Guide

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How to start?

Here are a few tips to make your start to PowerPlay Manager easier.

• Make sure you read the guide. You can find a lot of useful information in it. The whole guide can be found under the 'Information' menu, or you can find it in the upper right corner of the individual pages as an icon. Clicking this icon will take you to the guide referring to the screen that you currently have displayed.
• Set up your starting line-up and don't forget to set your captain too. There is nothing worse than letting a randomly generated line-up play your matches.
• Train your players in such a way, that they have suitable attributes for their position in the matches.
• Build your facilities and arena with thought. Do not build what comes to your mind first, but make plans in advance. Bear in mind that the club needs different accessories and facilities in the early stages than in the later stages.
• Money on your account is important but only to a certain extent. Keep a certain amount of money in reserve, but invest the rest into the arena and facilities.
  Warning! If the team is in debt for more than 21 days, you will be dismissed by the team owners. After seven days in debt, you will see a message which will alert you to the poor financial situation in the club. The club's finances are checked only during the night update.
• Keep hiring staff as they have a significant influence on the facilities they work in. Do not forget to educate and train them. But beware of the fact that the better staff members also have higher salaries which could cause you financial troubles.
• The right tactics could be the difference in an otherwise close match. Do not forget to modify your tactics according to the line-up you are using and according to your next opponent.
• Playing the matches on high importance setting can enhance the performance of the team, but the players will spend more energy and they could run out of energy by the end of the season. Therefore, set the match importance with great care.
• Log into the game regularly because your team needs your leadership. If you play every match with the same lineup and tactics, you will become easy to read for your opponents. Manager who doesn't log into his team for more than 21 consecutive days will be dismissed by the team owners. Managers are always dismissed at 06:00 CET.
• Almost every game page has a brief text describing its basic features. Make the effort to read these texts from time to time, as they are written in a simplified way and they will help you understand the basic game mechanisms.

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Playing system

Season
The season lasts 16 weeks, which is 112 days. Each league has 14 teams. Every team plays 52 league matches in the regular season (4 matches against each opponent). The match days for regular season are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

After the regular season the first 8 teams qualify for the playoffs. Playoff match days are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Playoff is played in best-of-three series until final positions of all teams are determined. This means that the eliminated teams from the quarterfinals and semifinals continue in the consolation round to determine their final ranking. The playoff champion is promoted to a higher league. The runner-up will play in the promotion round.

Teams ranked 9th to 14th after the regular season play in the relegation group. The teams play additional 10 matches which will determine the final ranking of these teams. Before the first matches are played, the teams get points based on their final rank in the regular season.

Position	Points
9	10
10	8
11	6
12	4
13	2
14	0

Teams ranked 9th to 11th at the end of relegation group will play the runners-up from the lower divisions to avoid relegation.

Teams ranked 12th to 14th at the end of relegation group will be automatically relegated to the lower divisions and they will be replaced by the champions from these divisions.

Each league has three leagues below it where the teams from this league are relegated. If any league does not have all three leagues in the tier below but, for instance, only one, then only the team that ranked 14th will be relegated. In such a case the team ranked 13th will play in the relegation round.

At the end of the season the final ranking is determined. It is important to finish as high as possible. General sponsors and media sponsors offer more generous contracts for the upcoming season to the higher ranked teams.

Warning! All playoffs are played with a knock-out system where the top seeded team always plays the lowest seeded team. This means, that if teams that are seeded one, four, six and seven advance into the second round of the playoff, the first seed will play the seventh seed and the fourth seed will play the sixth seed. The playoff tree displayed in the playoff page is dynamic and so it changes after every round depending on the results, even though it might seem, that the first seed should play the fourth seed.

The relegation/promotion round is a best-of-three series. The matches are played on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of the final week of the season. The home field advantage in match 3 (if needed) goes to the team from the higher league.

Scoring system
The following scoring system is used in the league:
Win: 2 points
Draw: 1 point
Loss: 0 points

If two or more teams are tied on points at the end of the regular season, the ranking is decided by the better goal difference (goals for minus goals against). If the teams are still tied, the other tie breaking criteria are higher number of goals scored and finally higher overall team rating.

System of leagues
The top tier is made up of only one division. Then there are 3 divisions on the second tier and the number of divisions multiplies by three with each tier. Therefore, there are 9 divisions on the third tier, 27 on fourth, 81 on fifth etc. The divisions are marked by a combination of Roman and Arabic numerals. For example II.3 means that it is division number three on the second tier.

League regrouping
At the end of each season there is a league regrouping of the two lowest league levels in the selected countries. That means that the redundant leagues will be closed and the active teams will be concentrated into the lowest possible number of leagues. This regrouping is necessary in order to keep the game interesting and avoid large numbers of teams without managers. During regrouping it may happen that some teams from the lowest league level will be promoted one level higher.

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Time in the game

The time displayed in the top part of the page is the Central European Time (CET) or the time of the time zone which you have selected in the account settings. The night calculation is always at 05:00 CET. The date and day of the season are just two of the things that are updated during the night calculation.

The matches are played at different times based on the location of the home team. The table below shows the match times according to country.

Country	Match time (CET)
Argentina	23:00
Austria	19:00
Belarus	19:00
Belgium	20:00
Bosnia and Herzegovina	19:00
Brazil	23:00
Bulgaria	19:00
Canada	23:00
Chile	23:00
China	13:00
Croatia	19:00
Czech Republic	20:00
Denmark	20:00
Estonia	19:00
Finland	19:00
France	20:00
Germany	20:00
Greece	19:00
Hungary	19:00
Iran	13:00
Italy	19:00
Latvia	19:00
Lithuania	19:00
Netherlands	20:00
Norway	20:00
Poland	19:00
Portugal	20:00
Romania	19:00
Russia	19:00
Serbia	19:00
Slovakia	19:00
Slovenia	19:00
Spain	20:00
Sweden	20:00
Switzerland	20:00
Turkey	19:00
Ukraine	19:00
United Kingdom	20:00
United States of America	23:00
Venezuela	23:00
Other World	19:00

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Team

Number of players in the team
The minimum number of players on the team is 7. The maximum number is unlimited. However, if you have more than 25 players, you will have to pay a daily fee to the handball association. The fee for each extra player is 5% of the combined salaries of all players. If the number of players drops below 7, you will be dismissed by the team owners. If a team doesn't have at least 5 players available, the match will be forfeit.

Overall team rating
The overall team rating is one of the most important indicators of the long-term performance of the team. It reflects the popularity amongst the fans and sponsors. After each season the overall team rating is reduced by 30%. The overall team rating grows with good results and all types of matches, except for matches in credit tournaments, have an influence.

The overall team rating has a significant influence on attendance and teams with higher rating generally receive better offers from general and media sponsors.

Only if you lose in regulation, the overall team rating doesn't increase. The increase of the overall team rating is higher, if a team gets a good result against a strong opponent.

Teams without managers
There are two kinds of teams without manager. The first kind are teams marked with the † symbol. These teams lost their manager for some reason. The second kind are teams which have the text Team noname in their name. These teams have not had a manager yet.

If a team has no manager, usually it can be assigned to a new manager if it's located in the lowest league level. If the number of leagues on the lowest level is less than on the second lowest level, the teams without manager on the second lowest level may also be assigned to new managers.

If a team has played at least two seasons with the same manager, it cannot be assigned to another manager regardless of the league level. A team like this will then be replaced by Team noname during the next seasonal calculation if it is located or relegated to a league where teams can be assigned to new managers.

Team strength
The team strength indicator shows the strength of your line-up in the last league match. The goalkeeping, defense and offense indicators are calculated from the strength of individual players in the given positions and time that they spent in goal, defense or offense. The shooting indicator is calculated from the shooting attribute of players playing in offense. The time that players spent on the offense is taken into account here as well.

Manager experience
Every manager gains experience automatically by playing the game regularly. For each day that you log into your team you gain one point of manager experience. For three days of inactivity you lose a point. Until you get to 11 points you don't lose points for inactivity. Once you reach this mark you will not drop below it. The number of points that you have determines your level of experience. The higher your level, the more benefits you can enjoy. Warning! Experience is tied to your team and if you lose your team, you will have to start gathering experience from zero.

