Cup Competitions

In a nutshell

Cups are knockout tournaments that run alongside the league season. Win or go home. Every round matters, the final is one match for the trophy, and even your "off" matchdays can become the highlight of the season.

Two kinds of cup

League Cup

Any private league can run its own cup. The admin enables it from the league admin panel and picks a weekday for cup ties. Every club in the league enters automatically when the cup is generated.

World Cup

A separate global cup that runs from season 2 onwards. Only the top 4 finishers in each of the top 4 World League divisions (Crown, Chase, Climb, Division 1) qualify, so 16 clubs in total. The bracket is drawn at random when the World League season ends.

How the bracket works

Pure knockout. Win and you stay in. Lose and you are out. There are no group stages.

Bracket sizes adapt to entrants. A 16 club cup runs Round of 16, Quarter Final, Semi Final, Final. Bigger fields add a Round of 32 or a Preliminary round to trim the entrants down to a clean power of two.

Byes keep it balanced. When the field is not a clean power of two, the bracket is padded with byes. A club drawn against a bye walks straight into the next round.

Follow the path. You can see the full bracket on the Tournament tab of the cup page.

Cup ties

One match, no second chance. A cup tie is a single 90 minute match. There is no second leg, no away goals rule, no extra time. Win and progress, lose and exit.

Their own matchday. Cup matchdays land on the day the admin chose so they do not clash with league fixtures. If your club is knocked out, you simply have no match that day.

Same prep as any match. You set tactics, lineup and substitutions exactly the same way as for a league match, with the same prep window and the same lock 30 minutes before kick-off.

Penalty shootouts

Straight to penalties. If a cup tie is level after 90 minutes, the match goes to penalties. There is no extra time.

Your order, your takers. Players take their kicks in the order you set on the Set Pieces tab. If the order is empty, takers are picked automatically by skill.

Unavailable takers are skipped. Players who are no longer on the pitch (substituted, injured, sent off) are quietly skipped, and the next eligible taker steps up.

Composed finishers

Composed players convert shootout kicks more often, so loading the front of your order with calm finishers is a smart edge. See the section for how to set your shootout order.

Cup prize money

League Cup. Winner picks up 10,000 Rivs, runner-up takes 3,000 Rivs. Awarded automatically when the final is released.

World Cup. Tiered all the way down to the round of 16, because only the top 16 clubs on the platform qualify:

Winner: 25,000 Rivs
Runner-up: 12,000 Rivs
Semi-finalist: 6,000 Rivs each
Quarter-finalist: 3,000 Rivs each
Round of 16: 1,500 Rivs each

Awards and stats

Round awards. Every cup round has its own Player of the Round, Manager of the Round and Team of the Round, picked from the matches in that round.

Tournament awards. At the end of the cup the report adds Player of the Tournament, Manager of the Tournament and Team of the Tournament alongside top scorer, top assist and rating leaders.

All-time history. Every cup also keeps a record of previous winners, most appearances, most titles and roll of honour.

Cup achievements

Reach a cup final. Get to the showpiece match in any cup competition.

Top scorer of a cup. Have one of your players finish a cup as the leading scorer.

Win a league cup. Lift the trophy in any private league cup.

Progression

Each unlock awards XP and Rivs and feeds into your Manager Level. See the section for how progression works.

What to do

On a cup matchday, treat the tie like a final: set your strongest lineup, prep your tactics before the 30 minute lock, and order your calmest finishers first on the Set Pieces tab in case it goes to penalties.