By Dung Huynh Alright folks, today I wanna talk about something real – making free subs work in that IPL Fantasy thing back in 2021. This wasn’t some magic formula I dreamed up, nah. It came from pure frustration and wanting to win more, period.
The Head-Scratching Started
Remember the season? Loads of games crammed together, double-headers every other day, chaos! I kept seeing my main guys, the expensive ones I picked, sitting out games. Injury? Rest? Who knows! The app wouldn’t tell you squat until the last minute. I’d wake up, check the team, and boom, two players gone. Zero points. And the guys I could swap in? My cheap bench players weren’t even playing! My team was basically dead weight. Getting murdered in the leagues because my players weren’t even on the field.
The “Oh Shoot” Moment
I kept messing up. I’d see a big name like Rohit or Rashid Khan somehow cheap, grab him, thinking I was smart… only for him to get dropped or rested the next match! Felt like an idiot. Or, I’d stubbornly hold onto a player everyone else benched, thinking “Nah, today’s his day”… only for him to get another duck. Cost me points every single time. My main fails?
- Sticking with flops: Holding onto expensive batsmen stuck in a rut.
- Ignoring cheap bench: Letting those cheap guys rot instead of checking if they were actually playing.
- Swapping too early: Yanking a slightly out-of-form star right before he blasted a century… felt like kicking myself.
- Panicking: Seeing my player dropped, then swapping in anyone playing, even if they sucked points.
Actually Starting to Do Something Smart (Kinda)
Enough was enough. I needed to actually use the free subs you get, but do it right. My plan? Turn my bench from useless to a safety net.
- Forced myself to look at cheap players, but ONLY the ones likely to actually play. Didn’t matter if they were unknown. If they were playing, they got points. Simple.
- Stalked team news. Seriously, became obsessive right before matches. Twitter, news sites, anything for hints on who was playing, especially for teams resting stars. If Virat Kohli was taking a break, I needed to know who replaced him.
- Kept an eye on form. Didn’t ditch a proven star just for one bad game. Gave them a couple of chances, especially if the matchup was decent. But if the slump went on? Gone.
- Save a sub for emergencies: Tried to keep one free swap in my back pocket, just in case some random guy got dropped last minute. No more panicking.
- Targeted double-headers: This was key! On days with two games? Swapped aggressively. Bring in players playing the second game early in the day. If my first-game players flopped, I subbed ’em out for fresh legs playing later. Double the chance to fix my mistakes!
The Win (Mostly)
It wasn’t perfect. Still got burned sometimes when news dropped late. But man, my average points jumped big time. Went from barely cracking the top half in my league to finishing in the top 10% by the end. Those cheap, unknown players coming in and scoring 30 or 40 points? That was the difference. Using subs actively, not passively, made it feel like I had some control again. Got smarter about which risks to take and when to play it safe. That season taught me the hard way – free subs are your lifeline. Use them wisely or get crushed.
