Reserve teams

What a reserve team is in the game

A reserve team – a second team, a B team or an under-23 side – is a normal club with its own file, squad and league place. What makes it a reserve is one line in its club file that names its first team:

! Name "Polar Bear United II"
#@cs reserve-of "Polar Bear United"

This link has the following effects:

• The reserve may only play in leagues that its rules allow – usually at least one level below its first team (see When may a reserve play in a league?).
• Its promotion can be blocked, and it has to go down when its first team's relegation makes its league forbidden (see End of the season).
• It does not take part in cups unless a cup allows reserves.
• In a career, the first team's manager can move reserve players up without a fee, lend players to the reserve for free – the first team keeps paying the salary – and call them back at any time. Computer-managed clubs use their reserves in their squad planning.

A first team may have several reserves, for example a II and a III. Not allowed are a reserve of a reserve, a club as its own reserve, circular links, and national teams or player pools as first team or reserve. Worlds without reserve links – such as the included standard world – work exactly as before.

Settings in the reserve's club file

Write these lines at the top of the reserve's club file, before any player details:

! Name "Polar Bear United II"
! Reputation 6
! Reserve class "Under-23"
! Minimum division 2
#@cs reserve-of "Polar Bear United"
#@cs regions "North"

A reserve on a regional level needs a home area like every other club (see Regional leagues). If the first team exists in the world but its league is not loaded in a career, the link stays; only the distance to the first team cannot be checked.

Rules for a country and for single leagues

Most reserve rules are set for the whole country, and single leagues can change some of them. Country rules go into the country part of the league file, after ! Country and before the first league. League rules go into the league.

Write true, false, counted, counted-last and additional in small letters. A rule in the wrong place is ignored and reported as “Invalid reserve competition rule”; in a test, #@cs reserve-minimum-division 3 inside a league was reported this way while the career itself ran normally. Two different values for the same rule in the same place cancel that rule; writing the same value twice is harmless.

When may a reserve play in a league?

A reserve may play in a league only if all three checks pass:

1. The league allows reserves. It does not have #@cs reserve-teams false.
2. The league is not too high. Its level is not above the country's reserve-minimum-division or the reserve's own ! Minimum division – the stricter of the two counts.
3. The league is far enough below the first team. Its level is at least the first team's level next season plus the gap (the league's own reserve-minimum-offset, otherwise the country's, otherwise 1).

Example with the country rules reserve-minimum-division 2 and reserve-minimum-offset 1:

If a league on level 3 has #@cs reserve-minimum-offset 0, the reserve of a level-3 first team may play there too – even in the same league as its first team.

The gap only counts within one country's league system. If the first team plays in another country, its reserve only has to follow the other two checks.

End of the season: promotion and relegation of reserves

The game decides first teams and their reserves together, using the level the first team will play in next season.

A reserve may not go up

A reserve that finishes in a promotion place but would not be allowed one level higher stays down. Its points, results, final position and any title remain its own. Its promotion place goes to the next club in the same table that may go up.

With #@cs reserve-promotion-max-rank 2 only clubs placed first or second may take a reserve's place. In the example only Igloo Inter goes up. The second place stays empty, and the league above relegates one club fewer, so that both leagues keep their size. (Regional leagues keep their announced places; their sizes adjust instead.)

A reserve has to go down

If the first team is relegated and the reserve's league becomes forbidden – because of the gap or the minimum division – the reserve moves down, as far as necessary and even if it finished at the top. The relegation rule decides how this is counted:

• A reserve that is relegated because of its results anyway is not counted twice.
• A first team is never saved from relegation by its own reserve going down. Other clubs can be saved by it.

No suitable league below

If the loaded league system has no allowed league further down – because the career stops at that level, or the levels below are closed – the reserve stays where it is. The club information then says: “The team has a participation exception for this season.” In this case it may even share a level with its first team. No league is invented and no club disappears; the career simply continues. Loading more levels when creating the career avoids most of these cases.

At the start of a career

The starting lists are checked too. A reserve listed in a league where it may not play is reported as “Reserve team is not eligible for its starting division”.

Reserves in cups

Reserve teams do not take part in cups unless a cup allows them. Write the line directly below the cup's name line, before its first round:

* Footlandia Cup
#@cs reserve-teams true
+ Country "Footlandia"
+ round 1 "First Round" 1-32 12

• The setting applies to all rounds of this cup.
• A league's own reserve-teams line has no effect on cups.
• When reserves are not allowed, the cup's rules skip them and take the next suitable clubs instead.

Example: reserve rules for Footlandia

Footlandia from the regional example, with reserve rules:

! Country "Footlandia"
! Names "Data/Names/Footlandia_1st.txt" "Data/Names/Footlandia_2nd.txt"
#@cs reserve-minimum-division 2
#@cs reserve-minimum-offset 1
#@cs reserve-relegation counted

: Footlandia - Premier League
+ division 1
+ promotions 0
+ relegations 2
#@cs promotion-relegation compensate-team-count
#@cs reserve-teams false
; the clubs of the Premier League here

: Footlandia - North League
+ division 2
+ promotions 1
+ relegations 0
#@cs regions "North"
#@cs regional-allocation fixed-regions
#@cs allocation-group "Second level"
#@cs reserve-promotion-max-rank 2
Polar Bear United II
; the other clubs of the North League here

The reserve's own club file is shown in Settings in the reserve's club file. In an eight-season test the reserves played normally. The test also checked what would happen if their first teams were relegated: the reserves would then need level 3, which does not exist in this small world, so they would stay with a participation exception. Adding a third level would remove these notes.

Messages about reserve teams