National teams

National team competitions

The National teams compete against each other in three interconnected tournaments. The continental championships, the Nations Cup and the actual World Cup. The competition cycle spans two seasons. It starts with the continental championships for European, American, African and Asia/Oceania leagues and ends with the World Cup.

The Nations Cup is a lesser tournament for teams that did not reach the World Cup and is played in parallel to the World Cup.

National teams follow their own card status, and have a completely separate system of red / yellow cards from 'normal' Hattrick. As such, any card received in a NT/U21 match will only count for the matches that are part of that NT/U21 competition. Equally, should a player be red carded in normal Hattrick, he will still be able to play in a NT/U21 match. Cards are reset at the end of each competition (or when the team is eliminated from that competition).

Continental championships

Every National team in Hattrick is guaranteed a place in their continental championship. These continental championships are played in groups of 6 teams. Groups are seeded based on the National Team ranking (see below).

The continental championships has a Round-Robin format (double matches - home away) and lasts for 10 weeks with quarter finals, semi finals and finals in the last week.

The best 8 teams in every region, based on their position, points, goals difference, and goals scored, will play quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals, while the rest of the National Coaches can schedule friendlies on Fridays. In the quarter-finals, the top 4 teams (based on position, points, goal difference, scored goals, and random if all else is equal) randomly face the bottom 4 teams that qualified to the quarter-finals. Two teams from the same group will not face each other in the quarters. The winner will be named continental champion and awarded a gold trophy. Silver and bronze trophies will be awarded to the teams placing 2nd and 3rd-4th respectively.

World Cup

The World Cup starts in week 13 of the first season and lasts for the rest of season 1 and the entire season 2. It is divided into 5 rounds, followed by semi finals and finals.

96 teams participate in the Round 1 in 16 groups of 6 teams in a Round-Robin format. The first 4 of each group will proceed to Round 2, while the rest are disqualified.

Round 2 will have 16 groups of 4 teams in a Round-Robin format and the first 2 of each group will proceed to Round 3.

In Round 3 we have 8 groups with 4 teams where they play one match with every opponent in a neutral venue and the top 2 of each group promote to Round 4.

Round 4 and Round 5 will have four and two groups respectively, with four teams in each. Each team will play the other once at a neutral site, and the top two of each group will promote to the next round.

Both the semi finals and the final are in neutral venues. The winner of the final is named World champion, and is awarded a gold trophy. Silver and bronze trophies are awarded to the runner-ups.

Before each round, Team Spirit and Team Confidence will fully or partially reset to the reset values. For example, if the current team spirit is at level 9 and the reset value is 5 with the 80% reset, your team spirit will be decreased by (9 - 5) * 0.8 = 3.2 levels. Reset and midpoint values for the daily updates, for both Team Spirit and Team Confidences are 5.0.

Nations Cup

Teams that did not manage to qualify for the World Cup will play in the Nations Cup, which takes place alongside the World Cup. This tournament is played in the Swiss format tournament (similar to the Supporter Week Trophy).

This is not merely a consolation tournament, but can be important for smaller teams as the final standings in the Nations Cup are used for seeding the next continental championship. At the end of the Nations Cup, during the semifinals and finals of the World Cup, the top 8 teams will have a knockout tournament, in which the top 4 teams (based on position, points, goal differential, scored goals, and random, if all else is equal) randomly face the bottom 4 teams that qualified for the quarterfinals. The winner will take home a trophy.

During the Nations Cup, players cannot be injured, but cards work as in any other tournament. Formation experience will carry over from the Continental Championship, with the possibility to reset formation experience just like before the World Cup, and then be updated as normal after every Nations Cup match.

The winner is awarded the Nations Cup trophy.

World Cup qualification

96 teams progress from the Continental championships to the World Cup.

Each continent has their own World Cup slots, which are awarded to the best-placed teams in each group of the Regional Cup group stage. As you can see in the table below, Europe has 32 slots, Asia-Oceania 21 slots, Africa 12, and the Americas 20.

A number of wildcard slots will be awarded to teams that did not qualify directly through the group stage of the Regional Cups. With 11 available wildcards, the best 22 non-qualifying teams will be selected for a wildcard playoff, with the winners earning spots in the World Cup. Wildcard teams are determined by points and goal difference in Regional Cup group stages.

In the wildcard playoff, the team with the highest ranking (a ranking based also on previous World Cup results) will be matched against the team with the lowest ranking, and the team with second highest ranking with the team of the second lowest ranking, and so forth. The playoff is played home and away, with a complete reset of Team Spirit and Team Confidence before the first match. In case of a tie, the second match will have extra time and penalties.

National Team ranking

Each National Team has its own ranking, which seeds the Regional Cup group draw. The last five seasons have an impact for this ranking, but this effect decays over time, meaning recent performances have more effect on the ranking than older performances.

Three factors affect rankings: the result of each match (M), the importance of the match (I), and the strength of the opposing team (T). The formula used to calculate the ranking is: P = M x I x T

For the variable T, we subtract the ranking of the opponent team from the number 250.