Levels of managers according to experience

Level	Points	Benefits
rookie	0-10	---
beginner	11-50	the option to buy or sell players or staff members, the option to take a loan, the option to vote for a national team manager
amateur	51-100	the option to take a small loan, PRO pack for 7 days, the option to run for national team manager
professional	101-300	the option to take a medium loan
veteran	301-600	the option to take a large loan
expert	601+	the option to take a maximum loan

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Calendar

My Calendar
In your calendar you can see the schedule of your matches for the displayed month. After clicking one of the calendar fields you can view more options, such as the match report from the day's match, in the bigger calendar field. The whole season is scheduled during the main seasonal calculation.

You can play up to two matches every day. The big calendar windows show competitive and friendly matches. The small calendar windows show credit tournament matches.

Opponent's calendar
In the calendar of your opponent, you can see his/her schedule of matches. The days which you can use to challenge the team to a friendly match are marked with an icon of green handball players. This icon indicates, that neither you, nor your opponent have a match scheduled for this day, and you can play each other.

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Challenges

You can challenge an opponent to a friendly match via his/her calendar. The days which you can use to challenge the team to a friendly match are marked with an icon of green handball players. This icon indicates, that neither you, nor your opponent have a match scheduled for that day, and you can play each other. It is important to note that you cannot send a challenge for the current day. If you want to cancel a friendly match, you must do so at least two days before the match.

You can challenge your opponent to a friendly match with or without the overtime tiebreak. A match with overtime tiebreak must end in a victory of one of the teams, so in case of a draw the match goes into overtime. If the overtime doesn't decide the winner, the 7m throws will follow.

The home field advantage does not apply to friendly matches.

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Finances

The revenues of a club come from several sources. The basic source of revenue is from ticket sales. The ticket prices are not adjustable and they are set to 400 for each league. Another source of revenue is the souvenir sale. The number of souvenirs sold depends mainly on attendance, popularity of the players and the number of fan shops in the arena. Yet more revenue comes from general sponsor, media sponsor and VIP lounge lease.

Revenue from the ticket sales from a friendly match is divided equally between both teams. Ticket sale revenues from the National Cup matches are also split between both teams.

General sponsor
Every team has a valid contract with a general sponsor upon arrival of the new manager. The sponsorship deals for the upcoming season are negotiated at the end of each season. The club receives three offers on each of the three consecutive days. If you accept any offer, the club will not receive further offers. If you do not accept any of the nine offers, the owners will sign a sponsorship deal with a fixed weekly income without bonuses on the following day. The general sponsorship deal is signed for the whole of the following season.

There are three various types of sponsor offers. The first type is based on regular weekly payments. In the second type of contract, the weekly payments are lower, but you get financial bonuses after every league win. This applies to regular season, playoff, placement playoff, relegation round and relegation/promotion round. In the third type of offer, your first need to choose the target position which you think is within your team's capabilities. The higher the target, the more money you can earn, but also the higher the risk that you won't achieve the goal. The bonus for position in the league is paid out 5 times in a season (day 24, 46, 69, 92 and 106 of the season). If you are not on the target position or higher at the given day, the bonus will not be paid out.

Contracts with performance bonuses can be renegotiated midway through the season. If you have the second type of contract and you are not doing as expected, you can switch to the first type midway through the season. Your weekly income will grow, but you will not get bonuses for wins any more. If you have the third type of contract, you can switch to the first type or change the target position midway through the season. If your team is moved to a different league in league regrouping and you signed a contract with bonuses, you can renegotiate this contract during the first two days of the season.

The amount of money you get from the general sponsor is influenced mainly by: the final ranking in the recently ended season, the overall team rating and the level of the human resources and economic department. The first offers arrive on the last Thursday of the season which is day 109 of the season.

The sponsors also take into account whether your team was promoted or relegated. If your team was promoted to a higher league, you can expect better offers. On the other hand if it was relegated, the offers will be worse. Sponsors pay special attention to how your team approaches key matches in connection with promotion or relegation. If they find out that your team plays these matches with significantly weakened line-up, it will reflect on their offers at the end of the season. These key matches are playoff quarterfinals, semifinals and finals as well as the promotion/relegation matches.

Taking part or qualifying for Champions' League or Cup Winners' Cup will also draw better sponsorship offers. The quality of the offer is also influenced by the level of your league. The number of league tiers in the country may also influence the sponsor offers. The sponsors are more willing to invest in countries with larger number of leagues.

Every time you get an offer you have the option to accept or reject it. A new offer will arrive even if you have not rejected the previous offer. The previous offer is rejected automatically upon arrival of the new offer.

Media sponsor
As with general sponsor, the team already has a valid contract with a media sponsor upon arrival of the new manager. The media sponsorships for the upcoming season are negotiated at the end of each season. The club receives three offers on three consecutive days. If you accept the first offer, the club will not receive any further offers. If you do not accept any of the three offers, the owners will sign a contract with a new media sponsor on the following day even without your approval. The sum offered by the media sponsor is divided into regular weekly payments which are transfered to the club's account every Wednesday. To help you make a decision, the human resources and economic department will give their recommendation on each offer. The amount of money you get from the media sponsor is influenced mainly by: the final rank in the recently ended season, the overall team rating, the level of the human resources and economic department and the capacity of the arena. Warning! The offers from media sponsors are based on the current capacity of the arena. The sectors under construction are not taken into account. The first offer arrives on the last Thursday of the season which is day 109 of the season.

The media sponsors also take into account whether your team was promoted or relegated. If your team was promoted to a higher league, you can expect better offers. On the other hand if it was relegated, the offers will be worse. Media sponsors pay special attention to how your team approaches key matches in connection with promotion or relegation. If they find out that your team plays these matches with significantly weakened line-up, it will reflect on their offers at the end of the season.

Taking part or qualifying for Champions' League or Cup Winners' Cup will also draw better offers from media sponsors. The quality of the offer is also influenced by the level of your league. The number of league tiers in the country may also influence the media sponsor offers. The media sponsors are more willing to invest in countries with larger number of leagues.

Every time you get an offer you have the option to accept or reject it. A new offer will arrive even if you have not rejected the previous offer. The previous offer is rejected automatically upon arrival of the new offer.

VIP lounges
When the VIP lounge construction is finished, the team owners automatically lease it to some company until the end of the current season. Companies then send in new offers at the end of each season. The club will get three offers on three consecutive days. If you accept the first offer, the club will not receive further offers. If you do not accept any of the three offers, the owners will lease the VIP lounge to a new company on the following day even without your approval. VIP lounges are leased for the whole duration of the following season. The sum offered by the leaseholder will be divided into regular weekly payments, which will be transfered to the club's account each Wednesday. To help you make a decision, the human resources and economic department will give their recommendation on each offer. The amount of money you get from the lease of the VIP lounges lease is influenced mainly by: the ranking in the league, the overall team rating, the level of the human resources and economic department and the level of the stand. The first offer arrives on the last Thursday of the season which is day 109 of the season.

The VIP lounge suitors also take into account whether your team was promoted or relegated. If your team was promoted to a higher league, you can expect better offers. On the other hand if it was relegated, the offers will be worse. VIP lounge suitors pay special attention to how your team approaches key promotion or relegation matches. If they find out that your team plays these matches with significantly weakened line-up, it will reflect on their offers at the end of the season.

Taking part or qualifying for Champions' League or Cup Winners' Cup will also draw better offers from the companies for the lease of the VIP lounges. The quality of the offer is also influenced by the level of your league. The number of league tiers in the country may also influence the VIP lounge lease offers. There is a bigger demand for VIP lounges in countries with larger number of leagues.

Every time you get an offer you have the option to accept or reject it. A new offer will arrive even if you have not rejected the previous offer. The previous offer is rejected automatically upon arrival of the new offer.

Prize money
The teams can gain some extra funds from the prize money. The prize money is awarded for final regular season ranking, for final ranking after the playoffs and also for the leading positions in the player statistics. The prize money depends on the final rank of the team and/or player as well as the level of your league and the average overall team rating of all the teams in the league.

Loan
If you plan to build up the arena or buy players but the financial situation is not the best, you can borrow money from the bank. You have to be careful when borrowing because the bank loans money with interest which has to be repaid as well. You can only have one loan at a time! The loan can be repaid prematurely, but only if you have sufficient amount of money on your account. The sooner you repay the loan, the less you spend on interest payments.

