UPDATE 6 - THE VAR ROOM

There's a new official in the building — and it's you.

ROLE 3: VIDEO ASSISTANT

Take the van. A full AI crew referees the match while you work the monitors — every goal and every card comes to you for a check. Scrub the footage, pick your angle, and make the call:

• The video room is real 3D — monitors that genuinely film the match (broadcast follow, goal cam, tactical rig, status board). Drag to look around, scroll to lean in, double-click any monitor to put your nose against it.
• The check queue — checks arm themselves, clean or dirty, and they all look the same until you've watched the footage. That's the job.
• Factual vs subjective — offside in a build-up and goal-line calls are yours to EXECUTE off the instruments. Everything else is a RECOMMENDATION, and the threshold is clear-and-obvious: uphold a real error and you're rewarded; re-referee a defensible call and the rating says nitpick.
• The referee waits for the VAR — restarts hold while a check is live, like real football. But a check ignored long enough resolves without you, and a howler that goes through the van untouched follows you into the debrief.
• The facility is the venue's — Sunday League gives you a laptop, two camera angles, and no calibrated offside line: judge it by eye. The broadcast truck gives you everything. The career arc is the man with a laptop becoming the man in the truck.
• Graded on protocol, not glory — silent-right closes, fast factual executes, upheld recommendations. Your rating, your promotion.

CO-OP: THE FOURTH CHAIR

The crew's 4th seat is the video room now. Your friend takes the van while a human centre runs the middle:

• Checks travel to the van with no truth attached — the VAR knows only what the footage shows.
• Opening a check holds the whole match — everyone sees VAR CHECK while the room works.
• RECOMMEND REVIEW sends the human referee to the monitor. They walk, they watch, they decide — and both of you are graded on what happens there. The centre can overrule the video room. It's their right. It's also on the record.
• The VAR's verdicts build the VAR's own record — nobody else's.
• If the VAR disconnects mid-check, the booth AI takes over without missing a beat.
• Co-op protocol updated (v7) — everyone in a room needs this version.

THE REFEREE IS HUMAN NOW

The AI centre no longer sees everything. Sightlines fade with distance, a well-sold dive can buy a penalty, and a foul behind their back can simply be missed — which is exactly why the van exists. Every mode where the AI runs the middle feels different: rescue them from the line, or from the video room.

THE HANDBOOK — L FOR THE LAWS

The Match Officials' Handbook, in game, from anywhere — menu, pitch, or van. Ten sections with diagrams, covering only what the sim actually enforces, with the real numbers read live from the engine: offside at the strike, Law 9, the whistle and advantage, GLT tiers, the VAR protocol, and FA conduct. Read it before they read it to you.

THE FIX REACHES THE VIDEO ROOM

The fixer knows a bent VAR decides in secret. If you take the van in career, expect a visit — and know that delivery is judged on the seat's own verbs: howlers waved through, interventions manufactured. When a fixed match is proven, the investigation now tiers the crew: the complicit fall, the implicated carry the stain, the clean of record are cleared, and whoever reported it walks exempt. Your history is your defence.

ALSO IN THIS UPDATE

• Shirt names and numbers now curve with the body instead of floating behind it
• Goal replays anchor to the goal — you'll always see the ball go in — and review footage windows are far longer both ways
• Goal-line technology buzz on tier-3 watches
• The van dresses to your level: portacabin, side office, van, broadcast truck
• New VAR sound family: check sting, buzz-out, verdict stamp
• Dozens of fixes from community reports — including the invisible overlay that could eat mouse input, walkout ceremony polish, and half-time camera holds

*VAR replaces the role "MATCH ASSESSOR" but keeps its duties as well.

Thanks for all the feedback, and enjoy the new content.

sholi