Rep Teams

## UNION REPRESENTATIVE TEAMS

### Overview

A union representative team (rep team) is drawn from union club member squads. Rep teams play in a divisional structured league competition against other union rep teams, with success bringing rewards both for the union and its club members. Rep team success can earn union XP, which will level up the union faster. In addition, success will also earn rewards for the union club members in the form of club cash, academy stars, normal and epic cards, as well as tokens. These rewards scale up as a rep team rises through the divisions, and can be boosted by the union investing in upgrading their union's stadium. A rep team draws its players from the squads of the union’s members through a nomination and voting system. If a union is large enough it can even have more than one rep team, thus increasing the rewards that can be earned.

#### Rep Team Hierarchy

All rep teams within a union are sorted into a hierarchy, based upon the order they were created (the first rep team created is the First team, the second created is the Second Team and so on). A team higher in the hierarchy takes precedence over the rep teams below it. This becomes important in deciding which players get selected for which teams, as a player voted to play in a team higher in the hierarchy cannot play in a rep team lower in the hierarchy.

#### Rep Team Hibernation

If the number of clubs in the union falls beneath the amount needed to have a rep team, the last rep team created goes into hibernation the following season e.g. if a union with six club members has created two rep teams, but then falls to only 5 member clubs, then the second rep team would go into hibernation at the end of the season (a union needs 6 member clubs to have a second rep team). The rep team that goes into hibernation is always the rep team that is lowest in the rep team hierarchy.

If the union gets back to the number of clubs necessary to have that additional rep team, then it comes out of hibernation at the end of the current season and will be assigned back into a divisional league.

### Union Rep Team Upgrades

There are four rep team upgrades a union can invest in:

#### Rep Team

This upgrade creates a new union rep team. Unions do not start with a rep team but must buy this upgrade to create their first one. This upgrade can be bought multiple times, each one creating a new rep team for the union. However, a union can only have a number of rep teams equal to the amount of clubs in the union divided by 3, rounded down e.g. a union with 5 club members can only have 1 rep team, and a union with less than three members cannot have a rep team.

#### Utility Slots

Each time this upgrade is purchased by the union it gives each club member two utility slots - one for forwards and one for backs. Utility slots allow managers to nominate players from their club squads as utility players for the rep team (see 'Nominations' later for more detailed information).

#### More Votes

Each voting upgrade gives every manager with clubs in the union +2 votes to use (see 'Voting' later for more detailed information).

#### Stadium

All unions begin with a level 1 stadium. Each time the union buys this upgrade the union raises the stadium's level by +1. The level of the stadium contributes to the rewards that union rep teams can earn. In addition, the level of the stadium provides the ability to give rep teams nicknames, as well as adding Prime Time TV slots (see 'Prime Time TV' later on for more detailed information).

Stadium Benefits
 L8
 L10
 L12
 L16
 L20

### Rep Team Selection System

#### Nominations

Managers nominate players from their club squad to be available for selection in rep teams. Every club in the union gets 10 nomination slots, one per position group (Prop, Hooker, Lock, Flanker, N.8, Scrum-Half, Fly-Half, Centre, Wing and Fullback). Each club will never have more than these 10 positions slots no matter how many rep teams the union creates. When the first rep team is created, or when a new club joins the union, these positional slots are automatically filled. The game will take each position group and assign the club's player with the highest level for that position to each slot, starting with the Prop group and working through from there.

In addition to these slots, you can also gain access to 'Utility' slots if the union invests in Utility slot upgrades. These are never automatically filled and are left empty unless you fill them. These utility slots are split into Forward and Back slots. Players placed in to these slots can be voted to play in any forward or back position connected to the type of utility slot it is (forwards positions for forward utility slots and vice versa for back utility slots). There is no limit to the amount of utility slots you can have, it just takes the union to invest in buying more of them.

You can change which players are nominated for each slot. This is free for the first change made to each nomination slot after they have been automatically filled, but any changes after that has a token cost attached. The first change in a day costs 2 tokens, and then each additional change that day costs an extra +1 token e.g. the first change in a day costs 2 tokens, the second change that day costs 3 tokens, the third change that day costs 4 tokens and so on.

