Your overall tasks

Your new team

Region and weather

Your team belongs to region, a region which you probably have a relation to. Regions are there so you can check out other people from the same area as you. Another important function is that each region has its own weather. No regions have better weather than others, all regions are equally good so you don't have to worry about making a bad choice.

Weather affects a couple of things, but most importantly attendance (less people will watch your games when it's raining) and players performance. At the "Region" page you can see what the weather is like today and a weather forecast for tomorrow. If the sun shines today, it's more likely (compared to other weather types) that it also shines tomorrow, so weather isn't completely random.

If you want, you can change region in the season break. It will however cost you 10 000 US$ and 3% of your fans will leave your fan club.

Our best piece of advice

How good is your player?

In real life you say a football player is a "quite OK winger" or a "really good defender" when you see him play. In Hattrick, we do the same to describe how good players are. We use denominations (and not only for players), and for players' skills the scale goes from non-existent to divine. You can see the full denomination scales in our appendix.

Different players need different skills

All players don't need to be good in all skills, but stamina is important for everyone.  Sometimes it is good enough if a player is good in just one skill (other than stamina), but you will get the most out of your player if he is good in several skills.  Which skills (apart from stamina) a player benefits from depends on the position he will play:

Goalkeepers:

Central defenders:

Wing backs:

Inner Midfielders:

Wingers:

Forwards:

Changes in skills

Age

Personality

Experience

Players who have played many and important matches become more experienced, and this experience will help them in future games in various ways. Being experienced can influence special events to score or concede goals, and help teams avoid disorganisation, among other things. We track experience as a separate value, one which is not related to the skills of a player. Every match played, and every type of match played, has a different effect on how quickly a player accumulated experience. In total, a player needs about 100 experience points to reach a new level of experience. The points earned for each match type are presented in the following table.

Total Skill Index (TSI)

Form

The better form a player is in, the better he will perform. It's not about the physical context though, it has nothing to do with how well trained a player is. Form in Hattrick reflects a combination of aspects making it possible for, or preventing a player, from reaching his full potential – like for example how his private situation in life is at the moment.

On the player page you can see a player's "current form". It's the figure applied for matches. An "excellent" player in "wretched" form is usually worse off than a "passable" player in "solid" form for example. Current form is negatively affected by the amount of stamina training in the team; the more stamina you train (percentage-wise) the more negative effect.

Additionally, there's a hidden "background form", which is used to compute where the player's form is heading. Each week, during training, the current form of every player will change, moving towards the hidden background form. Current form is not changed immediately to the figure of background form. Instead it moves in steps over several weeks, though the further away from background form they are the larger the steps will be.

After current form has been changed during training, there is a chance that background form is changed for each player. Every player has the same individual chance of having his background form change, and there is nothing you can do to influence this chance. However, when chance decrees that a player's background form will change, there are several factors that influence what the new background form will be:

• If a player has participated in a match during the week. This is very important!
• Training intensity – the harder you train, the better form in general
• Your coach – the better skilled he is, the better form in general
• Form Coach - a Form Coach is specialised in improving form.
• Assistant coaches – Assistants also help improve form

Speciality

About half of all players have a characteristic called a "Speciality", which has an impact on matches. Any player with a Speciality receives a salary bonus of 10%.

There are 5 different main specialities available for players: "Technical", "Quick", "Head", "Powerful" and "Unpredictable". Every main speciality has a good and a bad side, explained in the Special Events chapter. Specialities can also be useful for certain tactic types as explained in the Tactics chapter.

Two rare specialties also exist: Resilient and Support. Players with the resilient speciality will find their injuries heal slightly faster than for other players, and might overcome a light injury during a match. Support players will try to help team-mates that are close by on the field. If successful, this makes the team-mates perform better, but it can also, if not successful, cause a drop in organisation for the whole team.

Injuries

Sometimes players get injured. If this is the case, the injury, unless very slight, will put them on the treatment table for a couple of games. The risk of injuries increases as the team increases the intensity of training or the total number of Assistant Coaches levels on the staff.

Older players take a longer time to heal, and a medic can be hired to help players heal faster. The medic also helps reduce the risk for injuries. Players approaching their forties will have a hard time to recover at all though. Also remember that injury times are estimated in weeks - if your star forward has a week-long injury, it will take him up to one week to get fit again.

Yellow and red cards

Players may get booked or sent off during games, highly aggressive players (especially those with low honesty and lacking experience) more often than others. 2 bookings during a match will automatically lead to the player getting sent off. Getting sent off means that the player is suspended from the next competitive game. A player will also be suspended for one match after accumulating 3 bookings from competitive games during a season. Bookings from league, cup, and qualifying games are all counted as the same. If a player has already been booked twice in league matches one season, and receives another booking in a following cup match, he will be suspended from the next competitive match, regardless of if it's a league match, cup match or qualifier.

You can check your players list for how many bookings your players have received before a match. A player who has accumulated 3 bookings or has been sent off in his last match will have a red card symbol on the players list, to show his suspension. The suspended players booking slate is wiped when a competitive match has been played. Also, all player slates are wiped at the end of the season. Transfers do not affect player slates. A player can't get a suspension (or get his slate wiped) from a friendly game.

Starting lineup and substitutes

Walkovers

Choosing team formation

Tactics and team attitude

Man marking order

Individual orders

The basics of the match simulation

The basic attacks

Home team advantage

Psychology and the coach's mentality

Team rating is the rating you should focus on

After a match has been played, you will get a team rating for each part of the team. These ratings tell you how well different parts of your team performed in the match and these ratings are also what matters in the actual match calculation.

The match rating denominations (scale goes from non-existent to divine) are also specified in four sub-levels: very low, low, high and very high. This way it's easier to know how good your rating is within a certain step. For example a "very high solid" rating is a just a little bit worse than "very low excellent", but a lot better than "very low passable".

Star rating

After a match your players receive a star rating for their performance in the match. The more stars, the better the performance.

Please note that the star rating only rates the individual player performance on his particular position and is useful for comparing different players playing in the same position. It's not an ideal way to measure team strength. To know how your whole team performed (and compare with other teams), look at the team ratings.

Please also be aware that team effects (such as the contribution loss for more than one player in a central position, see basic lineup chapter) is not reflected in the star rating.

A normal case

Shortly put, the state of the midfield decides how many opportunities your team will produce during a match. The other parts of the team will decide the probability of attacks leading to goals.

The following table may help you somewhat when you select your team. Note that it's only an approximation.  Some levels of skills following each other may mean only slight differences in performance, and for others the differences might be much larger. In addition, individual orders or contribution loss for two or more players in a central position (see previous chapter) have not been taken into consideration.

Player age and skill level

Younger players are in general faster learners than older players, but how much your player will learn from training also depends on the skill level he's at – the lower the skill level the faster the training.  Training on very low skill levels is many times faster than on medium skill levels, and training on very high skill levels is slower than on medium skill levels.

Training Intensity

The harder you train, the better the squad's form becomes in general, and effects from training increase. You decide the intensity of training by supplying a number between 0 and 100.  The drawback of a high level of intensity is that risks for injuries increase. You'll have to decide yourself what level of intensity will suit you - do ask other managers on the forums.

Training type

Coaching staff

Stamina training

Stamina must be trained every week, as a percentage of the total training of the team. Its efficiency will drop at higher intensity levels – it's better to train a little every week than a lot now and then.  Older players will need more training every week to maintain a certain stamina level, which in turn means that managers will have to find the appropriate stamina training share for their particular squad and ambitions.  Players that have played for at least 90 minutes for your team during the week receive 100% of the team's stamina training effect. Players playing less than 90 minutes (subs for example) receive 75% of the effect, plus a share for each minute they've played. Other squad players who have not played for your team during the week, but who are healthy enough to train (including bruised players) receive half the effect. Injured players don't receive any stamina training.

Basic principles

The amount of training a player receives depends on how many minutes he has played for your team in a trainable position during a competitive or a friendly match. Matches played for other teams will only count for the purposes of the form update, and no training will be received. If a player has seen no 'live action' or has not played at least 1 minute, he will not train at all. A player can receive 90 minutes training during a week. Playing more than 90 minutes in a trainable position will not give him more training. Playing less, for example 50 minutes, will give him less training – in this case 50 minutes out of 90.

If a player has played in two or more different positions during the week, the 90 minutes that give him the best training effect will be chosen at the training update. Individual player behaviours during matches do not affect training.

Players on a winger position will only receive half of the training when trained in playmaking. The same goes for wingbacks when trained in winger.

It doesn't matter if the player plays in a friendly game, a cup match or a league game - they are all just as effective from a training point of view.

However, if you do not have enough players in the squad to fill up a lineup for a competitive game, you will give away a walkover victory. In this case, you will only lose training for that specific game and not all training for the week would be lost.

On the other hand, if you show up for a competitive match, but your opponent doesn't, you will win by walkover and the starting XI will receive training as normal, but will earn no players experience.

Brackets indicate small effects. Double brackets indicate very small effects.

