Matches

There are many factors that can determine the outcome of a match: the individual technique of a player, team morale, tiredness... Basically, the outcome of each match will depend on the direct confrontation between each coach's tactics, the technique of the players, and a percentage of luck.

As a Manager, before each match, you will have to decide on the initial line-up and strategy of the match. During the match, you will have real-time information on the main statistics of your players and the match. You can also make changes to tactics and player substitutions (up to 5).

Strategy & Tactics

Lineup and Lineup Skill

The first interactions with the soccer metaverse allow users to create a lineup, choosing from the different available formations. This is important for you to check if you need any more players from a given role, and above all, to test the lineup skills of multiple lineups.

The lineup skill is the main indicator to estimate what will be the result of the match and is calculated based on all of the skills of the players selected to be part of the lineup.

The lineup skill will take into account three characteristics:

  • Current abilities of the player: knowing the abilities most important in each specific role it’s possible to calculate how a player will perform in other specific roles, depending on the abilities. When training systems are introduced, it will be possible to improve a specific ability of a player that will help him play better in other specific roles.

  • Role knowledge: a player will have different knowledge levels of a role. For example, a Left Wing Back (LWB) will have good knowledge of Left Back (LB) role and normal knowledge of Left Winger (LW), but low knowledge of Center Attacking Midfielder (CAM). This role knowledge also will be able to be improved with player training systems.

  • Special ability: The special abilities of the players in the lineup affects the lineup skill. You can read more about it in the Players section.

Regarding role knowledge and positioning, it is always important to take into account that the overall of a player is affected by his role and the position in which he is playing. As you can see in the tables below, each player has top knowledge of his own role, but his knowledge of other roles is smaller:

Based on these values, it’s possible to understand that the less knowledge a player has of a role, the more his overall will decrease when playing in that position. For example, a Left Back (LB) with an overall of 41 will have a player skill of 41 when put in an LB slot in the lineup, since he has top knowledge of that role. However, if that same LB is placed in a Left Wing-Back (LWB) position, his player skill in that particular lineup will decrease to 38 (3 points less), and if put in a Right Wing-Back (RWB) his skill will be of 36 (5 points less).

This is why it’s so important that you choose wisely the positions of your players according to their role, in order to obtain the best lineup skill possible.

Formations

It is important that MetaSoccer mimics real-life soccer and its strategies, and the formation plays a big role in this.

The current available formations are the following:

  • 4-4-2 A

  • 4-4-2 B

  • 5-3-2

  • 4-3-3

  • 4-5-1

  • 3-5-2

  • 5-4-1

  • 3-4-3

  • 4-2-3-1

  • 3-6-1

As the game evolves, other formations will become available, making the experience more diverse and allowing users to adopt the strategy that best suits them and their team.

Team Mentality

Team Mentality refers to the way a team will face opponents. It also impacts the role of the players that should be selected.

There are five types of mentalities:

  • Hard Defending: Focuses on avoiding conceding spaces to the opposite team, keeping the defensive position and relying on the whole team to defend and create an advantage, attacking with few players.

  • Defending: Based on obstructing opportunities for the opponent without giving up the creation of own goal opportunities. However, the priority is to protect our own net.

  • Balanced: Mixed mentality where the team attacks and defends with an ordered and rational structure, giving the same importance to attacking and defending.

  • Attacking: Prioritizes creating opportunities without attacking with all the players. It focuses on having the ball and playing on the opposite midfield but maintaining a defensive structure.

  • Hard Attacking: Focuses on generating goal-scoring opportunities, overloading the final third of the pitch with as many players as possible, creating numeric superiority with almost all players going to attack, leaving many free spaces for the opposite team if they recover the ball.

Depending on the selected team mentality, some formations might work better for the lineup. For example, when playing in “hard defending” style, it will be better to have a formation that includes more defensive players. It is also important to check the players available: if there are better forwards than defenders, for example, the improvement when selecting “hard attacking” will be bigger than that of a team that has better defenders than forwards (some combinations could be even negative for a specific lineup.)

Passing Style

Defining the passing style means selecting the preferred way to pass the ball between players. This will impact the speed of movement of the players on the pitch and also the type of players that are most involved in each style.

The three types of passing styles available are:

  • Short: Play defense with a combination of short passes, slowly moving forward through the zones and with a high intensity of passes on the grass.

  • Mixed: Combination of short, medium and long passes depending on the situation, playing along all the field zones, both aerial and on the grass.

