Last year, there was only one game in town when it came to playing a fantasy NWSL game. This year, there are three! All of them have their pros and cons, so let's dig in to the options.
ShePlays
The dedicated team at ShePlays (sheplays.com.au) are volunteers in Australia that have been running women's soccer fantasy games since 2017. They have been covering WSL for six seasons, are running an NWSL league and a UWCL league and have had a World Cup league in the past. They are also the site we used last year for our Ride of the Valkyries league and the league is back there again.
Join us with league code: "rovalks" at ShePlays
At ShePlays you set up your starting team using a budget of $3.5m for a roster of 15 players. You can make one transfer freely each week and further transfers cost point deductions the following week. Prices are set for the year, so no need to try and build team value, those bargains you find will stay bargains. There are a lot of bonus points available in ShePlays so sometimes goal scorers will be outshined by high-volume passers who are controlling the game and defensive mids who are active in making tackles, interceptions and clearances. Lineups are locked before the first game of the week kicks off. It is a fun way to play and feels quite different from something like MLS's official fantasy league.
Notably, it is a volunteer group and their interface feels rough compared to others (and there is no app). Still, it is a solid game once you learn how to navigate the team building and stats sections.
FantasyNWSL
This new and appropriately named platform is run by Even Sports, who also run the "FantasyWSL" platform that launched in 2023 and apparently has reached over 30,000 players. By comparison, the official MLS league has about 12,500 players registered this year. I have not played fantasy WSL before, so I can not speak to how that game is run. However, I have spent a bit of time setting up a team and can say that their app has the kind of sleek design you would expect from a professional organization. And I stress app here, it does not seem like you can manage your team through a web browser, in direct opposition to ShePlays. EDIT: I found the web platform and ended up having to use it because the current version of the app was not letting me save my initial team! So if you have problems with the app, you can log in through a browser to set your squad.
Join us with league code: "KXW3KQ7" at FantasyNWSL
With FantasyNWSL you receive a budget of $100m for a roster of 15 players. Prices do change throughout the season (I don't know if your budget does along with price changes) and you get two free transfers. Generous. Prices change based on demand rather than performance, so popular players will creep up or down in value by $0.1m per week.
The point system is heavily weighted towards goals+assist and clean sheets, as only three players in a match (out of 22) get any bonus points (3, 2, and 1) based on who does best with their advanced stats. However, if you pick players who are less than 2% owned and they earn points beyond their basic minutes played points, you can get an extra three bonus points for picking a "Visionary" player (I'm calling these KangPoints). You also get some one-time-use "Tactics" that let you boost various parts of your team once per season. Lineups here also lock an hour before the first game kicks off, so no lineup watching necessary (or allowed).
I plan to give this one a try to see how it goes. The rules remind me of older MLS fantasy rules (that I assume are still popular with Euro fantasy leagues), especially with prices based on demand instead of performance. And having an easy-to-use app for team building is helpful.
Hera Games
Another new platform this year comes from Hera Games, who is running a DRAFT (!) platform intended for eight-team leagues. Roster building is very easy in this mode, you just pick your players at the beginning of the year and move them in or out as the season goes along. The game is clearly still in a "beta" mode, as there are some things missing from the website (I could not find how points are scored within the game's pages after logging in but did find it on the FAQs that only seem to be linked from the login page if you aren't logged in), but it seems to function properly from my poking around.
If you're interested in joining us for a draft league, you can find us on Discord by subscribing at Supporter level.
My ShePlays Week 1 team
I am decidedly unqualified to give broad league-wide fantasy advice for NWSL as I have not been paying close enough attention to league moves or preseason performance. But, for a nice little snippet, I'll give you the Week 1 fantasy squad I have put together (it could be bad and I may not even have a squad full of starters here but it's what I've got).
