Playoffs & the Founders Cup

When the 32-game season ends, the top four clubs in each conference advance to the NSL Playoffs. Everything you built during the regular season comes down to a few knockout rounds and one final.

The bracket

Each conference runs its own bracket, seeded by regular-season finish:

• Conference Semifinals — 1st plays 4th, 2nd plays 3rd.
• Conference Finals — the two semifinal winners meet for the conference crown.
• The Founders Cup — the Eastern champion faces the Western champion in a single winner-take-all final.

Choosing your playoff format

When you start a new game, you pick how the conference rounds (semifinals and conference finals) are decided. The choice is locked in for that save, so decide up front how you want your postseason to feel:

• Best of 3 (default) — a three-game series; first to two wins advances. Game 1 is at the lower seed’s home, Games 2 and 3 at the higher seed’s. Win the first two and it’s over; split them and a decisive Game 3 settles it at the higher seed’s ground.
• Two Legs — a home-and-away tie decided on aggregate goals (there’s no away-goals rule). Game 1 at the lower seed, Game 2 at the higher seed. If the aggregate is level after the second leg, it goes to extra time, then a shootout — both played out on the second leg.
• Straight Knockout — a single game hosted by the higher seed. Level after 90 goes to extra time, then a shootout.

Whichever format you choose, the higher seed always gets the home advantage where it counts — the deciding game or the second leg.

Your playoff brief

While your club is alive in an active series, the Playoffs hub shows a compact Coach’s Card for your next match. It keeps the opponent, unavailable players, current game or leg, series score or aggregate, and what a win earns you in one place. When another playoff result must finish before your match opens, the card keeps that context visible and shows that you are waiting.

The final never changes

Your format choice only governs the conference rounds. The Founders Cup final is always a single game, no matter which format you picked.

The Founders Cup final

The Founders Cup is a single neutral-site game — no series, no second leg — in every format. If it’s level after 90 minutes, the final goes to extra time, and only then to a shootout if it’s still tied.

Under Best of 3, the conference games skip extra time and go straight to a shootout when level — only the decisive game or the final aggregate matters. Under Two Legs and Straight Knockout, a level tie plays extra time before any shootout, just like the final.

Seeding matters twice over

A high seed means a weaker semifinal opponent and the right to host any deciding game. Fighting for first place in your conference is worth it right up to the final week.

After the Founders Cup

Winning the Founders Cup isn’t quite the end of the year — as champions, you go on to represent the league in the NoZo Cup. Then it’s on to the offseason.