Web Original / The 4chan Cup

The 4chan Cup is a virtual football (aka "divegrass") league played by the boards of 4chan. With four major tournaments each year, the Cup has been the source of a treasure trove of memes, drama, amazing victories, crushing defeats and accusations of "RIGGING."

Founded in 2011, the league plays its matches using a modified version of Pro Evolution Soccer.^note Due to being easier to mod than FIFA as well as having superior AI. The matches are about thirty minutes to one hour in length^note Factoring in time for stoppages in play, extra time, etc. and are played by two AI controlled teams. However, teams have one (or more) "managers" that can call for certain play styles to be implemented, players to be substituted, etc. Each team represents a particular image board on 4chan, and so its roster is typically made up of players who represent various memes or in-jokes pertaining to that board's culture and/or fandom. While initially restricted to names and some texture replacements, more recent tournaments have seen boards go to great lengths to give their teams their own identity. Including making custom player models, kits, balls, and even entire stadiums.

The league is primarily structured around two major tournaments, each of which are played twice a year:

• The Babby Cup: The lower tournaments, where the good teams get into the Elites, played in Spring and Autumn (typically April-May for Spring and October-November for Autumn).

• The Elite Cup: The big tournaments, with the best of all the teams playing, played in Winter and Summer (typically February for Winter and July-August for Summer).

Both tournaments follow the same format: a group stage followed by a knockout stage. 32 teams^note There have been some exceptions to this number, the inaugural tournament in 2011 had 16 teams and subsequent ones had somewhere around that much before the format was finalized, and the Babby cups can have 40 if there are enough teams. are drawn into 8 groups of 4^note Or 5 if the 40 team format is used.. The teams then compete against each other in a three^note or 4. match round robin. The two highest teams from each group then advance to the knockout stage, a 16 team single elimination round with the championship going to the last team standing.^note There is a third place match between the losers of the semifinals but no trophy is awarded...despite /mlp/'s attempts to create one in 2014.

The league also has a "Promotion and Relegation" system, similar to that imposed by real football leagues such as the English Premier League. Any team that makes it to the round of 16 in the Elite cup is automatically qualified for the next Elite cup, with those that fail to make it being relegated to the Babby cup. In order for those teams to qualify for the next Elite cup, they must advance to the knockout round of their respective Babby cup.^note Failure to make it out of the group stage in the Babby's can result in even further relegation to the "fetus" tier: a series of qualifiers that are played to fill out the rest of the slots for the next Babby competition.

In addition to the above mentioned tournaments, there's also dozens of friendlies played every year (usually leading up to one of the Elite cups) as well as smaller unofficial tournaments between small groups of boards. These are usually meant to give teams a place to try out new tactics or aesthetics (or in the case of /vg/ deciding which players will be on the roster in the major tournaments) or to just build up hype for one of the major tournaments.

There are currently 52 total teams in the league, each representing a particular image board.^note There are also several unofficial teams created for novelty purposes, such as /trash/ which is a team consisting of players who were removed from their rosters for being terrible, and /4ccc/ a deliberately op team who's only purpose is to curb stomp the most recent Elite champion. As of August 2019, 15 teams have won at least one Elite championship.

