Fantasy football is ripe for revolution. The same tired old games with the
same rules and scoring systems have been operating for some 15 years, so The
Times is giving the whole thing a shake-up, and you can join in – free.
PlayTheGame will involve you like never before, drawing you into your own
community of fantasy football enthusiasts. You will interact with managers
in your league, attempting to cut deals with your rivals while deciding
whether to allow transfers between other managers, and all the while you
will be kept abreast of the latest developments with e-mails that we will
send out specifically relating to your team.
To create a more sophisticated game that is closer to the real football world
we have adopted a method of scoring that has been used with great success in
American fantasy sports. No longer will you be competing against tens of
thousands of people around the country in a competition that is almost
impossible to win. Now it is just you against friends, work colleagues, or,
if you like, a random group of opponents.
The first fantasy football games tended to award points merely when players in
fantasy teams scored goals. Defenders and even creative attacking players
were often of little use. That has developed over the years to a certain
extent, with points also being given for assists and clean sheets, but
generally the game remains fairly basic.
In PlayTheGame, though, there is a host of categories for scoring, taking
account of a wide range of contributions made by players or the teams they
represent. The scores in each area are then compared with those made by the
other managers in your league, with the holder of the worst record in each
category receiving one point, rising to 20 points for the top-ranked manager
in a 20-team league, or 12 points for the leader in a 12-team league, etc.
The league leader is the manager whose sum of ranking points from each
category is the highest. Each month a prize will be awarded from a draw
featuring the leagues’ top teams. Prizes will include tickets to the Euro
2008 final and trips to the San Siro in Milan and the Nou Camp in Barcelona.
For midfield players and forwards, points can be won for goals, assists and
successful passes, in addition to team feats, namely the rate of scoring
goals and points gained in the Barclays Premier League. Goalkeepers and
defenders have an even greater number of ways to thrive, with points for
catches, saves, interceptions, blocks, successful passes, goals and assists,
as well as for the team achievements of clean sheets, rate of goals conceded
and Premier League points won.
This scoring system creates the potential for dramatic and thrilling points
accumulation. Imagine, for example, your team includes Dirk Kuyt and
Fernando Torres, the Liverpool strikers, and Kuyt passes to Torres for the
Spaniard to score a late, winning goal. You will be credited for the goal by
Torres, the assist by Kuyt, the successful pass by Kuyt, the fact that a
goal was scored while two of your players were on the pitch and the two
Premier League points that Liverpool gained by turning a draw into a
victory.
The great variety of scoring categories makes PlayTheGame the most enjoyable
and satisfying of fantasy football games. While other versions require a
relatively small amount of thought over which players will be of the
greatest value to fantasy football teams, PlayTheGame rewards those with a
deep knowledge and understanding of the Premier League and its players.
Do not worry if you are feeling intimidated about the prospect of trying to
work out which players are most likely to bring success to your team because
we have introduced a news service that will keep you updated on all the 400
or so Premier League players involved in the game. If, for example, you want
to know the latest on Steven Reid, the Blackburn Rovers midfield player, you
can look it up at any time on our PlayTheGame website.
The news entries can range from an injury suffered by your player to a fine
international performance by a rival for that player’s position, which may
increase the chances of your player being left out of the next Premier
League match. That all helps you to make informed decisions, both in terms
of which of your 20 players to have in your 14-man active squad and which
players are worth trying to transfer into your team, be they owned by rival
managers or simply unclaimed.
Which brings us to how you choose your team. After you and your league’s other
managers have ranked the 400 or so players, they are allocated to each team
based on those preferences, with no player appearing in more than one team
within a league. A rota system then determines who has first option on any
player who subsequently becomes available.
All this lends itself to the creation of a vibrant fantasy football community
within your league, featuring regular transfers and daily banter. And with
leagues of between five and 20 teams giving you a realistic chance of
winning a fantasy football competition for a change, and entrance free, what
are you waiting for?
Why you can’t miss out
- Each player in your team is unique to you within your league. For example,
if you have Steven Gerrard and he scores for Liverpool, you know that he is
benefiting you alone; in other fantasy football games, such an occurrence
would often mean merely that you were collecting points that were also being
garnered by large numbers of rivals.
- You will feel like a real manager as you try to persuade a counterpart in
your league to agree to a transfer or perhaps attempt to block a deal
between two rival managers. This will keep all managers on their toes as
they ask constantly: “Could I be doing better for myself?”
- No longer will you have to look at country-wide tables that are dominated by
a handful of professional fantasy football players. The prospect of sitting
42,354th in a league while the same person has six entries in the top ten is
demoralising. With PlayTheGame you can enjoy your own small league in which
you have a chance of winning, whereas in other games it is a fantasy to
think you could finish No 1.
- The PlayTheGame scoring system means that the league table can change
rapidly. This helps to sustain interest in the competition throughout the
season.
- There is far more skill involved in PlayTheGame than the normal fantasy
football games, heightening the sense of enjoyment and achievement when you
register some success. A good knowledge of football and a tactical brain
will help.
- News updates on every Barclays Premier League player in the game will be
provided by a team of dedicated journalists. This will give managers an
excellent source of information on which to base selection and transfer
decisions as they consider the value of players.
- The prize draws held each month will provide extra excitement for managers
throughout the season.
- There is a community feel to PlayTheGame that will come from the interaction
between managers.
- Forums will allow each participant to comment on the progress of their
league and anything else in the football world, for that matter.
- You will receive e-mails from us that are specific to your team, rather than
general missives that apply to every participant in the country.
- This will provide you with the latest developments and keep you informed and
involved.
- It costs nothing to enter.
