Sponsored by FanTeam
FanTeam are staging a ‘Second Chance’ Premier League Fantasy game for the latter half of this season, starting from Gameweek 22 on January 14th.
This gives a further chance for managers to win a huge cash prize if their original season-long team has already fallen way behind.
And, remarkably, it’s completely free to play!
Even Big Sam is on board for this one…
There is a guaranteed prize pool of £100,000 in this Fantasy tournament, with £20,000 going to the winner and money for anyone finishing in the top 4,000.
WHAT ARE THE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES TO FPL?
Here’s the great news: anyone with any sort of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) experience should be able to pick up FanTeam’s game without issue. The rules, scoring and prices are very similar, shown in detail below.
It’s essentially FPL but with huge cash prizes. Given that paid entry mini-leagues are now strongly discouraged by the Premier League, the FanTeam game offers Fantasy managers a legitimate opportunity to make money from their management expertise.
Unlike the main FanTeam game, this involves building a team of 11 players rather than a squad of 15. Therefore the 100.0m budget is now down to 80.0m. There must be at least one goalkeeper, three defenders, two midfielders and one forward.
A maximum of three players from a single Premier League team can be selected.
One free transfer is allowed each Gameweek, with every additional transfer costing minus four points. FanTeam managers have one Wildcard to use, allowing unlimited free transfers during its week of activation.
Additionally, a captain and vice-captain has to be nominated every week; the player handed the armband will score double points.
All sound very familiar? That’s because the two games are largely the same – although there are a handful of differences to watch out for.
KEY RULES DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FANTEAM AND FPL
- Player prices can rise and fall based on form and in-game transfer movement but, unlike in FPL, a player’s ‘sell price’ is the same as their ‘purchase price’.
- Other than the Wildcard, there aren’t any chips in FanTeam.
- There is no limit to how many free transfers you can save up, unlike FPL allowing no more than two.
- The ‘Safety Net’ feature makes up for the lack of substitutes. If your player doesn’t start a match, he’ll automatically be replaced by the next-priced (descending) starter in that team’s position who did. For example, if midfielder Mohamed Salah was rested, he would be switched for a cheaper Liverpool midfielder who played, like Sadio Mane.
HOW DO PLAYERS SCORE POINTS?
Seasoned FPL managers should have no problem in adjusting to FanTeam and running a squad with its familiar scoring system, shown above.
KEY SCORING DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FANTEAM AND FPL
- There is no Bonus Points System, which is replaced by plus/minus points (+0.3/-0.3) if a team is winning/losing during the period a player is on the pitch.
- Goalkeepers get 0.5 points for every save made, unlike the one point awarded in FPL for increments of three stops.
- Committing a foul that leads to a free-kick goal or converted penalty is penalised by minus two points.
- Midfielders and forwards get an extra point for completing the full match.
- Shots on target that don’t end up as goals are rewarded (+0.4 for midfielders and forwards, +0.6 for defenders)
