Congratulations, you are now a general manager. Every new GM promises to turn the team around. Try to stop at 180 degrees.
BuzzerBeater is a basketball-management game. You do not shoot, pass or argue with referees: you run a club. You choose the roster, set the tactics, plan the training, price the tickets, hire the staff and buy and sell players. The games are played by the game engine, which turns your decisions into possessions, shots and, if all goes well, wins. It takes no requests once the game starts, so the real work happens before tip-off.
What winning looks like
Your club plays in a league, and leagues sit on levels of divisions, from Division I at the top downwards. A regular season is 22 league games. The four best teams in each conference reach the playoffs, and the division champion is promoted to a higher level, together with some teams that had the best regular-season records. At the other end, up to five teams per league go down. Climbing towards Division I is the long game, and it is measured in seasons, not weeks.
There is plenty to win along the way. Your country runs a National Tournament, the cup: a knockout competition on Thursdays that pays cash for every round you win. The best clubs in the world meet in BuzzerBeater's Best (B3), and the other teams compete in BuzzerBeater Madness, whose top-tier winner earns a place in the next B3. Trophies go to league and cup champions and runners-up, to B3 winners, to the winner and the runner-up of BuzzerBeater Madness, and to teams whose player is named league MVP. National teams, led by managers the community elects, play continental championships and World Championships, and your players can be called up.
The rhythm of a week
BuzzerBeater runs on a weekly clock. League games are on Saturdays and Tuesdays. Thursday brings either a cup game or, once you are out of the cup, a scrimmage: a friendly that does not count in the standings but does count for training. Training, the economy update and the daily update run on their own schedule, and your Calendar shows all of it in your own time zone. Tactics and ticket prices must be set at least 15 minutes before a game.
How to read this manual
Start here. These eight short sections give you the whole picture: this page, Your first week, The season, step by step, How a game is decided, Building a team, Money in a nutshell, Prizes, goals and milestones and Ten classic rookie mistakes. The Rules & reference sections that follow are the full rulebook, with every number and exception; go there when you need the details. Inside them you will find two kinds of notes. Rookie tips spell out what new managers most often get wrong. Pro tips are for managers who know the basics and want an edge. Lost on a screen? The ? in the top bar opens the section of this manual that explains it.
Before anything else, skim the Rules of Conduct: one team per person (a supporter may add a second team, in Utopia only), no moving money between friends through inflated transfers, and nobody else logs into your account. Bans are permanent, and successful appeals are very rare.