How to play FPL

So you have been hearing about FPL, but you don’t know how it works and how to go about it. Well good news, we have you covered.

What is FPL ?

Fantasy Premier League (FPL) is a game that puts you in the position of a manager. Just like our day to day managers your job is to pick a squad of players who score points for your team based on their performances. To get started, visit here to register.

Once you have signed up, you have a budget of £100.0m to spend on an initial squad of 15 players.

A squad consists of two goalkeepers, five defenders, five midfielders and three forwards.

A maximum of three players can be chosen from any one Premier League club.

See example below

You must choose a starting XI from the 15-man squad before each Gameweek deadline.Any formation can be chosen as long as the line-up includes one goalkeeper, at least three defenders, at least two midfielders and at least one forward.

The deadline is always one hour before the kick-off time of the first match of the Gameweek.

How do you score points?

You score points from goals, assists, saves and clean sheets recorded by the players in your starting 11.

But if a player does not feature for their club, the points scored by the first player on your bench will automatically be counted instead. The same process occurs if two or three starting players fail to appear for their teams, It is advisable to rank your substitutes in order of preference, to ensure that your first-choice reserve player is first in line.

You must choose a captain and a vice-captain for the Gameweek in your starting 11. captain’s score is doubled, but if the captain does not play in the Gameweek then the vice-captain’s score is doubled instead.
Your players can also earn additional bonus points if they are among the top performers in the Bonus Points System (BPS) in a match.

See list below for point breakdown

Leagues

After entering your squad into the game, you can join and create leagues to compete with friends and others across the world.

Private leagues are where you compete against your friends. Just create a league and then send out the unique code to allow your friends to join.

You can compete in up to 20 private leagues. There is no limit on the number of teams in a single league.

Managers can also join a public league of 20 randomly-assigned teams.

You can compete in up to three public leagues.

Making transfers

After the first deadline of the season has passed, you are given one free transfer for each Gameweek.

Which means you can transfer in/out 1 player for free that gameweek, if you want to make additional transfers you lose 4pts per transfer. Although you can rollover a free transfer so as to have 2 free transfers in the next gameweek but note that you cannot have more than 2 free transfers at a time.

Player prices

Player prices change during the season depending on their popularity among all the managers in the game.

For example, a player who starts at £6.0m and is transferred into a significant number of teams could gradually rise to £6.5m, or even higher.

Managers who own the player while his price is increasing will make a profit if they sell him at the higher price.

However, they must pay a sell-on fee of 50 per cent, rounded down to the nearest £0.1m.

So in the example of the player above who has risen from £6.0m to £6.5m, managers would receive £6.2m when transferring him out.

Now that you have an idea of FPL, ensure to read the next post as we walk through some tips for selecting your first squad.

Shout out to Fantasy football hub, Fantasy Premier legends and offical FPL for the brief explanation.