Example

The team trains "Winger" this week. Please note that your actual match day may vary - Sunday refers to the weekend league match, while Wednesday is the midweek friendly/cup match.

• Adam Adams played 90 minutes as a winger Sunday but missed the Wednesday game. He receives 90 minutes full winger training.
• Bert McBert played 90 minutes as a winger Sunday and 90 minutes as a forward Wednesday. He also receives 90 minutes full winger training.
• Carl Carlson played 50 minutes as a winger Sunday and 90 minutes as a wing defender Wednesday. He receives 50 minutes full winger training and 40 minutes winger training with small effect.
• David Davis played 40 minutes as a winger Sunday and 90 minutes as a forward Wednesday. He receives 40 minutes full winger training and 50 minutes winger training with very small ("osmosis") effect.
• Freddie Fredericks plays 90 minutes as a wingback both Sunday and Wednesday. He still only receives 90 minutes winger training with small effect.
• Gus O'Gumby didn't play on either Sunday or Wednesday. He doesn't improve his skill at all.

Skill decrease

When a player gets closer to the age of 30, he loses a little of his skills each week. How big the decrease is depends on how old the player is and the level of skill he is at. The higher level of skill the player is at, the bigger decrease. Older players also suffer from bigger decreases than younger ones.

Coach abilities

Skill: A skilled coach knows the right methods to train players in order to make them better. The more talented your coach is, the more effective training will be. A coach can never be better than level 5 (Excellent). All new teams get a level 3 (passable) coach to start with.

Leadership: Apart from planning training activities, your coach is also an inspirational source for your players. Your team spirit will be better in general if your coach is a good leader.

Tactics: Your coach can be offensive, defensive or neutral, which (only) affects your team's performance during the game. An offensive coach improves your attack at the expense of your defence and a defensive coach improves your defence at the expense of your attack. A defensive coach improves defence slightly more than an offensive improves attack, to the same expense. A neutral coach is neither offensive nor defensive, which means he doesn't aid any team part or incur any penalties.

Ability deterioration

After your coach has been in your club for one season, his leadership skill will start to slowly deteriorate. Once your coach reaches disastrous leadership, the deterioration starts hitting his trainer skill instead.

Change coach

If you are not satisfied with your coach you can either recruit a new external one or make one of your players coach. A player needs to have been in your team for at least 16 weeks before being made coach. You can change your coach on the "Staff" page, found under the “My Club" menu.

Remember, all new trainers of a certain skill level are equal. If you purchase a coach with level 3 (passable) trainer skill for example, he always becomes "average" level 3 coach (a level 5, excellent, coach is however only 1/2 step greater than a level 4, solid, coach).

When you hire a new coach your old coach will remain in the team as a player, but he can never become trainer again and you can not sell him either. If you don't want to keep him, you will have to fire him.

Recruit an external coach

When you recruit a new coach you first decide what style of play you want for your coach, and then you decide how good you want him to be. Each combination of leadership and skill has a fixed price, the better trainer the higher price.

	Leadership
Skill Level	poor (3)	weak (4)	inadequate (5)	passable (6)	solid (7)
	10 000 US$	10 000 US$	10 000 US$	10 000 US$	10 000 US$
	10 000 US$	22 800 US$	41 200 US$	65 100 US$	94 600 US$
	79 600 US$	182 800 US$	329 700 US$	521 000 US$	757 100 US$
	268 700 US$	617 100 US$	1 112 900 US$	1 758 500 US$	2 555 500 US$
	4 000 000 US$	4 388 400 US$	7 914 600 US$	12 505 200 US$	18 172 500 US$

Make a player coach

When you turn a player into a coach he will keep his current leadership. His experience determines how skilled he can become, and also how much the course to reach a certain skill level costs. So, if you have a very experienced player with high leadership, this can be a real bargain. However, a player can not achieve a trainer skill that is higher than his experience and the player must have been in your squad for a season (16 weeks) before you can make him a coach.

Revenues and expenses

On the finances page you can see your budget for this week and last week's financial status. This is what the entries mean:

Revenue

Match takings: Your income from league matches at home and mid-week matches. See Chapter 10 'The Stadium' for more information on crowd income.

Sponsors: Each week you get a sum of money from your sponsors. Check the 'Fans and sponsors' chapter for more info

Player sales: Whenever you sell a player, the income ends up here. See the 'Transfers' chapter for more info.

Commission: If you receive any money for being the previous club or mother club of a player, it will show here. See the 'Transfers' chapter for more info.

Other: Any other income is accumulated here, such as membership fees from fans and prize money.

Expenses

Wages: Each week you pay your players' salaries. For each player you pay 250 US$ plus a certain amount based on his skills and age. You pay 20% extra for players who are playing abroad.

Stadium maintenance: The weekly cost for running and servicing your stadium. See chapter 10 'The Stadium' for more info.

Stadium building: Construction or removal costs if you alter your stadium.

Staff: Each staff member costs you between 1 020 US$ and 33 840 US$ per week, depending on the level of the staff member (1 to 5) and the contract's length (1 to 16 weeks).

Youth scouting: The weekly costs for your youth academy, or the weekly investment in your scouting network.

New signings: Your costs for buying new players from the transfer market appear here. See the 'Transfers' chapter for more info.

Other: The remaining costs are accumulated here, such as firing staff and promoting players to your senior team.

Interest: If you're in debt you will have to pay some interest.

Cash funds and Board reserves

The Board limits the money available in cash to the manager for expenses such as salaries, player transfer fees, or stadium projects. Any assets beyond this working capital will be reserved by the Board to ensure the future stability of the Club. If needed, the Board will release money from the reserves into the working capital, but only at a measured rate.

The Financial Director, who you can hire for your staff, can increase both the working capital and the rate of return from the cash reserves.

Debts and bankruptcy

There's nothing to keep you from spending money even if your balance is zero. You can run a small debt and still spend money on for example buying players or hiring a coach. Once you hit 200 000 US$ in debt your options to spend are limited. You then still have a line of credit of up to 500 000 US$ at the bank. Whenever you go into red, be prepared to pay some heavy interest on your borrowed money. If you run up debts amounting to 500 000 US$ you'll be given a bankruptcy warning. If you do not return your balance to within the 500 000 US$ debt limit within two weeks of your bankruptcy warning, you will be forced to leave the Hattrick series system! Note that if a team has players for sale with bids enough to reach the "safe zone" or the team has plenty of cash on the board reserves, the team will not go bankrupt.

Fan mood

The members of your fan club decide a lot when it comes to your team's finances. Membership fees (30 US$ / member) are paid once per season, but more importantly their mood decides a lot when it comes to your income from stadium ticket sales.

The easiest way to keep their mood up, and attract more fans, is to match (or even exceed) their expectations. Fans current mood can be seen on the fans page.

Season expectations

At the start of every season, fans will tell you what they expect of the team. Their expectations depend mostly on what happened last season, what fans expected then and what the outcome was.

As your team advances (or drops) in the league system, your fans will slowly get used to the new situation. If you just got promoted, fans will not expect much from you. But if you are staying put in the same division year after year, fans will have a tendency to hope for just a little more.

Match expectations

The season expectations in turn influence the expectations for each game. On the Fans page you can see what the fans expect from each game. Generally, fans expect more from you when you play at home.

If the match result is what they expected, they will like you in case of a win (and not become so very disappointed if expectations of a loss tallies with a defeat). If the result is better than their expectations, their mood will be even better. But if the result is worse than their expectations, it will affect their mood negatively. For the first league rounds of the season, your fans' reaction to the results will be a bit more moderate.

At the start of the season, match expectations are based on the seasonal expectations of both teams' fans. As the season progresses, the actual league position and amount of points of both teams becomes more important. In cup matches, fans base their match expectations only on the seasonal expectations (including division level) of both teams.

Team attitude and your cash reserve influence fans

Telling your players to "Play it cool" or play the "Match of the Season" also influences the fan reaction to the match result. If the result is as expected (or better), playing it cool will reduce the positive effect and match of the season will increase the positive effect.

If the result is worse than expected, playing it cool will increase the negative effect and match of the season will reduce the negative effect.

If you have a lot of money in your cash reserve, your fans are a bit harder to please as they feel you have money to invest to reach success. Rich teams' fans react stronger to losses and weaker to wins than fans of poorer clubs. The more money your team holds, the higher significance these feelings have.

Sponsors

Sponsors provide an important source of income for your club as well. Like with fans, this means that more successful teams also get paid more. But sponsors also compete with each other and have different strategies for how they want to reward your team, and this is something a clever manager can use to their advantage.

In Week 16, the week before the new season starts, the manager is presented with a number of sponsor offers for the upcoming season.

All teams in a series have the same chance to receive a certain offer, but amounts may vary, as sponsors base their offers on fan club levels as well as division. This means that all teams will be presented with a unique mix of offers, requiring the manager to think carefully about what will work best for his or her team.

