Friendly cups are tournaments organised by users. Anyone with a V.I.P.-account can organize a friendly cup. The organizer can select the format and rules for entry. Any team can participate in one friendly cup every 2 weeks.
Friendly cups are a more fun way to play friendly matches. The matches in a friendly cup are normal friendlies for player experience and position experience. They also give the same fatigue and risk on injuries as normal friendlies.
Tournament players and popular players are neutral in friendly cups. They get no bonus, but no penalty either.
Friendly cups can be found under "matches" in the menu, and then "friendly cups". To participate in a cup you need to find one where you are allowed to enter.
The organiser can set a range of popularity, team coefficient or average star rating for participating teams. They can also restrict the tournament to their own country or continent or only allow teams to enter by manual invitation.
When you are invited for a friendly cup you will receive a message with a link to the tournament.
There are three different formats for friendly cups.
One group: all the teams play each other and the winner is the one with the most points in the group
Multiple groups: all teams are divided in groups of 3 or 4 teams. The best two teams from each group advance to a knockout stage to determine the winner.
Knockout: each round, the losers are eliminated and the winners continue.
In every format there is the option to have single matches with random home advantage or double matches where each tie consists of a home and an away match. This also applies to the finals.
Participating in a friendly cup costs friendly tokens and credits. For each guaranteed match you have to pay one friendly token, to a maximum of 4. For example, in a knockout tournament with home and away matches you have to pay two friendly tokens because you will play at least 2 matches.
You also have to pay 1 credit for every potential match you could play. In a single match knockout tournament with 32 teams entry costs 1 friendly token and 4 credits (max 5 rounds minus one already paid with a friendly token).
In addition to this all teams also pay 3 credits to a prize pool that is divided between the winner and the runner-up of the tournament. In an invitation-only tournament the prize pool is only one credit per team.
Bot teams that are added to complete the draw do not add credits to the prize pool.
Friendly cups start 3 days after registration closes and the draw is made. Between all rounds there is one day of rest. No matches are played on national team days.
Matches are scheduled at the start of the tournament time slot. Friendly matches have a reduced fatigue (like normal friendly matches) but teams are themselves responsible for handling their player's fatigue.
Since these tournaments are for fun and nothing depends on the outcome, none of the normal match fixing rules apply. Teams can choose to play with a weak squad in one match and a strong squad in another.
It is not possible for multiple teams from the same manager to enter the same friendly cup though and it is also not possible for babysitters to register teams for friendly cups.
Friendly cups should not be abused to pass credits between accounts. If we detect this, appropriate measures will be taken.