PlayTheGame

THE THEORY
PTG is scored on 10 scoring categories, 5 of which cover your goalkeeper and defenders, 5 of which cover your midfielders and forwards.

At the end of each match day, the scores will be collated for each of the scoring categories, e.g. number of goals or clean sheets your team has scored.

That days scores will then be added to any previous scores within a category collected during this season. We will then compare your performance in each of the scoring categories against the other members of your league and rank each team from first to last in all 10 categories.

League points are then awarded to each team according to their position in each scoring category. Finally we total your league points for all 10 scoring categories and use this points tally to determine your league position.

AN EXAMPLE
In a 10-team league, the team with the most clean sheets receives 10 points, the team with the second most receives 9 points, and so on to the end where the team with the least clean sheets gets 1 point.

The same process happens for all 10 categories so that a manager may have 10 points for clean sheets, 8 points for assists, 3 points for successful passes and so on. All of these points are added up to give a total number of points.

In the unlikely event that a team is top in each category in a 10 team league, it will have 100 points – the maximum possible score. A team that is at the bottom of all categories will have 10 points.

You can see how your team are performing in each of the categories by clicking on the ‘League tables by category’ links.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What if two or more teams are level in a scoring category?
In the case of a tie, each team involved receives an average of the total points due. So, in a ten team league, if two teams were tied for first in successful passes, each would receive 9.5 points [(10 + 9) / 2 = 9.5].

My points total has gone down - how is this possible?
The overall ranking of your team rises and falls depending on how it performs relative to the performance of other league members. So even though your players have scored ten goals in a day, if another manager’s players have scored 15, that team may have gone above yours in the Goals Scored category.

Why do you use this scoring system?
We believe that this system gives equal weight to all the important aspects of playing the game, which is about more than simply scoring goals. In PlayTheGame, passing the ball to a man in the same-coloured shirt [Successful Passes] and throwing yourself in the path of a goal-bound shot [part of the Defence category] have the same value as shinning in a lucky rebound from six inches.

It may all seem a bit complicated at the moment, but once the season starts and you see it in action, it should become a lot clearer.

In the meantime if you have any scoring questions let us know and we'll do our best to answer them or if previous managers have any handy scoring tips let us know and we'll add them to the post.