Time to cross continents to take a look at the next Fantasy World Cup Game on offer, this time courtesy of our American friends over at ESPN. They came over here and swooped into our lives, picking up the pieces left over from the wreckage that was Setanta, and now they’re coming for your fantasy allegiances. They’ve gone so far as to bring a few favourite and familiar fantasy traits – even if they have had to use the computers from Tron to do so…
We’ve got another game that is open to folks from shores far and wide, so don’t miss out all your Surinam-based friends when setting up that mini-league. The game itself is free to all and comes with a grand prize (only for eligible entrants from USA, Canada and UK) of flights and accommodation that coincide with a 3 day trip to see a Premier League and La Liga game …of the sponsors choosing. Almeria vs FC Catenega and Wolves vs Blackpool anyone? It almost sounds too good to be true, so here’s hoping said sponsors don’t skimp too much on their games of choice.
You’re handily given $100m to select a 15 man squad, and after selecting a bare minimum of 4-4-2 formation you can choose to round out your squad from whatever position you choose. Feel you don’t need another keeper on the bench? That’s fine, add another striker to the mix. You’re also given a whole boat load of transfers to use through the tournament; 12 through the group stages and then 8 more through each knockout phase. There is no carrying over trades, but with 36 on offer in total that hopefully shouldn’t be a worry.
If the last few weeks of cold turkey have left you pining for the the good old days of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) then this offering could be the antidote to that flop sweat and bout of jitters you are currently going through. The scoring is more than reminiscent of that normally on offer from FPL towers with a few minor tweaks.
There are no bonus points or man of the match awards in this game, an assist is only worth 2 points all round – though somewhat contentiously earning a penalty or servicing an own goal are not counted – while a goal is worth 4 points for a striker, 6 for a midfielder and 8 for a defender (goalkeepers get 10). One point will also be deducted from defenders and goalkeepers for every goal conceded, twice as punitive as the FPL game was and is.
A strange rule for fantasy managers to benefit from/circumvent is as follows:
“Should one of your starting 11 not actually play in a game round, then the top-scoring player from the same position on your bench will automatically come on. Only a player who plays in the same position can come on.”
Which basically seems to mean that if you select an über cheap non-playing North Korean (etc) when you couldn’t decide who to bench out of, let’s say Xavi and Sneijder in a gameweek, your bench will do the work for you and throw your most successful player into your starting XI as a substitute. Too good to be true surely? A rule for attentive managers to profit from, but I can’t help but see it as a flaw myself.
But that’s not the biggest flaw to the game. I can’t finish this review without mentioning the actual functionality of the game. The functionality is awful.
Letting down an otherwise promising (with a few other kinks, certainly) fantasy enterprise is the fact that the system ESPN have used to select and set up your teams seems so out-dated, unappealing and downright clunky for a manager to use, it comes across as more Commodore 64 than World Cup ’10.
The ESPN game does have its positives, without doubt. If you and your group of friends are big fans of the FPL and CYKI franchise and want a game that will hand points out in a similar way this summer then this may just be the game for you.
We’ve got the building blocks of a nice, free and simple Fantasy World Cup Game right at your finger tips but unfortunately, for me, the execution is all wrong. With regret, I’m out.