Inside the match engine

Produces the same opportunities, participants, rolls and result.

Changes weights, duels and often the order in which the seed is consumed; it is a genuinely different simulation.

Reads the already stored journal. It never runs a second version of the fixture.

Uses the best four midfield values. Each value blends Passing with the lower of the player’s offensive OP/BC pair and defensive DP/TA pair, then applies fatigue.

• With exactly three midfielders, the third value repeats at 75%.
• Every five points of advantage adds one opportunity, fractionally, up to four.
• Bypass midfield can never win this domination bonus.

Each OM, LW and RW gives the opponent one opportunity; fielding any number of DMs gives one; Cut supply to a midfielder gives one.

• Adaptive shape can refund at most one cost that actually exists.

Keep possession and Adaptive shape no longer cost an opportunity; they pay in the phase instead: a weaker entry pass from a passer who is out-pressed, and half the flank defenders’ cover in the box. Slow the game cuts both scheduled volumes by 33%, except for a Technical freedom side. Personal runs, counters and captain rallies are separate; the cut does not stack with the automatic slowdown at a lead of 3 or more goals.

Does not change the opportunity count or how often either side attacks. Assistance, blocking, crowding and the offside line follow mentality.

Matchup edges no longer add extra opportunities; the approach still has to show in the phase.

At normal tempo, every FW/ST owns one per 90 minutes, played to him in the box by a team-mate. LWB/RWB earn Constitution-based runs that start in midfield: zero below 40, one at 40, two at 55, three at 80 and four at 100. These rates change while a side leads by four or more goals.

A clear win in midfield, a defender’s clearance from the box or a keeper’s clean save can launch a break. It is the recovering side’s very next action, before anything else in that minute, and it comes on top of the ordinary count.

• At most 4 from midfield, 1 from a defender and 1 from the keeper per match; a Playmaker at the back or in goal can add one more.
• Regain and break counters more often and from smaller margins; a side defending a counter has less support.

In the second half, the captain of a trailing side can push his team forward: up to 2 extra chances for his side and up to 2 for the opponent, more often with a positive personality.

At a lead of exactly three goals, scheduled opportunities ease off by 25%, without stacking with the shared Slow the game cut. From four goals ahead, the leading side progressively reduces its attacking initiative.

• At +4 / +5 / +6 / +7 or more, the leader uses 50% / 30% / 15% / 10% of normal tempo; the trailing side uses 110% / 115% / 120% / 120%. These are generation rates, not guaranteed counts or a score cap.
• Applies to scheduled opportunities, personal runs and captain-created chances. The leader is also less likely to launch new counters; already earned counters and set-piece follow-ups continue.
• The new rhythm starts in the next minute. Below a four-goal lead, the existing rules resume, including the slowdown at +3. Suppressed opportunities are not saved for a later catch-up burst.
• The shared Slow the game reduction is replaced for the leader, not compounded. Technical freedom still follows the big-lead rule. Long-ball budgets remain limits within available opportunities; unused deliveries are not forced into a quieter match.
• Player skills, shot execution, saves and handling are unchanged. Extra opportunities still need to beat the opponent’s players. The match report announces each change of rhythm.

On an ordinary opportunity, an outmatched starter may find the route through the opposing midfield closed and be forced to bypass it with a high long pass.

• Starter build quality is the higher of Passing and Ball Control after the offensive midfield caps.
• It is compared with the opposing midfield’s defensive quality in the physical channel being attacked, not with the later individual challenger.
• Only a positive deficit creates risk: deficit ÷ 40 × 75%, capped at 75%. The seeded match draw decides the realised choice.
• Example: build quality 50 against opposition quality 70 gives a deficit of 20 and a 37.5% forced-long-pass chance.
• If forced, the high pass quality is calculated separately from the starter’s effective Passing and Aerial. This opening choice is not Hasty Action, which can affect the receiver’s later continuation after a midfield duel.

Offensive Positioning opposes Defensive Positioning before the technical challenge. In midfield and in his own box the defender has no fixed advantage: whether he gets there, and by how much, is one contest, the positioning gap plus one bounded dice of ±20; a gap of 20 decides it, below that the chance moves smoothly. If he does not get there, the receiver’s margin is how far he escaped.

Ball Control opposes Tackling after position and assistance are carried in. There is no standing for the defender, in midfield or in the box: the gap plus one bounded dice of ±25 decides who keeps the ball, and that same value is the margin. A Long Pass still caps the margin passed on.

Aerial is blended with Ball Control or Tackling according to zone and role limits.

The combined control margin plus half the positioning margin reaches the clear band, unlocking advanced orders and transition effects.

A box margin of 15 is almost free and 24 is completely free. If the defender never got there, the margin is how far the attacker escaped; if he got there and lost the ball, it is the control margin minus half of the positioning he actually won. These bands are deliberately separate from the clear-margin rule.

Adds or subtracts skill points for the current action. Constitution is unaffected, and the player’s stored skills do not change.

• Awesome adds 5 points; Brilliant 4; Superb 3; Excellent 2; Good 1; Decent 0.
• Weak subtracts 2 points, capped at 10% of the raw skill; Poor subtracts 4, capped at 15%; Awful subtracts 5, capped at 25%. Use whichever loss is smaller.
• For example, Awesome form takes skill 60 to 65 before other match modifiers: a gain of 5 points, not 5%.
• With Awful form and skill 10, the 25% cap limits the loss to 2.5 points, leaving 7.5.

Constitution is the full-strength minute budget, plus 20 minutes of half-time recovery and another 20 before extra time. Played minutes and accumulated pressing and duel work consume that budget.

