Soccerverse Review Part 1 – Gameplay Overview, Influence Packs & First Impressions

Welcome to the Soccerverse Review, Part 1, a series of four articles dedicated to the popular crypto football simulation game.

Where I come from, Football is like a religion. Everyone is so obsessed with their club that people spend hours watching games, playing FC (e.g., FIFA), and, of course, Football Manager.

This year, SEGA didn’t deliver a new game, and many of us didn’t have the chance to test our non-existent managerial skills. Then, I remembered Soccerverse, that football management game that aims to take the simulation to the next level.

So you got it right, it’s time for a review, but in a diary style. Through my gameplay experience, I’m going to cover the journey of playing Soccerver until I lose my patience because of my upcoming defeats.

You see, I was always a better fan, drinking a beer and having snacks, rather than realizing what was actually going on on the pitch.

Soccerverse Review – Part 1

Before we dive into the first part of my Soccerverse Review, let’s explain a few things about the game.

Soccerverse is a community-oriented, multiplayer football management simulator built entirely on blockchain technology. It merges the classic thrill of football management with decentralized ownership, enabling players to oversee teams and possess or trade digital assets tied to actual football performance.

Differing from conventional games, Soccerverse provides players with multiple roles: you can act as a Manager to set strategies, an Agent to negotiate deals, a Trader to buy and sell Influence, or a Scout to seek out new talent.

Each season spans six months in real life. At the conclusion of each season, player ratings are revised based on actual performances. Clubs may be promoted or relegated, and new players are added, while those who retire are removed from the system.

League matches are played on Saturdays and Wednesdays, while domestic cup games and continental games take place on Mondays.

The world consists of 5,350 clubs, over 145,000 players in 322 national leagues, 1544 national cups, and four continental championships.

Soccerverse Influence

The game is centered around the idea of Influence:

Influence drives everything in Soccerverse. Master the art of owning and trading club and player Influence, and you’ll unlock the road to success.

• Club Influence: Rewards players based on a club’s performance, its league position, and the revenue it generates.
• Player Influence: Relies on players’ salaries and their actual performance during matches.
• Player ratings: Fluctuate at the start of each Soccerverse season based on their performance in real life.
• Manager & Agent: You can play as a club’s Manager and/or as a player Agent if the Influence holders appoint you. You’ll also receive a weekly wage.
• Manager: A Manager can set their team’s tactics and negotiate those all-important transfer deals.
• Agent: Negotiate on behalf of your players for new contracts with better wages for the player or even demand a transfer.

Both categories of Influence can be traded, allowing players to buy, sell, and speculate on performance, much like a football stock market. The ecosystem is bolstered by a native token (SVC), which serves as the backbone of the economy. Influence operates as a fractionalized digital asset, ensuring that ownership is documented on the blockchain. Clubs function similarly to decentralized organizations, where Influence holders enjoy voting rights and can influence major decisions.

How Soccerverse differs from Football Manager

Football Manager is a deep, traditional simulation that focuses almost entirely on the manager role, featuring highly detailed data, tactics, and player development. Soccerverse is different in several key ways:

Things to keep in mind

While Soccerverse is innovative, it also comes with considerations:

• Most clubs do not have official names; however, there are community packs to overcome this.
• It’s a crypto game. While it’s free to play (requires some POL tokens for gas fees), many in-game actions are performed using the in-game Token.
• Owning influence or tokens often requires an investment, making it partly a pay-to-play system.
• Some features are still being built out, so it may feel less polished compared to traditional games.
• Match Fixing is prohibited and will result in a minimum ban of six months.
• Transferring more than two players between the same teams in a single season (loans excluded) will also result in a minimum ban of six months.
• Raiding unmanaged clubs for transferring players incurs a penalty of at least 12 months.

How does a Season work?

A Season lasts for six months in real-time, and when a season ends:

• Player ratings are updated based on their actual performance in real-life games.
• New players are introduced or retired from the game to reflect real life.
• Clubs are promoted and relegated based on their performance in Soccerverse.

