World Club Champion Football

World Club Champion Football (WCCF) is a Japanese collectible card game and football/soccer sports arcade game produced by Sega. The player assembles a squad by collecting and trading specially marked cards, produced by Panini. The player then selects a team and manage it, playing simulated football matches on an arcade machine taking part in friendly, league and cup competitions. Since its debut in 2002, it has sold 850 million player cards, as of 2016, making it the best-selling arcade digital collectible card game.[1]

World Club Champion Football
Developer(s)Hitmaker
Sega
Publisher(s)Sega
Producer(s)Hisao Oguchi
Mie Kumagai
Jun Tsuchiya
Composer(s)Takenobu Mitsuyoshi
Junpei Mishiyama
Takahiro Kai
Mitsuhuru Fukuyama
Chihiro Aoki
Platform(s)Arcade
ReleaseArcade
JPN 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
EUR 2005, 2006
Genre(s)Sports
Mode(s)Single player, two player
Arcade systemSega RingEdge, Lindbergh, NAOMI 2
WCCF FOOTISTA 2019 arcade cabinets

The squad managed by the player can consist of up to 16 footballer cards with the data stored on a player's smart card, commonly known as an IC. The IC can store up to 150 matches worth of data; once the maximum number of matches has been reached the player has an option to transfer their statistics to a new IC. Footballer cards are registered by starting a game and laying the cards down on a special matted table that identifies the card allowing the game to retrieve the footballers attributes from a database. Players can issue commands to his team during a match, change the team's formation, talk to individual team members or in pairs in a virtual manager's office and train the team up to six areas of skill: Offense, Defence, Passing, Possession, Speed, and Power.

History

The first major version of the game was based on the top division of Italian football, the Serie A, and was released in Japan in 2002.[2] The teams included were those that participated in the competition during the previous footballing year; the player data being based on performances during that 2001–02 season. An updated version of the game was released in 2003 with gameplay fixes/adjustments also added 32 black/white and 13 foil player cards.

With the success of the game, Sega went on to produce a second major version of the game, again devoted to Serie A, that was released in 2003.[3] The teams and players included were those that participated in the 2002–03 season. As with the 2001–02 version the 2002–03 version was also updated several months later to include gameplay updates and additional players consisting of 32 black/white and 43 foil player cards. The 2002–03 season version of WCCF was the first version that was released outside of Asia by being made available in Italy.

After a brief hiatus, Sega's next major new version of the game was released in late 2005.[4] This time, the game was not dedicated to Serie A and instead was based on the top divisions of four countries in Europe: the English Premier League, Dutch Eredivisie, Spanish La Liga, and Italian Serie A. The teams included in this European Clubs version of the game was based the 2004–05 season and Sega started distributing the game more widely outside of Asia; the countries included the Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, the UAE and the UK.

The successful expansion of the game was followed by a sequel to the European Clubs version in late 2006.[5] This time, the game included teams from six countries in Europe: England, France (Ligue 1), Germany (Bundesliga), Netherlands, Italy, and Spain, with footballer data based on performances from the 2005–06 season.

The game has further expanded to span two continents (Europe and South America) in the Intercontinental Clubs 2006–07 version released in 2008[6] but the it ceased to be distributed outside of Asia.

The game is subsequently updated with yearly versions in Japan.

Player Card

As mentioned, there are over 1,000 different cards in the game. Some players have different versions of themselves in the game. Player cards are classed in four different types of cards.

The first type is a White card. This type of card carries a standard player; for example, Igor Tudor of Juventus. He would be considered in the game to have normal wage in the game and have the abilities of an average player in the team.

The second type of card is a Black card. This card carries a better player, such as Michael Owen or Ronaldo. Their wages in the game increase but their skills increase as well.

The third type of card is a Foil or known to the WCCF community as a "shiny". These carry the superstars of the footballing world. When held up to the light, the card's background changes colour. Each grouping of cards have different coloured frames to show the different classes of player.

There are plenty of versions of Foil cards reaching as far back in the game as the 2001–02 season. These cards appear less in the game and are more rare than a black or a white card.

The fourth and most precious of cards is the Legend and All-time Legend cards. These cards are very rare and feature some of the best players ever to grace the game of football. These cards carry huge wage bills, but they also have very rare qualities in playing the game. Just like the foil cards, the Legend and All-time Legend cards are considered to be "Shiney" with a mainly gold appearance to the card. Once again, when light hits the cards at a certain angle, the colour changes slightly.

Game structure

The game follows a schedule with teams playing league format broken up by complete cup tournaments. The game originally consisted only of one league division but the season 2005-2006 version introduced a second and so the requirement for promotion; promotion is given to a team in the first 2 positions in the league.

To enter the International Club Cup a player must have earned 1 or 10 million of the local in-game currency. To enter the Champions Trophy and Continental Cup require a minimum finish in the top 4 or 6 positions respectively in Regular League 1. Participation in the Japan Trophy requires the winning of the Champions Trophy, the Continental Super Cup requires the success in the Continental Cup and the National Super Cup requires winning the King's Cup. Entry into the U-5 Championship requires a team following the U-5 regulations.

References
  1. "中村静香さんら秘書が『WCCF』新バージョンをお披露目！ セガ『WCCF 2015-2016』PRイベントリポート". Famitsu (in Japanese). 2016-01-28. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  2. "WCCF Serie A 2001-2002 announcement". Sega Japan.
  3. "WCCF Serie A 2002-2003 announcement". Sega Japan.
  4. "WCCF European Clubs 2004-2005 announcement". Sega Japan.
  5. "WCCF European Clubs 2005-2006 announcement". Sega Japan.
  6. "Spring Private Show Report". Sega Japan.
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