• Every excess equivalent minute removes 1%, capped at a 50% reduction.
• A substitute counts from his entry minute and starts without accumulated work. Goalkeepers never become fatigued.
• In a youth match every player counts as having 8 more Constitution.

Does not create a positive random bonus. It reduces the chance and depth of executing below the calculated level.

• At effective experience 0 the mistake chance is 30%, falling to 5% at 100.
• Maximum possible mistake depth falls from 20 to 10 points; small mistakes are more common.
• Ice Cold adds 20 effective experience.

Strong defensive assistance in midfield can force the next pass or dribble 10 points lower. Technical freedom halves own risk; Regain and break multiplies the opponent’s risk ×1.5.

• With two or more OMs on the pitch, a midfield win through the centre gets +5 when it is measured against the clear margin.

Can add only enough to overturn an eligible close duel, capped at 20. Each added point creates 1.2% foul risk and consumes 0.05 equivalent minutes of stamina for the next action.

The shooter's situation and execution plus his one ±12 dice decide whether the attempt finds the target. It is not a quality-blind miss roll, and the keeper does not set the target.

• A stronger calculated finish is progressively more accurate, and freedom or angle weighs three times as much as execution.
• For a normal shot with execution 50, a marked shooter (situation 0) finds the target about 87.5% of the time, an almost free one (+5) about 99.7% and one at a bad angle (−7) about 42%. A marked shooter with execution 35 finds it about 58%. These are on-target chances, not goal probabilities.
• Harder finishes cost margin before the dice: a header 1.5 points, a volley 2.2, a First-time finish 2.9, a lob 3.6 and a long shot 6.5. A volley also takes 10 off the keeper’s Positioning, and a First-time finish 5.

A bad angle removes 7; two independent bad-angle sources become a really bad angle at −14.

After a high pass into the box, the keeper loses from his set-up for the save half of what his Interceptions trail two-thirds of the incoming pass quality: nothing when they reach it, and no fixed step below. Before 29 September 2026 the loss was a flat 7 below two-thirds or 14 below one-half. The misread does not make the shooter more accurate. Low passes and carries are not affected.

The value his set-up adds to the save, from the phase: half of his Positioning minus the shooter’s realised reception in the box; half of his Positioning minus the attempt without its bonus on long shots and direct free kicks; the Positioning curve read against Scoring on rebounds and other finishes. The report names it beside his save grade: had the angle covered from +10, had set himself from +5, was in position between −5 and +5, was a step late down to −10, was caught square below.

After a won box duel, nearby defensive roles contest every finish before accuracy and the keeper are tested. Headers and volleys compare Aerial on both sides; foot shots compare Tackling against Scoring. The direct defender is excluded: his pressure already affects shooting freedom. A fifth defender is not required.

• Candidates are defenders on the relevant flank or in the centre, including wing-backs; a DM contributes only to central phases. This approximates availability, not measured locations.
• Role weights: CB 1, LB/RB 0.7, LWB/RWB 0.4, DM 0.5. Mentality uses its crowding multiplier divided by 0.85; a counterattack multiplies contributions by 0.30. Technical freedom can reduce each colleague’s contribution.
• Each contribution h is weight × mentality × counterattack × creative factor × DP/(DP+OP) × TA/(TA+SC) for foot shots or AE/(AE+shooter AE) for headers and volleys, using skills with form and fatigue. H is their sum; the block chance is H/(1+H). One draw decides both the block and the named blocker, including when it produces a corner. A block produces a corner in 20% of cases.
• For a high ball, explicit finishing orders take priority. Without an overriding order, Aerial Ability more than 5 above Scoring selects a header; the two within 5 select a volley; otherwise the player brings the ball down and strikes it with his foot. Keeper positioning modifiers do not choose the contact. An active trick remains a foot finish even when its keeper modifier cancels another bonus. Older match journals may reflect the former rule, which skipped automatic headers and volleys whenever that modifier was non-zero.
• A clear escape from the direct defender does not establish that every colleague was left behind. The duel margin does not enter this block formula. Set pieces, rebounds and shots after a beaten offside trap keep their existing rules.

Extra defenders beyond the first four still contribute quality-based crowd points to the shooting angle.

• The older crowd-point block, capped at 60%, remains on routes not covered by the colleague block, after an uncontested reception; the two block rules are not stacked.
• Crowding removes 6 shot points per effective point.
• Mentality scales those crowd points: Low block ×1.10, Cautious ×0.94, Balanced ×0.85, Front foot ×0.75 and All-out ×0.67. Extra defenders no longer tax your own finishing.

On a completely free finish, Interceptions determines whether the keeper comes; Ball Control then opposes Goalkeeper Positioning.

Each player rolls one bounded ±12 dice; the shot scores when execution, situation and the shooter's dice beat Reflexes, the keeper's set-up and the keeper's dice. There is no fixed keeper advantage.

• The report grades the total action before the dice, including situation or set-up.
• The keeper's set-up from this phase is named in words beside that grade, and contributes to the pre-draw action grade.
• One dice of the shooter decides both the direction and the contest with the keeper; his grade uses execution plus situation, before the dice.
• The technical detail of the report shows the goal chance knowing only that the shot is on target (without the values either dice rolled), together with both dice and every term of the comparison.

Control and the realised save margin determine held, corner or rebound. Every saved rebound attempt is resolved again, with a defender-versus-shooter recovery contest after each spill. Winning the loose ball in open play gives the attacker the chance to shoot, not an automatic finishing advantage: the follow-up carries no bonus. A chain that began with a spilled penalty keeps its +5 on every follow-up.

• A badly placed keeper holds less: his Control falls by 0.3 for each point of Goalkeeper Positioning below 45.