  • Long: Play with direct passes to the final third, especially with long aerial passes from the goalkeeper and the defenders to the forwards, without playing with midfielders.

Play Zones

Play zones refer to the specific area of the field in which a team's attacks are based. It’s best to choose the play zone where the best players are located.

There are five play zones to select:

  • Both Wings: Base the attacking plays along the left and right zone of the field, playing more widely and trying to put players at those locations, creating more crossing and dribbling situations.

  • Left Wing: Focus on the attacking left side of the field, trying to bring the ball there quicker to generate attacking moves.

  • Right Wing: Focus on the attacking right side of the field, trying to bring the ball there quicker to generate attacking moves.

  • Middle: Base the attack through the middle of the field, playing narrowly with the players who occupy the center lane of the field.

  • Mixed: Attack along the various zones without giving more importance to one of them, playing alternatively with the wings and through the middle.

All tactics must be selected before the match starts — they can’t be changed until it’s over. In the future, it will be possible to make changes during matches.

Tournaments & Ranking

PvE Tournaments

Player vs. MetaSoccer Environment mode. As a Manager you will be able to play as many friendly matches as you wish, but the condition of your players will be reduced after each match, conditioning the matches you can play during the day without increasing the risk of injury.

After each game, players will win Skills; but they will lose fatigue. Depending on the result, they will also win or lose Moral.

Welcome League

MetaSoccer’s permanent PvE tournament, Welcome League, will have multiple editions. Each week corresponds to one edition, starting every Tuesday at 12pm UTC and ending Monday at 12pm UTC.

There are no rewards related to these competitions. Play in the Welcome League to test tactics and lineups.

It's possible to enroll in the tournament on the main screen by clicking on the button “Join” to see all the tournament rules.

To participate, you must enlist a team of 11 to 16 players. You may edit your selected lineup before the start of the edition but not during the edition. After the end of one edition, you are allowed to change the players for the following week. It’s also possible for you to join an edition that has already started (for example, you may register on a Wednesday and participate from that day through Sunday).

Given the fact that you can’t change your lineup during the edition, pay attention to the players selected — if you have players listed on the market and they’re sold during the edition, you may be unable to play more matches, since you need 11 players to participate. You may register as many teams as you want.

You’ll also be asked to select the division in which you want to participate — this refers to the difficulty level of the matches you are playing. There are five divisions in which you can play. These levels are based on the current overall of the teams:

  • Amateur – Average skill of 20-29

  • Beginner – Average skill of 30-39

  • Semi-Pro – Average skill of 40-49

  • Pro – Average skill of 50-59

  • Legend – Average skill of 60-69

You’ll be suggested the division that best fits your team’s average skill, but you may opt to play in a different one, either with higher or lower average skill — but just one division above or below your current, for example, a team that is Beginner may play in the Amateur or Semi-Pro divisions as well.

Depending on the number of registrations, there may be various groups per division. Each group can have up to 30 teams registered. When signing up for the tournament you’ll be randomly assigned to a group within your chosen division.

There is no minimum or maximum limit of matches you can play during each edition — it’s up to you to decide how much you want to play, and the only limit is the condition of your players.

After the end of every edition, you must register for the next one, and you are able to totally change your lineup and select another division.

The ranking will be based on the points accumulated by each team in every edition. Like in real soccer, every win gets a team 3 points, a tie is worth 1 point and defeats grant the team 0 points.

The winners will be the ones that score most points in each edition. If two or more teams end with the same points, the first tie breaker will be goals difference. In case they have the same goals difference, the winner will be the one with more goals scored.

In the Standings menu you’ll be able to check each division’s current results and information regarding the participation of all teams, including matches played and points earned.

PvP Tournaments

Player vs. Player mode. As a Manager you will be able to play against other managers and win rewards!

Custom Tournaments

This new game modality allows you to organize your own tournaments: create a competition, set your own rules, and determine the prize pool distribution model.

Custom Tournaments can be organized by anyone, without requiring a team to participate in the competition. The tournament's creator will choose the number of competitors, the team level range (min & max), the entry fee, and the prize pool model. Teams will be categorized by their overall level, ranging from 10 to 100, and there will be no divisions, such as Amateur, Beginner, Semi-Pro, Pro, and Legend.

The creator can mark a tournament as public or private, and invite teams to join. The difference is clear — while public tournaments can be joined by anyone with a team that matches the specified level range of the tournament, private tournaments can only be joined by invited teams.

