Game Rules
19. International competitions for NTs and CTs

Not only club competition we have in FS. There are also NATIONAL TEAMS (U18, U21 and main NT)

The reason for the U18 team (and not some other version) is simple: we want newbies to be brought into the NT experience early in the game, as to motivate them a little more in the first few seasons: those who train best will certainly be the ones selected for this "launcher" team. Every NT/CT has his own manager who is nominated by president of national federation.
They are at the presidents' mercy for all that matters: if the president wishes, he can fire the manager at the moment. Obviously this can be seen as a bad move by the community - and do I hear the mob calling for a revolution?

To become a NT manager you simply have to
a) be a FS Fan
b) be invited by the president of a federation
c) accept the invitation.

You will then have access to these options:
- You can obviously select the national squad (call up players to the squad, remove players from the squad, etc.);
- Set an Assistant Manager (working exactly like a club assistant) - they'll have to be FS Fans;
- Resign from the position - in which case the president will have to nominate someone else.

A national manager can call himself up to his own national team, if he gathers the conditions to do so (nationality, age, etc.).
If a NT manager loses its FS Fan status, he's automatically removed from the position. Players can be called up for national teams if they fill a set of requirements:
- They have to be holding the nationality of the country they are being called up for;
- They have to be declared available to play for that country - all players will be able to choose if they are available to play for a national team or not;
- They have to fit in the right age group (of course).

In case a player has gained a Main Team cap for a certain country, he won't ever again be allowed to play for any other country than that particular one. This does not apply to U18 or U21 caps (in which case the player will be still eligible to play for any other country). For CT, is enough to gain a cap for U18, U21 or NT to be "locked" in that city.

The main benefit of playing in a national team or city team is the experience it awards to the player. In all cases the experience awarded is a percentage of the experience the player already has gained in his club and international career. This percentage though is capped at set values (as so to not make experience increase exponentially for international players), but these set values are though higher than league matches - and bigger depending on the NT type, U18, U21 or main team, the main team awarding the highest possible experience. This means NTs/CTs is an important way of gathering experience, although it all still depend on the experience you gained in the rest of the player's footballing career.

In international matches the experience a player has is also more important and affects skills and judgment a lot more than in normal club matches (except in U18 games, where the effect is equal to a normal league match). So, the lower the experience, the more the skills are affected by it (roughly the double of league matches in U21 and main teams alike) and the less likely a player will be to follow individual orders - much more than in league matches in U21 matches and even more in main team matches, where experience matters really a lot.

Fitness losses in international matches are exactly the same as in any other match. And remember there's probably also trips involved, so beware the experience gained comes at the cost of losing some fitness.

Eligibility for U21 National Teams
Players above the age of 21 cannot be called up and/or play for the U21 NT. All those with 21 or less can be called up.

However, the U21 WC final call up must respect another extra rule. Here's a practical example to explain it: the first U21 WC was played at season 6 (despite starting on season 5). This means that all players born onwards 1/1 (FS week/season) was able to play it. The second U21 WC started on season 6 and end on season 7. So, all players born onwards 1/2 was allowed to be called in.

Eligibility for U18 National Teams
Players aged 17 or 18 can be called up and play for the U18 NT. All those aged 19 or more can never be called up/play.

Again, the U18 WC final call up must respect the extra rule. Another practical example to explain it: the first U18 WC was played at season 6 (despite starting on season 5). This means that all players born onwards 1/4 (FS week/season) was able to play it.

These eligibility rules were made so that we could offer all players the possibility to play in a U21/U18 National Team considering the fact that players that started on earlier weeks had an advantage. At the same time we don't want those who start on the first weeks to have a disadvantage for aging sooner than all the others.
We hope that, with these rules, everything is more balanced. Unfortunately there would never be a perfect solution for this.

World Cup and International Matches
This sub-section deals with the match days and the international competitions themselves: including the much waited World Cup!

Actually, there are 3 World Cups, not only one. U18 and U21 World Cups are played every season, while the main teams' World Cup are played every 3 seasons. For CTs is almost the same but NTs will play a WC every season!

