Rules

Working Title - Rugby 7s Championship

Rules - Version 0.1 – March, 2025

Anti-Copyright: These rules are anti-copyright, which means you are actively encouraged to use them, and set up

your own league using them, so long as no profit-making is involved, and you include a statement similar to this

one.

1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 2

2. Players .............................................................................................................. 3

3. Team Selection ................................................................................................. 4

4. Playing a Match ................................................................................................. 6

5. Coaching ........................................................................................................... 6

6. Strategy ............................................................................................................. 8

7. Competitions ..................................................................................................... 8

8. Recruiting ........................................................................................................ 10

9. Future Season Ideas ..................................................................................... 15

Add hardness rules, injuries, yellow and red cards and suspensions - I was thinking you could port straight from United but perhaps link to individuals (and just their Tackling, Jackling and Set Pieces) and restrict to three levels Clean (0), Aggressive (1) or Dirty (2)?

1. Introduction

Working Title is an online rugby sevens management game. Each player takes the role of running a fictitious college rugby sevens team. The coach has total control over coaching, lineups, tactics, and recruiting.

The game has been developed with male names, but a women’s game could be run as well.

Coaches and Players

From here onwards:

Coach means a player of this game

Player means a member of a team

Roster

Each team has a squad of between 16 and 20 players. For season 1 there were 4 players for each year a student is in:

• Freshman (Fr)

• Sophomore (So)

• Junior (Jr)

• Senior (Sr)

Season

The season is divided into X regular weekend tournament sessions followed by a session X+1 for eXperience Point (XP) assignment and walk-on recruiting. Each regular session has a deadline, by which time coaches must submit orders for their teams using the online orders form on the web site.

After the deadline, the GM runs the software to work out all events happening in the game, which in turn updates data and reports on the web site. Then the next session begins.

Chance

Many events in the game have a percentage chance of happening. To work these out, the software generates a random number from 0.01 to 100. If the number is less than or equal to the chance, the event happens. Otherwise, it does not happen. Example: If there is a 60% chance of a serving ace, a random number of up to 60.00 means success, and 60.01-100.00 indicates no ace occurred.

Learning the Game

To learn the game, read the rules. Then, browse the web site and look at the league in progress. Send any questions to the GM, Allan Sellers: [email protected]

2. Players

Each player has the characteristics shown below:

Characteristic Details

Name - The software chooses each player's name at the start of a player's career. This avoids

duplication. Names never change.

Position - Each player is either a Forward or a Back. The Forwards are Prop (P) and Hooker (H). The Backs are Scrum Half (SH), Fly Half (FH), Centre (C) and Winger (W). A player's position never changes.

Age - A player's age runs (from youngest): Freshman (Fr), Sophomore (So), Junior (Jr), Senior (Sr).

Skill - Level A whole number from 1 upwards. A player's Skill Level rises through Coaching. There are 6 different skill levels: Pace (PCE), Handling (HAN), Tackling (TAC), Jackling (JKL), Kicking (KIC), Set Pieces (SET).

Fitness Modifier - A whole number of 1 or less; it may be negative and may rise or fall during a season. At the start of every season each player's Fitness Modifier is reset to 0.

Reductions to Fitness Modifier - If a player plays in all 3 pool matches on a Saturday, his Fitness Modifier reduces by 1 at the end of the session.

Increasing Fitness Modifier - A player playing no matches over an entire weekend increases his Fitness by 1, unless it is already at the maximum of 1. A player's Fitness Modifier may also increase through Coaching. (See Section 5 - Coaching)

Player Examples

Total Level: A player shown as a Fr SH is a Freshman Scrum Half. This player starts at a FIT of 0 in the beginning of the season. The first row shows an example of the player’s roster skills. Rows 2-5 show how the FIT raises or reduces a player’s skills for that session based on FIT.

