The Sun Dream Team became the latest Fantasy game to throw open it’s doors, having released alongside the Fantasy Premier League on Thursday.

Quite simply, Dream Team is the season-long game to play if you want to win some big money. This term they’ve gone and put up a cool £1 million prize fund, with £200,000 available to the overall winner. Overall, they are promising 100 winners a week, 500 a month and 7,000 across the season. That’s a lot of winners with a lot of cash fluttering about.

This season the game is free to play, although the generous cash prizes are only available to those who later sign up to the Club Dream Team – that will eventually set you back £2.99 a month or £7.99 for three months; both options will be available in October but, initially, you’ll be in the “Club” for free.

There are a whole string of benefits to eventually signing up, including more competitions, advanced statistics and the fact you’ll get to set up six teams, increasing your chances of claiming one of the many prizes.

Aside from the huge cash pot on offer, Dream Team is a very different beast to your average Fantasy offering. It can be a more casual, “hands off” game, with stronger emphasis placed on your initial starting XI – after this, Fantasy managers are pressed into action during four Transfer Windows, although, as you’ll see this has been expanded somewhat with this season’s rule changes.

The other key attraction is that domestic cups and European competitions are included. This can hold your interest when games like the Fantasy Premier League and Sky Sports take a break; suddenly the midweek Europa League and Capital One Cup have some meaning.

On top of this, Dream Team has a weekly game offering and this season introduces more competitions for those who join Club Dream Team – a weekly 32-team knockout cup and a mini-league knockout cup. You won’t be surprised to hear that both offer cash prizes. Dream Team have also brought back the popular Manager of the Month contests, with the top 100 managers all qualifying for prizes.

THE RULESET

Dream Team have been brave enough to implement some key rule changes this season – with assists finally making an appearance in the game.

Two points are awarded for each assist earned, although this is somewhat balanced out for midfielders who have lost the two points previously earned for keeping a clean sheet. For defenders and strikers, however, the assists are now extra points in the bank which is something to consider when selecting your squad.

Elsewhere, while Dream Team has retained the three points earned for a 7+ rating in any given match, they’ve done away with their controversial “reporter in the stands” approach and adopted an Opta driven algorithm solution, much like the FPL’s Bonus System, to award the ratings. This system is also being used to assign the Star Man awards which return five points.

Crucially, this change allows the game to be more dynamic and Club Dream Team members will now get live scores during match days with your full points tallies available on the final whistle. A big win.

The other major change is that we now have five Emergency Transfers at our disposal. Dream Team introduced two of these transfers last season, enabling trades between the Transfer Windows. We now have one Emergency Transfer in every period before each Window. These can be used to repair our lineups after injury or suspension, or used tactically.

The rest is as you were…

Each team must include 11 players with a budget of £50 million to spend. The teams can be laid out in one of two formations – a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3.

Players accumulate points from matches in the Capital One and FA Cups and also in Europe, with Champions League and Europa League matches contributing. Straight away, then, it’s clear that avoiding rotation and finding regular starters is your main consideration.

THE TRANSFER WINDOWS

Managing your team around the four Transfer Windows remains crucial, alongside the use of the Emergency Transfers. You can make up to three transfers per Transfer Window, with an Emergency Transfer between the windows – it’s a “use them or lose them” policy with both.

The first window arrives on September 1, so with only four league matches completed, you can make three changes to your squad. Subsequently, you may look to allow for this in your early strategy, selecting players with a strong opening three fixtures, knowing that you can apply three changes prior to Gameweek 5.

The following window arrives on November 10 – that’s prior to Gameweek 13. The third arrives on January 26, ahead of Gameweek 24, with the final opportunity to make transfers landing on our laps on March 22, just before Gameweek 32.

Planning your team changes, putting our season ticker to use and considering the dates of cup rounds, is therefore an important factor.

JOINING LEAGUES

You can set up mini-leagues when you sign up and, if you have a PIN code, you can join up with established mini-leagues. You can establish up to five mini-leagues and enter individual teams into up to 5 mini-leagues each.

THE FANTASY FOOTBALL SCOUT LEAGUE

With that in mind, we’ve set up an official Fantasy Football Scout League for the Dream Team game, which you can now join with the PIN 8060586.