Thank you for being a part of this EPL Fantasy League. I look forward to the weekly competition and twitter banter. I know that fantasy football is new to some people so I took the liberty to provide a breakdown of the essentials of the game.

This Twitter EPL Fantasy League is being hosted by the official website of the Barclays Premier League. Please follow this link and create an account on the website. If you already have an account just log in.

Once you have created an account/logged in, go ahead and create your fantasy team (including selecting players, team name and jersey). After creating your team use the code below to join the league. The name of the league is Twitter EPL Fantasy League.

Code to join this league: 1120029-271903

Selecting Your Initial Squad

Squad Size

To join the game, select a fantasy football squad of 15 players, consisting of:
• 2 Goalkeepers
• 5 Defenders
• 5 Midfielders
• 3 Forwards

Budget

The total value of your initial squad must not exceed £100 million.

Players per team

You can select up to 3 players from a single Barclays Premier League team.

Managing Your Squad

Choosing Your Starting 11

From your 15 player squad, select 11 players by the Gameweek deadline to form your team.

All your points for the Gameweek will be scored by these 11 players, however if one or more doesn’t play they may be automatically substituted.

Your team can play in any formation providing that 1 goalkeeper, at least 3 defenders and at least 1 forward are selected at all times.

Selecting a Captain and a Vice-Captain

From your starting 11 you nominate a captain and a vice-captain. Your captain’s score will be doubled.

If your captain plays 0 minutes in the Gameweek, the captain will be changed to the vice-captain.

If both captain and vice-captain play 0 minutes in a Gameweek, then no player’s score will be doubled.

Prioritizing Your Bench For Automatic Substitutions

Your substitutes provide cover for unforeseen events like injuries and postponements by automatically replacing starting players who don’t play in a Gameweek.

Based on the priorities you assign, automatic substitutions are processed at the end of the Gameweek as follows:
• If your Goalkeeper plays 0 minutes in the Gameweek, he will be substituted by your replacement Goalkeeper, if he played in the Gameweek.
• If any of your outfield players play 0 minutes in the Gameweek, they will be substituted by the highest priority outfield substitute who played in the Gameweek and doesn’t break the formation rules (eg. If your starting team has 3 defenders, a defender can only be replaced by another defender).

Making Transfers

After selecting your squad you can buy and sell players in the transfer market. Unlimited transfers can be made at no cost until your first deadline.

After your first deadline you will receive 1 free transfer each Gameweek. Each additional transfer you make in the same Gameweek will deduct 4 points from your total score (Classic scoring) and match score (Head-to-Head scoring) at the start of the next Gameweek.

If you do not use your free transfer, you are able to make an additional free transfer the following Gameweek. If you do not use this saved free transfer in the following Gameweek, it will be carried over until you do. You can never have more than 1 saved transfer.

Wildcards

For information on wildcards please refer to the chips section of the rules.

Player Prices

Player prices change during the season dependent on the popularity of the player in the transfer market. Player prices do not change until the season starts.
The price shown on your transfers page is a player’s selling price. This selling price may be less than the player’s current purchase price as a sell-on fee of 50% (rounded up to the nearest £0.1m) will be applied on any profits made on that player.
For example, if you buy a player for £8.3m and when you transfer him his price is £9.0m, his selling price will be £8.6m.

Chips

Chips can be used to potentially enhance your team’s performance during the season.
Only one chip can be played in a single Gameweek. The chips available are as follows:

Name Effect

All Out Attack Allows you to play a 2-5-3 formation in the next Gameweek.

Bench Boost The points scored by your bench players in the next Gameweek are included in your total.

Triple Captain Your captain points are tripled instead of doubled in the next Gameweek.

Wildcard All transfers (including those already made) in the Gameweek are free of charge.

The All Out Attack, Bench Boost and Triple Captain chips can each be used once a season and are played when saving your team on the my team page. They can be cancelled at any time before the Gameweek deadline.

The Wildcard chip can be used twice a season, once in the first half of the season (before 28 Dec 14:00) and once in the second half of the season. The Wildcard chip is played when confirming transfers that cost points and can’t be cancelled once played.

Deadlines

All changes to your team (starting 11, transfers, captain changes, substitution priorities) must be made by the Gameweek deadline in order to take effect for that set of matches.

Deadlines are subject to change and will be 1 hour before the kick-off time in the first match of the Gameweek.

