The rules of the game

A game is called a room, and a room covers a single match. Whoever creates it picks the fixture, names it if they feel like it, and gets a five-character code.

That code is the key: your friends type it in and they're in. A room holds up to ten players, you included.

Nothing to install, nothing to pay. A username, an email address and a password are all it takes.

Before the match you don't pick a player: you rank a list of preferences, from your first choice down to ten.

The reason is simple — several of you want the same star. If you could only name one player and someone else took him, you'd be left empty-handed. The list guarantees you get served, and it says in what order.

One choice is enough if you're sure of yourself. But the longer your list, the more say you keep in what happens to you.

Nobody knows who asked for whom: the lists stay secret until kick-off.

Everything is then settled in rounds. In each round, those still without a player put forward their best choice that's still free. A player asked for by one person goes to them. A player asked for by several goes to a random draw — the losers try again next round, with their next choice.

The outcome is then revealed to everyone, line by line: who got their first choice, who had theirs snatched away, who went through the draw.

The official line-up usually lands 30 to 60 minutes before kick-off. If the player you put at the top is on the bench, he is simply skipped: your next choice steps in, within the same round.

You don't lose your place for it — your original rank is kept. Losing your favourite to a team sheet is punishment enough; the algorithm doesn't pile on.

Three situations lead there: you made no list, all your choices are already gone, or none of them starts the match.

A player is then drawn for you among the starters still available. You play anyway — nobody is left out.

No scoring table to memorise, no points to stack up: your score is your player's match rating, a single value that rises and falls with what he does on the pitch.

It moves throughout the game, as his performance is written. Until a player has a rating — he's just come on, he's done nothing of note — a question mark shows in its place.

During the match the standings reorder themselves on every update: cards change places, gaps appear, and your player's key moments — goal, assist, card — are flagged to you as they happen.

You can close the tab and come back: everything is computed server-side, nothing is lost.

At the whistle the standings are frozen. Ratings corrected after the match no longer change them: the table you watched land is the one that stays.

First place is the GOAT of the match. The debrief plays your game back: your performance, the moments that mattered, and the final standings.

Two players on the same rating finish on the same rank, and the next rank is skipped: 1, 2, 3, 3, 5. No hidden criterion separates them — a tie is a tie.

Those whose player never received a rating close the table, together.

By default the room waits. You gather in the lobby, and player selection opens when the official line-up is published, usually 30 to 60 minutes before kick-off: you draft among each team's eleven announced starters.

But not everyone is free in the hour before a match. So at creation you can open the draft straight away: the room starts on the full squads of both teams, and everyone builds their list whenever they like, even several days ahead.

That choice is made when the room is created, and can't be changed afterwards.