Rules for ITS ONLY A GAME IOAG CONTENTS 1 Structure 2 Competitions 3 The Game 4 Finances 5 Home Bonus 6 Player Transfers 7 International Squad 8 End of Season Awards 9 Promotion / Relegation Skill Changes 10 Youth Draft STRUCTURE CLUBS Consists of 16 clubs and 1 division. Each team has at least one active manager to operate it. No person can manage 2 clubs COMPETITIONS League Competition During the season, each club plays each other twice (once at home and once away).The league champions will be decided on goal difference. Relegation and Promotion Not relavent yet! Cup competition To be arranged later. THE GAME The matches are run using a modified version of the esms (email soccermanagement simulator) program, which Igor Oks and Eli Bendersky created. Visit the esms PLUS web page for the best information about this program http://members.tripod.com/uwfsa/help.htm What is esms ? The esms program, is a soccer management simulator for play-by-email games. A play-by-email (PBEM) soccer league usually consists of an administrator, who runs the league, and managers. esms only consists of the match running part, which includes running a match between two clubs using their rosters and team sheets (see below for details), updating the rosters using the post-match stats, and updating the league table using the results. The administrator develops all other aspects of soccer management. This program was written not for a specific league, but with the possibility of many uses and different ideas, using the same game engine. How is a match played? A club in esms is a "roster". A roster is a text file, in a special format, which includes the squad and their attributes. The file name is the abbreviation name of the club (recommended 3 characters). A "team sheet" in esms is a text file, which includes the orders for the match for each club. These orders include the list of the eleven starting players, the five subs and different instructions to the program. To play a match, each manager has to send the league administrator a team sheet with instructions for the match, and the administrator must have the rosters of the participating clubs. It is very important to state here that the match is not run in "real-time", but all at once. It means that a manager can not interfere on a specific minute and tell the administrator to substitute a player or change the tactics. All the manager's work is to send in a team sheet with instructions. All these instructions are included in the team sheet sent by the managers - the program reads these instructions and implements them during the match. After the match is finished, the program generates a commentary file for the match and the administrator sends it to the managers of the two clubs involved. Then, the administrator is using the different supplementary tools of the esms program to update the rosters and the league table. Rosters and Players A valid roster of esms has a header line and a list of players with a lot of numbers near them. This section is to explain exactly what each number means. An example line from a roster file: Name Age Nat St Tk Ps Sh Ag KAb TAb Pab SAb Gam Sav Ktk Kps Sht Gls Ass DP Inj Sus Amoruso 22 ita 2 4 6 10 26 300 325 450 550 30 0 2 5 66 10 2 4 0 0 60 Name: The name of the player. Its recommended length is not more than twelve characters in order not to make a mess in the roster file. Age: The player's age. After completing a season, each player is gets older by one year. It is placed in the roster with no use for the game running program. Nat: Player's nationality, abbreviated in three characters. As the age, it is not used by the game running program and placed in the roster only for statistics. In esms, the player has no predefined position, and it is up to the manager to decide, depending on the player's skills, wherehe want the player to play in each match. This feature adds a lot of flexibility to the game. St: Is the player's shot-stopping ability. In other words, his goal-keeping ability. For the club's better performance, the manager should place the player with the highest St as the goalkeeper. Of course the manager is not obligated to do so, and it is up to his consideration. Tk: Is the player's tackling skills. Mostly used by players playing on the defense. Ps: Is the player's passing skills. Mostly used by players in the midfield, for creating opportunities and assisting goals. Sh: Is the player's shooting skills. It defines the player's skill to shot to goal and reach these shooting chances. Note: From what you can see on the player in the example, his highest skill is shooting. Therefore this player will perform the best as a forward. Of course he can play in any position if needed, even as goalkeeper, but his contribution will be worse than as a forward. Ag: Is the player's aggression. The aggression of a player doesn't change, it stays the same for his whole career. In esms the aggression is a value between 1 and 100 and it defines how aggressive will the player play. KAb, TAb, PAb, SAb: Player abilities. Numbers which range from 0 to 1000 and can affect the player's skills. Gam: Simply the number of games the player played. If the player participated in a game, even if he played a single minute, it will be counted as another game when the administrator runs