CESSNA CUP 2026Designed by Ian's Studio

CESSNA CUP 2026

How the game works

The game

Predict every match, earn points for how close you get, and climb two leaderboards - individual and team - all the way from the group stage to the final.

Later rounds are worth dramatically more than earlier ones, so a strong knockout run can erase a slow start. No one is ever truly out of the race until the last match is played.

How a day works

The routine, for players.

Open the prediction form, pick your numbered name from the dropdown, and type a score for each of the day's matches. Submit before kickoff.

You can come back and resubmit as often as you like - the latest submission before a match kicks off is the one that counts. The form is blind: it never shows your earlier picks back to you, so anyone can hold the link without reading anyone else's calls.

Every prediction becomes public the moment that match kicks off. Until then, your scores stay your own.

How scoring works

One best-matching category per prediction.

Each prediction is scored against the actual result, and you earn points for the closest matching outcome. The tiers are never added together - if your prediction lands as an exact score, you get the exact-score points, not the exact-score points plus the winning-team points.

Winning Team + One Score:the winner must be correct first; once it is, either team's exact goal count qualifies - including the loser's. Predict 3-0 against an actual 2-0 and you've got the winner plus the losing side's exact tally, so it earns this tier.

At a glance

Full points matrix

Standard tiers across all seven stages. Risk bonuses are optional add-ons from the Round of 16 (see below).

OutcomeGroupR32R16QFSF3rdFinal
Exact Score6162448726096
Winning Team + One Score4111632484064
Winning Team281224363048
Unmatch Draw (+ Winning Team in knockouts)281226403355
Draw Score (+ Winning Team in knockouts)71828558066104
No match (wrong)0000000
The Third-Place match is its own stage, scored just below the Semi Final - never folded into it.

Knockout draws

From the Round of 32, every match produces a winner.

In the group stage a draw simply stands as a draw. In the knockouts there is no overall draw - extra time, then penalties, decides it. So a drawn prediction carries two parts: the drawn scoreline after extra time, and which team goes through on penalties.

A draw prediction pays only when the drawn scoreline is right and the correct team advances. And a draw prediction earns nothing on a decisive result - even if the team you backed ends up winning.

Risk choices

All-or-nothing on the exact score, from the Round of 16.

From the Round of 16 you can swap standard tiered scoring for a gamble on the exact score. Chicken and High are offered from the Round of 16; Life is added from the Quarter Final. Hit the exact score and you take the full payout; miss and Chicken costs you nothing, while High and Life subtract points from your total.

StageChickenHighLife
R1637 / 0 miss45 / -5 miss-
QF64 / 0 miss73 / -5 miss87 / -10 miss
SF96 / 0 miss108 / -12 miss130 / -25 miss
3rd80 / 0 miss90 / -10 miss108 / -20 miss
Final116 / 0 miss135 / -15 miss200 / -40 miss

Each cell shows the payout for an exact score, then the points lost on a miss. A risk choice replaces tiered scoring for that match - it does not stack on top of it.

The Crystal Ball

One set of long-range picks, made once.

At the end of the group stage - when the field of 32 is known - every player locks in a single round-level forecast: the champion, the runner-up, the four semi-finalists, and the eight quarter-finalists. These lock when the Round of 32 begins and pay out progressively, as each stage resolves and the picks come true.

PickPoints if correct
Champion43
Runner-up28
Semi-finalists (4 picks)14 each · up to 56
Quarter-finalists (8 picks)6 each · up to 48

The leaderboards

Two races, read from the same scores.

The individual board ranks every player by total points. The team boardsums each team's members, so every point a player earns counts twice - once for them, once for their team.

Ties share a rank using dense ranking: two players level on points both take, say, 5th, and the next player sits 6th.