STOP PRESS Fantasy 2003 World Cup Cricket Competition

At the time of writing, this guide entry is really just a launching pad for the H2G2 Fantasy Cricket competition. I am prepared to take over scoring. I suggest we play according to the rules of the BBC Fantasy World Cup Cricket Competition. Perhaps all interested should register a team. Any views?

How to Play Fantasy Sports

To many men and perhaps some women, a Fantasy Football team may comprise a line-up not dissimilar to the following:

Goalkeeper: Elle MacPherson

Centre-backs: Madelaine Stowe, Cher

Full-backs: Whitney Houston, Victoria Principal

Midfield: The Williams Sisters

Wingers: Cameron Diaz, Tia Carrere

Strikers: Cindy Crawford, Isabelle Adjani

However, as appealing as seeing them swapping shirts with their opponents at the final whistle may sound, Fantasy Football is actually more football than fantasy.

In fact there are various Fantasy Sports available these days, and the variation in rules is way too vast to cover in one H2G2 Guide entry. Typically, however, the objective of any Fantasy Game is to select a make-believe 'dream-team' from available real-life players who will accumulate points for one's team based on their actual performance throughout the duration of a given tournament.

History

The first Fantasy Sports Game is believed to have evolved ....

Team Selection

There are two methods commonly used in the UK:

1. For large-scale competitions, such as those run by newspapers, each player is ascribed with a notional value by the organisers, and each "team manager" starts off with a fixed amount of virtual cash which will buy the services of a few good players and a few weaker ones, or all mediocre players, but will frustratingly always be insufficient to buy the team you really want. Players can appear in an unlimited number of teams.
2. For a group of a dozen or so friends, by far the most fun is to have an auction, where every player can only be bought by one manager. Then the really hot properties command sky-high prices and there's a whole new layer of tactics.

To prevent 'flooding' and to encourage variety, team selection may be further governed by a quota-system, wherein a maximum number of players from any real-life team or nation can be selected.

Fantasy Football

With its nine month season, the English Premier League is beautifully set up for the hardcore Fantasy Football Manager, being long enough both to lose the lightweights by halfway and to iron out any lucky quirks, such as a Gary Neville goal, which might in otherwise shorter competitions skew the final league standings.

Most games adopt a 1-4-4-2 formation strategy, wherein managers need to select one goalkeeper, four defenders, four midfielders and two forwards, although 1-3-4-3 is not unheard of. Where there are four defenders at the back, some games break that down further to separate fullbacks from centre-backs, full-backs being typically more likely to rack up points from crosses than the centre-halves.

Typically, points are awarded to defenders and goalkeepers for keeping clean sheets¹, and all players for either scoring a goal or for making a key contribution² to a goal. Points may be deducted (i.e., negative points scored) for conceding goals, penalties, bookings³.

Blue-chip games do not limit managers to selection of 11 players, but require managers to select a squad of, say 17 players, with cover for each of the positions. Players can then be 'rotated' according to fixtures.

Fantasy Rugby

"Fifteen men on a dead man's chest.
Yo-Ho-Ho, No wonder he's dead!"

Fantasy Rugby blah blah

Fantasy Cricket

At the time of writing, this guide entry is really just a launching pad for the H2G2 Fantasy Cricket competition. I am prepared to take over scoring. I suggest we play according to the rules of the BBC Fantasy World Cup Cricket Competition. Any views?

Fantasy Baseball: a year long or Rotisserie-style league

With nine players in a league, choose two players at each position and an additional five pitchers. The easiest method for selecting players is via a draft. Each team selects a number from a hat that will estabilsh their draft position. The first round of the draft than procedes with the team that selected number one choosing a player, then next team, through the team that selected numer nine . In the second round the order is reversed to maintain fairness or parity through the league. So in the second round the team with the ninth choice in the first round chooses first, continuing through the team that selected first. This process is called a "serpentine" draft because the draft "snakes" back and forth 1-9, then 9-1.

Statistics are gathered for the following categories for offensive players:

• Hits
• Home Runs
• Runs Batted IN
• Runs Scores
• Stolen Bsaes

The following statistics are gathered for pitchers:

• Wins
• Saves
• Strikeouts
• Earned Run Average

The statistics are gathered for each team throughout the year. The teams are ranked in order for each statistical category. The team with the best rank is awarded the most points, in this case nine points, and each of the other teams gets awarded the appropriate points for their finish in each category. In this way each team has a collection of points awarded from each category. The team with the most overall points at the end of the year is then the winner.