All contracts come with a fixed income every week. In addition to this, they also have one or several bonus pay-outs. Some of these will be very easy to complete in exchange for a set reward, while others are riskier but also come with a larger potential bonus. Contracts expire at the end of each season and you’ll then get new contracts to choose from.

If you don’t select a contract, the Board will do it for you. They’ll always select the contract with the least amount of risk, and thus less potential reward.

Income and costs

Your stadium can have four different types of stands, each having their own income possibilities and weekly upkeep costs (which you always have to pay).

In the match reports from home games you're able to see how many seats were sold in each separate type of stand. The income from matches is distributed differently between clubs depending on what type of match it is:

League matches: The home team takes all the income.

Cup matches: The home team takes 67% of the income and away team gets 33%, except for the last six rounds which are played at neutral venues and income is split evenly.

Friendlies and qualifiers: Income is split evenly

Your crowd appearance

How many spectators visit your stadium largely depends on your fans. Your fans' mood and the size of your fan club are the most important crowd factors. Your current position in your series, and the difference between your position and your opponent's position are also of importance (for series games).

To some extent your opponents' fan club size and fan mood matters, as some of them might like to come too. It is also worth knowing that people get more interested in attending games as the season goes by. You will generally get bigger crowds at the end of the season than at the start.

The weather naturally also matters. Fewer spectators will visit your stadium in bad weather, but those who come will be more interested in buying more expensive tickets and sitting under a roof. It is therefore possible that your total income will be similar in any weather, provided there enough appropriate stands.

Improving the stadium

It's a good idea to have a mix of different types of stands to offer your fans. Most people want to buy tickets to the terraces, therefore these should be the largest in number among your seat types. Some people only attend matches if they can have comfortable seats (and some will also demand a roof over their seats), so you should have quite a lot of those too. There is also the "prawn sandwich" brigade who only want to sit in fancy VIP lounges, they're not that many but you may not want to forget about them. Seats under a roof and in VIP lounges aren't affected as much by bad weather as the other types.

Formation experience

Your team can play any formation you wish, but your players might get confused and play below their ordinary capacity if you use a formation they aren't experienced with. To get the formation experience up and avoid confusion your team simply needs some practice. You gain some experience for a formation every time you use it (friendlies and competitive matches count just as much, but not tournaments, ladders, duels or the Hattrick Masters). The amount of experience you get for each formation you use is minute based (max 90 min per match), just as training is. However, if you win by a walkover and fielded at least 9 players in your starting line-up, you also get formation experience as if the match was played for 90 minutes. If you fail to submit a valid lineup of at least 9 players, forcing other club staff to name the lineup for you, your players will not get any formation experience.

Gaining more formation experience becomes harder on high levels of formation experience. If you don't play with a certain formation, the experience will decrease over time. There is also a risk of losing a little formation experience when you sell a player.

Confusion

If your players aren't experienced enough with a formation they risk getting confused at any time during the match, which negatively affects their performance. An excellent formation experience level (or better) is enough to keep you on the safe side. For lower levels, the risk of getting confused rises the lower your formation experience level is. If your players' accumulated individual experience (see below) is high, the risk decreases though.

In case of confusion your formation experience also decides how confused your players will be; the lower your formation experience level is, the more confused your players will be. If your players get confused, a text showing the current level of your team organisation will be displayed in the match report. A confusion event saying that your team organisation fell to "wretched" means that it was very bad, while a drop to "solid" only had a very limited effect. If your players are confused at half-time (or before extra-time) your coach can improve the situation somewhat by giving an extra briefing.

Players' individual experience

Experience positively affects a player's actions on the field. The players get their experience through playing matches. The National Cup and Divisional Cup gives the player on the field the double amount of experience compared to a league game. Challenger and Consolation Cup matches gives your players half the experience they would get in a league game. An International friendly match gives about a fifth of the experience that a league match gives and a friendly against a team from your own country gives about half as much as an international friendly. National team matches give the most experience, followed by Hattrick Masters matches.

The amount of experience a certain player gets is minute based, just as training. A player can not gain more than 90 minutes of experience from each match.

Team captain and total experience

You can appoint a team captain for each match. Experience and leadership are important abilities for the team captain, as the captain's level in those abilities give a bonus when calculating your team's total experience – which can prevent your team both from suffering confusion and from getting nervous in important and dramatic matches. In such situations, only the team with the lowest amount of experience at that particular moment in the match risks a negative event due to nervousness. The difference between the two teams' experience levels decides how nervous the players will get. Teams will never suffer from this in league matches or friendlies.

The team captain has to be in your starting lineup. If you haven't appointed a team captain, the players will choose a captain they think will do a good job.

Penalty takers

Cup and qualifier matches can end in a penalty shoot-out if the scores are still level after extra time. You choose your penalty takers through a sub-page to the order form. When choosing the order please remember that nothing is more nerve-wracking than a penalty contest, and at every penalty (not during regular match time, though) a test of the shooter's experience is made. Apart from experience, the shooter's scoring and set pieces skills (as well as Technical speciality) are taken into consideration. For keepers the keeper skill and the quick speciality are all that matters.

Set pieces

Some of your basic attacks will result in a set pieces opportunity. Just as in real football, you can earn many points by being good at set pieces. There are two types of set pieces, direct and indirect.

Direct set pieces

Indirect set pieces

About 1/3 of your set pieces chances will be indirect. Indirect set pieces are indirect free kicks, and the outcome depends on team effort. To attack you use (in order of importance) your outfield players' average scoring skill, their average set pieces skill, and your set pieces taker's set pieces skill. To defend you use (in order of importance) your outfielders' average defending, their average set pieces, your goalkeeper's goalkeeping, and his set pieces.

Special events

Apart from the basic attacks, you can also have "special events" happen. Special events are match events depending on players' attributes, their specialities in particular, which makes it a strategy itself to compose a squad that has a good balance of player specialities.

There are two types of special events, team events and individual events. The chance to experience a team special event is decided by your ball possession (if you have 55% ball possession you also have a 55% chance to get a team special event).

The individual special events is driven by what specialities the players on the field have. Having many players with specialities can be an advantage, but it is not enough. You must also have players with the right attribute in the right position for a particular event for it to be triggered. It is important to find the right balance of specialities on your team.

For each special event happening in a match, the chance for another special event decreases.

Weather conditions

Certain specialties are better suited to certain weather conditions. All players’ performance are affected under specific weather conditions from the very start of the game.

Technical players gain 5% on all their skills in the sun, but lose the same percentage in the rain.

Powerful players gain 5% in the rain, and lose 5% in the sun.

Quick players lose 5% in the rain and in the sun.

When the weather has an influence on the players, you will get information about it in the match report, and the affected players' star rating will also reflect their performance accordingly.

Goal events

Specialities (and other player attributes) can gain you additional attacks. In addition to what is listed below, the player who puts the chance away (often, but not always, the same player who creates the chance) also needs some scoring skill in order to score from these attacks.

Unpredictable players can use their passing skill to create unexpected long passes if they are keepers, wing-backs or central defenders, and their scoring skill to intercept the ball if they are inner midfielders, forwards or wingers. If they are outfield players, their unpredictability itself may also create unlikely scoring opportunities. The lower the defence skill of an unpredictable defender or inner midfielder, the higher the probability that they can also make a reckless error that will give the opponent a chance to score. Besides this, an unpredictable winger or forward with low passing skill is more likely to cause chaos in your defence, possibly resulting in an unfortunate own goal.

Quick wingers, inner midfielders and forwards can create a chance by using a burst of speed. This can be countered by the opposing team using a defensive player (central defender or wing back) who is also quick. You will also have a boost on your counter attacks tactic level for every quick winger, inner midfielder, and forward on your team. The opponent can still diminish this effect with quick inner midfielders, wing backs, defenders or keeper (just the extra boost can be nullified, not the initial tactic level).

Technical wingers, inner midfielders and forwards can create chances if an opposing keeper, defender or inner midfielder is a head specialist (the head specialist doesn’t have to be in the exact opposite slot). Moreover, every technical defender and wing back will give you a small chance to create a non-tactical counter attack from a missed normal chance of your opponent. The higher the passing of the defender, the bigger the chance.

Wingers with sufficient winger skill can create chances that will have to be finished off by another winger, a midfielder or a forward. If that other player has sufficient scoring skill, he will be more likely to score; if he is a head specialist, it will be even easier for him to score.

Corner: To score from a corner kick, you can improve your chances by having a high set pieces skill on the player that takes the corner and by having a high offensive indirect set pieces rating against the opponent's defensive indirect set pieces rating. There are two types of corner kicks. In one, the higher the number of outfield head specialists in your team (your set pieces taker does not count), and the lower the number of head specialists among your opponent's, the better your chances to score. Having no head specialists at all will make you very weak at defending against corners and very weak at scoring from your own corners. In the other, the chance to score will depend on the scoring skill of the player that receives the ball. Note that corners might lead to a yellow card for the offensive team, but if your player is already carded, he will be extra careful, so the risk of a second yellow is lower than it would otherwise have been.

Experience: experienced forwards can score using their experience. Inexperienced central defenders and wing backs can give their opponents an extra chance.