Scoring

During the season, your fantasy football players will be allocated points based on their performance in the Barclays Premier League.

Action Points
For playing up to 60 minutes 1
For playing 60 minutes or more 2
For each goal scored by a goalkeeper or defender 6
For each goal scored by a midfielder 5
For each goal scored by a forward 4
For each goal assist 3
For a clean sheet by a goalkeeper or defender 4
For a clean sheet by a midfielder 1
For every 3 shot saves by a goalkeeper 1
For each penalty save 5
For each penalty miss -2
Bonus points for the best players in a match 1-3
For every 2 goals conceded by a goalkeeper or defender -1
For each yellow card -1
For each red card -3
For each own goal -2

Clean sheets

A clean sheet is awarded for not conceding a goal whilst on the pitch and playing at least 60 minutes.

If a player has been substituted when a goal is conceded this will not affect any clean sheet bonus.

Red Cards

If a player receives a red card, they will continue to be penalized for goals conceded by their team.

Red card deductions include any points deducted for yellow cards

Assists

Assists are awarded to the player from the goal scoring team, who makes the final pass before a goal is scored. An assist is awarded whether the pass was intentional (that it actually creates the chance) or unintentional (that the player had to dribble the ball or an inadvertent touch or shot created the chance).

If an opposing player touches the ball after the final pass before a goal is scored, significantly altering the intended destination of the ball, then no assist is awarded.

Rebounds

If a shot on goal is blocked by an opposition player, is saved by a goalkeeper or hits the woodwork, and a goal is scored from the rebound, then an assist is awarded.

Own Goals

If a player shoots or passes the ball and forces an opposing player to put the ball in his own net, then an assist is awarded.

Penalties and Free-Kicks

In the event of a penalty or free-kick, the player earning the penalty or free-kick is awarded an assist if a goal is directly scored, but not if he takes it himself, in which case no assist is given.

Finalizing Assists

Assist points awarded by Opta within Fantasy Premier League are calculated using additional stats which may differ from other websites. For example, some other sites would not show an assist where a player has won a penalty.

For the avoidance of doubt, points awarded in-game are subject to change up until one hour after the final whistle of the last match of any given day. Once the points have all been updated on that day, no further adjustments to points will be made.

Bonus Points

A new Bonus Points System (BPS) has been created which utilizes a range of statistics to create a BPS score for every player. The three best performing players in each match will be awarded bonus points. 3 points will be awarded to the highest scoring player, 2 to the second best and 1 to the third.

Examples of how bonus point ties will be resolved are as follows:
• If there is a tie for first place, Players 1 & 2 will receive 3 points each and Player 3 will receive 1 point.
• If there is a tie for second place, Player 1 will receive 3 points and Players 2 and 3 will receive 2 points each.
• If there is a tie for third place, Player 1 will receive 3 points, Player 2 will receive 2 points and Players 3 & 4 will receive 1 point each.

How is the BPS score calculated?

Players score BPS points based on the following statistics (one point for each unless otherwise stated):

Action BPS
Playing 1 to 60 minutes 3
Playing over 60 minutes 6
Goalkeepers and defenders scoring a goal 12
Midifielders scoring a goal 18
Forwards scoring a goal 24
Assists 9
Goalkeepers and defenders keeping a clean sheet 12
Saving a penalty 15
Save 2
Open play cross 1
Creating a big chance (a chance where the receiving player should score) 3
For every 2 clearances, blocks and interceptions (total) 1
For every 3 recoveries 1
Key pass 1
Successful tackle (net*) 2
Successful dribble 1
Scoring the goal that wins a match 3
70 to 79% pass completion (at least 30 passes made) 2
80 to 89% pass completion (at least 30 passes made) 4
90%+ pass completion (at least 30 passes made) 6
Conceding a penalty -3
Missing a penalty -6
Yellow card -3
Red card -9
Own goal -6
Missing a big chance -3
Making an error which leads to a goal -3
Making an error which leads to an attempt at goal -1
Being tackled -1
Conceding a foul -1
Being caught offside -1
Shot off target -1

*Net successful tackles is the total of all successful tackles minus any unsuccessful tackles. Players will not be awarded negative BPS points for this statistic.

Data is supplied by Opta and once it has been marked as final will not be changed. We will not enter into discussion around any of the statistics used to calculate this score for any individual match.