Then, with that all done, a new fixture list is created, and the new season starts!

Influence Packs

Influence in Soccerverse represents your stake in a club. By holding influence, you gain voting power within that club and receive payouts in the game’s token (SVC) based on matchdays and the club’s performance. Influence Packs, also known as Club Packs, are bundles you can purchase to gain this influence.

What You Get from Them

Each Influence Pack provides you with 40 influence points in your chosen club. Additionally, you will receive 10 influence points in six different random clubs, which rotate twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays at 6 PM UTC.

When you purchase a pack, the selected club also receives 5 SVC added to its balance, meaning your purchase directly supports the club financially.

Types of Packs

Influence Packs are categorized into tiers based on the ranking of the clubs:

Types of Packs

Influence Packs are divided into tiers depending on the ranking of the clubs:

Cost and Details

Packs are purchased using USDC, a stablecoin that maintains consistent prices. Each transaction incurs standard fees on the blockchain network. After completing your purchase, the influence is recorded on the blockchain and will appear in your portfolio.

What Influence Lets You Do

Owning influence in a club grants you:

• Voting rights to participate in decisions, such as appointing managers and guiding the club’s direction.
• Payouts in SVC on matchdays, depending on the club’s performance.
• Direct support for clubs, as each purchase increases the club’s balance.
• Time to buy my own Influence Pack

Obviously, I was going to buy a pack for the Heraklion team; at $0.666 per pack, it’s about one-third the price of my morning coffee. With no idea what’s going on, I’m buying 10 of them.

In addition to Heraklion Influence, I’m also getting an influencer for another six teams I’ve never heard of before.

Now we are getting somewhere. Assuming the game succeeds, and the teams you are invested in (bought packs) are performing well, you are getting SVC tokens as royalties.

The transaction has been approved, and now I’m a happy retail investor in my favorite football club. It appears that I’m the fourth-largest owner of the Heraklion FC club, holding 0.04% of the club’s shares.

Player Shares

Heading over to the Influence tab and searching for a player, you can acquire shares (influence) of that particular player so you can get passive income (royalties) in the future.

My philosophy remains the same: I’m looking for young, talented players; therefore, Konstantinos Karetsas is on my watch list.

As no surprise, the value of his influence is keeping rising, as you can see in the picture below.

SVC Tokens

At the moment of writing this article, the price for 1 SVC is 0.000366 USDC.

SVC is the primary in-game currency, stored in your MetaMask wallet. SVC can be traded or gifted between players.

It can be earned through your manager’s or agent’s wage, as well as by holding influence over clubs and players.

There is an in-game peer-to-peer exchange that allows you to buy and sell SVC using WCHI (Wrapped CHI) and USD.

The Shop

By visiting the Shop tab, you will be able to purchase club influence packs. These packs contain 40 influence of the team of your choice, as well as 10 influence for six more clubs.

Influence packs are a way to obtain “shares” of these clubs and add some SVC to the club balance, thereby supporting the particular club.

Club packs are purchased using USDC. As the demand grows, so does the price. A rotation takes place every Tuesday and Friday at 6 PM UTC.

There are different packs, with varying values as shown below:

• Diamond Pack, Top 50 clubs
• Platinum Pack, Top 51-150 clubs
• Gold Pack, Top 151-500 clubs
• Silver Pack, Top 501-1500 clubs
• Bronze Pack, Top 1501+ clubs

Data Packs

Since Soccerver does not have licensed teams and players, a clever workaround is available through data packs.

Players can create data packs and customize nearly everything, from league names to clubs and players, including photos.

In the Discord server of Soccerverse, you can find packs to enhance your experience.

To make it easier for you, here is a pack link that contains most of the necessary items.

As always, the pack link is https://play.soccerverse.com/home?pack=https://elrincondeldt.com/sv/rincon_v1.json

Managers

As a Manager, your primary goal is to keep club owners—the “influencers”—satisfied while also managing players and handling transfers.