Tiredness: Tired central defensive players can make mistakes. Unless the opposing attacker is also too tired, this may create a chance for the opponent.

Other additional match events

There are also some additional events you can get in a match. The chance to get these events is not dependent on midfield strength, so the chance doesn't increase if you're dominating the midfield.

Counter-attacks: Even if you don't use the counter-attack tactic there is a slim chance that your team gets to counter. These "tactic-independent" counter-attacks do not require your team to have an inferior midfield (which otherwise is necessary to counter). See the chapter about tactics for more info about counter-attacks.

Long shots: Even if you don't use the long shot tactic there is a slim chance that your team gets a long shot opportunity. Read the tactics chapter for more info about long shots.

Powerful inner midfielders, if playing defensive (also called sitting midfielders) can concentrate on breaking up attacks and winning the ball. If he succeeds in pressing, the opponent’s attack breaks down. To do that, he will rely on his defending skill and stamina.

Powerful forwards, if playing normal (also called power forwards) can put their bodies in the right place, forcing a second chance to shoot and score after a normal chance for your team has been missed. They will need sufficient playmaking and scoring skills to do that. Note that their physical play can result in yellow cards; however, if your player has already been carded, he will tread more carefully in these situations.

You will suffer an overcrowding penalty if you field two or three players having the same combination of specialities and positions, among the following types: technical defensive forwards, powerful normal forwards and powerful defensive inner midfielders. If you field two players of the same type, you will suffer a penalty on their contribution (4% each). If you field three of them, the penalty will be bigger (7.5% each).

Tactical skill

How well you master a tactic depends on the tactical skill for that particular tactic. This skill is calculated from different players' skills together with an experience bonus for each involved player.

Pressing

Pressing means that your players put pressure on your opponent and focus more on breaking your opponent's attacks than creating their own. Pressing could be a good option when you feel inferior and want to keep the score down.

Advantage: You can reduce the number of potential chances (for both teams) in a match.

Disadvantage: It will drain the stamina of your players faster than normal.

Relevant Skills: The total defending skill and the total stamina of all your players determine your Pressing tactical skill. If a player has the "Powerful" speciality, his defence skill counts as double. The more tired your players get, the less able they are to put pressure on their opponents.

Counter-attacks

Counter-attacks mean you deliberately let your opponent control the ball, and as soon as they fail with an attack you try to make a fast counter-attack. Playing counter-attacks could be a good option if you have a very good defence and attack (but a bad midfield), and especially in combination with your opponent having an ineffective attack.

Advantage: You can gain additional attacks (you get the chance to counter-attack when your defence has managed to stop an opponent's attack).

Disadvantage: You lose 7% of your midfield capacity.

Relevant Skills: The total sum of your defenders' passing and defending skills determine your CA tactical skill. Passing is twice as important as defending.

Attack in the middle

Attacking in the middle (AIM) means your team focuses on attacking down the centre of the pitch, at the expense of attacks on the wings. In practical terms, this means your team may successfully trade what would have been a wing attack for an attack in the middle. When this happens, however, the chance for it to happen again will decrease further.

Advantage: Around 15-30% of your wing attacks will be converted to attacks in the middle.

Disadvantage: Your wing defence (on both sides) gets somewhat worse.

Relevant Skills: The total passing skill of all your outfield players determines your AIM tactical skill.

Attack on wings

Attack on wings (AOW) works in the same way as “Attack in the middle”, only in reverse; meaning there is a chance that middle attacks are traded for attacks on the wings. As there normally are less attacks in the middle than on the wings, you convert percentage-wise slightly more of them. Also here, for every time it does happen, the chance for it to happen again will decrease further.

Advantage: Around 20-40% of your middle attacks will be converted to wing attacks.

Disadvantage: Your central defence gets somewhat worse.

Relevant Skills: The total passing skill of all your outfield players determines your AOW tactical skill.

Play creatively

Play creatively (PC) means players try to make more use of their specialities, and other attributes.

Advantage: You increase the maximum number for special events occurring during the match - for both teams, but your own team will get slightly higher chances to get them (both positive and negative).

Disadvantage: Your team defence gets somewhat worse.

Long shots

When playing long shots (LS) your players are instructed to rather go for a long shot than playing the whole attacking sequence through. In other words, you trade attacks through the middle and on the wing for long shots. A long shot then pits the shooter against the goalkeeper. This can be useful if you have a hard time scoring using your middle/wing attacks, and have decent shooters.

Advantage: The long shots tactic converts up to around 30% of side and middle attacks.

Disadvantage: Your wing and middle attack, as well as your midfield, get a little bit worse.

Relevant skills: Your outfielders' scoring and set pieces skills determine the LS tactical skill. Scoring is three times more important than set pieces.

When an attack has been converted to a long shot, any defending team using the pressing tactic has a chance to steer off the shooting opportunity. If the shot is not steered off, an outfielder (inners and wingers are twice as likely) takes the shot. The quality of the shot depends on the appointed shooter's scoring and set pieces skills, and then the goalkeeper can attempt to save the shot using his goalkeeping and set pieces skills. For both shooter and keeper: A bit of both skills is needed, and it's better to have some of both skills than much of one.

All long shots are reported in the match report, including any missed or saved opportunities.

Preconditioned substitutions

Adding a preconditioned substitution

Adding a behaviour change

You can add five player orders

Orders are carried out when the conditions are met

All your player orders will be carried out in the match as soon as all the conditions set before the match is met. If the condition isn't met, the order will not be carried out. If you order a substitution in the 65th minute at any standing, the substitution will be carried out in the 65th minute. If you order a substitution in the 70th minute if you're in the lead, the substitution will be carried out at any time after the 70th minute when/if the condition is met. So if you get into the lead in the 80th minute, your substitution will be carried out first then.

If you set up two orders for the 70th minute, one if you're in the lead and the other if you're in the lead by more than one, and is in the lead with 3-0 when that time comes – both orders will be issued.

Please note: If you have set up two orders with the same conditions (match minute and result, for example) they will NOT be executed at the exact same moment but in the order they were created.

You can't react on injuries

Team spirit

The atmosphere at your club has a great influence over the performance of your team. Team spirit affects your midfield ratings, and the higher team spirit you have, the better your midfield will perform. This, in turn determines the amount of ball possession you will get. Team spirit itself can be affected by a lot of things, but in particular your coach's leadership, the team attitude you set for each match, transfers and psychologist.

Confidence

Team attitude

Before each competitive match you tell your squad how important the match is. Your team attitude setting affects how much ball possession you will get. You have three alternatives:

Match of the Season: Your players will do anything to win this one. However, directly after the match the team spirit will fall, which means your players will not perform at their best for the following matches.

Normal: The players perform as usual.

Play it cool: Your players are instructed to take it easy, as there are other more important games to focus on later. Directly after the match, team spirit will increase and your players will perform better in the next matches.

Player personality

Psychological match events

The way a match unfolds can impact the behaviour of the players beyond the instructions laid out by the coach. Such psychological events can have big impact on a specific match, but they do not by themselves affect the team spirit or confidence of future matches. A team that gains a lead of two goals in a match will automatically start to lose its attacking momentum and to focus more on defence. This effect will further increase as the lead is extended: each goal increase in the goal difference decreases attack by 9% and increases defence by 7.5%. Each goal reduction in the goal difference reverses the previous effect. There is an upper limit of a goal difference of 8, after which the team’s ratings will stop changing.

In some situations teams are able to withstand this psychological effect. If the team has been given “Match of the Season” instructions, they won’t back down even when in a large lead. The same goes for if the team plays a final in one of the national Cups, the World Cup or the Hattrick Masters and on the last series round of the season. In national teams competitions, the team won't back down from the semi-finals of the World Cup, while in the Continental Cups and Nations Cup there will be no pullback from the quarter-finals matches onwards.

Moreover, a team performing unusually badly in the first half might get a telling off from the coach during the break, and pull themselves back together.

Underestimation

Whenever you're facing a team in a worse position than you and your confidence is strong or better; you may underestimate your opponent and play below your normal capacity. The risk of underestimating your opponent is dependent on the points and position difference between the teams, your confidence level and your team attitude for the match, with the risk being greater when the difference between the teams is bigger and/or confidence is very high. The only way to completely avoid underestimation is to play 'match of the season'.

If you do underestimate your opponent, the points difference, confidence level, team attitude and whether you are home or away decides the exact amount of underestimation. Depending on the score you may recover somewhat at half time. You'll see a full recovery if you're behind, 2/3 in the case of a draw and 1/3 if you have a narrow one goal lead.

Note that underestimation can only happen in league matches, but not in the first three rounds.

