The 2022 FIFA World cup is around the corner and the Official 2022 World Cup Fantasy is already live. Excited fantasy football managers are already busy creating drafts and setting up their teams. In this World Cup fantasy blog, we take a look at the 2022 World Cup Fantasy format, and rules, along with some tips, analysis, and the difference between the WC Fantasy from other popular fantasy football games including FPL and UCL Fantasy.
Link to all our FIFA World Cup Fantasy blogs in one place including team previews, group previews, tips and rules guide, differentials, chip strategy, best drafts with pros and cons and more. Completely free to access as well!
2022 FIFA World Cup Fantasy Beginners Guide
Just like other fantasy games, you will have to pick 15 players with a budget allocation of $100 Million. There are also three boosters for the tournament which you can use to improve your team and gain more points. More of the rules are covered in detail below.
Matchdays in World Cup Fantasy
There are seven matchdays in the 2022 World cup fantasy which means seven deadlines to set your teams. But as a manager, you have to stay active within different days of the matchdays as well to make manual substitutions and change captaincy change if needed.
Matchday 1 to Matchday 3 is the group stage matchdays in which each of the 32 participating teams will play once.
Number of matches in different matchdays of the WC Fantasy
Total games: 64 games
- Matchday 1 – 16 games, all the 32 teams play once (Group stage, matchday length: 5 days)
- Matchday 2 – 16 games, all the 32 teams play once (Group stage, matchday length: 4 days)
- Matchday 3 – 16 games, all the 32 teams play once (Group stage, matchday length: 4 days)
- Matchday 4 – 8 games, the remaining 16 teams play once (Round of 16, matchday length: 4 days)
- Matchday 5 – 4 games, the remaining 8 teams play once (Quarterfinals, matchday length: 2 days)
- Matchday 6 – 2 games, the remaining 4 teams play once (Semifinals, matchday length: 2 days)
- Matchday 7- 2 game, the remaining 2 teams play once plus the knocked out teams in semi-finals play 3rd place game (Final, matchday length: 2 days)
Matchday 1 happens from 20th November to 24th November and has a total of 16 matches.
World Cup Fantasy Matchday 1 Schedule
Different Team Formations possible in 2022 WC Fantasy
A total of eight different formations is possible in the World cup fantasy with a minimum of 3 defenders and 2 midfielders along with a GK is needed in the playing 11. WC Fantasy is a little different, unlike FPL where you can have players on the bench who don’t start or score frequently in WC Fantasy having 15 good players is important as you can make manual substitutions in between different days of the matchdays to switch players who didn’t score well with players from your bench who have not played yet. The manual substitutions can be done provided the team structure fulfills the basic requirement and falls in one of the below eight formation.
- 4-4-2
- 4-3-3
- 4-5-1
- 3-4-3
- 3-5-2
- 5-2-3
- 5-3-2
- 5-4-1
Number of players you can choose from one Country
To make it fun and interesting you are allowed to pick only 3 players to pick from a particular nation during the group stages when there are 32 teams. It becomes 4 players from a nation during the Round of 16 stages, 5 players from a nation during the quarter-final, 6 players from a nation during the semi-final, and finally 8 players from a nation during the final.
World Cup Fantasy Matchday Deadlines & Substitutions
The deadline to set teams for matchdays is the kick-off of the first match of the particular matchday. For instance, the MD1 deadline is 4 PM BST on the 20th of November that’s when the first match of the WC(Qatar vs Ecuador) will kick off. In between matches you can make manual substitutions and change players.
For instance, if you have a player from Qatar or Ecuador from day 1 of matchday one and they didn’t perform well, by using manual substitution you can put them on the bench and replace them with a player from your bench who hasn’t played in the matchday yet(A player who has a game in the same calendar day or a game in day 2, day 3, day 4 or day 5 of matchday 1). You’ll lose the points from the player you are putting on the bench but will gain points from the player you’ll be playing in the place of the benched player.
If you don’t make any manual substitutions and your starting team has players who did not play then the game will automatically sub in players based on the bench order you have set providing the formation rules are followed(Just like FPL & UCL Fantasy)
Interestingly you can also switch players between the same day of the matchday as well, you don’t have to wait for all games in the day to be over before you can make a manual substitution.
