Competitions

Schedule and Cup

The Schedule lists all your matches of the season, league and Cup combined, grouped by month and sorted by actual date and time.

There are All, Home, Away and Upcoming filters; "vs" before the opponent means a home match, "@" an away match. On the right: the next match card (countdown and orders button) and the season summary (record, standing, point differential, home/away, form over the last 5 matches). Match times stay fixed, even when the clocks change.

The Schedule can also be shown as a grid, one box per day, on a computer; you choose it on the Personalization page.

The play-offs bring together the top 4: semi-finals then a final, each played as a best-of-three, on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 8:00 PM during the 2 weeks after the regular season.

Semi-finals: 1st against 4th, 2nd against 3rd. The better-ranked team of the regular season hosts games 1 and 3 of each series, final included. Follow the bracket on the League page, Play-offs tab.

The Cup (when your league has one) is a single-elimination bracket, with one round every Thursday at 8:00 PM. The Cup tab shows your run (round reached, wins, a badge per round), the matches of each round (round buttons at the top, All and To play filters, your match first, clubs with a bye summed up in one line) and the bracket of the final stage from the round of 16 onwards. Cup orders are prepared the same way as league orders.

In country-based leagues, this is the National Cup: every club in the country (512 at most), with first-round byes for the highest divisions if the bracket is not full. The club from the lower division starts with +7 points for each division between them (+21 at most), already on the scoreboard. An opponent from another league is prepared like any other (Orders, scouting), and its page opens in Planet Hoop. Every Cup match won earns a bonus, from $50,000 in the early rounds to $400,000 for the final. During the off-season, the Super Cup pits the Division I champion against the Cup winner (or the runner-up if it is the same club) on Saturday at 8:00 PM, live and with the same handicap: $200,000 goes to the winner.

League

The standings are decided by wins, then by point differential.

They are split into zones: places 1 to 4 qualify for the play-offs; if there is an open league just below, 10th place is relegated, then 9th, and with three leagues below, 7th and 8th play a play-in. Only the zones actually at stake are colored. Each team shows its recent form. A "play-off race" panel sums up your position, your record and the gap to the key places.

Below the standings: the MVP of the last matchday and the league's best by category (points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, rating), as averages or totals. Click any player to open their profile, or a team to open its team page.

Friendly matches

A friendly is played on a rest day for both clubs (no official match that day), at the time of your choice, up to 3 weeks in advance, and only one per day.

A CPU team accepts immediately; another manager receives a private message and must accept before the scheduled time.

It is a real match for the players: fatigue, possible injuries and minutes that count towards fundamentals training, just like in the league. On a friendly day, there is no tactical training; players not selected for the friendly can do recovery or physical work (you choose in Training). A friendly raises each player's tactical knowledge a little, according to his minutes. It has no effect on the standings, finances or season stats. In the friendly's lineup, you can field youngsters from the academy; if it has no lineup of its own, the friendly is played with the club's current orders.

Against a club from another league
Even from another country: type its name into the opponent search, and clubs from all over the world appear below those of your league (with flag and division). The same rules apply: a rest day for both clubs, Paris time, and an invitation the other side must accept when you face a manager (he is notified in Hoop Magazine).

Private leagues

A competition between managers, alongside the official season and reserved for Premium clubs.

The creator picks the name, the number of teams, the match time (on Friday) and the venue (home / away or neutral), then shares the invite code. Any Premium club in the world can join with this code, whatever its country or division. The league starts as soon as it is full, or when its creator launches it (4 clubs minimum). A club can only take part in one private league at a time.

Matches are played with copies of your teams: they don't affect fatigue, injuries, standings or finances of the official season.

Hoop Champions League

The Hoop Champions League brings together the best clubs in the world every season.

Qualified on the previous season: the champion of every Division I, then the finalists of the strongest leagues, up to 32 clubs.

