🧠 Hint Sheet #16

⭐ Club Rivalries & Derbies — Explained

⚔️ 1. How Rivalries Really Work

Every time you play another club — whether in league, cup or friendly — you generate a hidden Rival Score.
This score isn’t public, and the exact formula is secret — you’ll need to work it out from experience.

But here’s what matters most:

• 🏆 Cups score the most

• 🥅 Leagues score solidly

• 🤝 Friendlies add a little

• 📊 Match Closeness is the biggest driver — narrow results and tight contests build rivalry fastest

• 💥 Fan Clashes (police trouble, stand damage, crowd incidents) boost rivalry growth

Volume gives more chances to score points — but it’s closeness and conflict that really fuel long-term rivalries.

📈 2. Rival Levels & What They Mean

📍 3. Seeing Your Rivals

Once any rivalry hits 100 Rival Points with your club:

📋 You unlock your Top 10 Rival List that will appear each week in your Manager’s Report.

This shows:

• Rival Club

• Match-up Result Stats (League | Cup | Friendlies | Won | Drawn | Lost | Etc)

• Status (Aware | Official | Linked | Legendary | Legendary Derby)

• Detail (if any)

• Rival Score

📜 4. Official Rivals — Choose Wisely

✔ You may declare up to 3 Official Rivals at any time
✔ Use an Executive Order to declare
✔ Use another to withdraw (don’t rush this!)

Official rivals lock in your club’s attention — only pick those you plan to build with over seasons.
Cup and league matches are the real drivers — friendlies barely move the needle.

🏟️ 5. Linked Rivalries & Derbies

When you and another club officially declare each other, the rivalry becomes Linked.
At the point the rivalry becomes linked, an additional 150 rival points will need to be obtained to advance to the Legendary level.

Example: Man United and Man City managers both officially declare each other a rival. Man United does this when the rival score is at 230. Man City only returns the declaration several turns later when the rival score is now at 247. At this point the rivalry is now considered LINKED and they now both need to reach 397 rival points (247 + 150) to promote their rivalry from linked to LEGENDARY.

At legendary level, any match that is played is now considered a Derby Game. Further to that, once their rivalry score increases by an additional 100 points, their rivalry reaches the top tier, that of Legendary Derby.

Example: Continuing with our Man United and Man City rivalry example (above), once they obtain 397 rival points their rivalry is then considered Legendary. Reaching that milestone, all future matches will be considered a derby game and upon reaching a score of 497 (397 + 100), their rivalry will then be at the top tier possible, called Legendary Derby.

Once a rivalry hits Legendary Derby level:

🏆 You can name the Derby Competition (e.g., The Iron Cup).
📊 Every 5 derby matches complete a Derby Competition cycle.
🥇 The club winner of the current competition becomes the Cup Holder.
🔄 The next cycle begins immediately, and all results are recorded forever.

The naming of the derby competition is done via an Executive Order. Both managers need to issue the order on exactly the same week and enter the same Derby Competition Name. This is very important.

🎯 6. Rivalry Effects

The bigger the rivalry, the bigger the impact:

🔥 Players may over-perform in big matches — or crumble under pressure
🩹 Injuries and cards may increase
📣 Attendance, ticket revenue & merchandise may rise
⚠ Fan clashes and volatility become more likely

Rivals aren’t just cosmetic — they change how your club performs and how fans react.

📌 7. Top Tips

✨ Close games build rivals — aim for competitive fixtures
⚽ Cups matter most — more points at stake = more rivalry growth
📆 Friendly matches help slowly — but don’t rely on them
👥 Pick Official Rivals you’ll face often (leagues and cups)

Build slowly. Fight hard. Rivalry is a long game.

⚽⚔️👑