Every Fantasy Premier League manager aspires to end the season and each Game Week(GW) in the top position possible. It heavily depends on tactics, strategy, and luck of course. FPL gives each manager a boost in the shape of Chips to enhance particular aspects of the game.
What are Chips?
The Chips are merely tools in every FPL manager's toolbox that give them a chance to raise their score for a specific game-week or for upcoming weeks. The FPL now uses 4 different types of chips: Bench-boost, Free-hit, Triple-Captain, and Wildcard.
A manager at the start of a season is in possession of 02x Wildcards, 01xFree-hits (Since 2021/22), 01xTriple-Captain, 01xBench-Boost.
An FPL manager must analyse and strategically employ these chips and tools at the appropriate time in order to reap the greatest rewards. And if fortune is on his side, the team may quickly advance in the standings. It is crucial to understand what they are and when to use them.
Note - That Every chip can only be activated before the start of a game-week and not during or after for it to be effective.
Let’s start.
1. Benchboost
Each FPL team has a 15-player roster, however only 11 of those players are counted each gameweek even if they all accrue points (if they participate). Therefore, a manager must select only 11 players each week from a pool of 15 players, based on the three Fs (form, fixtures & fatigue). The four players who were not chosen are eventually benched.
As most managers are aware, there are instances where the Bench Players outperform the ones that were chosen because luck plays such a big part in the game. In this situation, the points scored by the bench players are useless unless there is a non-starting player in the starting 11.
Therefore, Bench-Boost gives the team an advantage by adding the points achieved by their bench players to the total. This means that the manager should not worry about who to choose because all 15 players will contribute points to the team's overall score for a specific gameweek. Since there is only one chip accessible, management must strategically consider when to use them in order to avoid a catastrophe.
When to use : Be Mindful and use Bench-boost during the Largest Double Game-week and own maximum starters of both the games.
2. Triple Captain
Every FPL squad contains 11 players that are tallied each game week, one of them is the captain and another the vice captain. If the captain doesn't start, the vice-captain assumes leadership. The captain provides double the points he scores in the game-week. In a sense, if the 12th man is a duplicate of the captain, there are 12 players altogether on your squad.
So a triple-captain is a chip that provides the team to triplicate the points scored by the captain in that particular week.
As an illustration, if player X(Striker) plays the entire game (2 points), provides 2 assists (6 points), scores 2 goals (8 points), and receives the maximum bonus (3 points), his overall point total for that game is 19. If X is selected as the team's captain, he will score 38 points (19+19). The team would have been contributed 57 points if he had been served as triple captain that week (19+19+19).
When to use : Ideally played during a double Game-week and the manager is convinced that the captain would play the entire 180 min, has got good fixtures, and is in rich form.
3. Free-Hit
A free-hit is a chip that gives you limitless budgetary transfers for a specific week. The changes made are only valid for that specific game-week and are transitory.
So, there is an upcoming big double game-week and an FPL team has only 4 players playing double, isn’t it the perfect time for a free-hit? The answer- NO.
Free-hits are to be used for a blank game-week (A game-week where most teams do not have a game due to fixture clash). The aforementioned two chips can easily produce the required points during a double game week.
Some teams struggle to field their starting 11 during a week without any games, unless they absorb hits that severely deplete the team. This is due to the fact that most teams will be made up of players from the best teams, which are more likely to have a game-week without any games. In order to field in 11 players, managers will therefore make transfers and take risks, which is undesired.
When to use : Use this chip during the Largest Blank Gameweek to gain an advantage over rivals.
4. Wildcard
The Wildcard is likely the best chip of all, offering infinite transfers identical to those of the Free-Hit with the exception that they are permanent. A wildcard allows a team to add 15 new players who may be performing well or have favorable matchups coming up.
An FPL Manager is provided with 02 Wildcards - one for the first half of the season, one for the second.
When to use : Use the first Wildcard either very early or as late as possible. And the second weeks before a double game-week to shape up the team for the same.
SUMMARY
There are total of 05 Chips in the FPL that a manager can use during the entire season:
01 x Benchboost : Entire team of 15 players earn points for a gameweek.
01 x Triple-Captain : Captain earns thrice the points rather than the double.
01 x Free-Hit : Make unlimited transfers for one gameweek and all changes revert back to the old team.
02 x Wildcard : Make unlimited transfers without any hits.
Each chip is unique and will produce benefits when utilised properly; if not, it will be a catastrophe. Therefore, think and analyse before employing one. Different Managers use their chips differently but the aforementioned methods have proven to be an effective one.
I sincerely hope that the FPL managers reading this blog have gained something from it, and I wish you luck for the upcoming season.
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