WeBL is a simulated boxing league in which you manage one or more fighters. Each fighter competes in an appropriate weight division. Every week each of your fighters has a bout with another fighter. The fighter's ranking in his division increases or decreases as he wins or loses. Your goal is to have one of your fighters win a championship and retain it for as long as possible.
Every fighter starts with 70 points distributed between these abilities. An "average" new fighter would have abilities of 11, with a KO Punch of 2-3.
You only know your own fighter's abilities -- you have to guess at your opponent's abilities from information about his past bouts.
A fighter may choose one ability point to train before each bout. That ability point increases by 1 point for that fight. Note that this does not affect the fighter's weight. If the fighter wins and his status increases, he gets to keep the ability point permanently. In that case, the fighter's weight may increase or decrease.
Also, whenever a fighter extends a winning streak the fighter "jumps" a rating. In this case, his secondary training is used to determine an additional ability point.
A fighter will also lose ability points when he has sustained enough damage over many different fights (aging).
Each fighter has a weight, which is computed from the fighter's height, strength, and agility. Height is the biggest determinant of weight. Strength is second and agility is third. Stronger fighters are heavier than weaker fighters, but agile fighters are lighter than less agile fighters. Build also affects weight.
If a fighter has a weight advantage over his opponent, the heavier fighter's strength and chin are increased. This does not usually have much effect, except in the heavyweight division where 200 pound fighters sometimes meet 250 pound opponents. However, to prevent giants from dominating the heavyweight division because of their weight advantage, fighters who weigh more than 200 pounds are penalized by additional fatigue.
Each manager in WeBL can currently manage up to 7 fighters in each weight division. A manager may have any number of retired fighters, and may freely activate and retire fighters. A retired fighter has no bouts scheduled for him.
Each fighter may fight in any of the following weight divisions:
| Division | Weight Limit |
|---|---|
| Strawweight | 106 pounds |
| Junior Flyweight | 109 pounds |
| Flyweight | 112 pounds |
| Super Flyweight | 115 pounds |
| Bantamweight | 118 pounds |
| Super Bantamweight | 122 pounds |
| Featherweight | 126 pounds |
| Super Featherweight | 130 pounds |
| Lightweight | 135 pounds |
| Super Lightweight | 141 pounds |
| Welterweight | 147 pounds |
| Super Welterweight | 153 pounds |
| Middleweight | 160 pounds |
| Super Middleweight | 167 pounds |
| Light-Heavyweight | 175 pounds |
| Cruiserweight | 200 pounds |
| Heavyweight | no limit |
Each weight division has its own scheduled bouts and its own champions.
A fighter can lose weight to fight in a lower weight division, but if he loses too much weight, he is weakened a result and loses some endurance points. Note that a fighter diets by himself and always makes weight -- the manager never has to do anything for his fighters to make weight.
Each fighter has a rating. A new fighter has a rating of
"0". When a fighter wins a fight, his rating generally increases by
1, and when he loses it generally decreases by 1 (but never below
"0").
However, a fighter does not lose a rating for losing by split or
majority decision.
Within each weight division, fighters are ranked based on their
ratings.
Fighters with the same rating are ranked based on status. Fighters
with identical rating and identical status are ranked based on winning
streaks and on win percentage. (Don't read any further in this section
unless you want to think hard.)
To be precise, if two fighters have the same rating and the same status, the fighter who has had the most consecutive wins is ranked higher. (Retiring a fighter does not break a streak of consecutive wins.) This is to give "hot" fighters preference in scheduling a title shot. But, for this purpose, wins are not counted unless the fighter's rating equalled his status before the bout. This strange rule is to prevent people from throwing a series of fights and then building up a winning streak to position their fighter for a title shot. Another "strange" rule is that when a reigning champion loses a title fight, his "win streak" is not set to 0 -- that usually leaves him in position to get a rematch if he can win his next bout.
If two fighters have the same rating, same status, and the same "streak", the fighter with the best winning percentage is ranked higher. If the winning percentages are also equal, then the fighters are ranked the same.
The one exception to the ranking rule is that the championship is "linear". That is, to win a title, a fighter must defeat the current title-holder -- it is not enough to get a higher rating or have a better record. A vacant title remains vacant until one or two fighters in the division achieve a higher rating than every other fighter in the division. When that happens, the top two fighters fight for the title.
Because of the large number of fighters, WeBL is further divided into regions. Fighters are scheduled to fight other fighters in the same region whenever possible, and each region has it's own set of champions.
When a fighter has one a regional title and successfully defended the title once, he leaves his region to compete for a world title. He is then known as a ranked contender.
Each bout is of a sequence of rounds. Each round is simulated in the following sequence:
A stun or a knockdown hurts the fighter's performance in the round -- he lands fewer punches and hurts his opponent less.
A KO ends the bout immediately.
A fighter who has stunned his opponent or knocked him down automatically wins the round. Otherwise the judges give the round to the fighter who lands the most punches -- however, each power punch is counted as two jabs. It takes three jabs to equal two rights, or three rights to equal to power punches. On the other hand, jabs are easier to land than power punches -- a fighter gets a +50% SPD bonus when determining how many jabs actually score.
Damage and bleeding have only a small effect on how judges score each round. The number and types of punches landed is much more important.
Also, the three judges make mistakes and don't always agree.
If the bout ends without a KO, TKO, or DQ, the judges select a winner.
To win a round, a fighter would use a high AGG. To hurt his opponent or try for a KO, he would use a high POW. To protect himself from damage or KO, he would use a high DEF.
Your fighter's allocation of energy points can change every round, and the way your fighter allocates energy points can depend on a number of things:
This allows you to try a variety of approaches. You could keep things simple and make the same allocation of energy points every round, you could try to play it safe in the early rounds and come on strong at the end, or you could try hard to lock up a decision by winning the first several rounds and then going defensive, etc.
Your fight plan for each bout should exploit your best abilities and your opponent's weakest abilities. For example, if you are strong and your opponent has a history of being knocked out, you should put a lot of energy into power and go for a knockout. If your opponent seems to have a high toughness and you are fast, you should throw a lot of weak punches, defend well, and try to win by decision.
First, as a fighter loses endurance points, his strength, speed, and agility decrease. For example, when a fighter has lost half his endurance points, those abilities are decreased by half. Some fighters try to take advantage of this by hurting their opponent in the early rounds.
A fighter who is very aggressive and not in good condition (low COND) may lose additional endurance points every round due to fatigue. The amount of fatigue is based on your AGG and POW, but AGG causes more fatigue than POW. so a fighter who is very aggressive in the early rounds can tire himself out. For this reason, some fighters are defensive in the early rounds hoping their opponents will tire themselves.
In addition, a fighter regains some lost endurance points at the end of every round. So if your fighter has lost many endurance points, it may be a good idea to go defensive for a round or two to recover. Similarly, if your opponent seems to be weakened, you might want to try and finish him off before he recovers.
You have the option each of round of using body blows (to tire your opponent), head punches (to go for a knockout or cut him), or to box opportunistically (a balanced approach, ideal for winning the round).
Each fighter also chooses from one of several fighting styles. See the glossary for more information.
Finally, a fighter may choose each round to fight dirty, in which case he is intentionally throwing illegal blows (low blows, kidney punches, rabbit punches, etc.) This slightly increases the damage inflicted on your opponent. However, wthe referee may deduct a point or even disqualify the fighter completely.