Rules

The Blackout WCC is an international club tournament where teams from all over the world play each other to be crowned unofficial Blackout Champion of the World.Here's how it works:

The matches will now be played on the "Thursday Friendly" spot, and this means that there will be No energy loss, No In Game Training gains, all players energy ratings will be at perfect, and all matches will be played at "Normal" intensity.

The teams (at least 140 of them) are split into 28 or 32 groups of five teams. The groups are ranked, roughly based on each teams top 15 players average CSR, and then the top 20 ranked teams are spread out in the Top 4 groups.

These top 4 groups will play for the Cup. Groups 5 to 8 play for the Plate, 9 to 12 play for the Bowl, 13 to 16 play for the Shield, 17 to 20 play for the Vase, 21 to 24 will play for the Plaque, 25 to 28 will play for the Resin, and the last 4 groups will play for the Jonesy.

There are 10 group rounds (Rounds 1-10) and everyone plays each other home and away. Each team will have 8 fixtures and 2 byes throughout the group rounds.

Inline with new Season 28 BR rule changes, Points are tallied by winning matches (4 points) and playing to a draw (2 points). One bonus point (BT) will be awarded to any team that scores 3 or more tries than their opponent in a single game, regardless of the final result. A bonus point (BL) may also be awarded to the losing side if the margin of loss is 7 points or less. Only the losing side can achieve the maximum 2 bonus points.

When two or more teams are tied on total points, the higher-ranked team will be determined by the following criteria in order:

- Points Difference

- Total wins in current WCC season

- more bonus tries (BT)

- more loss points (BL)

The teams that finish in 5th place after the group rounds have been completed, will not progress on to the finals, and their WCC season will be over.

After the completion of the group round robin stage, the final series begins with play-off matches in round 11. (See below for details)

S23 New Finals Format - All Trophy Groups

The 1st place team in each group will still have a Home fixture in the knockout round and the Quarter Final, and the 2nd place team will have a home fixture in the Knockout Round only....as in previous seasons.

However this season, their opponents will be drawn completely at random from the teams who finished 3rd & 4th place (possibly from the same group).

In the Quarter Finals,the teams who finished in 1st Place in the group rounds, will still have a home fixture, however their opponents will be selected at random, and not follow the traditional ladder system.

After the Quarter Finals, all remaining fixtures will be selected at random, similar to the normal Blackout Rugby National Cup.

New Tie-Breaking Rule

If after 80 minutes the scores are tied, the Blackout Rugby tie-breaking rules will be applied, which means extra time followed by a kicking competition.