Fantasy Football Draft: The Most Exciting Way to Play Dream Team Ahead of the 2020/21 Premier League Season

Yes, the Dream Team Draft is back for a second season, with countless offers, shocking performances, and masterclasses in selection right around the corner.

Do you think you’re your friends’ fantasy football champion? Here’s how you can prove it…
Fantasy Draft: All You Need to Know About Dream Team’s Premier League Game

The following are the basic draught rules:

Draft pits you against other managers in a league as you assemble a 15-man team to take you to the top.
Before the start of your season, you’ll participate in a live draught to select your squad, with no players in the league being duplicated.
That’s right, if you have Mohamed Salah on your side, Bob from HR isn’t on it.
The game weeks work on a head-to-head basis, pitting you against another boss in your league each week, with three points awarded for a victory, zero points for a loss, and one point awarded for a tie.
Draft, unlike Season, only counts points from Premier League games. As a result, cup competitions are not included.
Since it’s a head-to-head format, leagues must have an even number of teams, with a minimum of four. The ideal league size is possibly six or eight players.

The live player draught is as follows:

The exact rules will be determined by your league’s chairman.
In most cases, the live draught can occur prior to the start of your league season. Each manager will be given a total of 15 picks in a ‘reverse snake’ format.
That simply means that if you get the first pick in the first round, you’ll get the last pick in the second round, the first pick in the third round, and so on. The Chairman has the option of changing the Draft format to a linear order, but we wouldn’t recommend it to ensure parity among mini-league members.
You can host a live draught at any time during the season, so it doesn’t matter if you don’t get started right away.

In the draught, players are chosen in the following order:

Most notably, there are no budget constraints and no player costs to adhere to.
In your 15-man team, you must have at least one goalkeeper, three defenders, three midfielders, and one striker.
More than two goalkeepers, ten defenders, ten midfielders, and five strikers are not permitted.
To make it easier for yourself, build a ‘watchlist’ before the Live Draft to keep track of the players you want to sign.
In your player list, you will move players up and down in priority order, with the most appropriate ones at the top.
You can also ‘ignore’ the players you don’t like, and they’ll be pushed to the bottom of your player list.
If you miss a go for any reason, you can use the ‘auto pick’ function, which will automatically select players in order of your priority.
A manager must choose a starting XI from their 15-man squad in one of the following formations before each Game Week: 3-5-1, 5-3-2, 5-4-1, 3-4-3, 3-5-2, 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 4-5-1, 5-3-2, 5-4-1

Free agency and player trades

That is your initial starting lineup after the live draught is completed.
However, once your league is up and running, you can change your squad if you’re unhappy with your choices.
If you’re not in the midst of an active game week or during a lockout, you can swap players with other managers in your division.
You can also sign ‘free agents,’ who are actually new signings who haven’t been selected by any other manager and haven’t been picked in the initial live draught.
If you like, certain free agents will become “limited free agents,” which means that everyone in the league will “bid” on them. This is a more advanced choice.
The player lockout will be lifted almost immediately after the final Premier League game of the Game Week, allowing you to make trades or sign free agents.

Advanced Draft options (customizable by League Chairmen):

Captains – Every Game Week, you can choose a captain for your team who will win you double points.
Reduced squads – You can reduce your squad size from 15 to 11 people (7 in starting XI, like Weekender)
Switch to a linear snake instead of a reverse snake in the draught order.
Increase the time between turns on the live draught by increasing the turn time.
Substitutes are set up automatically to take the place of injured players.
Free agents with restrictions – make certain free agents ‘restricted’ so that they are put up for auction rather than being picked up right away.
Trade approval – gives the Chairman final say on all player trades within the league.

Mini-leagues for draught (three ways to join):

Make a private league and invite your friends and family to participate – private leagues are hidden and need a pin to join.

Join a private league that has already been formed, or join one of the public leagues and compete against managers from all over the world – these are open to all and do not require an invitation.

Leagues must have an equal number of players, of at least four.