There are 6 types of a loan depending on the amount borrowed. For every type of loan you need to have a certain level of manager experience. The more money you want to borrow, the more manager experience you need to have.

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Players

Attributes
The most important characteristics of a player are his attributes. Each player has eight basic attributes: Goalkeeping, Field play, Shooting, Blocking, Passing, Technique, Speed and Aggressiveness. Each of these attributes has its quality, which is inborn and does not change throughout the career. You can only see exact values of the quality of attributes for players who have been scouted by the scouts from your human resources and economic department. The quality of the attribute determines the ability of a player to improve the given skill.



A - The value of the attribute used to determine the current abilities of the player.
B - The quality of the attribute used to determine the ability of a player to improve in the given attribute.



You can see the precise value of the attribute to two decimal spots by moving your mouse over the attribute in the player's profile. The quality of each attribute is displayed in grey color next to the value of the attribute. If a player is scouted, the qualities displayed are precise and green-colored.

The performance of a player is mostly influenced by his primary attribute - goalkeeping for a goalkeeper, field play for field players. The other attributes are also very important and they influence the performance of a player to a various extent based on his position on the playing field.

Attribute descriptions:

Goalkeeping: This attribute is only used by the goalkeepers. It represents the ability of a goalkeeper to read the play and be in the right position. High value of this attribute helps the goalkeeper keep a good save percentage.

Field play: This attribute is used by all field players. It is the most important attribute for them and it represents their ability to read the play and follow tactical instructions.

Shooting: The shooting attribute is important for all the players who find themselves in the position to shoot. The higher the shooting attribute, the higher the possibility that the player will capitalize on his scoring chance. The most frequently shooting players are backs.

Blocking: The blocking attribute is important especially for the goalkeepers and players playing defense. For goalkeepers this attribute represents their ability to stop shots and for field players their ability to block shots but also stop opponents who are preparing to shoot. Blocking is also important for intercepting passes of your opponent.

Passing: You cannot play handball without good passing. Every player, including the goalkeeper, must be able to pass the ball. This attribute is most important for backs. On the other hand, it is least used by pivots and wings. Goalkeepers often use this attribute to set up a fast break.

Technique: This attribute has a number of uses. It is needed for all players including the goalkeeper. Technique represents the ability of a player to dribble with the ball or to deceive the opponent with fake moves.

Speed: Speed is important especially for wings. However, other players must also train it. It is essential mainly for teams relying on fast breaks. Speed is also important to defend against fast breaks.

Aggressiveness: Handball is a tough sport and the field players have to be prepared for that. Aggressiveness is mostly used by pivots who get into contact with the opponent's players most often. A pivot who cannot handle physical play is useless in handball. Wings and backs also need aggressiveness to a certain extent. However, it also has a down side. Players with high aggressiveness rating and poor technique commit more fouls.

Secondary attribute usage
The table below shows the usage of secondary attributes based on the positions.

Position	Big influence	Medium influence	Small influence
Goalkeeper	Blocking	Passing	Technique, Speed
Back	Passing	Technique	Speed, Aggressiveness
Pivot	Aggressiveness	Technique	Passing, Speed
Wing	Speed	Technique	Passing, Aggressiveness

Preferred side
Some players have a preferred side, depending on which side of the court they like to play. Others - universals, play equally well on the left, right or in the center. The preferred side has no influence on goalkeepers, pivots and centre backs. On the other hand, preferred side has a major influence on wings. The influence is also visible on left and right backs, but not as much as on wings.

Career longevity
Another important characteristic of a player is his career longevity. Career longevity indicates for how long the player will be able to improve. Career longevity has seven levels. If a player reaches the lowest level (0/6), he stops improving and his attributes start decreasing. The speed of deterioration of attributes increases with age.

Career longevity is updated once in a season in the main seasonal calculation. The value can never get higher, but it can stay at the same level repeatedly. At higher age it tends to drop faster.

Popularity
Each player has a certain level of popularity, which indicates how popular he is amongst the fans. Popularity grows when a player getting accolades and awards. Popularity grows faster in the higher divisions. The levels of popularity from the lowest to the highest are: Unknown, Known, Popular, Admired, Famous, Celebrity, Worldwide Star and Superstar. There are two main advantages to having popular players on the team. They increase attendance and also souvenir sales.

Popularity of a player may also decrease. The more popular the player is, the more popularity points he loses after a bad performance. This does not apply to friendly and tournament matches which have no influence on the popularity of the players.

Energy
The energy of a player is indicated by two numbers - current energy and seasonal energy. This is displayed in the following format: e.g. 80/100. The first number indicates the current energy of a player, i.e. the energy that a player has at the given moment. The second number is the seasonal energy and it is the maximum energy that a player can reach during that season. The seasonal energy decreases as the number of matches played by the player increases. It decreases faster, if the matches are played with high importance. Therefore the seasonal energy cannot be increased. It is recharged to the maximum at the beginning of a new season, after the main seasonal calculation. The energy of a player is very important as low energy levels harm the performance of the player in the match. Each player, whose current energy has dropped after a match, regains it back to the maximum seasonal energy automatically by a regeneration process.

The decrease of current and seasonal energy of players is based on minutes played. Minutes played in the extra time are included in that.

The seasonal energy of players decreases according to the following table (based on 60 minutes played):

Match type	Very low	Low	Normal	High	Very high
Friendly matches	0.02	0.05	0.10	0.20	0.30
Competitive matches	0.10	0.25	0.50	1.00	1.50

Note: Matches played in the league, National Cup, international cups and national team matches (except friendlies) are all competitive matches. Credit tournament matches have no influence on the energy of players.

Experience
The players gain experience by playing minutes in matches. The more difficult the matches are, the more experience the player gains. Experience has a direct influence on the player's performance in the match. Match importance also has an effect on experience gains. The higher the importance, the more experience player can gain from the match.

Injuries
In PowerPlay Manager the maximum length of injury recovery is 28 days. However, injuries that last up to two weeks are more common. The frequency of injuries in your team is influenced by a number of factors. A team with a higher number of players will logically have more injuries. You will have less injuries and the recovery time will be shorter, if you have a high level of medical center and if you employ good physicians.

Players who have less than 6 days to full recovery have day-to-day status. These players can play, but the further away from full recovery they are, the poorer their performance in the match. You can set whether your day-to-day players should play or not play matches automatically. Warning! This setting only applies to players who get injured in the future. The setting of the currently injured players has to be changed individually for each player.

Player dismissal
If a player, whose overall rating is higher than 250, is dismissed or his contract is not renewed, he will automatically go on the market. If his overall rating is lower or equals 250, the player will retire. If a manager does not extend contract with a free agent who has not received any offers from the other clubs, the player will retire.

National team players
If a player is in the national team and his club loses its manager, the player will be sent to the market automatically, no matter what his overall rating is.

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Contracts

The rookie contracts with players from the sports academy are signed for a duration from 56 to 168 days. If you acquire a player from the market, the length of his contract will be the same that he had in his previous team. Each time you extend a player's contract, it is for a duration of 112 days (the duration of one season). In case you don't want to extend a player's contract, turn off the automatic contract extension in the 'Players-Contracts' page. The other option of how to dismiss a player is by terminating his contract from his player profile. However, if you terminate a contract you have to pay 50% of the remaining contract worth to the player as compensation.

If a free agent's contract expires and he does not request any signing bonus, his contract will be extended automatically in case the player has automatic contract extension turned on. The length of the new contract depends on the type of free agent.

Warning! The automatic contract extension is turned off when the ACE item is set to "No".

The player salary depends mainly on the value of the two highest attributes, experience, popularity and league level. Higher league means higher expenses on player salaries. Foreign players have 25% higher salaries than local players. All players are considered as local players in the world league regardless of their origin.

The staff member salary depends mainly on the value of the highest attribute, and less on the value of the other attribute. Staff members from higher leagues have higher salaries.