Elite Cup Winners

• /a/ (Summer 2011): The winners of the inaugural tournament in 2011, but haven't come close to recapturing the championship since then (other than a rather impressive run in Winter 2014 where they finished as the runner up). Their roster tends to feature new anime characters every season, though some do retain their spots on a permanent basis. Considered an arch rival to /sp/.
• /k/ (Winter 2012): Similar to /a/, this is a team that just hasn't been able to return to its glory days. While they have continued to qualify for at least one Elite cup on occasion, they can usually be found in the Babby's. Their defeat of /sp/ to capture the Winter 2012 title sparked a rivalry between the boards.
• /sp/ (Winter 2013^note Summer 2012 title vacated due to Dragongate.): Representing one of the 4chan boards that actually has something to do with sports, the /sp/artans (also known as the GOAT's) are one of the more (in)famous teams in the league. Originally was the first board to win two titles (Summer 2012 as well as the aforementioned Winter title) but vacated the Summer title after being involved in a massive match-fixing scandal. In the wake of the scandal they developed a reputation for doing well enough to be promoted to the Elites but failing to make it out of the group stage. However they were finally able to break this cycle in Winter 2017, managing to make it to the semifinals before losing to /fit/. Their success was short lived however as an underwhelming group stage performance in the Summer sent them back to the Babby cup. They're also probably the only team to have actual football players on their roster: Hope Solo^note Roast Solo, Paul Pogba^note £100M for a dabbing Dembele, Lionel Messi^note Punished Messi, Arjen Robben^note Le Cut Inside Man and Cristiano Ronaldo^note TSUUUUUUUUUUUUU.
• /wg/ (Summer 2013): Winners of the first final to go into extra time. Tends to split their seasons between the Elites and the Babby's, but still remain a decent team. Most of their players tend to have wallpapers for heads. Has a minor rivalry with /w/ but teamed up with them to win the Tag Team Cup in 2015.
• /trv/ (Winter 2014): While initially a team that had trouble living up to the hype, /trv/ finally broke into the Elites in Summer 2013, and then proceeded to go on a rather impressive run to capture the Winter 2014 title^note being handed only one draw and zero losses for the entire tournament. Their glory was short lived however and in the Summer cup that year they became the first Elite champion to be relegated following a poor showing in the group stage. They've been mostly found in the Babby's since then. They did manage to qualify for the 2016 Summer cup, but were relegated back to the Autumn Babby and then relegated out of that cup as well.
• /mu/ (Summer 2014): One of the original 16 boards to have a team, alongside /a/, /k/ and /sp/, and is currently the only one of the original 16 to have participated in every Elite cup.^note /mu/ was relegated twice in the 2015 Winter cup and 2016 Summer cup but proceeded to be promoted to the next Elite cup. Their player models tend to use the likeness of famous musicians. Thus, it's entirely possible to see David Bowie, Kanye West and Björk playing together. Consider themselves rivals to /k/ and /wg/.
• /tg/ (Winter 2015): One of the first boards to join the league as part of the second founding and currently the only one of that group to have won an Elite cup. Their victory at the Winter 2015 final is the lowest scoring final in Elite cup history; a 1-0 win over /h/. While they made it to the knockout stage in Summer of that year, they were relegated in Winter 2016 and have been in the Babby's ever since. Their fans have been voted the best of the tournament more times than any other team.
• /mlp/ (Summer 2015, Summer 2016): Founded in 2012 as part of the founding babbies expansion (which lead to the creation of the Babby cup), /mlp/ has consistently been one of the better teams in the league. The team's overall record combined with the reputation of the board, makes /mlp/ hated by pretty much everyone else in the league. Expect a lot of Flame Wars when this team wins (or loses or just plays in general). Their win in Summer of 2016 resulted in /mlp/ being the first team to^note legitimately. win a second Elite title, and they currently are tied with /fit/ for the most Elite cups of any team in the league.
• /fit/ (Winter 2016, Winter 2017): The most recent member of the original 16 to win an Elite cup. Their inaugural match in 2011 was played less than 24 hours following the death of noted poster Aziz "Zyzz" Shavershian, and ended up in a 4-3 victory over /k/. Despite recent struggles (spending most of 2013-2015 in the Babby's), /fit/ has consistently been a strong team that usually makes it to the quarterfinals in the Elites. Their cup win was the second final to be decided in extra time, with Zyzz knocking in the game winning header. Became the second team to win two Elite titles (and consecutive seasonal tournaments) in Winter 2017, with their final match (against other prior champion /mu/) also going into extra time.
