| International Cup |
| The International Cup tournament will begin on Week 2 of the MLS season and will conclude in a Cup Final on week 11. Round One Group Standings & Results Round Two Group Standings & Results Round of 16, Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals, Finals - Results ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note - When Yahoo makes scoring corrections they will be accepted for purposes of placement in the league table, team averages, and national averages. Any scoring changes that take place during head to head cup competitions will be used only if they are made before the Yahoo deadline for the following week's rosters. Changes made after the deadline can not be used to change the outcome of a match. Otherwise a cup finalist might suddenly find that he was eliminated in the first round weeks ago by virtue of this change. The Tie Breaker for all rounds will be total Yahoo points for the season. The team with the higher Yahoo points will win the tie. Round One - Regional Qualification - Weeks 2, 3, & 4 Consists of group play to determine the top 16 USA teams, and the top 16 world teams who will advance to the Second Round. Seeding for Round One will be based on Yahoo point standings at the end of week 1. Since there are no previous weeks to refer to, if there is a tie in the standings, the team listed first by Yahoo will be considered the higher seed.. USA region - 22 teams The top 2 USA teams in Yahoo points at the end of week 1 will receive automatic berths in the Second Round (byes) and will not participate in Round One. The remaining 20 USA teams will be drawn into 5 groups of 4. Teams will be drawn from 4 pools based upon Yahoo point rank between all USA teams. Pool 1: teams ranked 3 through 7 Pool 2: 8 - 12 Pool 3: 13 - 17 Pool 4: 18 - 22 Each of the 5 qualifying groups will consist of one team from each pool. The draw will take place on April 13th, and the resulting groups will be published on this web site. Every team will play its three group opponents once on a round-robin basis during MLS weeks 2, 3, & 4. The exact schedules for Round One will also be available here on April 13th. A Win will be worth 3 points in the group standings, while a Tie will be worth 1 point, and a Loss worth 0 points in the standings. The Top 2 teams from each group will advance to the Second Round. In addition, 4 third place teams with the most standings points will advance to the Second Round. In cases where there is a tie in standings points, total Yahoo points for the season will be used to break the tie. In all 16 USA teams will advance to the Second Round. World region - 26 teams The top 2 World teams in Yahoo points at the end of week 1 will receive automatic berths in the Second Round (byes) and will not participate in Round One. The remaining 24 World teams will be drawn into 6 groups of 4. Teams will be drawn from 4 pools based upon Yahoo point rank between all World teams. Pool 1: teams ranked 3 through 8 Pool 2: 9 - 14 Pool 3: 15 - 20 Pool 4: 21 - 26 Each of the 6 qualifying groups will consist of one team from each pool. The draw will take place on April 13th, and the resulting groups will be published on this web site. Every team will play its three group opponents once on a round-robin basis during MLS weeks 2, 3, & 4. The exact schedules for Round One will also be available here on April 13th. A Win will be worth 3 points in the group standings, while a Tie will be worth 1 point, and a Loss worth 0 points in the standings. The Top 2 teams from each group will advance to the Second Round. In addition, 2 third place teams with the most standings points will advance to the Second Round. In cases where there is a tie in standings points, total Yahoo points for the season will be used to break the tie. In all 16 World teams will advance to the Second Round. Round Two - International Group Play - Weeks 5, 6, & 7 Consists of group play to determine the top 16 teams who will advance to the Third Round. The remaining 32 teams (16 USA & 16 World) will be drawn up into 8 groups of 4. These groups will be labeled alphabetically Group A through Group H. Each of the 8 groups will consist of one team from each of the following 4 pools. Pool 1: The 2 USA teams who had a bye in Round One. The 5 USA group winners from Round One. And the top second place USA team from Round One based upon standings points. If there is a tie in standings points, Total Yahoo points will be used to break the tie. Pool 2: The remaining 8 USA teams Pool 3: The 2 World teams who had a bye in Round One. And the 6 World group winners from Round One. Pool 4: The remaining 8 World teams The draw for Round Two will take place on May 4th and the resulting groups will be published on this web site. Every team will play its three group opponents once on a round-robin basis during MLS weeks 5, 6, & 7. The exact schedules for Round Two will also be available here on May 4th. A Win will be worth 3 points in the group standings, while a Tie will be worth 1 point, and a Loss worth 0 points in the standings. The Top 2 teams from each group will advance to the Third Round. In cases where there is a tie in standings points, total Yahoo points for the season will be used to break the tie. In all 16 teams will advance to the Third Round. Round Three, Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals, and Final - Single Elimination - Weeks 8, 9, 10, & 11 Round Three - Week 8 Match 1: Winner Group A vs. Second Group B Match 2: Winner Group B vs. Second Group A Match 3: Winner Group C vs. Second Group D Match 4: Winner Group D vs. Second Group C Match 5: Winner Group E vs. Second Group F Match 6: Winner Group F vs. Second Group E Match 7: Winner Group G vs. Second Group H Match 8: Winner Group H vs. Second Group G Quarter-Finals - Week 9 Match 9: Winner Match 1 vs. Winner Match 8 Match 10: Winner Match 2 vs. Winner Match 7 Match 11: Winner Match 3 vs. Winner Match 6 Match 12: Winner Match 4 vs. Winner Match 5 Semi-Finals - Week 10 Match 13: Winner Match 9 vs. Winner Match 12 Match 14: Winner Match 10 vs. Winner Match 11 Third Place - Week 11 Loser Match 13 vs. Loser Match 14 Final - Week 11 Winner Match 13 vs. Winner Match 14 Amendments to the rules: Amendment 1 - If Yahoo fails to report scores on games that actually took place, AND if the number of games unreported by Yahoo is 50% or greater of the total number of games actually played that week, AND if the total number of games reported by Yahoo is less than 4, THEN the Cup matches for that week will either be postponed OR the deadline for the scores will be extended. The Commissioner will make a ruling depending on the conditions at the time. Amendment 2 - If MLS postpones games so that those games are no longer played in the same fantasy week, AND if the number of postponed games is 50% or greater of the total number of games scheduled for that week, AND if the total number of actual games played is less than 4, THEN the Cup matches for that week will be postponed. The Commissioner will make a ruling with regards to rescheduling the Cup matches depending on the conditions at the time. |