The Cup Competition

The focus for the Cup Competition has always been the FA Cup, but then last season we went all in with European competition games included in the later rounds as well as the domestic cup finals in France, Spain, Italy and Germany (and beyond) for The Final Round.

There will be more of the same this time.

There will be 7 rounds, 16 games in each, apart from the first which will have all 32 games in the FA Cup 3rd Round. These are the rounds

• Rd 1 - FA Cup 3rd Round - weekend of 10th January (32)

• Rd 2 - European Round - British Teams in Europe playing between 20th - 22nd January (16)

• Rd 3 - FA Cup 4th Round - weekend of 14th February (16)

• Rd 4 - FA Cup 5th Round & European Games between 4th - 12th March (16)

• Rd 5 - FA Cup QFs & European & Other QFs/SFs across Europe (16)

• Rd 6 - FA Cup SFs & European QFS (16)

• Rd 7 - FINALS across Europe (16)

The third round draw was made on Monday 8th December, and the first set of GuessWork is on the website NOW.

The format, as per last season, will be based on the tried and tested basis of 'Just guess the scores'

Bank on the ones you're sure of (Bankers are Unlimited throughout), and hope you don't get them wrong.

Points on offer increase every round, as the games get more competitive. It's 10 plus the margin for a correct score, 3 for a correct result if you get the score wrong. (There's a bonus point if the score is wrong, but the margin is the same, you say 1-0 and it ends 2-1!!)

Points increase as teams progress through the rounds, so 20 for a score in the second round, 30 in the 3rd and so on.

But the round is relative to the team, so in the example below Macclesfield are playing in their third round, whereas Palace, are playing in their first round.

As per the main competition this season, that's not the end of it though as team coefficients will also kick-in.

Let's use one of the stand out 3rd Round games due to be played to explain how this works out, and ultimately, to perhaps identify where you might be lucky with a 'punt'. Palace have a coefficient of 1.41 at the time of writing this and Macclesfield is set at the maximum allowed of 6.00 (as they are outside the National League). They are also, as mentioned above, playing their third game of the FA Cup 'Proper'.

Palace as the Away Team will have any points they win increased by 10%.

Without the coefficients a 2-1 win for either would be worth 33 points for Macclesfield, and 12.10 points for Palace

But, the 'Upset' caused by a Macclesfield 2-1 win, and you predicting it, should be worth so much more, and that's where the coefficients kick in. Macclesfield's win is 4.25 times more unlikely than Palace's 2-1 win and therefore worth that much more. A Macclesfield 2-1 win is worth 140.42 points where as Palace's 2-1 win has a value of 2.84

And you could double or treble this by banking on it 😳😳😳

BUT, bold and underlined so must be important, Bankers, if you get them wrong will hurt, as you will end up with MINUS points!!!! And as the rounds progress, the MINUS points will get bigger.

All Points are calculated at the end of normal time Draws are therefore a distinct possibility.

Once the cash pot is known, the winnings will be announced, but as per the previous seasons it's likely to be paid out to the top three teams of each half of competition, with a higher percentage of the pot going to the main competition.

Cup Last Player Standing

Alongside the main competition there will be a Last Player Standing Competition based on the points you score each round. You don’t need to do anything extra

BUT, the points in this competition WILL ignore be based on correct score and result predictions only, and will IGNORE any Banker enhancements or penalties.

Every one entering the main competition will be included and as long as you stay away from the bottom of the group left standing each round, you will play along in the next round, all the way through to the FInal Round when the 'Best' player will be crowned Champion

The final numbers knocked out each round will be declared before a ball is kicked, and will be determined by the number of entrants we have.

Last season 32 joined the Cup Competition, which was won by 2 T'Wire.

Similar numbers this time would see us probably evict the bottom 4 teams every round, leaving 4/6 to fight it out in the Final Round.

Wanna Join

Let's make it nice and easy. A simple thumbs up on the WhatsApp message gets you in.

£25.00 gets you in

As always, a percentage of all joining fees will be paid across to charity.

I've picked the The Bradley Lowery Foundation this time round, We last supported them at the beginning of the year at the first AGM, and sent £823.44 to the charity.

Over the last 3 and half years we've now sent over £10,055.17 to the charities we've supported, made up of not just a cut from our signing on fees, but also kind donations of winnings and extra pennies sent when joining. If you want to add more to the charity this time, just let me know when you sign up, or just send more than £25 for the signing on fee, and I will probably work out what you've done this end.

It makes the charities by far the biggest winner from our competitions. Thanks everyone that takes part.

So feel free to share this with like minded individuals who think they might know a thing or two about football, and in particular the cup. They are welcome to join this, even if they aren't (yet) in the Main Competition.

The More The Merrier

Signing Up is EASY - Just message me back.