About

The French Class League & the Goeller Cup

The French Class League (FCL) is a season-long academic competition held among the French classes of Monsieur Bracken. Each class period competes as its own team, earning points throughout the school year through classroom participation, academic performance, and engagement with the French language.

During the regular season, classes compete in weekly head-to-head matchups over a multi-week schedule. Each matchup is scored across several statistical categories that measure both total class performance and individual student contributions. These categories typically include total points earned, average points per student, percentage of positive points, percentage of points earned through the use of French, and the performance of the highest-earning students. The winning class for each matchup earns points in the standings.

At the end of the regular season, the classes are ranked according to their standings and qualify for the Goeller Cup Playoffs, a multi-round postseason tournament that determines the champion of the French Class League for that school year. In each playoff round, two classes compete over multiple class days, with the class winning the majority of statistical categories advancing to the next round.

The Goeller Cup itself is awarded to the champion class at the conclusion of the playoffs. In addition to the championship, a Most Valuable Player is selected from the winning class and ceremonially recognized as the reigning leader of the Kingdom of Zaccaria, the fictional world that frames the competition’s narrative.

Since its introduction in 2019, the Goeller Cup has become the culminating event of the French Class League season, combining academic engagement, statistical competition, and the ongoing narrative of Zaccaria: Kingdom Rising.

How are the Playoffs different?

The Goeller Cup Playoffs essentially follow the same classroom management tactics as the regular season ("Défi ClassDoJo"). The difference now is that they are ranked and placed into the Bracken Bracket and have a specific class opponent. Against this foe, classes compete in five points categories and must win a majority (3) of the categories to advance to the next round. A class must have the advantage in each category after a set number of class days - typically 5 - to win the category, needing to win at least three categories to avoid elimination. A set of tie-breaking rules exists and is modified at the beginning of each school year as necessary to ensure that there are no dead-even ties in a series.

The five playoff points categories where students compete are:

Overall class points (Titled: Might)
Average points per student in the class (Titled: Unity)
% of positively awarded points (Titled: Honor)
% of points awarded for speaking/using French (Titled: Voice)
Average of the Top 3 Earning Students (as of 2026; Titled: Legend)

On occasion, some categories have been modified for specific classes to compete. For example, in the 2022 Goeller Cup Playoffs, Mr. Bracken's study hall class ("Trail Time") was entered into the competition, but since they weren't a French class, their French % points were calculated from a different points category.

New in 2025 are matchups for 3rd and 5th place so that all classes are involved in the playoffs through the entire duration of the 4th quarter.

FORMAT & RULES

The "Regular season" is defined as any period during the school year where the French Class League/La Ligue de la classe de françiais (formerly called Défi ClassDojo) is happening outside of the playoff format. It can start as early as August or as late as March. Generally speaking, the regular season is comprised of the first three marking periods/quarters of the school year. Each quarter would be considered its own competition where students in all classes competed generally against everyone else, with the goal being to accumulate the most points during that quarter. At the end of the quarter, the class in first place would receive one victory point in the standings. Classes were ranked first by victory points, then by total accumulated points throughout the regular season to determine their ranking and seed for the playoffs.

In 2022-2023, the format was changed to monthly competitions that started at the beginning of the second semester in January instead of a year-long competition. The points system and ranking system for the playoffs remained the same.

In 2023-2024, the format was again changed to resemble an NFL-style schedule where each class would play a specific opponent each week. The "regular season" was comprised of 15 weeks, allowing for each class to play every class 3 times. These 15 weeks were spaced out over the second and third quarters leading into the playoffs, which start at the beginning of the 4th quarter.

For the first semester of the 2024-2025 school year classes competed in the French Class Olympics where classes earned medals individually which were then used to create wins, losses, and ties in the standings. Starting in January of 2025, the format returned to the NFL-style schedule that was implemented in 2023-2024, just with 5 fewer weeks of competition.

In 2025-2026, the Kingdom of Zaccaria was born and the scoring systems again changed with classes competing as "Houses" and earning activity points for the regular season before eventually being ranked for the 2026 Goeller Cup.

PLAYOFF TIEBREAKERS

OVERALL CLASS POINTS: If teams are tied in total points, the tie will be broken by the “participation” point percentage. If still tied, then the tie will be broken based on total semester class tardies, with the class having fewer tardies winning the tie-break.
AVERAGE POINTS PER STUDENT: The class with the fewer total students will take the point. If the classes are even in number, the student with the least amount of points between the two classes will cost their team the point. If still tied, the class with the best attendance record during the round will win. If needed to break further, attendance will be checked by month, quarter, semester, and so on to find a winner.
POSITIVE POINTS: The percentage of positive points will be calculated based on the total points given and taken away, down to the smallest digit necessary to find a winner. If the percentage is too difficult to find, the least number of negative points given will break the tie. If two classes are tied at 100%, the tie break will be awarded to the class with the highest grade average for all students in the class.
FRENCH SPEAKING PERCENTAGE: French-speaking point percentage will be calculated by dividing the total number of points for “parler en français” into the total positive points, calculated down to the smallest number needed to break the tie. If still tied with the same percentage of points for using French, the next step will be to take the total number of points awarded for speaking/using French. If that number is tied, the class with the best lowest score on their most recent summative grade will earn their team a victory in this category.
HIGHEST-EARNING STUDENT: If the Average of the top 3 highest earning students is tied, the fourth highest student will be added, then the fifth, and so on to break the tie. There is no limit on how small of a decimial is needed to break the tie.

Updated for the 2026 Goeller Cup Playoffs

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