Fit SRV RCV BLK ATT DEF SET

PCE HAN TAC JKL KIC SET

Base levels (Fit=0) 10 10 5 6 7 0

Fit 1 11 11 6 7 8 0

Fit -1 9 9 4 5 6 0

Fit -2 8 8 3 4 5 0

Player Position

Position Abbreviation Purpose SL Used

Forwards

Props (P) tend to be the toughest players on the team but are often the slowest. They have two main roles:

1) To tackle opposition players and steal the ball from them by Jackling

2) To win the ball at set pieces (Scrum and Line Out)

Most Used – TAC, JKL, SET

Moderately Used – PCE, HAN

Never Used – KIC

Hookers (H) are key to the set piece - hooking the ball at the scrum and throwing in at the line out. They have two main roles:

1) To win the ball at set pieces (Scrum and Line Out)

2) To tackle opposition players and steal the ball from them by Jackling

Most Used – SET, TAC, JKL

Moderately Used – PCE, HAN

Never Used – KIC

Backs

Scrum Half’s (SH) main purpose is to pass the ball quickly to teammates to create attacking chances. They also use their pace to find gaps in the opposition’s defence

Most Used – HAN, PCE

Moderately Used – TAC, JKL, KIC

Never Used – SET

Fly Half (FH) is the hub of the team, passing the ball to the right teammates to create attacking chances. They also use their kicking skills to clear the ball away from danger and to take shots at goal

Most Used – HAN, KIC

Moderately Used – TAC, JKL, PCE

Never Used – SET

Centre (C) is an all rounder who contributes in both attack and defence.

Most Used – HAN, PCE, TAC, JKL

Moderately Used – KIC

Never Used – SET

Winger’s (W) use their pace to break through the opposition defence and score tries.

Most Used – PCE, HAN

Moderately Used – TAC, JKL

Never Used – SET, KIC

Roster Requirements

• To start a new season your roster must meet this minimum

o 4 Props

2 Hookers

o 2 Scrum Half’s

o 2 Fly Half’s

o 2 Centres

o 2 Wingers

o 16-20 players

3. Team Selection

Areas of Play

The available positions are: Prop, Hooker, Scrum Half, Fly Half, Centre, Winger

Note: The game currently does not allow for substitutions. This may be a future enhancement.

Orders

For each match, coaches must select a team which fits with the selection rules. The coach:

Must select exactly 7 players.

Must assign each player to a zone (from I to VII). These numbers indicate which section of the pitch the player will occupy during a match.

Must assign only one player to each of the Hooker, Scrum Half, Fly Half, Centre and Winger Areas.

Must assign exactly two players to the Prop Area

If no rules are entered for a session the team is run as NMR (No Moves Received). If you do not put a lineup in the orders page for the session the team will be randomized with each player but will still have the correct format of 1 Setter, 1 Libero, 2 OH, 2 MB, and 1 RS.

Note that if teams are not managed for a long period or perhaps even a full season, the commissioner may intervene to assist those teams (with skill increases) at the end of the season.

Drafting Note: insert diagram and explanation of what the seven zones on the pitch are

Note: The online orders page ensures coaches comply with the selection rules; if a team selection breaks the above

rules, the page displays an error message until the coach corrects the selection.

4. Playing a Match

The software processes a match and calculates the results. The simulator uses the attributes for each player to determine the outcome of each phase of play. Where a player is on the pitch and who is opposite them is also important. The types of actions in a play and the match reporting include:

Metres made (running and kicking)

Tackles made and missed

Passes made

Handling errors

Set pieces won and lost (own and opponents)

Number of kicks during the game (not shots at goal)

Team points, broken down by tries, conversions, penalties and drop goals

Team Matches Won or Lost

5. Coaching

Coaching Points (CPs)

At the start of each regular session, a team receives CPs as follows:

55 CPs free

One additional CP per set won in the prior session

The number of CPs carried over from the preceding regular session, to a maximum of 15; any excess CPs are lost.

Coaching Players for Skill

To raise a player skill by 1 point costs his existing Level in CPs.

The following restrictions apply to coaching for Skill Level:

Coaching is always to the next Skill Level; partial coaching is not allowed.

A player may only be raised 1 specific Skill Level (PCE, HAN, TAC, JKL, KIC, SET) in a session.