Selling a player

To sell a player you place him on the transfer list, which you do from the page of that particular player. You choose what price you're asking for him and he is placed on the transfer list. To get an idea of the player's value, you can use the Transfer Compare feature, and we would always suggest listing at a realistic price. A player however needs to have played at least one game for your team to be transfer listed, and you can't transfer list a player more times than he has played games for your team. This restriction does not apply to players promoted from your youth team, or to players that were on your team when you first became manager. The player will be on the transfer list three days before going to the club that has offered the most, provided somebody has bid for him. A sold player disappears off to his new club after the deadline expires, unless one of the clubs involved in the transfer is playing a match at the time, in which case he will arrive as soon as the match finishes. If a buyer is not found he will stay at your club. If you put a player up for sale by mistake, you may cancel the transfer. This is possible for 10 minutes after listing the player, as long as there have been no bids. Your listing fee will not be refunded. Outside this window, you always have the option to buy him again yourself!

Buying a player

To buy a player you visit the player market, the transfer list, under the Club menu, via the World menu or via the transfer search icon in the top right corner. You search for what kind of player you want and to make an offer you enter the page of the player by clicking on his name. You must raise the bid by 1 000 US$ or 2%, whichever is greater. If there is no current bid on the player you can bid the asking price, as long as this is equal to or greater than 1 000 US$. Note that the sum of your bids plus the wages of the players you are bidding on (you always pay a player's first salary immediately after the purchase) cannot put you more than 200 000 US$ into debt.

You may bid on a player right up until the deadline. If someone places an offer less than 3 minutes before the deadline, the deadline will be extended for another 3 minutes right on top of the point in time that the offer was made.

Autobidding

Autobidding works in the same way as a normal bid would do. If you place a maximum bid the system will automatically bid for you when needed, always raising the bid by the lowest possible amount (2% or a minimum of 1 000 US$).

You can change (either increase or decrease) your maximum bid at any time, but you can't remove your current bid. Your maximum bid is only visible to you personally, other managers can only see your current bid.

You can have one active maximum bid at a time. If your maximum bid has been reached, it does not count as an autobid anymore and you can set another maximum bid as needed.

For some special cases (such as when two teams make the same autobid or when two autobidders are battling against each other) we have built in some smart logic, here are some examples to help explain this logic.

The agent, the mother club and transfer fees

Placing a player on the transfer list costs 1 000 US$. After the completed deal the player's agent, mother club, and previous club will all take their cut of the sale price. On the player page you can always see how much you will keep if you sell a player. Here are the basics:

How much the agent takes depends on how long the player has been in your team.

The mother club always takes 2% of the selling price. When you're the mother club you always receive 2% each time that player is sold. Please bear in mind you neither pay nor receive any mother club money when selling a homegrown player for the first time.

The previous club fund always takes 3% of the selling price. When you're the previous club the money you receive depends on how many matches the player played for your team.

See these tables for more info.

Transfer proceeds to Board reserves

For some player sales, the Board may decide to transfer a part of the money for the Board reserves for later use by the club.

This happens only for specific players, and for most managers it will be a very rare occurrence.

The Board will tell you during the transfer listing process if this is about to happen and, if so, the percentage of the proceeds that will go to Reserves.

The Board may do this when they think a player is being traded for speculative reasons, or as a way to store value. They will reason that the team does not need to replace the player for competitive reasons.(Historically, such players have been called “Gold Bars” by the community, for their ability to hold value over time).

Currently, Boards will only consider retaining money for Goalkeepers (at least solid Goalkeeping skill) or potential future coaches (at least solid leadership plus at least inadequate experience).

The percentage of the sale that the Board sends to Reserves depends on how many matches the player has recently played for your team.

The general rule is that for regular starters, all money stays as cash - no money goes to Reserves. Being a regular means playing at least 60 minutes once a week.

Absence due to injury is ignored, but if healthy players are sidelined more money will be earmarked for Board Reserves.

Example: A player that fits the “Gold Bar” criteria has been starting league matches all season. When the manager considers selling the player, the Board stands back- All proceeds (after agent fees) would be available for the coach as cash. However, the transfer listing does not happen and the player is instead put on the bench. After two weeks, 12 % of transfer proceeds will now be earmarked for Board Reserves. After four weeks on the bench, the number is up to 24 %. The manager instead decides to start the player again. After six weeks back on the team, playing league or Cup matches, the player can yet again be sold with no money ending up in Board Reserves.

As a rule of thumb it takes three weeks of playing in a league or Cup match to recover every two weeks of inactivity. If only playing friendlies, the recovery takes twice the time.If a player was raised in your team, no money will go to Board Reserves, whatever the skills and starting status of the player may be. This also goes for players that joined the club in the last two weeks and have not had the time to become starters.

Transfers may affect team spirit

Server shutdowns

Fair Play in the Transfer Market

Good players and money are key aspects of Hattrick, which makes it very important that no team benefits from abnormal activities in the transfer market. This means that buying players at inflated prices is prohibited, and so is any activity that is designed to give a team a financial benefit of any kind. Only the player's attributes which have an influence on the game, such as skills, age, uniqueness and NT/U21 potential, play a role in determining his market value.

The GameMasters are fully authorised to cancel or adjust abnormal transfer prices, hand out fines to teams or even ban the users involved. If you have received a clearly inflated bid on your own player from someone, then please contact the GMs immediately. To contact a GM, please visit our contact page.

The division tree

The number of divisions can differ from one country to another, but the basic structure is always the same. For instance, the Italian series system looks like this:

1 Division I (Serie A)
4 Division II (II.1, II.2, II.3, II.4)
16 Division III (III.1, III.2, etc. to III.16)
64 Division IV (IV.1, IV.2, etc. to IV.64)
256 Division V (V.1, V.2, etc. to V.256)
1024 Division VI (VI.1, VI.2, etc. to VI.1024)
1024 Division VII (VII.1, VII.2, etc. to VII.1024)
2048 Division VIII (VIII.1, VIII.2, etc. to VIII.2048)
2048 Division IX (IX.1, IX.2, etc. to IX.2048)
4096 Division X (X.1, X.2, etc. to X.4096)
4096 Division XI (XI.1, XI.2, etc. to XI.4096)

Please note that beginning with division VI, the division size doubles at every second level.

Promotion, relegation and qualifiers

If you win your series you will either promote directly to a higher division, or play a qualifier to promote. In divisions II-VI the series winners with the most points promote directly, and the other winners have to play a qualifier. In lower divisions, all winners promote directly and in odd numbered divisions (VII, IX etc) the runners up also promote directly.

Series winners who have to qualify will face a team who finished 5th or 6th in the division above. Out of the series winners that must play a qualification game, the ones with the best records meet the worst 6th place teams, and the ones with the weakest record are pitched against the best 5th place teams. The team from the higher division plays at home. If the series winner wins, the two teams swap places in the league system. If the higher division team wins, they stay in their respective series.

If you end up in 7th or 8th place you will be relegated to the division below (except for in the lowest division). Above the 6th division, the demoted team with the best record (the best team out of those finishing in 7th place) will swap series with the promoted team that has the strongest record. The demoted team with the worst record swaps places with the weakest team that has gained promotion. If you're relegating from the 6th division (or a division below), the demoted team with the best record will swap series with the promoted team that has the worst record.

In divisions VII and IX, teams who finished 3rd and 4th place will play promotion qualifiers and in divisions VIII and X, teams who finished 2nd will play a promotion qualifier.

Switch series in switching window

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, something that will be shown in the series table during the season break switching window. Also, 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 demotion

At the end of each season all bot teams in division VI and lower will demote 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 labelled "Lucky Losers", and will either be teams that lost qualification matches, or in some cases even teams that were demoted directly. You can opt out from this kind of promotion in the team settings.

If there are more bots above the bottom division than human managers in the bottom division, the system automatically closes the bottom division, and hence makes preparations for it.

League position and ranking

Prize money

If you finish first, second, third or in fourth place you will get some prize money. How much you get depends on your place and in which division you play:

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 get 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 though. Examples of this include bonus promotion due to bot removal and the temporary extra promotion slots available in the Hattrick International league.

Cup fixtures

Cup matches are always played midweek. The first round of the National Cup and Divisional Cup always takes place a few days before your first league match of the season. The Challenger cups consists of teams that have been eliminated from either the National or Divisional Cup, and for this reason the first Challenger cup starts one week after the National Cup and Divisional Cup. There are separate Challenger cups that correspond with the National Cup and with each Divisional Cup. Your first cup opponent and the cup you will play in is announced one week in advance. In coming rounds your next opponent and current cup will be announced shortly after all matches for the current cup round have ended.

Cup venues

The main rule is that the strongest team still in the Cup will play away against the weakest team still in the Cup. To decide this, we use a Cup ranking, explained further down.

In the Cup's last six rounds, ranking no longer influences home or away advantage as all matches are played at neutral venues.

Cup draw

How is your opponent in the Cup decided?

In the first round of the Cup, the highest-ranked team will always play away against the lowest-ranked team in the Cup.

Before the first round kicks off, the draw for the second round is made. For this draw, it is assumed that all high-ranked teams progress from the first round.

If a lower-ranked team wins in the first round, it will inherit the place of its opponent in the second round. This could give it an easier opponent than it would otherwise have gotten in that round.
However, this advantage does not last. Before the second round starts, the draw for the third round is made. Again, all remaining top-ranked teams are matched against the remaining low-ranked teams.

