I think it's my turn to take one for the FISO team and start this thread off, as traditionally whoever does so is eliminated in either the quallies or Round 1.
According to the FPL site Round 1 will be in GW17 (Dec 14th) with 4,194,304 qualifiers and, although it doesn't explicitly say how qualifying will work this season, assuming it's the same as before means the qualifying round will be GW16 - this weekend's matches.
As these questions always seem to be asked (and probably will be again anyway) here's a reminder of how it all works:
Entry is automatic for everyone who has entered a team, so there's no need to do anything.
In order to qualify for Round 1 proper you need to finish with a GW (Not OR) rank at least less than 4,194,305 in GW16.
If more than 4,194,304 teams have a rank lower than 4,194,305 (almost certain to happen) then there is a random draw to determine the final places.
e.g if you finish in a group of 1,000 teams with a rank of 4,193,501 then you will face a virtual draw in which 804 will be selected to go through to Round 1 and 196 are eliminated.
For the qualifying round (GW16), your GW ranking is not affected by transfer hits (-4s), but it is affected by the number of transfers you make.
So, if we consider 2 teams for example:
TEAM A which scores 50 points with 2 Free Transfers
TEAM B which scores 50 points with 1 Free Transfer and also takes 1 hit for -4
Both TEAM A and TEAM B will have the same GW ranking as they have both scored 50 points and made 2 transfers.
However TEAM C, which scores 50 points with 1 Free Transfer will be ranked immediately above both of them.
If you survive the qualification round then congratulations, you are through to Round 1. From here it's a straightforward knockout competition with the team with the highest GW score (after transfer hits are deducted) going through to face another random opponent in the next round. Free transfers do not affect the result in the knockout rounds. Any chips played will count towards your score as normal.
In the case of a tie the tie-breakers are:
1. Most goals scored in the GW
2. Fewest goals conceded in the GW
3. Virtual coin toss.
Goals scored/conceded are calculated using your final XI after auto-subs. Goals conceded are counted for Midfielders and Forwards as well as GKs and Defenders. Goals scored by Captains, Vice Captains or Triple Captains do not count double or triple. I'm not sure if we've ever established if the BB chip affects the count of goals scored/conceded, but I would suspect that only the XI players on the pitch are counted*.
I think that just about covers everything. I'll keep a tally of how everyone fares who posts on here.
Good luck everyone.
*Update: See MoSe's posts below. It is suspected that all XV players count in a tiebreak for Goals Scored or Conceded if the BB chip is in play. If anyone comes across any occurrences of this during the cup then a post here so we all know for sure would be much appreciated.
