teams and timing considerations. Several opponents of a Champions League have also expressed concern that the financial rewards involved in a Champions League would bias the game towards the uppermost level teams.
On 28 May 2005 at the beginning of the 26th season of Hattrick, Calvert, a lower level manager in the United States, decided to run a Simulated Champions League based on a proposal he had submitted in October 2004. There would be sixteen brackets of eight teams each and they would play a 14-week schedule identical to that of a normal Hattrick series, followed by a 16-team knockout round involving the bracket winners. The initial selection of teams were the Cup winners in all countries with the Division I winners in the largest countries to fill out the 128-team field. The unique feature of this proposal is the promotion and relegation system. The teams that finish in 7th and 8th place in their respective brackets are auto-relegated out of the Champions League. The teams in 5th and 6th place must play a qualifier in order to retain their position. The teams that finish from 1st-4th will remain in the Champions League for the next season regardless of their performance in their national league. The original proposal had Champions League participants be removed from their national Cups and playing their CL matches in their place. For promotion, each country sends one candidate each season. That candidate is their Division I champion unless that team is already in the CL, in which case the Cup winner (or runner up) is selected. Since CL matches replace Cup matches for the participants, if this system were implemented in the game it would be impossible for the Cup winner to be a CL participant.
Since the actual game engine cannot be used the games are simulated using the HTRatings match predictor with the actual ratings from that week's league matches input into the calculator. Results are posted in a dedicated thread in the Global (English) conference and the standings are posted on the Simulated CL's website. The designers of the CL are currently working on expanding the capabilities of the website and hope to have more extensive coverage in the near future.
As of this writing, the Simulated Champions League is in its second season.
Champions League Winners
- Season 1: Mokouko FC (Norway) defeated S.L. Cabecinha (Portugal) by a 1-0 score. The match was held at Stade Bugg Superstar, home of then French champion FC Barentin. The other semi-finalists were Hallgale (Norway) and Tombstone Titans (USA). The remaining bracket winners were Roots Crew (Indonesia), Burnt Out Koalas FC (Oceania), Dziobaki (Poland), Hobbits Play Football (Switzerland), Heiskan JK (Finland), Sparker (Oceania), Inter Sthlm (Sweden), Shirayuri Sky (Japan), GDL (Mexico), Beltxis (Venezuela), Arezzo Galasocaray (Italy) and Barrington Barons (Canada).