#### Voting

Which players are picked to play for each rep side is determined by the voting of the managers in the union (not voting by clubs, but by managers e.g. you may have multiple clubs in a union, but will only get one set of votes to use). Each manager gets 15 votes to use for each rep team the union has. This can be increased if the union invests in voting upgrades (each upgrade adds +2 votes).

To cast your votes, go to the lineup screen for the rep team you want to vote on. You can cast votes for each position in the line-up. When you click on a position a list of available players are shown and you pick the player you want to vote for and assign the number of votes you want to use on them. The available players you have to pick from are those players that have been nominated for that position group, as well as any utility players that have been nominated that could play in that position i.e. forward utility players can be picked for any of the forward positions (Prop, Hooker, Lock, Flanker and N.8), while back utility players can be picked for any of the back positions (Scrum-half, Fly-Half, Centre, Wing or Fullback).

You cannot apply more than one vote to each player from your own clubs.

If a player is already playing for a rep team higher in the rep team hierarchy, then you cannot vote for them to play in a lower hierarchy team (rep team hierarchy is explained above).

Any votes you cast on a player will remain attached to that player, but you can change your votes when you want to. If a player you have voted for is no longer nominated (the player leaves the union or the owner of the player removes them from their nomination slot), then the votes will remain attached to them, but you are obviously free to remove those votes whenever you wish.

You can change your voting anytime prior to the beginning of a match the rep team is playing in.

#### Team Selection

The game will work through each position, starting with the position that has the most total votes cast on it. In each position the player with the most votes is picked. However, if that player has already been picked to play for a rep team higher in the rep team hierarchy or for another position previously selected, then that player will be ignored. If the most votes is tied, then the game will pick the player with the highest level in that position from the tied players. If these are equal then it will randomly select one of them for that position. It does this in a deterministic way, so that the same player will always be picked.

If a position has no votes then the game will pick the player with the highest level for that position amongst the players nominated (this includes any utility players who could play in that position) Similar to when there are tied votes, if there are players tied on the same level with no votes, a random player will be picked in a deterministic way.

After the first XV has been selected the game will determine which players are on the bench. On the bench the game will pick a prop, a hooker, a lock, a back-row player, a scrumhalf, a flyhalf, a centre, a back-three player. For each it will pick the player nominated for that position with the most votes who is not already chosen for the starting XV (for back-row this would be flankers and N.8, and for back-three this would be wingers and fullbacks). If tied for votes, the game will pick the player with the highest level nominated in that position. If for some reason there are no nominated players available, then it will pick an un-nominated player from a club in the union that has the highest level for the position.

#### Team Gameplans

Every created rep team starts off with the same default game-plans as normal clubs have. You can create additional game-plans and edit and delete them as you wish, but you cannot edit or delete game-plans created by another manager. Union admins, however, can delete any game-plan they want to, but cannot edit them. Game-plans, however, cannot be edited or deleted if they have received votes for a given fixture and the kick-off is within the next 12 hours.

You can vote for the game-plan you want the rep team to use in the upcoming match. Votes for game-plans are per fixture. If no game-plans are voted for, then the game-plan used for the previous fixture is used.

If votes for a game-plan are tied, then the tie is resolved in the following order:

* The game-plan the President of the Union voted for
* The game-plan that the majority of the union admins voted for
* A random game-plan is picked

#### Player Injuries

There are no long-term injury effects for injuries arising from a rep side match, and all players selected for a rep team are considered to be on 100% health at the start of the match.

#### Player Form

A rep player’s form is the same as their club form.

### **Rep Team Competition**

Every rep team plays in the union divisional league. Each league consists of four rep teams, playing home and away.  The matches occur on a Wednesday and a Sunday in the home side’s time zone (season days: 3, 7, 10, 14, 17, and 21 - day 3 is a Wednesday, then Sunday, then Wednesday and so on). As with club sides, there are 5 division levels, and all rep teams begin in division level 1. At the end of the season there are play-off games to determine promotion and relegation.

Upon creating a rep team, if there are four or more days remaining until the end of the season, the rep team will be added to a new league filled with bot teams. This gives your union the opportunity to test out the new rep team ahead of the next season. At the beginning of a new season, the rep team will join a full rep team league.

