Let me guess, you’re here because you legitimately want to learn how to start Fantasy Premier League this season or your colleagues won’t stop pressurizing you into joining what they’re calling a “mini-league” and now in some pitiful attempt of fitting in you’ve ended up here.
Well, the great news is that if you fit into either of those categories you’ve come to the right place.
So let’s start with the very basics and get on with our five-minute crash course in How to Start Fantasy Premier League.
Warning: Playing FPL is very addictive. It may cause stress, a loss of free time, resentment towards friends or colleagues, and a dislike of football in general. Please FPL responsibly.
So if you’re new to FPL you’re probably wondering what the hell is it. Well, the FPL or Fantasy Premier League is the official fantasy football game of the English Premier League, home to over 5 million managers last season alone.
To sign up all you’ve got to do is head over to Fantasy Premier League hit sign up and follow the on-screen instructions which are simply involved entering some of the basic details such as your email your name your password and then respond to a confirmation email.
Great, so now that you signed up, we advance on to the most vital part – Team Selection.
In FPL, you must select a squad of 15 players in total of all players currently playing within the Premier League.
You are limited to 2 goalkeepers, 5 defenders, 6 midfielders, and 3 forwards, and you can only select a maximum of three players per club. You’re also limited to a transfer budget of £100m.
Each player has their price based on FPL potential and season performances, so a high-caliber player, for instance, Harry Kane is going to cost you a lot more than a low-caliber player or someone from a newly promoted club.
Player prices will change as the season advances, with values moving up or down depending on their performances and demand, so again, you’ve got to remain vigilant with your spending budget and keep an eye fixed on those transfer values. Once you’re proud of how your team looking, hit submit.
Now comes another big decision – your team name. Now you must be informed that having a good team name is engraved into FPL folklore and a nasty one can lose you some serious brownie points with friends and colleagues. Team names are changeable throughout the season though, so don’t panic too much if you can’t decide right away just make sure to make it a good one. Get creative, avoid anything cringy, and you’ll be on to a winner.
Okay, so you’ve picked your team now how do you score points? All the points in the FPL will be based on your player’s real-life performances. If your striker scores in the real world he’ll get you points in the game, perhaps your midfielder gets an assist or keeps a clean sheet he’ll get you points too or maybe your defender or goalkeeper keeps a clean sheet i.e. he doesn’t concede any goals then he’ll get you points as well. A breakdown of all points players can pick up from each position can be found under the rules section of the official FPL website.
Each game week you must select eleven players from your original 15-man squad to actively score you points for that specific week. The players that you place on your bench won’t score you points for that week unless somebody else on your team doesn’t play, then they’ll automatically be substituted in. During every game week, you’ll also have to select your team captain, this is often a hugely important decision for FPL managers because your captain will earn double the points for that week.
So your team’s set but some of your players are underperforming, and you would like to make some transfers, well on FPL you’re permitted to make as many transfers as you wish from week to week, however, there’s a catch, only one transfer per week is free. Every other additional change will take -4 points from your overall score. The more transfers you make within a game week the more points you lose and thus the larger risk you’re taking. If you choose not to use your free transfer for one gameweek it’ll carry over to the next. You can only have a maximum of 2 free transfers per game week.
Lastly, for the basics of our FPL crash course is your chips. FPL chips are essentially power-ups that could be utilized at any point during the season.
These chips or power-ups are:
- The Bench Boost – Where for one week your bench players become active in your point-scoring.
- The Triple Captain – Where for one week your team captain will get his points multiplied by three instead of two.
- The Free Hit – Which allows you to completely change your team for one week only, selecting any players that you simply like within your budget.
- The Wild Card – Which allows you to completely overhaul your squad permanently permitting you to unlimited transfers for a game week at no cost to your points.
All the chips can only be used once per season apart from the wildcard which can be played twice. Once before December the 31st and once after.
So that concludes our five-minute crash course on How to Start the Fantasy Premier League.
Good luck with the season!