A freshman may be raised a maximum of 3 times per specific Skill Level in a season.

A sophomore may be raised a maximum of 2 times per specific Skill Level in a season.

A junior may be raised a maximum of 1 time per specific Skill Level in a season.

A senior may not have their skill level raised further.

Fitness and Coaching Players for Fitness

A player’s fitness level determines how they perform on the court.

Each of the six player skills are raised, unchanged, or lowered depending on the fitness level.

Page 6TMVL Rules

Here’s how Joe Smith would start the season:

Player Year FIT SRV RCV BLK ATK DEF SET

Joseph Smith Fr 0 10 10 10 10 10 10

If his fitness is 1 he will play like this:

Player Year FIT SRV RCV BLK ATK DEF SET

Joseph Smith Fr 1 11 11 11 11 11 11

If his fitness is -1 he will play like this:

Player Year FIT SRV RCV BLK ATK DEF SET

Joseph Smith Fr -1 9 9 9 9 9 9

A player can raise their fitness in two ways:

1) Not play any games at a weekend tournament: raises Fit by 1 point to a maximum of 1

2) Use CP to raise fitness: may be raised by 1 point to a maximum of 1

Note to raise a fitness point through CPs the costs are as follows based on the player’s age:

Fr 4

So 8

Jr 12

Sr 16

A player lose 1 Fit if they play 3 matches on a Saturday

A player’s fitness can never go above 1. However, a player can continue to play (at reduced skill) no matter how low their fitness goes.

Underclassmen eXperience Points (XPs)

• During each season, each Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior gains experience through playing in matches.

• These eXperience Points can be used to improve the abilities for each of the six skills

• The rules are:

o XPs are earned in this manner:

- Freshman: 1 XP per set played

- Sophomores: 1 XP per 3 sets played (.66 is rounded up)

- Juniors: 1 XP per 5 sets played (.6 and .8 are rounded up)

XPs can be used like CPs with these restrictions:

- A given skill can be improved by only 1 point

- Multiple different skills CAN be improved

- The cost to improve a skill is the current SL for that Skill

- Example: If the current SET skill is 10, it will cost 10 XPs to improve the skill to 11

- A skill cannot be improved further if it was already maxed out via CP during the season.

- This will be done after the final session of the season.

- XPs do NOT carry over to the next season. Use them or lose them...

• This will be done during session 13 (final matches occur in session 12).

• A form is used for coaches to update this information.

6. Strategy

Skill Strategic Tips for starting lineup

Serve Best Servers possible in the lower number zones.

Receive Be aware that poor RCV players are targeted by the other teams

servers

Block Best MB starting at zone IV or V.

Attack Best pin hitter (OH or RS) starts at zone IV or V. Separate good

pin hitters from good MB hitters.

Defense Have Liberos serve for a middle for more digging opportunities.

Best digging OH starts at zone I or II.

Setting Start in Zone I for less chance of setter dumps

7. Competitions

Drafting Note - I’m going to assume 16 teams initially for illustrative purposes.

There are X Sevens tournaments per season. The winners of each tournament receive a Cup. Each tournament also has Plate, Bowl and Shield competitions for those eliminated from the Cup at the pool stage.

Teams are awarded points for how well they perform at each tournament. At the end of the season, the team winning the most points becomes that season’s Champions [noting that we could have a play off or play offs instead]

Each tournament takes place over a single virtual weekend and orders are submitted for the whole weekend.

At the start of a tournament, teams are randomly assigned to one of four pools of four.

On the opening day of the tournament each team plays the other teams in their pool once (three games). A win in a pool game is worth three points, a draw is worth one point and a loss zero points. Additionally either or both teams may gain a try bonus point if they score four or more tries in a game. The losing side may also gain a losing bonus point if they score seven or less than their opponents.

The four pool winners go through to the Cup Semi-Finals. The four second place teams go through to the Plate Semis, third placed teams enter the Bowl and last placed teams enter the Shield.

