The cup system

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