Explaining the rules of the ISL Fantasy League

The ISL Fantasy League allows one to manage their own team comprising of the ISL players

The second edition of the Indian Super League is underway, and it promises to be a lot more exciting with the introduction of the official Fantasy league. You can create your own squad from players of eight teams, and win exciting prizes. If you don't agree with your manager’s selections and tactics, now you can test yourself and challenge your friends.

You can start by creating your account on the Indian Super League website, with social logins like Facebook, Twitter, and G+ available. The game is divided into 16 rounds, which includes 14 rounds during the group stages, and the other two during the semi-finals and final. Each of the eight teams will play at least once until round 14.

Just like any other fantasy game, the ISL fantasy too is a battle of wits and the fact that match passes are at stake here make it a very rewarding competition. The fantasy league is open to everyone worldwide and that makes it a very open field and gives one the opportunity to match wits with a great number of people.

Those are the most important rules you need to keep in mind before you start challenging your friends. You can create a maximum of five private leagues, with a maximum of 50 participants in each league, and based on the team you support you'll be automatically be registered for the Supporters' League.

Although the league is just over a week old, one can still register and create their team. This is the right time for you to take the plunge considering the next round of fixtures have now started.

Once you create an account, it's time to create your squad of 15 players and a manager from any of the eight sides. The 15 players squad will comprise of two goalkeepers, five defenders, and three forwards. The initial budget given to the user is Rs. 100 crores, but player prices might increase or decrease during the course of the tournament, depending on their performances.

The users also have the option to decide which formation they want to play, with all possible permutations available, and keeping that in mind they'll be able to buy the players they need.

It all sounds good till now, but here is the trick, you can select a maximum of 4 players from one team during the group stages, 6 players during the semi-finals, and 8 players during the final.

There is also the option to change your initial squad, as two free transfers will be given at the conclusion of each round until round 14, and four points will be deducted if you make more than two transfers during that period.

The rules allow you to make unlimited transfers during the semi-finals and finals. Just in case you feel the need to revamp your entire squad, the Fantasy League provides you a Wild Card which can be used until the beginning of round 14, which allows you to make unlimited free transfers.

Before the beginning of each round, you'll have to select a captain from your starting XI, and his points will be doubled. The Fantasy league gives you the option to change the captain during the round, with a player whose team is yet to play, but that'll affect the points you've scored in that round.

Not only the captain, you're also given the option to replace any player with any player on the bench whose team is yet to play after the conclusion of the match on that particular day, but you'll lose the points for the players taken out of the starting XI.

The automatic substitution part is a bit tricky. If any player in your starting XI doesn't play and you have not made any manual substitution during the round, he'll be automatically substituted at the end of the round depending on the priorities you've assigned for players on the bench only if he fits any one of the formations the Fantasy league allows.

Your reserve goalkeeper will be automatically substituted if the goalkeeper in your starting XI doesn't play. The deadline to submit your team before each match day is 5.30 PM IST.

Coming to the point allocation system, which is very easy to understand. Any player who plays for 60 minutes is given two points. Goalscoring gets a lot of points with eight points given if your defender or goalkeeper scores a goal, six points if your midfielder scores a goal, and five points for every goal scored by your forward.

Three points are given for every assist a player provides, while five points are given to your defender or goalkeeper if their team keeps a clean sheet.

The point to note here is, a clean sheet is also awarded to a defender or goalkeeper if they played for at least 60 minutes and didn't concede a goal before they were substituted. A goalkeeper is also awarded five points if he saves a penalty, while two points are deducted if a player misses a penalty.

Three points are deducted if a player is shown a red card, while one point is deducted from any player’s total if he receives a yellow card. The head coach is awarded with five points if his team wins the game, and two points if it's a draw.

The prizes on offer as reward for doing well in the Fantasy League are plenty with the overall winner getting a cash prize of Rs. 5,00,000. The 5 players who will be top after the knockout stage will get VIP passes to the match, including return airfare and match experience.

The users who will be top after the Group phase and the Knockout phase will both get gift vouchers from Puma worth Rs. 25,000. Considering that there are Supporters Leagues too, the winners of each of those 8 leagues will get Club Memorabilia signed by the players.

The winners of each round will also get prizes, with gift vouchers worth Rs. 1000 going their way while winners of every matchday will win limited edition ISL polo t-shirts.

The league is still just 10 days old and one can still do a lot of damage if they join the Fantasy League now. Users would already have decided which players to change after the initial couple rounds and would have also shortlisted the players they want to keep in their team for the long run.

It’s interesting, engaging and good fun at the end of the day. So what are you waiting for? Make your team and challenge your friends!

Edited by Staff Editor