the roster-updating tool. Note: The next numbers indicate the total number of different actions the player made in all the games he played for that season. Sv: The total number of saves the player made. Only if the player played as a goalkeeper can make any saves. Ktk: The total number of key tackles the player made to stop scoring opportunities. Usually defenders will make the highest number of tackles. The player in the example, though playing as forward, made some key tackles as well. Kps: The total number of key passes made by the player to create goal-scoring opportunities. Sht: The total number of shots to goal made by the player (not necessarily on target.) Gls: The total number of goals scored by the player. Ass: The total number of assists made by the player. Dp: The total amount of disciplinary points accumulated by the player during the games. Inj: The number of weeks for which the player is currently injured. Sus: The number of games for which the player is currently suspended. Fit: Player fitness. (NOT IN FIRST SEASON) A number with a maximum of 100 and when below zero will affect the player's skills. Player Positions As was stated earlier, a player in esms doesn't have a pre-defined position. The manager will use different considerations to decide where to place the player for the match. The modified esms program includes seven possible on-field positions for players: GK: Goalkeepers SW: Sweeper - plays behind the defense DF: Defender DM: Defensive Midfielder - plays between the defense and the midfield MF: Midfielder AM: Attacking Midfielder - plays between the midfield and the forwards FW: Forward Player's Raw Skills during the Game Each player in esms has 4 different skills (St, Tk, Ps and Sh). These are his "raw skills", and he will not always play with the same skill in a match. An "actual skill", is the player's raw skill after some mathematical operations, which depend on tactics and player's fatigue during the match. A player that plays as a defender will never use his full shooting potential, as being a defender, he will get few opportunities to score. It also depends on the tactic of the team, but it can be generally said that the full raw skill of the player will be preserved only if the player plays at a suitable position. For example if a player with Tk2, Ps4, and Sh10 playing in defense will have a defensive skill of 2 (it also depends on the tactic), but his actual Ps and Sh will be less than the raw values. Therefore, a player with skills Tk4, Ps3, and Sh3 will be more efficient as a defender, despite being a generally worse player than the first one. Players with more than one high skill will be extremely useful, as they will be able to perform well at several positions. Player's Ability Apart from the four skills each player has he also has four ability values. Ability is basically a number between 0 and 1000 which is measuring the performance of the players in the recent time. If the ability of a player reaches 1000, he receives a skill increase. When a player receives a skill increase, his ability drops to 300. If a player's ability reaches 0, he will receive a skill decrease. There are many conditions for a player's ability being increased or decreased during the game. Below is the list of "events" for which ability is changed: Goal: A player will get an ability increase for each scored goal. Assist: A player will get an ability increase for each goal he assisted. Ktk, Kps, Sht: A player will get an ability increase for each key tackle, key pass, or shot he will make. These bonuses are usually much lower than the bonuses for goal and assist. Save: The goalkeeper will receive ability points for each save that he makes in the game. Clean sheet: If a team doesn't concede a goal during the game, the goalkeeper and one of the defenders will receive an ability increase. If the goalkeeper was substituted during the game, the goalkeeper who played more will get the ability increase. The defender will be randomly chosen. Victory: If a club wins the match, two of its players will be given an ability increase. The two players are chosen randomly. If a club loses a match, two of its players lose ability points. These players are chosen randomly. Bookings: Players will get ability decreases for yellow and red cards. These are the values: Goal: +35 Assist: +25 Victory: +40 (random x 2) Clean sheet: +30 (GK + 1 random DF) Key tackle: +15 Key pass: +15 Shot on: +5 Shot off: +3 Save: +5 Defeat: -10 (random x 2) Goal Conceded: -2 Yellow Card: 0 Red Card: 0 Player's Fitness (see next season) All players begin the season with a fitness level of 100. Every minute he plays, his fitness level will decrease by a small amount (even smaller for a GK). If a player's fitness drops to a level between 0 and -9, his highest skill will decrease by 1 for the start of the next match, if it drops between -10 and -19, his highest skill will decrease by 2, and so on. For a player with a fitness level of -30 or less, he will fail the team's physical and can not enter the next match. If a player is rested for a week his fitness level will increase by 70 (90 for a GK). If a player is injured, on his first game back, he will have a fitness of 40 (50 for a GK). For mid-week cup matches, a player will not receive a fitness increase if