Once all managers have created an account & joined a league/division, the Commissioner of your league/division will notify you of the date & time of your draft. The picking order for the draft is randomized by the EFF system – for more detail on how the draft functions, go to ‘How to Play’ tab & scroll down to ‘Draft’ page.

Each manager must draft a squad of 17 players and 2 EPL teams comprised as follows:

• 2 Goalkeepers [must have 2 throughout the season]
• 5-7 defenders [must have between 5 & 7 throughout the season]
• 5-7 midfielders [must have between 5 & 7 throughout the season]
• 2-3 forwards/strikers [must have between 2 & 3 throughout the season]
• 2 EPL teams [must have 2 throughout the season]

The draft process is based on a player ranking system developed by EFF but can be modified & personalized by each manager ahead of their live draft. Each team within a division will be randomly assigned a draft-order number [1 thru 8 for 8-team divisions; 1 thru 10 for 10-team divisions]. The draft will ‘snake’ through the 19 draft rounds – 1st Round in order 1 thru 8 or 10; 2nd Round in order 10 or 8 back to 1 & so on.

Player position classification is determined by the feeds EFF receive from OPTA although may be modified by EFF management before the start of the season.

Leagues will consist of 1-5 divisions [Premier, Championship, League 1, League 2 & National League in that order].

Each division will have either 8 or 10 teams.

Fantasy teams will play every other team ‘head-to-head’ within their division between 1 and 3 times during the season depending upon which month the league/division begins & the number of teams in the division.

Fantasy standing points will be awarded as follows based on the results of the head- to-head games: 3pts for a win; 1pt for a draw/tie; 0pts for a loss.

This is a single elimination knockout tournament similar to the English FA Cup.

All teams within a League [no matter how many divisions] will be randomly drawn to play against opponents from within the same league & the winner of each game advances to the next round.

The number of knockout rounds will be determined by the number of teams within a league.

EFF Cup games will generally be played on regular EPL MatchDays but the FA Cup 3rd Round may be used for the main round of EFF Cup games in early January…if so, look out for some upsets!!

There will be Champions League game-play in every Premier division within a league or Europa League game-play for any other division within a league – the format is the same for both.

Fantasy teams in newly created leagues/divisions will be given a random ‘seeding’ of 1 thru 8 or 10. In a 10-team division, seeds 7-10 will play in a Qualifying Round with the 2 winners progressing to the quarter finals.

Legacy leagues & divisions [anything after the 1st season] will be ranked according to the end of prior season’s standings. In leagues with promotion & relelgation, promoted teams will be the bottom 2 seeds & those relegated the top 2 seeds in their new respective divisions for the next season.

All games in the Qualifying Round, Quarter Finals and Semi Finals will be played over 2 legs with the aggregate score from the 2 games between teams determining which team progresses to the next round.

The Champions/Europa League Final games will be just 1 game, just like the real thing.

Fantasy games will be played during regular EPL MatchDays [weekends & midweek based upon the EFF schedule].

For each fantasy game you must select a goalkeeper, 10 outfield players and an EPL team along with up to 4 substitutes [GK, DEF, MID, FWD] based upon availability.

Valid outfield formations are as follows: 3-5-2, 3-4-3, 4-3-3, 4-4-2 & 4-5-1.

Up to a maximum of 3 substitutes will be used automatically when a starting player in a particular position plays no part in his scheduled EPL game that MatchDay – the substitute’s fantasy points for that position will count towards the team total. The automatic choice of substitutes will be based on the same order as when a starting player doesn’t play within the EPL sequence of games for the MD.

Only 1 substitute per position may be used [if you’ve already used a substitute defender & another of your starting defenders doesn’t play, a substitute from a different position will not be used even if it would still create a valid formation].

Team line-ups must be submitted on the ‘My Team’ Page on the EFF game-play system at least 15 minutes before the 1st EPL game of any particular EPL MatchDay…don’t leave it to the last minute!!

You may submit a different line-up for the different competitions if you have multiple games on the same EPL MatchDay.

If no line-up is submitted you will default to the previous week’s line-up or the last line-up used in that specific competition whenever that was. If no line-up is submitted for the 1st week of game-play, then a default 4-4-2 line-up will be used based on the order of drafted players at each position.

WAIVER PERIOD: A waiver period begins at midnight following the last game of an EPL MatchDay (MD) and lasts for 48 hours whereupon all waiver requests will be ‘settled’. Managers can submit up to 9 requests to pick up available players on to their squad in place of a current squad member [see ‘How to Play’ for more details]. However, a maximum of only 3 changes to your squad is allowed between fantasy MDs. The extra waiver requests are ‘contingency’ picks in case you don’t get your first choices.

The order priority for waivers is based on the prior full set of fantasy matches with the lowest scoring team getting 1st waiver preference, 2nd lowest the next preference & so on through the 1st round of waiver requests. Then the system will run a 2nd round of waiver requests & so on until all requests are either settled or not. Unsuccessful waiver requests are automatically deleted. After waivers settle there will be an ‘Open’ drop/add period.

‘OPEN’ DROP/ADD PERIOD: This begins once waiver requests have been settled and is on a ‘first-come/first-served’ basis [see ‘How to Play’ for more details]. Since no team may change more than 3 players in any period between fantasy MDs, the number of changes for any team during this ‘Open’ period will be 3 less the number of successful waiver requests for that team. This ‘Open’ drop/add period will be closed at some point before the start of the next EPL MatchDay [often a Friday night for example].

TRADING PLAYERS: Trades can only be made between 2 teams within a division using the methods described in the ‘How to Play’ section. A trade can involve 1 or several players from each team and can also be an ‘uneven’ trade such as 3 players for 2…in this scenario other changes to maintain valid squads would also be necessary. There is a trade deadline for every league/division after which no more trades between teams may occur – this date is conveyed to everyone when a league/division is created & is to prevent ‘friendly’ trading late in the season to unsportingly ‘help’ another team.

Highest team total fantasy player points scored – if still tied,

Fantasy points differential [team total fantasy points scored minus team total fantasy points allowed]

 
EFF CUP GAMES

Should any EFF Cup match end in a draw/tie, there will be an electronic ‘coin toss’ to determine the winner.

 
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE & EUROPA LEAGUE MATCHES

If tied after the 2 leg matches, whichever team scored most points in their designated ‘away’ leg will be declared the winner; if still tied the EFF Cup tie- breaker process will apply based upon the 2nd leg match.

Since the Final is just one game, if it results in a tie then the same EFF Cup tie-breaker process will apply.

EPL games postponed on game-day prior to line-ups & substitutes being announced will result in those EPL players/clubs selected as starters or substitutes in fantasy line-ups scoring points as described in the Scoring section.

If EPL line-ups & substitutes HAVE been announced but the game doesn’t begin, then any fantasy players selected that are NOT listed in EPL line-ups or as substitutes, will score 0(zero) points. Players listed in EPL line-ups & EPL clubs will score points as described in the Scoring section.

EPL games that are postponed prior to scheduled game-day will NOT be used for fantasy scoring, so those EPL teams and players will score 0(zero) fantasy points.

If 5 EPL games are postponed on any particular MD, then the whole fantasy weekend will be voided – all fantasy games will be considered draws/ties and as such each fantasy team awarded 1pt in the standings.

Abandoned EPL games are games that kick-off but for some reason are ‘abandoned’ during the game. All players/clubs will score as described in the Scoring section no matter what minute the EPL game is abandoned but players will also gain or lose points per the regular scoring method up to the time of abandonment.