Free agents
After reaching a certain age, the players gain free agent status and they can pick from contract offers of other clubs. There are three types of free agents:

• Restricted Free Agent
  A player who is 26 years old and whose contract expires in 14 days. This kind of player has the right to negotiate with other teams. His new contract will be made up of signing bonus and daily salary calculated by the standard key. The contract is signed for 336 days (3 seasons). The teams can send bids from 14 to 8 days before the contract expires. Then the current team will have 7 days to decide. It is enough for the current team to match 15% to 70% of the highest offer (the exact number depends on the number of paid out season bonuses) in order to keep the player. If the current team does not match the required amount, the player signs a contract with the highest bidder. His former team receives a compensation in the amount of 50% of the signing bonus for losing a restricted free agent.
• Group 1 Unrestricted Free Agent
  A player who is 29 years old and whose contract expires in 14 days. This kind of player has the right to negotiate with other teams. His new contract will be made up of signing bonus and daily salary calculated by the standard key. The contract is signed for 336 days (3 seasons). The teams can send bids from 14 to 8 days before the contract expires. Then the current team will have 7 days to decide. It is enough for the current team to match 35% to 90% of the highest offer (the exact number depends on the number of paid out season bonuses) in order to keep the player. If the current team does not match the required amount, the player signs a contract with the highest bidder. His former team does not receive any compensation because the player is an unrestricted free agent.
• Group 2 Unrestricted Free Agent
  A player who is at least 32 years old and whose contract expires in 14 days. This kind of player has the right to negotiate with other teams. His new contract will be made up of signing bonus and daily salary calculated by the standard key. The contract is signed for 112 days (1 season). The teams can send bids from 14 to 8 days before the contract expires. Then the current team will have 7 days to decide. It is enough for the current team to match 35% to 90% of the highest offer (the exact number depends on the number of paid out season bonuses) in order to keep the player. If the current team does not match the required amount, the player signs a contract with the highest bidder. His former team does not receive any compensation because the player is an unrestricted free agent.

Season bonuses
Every season, you may pay out bonuses to a maximum of three under 25 players, who you consider core players important for the future of your club, in order to gain their loyalty. The season bonus equals 10 day salary of the player and for every such bonus, the player gives you a 5% discount on the signing bonus when he reaches free agency. This means that the maximum number of bonuses that a player can get throughout his career is 11 (from 15 to 25 years of age). This way you can get a discount of up to 55% on the signing bonus. These bonuses are not published.

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Practice

There are a number of factors that influence the practice efficiency. The most important is the level of training and regeneration facilities and the quality of the staff working there. The higher the quality of the practiced attribute, the faster the improvement rate. As the career longevity decreases and the player gets older, the ability to improve decreases too. Players who play more minutes must regenerate more and therefore they will practice less after a match. Regeneration is automatic. Players who play in the match will get a smaller practice improvement on that given day in comparison to players who rested. The smaller practice improvement is compensated by the experience gained, which also has a significant influence on the performance of a player. The better the regeneration facility, the faster the players regenerate after a match and their practice deficit compared to the players who rest decreases.

Attributes are divided into offensive (shooting, passing), defensive (goalkeeping, blocking) and universal (field play, technique, speed, aggressiveness). If your players practice offensive attributes, the coaches apply their attribute called offense coaching. The regeneration of these players will depend on the physiotherapists and their attribute offense regeneration. If your players practice defensive attributes, the coaches apply their attribute called defense coaching. The regeneration of these players will depend on the physiotherapists and their attribute defense regeneration. If your players practice universal attributes, the coaches apply the average value of their two attributes. The regeneration of these players will depend on the physiotherapists and the average value of their two attributes.

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Market

If you want to boost your lineup by a certain type of player or you need a staff member, market gives you the opportunity to find them. The market works as an auction, which is won by the manager who makes the highest bid. If somebody sends a new bid and there is less than one minute to deadline, then the deadline is moved by another minute. After the deadline, the transfers are done in one hour intervals, which means that you will have the player or staff member shortly after the deadline.

For every transfer there is a minimum 5% fee from the transfer price that is paid to the handball association, with the minimum fee being 10,000. The 5% transfer fee is set for the first 10 players sold over the last 112 days. If your team has more than 10 players sold over the last 112 days, the fee goes up by 2% for every player sold beyond the limit. The maximum fee is 50% from the selling price. The fee is always paid by the selling team and it is paid even if there are no bidders for the player. If a player is not sold, only 5% from the starting bid price is paid (minimum 10,000 and maximum 5,000,000).

Warning! If you acquire a player, you will not be able to sell him for the next 50 days. This does not apply to players acquired from the sports academy and the original players.

The same rules about transfers apply to staff members. The numbers of sales are counted independently for players and staff members. That means that the transfer fee for selling players is not connected with the transfer fee for selling staff members.

In order to be able to buy or sell players and staff members you need to have at least 11 points of manager experience. The reason for that is to prevent possible cheating and to protect new managers from making bad decisions.

Warning: A staff member who has less than 11 days until retirement cannot be placed on the market.

Free agents
Restricted and unrestricted free agents are highlighted on the market. Different rules apply to these players. You can only send 1 offer to each free agent. You don't offer the money to the team, but to the player himself as a signing bonus. The free agent accepts offers from other clubs 14 to 8 days before his contract expires. All offers are confidential.

The player picks the highest offer and then gives his current team 7 days to meet his financial demands. These may vary based on the status of the free agent and his loyalty to his current employer. Even if the player has picked your offer, it does not yet mean that he will sign with your club. Whether you acquire the player or not, depends on whether his current club meets his demands or not.

If a player receives more identical offers, he will pick the one from the team that plays in the league with the highest average overall team rating. If this is identical as well, he will pick the team with the highest overall team rating.

If you manage to acquire a restricted free agent, you sign a contract for 336 days (3 seasons) and his former team receives a compensation in the amount of 50% of the signing bonus. In case of a group 1 unrestricted free agent, the contract length is also 336 days (3 seasons), but his former team does not receive any compensation. Group 2 unrestricted free agent always signs a contract for 112 days (1 season) only.

Warning: A player who becomes a free agent in less than 9 days cannot be placed on the market (less than 23 days before the contract expires).

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Arena

In the beginning, each club has a small arena with a capacity of 400 spectators and the cheapest type of stands. The arena has 8 sectors marked A through H. You can build a different type of stand in each sector with different accessories. The table below shows the overview of the types of stands and their capacities and available accessories:

Level	Type of stand	Min capacity	Max capacity	Snack bar	Restaurant	VIP lounge	Press center	Fan shop
1	Small stand-up	50	100	1	0	0	0	1
2	Medium stand-up	100	200	1	0	0	0	1
3	Large stand-up	150	250	1	0	0	1	1
4	Small with seats	200	300	2	0	0	1	2
5	Medium with seats	250	450	2	0	0	1	2
6	Large with seats	300	600	2	1	0	2	2
7	Single-floor multi-purpose	400	800	2	1	1	2	3
8	Double-floor multi-purpose	600	1,500	3	1	1	2	3
9	Triple-floor multi-purpose	1,000	2,500	3	1	1	2	3

The better the stand, the bigger attendance you can expect. Of course, the prices go up with the higher levels and the construction time increases, as you can see on the next table:

Type of stand	Min capacity	Max capacity	Min price	Max price	Construction (Days)	Capacity upgrade (Days)	Min/Max daily expenses
Small stand-up	50	100	-	35,000	-	1	170/240
Medium stand-up	100	200	270,000	420,000	5-6	2-3	540/840
Large stand-up	150	250	1,100,000	1,700,000	10-11	3-4	2,200/3,400
Small with seats	200	300	3,500,000	5,000,000	24-25	7-8	7,000/10,000
Medium with seats	250	450	6,000,000	10,000,000	29-33	10-12	12,000/20,000
Large with seats	300	600	10,500,000	18,000,000	35-40	12-15	21,000/36,000
Single-floor multi-purpose	400	800	17,400,000	27,800,000	48-56	16-20	34,800/55,600
Double-floor multi-purpose	600	1,500	24,800,000	50,000,000	57-75	20-32	49,600/100,000
Triple-floor multi-purpose	1,000	2,500	38,000,000	81,500,000	70-100	26-46	76,000/163,000

You can build various accessories on each type of stand. Snack bars and restaurants draw more people to the arena. Fan shops increase the incomes from the souvenir sale. VIP lounges can be leased and they bring extra income to the club. Press centers allow journalists to make reports from the matches, which increases the motivation of players and therefore their performance. Some types of accessories can only be built on the more expensive stands. If you want to build a better type of stand, you first need to demolish all the accessories of the current stand and then the stand itself. After demolition, you will get a refund of 50% of the value of the stand and its accessories. Only then you will be able to build a new stand. Warning! During the construction works, this sector will have zero attendance.