he does not play, however, if he does play, his fitness will decrease by the same amount as a weekend match. For players over 32 years old, they will lose fitness more quickly and will not recover their fitness as fast. Team Tactics Each manager chooses a tactic for his club for a match. The tactic can be changed during the match by suitable instructions in the team sheets. This is the listing of possible tactics in @esms: N: Normal. No specific style of play, just normal play, trying to use all parts of the squad in the most suitable way. D: Defensive Focusing more on the defense. D is hard to score against, but wll not create many opportunities either. Midfielders and even forwards will pay more attention to the defense. A: Attacking The players try to score as much as possible, by that almost neglecting the defense. Midfielders try to score more frequently and the defenders involve more in the attack. P: Passing. The club tries to move the ball quickly using a lot of passes, even when the are not really needed. More players try to help in the midfield to create slow but efficient opportunities. This tactic is more offensive than Normal but less offensive than Attacking. C: Counter attack. The players concentrate on the defense, while the forwards are waiting for counter-opportunities. This tactic is more defensive than Normal but not as defensive as the Defensive tactic. L: Long Ball. The most intriguing and unexpected tactic. Can easily win a match with some circumstances, and completely fail with other. The midfield is almost insignificant, as the team tries to defend and reach the forwards with long balls. Thus, this tactic is especially useful for teams with weak midfielders, and against some tactics/formations can prove to be a lethal weapon. Each tactic, except of Normal, has some bonuses against some other tactics, which makes the decisions more complicated and challenging. The bonus table is below, it includes the 'Bonus type', which tells where is the bonus added. Tactic Bonuses vs. Bonus type Normal (N) None None Defensive (D) Long Ball Defence Attacking (A) Defensive Attack Cnt. Attack (C) Passing & Attacking Attack & Midfield Long Ball (L) Attacking & Cnt. Attack Defence & Attack Passing (P) Long Ball Defence e.g. if your tactic was Passing and your opponent's was Long Ball, your defense would play better than normal. Conclusion: As you can see, the bonus "tree" is rather complicated, and you can benefit a lot from predicting correctly which tactic your opponent will use. Formations The @esms has no pre-defined formations. The formation is simply the number of SWs, DFs, DMs, MFs, AMs, and FW's, so a team with 3 defenders, 4 midfielders and 3 forwards plays a 3-4-3 formation. There is one GK on the pitch at once at all times. Allowed a maximum of 1 SW and there is no minimum. The maximum number of DFs without a SW is 5 and maximum with a SW is 4. The minimum number of DF allowed at one position is 2. There is a combined maximum of 5 midfielders (DM+MF+AM). If you include a DM or AM, there must be one other type of midfielder (you may not have a midfield of just 3 AM alone). You may have 3 MFs. The minimum number for each DM, MF, or AM is zero, but you must have at least 2 in total of any of them (so you can have 1 DM, 0 MF, 1 AM) The maximum number of FWs is 5 and the minimum number allowed is 1.Each manager decides on his own formation that will maximize his players' skills. Tactics and formation are very much linked, not by the program, which doesn't mind which tactic/formation you play, but by the manager himself. It would be, of course, bizarre to play 2-2-6 Defensive, as the formation and the tactic contradict each other. The most common tactic is the traditional 4-4-2, as it fits in well with almost every tactic. Formation Bonuses There are bonuses for certain formations against others: 5 MF vs. <= 2MF and/or <=2 DM and/or <=2 AM If one side lines up with 5 MF against a side with two or less players from each of DM, MF, and/or AM, the side with 5 MF will have a slight Tk and Sh increase on their midfielders. 1 FW vs. SW SW will have a slight decrease in Tk. 3 or 4 FW vs. 1 or 2 DM DM will have a slight reduction in Tk. The decrease is greater for 1 DM. 5 DF vs. 1 or 2 AM AM will have a slight reduction in Sh. The decrease is greater for 1 AM. Team Sheets and Orders As was stated previously, each manager has to send in a "team sheet" for each match. The team sheet includes the list of players, subs for the match, and different "orders" to the program, which explain how the club will be managed in different situations. If a manager learns to use these orders correctly and understands them, they can be an important step in aiding in his club's success. These are the different orders a manager can give, with explanations: Tactic for the match: The manager gives the program the starting tactic his side will play (N, D, A, P, C, or L). Penalty kick taker: The manager names the primary penalty kick taker for the match. If the player will be unavailable when a penalty occurs (being suspended or injured before that minute) the program will assign a penalty kick taker by itself. Conditionals: The conditionals are orders to the program, telling it what to do in different cases of the match. The conditionals depend on