Help

Or, how does this all work then?

The game is simple. Everyone who takes part gets points for goals, depending on where they're scored and who scored them. That means you're hoping that your selections feature in 16 goal "down in the history books" amazefests, while your fellow contestants watch theirs go down as nil-nil borefests. It makes every game of the tournament interesting, even if you're not normally interested in who is playing, or in football generally.

HOW IT WORKS

You choose one from each of the following categories:

A stadium
A first round group
A team
A player

Crucially, these are not connected. The player you pick can play for anyone, not just for the team you pick. Equally, they don't need to come from the group you picked and so on.

After each match, you score points as follows...

For every goal scored by your chosen player: 2 pts
For every goal scored for or against your chosen team: 1 pt
For every goal scored in all games in your chosen group: 1 pt
For every goal scored in your chosen stadium: 1 pt

You get points for goals individually from each category, so if you pick England, Kane and Group B and he nets a hat-trick against Iran on Nov 21st, you'll get 12 points (6 for him, 3 for the team and 3 for the group).

That's it really. Person with the most points at the end of the tournament wins bragging rates over all their mates.

HOW TO ENTER

Just click the big logo in the top left to go back to the homepage and enter your email address. We'll email you a link that will let you login, and on the first time you pick that, we'll offer you the chance to make your selections. Once their made, that's it, no changing them later. You'll find a big league table on the homepage to see what everyone's standings currently are (and what they picked) and the Games tab will let you see what's upcoming in the tournament, plus the scores as the games are played.

FURTHER INFORMATION

WHAT'S A USER GROUP

If you want to easily compare your scores with a group of friends, perhaps because you're doing a separate sweep on the side, then you can enter a User Group name when you make your selections. If you're the first person to join the group then it will be created automatically, just make sure to then tell your friends what you called it (and they'll have to enter it exactly the same way).

The only thing different about a User Group is that no two users in that group can make the same selections. This is to avoid the situation where the group ends up as a draw. So there is a benefit in making your selections early. This isn't the case for participants not joining a group, where duplication is fine (although not much fun).

WHAT ABOUT OWN GOALS?

Own goals count the same as normal goals, as do penalty kicks scored during the normal course of the match (including any extra time). Penalties scored during penalty shootouts do NOT score points.

WHY "FOR OR AGAINST" YOUR CHOSEN TEAM?

That way teams that might get lots of goals scored AGAINST them are just as interesting to choose as those that might score a lot. If you think a team might get humped in every one of their group matches before going out, that might score you a lot more points than somebody like Italy who may make it further by only scoring one goal per game.

WHY DO I CHOOSE A GROUP TOO?

To keep the game interesting when the tournament reaches the knockout stages, the winner of your chosen group is also added to your selections for the second half of the tournament.

So if you pick Denmark and Group D, and England manage to win that group, then for the knockout stages you'll get points for both Denmark's games (assuming they make it through) and England's. Should they end up playing each other, you'd score double points for every goal in that game.

However, if you picked England and Group B, and England win, then you don't get double points for having them twice. So think carefully about whether you want those points at group or knockout stages.

WHAT ABOUT STADIUM CHOICES?

Not every stadium is hosting the same number of games, so take that into account when choosing. And the later stages often have less goals, so even choosing a venue that gets used later isn't necessarily a win.