Welcome to the RTC! This is the football game where I do all the work, and you have all the fun. You pick your teams and how to lead them, the rest is done by yours truly along with a couple of dice. This year, there are prizes for the best teams. They are:
1st place: Amazon gift certificate of £15/$30
2nd place: Amazon gift certificate of £10/$20
3rd place: 2x512Mb RAM chips. DDR2 PC3200
Basic rules:
- 24 teams participate.
- 6 groups will be drawn, each consisting of 4 teams.
- The winner of each group will advance to the quarterfinals, along with the two best 2nd placed teams.
- The score is decided by the use of dice (see below).
- A set of bonuses created by the positions of the opposing captains will be applied to the score.
Here are the rules that regulate the contest; you don't need to read them if you don't want to, but it will help explaining anything you don't get:
Position bonuses explained:
The Goalkeeper is a team's last line of defence. He directs his team from the back, which gives the team a good defensive bonus, but his leadership is sorely missed up front. If facing an attacker who knows what he's doing, there might be trouble. If he faces a team with a defensive captain, he should have less trouble keeping the ball out of his goal. He is an incredible asset during the penalty shootouts; less tired than the outfield players, and with the prospect of becoming the hero of the match rather than the scapegoat, he is given a solid bonus during the shootouts.
A Defender is a good thing to have in a football match. To keep the ball away from your goal, see. While this defensive expertise comes in handy against good attackers, however, he doesn't really know how to behave in front of the goal. That makes him a poor finisher in penalty shootouts, and his team may have more trouble scoring in general.
A Midfielder is hard working; he does defending and attacking, and is considered a real nuisance by defenders and forwards both. Even goalkeepers find these enterprising middle-placed captains to be troublesome. At the end of each match, however, they are so tired they won't be very helpful during the extra time or penalty shootouts. The player used to being on top of most opponents throughout the match, now suddenly finds himself at a very real disadvantage.
Forwards are goal-machines. Nobody knows how to score like a good striker. Scourge of goalkeepers, destroyers of self-confident players used to keep the ball out of the goal, these guys are responsible for delivering the one thing you can't get without scoring: Wins. Their finishing prowess also comes in handy during penalty shootouts. Facing a skilled defensive player, however, who is trained to anticipate their attacking moves, they might have a bit more trouble.
Side bonuses:
What's new this year is a special "side" bonus, that is a positive or negative effect caused by which position your defender/midfielder plays; right, left or centre. If you lead your team from the middle, you control the whole pitch – that's the norm. If you're on one side, your leadership will be stronger there, but found lacking on the other side. Example:
DR vs MR. The midfielder finds it easier to direct his team-mates with no super-skilled defender to bug him. The defender has increased trouble with his defensive line, as his leadership is lacking on the left side, and the opposing midfielder gets to play around as much as he likes. As a consequence, the midfielder is given a +5% bonus to his base, i.e. +25% instead of the normal +20% he would receive had he been facing a DC.
DR vs ML. This time, the midfielder finds himself trying to destabilize the guy who knows how to control his defence. He is therefore given a –5% bonus to his base, i.e. +15%.
Forwards are centre players. If there is no central commander against them, they will receive a +5% bonus to their base. If there is a centre against them (D or M), they will receive a –5% bonus to their base.
That means, the position bonuses are:
Goalkeeper: (last line of defence)
+50% on penalty shootouts.
+20% (-20% to opposition's score) when facing a team with a Defender as captain.
-25% (+25% to opposition's score) when facing a team with a Forward as captain.
-10% (+10% to opposition's score) when facing a team with a Midfielder as captain.
Defender: (drilled at taking offensive players out of the game)
+30% (-30% to opposition's score) when facing a team with a Forward as captain.
-20% (+20% to opposition's score) when facing a team with a Midfielder as captain.
-20% (-20% to your score) when facing a team with a Goalkeeper as captain.
-10% on penalty shootouts.
an additional +5% if facing a same side Midfielder
an additional –5% if facing an opposing side Midfielder
Midfielder: (works very hard to destabilize both offensive and defensive opponents)
+20% (-20% to opposition's score) when facing a team with a Forward as captain.
+20% (+20% to your score) when facing a team with a Defender as captain.
+10% (+10% to your score) when facing a team with a Goalkeeper as captain.
-30% on extra time and penalty shootouts.
an additional +5% if facing an opposing side Defender (MR vs DR)
an additional –5% if facing a same side Defender (MR vs DL)
Forward: (experts on finishing moves)
+25% (+25% to your score) when facing a team with a Goalkeeper as captain.
+20% (+20% to your score) in extra time.
+20% (+20% to your score) in penalty shootouts.
-20% (-20% to your score) when facing a team with a Midfielder as captain.
-30% (-30% to your score) when facing a team with a Defender as captain.
an additional +5% if facing a D/M R/L
an additional –5% if facing a D/M C
These bonuses will be taken into consideration when the dice is rolled and can be a deciding factor. For instance, if the dice is rolled and the score shows 3-3, then with a +20% bonus your 3 becomes 3.6, which is then rounded up to 4, and you win the match – whereas if you happen to lose 1-6, it won't have much effect.
The dice don't have a 0 on them, so it's hard to fail to score. To compensate, I shall re-roll the dice if you get a 1. If the re-roll shows a 3 or lower, your score is set to 0. If it shows a 4 or higher, it is set to 1. Remember, goal differences can be crucial in deciding who advances from a group, and failure to score on away matches is a killer...
Bonuses are not cumulative in the match (i.e. if your defender meets a midfielder, the penalty is –20%, not 2*(–20%). Separate rules apply for extra time and penalty shootouts. They will be posted later.
Good luck, everyone! 