Then, the final ranking is the average number of points (P) of the last 5 seasons weighted 100%, 70%, 50%, 30%, 20%, with the 100% being the current season and the 20% four seasons in the past. Rankings are updated after every match.

Continental championship draw

We use the National Team Ranking to create the seeding for the Continental Championship draw pots. The first position of each group is always reserved for the top teams, where Group 1 will get the top team, Group 2 the second team, etc. Then there are five draw pots, one for each position in the group, filled with the rest of the teams sorted by their Ranking. For example, in the Americas Championship, there are five groups of six teams. The first position in each group is filled by the top five teams, based on their Ranking. The second positions are filled by teams six to ten, the third position by teams 11 to 15, etc. During the live draw, we work through each groups until all pots are empty and all groups are fully populated.

World Cup draw

The team ranking from the current season will determine the seed of that team in the World Cup draw. There are 16 groups in the World Cup's first round, and the first team for each group is picked automatically. The top ranked European team from the Continental Championships (EU#1 in the table below) will always be the first team picked for Group 1, and the team ranked 8 in the Americas will always be the first team picked in Group 16.

Once one team is assigned to a group, all other teams are picked during a live draw. The ranking from the Continental championship is still very important, but instead of being assigned directly to a group, teams are put into draw pots. If you keep looking at the table below, the column for "Team 2" shows four teams will be put in the first draw pot. These are the teams ranked 8, 7, 6, and 5 in Africa. Out of this pot they are assigned as the second team to Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4, as decided by the draw. Four new teams are entered into the second draw pot and drawn for Groups 5, 6, 7, and 8. This process continues until all 16 groups are filled.

The system is broadly deterministic, making sure all the best teams from the strongest continents are not in the same groups. But, at the same time, we wanted a random element to prevent teams from intentionally influencing the World Cup draw. This could happen if teams still in a Continental Cup lost matches on purpose in an effort to determine the World Cup groups. The random element also makes the live draw much more fun.

EU: Europe
AME: the Americas
AFR: Africa
ASO: Asia-Oceania
WS: Wildcard slot

Elections

Elections are held at the beginning of the season, starting the two days after the World Cup Final. Every second season managers elect a National Team coach, and every second season managers elect a U21 coach. Each coach is elected for 2 seasons, ending their term about a week after the World Cup Final. Note that you will need to have played Hattrick for at least 1 season in order to be able to vote in the National Team elections.

Voting power

You can only vote once in an election. However, this vote may gain extra weight in the final tally. This system of voting power rewards commitment to the game, but the main reason for it is to make it harder to manipulate elections.

If you are a local team, you receive your first vote after 1 season in the game. You then gain a second vote after 5 seasons in the game, a third vote after 10 seasons, and a fourth vote after 15 seasons. Local teams can receive a total of 4 votes this way.

If you are voting for an additional team, you receive your first vote after two seasons and a second and final seniority vote after 10 seasons.

All users also get up to two engagement votes, depending on how active their team management has been. We will not explain exactly how these work, to make it harder to manipulate them. They have been designed to be very easy to achieve for any normally managed team, but very tedious to achieve if you are maintaining a set of fake teams. Please note that as a user, you will not see the exact weight your vote has. We will just explain the principles behind the system.

The National Team squad

The national coach picks up to 26 players (from teams with active managers) from the pool of players with the right nationality. In terms of age requirements, U21 players must be at least 19 years old and National Team players at least 22 years old. After choosing players, the NT coach can see the same data for the National Team players as managers do for their own team.

Each national team has their own formation experience, and at the start of every continental championship and World Cup/Nations Cup, national coaches will have about a week to decide which six formations will have formidable experience, while the rest will start from poor. There are two selection periods: the first one is from the day the election ends up to the Team Spirit and Team Confidence reset the day before the first match for continental championships. The second one starts in Week 12 and runs up to the Team Spirit and Team Confidence reset in Week 13.
Please note that NT/U21 teams' daily updates take place every day at 03:00am HT-Time.

Having a National Team player

If one of your players is on the National Team, their ability to play for your team will be unaffected. National Team matches and club games are typically played on separate days, so your player is always available to you. Matches for the National Team will not give your player any training, however, there is the risk of injury.

There are several benefits for your club if your player gets to play a match with the National Team:

- You will get a 33% or 40% salary reduction of the player's salary, depending on whether they are playing in a foreign team or their home country.

- The player gains a lot of experience. The amount of experience varies depending on the match type. In descending order: World Cup finals and semifinals, World Cup matches, Continental Championship finals, semifinals, and quarterfinals, then Continental Championship matches, the National Cup, and finally National Team friendlies.

- If a player is injured and has to leave a National Team match, the club will be compensated 100% of the player's base salary for the estimated number of weeks the injury is expected to last. This is in addition to the regular salary reduction.

There are no injuries in national team friendly matches.

Note that you are expected not to undermine National Teams through sabotaging your National Team player(s). National Team administrators, as a last resort, have the discretion to release players to the transfer market in the event of sabotage.

If you consider running for office, or if you just want more information, we recommend that you read the rules for national teams.

World Cup Schedule - Season 1

World Cup Schedule - Season 2