How to play FIFA World cup 2022 fantasy | tips, strategy & thoughts

With the World Cup only a couple of weeks away, the World Cup Fantasy game has launched and a lot of us fantasy managers are really excited.

This means that even when FPL stops because of the World Cup, there’s still a Fantasy game that we can play.

The World Cup fantasy game looks really interesting and fun to play and that’s because the concept and rules, are quite different from most football fantasy games.

In this article, we’d be looking at how to get started with this year’s World Cup fantasy game, we’d be explaining the rules for those beginners who haven’t seen them yet, and we’d look at the various chips or boosters in the game.

It’s going to be a fun and interesting article, so do stick around.

Getting started with the 2022 FIFA fantasy game

What is 2022 FIFA fantasy game and how does it work

FIFA fantasy, is a fantasy football game that allows we the players of the game to create a team, by picking or selecting players from countries that are in the World Cup tournament.

We are given a budget of €100 million (rising to €105 million for the knockout phase) to create our team. Then we are allowed to buy a squad of 15 players.

We select 11 of them to play in each of the seven rounds. They score us points for assists, goals, saves, clean sheets and so on. We make substitutions. We make transfers.

Is 2022 FIFA fantasy game free to play?

Yes, the 2022 FIFA fantasy football game is free to play. However, if you want to be entered into the overall leaderboard you’ll need to log in or create a FIFA+ account and save your team.

This means before you can get started, you should to create an account either on the app or the official FIFA fantasy website.

How do I pick my FIFA fantasy squad

First, you have to log into the app or visit the official FIFA fantasy website, when you do, you want to navigate into the My team section or you can follow this URL: https://play.fifa.com/fantasy-classic/team, that’s where you are allowed to make changes to your 2022 FIFA fantasy team.

This is what the pick team section of the site looks like. It is here that you’re allowed to make substitutions, transfers, pick your captain and activate your boosters – it can be called your manager dashboard.

Here are some important things to keep in mind, as you pick your squad:

• You have a budget of £100m to build a team consisting of 15 players. 
• You can create your team to match any of the following 8 formations: 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-5-1, 3-4-3, 3-5-2, 5-2-3, 5-3-2, 5-4-1
• You can change your formation through the formation selector on the team page or by removing a player from one position and adding in a player from another.
• There are restrictions on how many players you can select per nation depending on the stage of the tournament.

Here the restrictions outlined below:

Tournament Stage	Restriction
Group Stage	Max 3 players per nation
Round of 16	Max 4 players per nation
Quarter Final	Max 5 players per nation
Semi-Final	Max 6 players per nation
Final	Max 8 players per nation

• You are able to make unlimited changes to your team up until the first match of the World Cup kicks off at 16:00pm GMT on 20th November, 2022.

So basically, most of the rules surrounding how to select and pick your team, are quite similar to that of FPL.

You have the same amount of starting budget, which is 100million, you begin the game with unlimited transfers, you can only select a maximum of three players from a team during the group stages and the formations you are allowed to use must be ones that are being used in real life.

How about transfers in FIFA World Cup fantasy, how do they work?

How do transfers work in the 2022 FIFA World Cup fantasy

Well, here’s a brief of how transfers work in the FIFA World Cup fantasy game:

• Before… The opening match: Unlimited transfers
• Matchday’s 1-3: Two transfer per round
• Round of 16: Unlimited transfers
• Quarter-finals: Four transfers
• Semi-finals: Five transfers
• Final two matches: Sox transfers

Note: Any additional transfers will cost you 3 points.

Basically, in each stage of the competition, you’re allowed to make different number of transfers and if you make more than the allocated number of transfers, then three points would be taken away from your total points.

During the group stage, one transfer can be carried over into the next group stage matchday.

What this means is, if in the group stage you make one transfer instead of two, then that one free transfer would be taken to the next matchday and you’d then be able to make three transfers.

However, due to the unlimited transfer given to managers at the start of the of round of 16, you won’t be able to roll over your matchday three transfer from the group stage.

Also this is another important thing to note: Once a transfer is confirmed, you will not be able to reverse a transfer.

Next up would be substitutions and this is how they work:

Substitution in FIFA World Cup fantasy 2022

There are two types of substitutions in the 2022 FIFA World Cup fantasy game and they are auto subs and manual subs. What are auto subs?

What are auto substitutions?

Auto substitutions in FIFA World Cup Fantasy is, substitution done by bots. So if a player in your team doesn’t play during a matchday, the bot would automatically make a change for you and bring in someone from your bench, this is usually the first player on your bench.

Which is very similar to FPL. The one that isn’t in FPL though is, manual substitution. And here is what it is all about.

What are manual substitutions in FIFA World Cup fantasy?

Well, manual substitution, is on were you make a change by yourself. So take for instance a player in your team plays on Monday and he doesn’t do quite well, you can take him out for a player who plays on another day in the same matchday.

Here’s a really helpful video that would explain this concept in a much clearer way:

Now let’s move on to captaincy.

How does captaincy work in FIFA World Cup fantasy 2022

Captaincy in the FIFA World Cup fantasy game, is quite similar to that of FPL. Just like FPL, your captain gets double points, in FIFA World Cup fantasy your captain also gets double points.

The only difference though is that you can change your captain even after he’s played. Here’s how it is put in the official rules of the game

You can change your captain an unlimited amount of times, as long as the new selected captain is yet to play in the current matchday.

