HISTORYEA SPORTS FC 26

How the League Works

The draft, both competitions, the playoffs, your individual ranking, keeping your squad, transfers and the prize pool.

You did not choose your club

You registered alone and a club drafted you at random, alongside two other gamers. That is the format, and everything below follows from it.

The draw was seeded and recorded, so it can be replayed by anyone who asks.


Your club plays two competitions at once

The domestic league — midweek

Every club in your division, once each. A division of N clubs plays N−1 matchdays, so 19 in the 20-club divisions and 17 in the 18-club ones.

3 points for a win, 1 for a draw. Equal points are separated on goal difference, then goals scored — real goals across the three sets, not sets won.

The Major — weekends

All 114 clubs in one competition, across every division. This is where a Kenyan club draws Real Madrid.

You are paired against clubs on the same record as you, and never the same club twice.

Rounds7
Through5 wins
Out5 losses
TiebreakBuchholz → goal difference → goals scored

A tie is three separate 1v1 matches

Three of you, three of them, one match each. The pairings are drawn by the server two hours before the window opens and revealed to both clubs at the same instant — the referee does not choose them and neither do you.

Win two sets and your club wins the tie. Extra time and penalties are on, so no set can be drawn.

If somebody does not turn up, a team-mate covers their set and plays twice. Only an uncovered set is forfeited, and a forfeited set carries no scoreline: it is a loss for the gamer who did not appear and pays their opponent nothing.


The playoffs

The top clubs from the Major go into a straight knockout, seeded off the Swiss table so the two strongest can only meet in the final.

Best of three to the round of 16, best of five from the quarter-finals — the later it gets, the less a tie should turn on one 1v1 going badly. With three gamers and five sets somebody plays twice, and the same balanced draw decides who.

Knockout ties award no table points. Win or go home.


You have your own ranking, separate from your club

Your club has a table. You have your own. It exists because you did not choose your team-mates: a brilliant gamer on a weak club deserves a record that says so.

What you didPoints
Won your own set3
Beat someone ranked far above youup to 6 bonus
Your club won the tie1
Your club won its division15
Your club won the Major25

Level on points is separated by goal difference, then goals scored, then whoever needed fewer sets to get there.

Two things worth knowing:

  • Ten sets before you get a position. Below that your record still counts,

it is just not published as a rank yet — a ratio over four games is noise.

  • Losing to a lower-ranked gamer costs nothing extra. The upset bonus is

additive only. Nobody is punished for turning up.


Keeping your squad — and losing it

Finish in your division's top six and the three of you stay together on that badge next season.

Finish seventh or lower and the squad is dissolved back into the draft pool. The club stays; the people do not. That is the closest thing this league has to relegation — a mid-table season costs you your team, which is a sharper incentive than mid-table placings usually carry.

One exception: win the Major and your squad is kept regardless of where it finished at home. Beating 113 other clubs is the harder achievement.

> Clubs are not promoted or relegated between divisions. Gor Mahia does not > become a LaLiga club by winning the FKF Premier League. What moves is squads, > not clubs.


Transfers

Every club gets four transfers before the season — and these are players inside EA FC, not gamers. Your squad of three does not change.

Clubs are called to the clock one at a time, weakest first, so a club handed a poor roster signs before one handed a great one. One footballer plays for one club only: signed by Arsenal means unavailable to Barcelona.


The prize pool

Not yet announced. A number on a public page is a promise, and nothing is published here until the pool is agreed and the season's financials are locked.

When it is announced, what gets published is every paid position, how a club's prize is split between its three gamers, and when it pays out.

Three things are already true:

  • Prizes are paid from a funded float, not minted on demand
  • A gamer under 18 competes freely but is paid through a named guardian
  • Nothing accrues until the season's financials are locked, which is an audited

step


If you cannot play

Use the link in your draft email to give up your place. A replacement is drawn from the pool immediately, so your two team-mates are not left short.

There is no penalty for it. A place held by somebody who has stopped playing costs their club a forfeited set every single matchday, which is far worse for everyone than an honest no.