• /lgbt/ (Summer 2017): Founded in 2013, /lgbt/ (aka the "legbutts") was one of the more overlooked teams in the cup, only placing in the Elites once (Winter 2014) and foundering in the group stage. They spent the majority of their history in the Babby cup, constantly failing to make it out of the group stage. All of that changed in 2017 however; after advancing from the Fetus qualifiers, they went on to win the Spring Babby Cup and then went on to capture their first Elite title in the Summer, becoming the first team to win a Babby cup and the subsequent Elite cup. Since then, like /trv/, they have fallen off and are now dormant.
• /u/ (Winter 2018, Summer 2020): Perhaps the purest team in the cup, /u/ represents the Yuri board of 4chan (the fact that Madoka Kaname is their starting keeper and Homura Akemi their center forward tells you everything you need to know about their roster). /u/ quickly developed a reputation of being a solid team but could never quite get over the hump when it mattered the most, washing out in the quarterfinals four straight times and finishing as a runner-up twice. Finally in Winter 2018 /u/ captured their first Elite cup following an epic showdown with /mlp/.^note The final was decided by twenty penalty kicks and was the most watched match in the history of the 4cc. After that, they still proved themselves to be top-tier team, but were never able to get out of the Round of 16 until Summer 2020 where after a very dramatic group stage and several dramatic knockout matches, they managed to win a second cup and become the first team to win both a Winter and Summer cup.
• /vg/ (Summer 2018): As mentioned earlier above, /vg/'s roster is determined by the /vg/ League, with the Medal players being determined by the podium placers of said tournament. As a result the roster is very fluid and aside from Git Gud, their meta player, it is very rare to see the same player on the team for 2 major tournaments in a row. The team bounced around in both Elites and Babbies for the longest time until Summer 2018 when they somehow managed to sneak into the Knockout Stage despite /vrg/'s Unity-Chan, their gold medal player, getting a red card in their first game, and then managed to get to the finals following an amazing performance by Unity-Chan with 7 goals in the final day alone to defeat /sp/ in the finals 3-1 to become the first vidya team to win a cup.
• /gd/ (Winter 2019): A major team in the cup lore, /gd/ represents the Graphic Design board, is usually one of the most talked about clubs every tournament they're in, and has been involved in several of the defining moments in the cup's history, including being the team to relegate /sp/ for the first time.^note IT'S TWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Despite this, they, like /u/, could never really get over the hump, usually making it to the Knockout Stages, but someone ended up besting them on the final day. However, in Winter 2019, that overwhelming challenger never came and defeated an unlikely challenger in /3/^note To put it in perspective, this was /3/'s first Winter Cup, the first Elite cup for the team since 2012, their second Elite Cup in general, and the first time they ever reached the Knockout Stage. 3-2 to finally win their first cup.
• /cm/ (Summer 2019): The cute male board on 4chan was always known as one of the perennial basement-dwellers of the cup, having their first 3 official tournaments being voided due to Dragongate, being on autopilot more than not and long droughts of Elite competition.^note Prior to Spring 2019, the team never went further than the Round of 16 in a non-voided tournament. However, the (late) transition to PES 18 helped them tremendously, actually being promoted to Elites for the first time in a year and a half in Spring 2019, getting to the knockouts and avoiding relegation for the first time since Summer 2015, and making an unprecedented run to the finals and beating /pol/ in a Spain^note 5-1 to win an Elite Cup.
• /pol/ (Winter 2020): Honestly needs no introduction, everyone knows the crap /pol/ does, and that mentality carries over to the cup. Founded in the same founding as /mlp/, a team they would become inseparable from due to the actual boards, the team has gone through very fluctuating phases of competence, including 2 babby cup wins, but were never able to get over the hump until Winter 2020. (maybe needing the help of Corona-chan)
• /v/ (Summer 2022): The titular board about videogames (in theory). After years of escaping babbies and knocked back to babbies on repeat and a mediocre group stage effort on their part, /v/'s usage of Sanic as a joke option combined with Dante caused them to sweep every match of the knockout stage in a complete blowout and earned them their first star. Historic rivals of /sp/ and /b/.