Securing this position is challenging because there are limited clubs available, so you must persuade the influencers to choose you. Once you land the job, your home screen becomes the central hub for your club, equipped with all the tools necessary for effective management.

You will oversee the squad, navigate the transfer market, and manage contracts, all while keeping a close watch on the finances. If you enjoy a detailed football simulation, the manager role in Soccerverse is the perfect fit for you.

How to Become a Manager

How can you get this job? There are two main ways:

1. The easiest method is to find a club that either has no manager or has an inactive one and take over.
2. The second method is a bit more challenging. If a club already has a manager, you will need to initiate a vote to replace them. To propose a vote, you must have at least 20 influence within the club. Other owners can also propose a vote. The voting period lasts for three days, and if you receive the majority of votes, you will become the new manager! Keep in mind that if you are currently managing another team, you will have to resign from that position to take the new job.

Unlocking Your Manager Status

When you first become a manager, your status is “locked.” This means you cannot buy or sell players or renew their contracts. This rule is in place to prevent individuals from taking over a club and immediately selling off all its valuable players. Additionally, you won’t receive your salary until your status is unlocked.

To unlock your status, you need to have at least 500 influence within the club. Once you reach this level, you can initiate a vote to unlock your status. The voting period lasts for three days, and if the majority of influencers vote in your favor, the lock will be removed, and you will become a full-fledged manager!

Manager Wages

Once you are unlocked as a manager, you will receive a weekly wage from your club. This wage is paid from the club’s budget, and you can view the amount being paid to you on the Club Overview screen. If you are a locked manager, you will not receive a wage at all.

Your Squad

In this section, you manage your team. You will find all your players here, along with their details, such as ratings and positions. The most important task is to prepare your team for the next matchday, which involves determining your lineup and tactics.

Transfer Market

In Soccerverse, you can buy and sell players in a unique transfer market that operates as a decentralized exchange. This means that all offers from different clubs are displayed in one central location, allowing you to view all deals and make your own offers. As a manager, you can propose purchases for players or list your own players for sale. Please note that you must be unlocked to participate in this process.

Contracts, Loans, and the Free Bench

Renewing Contracts: To retain a player, you’ll need to renew their contract from their player profile page. The player’s agent determines the contract length. If a player doesn’t have an agent, the contract will automatically be set to two seasons. If the agent has blocked a renewal, you’ll need to communicate with them to resolve the issue. If a contract expires and you don’t renew it, the player will be placed on the free bench, and you will not receive any compensation for them. Each season, a maximum of two players can be placed on the free bench; any additional players with expiring contracts will have their contracts automatically renewed for one additional year.

Releasing Players: You cannot release players on your own. The only way for players to leave is if their contract expires. At the beginning of the game, some of your lowest-rated players will be on one-year deals, allowing you to part with them if desired easily. A maximum of two players can leave this way at the end of the season unless an agent has specifically set a player’s renewal option to “No.” In this case, the player will leave regardless. This highlights the importance of long-term planning; therefore, it’s crucial to consider contract lengths when scouting for new players.

Loans: Loans are an effective strategy for managing your team. You can send players out to gain more playing time or bring in someone to fill a gap in your squad. There’s a “loan list” where you can find players available for loan. Each club is allowed up to two loans in and two loans out per season, and you cannot loan out your five best players. The club receiving the player on loan pays their wages and any prize money the player earns. Loans cannot be canceled and last for a maximum of one season. A small fee of 5% of the player’s value is charged to the receiving club.

Free Bench: The Free Bench is where you’ll find players who are not currently signed to a club. You can make offers for these players, and if you do, they will be placed on the transfer market for a 7-day auction. There is no limit to how many players you can purchase from the Free Bench, as long as you remain within your squad limit of 32 players. Players from the Free Bench will automatically sign a two-year contract.

Agents

You can become an agent for a player as long as you have over 50,000 influence on him; the same goes for proposing other agents.

Through a voting system on the player tab, which lasts 72 hours, plus 24 for the proposing phase, you, or another player, can become an agent and manage that particular player. There is no limit on how many players you can manage.

