It's GW32 of the Fantasy League and that can mean only 1 thing. The Hive FPL Cup is back!

For many managers , the cup represents the final chance of silverware this season with the titles of the head to head leagues in both divisions looking like a certainty while only a handful of sides can realistically hope to win the classic league.

In fact, the likes of @shamzy and @skander enter the Hive Cup looking to complete an historic treble , while @thoth442 will be hoping to defend the title that they won last season.

How does the Hive FPL Cup work?

It's a pretty straight forward knock out competition based on head to head matches drawn from sides taking part in the Hive FPL Classic League.

The team that scores the most points in the head to head fixture goes through to the next round, the team that loses goes out! There will be 7 rounds starting in GW32 and going all the way through to the final round of fixtures in GW38 which is when the final will be.

Another way to consider it is that to win the cup, you need to win 7 head to head matches in a row!

In the event that the scores are tied in any given round then the following tie breakers determine who progresses

1. Most goals scored in the Gameweek
2. Fewest goals conceded in the Gameweek
3. Virtual coin toss

Prizes

Each week they'll be a 10 Hive prize fund distributed evenly between all the teams that win their cup matches. That means that the prizes for winning will increase as we get deeper into the contest and teams begin to fall by the wayside.

Round 1 fixtures

Fixtures to look out for in round 1

@shamzy (Shamzy FC) are top of the Division 1 head to head league and top of the classic league at the moment despite having had a couple of fairly average weeks. They have been drawn against @gvkanten (Hungry Lions) in one of two all Division 1 clashes taking place in round 1.

While Hungry Lions have dropped off the pace a little in recent weeks, they are still 7th in the classic league and so this fixture will see one of the pre-tournament favourites exit the cup early doors.

The other all Division 1 fixture sees defending cup champions @thoth442 (thoth442) take on @yagman01 (Yagman FC). These 2 sides are so closely matched that they've both scored 1806 points across 31 game weeks of fantasy football and are seperated by just 2 points and places in the head to head league. Picking a winner from this tie looks difficult!

Other Divison 1 sides involved include @amirtheawesome1 (The Amirians) who are currently bottom of Division 1 coming up against @rubilu (Rubilu) who have scored exactly 100 fewer points than their opponents so far this season. Meanwhile, another side who look likely to drop out of the top flight are @pvmihalache (Content Creators). They face a potentially difficult fixture against @jimah1k (The inferno squad) who are one of the teams vying to replace then in Division 1 next season.

Almost assured of Division 1 football next season, @skanderh (Skander TN) face one of 3 teams in the Hive Classic League who don't have a Hive account linked to their team. If you're reading this post and you know who these people are, ask them to drop a comment below so that I can update our records - you can't win Hive prizes without a linked account!

We also have a few teams who only entered the classic league this year and are therefore playing in their first head to head of the season. Teams like @alovely088 (My Squad) don't look like they've been updated for a very long time. Of course that my prove advantageous if they re-engage with their FPL account now as they have all their chips in play to give them a good shot at winning some of the bigger Hive prizes in later rounds...

Byes in round 1

The maximum number of teams that can take part in an FPL Cup is 128 and in order to get that number down to 64 for round 2, it means that the following teams will receive a bye in round 1 based on the score they achieved in GW31.

They'll be back for GW32, meaning that we'll have a full 32 fixture round 2 to look forward to.

Until then, best of luck to those playing in Hive Cup round 1 this weekend. Maybe we'll see you next week...