Here at StrictlyDB we love anything fun and related to our favourite dancing show. That’s why we were delighted last year to come across and play “Fantasy Strictly Come Dancing” (FSCD). Luckily it’s back, launching yesterday for players to join the game for Series 21!

FSCD is strictly unofficial, not endorsed in any way by the BBC, just run for people to play with friends, family and fellow Strictly fans. The idea originated ten years ago, taking the format from fantasy football, but adapting the rules to fit a TV game show.

“It all started as a bit of a laugh and we originally used facebook to make it easy for a few friends to play together” explain the team at FSCD.  A decade later and that handful of friends has grown to a community of around 80 players pitting their wits each week to guess who will top the leaderboard.

Playing FSCD is easy as it uses Fantasizr.com – a website and app designed for running custom built fantasy games and leagues. The app makes picking your dancers and checking your scores really easy.

So how does it work? Well the instructions are clearly explained on Fantasizr but essentially you create a Dance Team (ideally with a silly name – dance puns welcome) and each week you ‘buy’ a set of dancers to be in your team. Each dancer has a price and you have a budget – so choose wisely.  Dancers then get points based on things like judge scores, who you choose as your ‘Team Captain’ and whether they sit at the top or bottom of the leaderboard. There’s a bit more to it but that’s the essence – and it’s a lot of fun.

FCSD uses the Fantasizr app making it quick and easy to play

Last year, Lara won FSCD with her team ‘Quickstep on it!’. She explains;

I love Strictly Come Dancing but playing Fantasy Strictly brings a whole new level of enjoyment to it. By choosing a different team each week, I root for different people to get me a good score which adds a new dimension to my watching enjoyment.

The fantazier app is easy to use and the scores are all calculated for you. The instructions are clear and it’s fun to see how your predictions work out compared to other team’s choices.

I like the fact you have to be a little canny too, thinking ahead to who might stay longest (and not use them up too many times in the early days). I’ve played for about 5 years and won twice so have good bragging rights in my house!

Well done Lara – bragging rights well earned and deserved!

So who will do well this Series and who should we pick for our teams? Well a good starting point to help you decide is to look at the FSCD dancer values (priced in fantasy dollars!). FSCD generate these by looking at odds on betting websites, taking the average and converting them into dancer prices.

With its launch yesterday, we got our first glimpse of how FSCD has valued this year’s celebrities:

• Bobby Brazier  – $10
• Layton Williams  – $9
• Angela Scanlon – $9
• Nigel Harman – $8
• Adam Thomas – $6
• Eddie Kadi – $6
• Zara McDermott – $6
• Ellie Leach – $5
• Annabel Croft – $5
• Angela Rippon – $4
• Amanda Abbington – $3
• Jody Cundy – $2
• Nikita Kanda – $2
• Krishnan Guru-Murthy – $1
• Les Dennis – $1

How will you spend your fantasy budget of $22? Bobby and Layton are contenders for sure, but for my money, Annabel and Jody already look like real bargains! And whilst the odds were pretty accurate last year, they completely missed Hamza, considering him an outside bet, and consequently he was only priced at $2 in the game.

Hooked yet? Well if you fancy finding out more check out the Fantasy Strictly Come Dancing (FSCD) Facebook page and if you’d like to play you can sign up and join the FSCD league at Fantasizr. Thank you FSCD for running the game and I look forward to seeing some of you on the fantasy dancefloor – Come on “Team Dancemattic”!!! 😉