The advantage of this system is that for any Cup round, all remaining teams will know what happens if they progress to the next round. There is always another match, the winner of which will play the winner of your match in the next round.

Here is an example of how the Hattrick Cup draw works:

1. In the first round, we have the following 16 teams and match-ups:

First Round

TeamRank16-TeamRank1
TeamRank15-TeamRank2
TeamRank14-TeamRank3
TeamRank13-TeamRank4
TeamRank12-TeamRank5
TeamRank11-TeamRank6
TeamRank10-TeamRank7
TeamRank9-TeamRank8

The expected Round 2 Matchups, as made known before Round 1 starts, are these:

TeamRank8-TeamRank1
TeamRank7-TeamRank2
TeamRank6-TeamRank3
TeamRank5-TeamRank4

However, two matches ended in surprise wins for the underdogs - Teams 16 and 14 outperformed. Because of this, the actual matchups in Round 2 will be:

TeamRank8-TeamRank16
TeamRank7-TeamRank2
TeamRank6-TeamRank14
TeamRank5-TeamRank4.

Now, when the draw for Round 3 is done, the system again assumes that the top-ranked teams will win, hence creating this draw:

Team Rank8-TeamRank2
TeamRank6-TeamRank4

If Team 16 wins again, it will acquire the seat of Team 8.
If Team 14 wins again, it will get the seat of Team 6.

Cup ranking

The Cup ranking is used when creating the Cup draw. It is a static ranking that does not change once the Cup has started. The first factor for the ranking is what division the team plays in during the current season. Teams are then ranked within these divisional groups as follows:

1. Active demoted teams
2. Active teams that neither demoted nor promoted
3. Teams that promoted by their own strength
4. Teams that promoted for "free" (replacing a demoted bot)
5. Bots, in case of vacant spots

Teams within each group above are sorted according to the ranking at the end of the last season. The ranking stays the same for the duration of the cup.

Joining a Secondary Cup Later

For Challenger and Consolation cups, the time of entry is also factored into the seed. Teams who entered early are guaranteed to be seeded higher than those who joined later. The Cup ranking of each team still matters, but only to decide in which order teams that entered on the same date will be seeded.

One example would be that your team manages to stay in the National Cup until round 5 or 6 before getting eliminated. As your Cup journey continues in a lower-tier Challenger Cup, you will always be seeded lower than teams that joined before you. The highest-ranked team of those who entered in the first round will play against the lowest-ranked team of those who entered most recently.

The different Cups and their formats

The most important cup in every league is the National Cup. This is open to every team in Division 6 and above that has a human manager. Only the very best teams will have a chance to win the National Cup, but any team that progresses far in this competition will be well rewarded.

However, if your team is eliminated early from the National Cup you will get a second chance. If you are eliminated in any of the first six rounds of the National Cup, you will instead gain a place in one of the three National Challenger Cups. Participating in the Challenger cups will still be attractive for your club, but rewards are a lot lower than for the National Cup. If you can, staying in the National Cup should always pay off.

The three Challenger Cups are originally called Emerald, Ruby and Sapphire. The Emerald Cup takes on any team that is eliminated from the National Cup in round 1 or 6. Teams eliminated in rounds 2 and 5 are moved to the Ruby cup. And teams eliminated in rounds 3 and 4 are moved to the Sapphire cup. The three cups run parallel to each other and to the National cup, and one winner will be crowned in each one of them. Please keep in mind that the Challenger Cups may have names that are different from their original ones in some leagues.

Teams that are eliminated in round one of the Emerald Challenger Cup and round one of the Ruby Challenger Cup will gain a place in the Consolation Cup. This Cup does not give any prize money or other perks, but the winner still gets a trophy.

In leagues with more than six divisions Divisional Cups are organised for Division 7 and below. The Divisional Cups follows a similar pattern with one main cup, the three Challenger Cups Emerald, Ruby and Sapphire, as well as one Consolation Cup. The only difference is that the overall prize money is lower.

The size of the Cups is determined by the number of teams that are qualified for the cup and that have human managers. The smallest possible Cup size that still makes room for all qualified human teams will be chosen. Once all human teams are in, the Cup will be filled up with bot teams to complete the starting field.

1. The number of qualified teams managed by humans is counted
2. The smallest cup size that fits all the teams managed by humans is chosen
3. This Cup is then filled out by the human teams first
4. Then "regular" bots from the league system are used
5. If this is not enough, new bot teams are created for the purpose of the Cup only.

• Losing teams in rounds one and six of the National Cup will move on to the the Emerald Challenger Cup.
• Losing teams in rounds two and five of the National Cup will move on to the Ruby Challenger Cup.
• Losing teams in rounds three and four of the National Cup will move on to the Sapphire Challenger Cup.
• Losing teams in round one of the Emerald Challenger Cup and round one of the Ruby Challenger Cup will move on to the Consolation Cup.

Team effects

One important aspect of the Cups is the tactical options that they present. Staying in the Cup for a long time gives you more competitive games, which also means more opportunities to increase confidence and team spirit in preparation for the league. Cup games also give your players more experience, which along with higher ticket sales makes a long cup run even more valuable. However, not all Cups will impact your team in the same way.

Cards and injuries are in full effect in all the cups. If you pick up a card in a cup game, your player may get suspended in a following league game.

Team spirit, confidence & fan mood: Only National Cup and Divisional Cup games will have an effect on these values. Matches played in any other cup behave like a friendly when it comes to the impact on future team spirit, confidence and fan mood.

Experience: The National Cup and Divisional Cup gives the player on the field double the amount of experience compared to a league game. Challenger and Consolation Cup matches gives your players half the experience they would get in a league game.

Cup income

Ticket sales is an important benefit from a successful Cup run. The longer you progress in any Cup, the more spectators will come and thus more revenue will be generated. The National Cup and the Divisional Cups are considerably more attractive to the fans than their corresponding Challenger and Consolation cups. While a National Cup and Divisional Cup game (at least in later rounds) can attract similar attendance to a league match, the other cups are more comparable to friendlies when it comes to attendance. The National Challenger Cups will attract three times as many spectators that an international friendly between the two teams would. The National Consolation Cup will attract twice the number of spectators that an international friendly between the two teams would. The Divisional Challenger Cup will attract twice the number of spectators that an international friendly between the two teams would. The Divisional Consolation Cup will attract 50 % more spectators that an international friendly between the two teams would.

The home side gets 67% of the crowd revenue and the away side gets 33%. In the last six rounds the teams split the revenue 50%. In general, fans aren't very interested in the first couple of rounds of the cup, but their interest will increase as it goes on. It's also true that the fans of a lower division team will want to see a game against a higher division side, but that is not true the other way around. The best teams in the cup also get some prize money as shown in the table below. There is no top scorer award for the cup.

National cup

Getting a friendly

The easiest way to get a friendly is to add your team to the friendly pool on the challenge page. Choose what kind of match and opponent you would like, and then the pool will automatically match your team against another team and book a friendly (as soon as you meet the criteria set by a team that matches your criteria).

As long as you are out of the cup, and have not already booked a friendly, you can challenge any opponents that are also without a game. Some teams may be unavailable for challenges due to their preferences or Manager Licence status.

All of your challenges (including teams who have challenged you) are shown on the "Challenges" page. Once a friendly has been arranged, it will appear on the fixtures page, and you can select your team in the normal fashion.

Season break friendlies

During weeks 15 and 16 of the season you will also be able to play friendlies during the weekend as long as you do not have a qualification match.

During this period, challenging someone for a friendly will work a little differently. When making the challenge, a drop down will appear where you can select whether the challenge is for a mid-week or weekend friendly.

The challenge window for weekend matches, regardless of whether they are international or national, will be from Monday 06:00 to Friday 23:59.

Friendly match types

There are two types of friendly games: friendly game (normal) and friendly game (cup rules). With cup rules the match is decided after extra time (and perhaps penalties) if there's a draw after full time.

International friendlies

You can choose to play abroad, or invite a team from another country to your stadium. If you are playing abroad, the game will be played at the stadium's local match time. For example, if you are playing in Portugal, the game will be played at the regular Portuguese Wednesday match time (i.e. 9.45pm Central European Time CET).

Regardless of where you'll be travelling your team will be leaving at 6:00 p.m. (CET) on Tuesday and return by 8:00 a.m. on Thursday. International friendlies must be booked by Tuesday 6:00 p.m. (CET), and you can't book a new friendly at all until your team has returned home on Thursday. If your team didn't play an international friendly, you can start booking an international friendly for the next week at 6:00 a.m. on Thursday.

Each travel abroad will cost you 6 000 US$, but on the other hand international friendlies tend to attract more spectators.

Miscellaneous

The crowd turnout for a friendly is considerably less than for a competitive game. Friendlies with cup rules attract more than normal friendlies, and international friendlies attract even more.

Confidence and team spirit are not affected, nor are fans or their mood. Moreover, the injury risk isn't reduced just because it's a friendly.