the minute and/or the score of the match. The conditional orders are as follows: Change the tactic Substitute one player for another Change the position of a specific player Lineup: 11 starting players are named (beginning with GK) and 5 substitutes. Below is the template for a team sheet: [Team name] /* The name of your roster, without the ".txt" extension [Tactic] /* A single character specifying your starting tactic GK [Player name] The first player in the team sheet must be a GK [Pos] [Name] Here the other 10 starting players are listed with position (SW,DF,DM,MF,AM,FW) [Pos] [Name] All players must be named as they are in your roster [Pos] [Name] [Pos] [Name] [Pos] [Name] [Pos] [Name] [Pos] [Name] [Pos] [Name] [Pos] [Name] [Pos] [Name] [Pos] [Name] These are the 5 subs with position (GK,DF,MF,FW - do not include SW,DM,AM) [Pos] [Name] [Pos] [Name] [Pos] [Name] [Pos] [Name] PK: [Player name] The primary PK taker. Must be one of the 11 starters. [Order] [Arguments...] [Condition] [Order] and [Arguments] is exactly what do. [Order] [Arguments...] [Condition] [Condition] is the condition for the order execution. [Order] [Arguments...] [Condition] [Order] [Arguments...] [Condition] Orders and conditions In the orders, the players are referred by their numbers and not by their names. The number of the player is simply his position in the lineup starting from top to bottom. Thus, the GK is number 1, the last player in the starting squad is number 11, the first listed sub is number 12, the last listed sub is number 16. There are 3 different orders available: TACTIC: The order to change the tactic of the club to a given tactic (N, A, C, L, or D). For example: TACTIC L Changes your tactic from whatever it was to long ball. A manager can include up to 15 conditions on tactic change. CHANGEPOS: Tells the program to switch the position of some player to a new position. For example: CHANGEPOS 11 DF Switches player number 11 to defender. A manager can include up to 15 conditions on position change. SUB: Tells the program to substitute some player for another, and play the substitute in a given position. It is important to put the numbers in the correct order. For example: SUB 10 14 FW Substitutes player number 10 for player number 14 and the sub (player number 14) will play forward. Only 3 substitutions are allowed per team per match. There are different conditions you can put on the orders: IF MIN =: If the game reached the stated minute, the order will be executed. For example: CHANGEPOS 2 MF IF MIN = 56 Changes the position of player number 2 to midfielder in the 56th minute. IF SCORE =: The [Score] argument is a SINGLE NUMBER which stands for the difference in score between your club and the opponent. 2 is leading by 2 goals, -6 is losing by 6 goals etc. For example: TACTIC A IF SCORE = -1 Switches to attacking tactic if the team is losing by 1 goal. IF MIN, SCORE: The order execution can depend both on the score and the minute of the match. The argument can be either = , >= or =< which gives this conditional enormous flexibility. A few examples: TACTIC A IF MIN >= 45, SCORE =< -1 Changes the tactic to attacking if it is later than the 45th minute and the club is losing by one or more goals. CHANGEPOS 2 MF IF MIN =< 20, SCORE >= 1 Switches player number 2 to midfield if it is earlier than the 20th minute and the club leads by one or more goals. Example of a team sheet: rom N GK Antonioli DF Cafu SW Aldair DF Zago MF Nakata MF Tommasi MF Di_Francessco MF Candela AM Totti FW Delvecchio FW Batistuta GK Lupatelli MF Emerson DF Samuel DF Mangone FW Montella PK: Totti TACTIC A IF MIN = 55, SCORE <= -1 SUB 11 16 FW IF MIN = 60 CHANGEPOS 8 DF IF SCORE = 1 TACTIC D IF SCORE = 2 A program has been written if a team fails to provide a team sheet. The program balances playing good players with rested ones (hence don't expect your top 11 players to be starting). If a manager fails to submit the team sheet for 2 weeks in a row and is not answering reminder messages, he will be sacked, and a new manager will be appointed. Player's Fatigue It is natural that the players are getting tired during the match. This fatigue always affects a player's performance. Close to the end of the match, a player will have much less energy for long runs than in the beginning. The feature of fatigue is included in @esms. Each minute, the program multiplies each player's actual skills by some coefficient, which is very small. However, at the end of the match a player plays at approximately 70 - 75 percent of his starting skill. This is why it is highly recommended to substitute players during the game, to bring some "fresh legs" to your side. Player and Team Aggression Each player has an aggression level. The aggression is a number, which ranges from 1 to 100 (but 35 is about aveerage) and it is not changed during the player's career. During the match, the program calculates the total aggression of a team each minute. The total aggression has two sides: On one hand, it adds the club some aspect of "more will to play" and the more aggressive club plays better than the less aggressive team, however the difference is very small. On the other hand, the more aggressive side will make more fouls, which may result in penalties and bookings for its players. Generally, the