The series system
A Hattrick season is 16 weeks long: 14 league rounds (each series has 8 teams who play each other twice), one week for qualifiers, and one week with no league activity.
The League Pyramid
Every league in Hattrick builds on the same principle: you start at the bottom of the pyramid, aiming to earn promotion to the highest level over time.
The top three divisions look the same in every league. The top division has one series with eight teams - this is where the league champion is decided.
Below this, there is a division with four series and 32 total teams. Each of the four series winners may gain direct promotion to the top level or play a qualification match to advance, depending on their season record.
The third level has 16 series with 128 total teams, again an expansion by a factor of four from the league above it, and again the same promotion rules.
In the divisions below, not all leagues look the same. Depending on how many active managers a league has, the league structure may be flatter (allowing more teams per level but making promotion harder) or expand in a taller, more narrow way (which gives more division levels but with more accessible promotion paths).
The league structure in your league matters because it decides the promotion rules for your series. Check your league table for exact information on how promotion works in your series. You can also browse other divisions in your league from the arrows on the series page to see how promotion works in different places.
The Hattrick Football Association may occasionally choose to adjust the league structure by reducing or increasing the size of a particular division. If this happens, it will be communicated in advance.
Promotion, relegation, and qualifiers
Promotion can happen in three ways, depending on the size of your division compared to the one above you.
1. The winner promotes or plays a qualifier: If your division is much bigger (x4), fewer teams can promote. In this scenario, 50 % of the series winners in the division promotes directly and the rest of the winners have to play a qualifier. Who gets the direct promotion is decided by points and goal difference during the season.
2. The winner promotes directly, the runner-up plays a qualifier: If you division is twice the size of the division above, the winner will always promote and the runner-up plays a qualifier against a team from the level above.
3. Two teams promote directly, two teams plays qualifiers: If your division is the same size as the division above, four teams have the chance to promote. Teams placed 1 and 2 promote directly, teams placed 3 and 4 plays a qualifier.
Demotion rules are simpler. Unless you are already playing in the bottom division, the teams placed 7th and 8th will always be demoted directly, while teams placed 5th and 6th will play qualifiers to stay up.
Please note that the promotion and demotion rules for your series can always be found in your series table.
Switching series
If your team competes in one of the three bottom divisions in your league, it may be possible to switch from one series to another in the same division. For this to work, there needs to be a free slot in the series you want to join.
There are two ways to initiate a change of series:
1. In the Next Season Planner, available on your Series page, you can set a Preferred Series. This option opens up around one month before the season ends and will give you priority to a specific series when the season ends. All viable moves will happen immediately after Qualification matches have been played. If the division above or below your current one also has series switching enabled, you can also set a Preferred Series in these divisions. This preference will be used if you promote or demote at the end of the season. Your Preferred Series choices are reset once all viable planned moves have been completed, and the new season starts.
2. In the week after Qualification matches, a second opportunity to change series opens up. Using Switch Series, you can browse other series and move directly to a new one if there are available slots. Please note that if you have an additional team under your management, as part of your Supporter membership, your teams can never move to play in the same series.
Bot relegation
At the end of each season all bot teams in division VI and lower will be relegated to the lowest possible division. The only exception to this is at the very top of division VI, where any bot team that wins the series will either promote or play a qualifier as normal. Bot teams in division V or above are treated in the same way as human owned teams in terms of promotion and relegation.
As these bot teams are demoted, additional teams will be given space in the higher division. These teams will be labeled "Lucky Losers", and will either be teams that lost qualification matches, or in some cases, teams that were demoted directly. You can opt out from this kind of promotion in the team settings.
If there are enough bots in a country to fill the entire bottom division, the system automatically closes the bottom division, and hence makes preparations for it.
League position and ranking
The final standings are determined by, in order of importance, points, goal difference, and goals scored. This in turn determines your ranking, which is used to decide who meets who in qualifiers and cup games.
The ranking is based on, in order of importance: series level, place in the series, points, goal difference and goals scored. For both ranking and league position: if all of these things are equal a coin toss decides.
Prize money
If you finish in the top half of the table you will get some prize money. How much you get depends on your place and in which division you play:
|
Series Level
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
|
Division I
|
2 000 000 US$
|
1 175 000 US$
|
825 000 US$
|
500 000 US$
|
|
Division II
|
1 350 000 US$
|
1 050 000 US$
|
750 000 US$
|
450 000 US$
|
|
Division III
|
1 200 000 US$
|
925 000 US$
|
675 000 US$
|
400 000 US$
|
|
Division IV
|
900 000 US$
|
700 000 US$
|
500 000 US$
|
300 000 US$
|
|
Division V
|
600 000 US$
|
475 000 US$
|
325 000 US$
|
200 000 US$
|
|
Division VI
|
525 000 US$
|
400 000 US$
|
300 000 US$
|
175 000 US$
|
|
Other divisions
|
450 000 US$
|
350 000 US$
|
250 000 US$
|
150 000 US$
|
There is also a 10 000 US$ bonus paid for having the top scorer in a series. The money is paid-out after the last match of the season. If two players tie for this award, both current owners of the players will receive the award; however, if two of your own players tie, then you only receive one prize.
Promotion bonus
If you are directly promoted to a higher division you get a promotion bonus on top of the prize money. Moreover, promotion will also boost your fan club: you'll receive a 10% increase in fans. Similarly, if you demote you will lose 10% of your fans. If you promote "for free," outside the regular promotion slot, you only get the fan club boost. Examples of this include promotion due to bot removal and the temporary extra promotion slots available in the Hattrick International league.
|
Series Level
|
Directly promoted
|
Promoted after qualifier
|
|
Division I
|
-
|
-
|
|
Division II
|
500 000 US$
|
175 000 US$
|
|
Division III
|
450 000 US$
|
150 000 US$
|
|
Division IV
|
400 000 US$
|
125 000 US$
|
|
Division V
|
300 000 US$
|
100 000 US$
|
|
Division VI
|
200 000 US$
|
75 000 US$
|
|
Other divisions
|
175 000 US$
|
50 000 US$
|