There is no limit to the number of parallel tournaments that can take place, which means anyone can participate in multiple tournaments simultaneously. However, you should be mindful when signing up for multiple tournaments as the number of matches per day is different in each competition. Therefore, a player's team could become fatigued or schedule clashes could occur.

After the tournament ends, rewards can be easily distributed with the click of a button, and anyone can distribute the rewards. The prize pool model will be chosen by the tournament's owner from the following options:

  • Option 1: 1st 100%

  • Option 2: 1st 50%, 2nd 30%, 3rd 20%

  • Option 3: 1st 40%, 2nd 25%, 3rd 15%, 4th 10%, 5th 6%, 6th 4%

  • Option 4: 1st 30%, 2nd 20%, 3rd 14%, 4th 10%, 5th 8%, 6th 7%, 7th 6%, 8th 5%

  • Option 5: 1st 24%, 2nd 15%, 3rd 12%, 4th 10%, 5th 9%, 6th 8%, 7th 7%, 8th 6%, 9th 5%, 10th 4%

  • Option 6: 1st 15%, 2nd 10%, 3rd 8%, 4th 6%, 5th 6%, 6th 5%, 7th 5%, 8th 5%, 9th 5%, 10th 5%, 11th 3%, 12th 3%, 13th 3%, 14th 3%, 15th 3%, 16th 3%, 17th 3%, 18th 3%, 19th 3%, 20th 3%

Prizes will be in $MSU, and the reward distribution will correspond to 90% of the total prize pool. The other 10% of the prize pool will be divided between the tournament owner (5%) and MetaSoccer (5%).

To create a tournament, click on the “Create tournament” button on the home page and complete the form:

  • Tournament name: type the chosen tournament name (3-40 characters)

  • Game mode: select the only the option “League”

  • Entry fee: type the amount $MSU a team will have to pay to join the tournament

  • Prize pool: select from the toggle list how rewards will be distributed after the tournament ends (Option 1 to 6)

  • Team’s min overall: type the minimum level a team needs to have to be able to participate in the tournament

  • Team’s max overall: type the minimum level a team needs to have to be able to participate in the tournament

  • Number of participating teams: select from the toggle list how many teams will be able to join the tournament (6-30 teams)

  • Match frequency: select from the toggle list how many matches a team will play each day (1, 2 or 3 matches per day)

  • Registration closing date: select the day registrations will be closed

  • Registration closing time: select the time registrations will be closed

  • Private competition: activate this box if desired

End-of-match Stats

Knowing your team’s performance is important for fine-tuning your strategy. By analyzing end-of-match stats, you’ll have a better perception of how your team is doing, and you can see which tactics are, and are not, working.

There are four stats that you can check after the end of each match:

Corners

The number of corners scored by both teams during the match.

Player Performance

Player Performance evaluates how each player performed during a match, with a rating from 0 to 10. A player who performs badly will have a lower number than a player who performs well. So, if many of your players perform well, the outcome of the match will most likely be a victory. However, this rule is not set in stone — just like in real soccer, sometimes players don’t have a great performance during a match, but the team ends up winning, or vice versa. Player Performance is also correlated to the specific role of players on the field. Imagine that your team lost 2-8, for example, so logically the players who scored goals will have better performances than that of the goalkeeper and defenders. Also, if in another match, your center back scored four goals, you’ll verify that in the end its performance will have a high value. By having access to the players’ performance report, you can also try new players in different positions and continuously improve your team.

Attack Play Zones

The Attack Play Zones stats are shown in a field where you are able to differentiate the percentage of your team attacks through different zones. This outcome will be related to your tactics decisions. If you select to play through the middle, for example, most of the time you will see that your team attacked more through that area, but if you select left wing, usually you will see a left attack dominance in the field map, and so on.

Ball Possession

The Ball Possession stats help the managers understand how their team implemented the tactics set up, like passing style and mentality. Passing style impacts this metric a lot: if you want your team to play short passes, usually you will have more possession than playing long passes. Also, playing hard defending usually will reduce your possession. On the other hand, ball possession will depend a lot on the quality of the team. If an Amateur team plays short passes against a Legend team, they will have less ball possession because in most cases the Legend team will have more control of the ball during most of the match. Ball possession is not always a good metric to predict the win, so we encourage you to balance out all the tactics — the ultimate factor that will make you win is scoring goals, and you can do that even if you have a much lower ball possession than the opposing team if your team knows how to take advantage of the right opportunities.

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