Other arena upgrades include car park, scoreboard, lighting and sound and the court surface quality can also be improved. All of these improvements help increase the attendance. Every level of car park represents 500 parking spots. You can build a maximum of 2,500 parking spots.

Accessory construction duration in days:

Arena upgrades	Construction duration
Snack bar	15
Fan shop	15
Press center	15
Restaurant	30
VIP lounge	30
Car park	15
Scoreboard	30
Court surface quality	30
Lighting and sound	30

The prices of accessories increase with the level of stand where they are built:

Level of stand	Price	Daily expenses
1	5,000	10
2	15,000	30
3	75,000	150
4	210,000	420
5	425,000	850
6	765,000	1,530
7	1,260,000	2,520
8	1,680,000	3,360
9	2,857,500	5,715

Prices of arena upgrades:

Level	Car park	Scoreboard	Court surface quality	Lighting and sound
1	2,000,000	4,000,000	4,000,000	4,000,000
2	4,000,000	8,000,000	8,000,000	8,000,000
3	6,000,000	12,000,000	12,000,000	12,000,000
4	8,000,000	16,000,000	16,000,000	16,000,000
5	10,000,000	20,000,000	20,000,000	20,000,000

Daily expenses on the maintenance of arena upgrades:

Level	Car park	Scoreboard	Court surface quality	Lighting and sound
1	4,000	8,000	8,000	8,000
2	8,000	16,000	16,000	16,000
3	12,000	24,000	24,000	24,000
4	16,000	32,000	32,000	32,000
5	20,000	40,000	40,000	40,000

Attendance

The following factors influence the attendance:

• Arena capacity
• Level of stands
• Stand accessories (mainly refreshments)
• Level of scoreboard
• Court surface quality
• Level of lighting and sound
• Number of parking spots
• Position of your team in the league standings
• Position of the opponent in the league standings
• League level
• Overall team rating
• Popularity of your and opponent's players
• Derby (match between teams from the same region)

If you play a league match (or part of it) on very low or low match importance and you don't win, the fans will remember that your team's effort was weak and they might not be willing to attend your next home league match. The attendance drop will be bigger if you play on very low and smaller if you play on low importance. Also the portion of the match that you play on low or very low will be taken into account. If you win, the importance that you used will have no effect on the attendance of the following match. Also, if your team is much weaker than the opponent, your fans will forgive you even if you play on very low and lose.

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Facilities

An important part of any club is its facilities. There are seven types of facilities. In the beginning every club has every facility on the first level. There are 15 levels for each type of facility and the higher levels have higher expenses on maintenance. The construction duration and the price increases with each level.

The facilities are divided into three price groups:

• Group 1 - Training facility, Human resources and economic department
• Group 2 - Regeneration facility, Sports academy
• Group 3 - Maintenance center, Education center, Medical center

Level of facility	Construction duration (Days)	Price Group 1	Daily expenses Group 1	Price Group 2	Daily expenses Group 2	Price Group 3	Daily expenses Group 3
1	-	-	800	-	500	-	333
2	2	400,000	1,333	300,000	1,000	200,000	667
3	5	600,000	2,000	450,000	1,500	300,000	1,000
4	9	1,000,000	3,333	750,000	2,500	500,000	1,667
5	14	1,600,000	5,333	1,200,000	4,000	800,000	2,667
6	20	2,600,000	8,667	1,950,000	6,500	1,300,000	4,333
7	27	4,200,000	14,000	3,150,000	10,500	2,100,000	7,000
8	35	6,800,000	22,667	5,100,000	17,000	3,400,000	11,333
9	44	11,000,000	36,667	8,250,000	27,500	5,500,000	18,333
10	54	17,800,000	59,333	13,350,000	44,500	8,900,000	29,667
11	65	28,800,000	96,000	21,600,000	72,000	14,400,000	48,000
12	77	46,600,000	155,333	34,950,000	116,500	23,300,000	77,667
13	90	75,400,000	251,333	56,550,000	188,500	37,700,000	125,667
14	104	122,000,000	406,667	91,500,000	305,000	61,000,000	203,333
15	119	197,400,000	658,000	148,050,000	493,500	98,700,000	329,000

Types of facilities

• Training facility - Training facility provides conditions where players can train and practice to improve as effectively as possible. You can hire a staff member - coach to increase the influence of the training facility.
• Regeneration facility - Matches are tiring for players, so they are unable to train efficiently afterwards. By building the regeneration facility you can avoid this problem. You can hire a staff member - physiotherapist to increase the influence of the regeneration facility. A good regeneration facility and its personnel also help increase the practice efficiency of players who are not playing, but to a lesser extent.
• Human resources and economic department - Easier negotiations with the sponsors, more efficient souvenir sale, employment of better staff members or faster scouting of your own players as well as the players of your opponents is facilitated by this department. You can hire a staff member - manager to increase the influence of the human resources and economic department.
• Maintenance center - Every arena is subject to wear and tear over time. To minimize your maintenance costs and to avoid greater damage by the fans, you need to build up a maintenance center. You can hire a staff member - arena custodian to increase the influence of the maintenance center.
• Education center - If you would like your staff to continue in their improvement and training, you need to invest into the education center. You can hire a staff member - lecturer to increase the influence of the education center.
• Sports academy - The level of your sports academy determines how your club brings up juniors. The higher the level, the more juniors will be coming out and the better prepared they will be. Your senior players also go to the sports academy for camps where they improve their skills faster. You can hire a staff member - sporting director to increase the influence of the sports academy.
• Medical center - Injuries are a disaster for any team. To decrease the probability of injuries and to speed up the recovery of players after injuries you can build a medical center. You can hire a staff member - physician to increase the influence of the medical center.

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Staff

The facilities have an influence even if you don't have any active staff. However, hiring some staff has a major effect on their efficiency. The efficiency of each facility can be enhanced by two to four staff members. The staff member marked as head has the greatest influence, while the assistants have a little bit smaller influence. If you do not mark a staff member as head or assistant, then this person will have no influence on the efficiency of the facility. You can have up to 8 staff members in each facility.

Applicants send their applications for a job themselves and your human resources and economic department evaluates these applications once a week. The number of applicants rises with the level of the human resources and economic department. It is also influenced by your managers and their scouting efficiency. However, you are guaranteed to get at least one applicant and you could get as many as 4 applicants at the same time.

Applicants are generated at the moment when you first view them. However, if you don't view the season's last group of applicants before the end of the season, the applicants will be generated automatically just before the start of the new season.

The table below shows the potential number of staff members according to the level of the human resources and economic department.

Level of facility	Minimum	Maximum
1	1	1
2	1	1
3	1	1
4	1	2
5	1	2
6	1	2
7	1	2
8	2	3
9	2	3
10	2	3
11	2	3
12	2	4
13	2	4
14	2	4
15	2	4

The attributes of the applicants are influenced mainly by the level of facility that they are applying to work at. So if you have the training facility at level 10, you will get better applicants for the job of a coach than if you have the training facility at level 3. If you don't hire the applicants proposed by the human resources and economic department, then these applicants will be gone upon the arrival of new applicants.

A staff member always signs a contract for the next 112 days. In case you don't want to extend a staff member's contract, turn off the automatic contract extension in his profile or on the Staff page. You can also dismiss a staff member by terminating his contract. However, if you terminate his contract, you have to pay half of the remaining contract worth to the staff member as compensation. You can also unload a staff member by placing him on the market.

The applicants can be 50 to 55 years old. Every staff member retires at the age of 61, which means you will not be able to extend his contract. Each staff member has two attributes and both of them have their own quality. You can only see exact values of the quality of attributes for staff members who have been scouted by your human resources and economic department.

The efficiency of an attribute is a percentage of influence that your staff have on their facility. The maximum efficiency is therefore 100%. This efficiency depends on the value of the respective attribute of your head staff member and his assistants. The maximum attribute value of a staff member is 100, which means that the best possible staff member can have 200 points in attributes.

• Coach is a staff member that works in the training facility. His attributes are:
  • Defense coaching – this attribute indicates the ability to train the defensive attributes of players (goalkeeping, blocking) and it has a partial influence on the training of universal attributes of players (field play, technique, speed, aggressiveness).
  • Offense coaching – this attribute indicates the ability to train the offensive attributes of players (shooting, passing) and it has a partial influence on the training of universal attributes of players (field play, technique, speed, aggressiveness).
  