Groups: 4 clubs, home and away matches on the Wednesdays of weeks 1 to 6, at 20:00 at the home club. Win 2 points, loss 1; the top two go through.

Final phase: round of 16 and quarter-finals as best-of-three series (Monday and Wednesday), the better-ranked club hosting games 1 and 3, then the Final Four on neutral ground: semi-finals on the Sunday of week 9, final and third-place match on the Monday (18:00 and 20:00, Paris time).

As in private leagues, matches are played with copies of your teams: no effect on condition, injuries or season statistics. A player signed after the first match of the final phase does not play in it.

Prize money and prestige
$50,000 per group win, then $120,000 (round of 16), $180,000 (quarter-final), $300,000 (semi-final), $600,000 (title) and $150,000 (third place). The run also counts towards Reputation.

Countries, divisions and Planet Hoop

Your club has a country (chosen at sign-up, and mandatory) and plays in the league that goes with it.

Some countries have their own national league: France, the United States, Italy, Spain, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, China, Turkey, Russia, Israel and the Philippines. The others play in a regional league: Northern Europe, Adriatic, Central Europe, British Isles, Benelux, Latin America, Asia, Oceania, Africa and Middle East. A country belongs to only one league.

In a regional league, each club keeps its country: an Austrian club in Central Europe stays Austrian. Its starting roster has a majority of players from its country (starting five included), and both its youth academy and its reserves come mostly from its country. The league's AI clubs come from the various member countries, with their own cities and players.

Each league, national or regional, has its own pyramid: Division I, then II.1 to II.3, III.1 to III.9…

A new manager joins the highest division that still has an AI club; when everything is full (more than 10 managers in a league), the next league opens on its own. Matches are played at 8:00 PM local time, and all countries follow the same weeks.

Promotion and relegation are decided on the off-season Monday and applied when the new season starts: the play-off champion of each league goes up; at the other end, 10th place goes down, then 9th, then the loser of the play-in (7th vs 8th), for as many open leagues as there are just below. A promotion bonus is paid to the promoted club.

Planet Hoop (World group of the menu): choose a country (yours by default, the others with a click on their chip or with “+ n countries”) to see the season's honors, the division pyramid, the leaders and single-game records, and the national manager ranking; the history and the titles by team appear as soon as there is a first honors list. To view another league or a club, type its name into the search bar (“II.2”, “Division III”, a club name…): standings, latest results and roster in read-only mode.

At sign-up, the list shows each country with its league; the server assigns the league and rejects a country without a league. The former Taiwan league is now part of the Asia league (Division II.1): same clubs, same managers, and its ongoing Cup will be played to the end.

National teams

Every club country has two national teams, the A team and the U21 team.

Players of that nationality can be selected wherever they play (aged 21 or under for the U21s). The head coach is a manager elected by the other managers; he builds his staff and prepares the training camps from Selection mode.

Call-ups: Call up and Remove both ask for confirmation. Every change to the group affects the national team's Team chemistry (see Team chemistry), which is updated immediately in the national team's Locker room.

Competitions: all national teams play their continent's qualifiers (groups of 4 at most across the three windows), then the final tournament in the last week: Euro, AmeriCup, Asia Hoop Cup (Asia and Oceania), Africa Hoop Cup and, every other season, the World Cup. The major tournaments are played in groups of 3 or 4 over three days, then in a final bracket of the 8 or 16 best-ranked teams. National teams that fail to qualify for the continental finals do not play at the end of the season; in World Cup seasons, those not taking part play a consolation tournament.

Ranking: the world ranking, in a tab on each national team's page (A or U21). Each team starts at 1,000 points and wins or loses some in every match depending on the result, the margin and the opponent; a final tournament weighs more than a qualifier, which weighs more than a friendly. Only the last 3 seasons count.

Intensity for national teams
In qualifiers and friendlies, intensity is always Normal. At the final tournament it is free, but a team playing All out loses the boosted recovery between two matches.