National Tournaments
"It was our biggest victory until the next one."
In order to promote inter-league play, each country hosts a National Tournament (occasionally called the “Cup”) where you can see how your players measure up against the other teams in your country.
The National Tournament has a direct elimination structure, in which you keep playing until you lose a game, and are then eliminated from the Tournament. Because of this structure, some teams in the lower divisions may not be invited to the Tournament in a given season. Tournament games take place on Thursdays at your usual game time, and your next opponent and the site of the game is randomly selected from the remaining teams every week. (During the All-Star week, there are two Tournament games, one on Tuesday and one on Thursday.) You are free to choose your effort level for each Tournament game – however, be aware that it uses the same enthusiasm rating that affects how well your team will play in league games, so be careful with Crunch Times!
Once you are eliminated from the Tournament, you will be able to schedule Scrimmages during the Thursday game time. Scrimmages are a great way to compete against your friends, your rivals, or a team from a distant country.
Both the Tournament and the Scrimmages are important to your team, because they provide your players with extra training minutes and experience each week. While neither will bring in arena revenue from fans, your country offers cash prizes for each Tournament game you win, based on the number of teams remaining. Sadly, your country won’t give you any extra cash if your tournament starts with a smaller group.
The prize scale for winning a round is as follows:
- Final Game: $ 300 000
- Semi-Final: $ 135 000
- Quarter-Final: $ 100 000
- 16-team round: $ 80 000
- 32-team round: $ 70 000
- 64-team round: $ 60 000
- All lower rounds: $ 50 000
The final two rounds of the tournament will be at a neutral site for countries with less than four divisions. For countries with four or more divisions, the final three rounds will be at a neutral site, and for countries with six divisioins, the final four rounds will be at a neutral site.