Goal takes a look at the various competitions that are available to enter ahead of the start of the 2021-22 Premier League campaign
A new season of Fantasy Premier League is here and after assembling your squad ready for the upcoming campaign you’ll undoubtedly want to look at creating, or joining, league and cup competitions.
Whether you’re wanting to compete with fellow supporters of your favourite team, your friends and family or just the global FPL community as a whole, there are plenty of options to be able to suit your needs.
Goal takes a look at the various leagues and cup competitions that can be joined, and created, and what each one entails.
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Explained: The four ‘General’ leagues
When you first sign up to the Fantasy Premier League game and have selected your squad for the start of the 2021-22 season, you’re, depending on your selections and preferences, automatically added to four ‘General’ leagues.
The first is the ‘Overall’ league, which contains every FPL team that has entered a team in the game, and will continue to add new teams as and when they join, even if the season’s already started.
The winner of the ‘Overall’ league will receive seven prizes, including a seven-night break in the UK and VIP hospitality at two 2022-23 Premier League matches.
There is also a ‘Gameweek 1’ league, which only contains the teams that have signed up to play FPL ahead of the deadline for the first Gameweek of the season, which is 18.30 (BST) on August 13.
Based on the Premier League team, or teams, chosen, each FPL manager’s squad will also be added to a supporter-specific league, that only includes fans of that club.
There is no prize for winning each of the 20 individual fan leagues although finishing top of the pile will at least give you the satisfaction of knowing you’re the best FPL manager of a specific club.
Similar to the public fan leagues, there are also individual leagues based on the country selected by the FPL manager. Again, prizes are not on offer here although it’s another way of proving you’re among the top players in a particular nation.
How to create & join a mini-league
As well as having the public ‘General’ leagues, there’s also the opportunity to create and join user-generated mini-leagues, which can be used for playing against friends and family.
After clicking the ‘Leagues & Cups’ sub-section, you have two options available that include: ‘Create and join new leagues and cups’ and ‘Renew your leagues’, with the latter allowing you to restart a competition you created in a previous season.
You can create either a classic-scoring league, where teams are ranked based on their total points in the game, or a head-to-head league, where every team faces off against each other.
In a league with head-to-head scoring, the result in each match is based on the Gameweek score achieved by the team in question, minus any transfer points they’ve spent in advance of that round.
The head-to-head schedule is determined at the beginning of the first round of the league, and teams will be unable to join, or leave, once the schedule has been locked in.
If a head-to-head league has an odd number of teams, the game will automatically add an ‘average’ team, that will always score the Gameweek average in terms of points, to the league to ensure that there is the possibility of having a fixture in every Gameweek.
In the creation process, you have the chance to name the league, as well as specifying on which Gameweek the scoring starts.
With a head-to-head league specifically, you can also determine the maximum size of the league – ranging from two to 16, as well as an unlimited option, while you can choose whether to have an end-of-season knockout stage.
What is the FPL Cup?
The FPL Cup features all managers that have registered a team for the 2021-22 season, with the starting round determined by the total number of players that have signed up.
The draw for each round will be random, with the winner progressing through to the next round until an overall winner is determined in Gameweek 38.
If an FPL Cup match is drawn, then the team with the most goals scored in a Gameweek will go through. If the tie is still level, the fewest goals conceded in a Gameweek will determine the outcome, with a virtual coin toss taking place if it’s still level after that.
The prize for winning the cup includes VIP hospitality at one 2022-23 Premier League match, as well a copy of FIFA 22, a games console, a bluetooth speaker and more.
The brand new ‘League Cup’
FPL will have a new feature launching during the 2021-22 season, with managers having the option of including a League Cup in their mini-leagues.
The League Cup will feature all of those players that have joined a specific mini-league, with an automatic random draw being made and the start date being determined by how many teams are involved.
The final of each League Cup will take place on Gameweek 38 – the last matchday of the 2021-22 Premier League season.
If there are between eight and 16 people in your mini-league, the managers who score the highest amount of points in the previous Gameweek will receive a bye to the second round.
To activate the League Cup option, simply tick the box when you’re first creating your mini-league. FPL has also confirmed there will be Fan League Cups and Country Cups, with each team automatically entered.
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