World Cup: U18 and U21 Teams
The U18 and U21 Teams play each a qualifying tournament every season to decide which teams advance to the World Cups. The qualifications are hold in the following format:
- Teams are placed in 14 groups of 6 teams each (using a seeding system related to a NT ranking) and play against each other twice. The first-placed teams of each group (totaling 14) and the best 2 second-placed teams advance to the U18 and U21 World Cup competitions, respectively. These final 16 play against each other in a direct elimination style tournament and the winner will be decided in the final match. There's no 3rd place match, so there's just winner and runner-up in this competition.

There is time for 3 friendly matches each season to be scheduled by the national managers, before the qualifying tournament starts.

U18 matches are played on Mondays at 17:00 FS-time, while U21 matches are played on the same day but at 18:30 FS-time. The World Cups will have matches played on different days.

World Cup: Main National Teams
The main National Teams have the chance to take part on a World Cup only every 3 seasons. Why? Well, because we feel the WC should be a special event. Unlike the U21 and U18 WCs, this one will be sometimes a one-off chance for a player to really show himself up to the whole FS world.

Qualifying
Unlike U18 and U21 qualifying, the qualifying for the main World Cup (Football Star World Cup, FSWC for short) is also different. Along with being played over the course of 3 seasons, it is also be divided by continents - each team compete against others from the same continent, with the exception of Asia, Africa and Oceania which, due to the small amount of nations, are grouped together. The number of teams qualifying from each continent is decided using a NT ranking system based on NT performances over the past few seasons.

Qualifying groups is divided like this:
- European countries in 8 groups of 6 teams each;
- American countries in 2 groups of 6 teams each;
- Asian, African and Oceanian countries in 4 groups of 6 teams each.

As said, each continent have a variable number of teams qualifying to the FSWC, but the total will sum up to 32 teams.

Countries in each group play each other 4 times, 2 times at home and 2 away. This brings the total amount of games played during the qualifying tournament to 20 games for each team. Games are played roughly bi-weekly, with friendly matches scheduled by the managers filling the gaps in weeks when no official matches are played.

Football Star World Cup
The FS-WC is played at the end of the 3rd qualifying season, and 32 teams will take part on it.

The first phase of the FSWC is a group round, with teams being placed using a seeding system in groups of 4 teams. There are 8 groups in total. Three games are played to decide who advances to the second and final phase. The first and second-placed teams of each group advance to the next phase.

The second and final phase of the FSWC is played with teams facing each other in direct elimination matches. 16 teams, then 8, then 4, then the 2 finalists will play each other to decide the Football Star World Champion title. There's no 3rd place match.

Main national team matches are played on Mondays at 20:30 FS-time, except during the World Cup final phase, which is explained in the next sub-section of this section.

CITY TEAMS
Not only countries have representation in FS world. Also every city have own representation from players born in certain city.

City teams are very similar to national teams. There are same age category for every city like in NT so every city have 3 different representation squad (U18, U21 and NT) Eligibility rules for U18 and U21 are exactly same as NT U18 and U21.

Also other rules are very similar to NT:
- The manager for each team is nominated by the federation president
- The city stadium is designated by the federation president as well as the team kit.
- The manager is responsible for the team management (call ups, squad, tactics)
- City teams can only play with players born on the city. There are no "double nationality" features for cities, meaning that you can only play for your native city, no matter what.
- A player cannot play or be call up for the national team and for the city team at same time. However, they can play both on different weeks.
- A player, after playing one match for a city team, will be bound to that city team and cannot play for another city team ever.
- All players are given the chance to change to another team one time only, provided that they haven’t played for any city team. To do that, you just have to go to the city details’ page and click the appropriate option.
- You don’t have to be FS Fan to become a City Manager. However, you can’t be nominated if you are already a City/NT manager or president/vice-president.
- There are maximum 3 substitutions in city teams matches (for all types of games).
- A player can only change to another city once. Also the change to another city is automatically locked once a player makes a game for a city team.
- You can only change to cities of your own country.
- You can play for your city even if you have player for another country in a NT.
- You can play with several players you own in different city teams.
- There is forums for city teams (like in NTs).
- There are suspensions for city teams, just like in NTs (same model)
- Players can refuse playing for their city NT.
- You can play for both NT and CT, as long as it’s not in the same match day.
- No double NTs in cities or something similar.
- Confidence and moral loss is exactly like the NTs.
- If the system finds a city team with an appointed match but without a squad, it will call bot players to fill up the squad. There might be city teams that won’t have enough players due to small countries but they president will either have to try to increase the user base or just don’t play friendly games or play them with bots.
- Each season, a World Cup country will be picked amongst the Federation Presidents to host all 3 world cups of the same season. For example, if Iceland is picked, both the AA, U21 and U18 city WC’s will be played in Iceland.

