Monsieur Salut offers thanks to Russell Cane, who is involved in promoting the fantasy football game with the enticing Gallic name of Oulala …
Visit the Oulala home page at: http://www.oulala.com/* And register to play at https://www.oulala.com/en/register
* See the Salut! Sunderland mini-league, created for us by Oulala at https://www.oulala.com/en/circle/salut-sunderland and hook up to that* See our featured winner Azerty’s story at http://www.oulala.com/en/community/blog/item/words-from-a-winner-14, She supports Borussia Mönchengladbach because she likes unpronounceable names
NB: The deadline for entries to this week’s game is 6.30pm on Friday
I am not sure how many Salut! Sunderland will have the time to devote to this, but it seems a spot of fun – with prizes that sound better than our unwanted coffee mugs – so let Russell explain how it works:
The Game
Oulala gives you the opportunity to create your team with players from the five major European football leagues (England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain). Therefore, you can choose from nearly 3,000 players and 98 different teams! Every week, you will be able to compete with other managers registered on Oulala.
You will also have the possibility of modifying your team live, with the Live Coaching option featured on Oulala. With this breakthrough innovation, you can now follow your team’s performance during live matches, and, most importantly, you will also be able to change players (thanks to your substitution bench). To err is human so Oulala lets you have the chance to come back into the game by allowing you to change players who are having a terrible game or that have just been injured on the field. You will therefore increase your chances to gain the most Oulala points by using your tactical skills during live matches.
Team Building and Player Selection
You can buy between 11 and 17 players for your team, with a limited budget of 100 million fake Euros (a meal voucher for the Qataris, a nice little budget on Oulala). To help you in your selection, you can click on the player’s name to access their detailed profiles with their historical and most recent performances. You can also compare up to three players simultaneously (even then, choosing between CR7 and Messi will still be difficult…). When you decide to buy a player, you can drag and drop him directly to his real position on the football field. Your budget will then decrease accordingly, depending on the player’s value.
A few points to keep in mind:
You have to buy at least 11 players to be eligible to compete against other managers, and you can choose the formation of your choice. The only restrictions are the following:
* At least one goalkeeper
* Between 3 and 5 defenders
* Between 3 and 5 midfielders
* Between 1 and 3 strikers
You can then pick your favourite formation among the following:
3-4-3
3-5-2
4-3-3
4-4-2
4-5-1
5-3-2
5-4-1
You can make modifications to your team until the beginning of the next Oulala day.
You can select as many players as you want from one specific team or league.
You will not have access to the other managers’ teams until after the beginning of the next Oulala day.
Once the Oulala day has started, you will not be able to buy or sell any players. However, if you have players on the bench, you can still potentially modify your team formation, as well as make up to three live substitutions.
Scoring System
A sophisticated scoring matrix system has been created by our internal team of statisticians. It has been tested on statistics from numerous past football seasons and is also legally trademarked. To make sure that the ecosystem of our game is as close as possible to football reality, we decided to reach a new level of statistical depth, which has never been seen in the Fantasy Football industry. Most other games limit themselves to 10 to 20 criteria…our system includes a total of 70!
Our objective is to give you the opportunity to be at the heart of football reality. Therefore, we do not give any bonus points to a player scoring a hat trick or to the designated captain of your team. Three goals scored by the same player will still only count for three goals on the scoring table. And a great performance by a team captain will be counted in the same way as a great performance by a normal team player.
Oulala uses statistics supplied by the company OPTA, a provider specialised in sports data and partner of many international media companies. OPTA statistics will always be, in all circumstances, the only way to attribute points on Oulala.
In concrete terms, when a football player performs one of these 70 actions, all the virtual teams having selected him will be automatically given points, positive or negative. The number of points will also depend on the position of the player. For example, a defender who scores a goal will earn 35 points because it is considered as an event quite unlikely to happen, while a striker who scores will be rewarded with 25 points, since it is one of his main objectives.
Player Values
Players’ values on Oulala are calculated internally by our team. Numerous criteria are included in the calculation of one player’s value and on its evolution over time. We focused mostly on the players’ historical performances on the field (Neymar’s new haircut and the latest moment of madness from Luis Suarez will therefore not be taken into account).
Players’ values will fluctuate during the Oulala season, based on their performances on the field and their popularity on Oulala. All values will be updated on a monthly basis, between two Oulala days.
Live Coaching
Your starting goalkeeper breaks his leg 10 minutes into the game? Your star midfielder is subbed out at half-time for tactical reasons? Or, maybe you just think that one of your players is having a poor day at the office…This is THE innovation on Oulala! For the first time in the Fantasy Football industry, you will have the possibility to make live substitutions and formation changes to your team. We wanted to create the closest experience to football reality as well as to optimise your chances of winning.
When building your team, you can add up to six players to your bench. During each Oulala day, you can then follow the live performances of your players in the “In-Play” section. There, you will have the possibility to use up to three substitutions (Solskjaer likes this), by following the rules below.
You will be able to replace a player with a substitute playing a different position on the field, as long as your team falls into one of the six allowed formations.
As some of your players will be on the field at different times, you will not be able to sub out or sub in a player who already played his match.
If your substitute has started his match earlier than your starting player, the effective time of the substitution will be based on the substitute’s remaining playing time
For example: you want to change one of your starters at the 20th minute of his match, but your substitute is currently playing the 25th minute of his. After validating your choice, you will therefore keep your starter until the 25th minute of his match
When one of your players is subbed out, the total number of his points (positive or negative) will be accounted into your team’s total score, until you have replaced him. Note that there will always be a one-minute gap in your players’ points details: if you sub out one of your starters at the 50th minute of his game, the points of his substitute will only start counting towards your team’s total from his 51st minute of playing.
You can also follow the individual performance of each of your players in the “In-Play” section, under “Timeline”. This option will allow you to see if some of your players are on a positive spiral or not. Some of your players may be playing at different times, therefore the performance timelines might not all be synchronised.
Prizes
On Oulala, you can win great prizes every week! At the end of every Oulala day, the best three managers will be rewarded with gifts such as iPads, TVs, Game Consoles, Football boots and Football Shirts along with many more things…
Circles
Join the Salut! Sunderland Circle to see who could give Gus Poyet a run for his money each week..