Definitions

Game Week: A game week is a designated scoring period covering a specific set of World Cup matches. During this window, you can manage your squad while the transfer market is open, but all changes must be finalized before the deadline to count for that period. Once the final whistle blows on the last match of the window, scores are calculated and finalized for all participants.
During the Group Stage each Game week shall consist of multiple matches per window, whilst in the latter stages such as knockouts it shall have single matches per window.
Matchday: A Matchday refers to an individual calendar day of live tournament action. Because the tournament structure changes as it progresses, game weeks may span several Matchdays during the busy Group Stage or shift to cover specific tournament phases during the Knockout rounds. This ensures that your management opportunities stay aligned with the pace of the competition as teams are eliminated.

Game Week Scheduling

The tournament progresses through 8 game weeks from the Group Stage to the Final. To help you manage your squad as nations are eliminated, the maximum number of players allowed from a single country increases each round:

Game Weeks 1–4 (Group Stage / Round of 32): Max 3 players per country. Build a diverse initial squad across multiple nations during the dense opening rounds of the tournament.
Game Week 5 (Round of 16): Max 4 players per country. Begin adjusting your roster and pivoting your strategy as the first wave of team eliminations takes place.
Game Week 6 (Quarter-finals): Max 5 players per country. Consolidate your line-up by stacking key high-performing players from the remaining top-tier nations.
Game Weeks 7–8 (Semi-finals / Final and Third Place Playoff): Uncapped (No limit). Freely select any combination of players from the final surviving squads to fill your roster without restrictions.

Every game week operates on a strict timeline that dictates when you can modify your team and how your points are tracked:

Squad Lock-in: All transfers, lineup changes, and captain choices must be saved before the first match of the game week kicks off. (See the Transfers section for the exact timings)
Scoring Window: Points are only earned from matches played between the first and last match of that specific game week.

Initial Squad

To participate in a game week, every manager must first complete their entire squad. A full squad consists of 15 players, distributed as follows:

2 Goalkeepers
5 Defenders
5 Midfielders
3 Forwards

Managing Your Squad

Formations: Every squad must have an active formation. If you do not actively select one, a default formation will be automatically assigned to your team.
Captaincy: You must designate a Captain and a Vice-Captain to be eligible to earn points for a game week. Your Captain's final score is doubled for that game week and will be calculated at the end of the game week. If neither your Captain nor your Vice-Captain plays any minutes, no player’s score will be doubled for that Game Week.
Vice-Captain Promotion: If your Captain plays zero minutes during the game week, your Vice-Captain is promoted, and their points are doubled instead. This Vice-Captain promotion and subsequent point doubling are calculated collectively at the end of the game week.
Substitutions: Your 15-player squad consists of 11 starters and 4 substitute players.
Automatic Substitutions: If a starting player plays zero minutes during a game week, an eligible substitute from the same position who did play will automatically replace them, adding their points to your total. Managers shall be able to assign a numbered priority to their substitutes before each game week deadline, based on which the field substitution shall take place automatically. (The priority shall take place if there are multiple eligible substitutes for a single position. In that event, the substitute with the highest designated priority will be activated first). Substitutions are strictly position-for-position. Your formation will never alter to accommodate out-of-position players.
Empty Slots: If you do not have an eligible substitute in the required position, you will receive zero points for that starting slot.
End-of-Game Week Processing: All automatic substitutions and their corresponding points are processed collectively at the end of the game week, not after individual matches.

Transfers

Transfer Window: Users can buy or sell players during the transfer window available each game week. Transfers are prohibited once the game week deadline (transfer window) has passed.
Player Pricing: A player’s price is initially set and will subsequently fluctuate based on their popularity and presence in squads across the platform. The pricing update occurs automatically every day at 23:59.
Player prices fluctuate i.e. change automatically based on their demand. When a player is sold, the price at which they are sold shall be the current market price and not the price at which they were bought.
Financials: If a new player is more expensive than the one being replaced, the difference is deducted from your account balance. If the new player is cheaper, the remaining balance is added to your account.
Free Transfers: Managers shall be able to make an unlimited number of transfers during the transfer windows.
Loans: If you have insufficient credits for a transfer, you may apply for a loan.
Managers may take a loan of 10 million once during the tournament, in a game week of their choosing.
The outstanding loan amount will be deducted from the manager's account balance before the next game week deadline.
If the balance is insufficient to cover full repayment, the system will automatically block the manager from squad selection and transfers for the upcoming game week.
Users with an outstanding loan balance are ineligible to participate in the upcoming game week.
No loan can be availed during final game week.