There are also competitions of city teams (including World Cup in every age category). The competition is exactly the same as the World Cup of U21/U18 National Teams. The difference is that not all teams can play the qualifying stage. Matches are on same day as NT (Monday) but on different time:
- U18: 13:30
- U21: 14:00
- Main team: 14:30

There are much more cities than countries so there has to be pre-qualification stage every season for every age category. Pre-qualification and qualifications stage are played in same time. In qualification there are only 96 teams (48 are top3 from every group in season before qualification + top48 from ranking of prequalification season before). All other teams will play only prequalification for next season qualification.
The global ranking gets reset at the end of every season. If a team does not play a friendly match in a certain week it looses 2% of its ranking (until the cap of 1500 points). All teams start with 1500 points. The formula for awarding and removing points is based on the well known Elo rating system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating_system).

Calendar and Dates - Match Days, Trips, Squad Announcements
The NT managers have the chance to release the squad announcement 5 days before each match. If they fail to do so, the system will release it on Sunday morning whatever squad they selected until that point as the official squad for the next NT match. Whichever players are called are the only ones available to play in the upcoming match - managers cannot call up any more players (or remove someone from the squad) if the squad has already been announced.

Players called up to the national squad will go on trip to the site of the next NT match every Monday at 4:00 FS-time. All trips are made by plane. Fitness losses in these trips are as follow: 2% for trips between different countries and 1% if the trip is to another city in the same country. After the match takes place, players will return to their clubs' location. This obviously applies only during the qualifying/friendly phase, before the World Cup takes place.

The final phase of the U18 and U21 World Cups occurs during a full week, as well as the second phase of the FSWC. This means that players called up for the WCs will have to travel to the country where it takes place and stay there for the whole week, being effectively away from their clubs. On the first phase of the FSWC (the group phase) this does not apply though: players will play the group match and return to their clubs after the match is over.

Also, a "national team season" only changes after the WCs take place; so, effectively, they only change after week 1 (1 week later than the normal season change). This is important for rankings, as you can read below.

National Team's Ranking
The ranking will work as follows:
>> Points for result:
- Win (no penalty shootout) 3
- Draw 1
- Loss (no penalty shootout) 0
- Win (penalty shootout) 2
- Loss (penalty shootout) 1

>> The value will then be multiplied as follows:
- Game type: Friendly match: x1 | WC Qualifier: x2 | WC Stage: x4
- Opponent's position ranking with the following formula, where:
X = Number of Countries in FS | Y = Opponent's Ranking Position
Multiplier = (X - (Y - 1)) / (X / 2) (This multiplier cannot be lower than 0.5)

So, the amount of ranking points if you play and win a NT Friendly against the first on the ranking:
>> 3 (winning points) x 1 (game type mult.) x 2 (ranking mult.) = 6 points In a World Cup final stage >> 3 x 4 (game type mult.) x 2 = 24 points

This version is actually very similar the formula used by FIFA. We have removed some parts in order to add simplicity.

The season ranking is reset once the World Cup finishes (remember that NTs' seasons are only increased once a WC is completed). However the points are saved until 3 seasons in the past and used to define the final ranking position. An example:
- The main English NT wins 40 points in season 1, 30 points in season 2 and 50 in season 3. Their ranking points are the sum of these 3 seasons (120). Then, on season 4 they get 80 points. Season 1 points are dropped and the ranking points are updated to 30+50+80=160.

Another important reminder is that the WC Qualifiers draw will always take place before the first friendly matches.

Misc Rules
- In friendlies, National Teams manager is able to make 11 substitutions. But only 3 in official games.
- There are no morale losses in NT friendlies, but there are morale drops in official NT games, just like in official club games.
- There is special forum for National Team managers only.
- NT Managers can call up from 16 to 22 players.
- Experience gains are calculated as in normal club games (dependable on the number of minutes you play, avoid getting tired effect) (but the gains are not obviously the same: as said previously on this section).


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