How to play Bracket
The rules of Goaler's football Bracket: sixteen players, one number, fifteen picks from the round of 16 to the final, and how the score out of 1,000 works.
Goaler's Bracket is a knockout cup for football numbers. Sixteen footballers are drawn into eight matches, and every bracket asks one question: who has more? The number is the same for the whole bracket. It might be international caps, international goals, or league goals in the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A or the Bundesliga. In every match you tap or click the player you think has the higher number, and the cup runs on until the final.
The draw
A bracket has four rounds: eight matches in the round of 16, four quarter-finals, two semi-finals and the final, fifteen picks in all. Each match shows the two players with their country, and the question and its category stay at the top of the screen. The date under the question, "Stats as of", tells you when the numbers were taken, so you know whether last month's international break is in or not.
Picking
- Tap a player to pick him. A tick or a cross shows whether you were right, and the player with the higher number goes through. The numbers stay hidden until the end, so every round tests what you know. The clock stops while the result shows, then the next match starts on its own.
- The player with the higher number always goes through, whether you picked him or not.
- A wrong pick never ends your run. You lose that match's points and play on.
- Two players in a match never have the same number, so every match has one right answer.
Because the right player always goes through, every bracket plays out the same way for everyone. The later rounds are a test of what you know about the strongest players in the draw, not of your earlier luck.
The score, out of 1,000
- Up to 50 points for each right pick in the round of 16, up to 400 in all.
- Up to 70 points for each right pick in the quarter-finals, up to 280.
- Up to 100 points for each right pick in a semi-final, up to 200.
- Up to 120 points for the right pick in the final.
- Every right pick scores more the faster you make it: the full points within 3 seconds of the match appearing, then steadily less, down to half at 10 seconds. A slow right pick always keeps half. A wrong pick scores nothing.
A perfect run of fifteen fast picks scores 1,000. There is no separate time bonus at the end: the speed is counted pick by pick, and the moment while a pick's result shows is not counted. Each pick is timed and scored on Goaler's server. If you leave a game for ten minutes it locks, and the picks you made still count.
Easy, Medium and Hard
Easy brackets use the best-known players and keep clear gaps between the two numbers in a match, so a fan who follows international football should get most of the round of 16 right. Medium brings in more players and closer numbers. Hard draws on a wider pool and keeps the margins tight, sometimes only a few caps or goals between the two. The league goals brackets (Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga) use the whole list of players with 100 or more goals in that league at every level; they differ in who is left out and in the pairings.
Where the numbers come from
Every number comes from English Wikipedia's lists of men's international caps and goals, and its lists of players with 100 or more goals in the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga (the Bundesliga list counts from the 1963–64 season). A bracket is frozen with its numbers when it is made, so it plays the same for everyone who receives the link, even after a player adds to his total. New brackets use refreshed numbers.
Challenging a friend
When you finish, send the link. Your friend gets exactly the same bracket on the same clock, and the higher score wins; an equal score is decided by time, to the hundredth of a second. Anyone you send the link to can play it, and each of them is compared with you. After a loss, Revenge sends a fresh bracket back.
Tips
- Go with your first instinct: a pick within 3 seconds scores its full points, and a slow one only half as much.
- In the semi-finals and the final a wrong pick costs the most, so a few seconds to think can be worth it: a slow right pick still keeps half.
- Remember that long careers win caps: a defender who played for fifteen years can outnumber a famous striker.
- For goals, think of penalty takers and of players who scored for weaker teams.
Questions about the rules, the data or your games are answered in the FAQ.