The 4chan cup has hopped around streaming sites, being outright banned from several of them (for reasons that must seem all too obvious to anyone familiar with the site). They can currently be found streaming matches on their YouTube channel with chat from CyTube, archives of the majority of cups and many side tournaments can be found here.

More information can be found at the official wiki

Tropes found in this virtual divegrass event:

• Big Game: The final, of course, but also critical elimination rounds or group stage matches where the loser will end up relegated.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Averted in the case of Dragongate as it ultimately allowed /sp/ to win the Summer cup (which was later vacated, thus enforcing this trope).
• Crowd Chant: Pretty much everyone who tunes into the streams has a copypasta of sorts they use to cheer on their team and/or berate their opponents.
• Dark Horse Victory: A time when a team many write off goes much farther than expected has always been a part of the Cup due to the sheer amount of Random Number God in play, but the 2019 Spring Babby Cup was pretty much the apex of this, with teams like /c/^note  The eventual runner-up, /cm/^note  Went out in the quarterfinals and then went on to win the next elite cup, /diy/, /i/^note  The eventual champion, and /y/ all making the knockout rounds and the Summer Elites.^note /cm/ and /diy/, along with /k/, /toy/, and /jp/ who also made it through, were also in Autopilot, giving them an on-paper disadvantage compared to teams with managers.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Early cups featured a double elimination tournament rather than the current format.
• Down to the Last Play: It's not uncommon for a tying or even winning goal to be scored in stoppage time. Teams such as /mlp/ have practically made this into an art form.
• Fandom Rivalry: Given the nature of 4chan this is to be expected. Practically every team has at least one rivalry match, but some of the more notable ones include:
  • /mlp/ vs. everyone: Easily one of, if not the most, hated teams in the league. The rivalry is mainly an extension of 4chan's attitude towards the board in general. The fact that the team is usually one of the better ones (and currently has the most Elite cups) doesn't help matters.
  • /v/ vs. /vp/: /vp/ was spun off from /v/ due to the flood of Pokemon posts. They're still a tad angry about that. /vp/ likes to claim that /v/ won more games before /vp/ was kicked out.
  • /int/ vs. /pol/: Dating back to before the creation of either board, these two ideological opposites have naturally forged a heated rivalry on the field as well.
  • /a/ and /sp/ are the El Clásico^note The name given to matches in the FC Barcelona/Real Madrid rivalry and it gets rubbed in /sp/'s face every year that they continue to be seemingly unable to beat /a/. The two so consistently either advanced from group stage together or were eliminated together that up until 2016 they were seen as having the Together Forever Curse.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: This is to sports games what Super Smash Bros. is to fighting games. This might be the only game where you'd see Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Twilight Sparkle, Madoka several times over, Solid Snake, Kirby, Josef Stalin, John Cena, Woody, George Costanza, Vladimir Putin, Adolf Hitler, Stephen Hawking, and a tentacle monster face off against each other in a game of football.
• Miracle Rally: Also not that uncommon. /gd/'s comeback against /sp/ in the 2014 Summer Cup is considered one of the greatest moments in the history of the league.
• Purposely Overpowered: The titular 4cc team. Near-perfect stats, always plays in the best possible condition. They exist purely to completely crush the cup winner and show how powerless they are by comparison. Matches against 4cc are almost entirely one-sided and often they score enough goals to go in the double digits with their opponent maybe getting 1 or 2 goals against them.
• Redemption Quest: Any team that's been promoted from the Babby's after being relegated from a previous Elite cup can be thought to be going on one of these.
• Scenery Porn: Some of the custom made stadiums are absolutely gorgeous. Notable ones include /mlp/'s Cirrus Maximus, /m/'s Orbital Ring Stadium, /v/'s Final PEStination and /pol/'s /new/remberg field.
• Serious Business: The degree to which each board cares about the league varies from board to board, but they all have some investment in it. With that said the more invested a board is the more...vocal they tend to be when their team wins or loses.
  • This rant might be the crowning example of this trope.
• The Ace(s): The section of rules dedicated to what the cup calls "Medal Players" is built around allowing the boards to assign certain members of their roster as their star players. Out of a team's 23-strong squad, four to five of them (but not goalkeepers) must be of "Medal" quality; two silver^note With all their stats set to 88 as opposed to the regular 77 and two gold.^note Like the silvers, but with their stats all set to 99, and sometimes a bronze, but it is not used in every cup. And yes, if you're at all familiar with the 4chan boards, you can make a half-decent guess as to who gets given medal status.
• We Win Because You Didn't: Because of the group stage format, there can be instances where a team can draw and still advance to the knockout round. This trope can also apply when a board celebrates the defeat of a rival board (regardless if said board is actually in the tournament or not).
• Who Needs Overtime?: As mentioned above, it's not uncommon to see a winning goal in the final minutes.