Playing on neutral ground

If you want to play a friendly without either of the teams getting the home team advantage, you can choose to play on neutral ground. But if you play in a stadium in your own region, you will still get the home team advantage (even if you are listed as the away team). The stadium's owner will not earn any money from these friendlies.

No matter where you choose to play, any match played against a foreign team is considered to be an international friendly.

Creating or joining a tournament

Hattrick Arena has a flexible tournament creation system. It is possible to join tournaments created by others or create one for yourself and your friends, using customised rules to make the competition more interesting.

As the creator of a tournament, you can decide on all aspects of the tournament. Name, format, size, match times, and special rules such as allowing only a certain category of players (homegrown, minimum, or maximum age) or setting a salary or power rating limit for participating teams.

Everyone can set up a tournament using Hattrick Credits. Creating or entering tournaments for free is also possible if you are a Gold, Platinum, or Diamond Supporter.

Match days in the Arena

Matches in Hattrick Arena competitions are played on neutral grounds, and they don't give you any income from spectators (and no new members to your fan club).

Divisional Battles and Trophies

You will also find several official contests in Hattrick Arena. These are created by Hattrick, and you can participate for free of charge if invited.

In Division Battles, you and the other managers in your series compete together against the other series in your division. Every round, your series is drawn against a different series, where each of the participating teams will face one of the teams from the other. The goal is to be celebrated as the best series of your division at the end of the season!

Hattrick also organises two Trophy tournaments, both played during the pre-season. The Generation Trophy is a tournament where managers who started playing Hattrick around the same time are matched against each other.

The Supporter Trophy is an invitational tournament for all current Hattrick Supporters.

Hattrick Arena effects in detail

All the details you need to know about Arena matches are listed here:

• Team spirit: Team spirit is set to a fixed level (content) in Hattrick Arena matches.
• Team confidence: Confidence is always set to a fixed level (wonderful) in Arena matches.
• Injuries: No injuries will occur in Arena matches, but if your player already has an injury from a regular Hattrick match, they will not be able to play.
• Cards (own tournaments): Tournaments have their own card status, and have a completely separate system of red / yellow cards from 'normal' Hattrick. As such, any card received in a tournament match will only count for the matches that are part of that tournament. Equally, should a player be red carded in normal Hattrick, he will still be able to play in a tournament match.
• Cards (Ladders): Cards don't count at all in ladder tournaments.
• Training: Players don't get any training from tournament matches.
• Experience: Player don't gain any experience from playing tournament matches.
• Formations: Your current formation experience in "normal" Hattrick is also used for tournament matches. However, you do not gain any formation experience from tournament matches.

Ladder contests

In a ladder your goal is to reach the highest rung and become the 'King of the Hill'. And then stay there for as long as you can. To reach the top you challenge other teams listed above you in the ladder, and if you win you take their place in the ladder.

Challenge rules

Your current position in the ladder affects which teams you are able to challenge.

The challenger pays for the match and challenged teams automatically accept the challenge. The match is played 24 hours after the challenge has been made. If the challenger wins, the Credit will be refunded.

Position changes after match

If you challenge a team and win, you take the position of the team you challenged. The challenged team is moved down 1 position (this also goes for any other teams in between the two teams in the ladder).

Example: Team A is on position 54 and challenges B, currently 47. If A wins, A takes position 47 from B. B is moved down to position 48, and the team that held position 48 is moved down to 49, the team that held position 49 is moved down to 50, and so on.

If you challenge a team and lose, both teams stay in their respective places.

Challenge grace periods

After a match in which you were challenged, other teams can't challenge you for 12 hours (from the start of the match). This gives you a chance to challenge a team yourself and climb the ladder.

After a match in which you were the challenger, you can't challenge another team for 12 hours (from the start of the match). This is to give other teams a chance to challenge you. It is also to prevent scenarios where for example #2 always immediately challenges #1, making it impossible for #3 to challenge #2 and take that position.

National team competitions

The National teams compete against each other in three interconnected tournaments. The continental championships, the Nations Cup and the actual World Cup. The competition cycle spans two seasons. It starts with the continental championships for European, American, African and Asia/Oceania leagues and ends with the World Cup.

The Nations Cup is a lesser tournament for teams that did not reach the World Cup and is played in parallel to the World Cup.

National teams follow their own card status, and have a completely separate system of red / yellow cards from 'normal' Hattrick. As such, any card received in a NT/U21 match will only count for the matches that are part of that NT/U21 competition. Equally, should a player be red carded in normal Hattrick, he will still be able to play in a NT/U21 match. They get reset at the end of each competition (or when the team is eliminated from that competition).

Continental championships

Every National team in Hattrick is guaranteed a place in their continental championship. These continental championships are played in groups of 6 teams. Groups are seeded based on the National Team ranking (see below).

The continental championships have a Round-Robin format (double matches - home away) and last for 10 weeks with quarter finals, semi finals and finals in the last week.

The best 8 teams in every region, based on their position, points, goals difference and goals scored will play quarter, semi-finals and finals while the rest of the National Coaches can schedule friendlies on Fridays. In the quarter finals, the top 4 teams (based on position, points, goal difference, scored goals, random if all else is equal) randomly face the bottom 4 teams that qualified to the quarter finals, and two teams from the same group will not face each other in the quarter finals. The winner will be named continental champion, and is awarded a Gold trophy. Silver and Bronze trophies are awarded to the teams placed 2nd and 3rd-4th respectively.

World Cup

The World Cup starts at week 13 of the first season and lasts for the rest of season 1 and the entire season 2. It is divided into 5 rounds, followed by semi finals and finals.

96 teams participate in Round 1 in 16 groups of 6 teams in a Round-Robin format. The first 4 of each group will proceed to Round 2, while the rest are eliminated.

Round 2 will have 16 groups of 4 teams in a Round-Robin format and the first 2 of each group will proceed to Round 3.

In Round 3 we have 8 groups with 4 teams where they play one match with every opponent in a neutral venue and the top 2 of each group promotes to Round 4.

Round 4 and round 5 will have 4 and 2 groups respectively with 4 teams. Every team will play against each other once at a neutral arena and the top 2 of each group promotes to the next stage.

Both the semi finals and the final are at neutral venues. The winner of the final is named World champion, and is awarded a gold trophy. Silver and bronze trophies are awarded to the runner-ups.

Before each round the team spirit and team confidence will fully or partially reset to the reset values. For example, if the current team spirit is at level 9 and the reset value is 5 with the 80% reset, your team spirit will be decreased by (9 - 5) * 0.8 = 3.2 levels. Reset and midpoint values for the daily updates, for both Team Spirit and Team Confidences are 5.0.

Nations Cup

Teams that did not manage to qualify for the World Cup will play in the Nations Cup, which takes place alongside the World Cup. This tournament is played in the Swiss format tournament (similar to the Supporter Week Trophy).

This is not merely a consolation tournament, but can be important for smaller teams as the final standing in the Nations Cup is used for the seeding of the next continental championship. At the end of the Nations Cup, during the semi-finals and finals of the World Cup, the top 8 teams will have a knockout tournament and the winner will get a trophy - the top 4 teams (based on position, points, goal difference, scored goals, random if all else is equal) randomly face the bottom 4 teams that qualified to the quarter finals.

During the Nations Cup, players cannot be injured, but cards work as in any other tournament. Formation experience will carry over from the Continental Championship, with a possibility to reset formation experience just like before the World Cup, and then be updated as normal after every Nations Cup match.

The winner is awarded the Nations Cup trophy.

World Cup qualification

96 teams progress from the continental championships to the World Cup.

Each continent has their own World Cup slots, which are awarded to the best placed teams in each group of the Continental Championships group stage. As we can see in the table below, Europe has 32 slots, Asia-Oceania 21 slots and Africa and America 12 and 20 each

A number of Wildcards will be awarded for teams that did not qualify directly through the group stage of the Continental Championships. With 11 available Wildcards, the best 22 teams that did not qualify for the World Cup, based on their points, goal difference and goals scored in the group stages in Continental Championships, will be selected for a Wildcard Playoff.

In the Wildcard Playoff, the team with the highest ranking (a ranking based also on previous World Cup results) will be matched against the team with the lowest ranking, and the team with second highest ranking with the team of the second lowest ranking, and so forth. The playoff is played home and away, with a total reset of Team Spirit and Team Confidence before the first match. In case of a tie, the second match will have extra time and penalties.

National team ranking

Each national team has its own ranking which is used as seeding for the Continental Championships groups draw. The last 5 seasons have an impact for this ranking, but the effect is decaying over time which means the oldest performances have less effect on the ranking.

There are 3 factors that affect rankings: the result of each match (M), the importance of the match (I) and how strong the opposing team was (T). Specifically, the formula used to calculate the ranking is as follows: P = M x I x T

For the variable T, we subtract the ranking of the opponent team from the number 250.

Then, the final ranking is the average number of points (P) of the last 5 seasons weighted by 100%, 70%, 50%, 30%, 20% with 100% the current season and 20% 4 seasons ago. Rankings are updated after every match.