  The number of coaches that your team requires depends on the number of players. The more players you have, the more coaches you need so that players can practice efficiently.
  
  

  Number of players	Number of coaches
  <26	2
  26-35	3
  36-45	4
  >45*	4

  
  * - for every player over the limit, the coaching efficiency of coaches is reduced by 3%
  
  
• Physiotherapist is a staff member working in the regeneration facility. His attributes are:
  • Defense regeneration – this attribute indicates the ability to regenerate players who practice defensive attributes (goalkeeping, blocking) and it has a partial influence on the regeneration of players who practice universal attributes (field play, technique, speed, aggressiveness).
  • Offense regeneration – this attribute indicates the ability to regenerate players who practice offensive attributes (shooting, passing) and it has a partial influence on the regeneration of players who practice universal attributes (field play, technique, speed, aggressiveness).

The number of physiotherapists that your team requires depends on the number of players. The more players you have, the more physiotherapists you need so that players can regenerate and practice efficiently.



Number of players	Number of physiotherapists
<26	2
26-35	3
36-45	4
>45*	4


* - for every player over the limit, the regeneration efficiency of physiotherapists is reduced by 3%


• Manager is a staff member working in the human resources and economic department. His attributes are:
  • Scouting - this attribute indicates the ability to make more precise estimates on the quality of players and staff and it also influences the speed of scouting of people in the scouting queue. The attribute also indicates the ability to provide more job applicants.
  • Marketing - this attribute indicates the ability to negotiate better contracts with general and media sponsors.
  
  Every team can have up to two active managers. One head and one assistant.
  
  
• Arena custodian is a staff member working in the maintenance center. His attributes are:
  • Security service - this attribute indicates the ability to eliminate vandalism in the arena and thus lower the expenses on maintenance of the stands and their accessories.
  • Maintenance - this attribute indicates the ability to fix the glitches that occur in the facilities and therefore lower the expenses on the maintenance of the facilities.
  
  The number of arena custodians that your team requires depends on the capacity of your arena. The bigger your arena, the more custodians you need so that they can do their job efficiently.
  
  

  Arena capacity	Number of arena custodians
  <10001	2
  10001-15000	3
  >15000	4

  
  
• Lecturer is a staff member working in the education center. His attributes are:
  • Management training - this attribute indicates the ability to train the following staff members: manager, sporting director and arena custodian.
  • Practical training - this attribute indicates the ability to train the following staff members: coach, physiotherapist and physician.
  
  Lecturers train themselves and both of their attributes are applied during their training! The number of lecturers that your team requires depends on the number of staff members. The more staff members you have, the more lecturers you need so that staff members can educate themselves efficiently.
  
  

  Number of staff members	Number of lecturers
  <24	2
  24-31	3
  32-38	4
  >38*	4

  
  * - for every staff member over the limit, the training efficiency of lecturers is reduced by 5%
  
  
• Sporting director is a staff member working in the sports academy. His attributes are:
  • Youth training - this attribute indicates the ability to provide more juniors coming from the sports academy. The attribute also influences the overall rating of the young prospects coming to your team for a trial.
  • Player training - this attribute indicates the ability to organize training camps for more players while ensuring a higher training bonus of the camp.
  
  Every team can have up to two active sporting directors. One head and one assistant.
  
  
• Physician is a staff member working in the medical center. His attributes are:
  • Prevention - this attribute indicates the ability to minimize the number of injuries to your players.
  • Treatment - this attribute indicates the ability to speed up the recovery time of the injured players.

The number of physicians that your team requires depends on the number of players. The more players you have, the more physicians you need in order to provide the best possible health care to your players.



Number of players	Number of physicians
<26	2
26-35	3
36-45	4
>45*	4


* - for every player over the limit, the prevention and treatment efficiency of physicians is reduced by 3%

Note that if you have a facility at a higher level, the applicants for a job at this facility will likely have higher attributes!

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Scouting

The quality of attributes of your players and staff members are only estimated values in the beginning. The accuracy of this estimate depends on the level of your human resources and economic department and the attributes of the managers working there. The values of the attributes are precise for your players and staff members, but you can only see the overall rating of the players and staff members of your opponents.

If you want to know the exact values of the quality of attributes of your players or staff members, you need to scout them by your human resources and economic department. The data about qualities of attributes of players and staff members who are not scouted are updated regularly based on the rising level of human resources and economic department and the improvement of managers working in this department.

You can also scout players and staff members from other teams to get more information about them. To scout a player or a staff member, go to their personal profile and add them to the scouting queue. The scouting speed is determined by the level of your human resources and economic department and the managers working there. If you remove someone from the queue before his scouting is completed, you will have to scout him again from the beginning. If you move him down in the queue, the current scouting progress will be saved. The people who are scouted show exact qualities of their attributes and the players and staff members of other teams also show their exact attributes.

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Education center

The staff can be trained and improved in the education center. The improvement rate of a staff member depends on the quality of the trained attribute, level of the education center and the lecturers. Lecturers can be trained in the same way as all the other staff members in this education center. The maximum value of any attribute of a staff member is 100.

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Sports academy

Youth players train and practice in the sports academy. The sporting director regularly sends players for trials in the main team. You can sign and thus hire players who are in a trial period or you can reject them, but in that case they will never come back. Bear in mind that if you do not sign these players, they will leave when the new group of players arrives. With the growing level of your academy and the directors, there will also be more youth players coming up for trials. The maximum is 3 players in one batch.

Juniors are generated at the moment when you first view them. However, if you don't view the season's last group of juniors before the end of the season, the juniors will be generated automatically just before the start of the new season.

The table below shows the potential number of players according to the level of the sports academy.

Level of facility	Minimum	Maximum
1	0	1
2	0	1
3	1	1
4	1	1
5	1	1
6	1	2
7	1	2
8	1	2
9	1	2
10	1	2
11	1	2
12	1	3
13	2	3
14	2	3
15	2	3

By building up the sports academy you make sure that young players have the best possible conditions for their development and training. The level of sports academy and its staff not only influences the number of players coming out but also their overall rating. On the other hand the average quality of these players is independent from the level of facilities and sporting directors.

Training camp
Twice a season you can organize a training camp at the Sports academy. The players that you send into this camp will improve faster. The higher the level of the sports academy, the more players you can send to this camp and the faster they will improve. You can send players to the camp for a maximum of 7 days. Warning! Players in the training camp will not be able to play matches (except for credit tournament matches). If a random line-up is generated for the next match (for example if there are not enough healthy players), some players may return from the camp for one day to play the match. In this case they will not gain any training bonus.

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Draft

Twice a season there is a draft in each league. In the week of the draft, there are no new players from the academy. You will be able to see the draft eligible players for your league four weeks before the draft. You can use these four weeks to scout these players. The only thing you know about them is their name, career longevity, preferred side and position. Every day you can scout as many players as you have selections in the draft plus one extra player. You will get the scouting report on the following day.

Scouting will reveal the estimate of potential of a player (A+, A, B, C or D). The accuracy of this estimate depends on the level of your human resources and economic department and the scouting efficiency of managers. In each draft, there may be up to four players who are so-called hidden gems. Therefore don't lose hope of finding a quality player in the later rounds of the draft. Scouting of draft eligible players is independent from regular scouting of players and staff.

The number of your selections in the draft depends on the level of your sports academy and the efficiency of your sporting directors' youth training. You can have a minimum of 1 selection and a maximum of 3 selections.

There are two types of draft. In the first type, the team with the best academy and sporting directors with the highest youth training efficiency has the biggest chance to pick first. This type of draft takes place in week 8. In the second type, the team in the last place in the league will have the biggest chance of picking first. This type of draft takes place in week 16. In both types of draft, the draft order is determined by the draft lottery in which every team can move up or down by a maximum of 3 places. Draft order is reversed after each round of the draft. That means, that the team that picks first in the first round, picks last in the second round.

Draft is conducted online at the time designated for that country. Every manager will have one minute to make a pick. If you are not online, the players are selected automatically from the top of the list.

You will see the attributes of the players that you picked one day after the draft. The attributes will be influenced by the level of your sports academy and sporting directors. You will have time to decide whether you want to sign these players or not until the arrival of the new players from the academy.