If teams are tied for the same number of points the following process determines their order:

The team that won the head to head

Points difference (scored minus conceded)

Try difference (scored minus conceded)

Points scored

Tries scored

Coin toss

All of the semi-finals take place on the second day of the tournament. The winners of the semifinals go through to face each other in the final to win the Cup/Plate/Bowl/Shield. The losers in each competition play a third placed play off. In the event a knockout game is tied after normal time, extra time is played until one team scores. That team is awarded the win.

Season points at each tournament are awarded as follows:

Cup winners 25

Cup runners up 20

Cup third place 17

Cup fourth place 15

Plate winners 13

Plate runners up 12

Plate third place 10

Plate fourth place 9

Bowl winners 8

Bowl runners up 7

Bowl third place 6

Bowl fourth place 5

Shield winners 4

Shield runners up 3

Shield third place 2

Shield fourth place 1

All matches take place on neutral ground.

Competition Format

Session Structure

There will be X sessions per season plus a final session for XP/walk ons.

Each session will cover the entire two days of a tournament with a Cup, Plate, Bowl and Shield awarded at the end of each session.

All teams will play five games over the weekend - three pool games on the opening day and two knock out games on the final day.

List of tournaments in week order (US Colleges would fit with the Age structure/ Recruiting proposed but international colleges would work just aswell)

8. Recruiting

I think the same recruiting approach as TMVL would work here, but happy to think about an alternative if you’d rather try something a bit different

Another aspect of the game is recruiting new players for next season’s team as the current crop of seniors will graduate

Two types of recruiting options available:

o Competitive Recruiting

o Signing Walk-Ons (Discovering Recruits)

Competitive Recruiting is where you’ll compete with other teams to recruit players with the highest RPs getting the player.

Teams can now add walk-ons at a position of their choosing for set number of RPs. and 3-star players and occurs AFTER Competitive Recruiting.

This can be done only for 1, 2,

Competitive Recruiting

• Available Recruits

o 90 recruits are available in competitive recruiting:

5-star 4-star 3-star

OH 9 12 4

MB 9 12 4

S 4 7 2

RS 4 7 2

L 4 7 2

TOTAL 30 45 14

o One random position gets an additional 3-star to get us to the 90 total.

o A listing of all players, including the session they will appear in, will be published at the beginning of the

season.

o For each rating (star) category there will be special players. The high quality of these athletes and their

skills will be published and known prior to the start of recruiting. These players will be able to max out a

specific skill. Some will even be a max+1 or max+2.

5-star 4-star 3-star

Max 6 6 9

Max +1 4 4 4

Max +2 2 2 2

12 12 15

TOTAL o At the end of the season a random number is drawn to determine the skill at an attribute based on their

star rating. A 5-star OH can end up with an attacking rating of 9-11.

§ If the player is shown as “Max-ATK” then the player will be converted to an 11 rating for

attacking when we convert the 5-star rating to the six applicable skills.

§ If the player is a max +1, the OH would start as a 12 attacker

§ If the player is a max +2, the OH would start as a 13 attacker

o The position selection along with the attribute chosen for the “max” setting will be done at random. The

skill/attribute chosen for these special players will be one of the strengths for the position.

o Note that all 3-star players will have a specialty added (max at one SL/attribute)

• Recruiting Cycle

o Recruiting occurs over a 3-session cycle.

§ Step 1 - Begin Recruiting (sessions 1-10)

• Teams can spend RPs using this formula to show interest in a player: star rating * 5. example, a 5-star recruit will cost 25 RP to recruit in step 1.

§ Step 2 - Official Visit (sessions 2-11)

• Here the team hosts the recruit spending more RP for an official visit.

For

• RP costs are as follows:

o If you recruited the player in step 1: star rating * 5 (ex: 5-star costs 25 RPs)

o If you DID NOT recruit the player in step 1, the costs are higher to get in late on

recruiting this player: 4 * (star rating * 5) (ex: 5-star costs 100 RPs)

§ Step 3 - Sign Recruit (sessions 3-12)

• Here, you spend a larger number of RPs to sign the recruit.

• Only players you recruited in BOTH step 1 and 2 OR in step 2 may be signed.

