An introduction to Fantasy Champ Man – Season Three
With season three of Fantasy Champ Man set to start on 6th January, expert David (@FPL_Gills) is here to introduce the game and provide regular advice to the FPL community.
Last month, the guys behind Fantasy Champ Man announced that the eagerly-anticipated third season will launch in January 2022.
Sounds great – but what is Fantasy Champ Man?
The game is based around the rules of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) but uses a sim of the classic football manager game Championship Manager 2001/02. The franchise had many editions and is still going strong as Football Manager but the 01/02 version has a cult following, fondly remembered as the most playable. Notable players in this version include Premier League legends Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Thierry Henry, Alan Shearer, Kevin Phillips and Mark Viduka. In fact, a sizeable online community for CM01/02 still exists to this day.
The Fantasy game was imagined back in 2020 during the first lockdown by Andy and Dave, when the real life Premier League was suspended due to the pandemic. Using the spreadsheet skills of James, the free game was initially run on Google Sheets. Players made transfers and team selections on their own sheet before the deadline. The sim was run twice a week, with goal alerts tweeted out by the official Twitter account. Tweets were then read out by James on YouTube – mimicking Soccer Saturday – and this quickly became the go-to place for following the matches each week due to the amazing community that got involved. Halfway through the first season, the game migrated to its own website.
In Season Two, the game was run by CM01/02 expert and Season One winner Luke (from FFScout), with the stream hosted by Andy and Luke. This season, the game will be run by Rob and Chris.
How do you play it?
Pick a team of 15 using the £100m budget, with two goalkeepers, five defenders, five midfielders and three strikers – it should intuitively feel like Fantasy Premier League.
If you’re familiar with FPL, the rules and points scoring are broadly similar, so new players will be able to get to grips with the concept straight away. However, there are a few differences:
- No price changes
- Bonus points – Three points go to the man of the match winner, awarded by the Champ Man engine. As each player is rated out of ten, two points are then given to the player(s) with the next highest rating and one point for the next. Many players receive the same rating, so bonus points are much more frequent in this game.
- Free hit – Managers get two of these per season
There are also a few new rules and chips for Season Three, including a vice captain that scores 1.5 times the points for the gameweek, an emergency back up captain and various multipliers. Full details can be found on the game’s gaffr.io website.
Where can I find out player information and stats?
Injuries, suspensions and transfer news are all tweeted out as they happen by the official @FantasyChampMan Twitter account, often via #ChampManFPL. There is also a weekly YouTube stream, usually on a Sunday around 9pm, with all the latest news that week.
This is the best opportunity to ask questions to those who run the game. The wonderful community have also created their own websites using the data, including these fantastic sites by @LordyLeroy (raw data) and @whitebeard_fpl (historic stats). There’s also a Discord set up by FFScout’s Luke. Finally, the boys at the Man On podcast are already putting out plenty of material and are essential to follow. Look out for Craig and Martyn for high-quality content.
How do I sign-up?
Visit the gaffr.io website and sign up for an account. Once registered, there’s a drop-down menu that includes Champ Man Season 3. Put a team together and start tinkering!
Anything else I should know?
Yes, there are already a few preview streams on the game’s YouTube channel. The first Gameweek starts on 6th January, so you have the holidays to sign up and plan your squad. Finally, for the odd team leak, you’ll want to follow ChampManScarface on Twitter!
Look out for more articles over the next couple of weeks, where I’ll do a deep dive into squads, stats and formations before the big kick-off.
By David