Manual substitutions enable you to gain more points but do also note sometimes players you sub in end up scoring lesser than the players you’re transferring in.
Players Locked and Unlocked:
Once a player’s game has started their status will be locked. A player will remain unlocked when the player’s game is yet to begin. This enables you to change captaincy and make substitutions within the same calendar day as well. For instance, Argentina and France play on the same day and you can switch an Argentinian player to a France player in your squad on the 22nd of November if your Argentinian assets didn’t perform well. After Argentina start their game at 10 AM, on 22nd November their status will be locked, but France’s player status will be locked only at 7 PM GMT, on 22nd November when their game starts which gives you a window of a few hours to decide based on the performance of your Argentinian assets. The window is basically after the Argentina game is over and before the France game starts.
If you have Di Maria in your team and he fails to return then you can move him out for Mbappe who plays later in the day. This means you’ll lose the points earned from Di Maria and gain points from Mbappe.
Scenario Explained:
Saka plays in day two of matchday one and incase he fails to score or get you points then before the first game of day three in matchday one(Argentina vs Saudi Arabia, 10:00 AM BST) begins you can switch him for Messi. When you do this you’ll lose points scored by Saka and gain whatever points scored by Messi against Saudi Arabia.
Number of Transfers Available in World Cup Fantasy
During the group stages, that is till matchday 3 you’ll have 2 free transfers between two matchdays. After matchday 3 and before matchday 4, that is after group stages and before the round of 16, you’ll have unlimited transfers to pick a team for the knockout stages. The number of transfers becomes 4,5 and 6 in between the knock-out stages.
Immediately after matchday 1 starts you’ll get two transfers to use during matchday 1, this game allows you to make transfers even during an active matchday. For instance, if you have Foden who plays in day 2 of matchday 1 and he fails to start then you can use one of your free transfers and bring in a player who has not yet played in the matchday yet(unlocked status), this could be a player from the same game like Saka, same calendar day like Bergwijn who plays on the same day as Foden or players from the upcoming days like Di Maria who plays in calendar day 3.
When making transfers you have two options:
Transfer an unlocked player for another unlocked player ( Foden for Saka/Bergwijn/Di Maria scenario explained above). This transfer will be processed instantly, and your new player will begin scoring points in the current Matchdays. You will not receive any points this Matchday for the player you transferred out
A Transfer involving a locked player – If you do this, the transfer will only become active for the next Matchday. If the player you transferred out was locked, you will keep the points they earned this Matchday
Rare case scenario: If the player you transferred in was locked, but your outgoing player was unlocked. You will still receive the points for your unlocked player when they play in the Matchday. However, you will not be able to make another transfer involving this player in the current Matchday (as they are involved in an upcoming Transfer).
Matchday 1 will conclude at midnight AST on Thursday 24th November, at which point the game will rollover to Matchday 2. You will unlock your Matchday 2 Transfer allocations, and you can start setting up your team for the next Matchday before the first game of matchday 2 or wait for team sheets and make the transfers once matchday 2 has started.
During the group stage, one transfer can be carried over into the next group stage matchday however, due to the unlimited transfer limit between the last game of Matchday 3 and the start of the Round of 16 you will not be able to carry a transfer over at this stage.
Can you take a hit to make transfers?
Yes, you can make extra transfers outside your transfer allocation. Each additional transfer you make will deduct 3 points from your total points tally.
Captaincy Explained in World Cup Fantasy
For each matchday, you must select a captain who will score double points for your team. Unlike FPL you can change your captain in World cup fantasy to another player who is yet to play in the matchday. But you can only do so once, that is you can swap captaincy only once. If you choose to change your previous captain, you will lose their double points and your new captain will score double instead.
You can change your captain an unlimited amount of times until he has played(unlocked status), you can change your captain only once after he has played to another player who has not played(unlocked status).
For instance, in the above example have Di Maria as your captain who plays on day three of matchday 1, and if Di Maria fails to score you can change your captaincy to another player who is playing on the same day(Day 3), or day four, or day five. But you can do so only once, that is you can only do Di Maria on day 3 to Mbappe later on day 3, or Di maria to Sane on day four, or Di Maria to Neymar on day 5. You cannot switch Di Maria to Mbappe(Day 3) and if he fails then Mbappe(Day 3) to Sane(day 4) and if Sane fails to score you’ll not be able to swap him again to Neymar(Day 5).
