Update 0.6.12: National Cup, Variable Divisions & Opponent-Driven Attendance

Version 0.6.12 adds the first major knockout competition to Goalcrest, restructures the league pyramid around realistic division sizes, and makes your home crowds respond to the quality of the opposition walking through the tunnel. Three changes that give every season a new layer of drama both on and off the pitch.

The headline is the National Cup. A full knockout bracket now runs alongside your league campaign from the very first season. The format mirrors a real domestic cup: Round 1 is reserved for Division 5 sides only — including your club on a fresh save — paired randomly into two-leg ties decided on aggregate. From Round 2 onward, the surviving minnows are joined by every club from Divisions 1 through 4, creating a 64-team Round of 32 and a proper giant-killing narrative. Every round through to the Final is two legs; level aggregates go to penalties, so there is always a winner. The bracket is visible on a dedicated Cup page reachable from the home dashboard and the desktop sidebar, and it regenerates automatically at the start of every new season.

Cup ties are auto-simulated using your real squad strength, and prize money rewards progression. Each round you win pays out on a sliding scale: roughly €4,000 for surviving Round 1, climbing through €10k, €26k, €64k, €160k, and €400k as you reach the Semi-Finals, with each lower round worth 60% less than the one above it. Win the Final and you lift the trophy for a €1,000,000 champion prize, plus 8 reputation and a permanent entry in your trophy cabinet. The cup processes on even weeks (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14), fitting all seven rounds inside the shortest division season.

The league pyramid itself has been restructured around variable team counts, so each division feels like a genuine league rather than a copy-paste of the same size. Division 1 now has 18 clubs, Division 2 has 16, Division 3 has 14, Division 4 has 12, and Division 5 — where every career begins — has 8. Promotion (top two) and relegation (bottom two) adapt to each division size automatically, so the maths of climbing out works the same way regardless of tier. Existing saves keep their current division setup until the next season starts, at which point the new structures take effect.

Finally, home attendance is no longer just about your own fanbase and ticket pricing — it now reacts to the opposition. When a stronger side visits, the crowd swells in proportion to the strength gap: a visiting team 30% stronger than yours brings a 30% turnout boost, as fans turn out to see the big test (or the potential upset). When a weaker side comes to town, the crowd dips — but only by a quarter of the gap, so a side 40% weaker than yours trims turnout by 10%, not 40%. The boost is capped at your stadium capacity, so a marquee visit still cannot overflow the stands. Combined with the existing fan happiness, ticket price, and rivalry derby factors, your matchday crowd now tells a fuller story about who is coming to your ground and how much your supporters care.

Load any save and the National Cup bracket appears on the Cup page immediately — for existing careers, the cup generates on your next season start. The division restructuring takes effect at your next new season, and the attendance changes apply to your very next home match. Everything is automatic; no restart needed.