Breaking Down Fantasy EFL - 5 Key Differences
To compete against my team, and other fellow Hatters, this season don’t forget to join our Oak Road Hatter league. Join using the code C5VQ3PND. If you also play FPL then you can do the same over there using the code xpelfz.
A Fantasy EFL graphic incorporating the logos of the Championship, League One, and League Two. Credit: the EFL.
As someone who has played one of the world’s most popular fantasy games in Fantasy Premier League (or FPL for short) for nine years now, and probably a bit more religiously in the last few (having achieved two fairly respectable top 75k finishes in the last three seasons), I was excited to see the EFL launch their own version, which was even more well timed given Luton’s relegation back to the Championship.
As fun as FPL is, just due to the nature of the EFL whereby there’s 72 teams across three different leagues, rather than one league of 20, the game had to be starkly different. Picking a squad of 15 players, with limited transfers each week, would have been almost impossible for the EFL’s version. So, what have I picked out as the five key differences between FPL and FEFL and how will it affect the way you should play the game?
1. Seven player teams with no prices
What’s different? One thing that makes FPL interesting, and particularly difficult, is having to pick a squad of 15 players within a budget of £100.0m. With FEFL there’s none of that. Pick any seven players you want, no need to think about money. This may make things less exciting as the season progresses with everyone choosing the same players week in week out, but with 72 teams across three leagues, this could also give unprecedented levels of variation in teams. Besides, the EFL is much more unpredictable than the Premier League, so this could provide some interesting ways to get ahead of the pack.
How does this impact your selections each week? In reality this shouldn’t change too much, but this does give you the flexibility to pick whoever you want (imagine doing that in FPL!). Being limited to only two players per team though means you should pick those players even more carefully.
2. The ability to pick a new team every week
What’s different? The ‘Free Hit’ chip in FPL allows players to pick a new full team of 15 players for one week only, before reverting to your usual team. In FEFL you essentially have 46 of these chips, meaning you can pick seven entirely different players every week. I think this provides a fresh look to a fantasy game and is a positive move. I love FPL, but it loses a lot of interest from casual players due to the need to plan your team and any transfers you might make for future weeks, something that can take hours of planning.
FEFL allowing a new team every week means a player could effectively pick up their phone, pick seven entirely random players who they think might score the most points this week, and then put their phone down. For this reason, I think the game will keep the core of its players for longer through the season, rather than FPL that loses a fair majority of its active players early on.
How does this impact your selections each week? Playing the fixtures is really important in any Fantasy game, and nothing will be different here. However, in FPL, you’re often selecting players who have the best run of fixtures rather than a fixture in any given gameweek. I can see players who spot the teams who are the early winners and losers in each division, and then avoiding any bad runs of form, being the ones who come out on top.
To compete against my team, and other fellow Hatters, this season don’t forget to join our Oak Road Hatter league. Join using the code C5VQ3PND.
If you also play FPL then you can do the same over there using the code xpelfz.
3. Picking “Teams of the Week”
What’s different? An interesting change in FEFL is that you also have to pick two teams to win every week, rather than just picking players to score goals or keep clean sheets. To add a further twist, unlike players who you can choose an unlimited number of times throughout the season, you can only pick a team a maximum of five times each season. So doing the maths means that picking two teams 46 times a season is 92 different selections, and you can only pick a team five different times, so that’s a minimum of 19 different teams being selected during the season. This means that players need to pick the occasion they choose the so called “favourites”, rather than constantly choosing Leeds in the Championship or Birmingham in League One for example. Oh, and you also get a bonus if you choose an away team and they win, giving players an extra thing to think about.
How does this impact your selections each week? This is a completely new concept in any fantasy game that I’ve played before and so I quite like it as an addition. With you only being able to pick each team five times, doing some preparation on when you’re likely to pick each of the early favourites will give you an advantage. Hint: with away teams getting extra points for wins, checking when Leeds/Luton/Burnley have the likes of Oxford/Plymouth/Cardiff (for example), might be useful.
4. The ‘Max Captain’ Chip
What’s different? Picking a Captain can sometimes be one of the most difficult choices in FPL. Do both Haaland and Salah have a newly promoted team at home in the same week? Well good luck trying to decide which one to go for!
Elijah Adebayo celebrates scoring against Brighton & Hove Albion last season. Credit: Action Images via Reuters.
In FEFL, you can play the Max Captain twice throughout the season, once before the end of January and once from the start of February. This chip effectively takes the captain decision out of your hands and automatically doubles the points of the highest scoring player in your team. This could be an extremely valuable chip if, for example, you’ve got Luton’s Elijah Adebayo at home to Derby and Birmingham’s Alfie May away at Crawley in December, so the stress of picking the wrong player to score a hattrick is removed!
How does this impact your selections each week? This is a chip that I’d love to have given to us in FPL, and so it’s one I’ve already given thought to. For me, this should be used when there is the highest amount of uncertainty on who your captain should be. Doing some early work on the fixture list to see what weeks there seems to be two games with early promotion favourites, or likely strong attacks, against the early relegation favourites, or likely weak defences, is probably the way to go. Hint: See Double Gameweeks for another thing to consider.
5. Approaching Double Gameweeks
What’s different? The term ‘double gameweek’ defines a week where a team has two fixtures to contend with in any given ‘gameweek’. In FPL, gameweeks are set out at the outset as 38 defined gameweeks based on the pre-determined fixture list. A double gameweek, therefore, comes if in a prior week a fixture gets postponed and moved to a later midweek where there previously was no fixture.
In FEFL, however, gameweeks are slightly different. Gameweeks run from Thursday until Wednesday each week during the regular season, meaning that in FEFL, a double gameweek is any week where a midweek fixture is after a weekend one. As a result, there are nine double gameweeks that we know of before the season has even started (one of which is a treble gameweek during Christmas!). And there will likely be even more as some games get postponed for eventual Cup clashes and likely bad weather throughout the season.
How does this impact your selections each week? Well this changes almost everything. What team do you pick to win? Well, it depends who you think you might pick during the pre-determined double gameweeks. You wouldn’t want to pick a team five times already going into Christmas, and learn that they’ve got three fairly easy fixtures! When should I use my ‘Max Captain’ chip? Well, what are the double gameweeks like and will you have any difficult decisions during that week?
So, there are some key but personally exciting nuances to the FEFL game as it launches for its debut season. Before every gameweek on www.oakroadhatter.com this season I will be talking through my team selection and the rationale for my choices. So follow us on all socials (@oakroadhatter on all good social platforms), or subscribe to our newsletter to make sure you don’t miss a team selection.
To compete against my team, and other fellow Hatters, this season don’t forget to join our Oak Road Hatter league. Join using the code C5VQ3PND. If you also play FPL then you can do the same over there using the code xpelfz.
