Here at Human Race HQ we are a competitive bunch, but it’s not just swim, bike and run that gets our competitive juices flowing (you only had to witness our recent company rounders match to see that!).

One of our most fiercely contested activities is the annual Fantasy Premier League Football game, and there’s a few people here that definitely rate their skills.

So we thought why not put them to the test and open the league up to all you Human Racers this year – plus we’ve decided to throw in some prizes…

• Manager of the month will receive a £50 Human Race Gift Voucher
• Manager of the season will win a £150 Human Race Gift Voucher

It’s not just for the competitive amongst us either – at the end of the season we will select a team at random to win an additional £50 Human Race Gift Voucher – so even if you’re not the next Jose Mourinho (or you don’t even know who that is), you may as well get involved!

UPDATE: Winners so far

• August manager of the month: Matty Berger with Storm Raiders FC
• September manager of the month: Jon Watkins with Guns and Moses

Here’s how to sign up:

The new season starts on Friday 11^th August so anyone who wants to join the league and be part of the fun needs to have created a team and enter the league by 6.45pm that day. Here is how you do it:

• Head to this page
• Create a team
• That’s it! You should be in the Human Race league automatically but if you’re not for any reason, here is the league code in case you need to manually join up: 1099482-316203

If you want to swot up, read the details below about how it all works – otherwise follow the steps above and you’re ready to go!

The rules:

For those who haven’t played before the rules are very simple:

• Pick a squad of 15 players with the £100m budget and no more than 3 players from a single Premier League team
• Each week you select 11 starting players who will score fantasy points based on their performance in the real life games (see points scoring below)
• You have to play a ‘valid’ formation so 1 goalkeeper, at least 3 defenders, at least 2 midfielders and at least 1 striker
• You get a free transfer each week so you can make one team change every week (this rolls over if you don’t use it one week to a max of two free changes)
• You also get two wildcards which allow you to make an unlimited amount of free transfers when you use them (one can only be used in the first half of the season and the second in the second half)

Scoring points:

What you score (and lose) points for:

• Your players score points for playing in a game
• Your players score points for scoring goals and making assists (the last pass before a goal)
• Your goalkeeper and defenders score points for keeping clean sheets (not conceding a goal in a game), plus midfielders score a single point for this
• Your goalkeeper scores points for saving penalties
• There are also some bonus points awarded to the best players in each game
• Your goalkeeper and defenders lose points for conceding goals
• Your players also lose points for getting yellow cards, red cards, scoring own goals or missing penalties
• One point to note is each week you pick a captain who will score double points (so don’t just pick a ‘natural leader’ and pick who you think will score most)

All the points scoring and full rules can be viewed here if you want to see it in more detail.

Do you want chips with that?

To make things a little more interesting each manager will have three ‘chips’ which are a bit like lifelines in ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’. They can only be played once and are completely optional. You can’t play more than one in the same week (or any in the same week as you play your wildcard) and they in theory allow you to score extra points. For those that have played before, one is different to last year and they are:

• ‘Triple Captain’ – your captain points are tripled instead of doubled in the next gameweek
• ‘Bench Boost’ – the points scored by your bench players in the next gameweek are included in your total (so your entire 15 players score points not just your first 11)
• ‘Free Hit’ – this is the new one which allows you to make as many transfers as you like for a single gameweek (after that week your team reverts back to your original side from the week before)

If it all sounds too confusing don’t worry about these chips, they are optional and the game is actually really simple – just pick players who you think will do well in real life – that’s it!

Remember to be in the league by 6.45pm on Friday 11^th August.

Game on!