Once your captain has played in the matchday, you are able to change your captain once more for another player who is yet to play.  If you choose to change your previous captain, you will lose their double points and your new captain will score double instead.

https://play.fifa.com/

You can check out our list of matchday one captain picks: World Cup fantasy MD1 captain picks: Mbappe, Messi, Neymar or Kane, in this article we look at the best captain picks for each day.

Let’s now move to the scoring system:

FIFA World Cup fantasy 2022 scoring system

Players will be awarded points based on their actual performances during the World Cup.

Players will score points based on the metrics outlined below:

All players

Action	Points
Appearance (60 minutes or more)	+1
Assist	+3
Yellow Card	-1
Red Card	-2
Own Goal	-2
Winning a penalty	+2
Conceding a penalty	-1

From this, all players get one point if they play 60minutes or more, all players also get 3 points if they assist which is different from FPL.

Another thing that’s different from FPL is, that a player who wins a penalty gets two points and those points remain even if the penalty is missed.

A player’s point is also deducted if he gives away a penalty which is also new, we don’t see that in FPL.

Goalkeepers

Action	Points
Clean Sheet (must have played 70 minutes or more)	+5
First goal conceded	0
Each additional goal conceded	-1
Goal Scored	+9
Penalty save (not including penalty shootouts)	+3
Every 3 Saves	+1

For goalkeepers, they have to play 70 minutes to get clean sheet points, they also don’t lose points if they concede just one goal however, each goal they concede after conceding one, would mean they lose one point.

They also get a whopping nine points if they score a goal and one point for every save they make.

Defenders

Action	Points
Clean Sheet (must have played 60 minutes or more)	+5
First goal conceded	0
Each additional goal conceded	-1
Goal scored	+7

Defenders point scoring, is pretty straight forward. They get 5 point if they have played 60 minutes and are keeping a clean sheet and they also lose points for ever goal they concede after conceding one.

Now that we know how the scoring system works for defenders, we’ve gone on to write an article on the best defender picks: The best defender player picks for your 2022 World Cup fantasy team.

In the article, we look at some of the best defenders in the game that are likely to get you maximum points.

Midfielders

Action	Points
Clean Sheet (must have played 60 minutes or more)	+1
Goal scored	+5
Every 3 tackles	+1
Every 2 Key Passes	+1

Midfielders, look like the ones that would be very essential in the game. That’s because they have so many ways of getting points.

They get points for scoring goals, making tackles and for every key pass. It’d be a good strategy to select more midfielders than forward in this game.

Do make sure to keep an eye on how blog, as we’d be covering more World Fantasy tips.

You can also check out our: best players for 2022 FIFA World cup fantasy -midfielder picks, in this article we share our thoughts on what midfielders FIFA fantasy managers should be looking to target.

Forwards

Action	Points
Goal scored	+5
Every 2 shots on target	+1

Forwards get five points for every goal they score and one point for every shot on target.

Want to know what forwards we think would be great picks, check out our: The best FIFA World cup fantasy forward player picks – Mbappe, Benzema, Kane, Messi article.

Since there are no bonus point systems in the FIFA World cup fantasy game, it is important for them to reward other stats and that’s exactly what they’ve done, which is actually nice and makes the game alot more fun.

Lastly, let’s take a look at chips or boosters as they are called.

You can check out our 2022 World Cup fantasy team in the article below, these teams have been created with the long term in mind, we’ve also highlighted teams that have good games in the article, which would help you as you create your own matchday one team.

Link to article: 2022 World cup fantasy matchday one team & player picks: the best MD1 wildcard team

How many chips are there in the FIFA World Cup 2022 fantasy game?

There are three chips or boosters in the 2022 FIFA World Cup fantasy game. They have the Wildcard: that allows you to make changes to your entire squad, 12th Man – that allows you to select 1 additional player to score points for your team in a matchday and the Power Captain – Will allow you to get double points from whichever player scores the most points from your 15 man squad.

How many times can you use the FIFA World Cup fantasy boosters

Boosters can only be used once and multiple boosters cannot be used at the same time. Which means when your wildcard is activated, you can’t use power captain or the 12th man booster.

If you’re looking to activate your 12th man booster in matchday one, then our 12th man player picks article would help you out.

How many times can the FIFA World Cup fantasy 2022 wildcard booster be used?

The wildcard booster in the FIFA World Cup fantasy 2022 game, can be used only once throughout the tournament. It can’t be used during the first matchday or the round of 16, as every player is allowed to make unlimited transfers in those rounds.

For further explanation on these various chips, you can also check out this really helpful video by Let’s Talk FPL:

You can check our 2022 World cup fantasy tips: the best time to use your chips & boosters article, in this article we share our thoughts on the best time to activate or play your various boosters so that you can get the most out of it.

Conclusion

The 2022 FIFA World Cup fantasy game is here, and it promises to be a really interesting one. We here at raensports, would be doing our best to provide you with updates and tips throughout the competition.

We’ve also now gone on to create a complete matchday one guide, in that article we put together all the helpful world cup content we’ve done so far this week.

The article would help you identify the best player picks, teams, captains and many other things. Do check it out: World cup fantasy MD1 guide: tips, player picks, rules, teams, boosters and captain picks.

For those who are just reading our blog for the first time, we want you to know that we cover FPL fantasy and UCL fantasy so do make sure to check us out when those games resume.

You can also check out ALLABOUTFPL’S world cup beginner’s guide, for more tips. Feel free to also join their World Cup fantasy mini-league.