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Line-up

Setting up your starting line-up is the key to your team's success. If you don't create your default line-up it will be randomly generated for you, which means that your team's performance will not be optimal. The line-up saved as default is applied automatically.

Setting the line-up is one of the most important tactical elements in the game. For every match you can create up to four offensive and four defensive formations designated for various situations in the match. First set up the opening formation for both offense and defense. These formations should play most of the match.

Players with a good shot are most suitable for offensive formation. Players with a good blocking ability are best suited for defense.

Apart from opening formations you can create addition formations for which you can set conditions under which they should play. For instance, if you build up a sufficient lead, you can save your best players and send bench players on the court.

First you select players for the match by clicking the checkboxes next to the names of the players. These players will be added to the list on top of the screen. Then you can move them one by one with your mouse and place them on the desired positions.

Don't forget to set up at least one offensive and one defensive formation. You don't have to utilize the maximum number of formations. Set up your goalkeepers, 7m throwers and captain on the settings tab.

Apart from selecting the players with the right attributes for the given positions, you also have to take into consideration whether you have put the players on their preferred side. Players who don't play on their preferred side, do not feel comfortable on the court and it will take a toll on their performance. This is especially important for wings and to a lesser extent for left and right backs.

Another important indicator is chemistry. The chemistry of players improves with the number of minutes played until it reaches 100%. Players also gain chemistry in practice, but not as efficiently as in matches and only until they reach a certain threshold. Players, who are over this threshold and don't play matches, lose chemistry every day even if they practice with the team. Players who are injured don't practice with the team and therefore lose chemistry. Match importance also has an effect on the growth of chemistry of players. The higher the importance, the faster the players can develop chemistry.

Position labels:

Label	Position
GK	Goalkeeper
LB	Left back
CB	Centre back
RB	Right back
LW	Left wing
RW	Right wing
PV	Pivot

If one of the players in any formation is injured or cannot play for any reason, he will be replaced by another player from the ones who are selected for that match. You can set a position for which the player will act as a substitute for every player who doesn't play in the given formation. Just click the dash symbol next to a player's name in the list of selected players.

Substitutes for the particular positions are selected as follows:

Position in the lineup	Substitution priority
Goalkeeper	GK,-
Left back	LB,RB,CB,-
Centre back	CB,LB,RB,-
Right back	RB,LB,CB,-
Left wing	LW,RW,-
Right wing	RW,LW,-
Pivot	PV,-

If, for instance, the pivot is injured, he will be replaced by the substitute with the PV setting, which stands for pivot. If you don't have such substitute, a player with no setting (marked by a dash) will be selected. It is a kind of universal substitute who can replace any player in the line-up. If no substitute is found in spite of this, the match will be played by a random line-up.

If you have more than one substitute assigned for the same position, than the one who is higher in the list of selected players will be picked first.

If any of your players gets a red card during the match, he will be replaced in the formation by the first player from the list of substitutes who has the same position setting or no position setting.

The Next match page shows, among other things, the overview of your line-up for the upcoming match and the selected tactics. The line-up and tactics must be set 60 minutes before the match at the latest. The changes made later will not be applied.

Random lineup
If the match is played by a random line-up for any reason, it is possible that day-to-day players will be used even if you have different settings.

Load line-up from a previous match
If you cannot create multiple line-ups, you can use the feature to load a line-up from any match that your team had played over the last 7 days. Simply select a match from which you want to load the line-up on the Line-up page. The line-up is loaded exactly as it played in the given match. That means that if substitutes played in that match, they will be placed into the loaded line-up on the exact same position on which they had played. Warning! The line-up is loaded without the settings of captain and players for 7m throws.

Copy lineup
If you have the option to create multiple lineups, you can use the copy lineup feature. If, for example, you want to create lineup A or B, that should be similar to the default lineup, you can copy the default lineup and make only small changes, depending on how much the two lineups should differ. This way you don't have to build every lineup from scratch.

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Tactics

To achieve good results you cannot underestimate the tactical preparation of the team. On the Tactics page you can find a number of tactical options that you can use to have a direct influence on the outcome of the match.

Match importance
The importance of the match is a critical tactical option. You have to use it with care, because even though high importance makes your players play with the maximum intensity, it causes their seasonal energy to drop faster. Low importance is not that costly on the energy, but the players do not play to their full potential. Match importance also influences chemistry and experience gains of players. The higher the importance, the faster the players gain chemistry and experience.

Defensive play
Here you can select the formation of your players in defense. The 6-0 defense means that all six players defend the 6-meter line. With the 5-1 tactic, there is one player in the open trying to disrupt the passing plays of the opposing backs. With the 4-2 tactics, there are two players in the open. The 3-2-1 formation has one player always in the open and two more players moving back and forth from the 6-meter line towards the backs when necessary.

Offensive play
If you have fast players and a goalkeeper with good passing ability, you can select the fast breaks option. In such a case, your goalkeeper will look for long passes to a running teammate more often. This tactic works best in combination with 4-2 and 3-2-1 defensive setups. On the other hand, the efficiency of fast breaks is reduced when you use the 6-0 defensive setup.

Shooting preference
Backs are the most frequent shooters in handball. You can adjust the ratio of shots between backs, wings and pivot based on where you have your best shooters. If you have great wings, you can set the shooting preference to wings and your backs will try to pass them the ball into scoring opportunities. If you trust your backs, you can make them shoot even more frequently than usual. You can also set shooting preference according to the defensive play of your opponent. Every defensive tactic has its strengths and weaknesses that can be exploited by selecting the appropriate shooting preference.

Time-out
If your opponent gains momentum and scores several unanswered goals, you can change this trend by taking a time-out. Your players will calm down and the momentum gained by your opponent will be gone. The half-time break has the same effect as a time-out. If you set a time-out to be called when you trail by a certain number of goals, the score from the given half is taken into account and not the total match score. The series of conceded goals resets at half-time break.

Goalkeeper substitutions
If a goalkeeper allows several goals in a row without making a save, it can have a negative effect on his confidence. In such cases it may be a good idea to bench him for a while. The goalkeeper will calm down on the bench and he can return to the match with renewed confidence.

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PowerPlay TV

If you are on-line at the time when your team plays, you can watch the match live on PowerPlay TV. The live broadcast may start at various times depending on the country of the home team and lasts about half an hour. If you don't manage to see the match live, you can still watch the replay.

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Tournaments

National Cup
National Cup is played with a knock-out system in single match series. The match day is Thursday. The maximum number of teams that can enter National Cup in one country (or the world league) is 8,192. There is no home field advantage in the National Cup and the profit from the ticket sales is split equally between both teams. The defeated semifinalists meet in the battle for third place.

International cups
International cups is a common name for prestigious club competitions Champions' League and Cup Winners' Cup. Both competitions have 80 participants from all over the world.

The preliminary round is always played in a double round-robin format with home and away matches. The home field advantage applies to the preliminary round matches and the money from the ticket and souvenir sales goes to the home team. The playoff uses a single match knockout system and the home field advantage is not applied. The financial profit from the match is divided equally between both teams.

The number of teams that can qualify from a specific country is determined by the ranking of countries which is calculated from the results of the teams from the given country in the last 3 seasons of the Champions' League and the Cup Winners' Cup. The biggest value is always given to the most recent season. The reigning champion from both competitions is automatically qualified for the next season and doesn't count for the country quota. If the winner of the Cup Winners' Cup qualifies also for the Champions' League, it's place in the CWC will be given to the next team in the National Cup ranking of that country.

Season	Points value
1	100%
2	66%
3	33%

The highest ranked teams in the top league qualify for the Champions' League. On the other hand, the most successful teams from the National Cup qualify for the Cup Winners' Cup. If the same team qualifies for both of these competitions, Champions' League has higher priority. In that case, the next team in line qualifies for the Cup Winners' Cup. If the decision has to be made between teams in 5th to 8th position in the National Cup, the higher seeded team qualifies.

Credit tournaments
Credit tournaments are tournaments with the possibility to win credits. Every team that enters such a tournament must pay an entry fee. The entry fee is set by the founder of the tournament. The game operator provides credits for the prize pool of the tournament. The total amount of credits in the prize pool is usually 90% from the total number of credits collected from entry fees. The prize pool will be divided among the top teams based on the system predetermined by the founder. Apart from this, the founder may voluntarily donate a certain amount of credits that will be added to the prize pool.