As you can see above, Lautaro Martinez has no agent. For someone to propose an agent, or themselves, they would need at least 50,000 Influence, which at the time of writing these words would cost 35,000 SVC.

One user owns 0.30% (3,000 Influence), and a handful of others have much less.

If I were to buy 50,000 influence for Lautaro Martinez, I would need 11,818 Wrapped Chi (WCHI), which equals $ 366 USD.

Agents have a plethora of options when it comes to managing a particular player, including setting on and off transfer status, having a say in the contract renewal and length, as well as adjusting the player’s morale.

I know that the morale thing sounds weird, but it’s a gamified option to make the game more interesting and a leverage point to ask for something.

An example:

You represent a young, promising player whose rating has recently increased from 70 to 76, with three years remaining on his contract. The manager is excited about this situation, as he benefits from the performance of a 76-rated player while only paying wages based on a 70 rating.

However, for you as the agent and for the influencers, this creates a problem. You are missing out on the additional payouts that should come with the higher rating. You advocate for a contract renewal that reflects the player’s new status, but the manager refuses.

Frustrated, you decide to leverage your position as an agent. You lower the player’s morale, which reduces their performance by 10% whenever they play. As a result, the manager’s 76-rated talent effectively drops to a 69-rated player. While the manager continues to pay wages for a 70-rated player, the value on the pitch has diminished.

This scenario leads to a lose-lose situation: the player underperforms, the manager receives no real advantage, and the influencers see no meaningful returns. At this point, the only viable option is to reopen negotiations and find a mutually beneficial solution that benefits all parties.

As an agent, your primary responsibility is to maximize payouts for the influencers. If you are too rigid and refuse to compromise, you risk being replaced. However, if you navigate these situations skillfully, you may not only secure better deals for your player but also earn the trust to manage other players in the future.

These examples illustrate that Soccerverse is not merely about individual actions. It is a complex social environment where multiple parties must manage competing interests. Success often hinges on finding common ground and striking intelligent compromises.

Soccerver Tactics

This is where the real excitement happens, but the things here are simpler than someone would expect.

The whole tactics management is straightforward; you can choose the play style, passing style, and a backup tactic for each condition. There isn’t much you can do in-depth, such as setting individual tactics for each player, etc. Remember, you must submit your tactics at least two hours before a match, and there’s a timer on the tactics page to remind you.

If you prefer not to dive into the details, you can simply click the “AUTO” button for the computer to generate a strategy for you. However, the real enjoyment lies in creating it yourself. You can scout your opponent, assess your players’ strengths, and attempt to outsmart the other manager.

If you make a mistake, don’t worry, just hit the “RESET” button and start over.

Lineup

In this section, you decide who plays, who sits on the bench, and who is a reserve. You can drag and drop players to rearrange them. Just be cautious! Avoid placing injured or suspended players in the lineup or on the bench. Additionally, be aware that a player on the transfer list may be sold before the game, rendering your tactics invalid.

Player Positions

Most players are capable of playing in multiple positions. When you’re in the tactics screen, you can see all the positions a player excels in. If you assign a player to a position they are uncomfortable with, their color indicator will change from green to yellow or red, depending on how out of position they are.

Formations & Instructions

You have a wide variety of formations to choose from. You can also give specific instructions to your entire team or to individual players. For example, you may instruct the whole team to play with a fast tempo while telling a particular player to adopt a soft tackling style.

Situations

This is a fantastic feature! You can set up a “situation” to adjust your strategy during a game. For instance, you might decide to switch formations or make a substitution if your team falls behind by a goal. You can save up to eight different situations.

Hiding & Submitting Tactics

You can conceal your tactics from other players before a match, but you must reveal them at kickoff; otherwise, your team will automatically use a computer-generated strategy. When you’re ready, click the “SUBMIT TEAM SHEET” button to finalize your plan. You can change it as many times as you like until the two-hour deadline before the match.

Play Soccerverse now.

This is the end of Soccerverse Review Part 1. Soccerverse Review Part 2 will be released tomorrow.