Continental championship draw

For the Continental championship seeding we use the National Team Ranking to create the draw pots. The first position of each group is always reserved by the top teams, where group 1 will get the top 1 team, group 2 the second team etc Then we have 5 draw pots, one for each position in the group filled with the rest of the teams sorted by their Ranking. For example, in the American Championship, we have 5 groups of 6 teams. The first positions of each group are filled by the top 5 teams based on their Ranking. Then the second position can be filled by teams 6 to 10, third position by teams 11 to 15 etc.During our live draw, we work through all groups, until all pots have been emptied and all groups populated.

World Cup draw

The team ranking from the current season will determine the seed of that team in the World Cup draw. There are 16 groups in the World Cup first round, and the first team for each group is picked automatically. The top ranked European team from the Continental Championships (EU#1 in the table below) will always be the first team picked for Group 1, and the team ranked 8 from the Americas will always be the first team picked in Group 16.

Once one team has been assigned to each group, all other teams are picked using a live draw. The ranking from the continental championship is still very important, but instead of being assigned directly to a group, teams are put into draw pots. If we keep looking at the table below, in the column for “Team 2”, four teams will be put in the first draw pot. These are the teams ranked 8 in Africa, 7 in Africa, 6 in Africa and 5 in Africa. Out of this pot they are assigned as the second team to Groups 1, 2, 3 and 4, as decided by the draw. 4 new teams are entered into the second draw pot and drawn for Groups 5, 6, 7 and 8. This process continues until all 6 teams have been chosen for all 16 groups.

The system is broadly deterministic, making sure we can not get all the best teams from the strongest continents in the same group. But at the same time we wanted a random element, so that managers can not already during the continental championship determine how the various groups will look in the World Cup, as this could cause some team to lose games on purpose to get a better draw in the World Cup. It also makes the live draw much more fun.

EU: Europe
AME: America
AFR: Africa
ASO: Asia / Oceania
W: Wildcard slot

Elections

Elections are held at the beginning of the season, starting the two days after the World Cup final. Every second season you elect the national coach and every second season you elect the U21 coach. Each coach is elected for 2 seasons, ending his term about a week after the World Cup Final. Note that you will need to have played Hattrick for at least 1 season in order to be able to vote in the National Team elections.

Voting power

You can only vote once in an election. However, this vote may gain extra weight in the final tally. This system of voting power rewards commitment to the game, but the main reason for it is to make it harder to manipulate elections.

If you are a local team, you get your first vote after 1 season in the game. You then gain a second one after 5 seasons in the game, a third one after 10 seasons, and a fourth one after 15 seasons. Local teams can get a total of 4 votes this way.

If you have an additional team in another league (except Hattrick International), you get your first vote after two seasons and a second and final seniority vote after 10 seasons.

All users also get up to two engagement votes, depending on how active their team management have been. We will not explain exactly how these work, to make it harder to manipulate them, but they have been designed to be very easy to achieve for any normally managed team, but very tedious to achieve if you are maintaining a set of fake teams. Please note that as a user, you will not see the exact weight your vote has, we will just explain the principles behind the system.

The national team squad

The national coach picks up to 26 players (from teams with real owners), freely from those players with the right nationality. However, U21 players need to be at least 19 years old and National Team players at least 22 years old. Once picked, the coach can see the same data for the national team players as you do for your own team.

Each national team has their own formation experience and on the start of every continental championship and World Cup/Nations Cup, national coaches will have about a week to decide which 6 formations will have formidable experience, while the rest will start from poor. There are two selection periods: the first one is from the day the election ends up to the Team Spirit and Team Confidence reset day before the first match for continental championships. The second one starts in Week 12 up to the Team Spirit and Team Confidence reset day at Week 13.Please note that NT/U21 teams' daily updates take place every day at 03:00 AM.

Having a national team player

If one of your players is on the national team, his ability to play for your team will be unaffected. National games and club games are played on separate days, so you can always use him. Matches for the national team will not give your player any training, however, he does run the risk of being injured while playing for the national team.

If your player gets to play a match with the national team there are several benefits for your club:

- You will get a salary reduction of 33% or 40% of the player's salary, depending on whether he is playing in a foreign team or his home country respectively.

- The player gains a lot of experience. The amount of experience they get varies in the match type and in descending order we have the Semi Final and Final of the World cup, the World Cup matches, the continental Quarter, Semi and Finals. The continental championship matches, the Nations Cup and finally the national team friendlies.

- If a player gets injured and has to leave the field in a match for his national team, the club will get a compensation amounting to 100% of his base salary times the estimated number of weeks the injury is expected to last. This is in addition to the regular salary reduction.

There are no injuries in national team friendly matches.

Note that you are expected not to undermine national teams through sabotaging your national team player(s). The National Team Administrators, as a last resort, have the discretion to release players to the transfer market in the event of sabotage.

If you consider running for office, or if you just want more information, we recommend you to read the rules for national teams.

World Cup Schedule - Season 1

World Cup Schedule - Season 2

Fixtures

256 teams can participate in the Masters and it is played as a straight cup with 8 rounds. The draw for each round is completely randomised, and the matches are played on neutral grounds.

If there are not enough teams to fill up the first round completely, some lucky teams (selected randomly) will skip the first round and join the action in the second round. If any of the cup or league winners have become ownerless (or changed owner), they may not participate in the Masters. If a team wins both league and cup in the same season, they will be the only team from that nation participating in the Masters.

Special tournament rules

There are some special rules that apply to the Masters:

Card and Injuries: Cards do not matter (except red cards in the game, of course), but injuries are recorded as normal.

Team Attitude: Playing "Match of the Season" (MOTS) or "Play it Cool" (PIC) will not lower/raise your team spirit after the match by as much as it would after a regular match. The effect during the match is the same as during a regular match though.

Training: Masters games do not count towards a player's training.

Masters income

The home and the away team split the crowd revenue 50/50. The best teams also get some prize money.

The Hattrick Masters winner gets 800 000 US$, the runner-up gets 400 000 US$ and the two losing semi-finalists each get 200 000 US$. The losing quarter-finalists each get 100 000 US$ and the losing last-sixteen teams each get 50 000 US$.

Start an additional club

You can start an additional club at any time. Your additional club can play in the same country as your primary club or in another country, as long as there is space available in that country.

Additional club will start with some initial funds (just as any other new club), but owners will not need to do the manager license.

General rules

You can have up to two additional clubs.

You will not be able to make any transfers between your clubs and you also can't buy players where the other team would either receive mother club or previous club money.

Additional club in the same country

Your primary and additional clubs will not be able to play in the same series or meet each other in a qualifier, nor meet each other in the cup (with the exception of the final). Both clubs can play at the same series level, but in different series.

In the unlikely, but not impossible situation where three teams of the same user end up in the semi-finals, obviously one of the teams will face a sister team then.

If one club is already playing in the top series, and another earned promotion to this series, the club promoting will not be allowed to advance. That spot will instead go to the team, among those that should have demoted from the top division, that finished with the highest rank. This will be processed after the qualifiers have been played.

If both clubs promote to the top series in the same season, only the primary club will get to promote.

Additional club in another country

The number of additional club spots available for "foreign" managers in a country depends on many clubs are unused in that country, something that depends on how big the country is and how many users are already playing in it.

A minimum of 50% of the clubs in a country are reserved for local users. So, in a league with 168 clubs, at least 84 of them are reserved for local users (and the other 84 slots can be taken by any manager, local or foreign). But if a country is 90% full – the remaining slots will be reserved for local users only.

Switch series in switching window

In the same way that primary clubs can, it's possible for additional clubs to switch series (where possible) in the series switching window in-between seasons, but it's not possible to switch to the series where another of your clubs is playing.

Flags

Flags are collected by clubs separately, additional clubs have their own flag collections.

Playing against a additional club rewards flags just as playing any other club would, and the additional club is rewarded flags for its own collection.

Achievements

Achievements are achieved by the manager, and achievements are thus saved for each user (and not for each club).

Voting in elections

If you have an additional team in another league (except Hattrick International), you get your first vote after two seasons and a second and final seniority vote after 10 seasons.

Bankruptcy

If your primary club goes bankrupt you will also lose access to your additional club.

If your additional club goes bankrupt you can start a new one 16 weeks after the date you started your previous additional club (so if you've had your additional club for more than 16 weeks you can start a new club immediately).

Close additional club

You can close your additional club at any time. But if you close your additional club, you'll have to wait at least 16 weeks from when you started your previous additional club until you can start a new one. Note that you cannot close your additional team as long as you have players on the transfer list.

Platinum / Diamond subscription expiry

If your Supporter Platinum or Diamond subscription expires you will still be the manager of your additional club for one more week, but after this week you will no longer be able to manage it. 7 weeks after the expiration, the system will disconnect your additional club. If you purchase Supporter Platinum or Diamond again during these 7 weeks you will get access to your additional club again. But if you don't, the club will become ownerless and you will not be able to return to it.