The creation of a credit tournament costs 50 credits. The founder selects the distribution of prizes, helpers, entry fee, number of teams and groups, playing format, starting date, match days and he/she may even set the distribution of teams into groups or pots. The founder has the right to reject any team that signs up for the tournament. The founder also has the right to have the organization fee partially refunded (maximum 40 credits), but only if the tournament starts successfully. The requested amount of credits will be deducted from the tournament prize pool.

The tournament founder can pick up to three helpers. These helpers have the same rights as the founder. They can accept or reject teams, divide them into groups or pots, upload the tournament logo, enter the tournament website, thread and info.

In case a team violates the internal rules of a tournament, the founder and his/her helpers have the right to forfeit the matches of this team. Playoff matches cannot be forfeited due to technical reasons.

If the tournament founder or his/her helper rejects a team, the entry fee that the user paid while registering will be fully refunded. However, if the founder or a helper accepts the team's participation, this decision is final and the team cannot be removed from the tournament. If the tournament does not reach the required number of teams, it will be canceled and the organization fee will be forfeit. If the founder has made a donation to the prize pool, this will be fully refunded.

One team cannot take part in two tournaments with conflicting dates. If a team signs up for two such tournaments, it will play in the one where its registration will be accepted sooner.

There is no home field advantage in tournament matches. The credit tournament matches have no influence on player fatigue, chemistry, popularity and experience growth of the players. That means that the match importance setting has no influence in these matches. The spectators have free admission to these matches so the teams have no revenues from them.

If teams are tied on points, the tie breaking procedures are applied in the following order: goal difference, higher number of goals scored and overall team rating.

The ranking of teams for playoffs is made after the preliminary round. The teams ranked first in their group will be ordered on the top based on the number of points, goal difference, higher number of goals scored, and overall team rating as the final tie breaker. The teams which ranked in lower places will be ordered in the same way. Then the playoff pairings will be determined based on this ranking. The top ranked team will play the last ranked team, the second place team will face the second last team etc. The same procedure is then used for all playoff rounds.

If the playoff is played on 2 matches, the team with the better aggregate score from both legs will move on. If the score is tied, the team with the higher number of away goals advances. If still tied, the second leg is followed by overtime and 7m throws if needed.

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National team

Every country with its own league also has its national teams. Each of these countries has an under 21 and an under 19 team in addition to the senior team. The teams are managed by the general managers elected by other managers. General managers are helped by assistant managers selected by the general managers themselves. General managers can change assistant managers without any restrictions, but they can only have one assistant at the same time.

There are two rounds of elections. During the first round, the managers can give their preferential vote to one of the candidates at any time of the season. This vote can be canceled or given to a different candidate before the end of the season. Managers can only vote in their own country and only if they fulfilled the specified criteria. There are separate elections for each age category.

The second round of elections always takes place during the first week of the season. The results of the second round are published shortly after the elections are over. The tenure of the national team general manager is one season.

Managers who have met the defined criteria may submit a candidacy for a maximum of one national team. It is possible to run for general manager of a national team of a foreign country.

It is possible to sign up for candidacy at any time of the season. As soon as the manager is listed as a candidate, managers from that country can send him preferential votes. 10 managers with the highest number of preferential votes advance into the second round.

National team general manager can select up to 30 players for the national team during one season. Players selected for the team after the first week of the season, cannot be dismissed during that season. Players selected in the previous seasons or by a previous manager can be dismissed until day 14 of the season. The chemistry of players dismissed from the national team is reduced to 20% of their chemistry from the time of their dismissal.

Before every friendly or qualifying match, the national team general manager can call up a maximum of 18 players who will be available on the match day. This roster must be selected at least one day before the match.

General manager can use a maximum of 18 players during the World Championships. Players may be added to the roster during the tournament until all the 18 places are filled. There is no need to call up players one day in advance during the World Championships.

The national team general manager must set the lineup and tactics before the start of the match calculation. The times of match calculation according to location are listed in the table below in Central European Time (CET).

Country	Senior	Under 21	Under 19
Argentina	23:15	21:45	20:45
Austria	19:15	17:45	16:45
Belarus	19:15	17:45	16:45
Belgium	20:15	18:45	17:45
Bosnia and Herzegovina	19:15	17:45	16:45
Brazil	23:15	21:45	20:45
Bulgaria	19:15	17:45	16:45
Canada	23:15	21:45	20:45
Chile	23:15	21:45	20:45
China	13:15	11:45	10:45
Croatia	19:15	17:45	16:45
Czech Republic	20:15	18:45	17:45
Denmark	20:15	18:45	17:45
Estonia	19:15	17:45	16:45
Finland	19:15	17:45	16:45
France	20:15	18:45	17:45
Germany	20:15	18:45	17:45
Greece	19:15	17:45	16:45
Hungary	19:15	17:45	16:45
Iran	13:15	11:45	10:45
Italy	19:15	17:45	16:45
Latvia	19:15	17:45	16:45
Lithuania	19:15	17:45	16:45
Netherlands	20:15	18:45	17:45
Norway	20:15	18:45	17:45
Poland	19:15	17:45	16:45
Portugal	20:15	18:45	17:45
Romania	19:15	17:45	16:45
Russia	19:15	17:45	16:45
Serbia	19:15	17:45	16:45
Slovakia	19:15	17:45	16:45
Slovenia	19:15	17:45	16:45
Spain	20:15	18:45	17:45
Sweden	20:15	18:45	17:45
Switzerland	20:15	18:45	17:45
Turkey	19:15	17:45	16:45
Ukraine	19:15	17:45	16:45
United Kingdom	20:15	18:45	17:45
United States of America	23:15	21:45	20:45
Venezuela	23:15	21:45	20:45

Players in the national team have a training bonus, gain more experience, their popularity grows faster and they bring a share from the revenue to their club for every match they play.

Players aged 19 or less can only play in the under 19 national team. Likewise players aged 20 or 21 can only play in the under 21 national team. At the beginning of each season all players exceeding the age limit are automatically dismissed from the team. The chemistry of such players is reduced to 20% of their chemistry from the time of their dismissal and they can carry it over to the next age category.

National teams from various age categories can play friendly matches against each other.

The seasonal energy of players in the national team is independent from the seasonal energy in their club and it decreases according to the following table (based on 60 minutes played):

Match type	Very low	Low	Normal	High	Very high
Friendly matches	0.04	0.10	0.20	0.40	0.60
Competitive matches	0.20	0.50	1.00	2.00	3.00

If a player is called up for a national team match and his club plays a friendly match on the same day, the player will play for the national team and he will miss his club's match. If he is in a training camp, he will play for the national team, but he will get the training bonus for being in a training camp. If a player has a promotion/relegation match or a relegation round match and a national team match on the same day, he may appear in both.

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Instant challenges

Instant challenges enable you to play immediately without waiting against any team. The only exception is that you can't challenge a team with which you have a match scheduled for the same day. You can challenge every team only once on the same day. You can challenge opponent via team profile, recommended opponents page or daily leaderboard. You can play up to 5 challenges per day for free.

Instant challenges have no influence on energy, chemistry, experience of popularity of players. Also the team doesn't get any overall team rating points or money for these matches.

Before every challenge you can select one of your lineups or tactics. The opponent will use their default lineup and a randomly generated tactical setup. The importance setting will be neutral for both teams. There is no home advantage in instant challenges.

You earn points for the daily leaderboard for every win. The stronger the opponent you beat, the more points you earn. The points are calculated as the ratio of opponent's strength versus your team's strength in the given match. Team strength in this match may be different from team strength displayed in the team profile.

The groups for daily leaderboards are drawn every day. Maximum number of teams in one group is 100. If you rank in the top three in your group, you will earn points for the weekly leaderboard and an award. Daily leaderboard is closed every day at 8.00 CET.

Daily leaderboard rank	Points for weekly leaderboard
1	3000 + points earned on that day
2	2000 + points earned on that day
3	1000 + points earned on that day

All managers who finished at least once in the top three in their group in the daily leaderboard will be ranked in the weekly leaderboard. The most successful managers of the week will get rewards in credits and special awards. Weekly leaderboard is closed every Monday at 8.00 CET.