Next up on our round-up of the newly launched Fantasy World Cup Games it’s the turn of Sky Sports to throw their hat into the ring. And what a simplistic little hat it is too. More your basic beanie than a crazy Jamiroquai creation..
Sky Sports are offering another free to enter game for you with a handful of prizes on offer to show too, chiefly £5000 for the crown champion of the world. Unsurprisingly, most of the runners-up prizes involve provisions of Sky’s HD service… after the tournament of course. Handy.
Continuing a worrying trend, we have another game that is prohibitive based on your country of residence. Sorry again to all you Hungarian, Germanic and Mexican readers of Fantasy Football Scout – this game is only for people based in the UK and Republic of Ireland.(*)
Are the Mexicans missing much? Well maybe the casual Mexican. The game itself is perhaps one of the simplest on offer this summer, starting with the team selection. Players can select their fantasy XI (this is just a team game, no substitutes/squads here) from any and all players at the tournament, there are no budgetary restrictions just a cap of two players per nation – a limit that increases as the rounds pass. No need to number crunch to fit Messi, Villa, Ronaldo and Rooney into the same team here then.
The points scoring is the simplest highlighted so far and is reminiscent of the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) on inspection. There are no captains though and goals score four points a player regardless of position – okay, I never said it was identical to the FPL- but for those of you pining for Bonus Point controversy you can welcome the inclusion of a three point bonus to the player deemed man of the match by the Sky journalists.
An interesting twist is that all points scoring is doubled (the plus and the negative scoring) after the group stages, so that is something that Managers will need to keep an eye on once the knockout stages kick-in.
The tricky traders amongst us will have a greater propensity to mix and match your team selection through the tournament, with up to 30 transfers available in total – 15 to be used in the group stages, and 15 to be tinkered with thereafter.
All in all Sky Sports seem to be offering the simplest no frills game out there this summer – a good and bad thing depending on how you are looking to spend your Premier League “vacation”. For the private leagues at work and amongst friends, this game will probably be one of the best at being able to get everyone involved.
It’s unlikely to scratch the itch of the comitted Fantasy Manager however. For the avid amongst us there is definitely a certain edge missing, having no budget will take some of the challenge away from being able to choose a cost efficient team of points grabbers – however there is the challenge to find differentials when it’s so easy to bring in star names.
A game for the masses perhaps but one that’s sadly lacking in depth as a result.
(*) apparently Sky Sports have clarified to one of our posters that the availability to enter this game is worldwide, but those casual Mexican managers will be ineligible to receive any of the prizes on offer.