#### Promotion and Relegation

The teams that finish first and second in the league have a Promotion play-off on day 24 of the season to determine which side gets promoted. The team that finished in first place has home advantage.

The teams that finish third and fourth in the league have a Relegation play-off on day 24 of the season to determine which side gets relegated. The team finishing 3rd has home advantage.

Rep teams from the same union cannot appear in the same league.

### Ranking Points

Rep sides have ranking points that change depending on their match results. The ranking point system is based on the World Rugby ranking point system (see below).

#### Ranking Leaderboard

There is a ranking leaderboard (internally stored for now, but will be made visible in the game in due-course). The leaderboard is purely for measuring the success of unions, not for earning rewards. However, rankings will eventually be used for Rep team Special Tournaments to determine qualification/seeding (future feature).

#### Ranking Point System

Ranking points start at 30 for new rep teams.

Whenever a rep team plays a match there are ranking points at stake. Ranking point transfers works as follows:

* Step 1: Take ranking points of rep team A and add 3 points if they are at home for the match. This is ranking score A
* Step 2: Take ranking points rep team B and add 3 if they are at home. This is ranking score B
* Step 3: Calculate difference in ranking points. This is C
* Step 4: The rep team with the higher pre-match ranking score (A or B) is the ‘Favourite’, the other union is the ‘Underdog’, unless they are 10 or more points lower, in which case they are termed the ‘Outsider’.
* Step 5: There is no transfer of points if a Favourite beats an Outsider.
* Step 6: Apply the following formula to work out ranking points that transfer from one side to another, with the winner collecting the points:

i. Rep team A wins by 16 or more: (10+B-A) x 0.3, capped at 6

ii. Rep team A wins by 15 or fewer: (10+B-A) x 0.2, capped at 4

iii. Draw: D x 0.2, capped at 2 to the Underdog/Outsider

iv. Rep team B wins by 15 or fewer: (10+A-B) x 0.2, capped at 4

v. Rep team B wins by 16 or more: (10+A-B) x 0.3, capped at 6

### Rep Team Rewards

Rep teams earn rewards for their union and the union's club members by winning league and play-off matches. The level of the union stadium will boost many of these rewards. Many rewards require the rep team to have been assigned a Prime Time TV deal to earn rewards.

#### Prime Time TV Deals

When a union creates its first rep team they receive a Prime Time TV deal, and this deal is permanently assigned to this rep team. Unions can then gain up to two other Prime Time deals through upgrading their union's stadium (stadium level 10 and 20 gain additional Prime Time TV deals).

Union admins assign these additional deals to whichever union rep team they wish to, though no rep team can have more than one deal. Union admins can move one of these additional Prime Time TV deals once per week for free, but moving more than this costs the union 5 union treasury tokens per move.

A rep team that does not have a Prime Time TV deal assigned to it will only earn rewards for winning a play-off match and cannot earn XP for their union.

#### Union Rewards

A rep team with a Prime Time TV deal earns their union XP by winning league and play-off matches:

**Prime Time Union XP Rewards**
 Win a Promotion Play-off
 Win a Relegation Play-off

The amount of XP they earn is boosted by the division they play in:

**Divisional Multiplier**
 D.2
 D.3
 D.4
 D.5

The union Stadium level also gives a bonus to the XP earned: +5XP per stadium level.

#### Club Member Rewards

Union clubs earn rewards from rep team success in the form of club cash, academy stars, cards, tokens and ladder med-packs:

**Rewards Per Club Member**
 Winning a Promotion Play-off Match
 Winning any Play-off Match

If the rep team is assigned a Prime Time TV deal then it earns these additional rewards per league win:

**Prime Time TV Club Rewards**
 Random Card
 Club Cash
 Academy Stars

#### Club Player Rewards

Every player that plays in a rep team match gains match experience at the same rate as they do for a club league matches.

### Supporter System (Experimental)

During a live match, the team that has the highest ***percentage*** of their union members watching the match gains a 5% performance bonus, which lasts as long as that team has the most support i.e. the bonus can come and go, swapping sides during a match as viewer numbers for each union rise and fall.