New Improvements/Features: Promotion Play-Offs

June 4th, 2008 by SM Dev (ste)

A long awaited feature has now been introduced to the game in the form of ‘Promotion Play Offs’.

The majority of leagues throughout the world have ‘ Promotion Play-Offs’, to help decide who gains promotion to the next tier of the league pyramid. It can be a one off game or series of games played after the regular season is over with the aim of determining who gains promotion along with the clubs who have secured automatic promotion.

Usually the play-off matches are contested by the teams finishing from 3rd to 6th in the league (although this varies from league to league depending on the number of automatic promotion places). The semi-finals see 6th playing 3rd and 5th playing 4th, and the winners of each match contest the final which is played at a neutral stadium (the winner of which securing promotion to the next tier of the league ladder).

The suggestion of introducing ‘Promotion Play-offs’ was a regular suggestion which we received, and it is something which has now been introduced to the game based loosely on the English model.

For SM run setups (exluding Custom Setups) this means that the top two teams in leagues outside Division 1 gaining automatic promotion, and teams finishing from 3rd to 6th in the league contesting the ‘Promotion Play-Offs’.

The semi-finals will be a one off match, with 6th playing 3rd and 5th playing 4th, and the home team being the higher placed team. The Final will be played at a neutral stadium, and again would be a one off match, with the winner securing promotion to the next tier of the league ladder.

So when will these additional matches be played? Well the semi-finals will be contested the day after the season ends, and the final will be contested the following day. Obviously with having three possible matches in the same number of days there would be an issue of fitness, and naturally we have addressed this issue and put something in place to help players recover slightly quicker.

So how will this new feature get introduced, and also in which setups? ‘Promotion Play Offs’ will be introduced in any new setup created by SM (exluding Custom Setups), and Custom Setup owners will have an option within their ‘Advanced Rules’ of whether they want to include them or not. Also this new feature will only become available in existing setups run by SM (excluding Custom Setups) once an existing season comes to an end.

We feel that by adding ‘Promotion Play-Offs’ to all SM run setups it will make the race for promotoin to the next tier of the league ladder more interesting and open. Instead of a handful of clubs (for example) in and around the (current) top three automatic places, it would bring more clubs (possibly down to mid table) into the promotion race, and in essence give managers more to play for.

Please Note: There will be a link within the ‘Advanced Rules’ of a Custom Setup to enable you to turn on/off the new feature of ‘Promotion Play-Offs’ within existing setups. However, this will only be available within Custom Setups prior to Turn 10 of their current season. If your Custom Setup is past this time then you will have to wait until the start of your new season when you have the option to edit your ‘Advanced Rules’.

Posted in: New Improvements/Features

Related Articles

• Messages: Promotion Play-Offs
• Work In Progress: Promotion Play Offs update
• Ideas & Suggested Improvements: Promotion Play-Offs
• Work In Progress: Promotion Play Offs
• Messages: Gold Championship 17 format
• Ideas & Suggested Improvements: The ‘Gold’ debate
• Ideas & Suggested Improvements: Chairman Expectations
• Member Success Stories: Shels Guides Santos To Historic Heights
• Ideas & Suggested Improvements: Draft Ideas for Custom Setups
• New Improvements/Features: Foot

Previous / Next Articles