Once your captain plays you can change him only once to another player who has not played, so be sure of your decision!
One final important guidance to changing Captains: You will not be able to change Captain from a locked player while the player’s team is currently playing (live). You will need to wait for their fixture to conclude before initiating the captain change.
Captaincy further explained with MD1 Captaincy options
Boosters in World Cup Fantasy
There are three boosters in the World cup fantasy, wildcard, 12th man, and power captain. The wildcard is a popular chip in FPL and UCL Fantasy. But the 12th man and power captain is a new addition that we haven’t seen in a lot of other popular fantasy games.
- Wildcard – Will allow you to make unlimited transfers within a specific round (cannot be used for the first match of the group stage or for the round of 16)
Oh boy, this is the most powerful wildcard chip any fantasy game has ever produced. This wildcard can be activated after a matchday has ended and will be active till the next matchday starts. So basically you can have 2 fully different teams from just one wildcard.
For example: Once matchday 1 ends you can activate the wildcard and set a team for matchday 2. Since the wildcard will be active till the end of matchday 2 you can make unlimited transfers during matchday 2 based on team sheets to swap two unlocked players and get their points from matchday 2. What’s even more unbelievable is that you can also use the unlimited transfers to set a team for matchday 3 as you’ll be removing all the locked players to get in new players who’ll be active in your team for matchday 3. You can do this after the final game of matchday 2 starts, by when all player statuses will be locked.
Wildcard strategy: For the above reason, WC MD2 works brilliantly.
- 12th Man – This will allow you to select 1 additional player to score points for your team in a matchday. When selected, the 12th man cannot be substituted, captained, or transferred. You can select any player to be your twelfth man, budget or team restrictions do not count here. For instance, if you feel Brazil will score a lot of goals against Cameroon in matchday 3 and want more than 3 players from Brazil then you can use the 12th man and get in an additional Brazil attacker without any budget or team restrictions. You cannot captain the 12th man.
You can also get in Mbappe, Neymar, Kane and Messi for matchday 1 using the 12th man chip as all four are forwards, go for the player you don’t want to captain as the player brought in via the 12th man chip cannot be captained.
12th man strategy: For the above reason, power captain MD1 or MD3 works brilliantly.
- Power Captain – This will allow you to get double points from whichever player scores the most points from your 15-man squad. This player will automatically be assigned the captaincy. This booster is quite an interesting one as you will not have to suffer the heartbreak of seeing one player in your team score more than your captain’s choice for the matchday.
Power captain strategy: You can use power captain at any point, as it’s well-balanced for both group stages and knockouts.
Point Scoring in 2022 World Cup Fantasy
There is only one appearance point that too only if a player plays more than 60 minutes. Assist gets a standard 3 points across all positions. Interestingly winning a penalty in itself gets 2 points regardless of the penalty being scored or not. Likewise there’s a -1 point for conceding a penalty.
Goalkeepers points scoring in WC Fantasy
Clean sheet gets five points but the keeper should have played more than 70 minutes to get CS points. There’s no points deduction for the first goal conceded but every other goal conceded results in a -1 point deduction. Every three saves gets +3 points, and a goalkeeper goal earns you a whopping 9 points, FPL take notes. Penalty saves excluding shootout saves get you 3 points.
Defenders & Midfielders points scoring in WC Fantasy
Defenders get a Clean sheet for playing 60 minutes or more without conceding and get 5 points for it. Each goal scored by a defender gets you 7 points, goal-scoring defenders are gems in WC Fantasy. Just like goalkeepers, there’s no points deduction for the first goal conceded but every other goal conceded results in a -1 point deduction.
Midfielders get one point for a clean sheet if they play more than 60 minutes without conceding a goal. Each goal a midfielder scores gets you 7 points, few interesting points-scoring opportunities are from tackles and passes. Three tackles each get you a point and two key passes also gets you a point. This helps in midfielders earning points outside of goals and assists.