Signing Walk-Ons (Discovering Recruits)

The purpose of this is to ensure each team will have 16 players to start the following season and also to fill any

position minimums that may be an issue with seniors graduating.

This process is done AFTER the Competitive Recruiting has ended and will be available for session 13.

Additional information for Walk-Ons:

o These players can only be signed starting the session after competitive recruiting ends. This will occur

for season 5+ during session 13 and a web page will be available for this.

o We never want to do a walk-on draft again. J

o The recruit discovery process is there essentially as a supplement to when you still have recruiting spots

to fill. It is not intended to be the only way you get recruits. Hence the higher costs.

o Can select up to two 3-star players

§ The first 3-star player (no matter the position) is free.

§ Costs for discovering the other 3-star is double their min RP values as 3-stars in a competitive

recruiting session:

• L – 420

• MB – 480

• RS – 510

• OH – 540

• S – 600

o Can select up to two 2-star players

§ Costs for discovering these players is the 3-star minimum RP values for the positions:

• L – 210

• MB – 240

• RS – 255

• OH – 270

• S – 300

o Can select multiple 1-star players

§ Costs for discovering these players is the 2-star minimum RP values for the positions:

• L – 140

• MB – 160

• RS – 170

• OH – 180

• S – 200

o Starting with the end of season 5, if you are a brand new coach in the current season, you will also get

ONE FREE 1-star player. Please select the player you want and note the RPs will be temporarily spent for

that 1-star. You then MUST EMAIL Al to get reimbursed the RPs (this is a manual implementation and

you must notify Al). For example if the 1-star costs 200 RPs you will temporarily spend that but if you

email Al you will get the 200 RPs added back in after processing.

o If any team doesn’t meet roster minimums to start the following season, the league will add as many 1-

star players as needed to make the roster legal.

Page 12TMVL Rules

Recruiting Points (RPs)

o All teams are allotted an additional 500 RPs to start a season (starting with season 4)

o Each team will receive 140 RPs per session (added at the end of sessions 1 – 12).

o A Media Bonus is added starting with season 3. Teams can earn up to 40 RP per session for

comments/postings in all the available options on the site: forum, matches, blog, wall, and rankings.

Teams earn 5 RP per post with the max of 40 RP per session.

o At the start of session 1, (after receiving their 500 RP) a team with more than 2500 RP gets their total

dropped to a max of 2500 RP.

o Additional RP bonuses will be given out to teams at the end of the season based on finish in the

various tournaments along with conference position. See Below:

Tournament/League RP Bonus

Conf League 1st - 75 RP, 2nd - 50 RP, 3rd - 25 RP

C_EC

C_WC

Conf Tourney 1st - 50 RP, 2nd - 25 RP, Semifinals - 10 RP

T_EC

T_WC

Non Conf 1st - 25 RP, 2nd - 10 RP, 3rd - 5 RP

TMVL Cup 1st - 50 RP, 2nd - 40 RP, 3rd - 35 RP, 4th - 30 RP,

5th - 25 RP, 6th - 20 RP, 7th - 15 RP, 8th -10 RP

9th

-16th 5 RP

T_TC

TMVL Shield

T_TS

1st - 20 RP, 2nd - 15 RP, 3rd - 10 RP, 4th - 5 RP

WGM

1st - 50 RP, 2nd - 35 RP, Semifinals - 25 RP, Quarterfinals

- 10 RP

T_WGM

National Championship

1st - 100 RP, 2nd - 75 RP, Semifinals - 50 RP,

Quarterfinals - 30 RP

Sweet 16 – 20 RP

T_NC

Holyoke Invite 1st - 25 RP, 2nd - 15 RP, Semifinals - 10 RP T_HO

Page 13TMVL Rules

Stars to Skill Level Conversion

Below is the table for converting the star-rating to the actual skill levels. This was done at the end of season 1 and

will likely be an end of season activity again but could occur after recruiting sessions are completed if the code is in

place. The ranges have been slightly adjusted for season 2+ and a 1-star level row has been added.