What Is Fantasy Soccer?
In fantasy soccer you build a squad of real players. When those players take the pitch for their clubs, what they do in the match (goals, assists, tackles, passes, saves) earns fantasy points for your team. You manage that squad all season: picking who starts, replacing injured players and making trades.
Outside North America the same game is usually called fantasy football. It is the same idea, played with soccer players rather than the NFL.
Real match
Your player takes the pitch
Match stats
Goals, passes, tackles, saves
Fantasy points
Added to your team's score
Draft or Salary Cap: What's the Difference?
In a draft league, managers take turns picking players and each player belongs to one team. In a salary-cap game, everyone shops from the same budget and anyone can own the same star.
Salary cap
Everyone can own the same star
Every manager gets the same budget and buys any players they can afford. Thousands of managers can own the same star, and you mostly chase an overall leaderboard. The official Fantasy Premier League game works this way.
Draft
One player, one team
Managers in a league take turns picking players, and each player can only be on one team. If a rival drafts the striker you wanted, he is gone. This is the format behind Fantasy Premier League Draft and most North American fantasy sports, and it is how BoxToBox works.
BoxToBox is a draft league with one difference from most: the player pool covers the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 together, so the best players in Europe are all in the same draft.
How Does a Fantasy Soccer Draft Work?
The season starts with a live snake draft. The order reverses every round, so whoever picks last in the first round picks first in the second.
- Each team drafts a 17-player squad.
- A pick clock keeps things moving. If your time runs out, the next player in your queue, or the best one available, is picked for you.
- You can rank players ahead of time and queue your targets during the draft.
Snake order, 4-team example
Never drafted before? A mock draft against bots takes a couple of minutes and needs no account.
How Do You Set a Fantasy Soccer Lineup?
Each gameweek you choose 11 starters from your 17; the other 6 sit on the bench. Only starters score.
- You pick the formation: 1 goalkeeper, 3 to 5 defenders, 2 to 5 midfielders and 1 to 3 forwards.
- Players lock one by one as their own match kicks off, so you can keep adjusting until then.
- An injured or suspended player can go on injured reserve (IR), which frees his roster spot for a replacement.
Formations you can play
How Does Fantasy Soccer Scoring Work?
Most fantasy soccer games score little beyond goals, assists and clean sheets. BoxToBox scores the whole match: defending, passing and chance creation count too, so a midfielder who runs a game is rewarded even when he doesn't score.
Points update live while matches are being played, and every point is broken down stat by stat on the matchup page.
Some of what earns points
How Do Head-to-Head Matchups Work?
Every gameweek your team faces one other team in your league. Whoever's starters score more fantasy points wins the matchup.
- Wins and ties build the league standings, with total points scored as the tiebreaker.
- In a league with an odd number of teams, the team without an opponent plays the league average that week, and the result counts.
Two ways to crown a champion
Your commissioner picks the format when the league is created.
Playoffs
The American way
After the regular season, the top teams enter a single-elimination bracket. Win the final and you are the league champion.
Example: a 4-team playoff
Semifinals
Seed 1
Seed 4
Seed 2
Seed 3
Final
Semifinal winner
Semifinal winner
Champion
European league table
No playoffs
Or play it the way European leagues do: no playoffs, just a full season of matchups. Whoever finishes top of the table wins the league.
How Do Trades and Waivers Work?
After the draft you keep improving your squad all season: add free agents, claim players on waivers and trade with other managers.
Free agents
Players nobody owns can be added to your team, usually by dropping someone else.
Waivers
When several managers want the same player, the league's waiver rules decide who gets him: a rolling priority order, or blind bids from a season budget (FAAB).
Trades
Swap players directly with another manager in your league.