What are the origins of BB? How did this game become what it is now?
This one I can speak on, relatively. BB-Charles was very active in Hattrick (he was the coach of the Nigerian international team, I forget whether it was their NT or U20 though), and while he recognized the need for a "minnow" in that game to exploit some of the ridiculousness of the game engine, I think (my opinion) that he hated the imbalance and really wanted a game where all-around players and skills were rewarded. Now that I look back at the election thread that I mostly remembered, though, I think he disliked the way the multiskill focus got added into HT.
Anyone who has access to HT can feel free to read his election thread from 2007:
(http://www91.hattrick.org/Forum/Read.aspx?t=10085533&...) - it certainly takes me back. I'm actually surprised I hadn't posted in that thread (but now that I see that was the election Cataclysmia was running, it makes more sense). I didn't or don't know Charles personally (just as a forum personality, and not as well as i knew a lot of the people involved in the NT and USA in general, both before and during my U21 term) but I definitely believe a lot of the decisions made in the initial design of this game were directly related to his views on what was right and what was wrong with Hattrick. Certainly if nothing else, the game engine here is infinitely better than the one there.