Scoring System

Leagues

Manager progress is tracked through two primary scoring methods:

Game Week Points: These points are unique to specific game weeks and can be viewed via the manager profile.
Cumulative Points: This is the total summation of all points achieved by a manager’s squad across all game weeks.

Leaderboard

Game Week points are the points earned within a single game week. These start from zero at the beginning of each new game week. Cumulative Points are the running total of all game week points earned across all completed game weeks and do not reset.

The Game week Leaderboard ranks managers by game week points for that specific game week; the Tournament Leaderboard ranks by Cumulative Points.

The Kickstart platform features a comprehensive leaderboard system to track managerial performance across the tournament:

Game Week Leaderboards

Winning Criteria: At the conclusion of each game week, the leaderboard identifies the top-performing users for that period. See the Prizes page to see all the prizes.

Tournament Leaderboard

Overall Rankings: There is a global leaderboard representing the entire tournament, which tracks the cumulative points of each manager. The top-scoring player in this leaderboard will receive the grand prize.

Mini-Leagues

Custom Competitions: Users have the ability to create and participate in private mini-leagues.
The mini leagues shall be ranked by the cumulative points
Localized Rankings: These leaderboards track the standings specifically for the group of users who have joined that particular mini-league.
The points in mini-leagues cannot be viewed publicly without invitation.

General Leaderboard Rules

Point Validation: All leaderboard standings are calculated based on the official points allocated in the scoring table.
Final Authority: As per the general terms, IDLC Finance PLC holds the right to take any final decisions regarding leaderboard rankings and the determination of winners.
Each winner of the leaderboard has to submit a government issued ID to get verified and receive the gifts within an announced timeline.

General Rules

The following rules and regulations shall also be implemented throughout the Kickstart Application:

Eligibility: Employees and associates of IDLC Finance PLC and Singularity Limited are ineligible for any gifts or rewards associated with the competition.
Rights and Discretion: IDLC Finance PLC reserves the absolute right to make final decisions regarding all aspects of the game, including but not limited to scoring, the distribution of gifts and rewards, and the determination of winners.
Nationality Requirement: To be eligible for rewards, participants must be Bangladeshi nationals residing in Bangladesh.
Foreign/NRB Participation: Foreigners and Non-Resident Bangladeshis are welcome to play, but they are ineligible to receive prizes.
Individual Participation: Only individual players are eligible for prizes; groups or entities are excluded.
Registration Requirements: Users must register or log in using a personal phone number, email address, Facebook, or Gmail. Providing accurate and truthful information is mandatory.
Tie-Breaking: 1) Most goals scored by the manager's squad. (2) Fewest goals conceded. (3) Most captain points. (4) Earliest registration timestamp. The backend must apply these in order until a single winner is identified.
Prize Collection: Winners must collect prizes at IDLC offices in person or via an authorized representative with a National ID and authorization letter.
Unclaimed Prizes: If a winner cannot be reached within the specified window, the reward will pass to the player with the next highest points.
Redemption: Prizes are final and cannot be exchanged for cash or other items.
Disqualification: IDLC reserves the right to disqualify any player for misconduct or manipulation of rules.
Promotion: IDLC retains the right to use winners' photographs for promotional purposes.
Terms of Use: IDLC may update terms at any time; users are responsible for checking for changes.
Player Data and Valuation: Official squad names are used without photos for privacy; valuations are determined by IDLC algorithms.
Privacy: User data is collected for contact purposes and will not be shared with third parties.
Intellectual Property: IDLC owns all app and website IP; unauthorized duplication may lead to legal action.
Player Replacements: IDLC may grant a free replacement transfer for players withdrawn from national squads due to injury or suspension.