Feature Focus | Clutch Time

Intro

It’s been a while since our last Feature Focus post. With the game now available to everyone, most of you are probably already familiar with most of the mechanics. Rematch is a fairly simple game to understand, with simplified football rules eliminating the fluff and keeping what makes it fun, with a few twists.

That being said, there is one mechanic in particular that’s admittedly a bit of a head-scratcher: the Clutch Time.

We’d like to preface this by saying that, there is currently a bug in-game where both forms of Clutch Time do not behave as intended due to heavy lag upon the server declaring the end of a match. This results in instances where a goal that appears to be scored during a Last Attack does not count, despite players clearly seeing the ball travelling to the back of the net. This is because on the server side of things, the Goalkeeper has actually stopped the ball which marks the end of a match, but due to heavy data traffic causing lag, this is not accurately reflected on players’ screens. We apologize for any confusion and frustration this may have caused, and we’ll be looking to fix it as soon as we’re able to.

Clutch Time

At the end of a game, when the timer reaches zero, one of three outcomes will happen, depending on the current score:

1. In case of a draw, there is no Clutch Time, and the game goes straight into Overtime.

2. Last Action (Attack or Defense): the team that has possession of the ball (or that touched the ball last) can keep playing until they lose possession.

3. Last Shot: the team that has possession of the ball gets one Last Shot.

Last Action (Attack or Defense)

Last Action kicks in when there is exactly 1 goal in score difference, and the losing team has possession of the ball when the game timer hits zero.

During Last Action, the losing team can keep playing until two conditions are fulfilled:

1. The opposing team touches the ball, except with a “deviation hitbox” in Defense Mode, an Outfield Dive, or a Tackle,

2. AND the projected trajectory of the ball would not lead to a goal.

Last Action will also automatically end after 60 seconds if the above conditions have not been met yet.

In simpler terms, this means that the losing team can keep playing and try to tie the score, so long as they don’t lose possession of the ball to the opponents. The Last Action ends if a goal is scored. If the score is tied, the game goes into Overtime. Otherwise, the game ends.

Last Shot

Last Shot starts when the game timer hits zero, if:

• The winning team is leading by one point and has possession of the ball,

• OR, the winning team is leading by two points or more, and either team has possession of the ball.

Last Shot will continue until one of three conditions is fulfilled:

• The team in possession loses the ball, and the projected trajectory of the ball would not lead to a goal,

• OR, the player in possession kicks (taps, pushes or shoots) the ball and a teammate interacts with the ball,

• OR, the player in possession kicks the ball, and no other player touches the ball within 2 seconds, and the projected trajectory would not lead to a goal.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are various ways a game can end, and we hope this post sheds some light on the conditions that let a game continue, or end, when the match timer reaches zero.

The intention behind this mechanic is to:

1. Reflect the way referees usually let the last action play out before the final whistle blows at the end of a football match. 

2. Give the losing team a chance to tie the score and draw the game into overtime as a last ditch effort.

We believe the Last Shot still has a lot of room for improvement, and we have several ideas to make it more engaging and interactive for both teams. The Last Action seems to serve its purpose well, although we will continue to monitor how it impacts the end of close games, as well as listen to player feedback.

Thank you, and see you next time!