Draw real clubs and seasons, build an XI only from players who actually played that campaign, and take the competition all the way to the final. 13 competitions, 34 318 hand-curated cards rated for what each player did in that competition.
The game, explained
What Legends XI is
Legends XI is a football game you play in the browser. There is nothing to install and you do not need an account to play on your own: pick a competition, pick a formation, and the game starts drawing real clubs and real seasons from the history of that competition.
One rule holds up everything else — you can only pick a player who actually played for that club in that season. Eusébio is not in the Benfica squad of 1987-88, however much Benfica it is. That is what separates Legends XI from a card game: knowing who was good is not enough, you have to know who was there.
Once the eleven is complete, the game simulates the whole campaign with your team, against real squads from the same competition, from the first match to the final. There are 13 playable competitions and 34 318 cards, each one with the rating that player earned in that competition — written by hand, one at a time.
The idea came from "7 a 0", the viral World Cup draft game. Where the original draws a national team and a year, here it draws a club and a season — and the competition is no longer only the World Cup.
From the draw to the final
A draft takes a few minutes. The pitch shows up empty, with the slots of the formation you chose, and the game draws a club and a season — Ajax of 1972-73, say. The real squad of that campaign appears and you pick one player. It repeats until all eleven slots are filled.
Positions are strict: a player only goes into his main position or one of his secondary ones. And the pick is final — nobody leaves the pitch once he is on it. What you can do is move him to another slot, or swap him with a team mate, as long as both of them fit the other one's position.
When the draw does not suit you, there are rerolls: more in Classic than in Blind, and people backing the project get extra rerolls in both. Each reroll swaps the whole club or just the season, and after that the squad you got is the squad you have.
Before playing you also choose the team mentality, and there are five of them — from parking the bus to attacking without a safety net. It is not a label: a more attacking side scores more and concedes more, and the block is drawn higher up the pitch.
The campaign then runs in the real shape of the competition. The Champions League has a group stage and two-legged knockout ties; the World Cup has groups and single-match rounds; the Taça da Liga is a Final Four. Every match can be watched minute by minute, with live commentary, or simulated in one go.
Winning every match of the competition, from the first to the final, is the perfect campaign. In the Champions League that is thirteen wins in a row; in the World Cup, eight. It is the rarest thing you can do here — and it only exists in competitions with a group stage, because winning a cup in three matches is a title, not a feat.
What a card rating means
Every card has a rating up to 99, and that rating does not belong to the player — it belongs to the player in that competition. It is the rule that surprises newcomers most: someone who won the Champions League six times is worth more in that competition than a bigger name who spent one season there.
So the same name is worth different things in different places. Cristiano Ronaldo is the top card of the Champions League and the top card of the Euro; in the World Cup he is an 84, a card like many others. That is not an oversight — it is what the competition measures.
At the top of the scale there are two rarities, curated by hand. Each competition has one card rated 100, the greatest of all time in that competition — and the criterion is easy to read backwards: it is not whoever had the best single season, it is whoever dominates the history of the competition. And each competition has eleven icons rated 99, one per position, with two centre backs because every formation in the game asks for at least two.
The example that explains the criterion best is Paulinho in the Taça da Liga: the competition's all-time top scorer with 21 goals, when the runner-up has 12, and eight in a single edition. A modest reputation in European football, absolute king of that cup. That is the criterion working, not an exception to it.
How the ratings are made, in detail
The modes: solo, duel and league
On your own there are three ways to play the same campaign. In Classic you see everybody's ratings and you get several rerolls. In Blind the ratings are hidden and there is much less room to reroll — you draft by name, like a supporter. And in Competitive the draft stops being just the starting eleven.
Competitive is the mode for people who want to manage and not only draft: eleven starters and seven substitutes, five changes, a freshness bar that drains across the competition, yellow cards, red cards, suspensions and injuries. The team can be edited before the match, at half time, and at the minute you choose to stop the game. It needs an account, because the campaign lasts days rather than one sitting.
There is also the Daily Challenge: one competition a day, the same for everyone, with a modifier that changes the rules — cards up to 85 only, no legends, one player per nationality, a compulsory 5-3-2. One attempt a day, and a table for the day to compare.
For two people there is the online duel. You create a room, send a friend the link, and both of you draft at the same time, with the same mode and the same formation, but each with your own draw — the cards are yours, it is the rules that are shared. Then you both enter the same campaign, in different groups, and each round only runs when both of you press play. If you meet in the knockout rounds, it is a derby.
And there is the online league, where several people play the same competition at once. Nobody waits for anybody here: the rounds run at the scheduled time, two a day, and whoever does not show up plays with the last eleven they saved. The shape is the shape of the competition — a Champions League is 32 teams and 13 rounds, a Premier League is 20 and 38 — and the places nobody takes are filled by machine teams.
A league has money. When you lock your team in you receive a sum that depends on the squad you drew, and every round opens a transfer market with cards from any competition — the World Cup Messi today, a Champions League icon tomorrow. You can also train players and raise their rating, but only inside that league: when it ends, the trained ratings and the money end with it.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an account to play?
Not to play on your own: the draft and the campaign work without signing up. An account is needed for anything online — the duel and the league — and for Competitive mode, because those campaigns are stored on the server and last for days.
Is the game free?
It is, entirely. There are no in-game purchases and no cards for sale. The money in the online league is game money, earned by playing, never bought, and it disappears when the league ends — there is no wallet carried from one competition to the next.
Where do the squads and the ratings come from?
The squads are real and come from public football history sources. The ratings are ours, written by hand competition by competition. The rule we follow without exception is never to invent a name: if we cannot confirm that a player was part of that campaign, he does not go in.
Are the clubs and competitions official?
No. Legends XI is not an official product of any club, league or federation, and has no connection to them. It uses real player, club and season names, without crests or any other official marks.
Can I play on a phone?
You can, and that is what the game was designed for first. The desktop came afterwards, with more room for the pitch and the cards.
What happens if I close the browser mid-campaign?
In Competitive, in the duel and in the league the campaign lives on the server and is there when you come back — the home page takes you straight to it. A solo campaign without an account lives in the browser session.
How is the result of a match decided?
On the server, not in the browser — so that nobody can touch the result. The strength of each line comes from the ratings of whoever is on the pitch at that minute, the mentality and home advantage go into the sum, and chance always has a say: a team that looks perfect on paper can still fall short.
What languages is the game in?
Portuguese and English. The reading pages have their own address in each language; in the game itself, your choice is remembered in the browser.