With the majority of matches happening from 4am Malaysian time, the 2014 World Cup presents quite a challenge for many Malaysians. With matches ranging from 12 (comfortable for most Malaysians familiar with the English football league) stretching all the way into the dawn, you’ll need to pick and choose matches to view carefully.
But sometimes, most fans will just go into hardcore mode, thinking that this is an occasion that only happens every four years so it’s best to make the most of it…and watch every single match they can keep their eyes open for. Naturally, they’ll need some incentive to stay awake; some activities to do during that hour-long break between the 12am and 3am games could help, too. What if we told you there are some local games out there that not only help you while away the time, but tap into your well of football knowledge and potentially win yourself some lucrative prizes?
Stadium Astro Fantasy – #OlaBola Edition
A staple for most football leagues and tournaments, fantasy football lets you choose a team of players from various teams in the league/tournament. These players earn you points which are then tallied at the end of each round; the winners are naturally the ones with the highest score at the end of the season or tournament.
Astro’s Ola Bola Fantasy Football competition for the World Cup is no different: select players from the 32 participating nations and form a team of 11 players with a budget of 100 “stars”, which is the currency used to pick the players into your fantasy team. As is the norm, managers (that would be you) will select a captain from this team, where he will score double the points he earns from that round of matches.
Of course, there’s also a limit for the total number of players selected from a single nation – it won’t be fair if you select the entire Brazilian team! Besides the price limit mentioned earlier, managers can only select a maximum of four players from the same nation into their teams. Hence, it would be wise to do some research on the smaller teams to see if there are any potential match-winners available on the cheap!
Why? Because the best fantasy teams stand a chance of winning some pretty lucrative prizes. The manager of the best fantasy team overall will win him/herself RM5000 cash, as well as a Sony PlayStation 4 and a copy of FIFA 14. Throughout the competition, managers also stand a chance of winning trophies. There are 10 available, and each of them are awarded to the most skilled managers in the competition, and will be displayed in the manager’s profile for others to see. Unfortunately, there’s no word if there is any monetary prizes attached with winning these trophies.
To register your team in this competition, head on to http://fantasy.olabola.stadiumastro.com/. If you have an active Astro account, Astro ID and Football Pass then simply log in with your Astro ID and unlock 6 Bonus Transfers for the game! For the complete set of rules and points scoring table, head on to the rules page here.
Bursa Malaysia Fantasy FTBL.TRADR
Tired of fantasy football games? Bursa Malaysia’s Fantasy FTBL.TRADR game may interest you – especially those with experience in trading stocks. In fact, some may remember the official Barclays English Premier League’s fantasy football website offering this game mode in the 2012-2013 season, where users build a portfolio consisting of players and trade them as they would with stocks – though in a more simplified manner.
Essentially, the Bursa FTBL.TRADR replaces publicly-listed Malaysian companies in favour of every footballer playing at this year’s World Cup. You’ll build and manage a portfolio of players with a starting budget of $130 million, where their values will rise or drop based on their performances in each round. Hence, the basic principles of stock trading will apply here as well: buy low and sell high; spread your investment too thin or too thick, and see unprofitable gains in your portfolio.
The system itself is a little tricky if you’re not used to share trading, but with a total prize pool of RM125,000, you might want to reconsider giving this a pass. The prize pool is split into various segments, but the user who has the highest overall portfolio value still wins a cool RM20,000!
To register for Bursa Malaysia’s Fantasy FTBL.TRADR, head on to its official website here. For a full breakdown of the rules (and prize money!), head on here.
The Star Samba Trivia Contest
A less imaginative alternative would be The Star’s Samba Trivia contest, where users are required to search for a hidden adidas Brazuca World Cup football in one of The Star Online’s webpages and then correctly answer some trivia questions related to the World Cup, and (hopefully) win! There’s cash prizes and adidas merchandise to be won, so if you’re looking for something that may not take up as much time as the other games, this could be the one for you.
To enter The Star’s Samba Trivia contest, head on to the official website here. For the contest mechanics, read them here.
But of course, if you’re looking to test yourself in the international stage as the players are doing at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, head on to http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/games/index.html for a series of games ranging from fantasy football, score predictors, and even an online sticker album contest. Each game offers some pretty lucrative prizes, so if you think you have what it takes, check them out!
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