Forwards points scoring in WC Fantasy
Just like midfielders, each goal scored by a forward gets you 5 points and in addition, every two shots on target gets you an extra point.
2022 World Cup Fantasy Tips:
- Avoid Goalkeepers who have the potential to concede a lot of goals even though they have good save potential. Each goal conceded after the 1 goal costs -1 point, unlike FPL where you lose 1 point for every two goals conceded. This could cancel out the save points(1 point for 3 saves)
- Similarly, defenders also are penalized slightly more for goals conceded in WC Fantasy. Each goal conceded after the 1 goal costs -1 point, unlike FPL where you lose 1 point for every two goals conceded. Avoid defenders from teams who conceded a lot.
- Look for Defenders with goal-scoring potential as they get 7 points for a goal compared to 5 points for a goal for mids and forwards.
- There are no tackle points for defenders and only midfielders get 1 point for 3 tackles.
- Look for two good captain options in each matchday as you can only change captain once from your pre-deadline captain choice in case he fails. It’s not a compulsion to have a captain choice on all days of a match day.
- Be active during the matchday to transfer out players not starting using your free transfers.
- Utilize the unlimited transfers during the matchday while having the wildcard active as you can makes any changes impacting the current matchday on two players who have not played.
- Look at the days in which your players are playing and have some decent options who are playing in day2, day3, and day4 on the bench for each matchday so that you can manually substitute them in for players who did not return earlier.
- Look for players who could potentially play out of positions, defenders playing as attackers could offer you a lot of points as they have CS, goals, and Assist potential.
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Further Reads from AAFPL ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Fantasy Season?
Basics of World Cup Fantasy:
Beginner’s Guide to 2022 World Cup Fantasy: Rules, Strategy, Tips
List of Good & Creative 2022 World Cup Fantasy Team Names
World Cup Fantasy 2022 Comparison to FPL, UCL & Euro Fantasy
List of Free to Join World Cup Fantasy Mini Leagues | Mini League
2022 World Cup Fantasy Ultimate Guide: Tips, Best drafts, Strategy
World Cup 2022: Expected Goals (xG) Group Wise for All Teams
World Cup Fantasy: Captaincy Explained & Best Options for MD1
Must Read Articles for World Cup Fantasy:
Best Budget Picks And Enablers For FIFA World Cup Fantasy 2022
World Cup Fantasy- Scout Picks Matchday 1
2022 World Cup Fantasy Matchday 1 Draft & Chip Strategy
2022 FIFA World Cup- Penalty & Set Piece Takers Country Wise
Best 2022 FIFA World Cup Fantasy MD1 Drafts With Pros/Cons
2022 World Cup Fantasy: Predicted Lineups of All 32 Teams
Best 2022 World Cup Fantasy Differentials to Consider for MD1
2022 World Cup Fantasy: Fixture Difficulty Rating (FDR) Overall and Group Wise
Position Wise Analysis:
Best Goalkeepers To Target In World Cup Fantasy | Price Point Wise
Best Defenders to Target in World Cup Fantasy | Price Point Wise
Best Midfielders To Target In World Cup Fantasy | Price Point Wise
Best Forwards to Target in World Cup Fantasy | Price Point Wise
Group Wise Team Previews- Best Fantasy Assets & Predicted Lineups:
World Cup Fantasy | Group – A & B Preview, Key Players & More
World Cup Fantasy | Group – C & D Preview, Key Players & More
World Cup Fantasy | Group – E & F Preview, Key Players & More
World Cup Fantasy | Group – G & H Preview, Key Players & More
Link to all our FIFA World Cup Fantasy blogs in one place including team previews, group previews, tips and rules guide, differentials, chip strategy, best drafts with pros and cons and more. Completely free to access as well!
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What’s next from ALLABOUTFPL ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Fantasy Season?
We’ll be covering team previews, group previews, tips and rules guide, differentials, chip strategy, best drafts with pros and cons plus a lot more content. Keep checking allaboutfpl.com for all our world cup fantasy blogs and subscribe to our free newsletter through the link below. We’ll also be posting regularly about the 2022 FIFA Wolrd Cup Fantasy on our social media accounts so follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook keep our notification ON.
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