aggression is a "negative" skill of the player and a club. However, this is much less significant than the 4 skills of the player. Fouls, Bookings, and Disciplinary Points During the match, each club usually makes a lot of fouls, most of them are insignificant and just stop the attack of the opponent. The program takes care only of the "serious" fouls, which deserve a warning or a card shown to the player. For some of the fouls the players will receive yellow cards. Two yellow cards in the same game or a red card shown to the player cause his sending off the pitch, and will leave his side with one player less. If a goalkeeper gets a red card, the program will automatically replace him with the most suitable player, which will cause a player less in another part of the field. Disciplinary points are included as well. A player receives 5 DP for yellow cards and 15 DP red cards (or 2 yellows in one match).. When a player reaches a total of 15 DP he will be suspended for one match, when he reaches 30 DP, two matches, and so on. Suspensions The "Sus" column in the team roster shows how many matches each player is currently suspended. Injuries During the match, there is always a chance that a player will get injured. If a player gets injured, the program will substitute him for another player on his position from the bench. If there is not a player at his position on the bench, the program will find another substitute for the player. If by the time the injury occurred the team already had 3 substitutions, the player will leave the field and the team will remain with one player less. A player gets injured for a certain number of weeks. This is not defined by the game running program itself, but by the updating program the league administrator will use to update the rosters. After the update, the number of weeks the player can not play will appear in the "Inj" column of the player. Keeping a Large Squad It is highly recommended for each manager to keep a large squad of players (30-player maximum) especially for those clubs involved in EICA competitions. As you saw in the last sections, a player can get injured or suspended for several games or weeks. Also, players' fitness level declines for every match played making it impossible to field the same players week in and out. Having a small squad can cause you a lot of trouble in running your team. However, too large of a squad will hurt your income because of high total salaries. So a balance is needed (somewhere between 23 and 27 is ideal). Commentary File A commentary file includes the play-by-play for the match. The minute of the match is on the left side and the event on the right side. It is more exciting to start at the beginning and read line by line, not knowing what is written on the next line in order to feel the "tension" of a real match. In the end of the commentary file, you will see the match statistical summaries for each club. How many minutes each player played, how many goals were scored, assisted etc. You will also find there the change in ability points as a result of the match. The match commentary will be emailed to the managers of the clubs involved. FINANCES The finance of each team is the responsibility of that teams manager. Bank Balance The club's bank balance will be updated and released, but it is for your own good to make your own calculations to check your money moves. Debt If your bank balance reaches below one million, you will have 4 weeks to recover this money. If after 4 weeks you have still not recovered, the Board will auction your best player(s). Also, you will receive only 60% of the money generated by the auction as a penalty. Therefore, it is a good idea to be aware of how much you spend and not to exceed your expected earnings for the following four weeks. Money can not be loaned out to a club. Income Teams' income will be primarily from their gate receipts, sponsor contracts and selling players. Gate Receipts & Ticket Prices The most important source of money income is the gate receipts paid by spectators who come to see your home matches. The attendance of a match will depend upon: 1. Position of yours and your opponent's team in the table. 2. Result of previous match 3. Stage of season (higher for opening day and as the season progresses) 4. Division Ticket prices are set equally for all clubs ($46 for Division 1, $40 for Division 2 and $35 for Division 3). Sponsorship (See later) Television and Merchandise Revenue from television contracts and selling of team merchandise is a weekly source of income and the amount will depend upon your club's performance throughout the season. Cup Matches (see later) End-of-Season Financial Benefit (see later) Expenses Clubs' expenses are player salaries, transfer fees, stadium renovations, and scouting costs. Player's Salaries The salaries depend on the player's total skill and age: A player's skill depends on his main skill category: If 'St' is his highest skill category (GK): Skill = 10 + (St-10) x 6 If 'Tk' is his highest skill category (DF): Skill =10 + (Tk-10) x 7/2 + (Ps-1) + (Sh-1) x 1/2 If 'Ps' is his highest skill category (MF): Skill = 10 + (Tk-1) x 4/3 + (Ps-10) x 5 + (Sh-1) x 4/3 If 'Sh' is his highest skill category (FW): Skill = 10 = (Tk-1) + (Ps-1) x 3/2 + (Sh-10) x 8 Weekly Salary = Skill x $850