The official Nations Championship Fantasy game is here! The Nations Championship is a brand new tournament this year, and this article gives an overview of the brand new game itself, as well as giving you a few pointers as to how to maximise your points so that you can reach the top of your mini leagues! If any new games pop up, please let us know at fantasyrugbygeek@gmail.com or @frugbygeek on Twitter.
THE PREMISE
First up, if you’re asking WTF is the Nations Championship? Then we’ve got you sorted…
In short; 7 rounds (3 in July and 4 in November), teams from the Northern Hemisphere v teams from the Southern Hemisphere, replacing the old July Tours and Autumn Nations Series and being played every two years. I love the concept and they have introduced a fantasy game for it. So here we go!
A quick overview of the core rules of the game: It’s a salary cap style fantasy game that takes the best bits from the Six Nations Fantasy Game and the Rugby Championship fantasy game, you have a budget of $100m to fill your team of 16 players. You must pick 1 Hooker, 2 Props, 2 Second Rows, 3 Back Rows, 1 Scrum Half, 1 Fly Half, 2 Centres and 3 Outside Backs and one supersub. Importantly you can only pick 3 players from one nation and 10 players from one hemisphere, so you’ll need to consider your allocation carefully.
Once the tournament gets underway, you can make unlimited transfers between each gameweek throughout the tournament. The deadline looks to be when the gameweek starts, so it is not clear if you can make any changes in the window between the gameweek starting and kick-off of each players matches, so keep an eye out on that.
As you are probably familiar with from the Six Nations, each round gives you two key chips to play: the Captain and the Supersub. Your Captain’s score will be doubled, while your Supersub earns triple points—but only if they start the game on the bench. So if you put your Supersub on someone who is up starting, they’ll only collect half their normal score.
We also have 2 one-off boosters that are available. These are the Triple Captain (your chosen player will have his match score tripled) and Co-Captains (for one round only, you will be able to select two captains to score double points). Each booster can be used once across the 7 gameweeks of the Championship, so use them carefully.
Points are awarded for a combination of attacking and defensive contributions. On attack, tries are worth 12 points while try assists earn five points. Conversions are worth two points and penalties three (with minus one for any misses – and you don’t need to select a designated kicker), and drop goals five. You’ll also pick up two points per defender beaten, one point for every ten metres carried, and two points for a successful 50-22 kick, 2 points will be awarded for offloads and three points for a line break.
Looking at Defence and set pieces, each tackle earns one point (with minus one for a missed tackle), breakdown steals are worth four, interceptions get a massive 5 points. Set pieces take more of a role with 2 points to all the front rowers with a scrum won, 5 points for a lineout steal and one point for a lineout won.
Discipline is equally important, with deductions of one point for conceded penalties, five points for yellow cards and ten points for red cards. There are also points deductions for knock-ons, forward passes and lineout errors
Finally, a huge 15 points are on offer fro the Player of the Match, which will be an absolute game changer if you get it right!
Prizes are on offer, first Prize is TBC and it looks like there will also be prizes for the Top 5 as well. There will also be a weekly Prize awarded to the highest scoring user’s team in each gameweek of 2x tickets to a Finals Weekend Matchday of your choice. It also looks like there will be some Influencer Leagues set up, so keep an eye out for them too!
As usual I have set up a Fantasy Rugby Geek league, you can join by entering the code JN3STJE7 or by using this direct link to join.
THE KEY POINTS
- Site: https://fantasy.nationschampionshiprugby.com
- Squad Size: 16
- Team size: 15 (Plus 1 supersub)
- Double scoring captain?: Yes
- Designated Kicker?: No
- Transfers: Unlimited per round
- Max players from one team: 3
THE EDGE
Supersub Strategy
Ultimately SuperSub is a bit of a lottery. You could luck out if one of the starting XV needs to go off in the early stages of the game, but likewise you could be at the mercy of a coach who decides to leave their backs on the bench for the entire 80 minutes, so you have to play the percentages and consider the risks.
For me the key areas to consider in a SuperSub are…
- Will they come on, and will they play a significant period of time – For this we see Props, Hookers and Scrum-Halves tend to come on typically early on in the secomd half, so they usually get some good game time. With Locks and Loose Forwards it is not rare to see a starting Lock or Loose Forward play the full match. That said, Locks and Back Rowers are not typically left on the bench either. Fly Halves are a bit more unpredictable, they could come on early if the game plan is not working but, likewise, sometimes a change is too disruptive and can be left late, and in some cases not at all. Centres and Back 3 is also a bit of a lottery.
- History – Take a look at previous games to see if there is any trends in how the team operates their replacements. In some cases, past matches can provide a pretty educated insight into how a team will play their bench.
- Options – Is your prospective SuperSub the only option in their position? If a team is playing a 6-2 split on the bench for example, then that is probably a good time to select a utility back as they are far more likely to come on in time to make a decent impact
Double check your XV is starting before the round lock
Once the gameweek lock has passed, you cannot change your team. Lineups are usually all announced by Friday afternoon, so keep an eye on the lineups and make sure your XV are all starting.
Make the most of the transfer allocation
Unlike other games, the Official Game allows you to completely tear up your team for no points penalty in between rounds. This means you can load your team fully optimised for each round. If you need to make 15 changes, then don’t hold back. Just do it!
Get strategic on your Boosters
To recap, there are 2 boosters that are available that can all be played once in the season. The boosters are…
- Triple Captain – Your captain will score you triple points for their next match.
- Co-Captains – For one round only, you will be able to select two captains to score double points
Goes without saying that the Triple Captain should be someone you’d back to have a huge all round game, so target any potential mismatches to try and have a player likely for a safe haul – Will Jordan or DMak against Wales could be a safe bet for example.
While for your co-captain, you can save it for weeks where you’re really struggling to choose between two captain options, so you can hedge your bets nicely.
Out of position players
Keep an eye on players who are classified in one position but end up playing in another position that may well provide greater returns (think a winger classified as a centre, a loose forward classified as a lock, etc)..
Kickers not categorised as fly-halves
Often fantasy games force you to select one kicker to gain points from conversions, penalties, drop goals etc. Not here, so if you can find kickers who play outside of the fly-half position then they are well worth picking up, as they are guaranteed points (For example, Thomas Ramos).
Join the FRG League!
If you back your Fantasy Rugby skills to lead you to Fantasy Nations Championship glory, then join our public fantasy league for the Nations Championship on the Official Game. To join, you can joing through this direct link or search for the league with code: JN3STJE7.
Good luck!
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