FAQS
UPDATE 30/10/23 Thanks for your patience to those waiting on points for the other baker eliminated last week. You will now see those points flagged on your week 5 nomination breakdown in the private league page. They currently don’t appear in your total points tally in your league standings, but this will all be updated after we next run the calculations following the episode on Tuesday night.
ABOUT THE NEW MEMBERSHIP LEVELS:
What started as a spreadsheet game between friends has grown into a fantastic online community and as fans ourselves, we have always sought to make the game free-to-play for all. However, the costs of hosting and maintaining the site have grown as the number of users has grown, and this year we have been unable to secure a sponsor to cover some of these costs.
We’ve made the difficult decision that, whilst there will remain a free-to-play option, access to private leagues will now involve a small fee of £3 per user (for any number of private leagues).
After consulting with a cross-section of fans of Fantasy Bake Off, we have decided that the best option for the long-term sustainability of the game is to introduce two membership levels.
The basic membership Dough Dabbler is free and will allow you to make predictions as normal and see your scores on your dashboard, weekly breakdowns and in the overall and regional leagues.
Or, for only £3 for a year per user account, you can upgrade to be a “Cake Connoisseur”, which will enable you to participate in the private leagues you have joined previously, and to join or create new private leagues, as many as you like. You can choose to upgrade at any time so anyone can play for free, making predictions and scoring points as normal and then decide to upgrade and join leagues later on if they wish.
We appreciate that any extra expenditure can be difficult given the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, but we hope that you feel that this change is fair and that many of you will join us again for the highs and lows of Fantasy Bake Off 2023! If you have enjoyed playing the game in previous years please consider upgrading to be a Cake Connoisseur in order that you and others can continue to enjoy Fantasy Bake Off in the future.
Nikki & Steve
Paying for multiple memberships: If you would prefer to pay for some or all of the other players in your league, we can send you a payment link and upgrade the multiple memberships from our end. Please email us at [email protected] to let us know the league name and code (in the case of players already in an existing league), or the email addresses of the specific players you would like upgraded in the case of a new league or new league members. We’ll then email you a payment link for the amount corresponding to the number of players to be upgraded.
How many leagues can I join?
As many as you want! There is no limit- for the £3 upgrade to Cake Connoisseur you can create or join as many leagues as you like. Pit your knowledge against all of your different groups of friends, colleagues & family.
How do I create a private league?
The user who sets up a private league will be the chairperson of that league. As a chairperson you have to first register and then:
1) Click on “Create a private league”
2) Choose a name for your league and add a photograph if you wish
3) Use the “invite” facility to email friends & family to invite them to join your league by sending the league ID number
How many players can I have in my private league?
For the purpose of the smooth running of the website there is a limit of twenty players per private league. You can however have multiple leagues, so you can compare your predictions against those of all your various groups of friends and family with one set of nominations.
How do I join a private league?
If you want to join an existing private league you will need to know its league ID number, which the chairperson of that particular league can give you. Then click on ‘Join a league’ on your dashboard page and enter the league ID number when prompted.
How do I remove players from my private league?
The league administrator can block players from the league by clicking on the red ‘X’ by the relevant record in the private league. If you can see the league code above the league table then you are the league admin! If on a mobile device you may need to change your screen orientation or scroll across in order to see the ‘X’. Clicking on it will remove the player from the classification and they can then no longer see your league or be seen. If you are near the 20 player limit you will need to contact us at [email protected] to delete the blocked player entirely from the league in order to free up space, Please block the player first in order to help us identify the user to be removed.
What is the deadline for making choices?
Your weekly nominations must be made before the beginning of the UK broadcast of each episode, which currently is at 8PM British summer Time on Tuesdays. The countdown on the home page and your dashboard page will tell you how long you have left. You can change your choices any number of times up until this deadline.
NOTE FOR NETFLIX VIEWERS: If catching up on Netflix please be aware that the show is released three days later than the broadcast of the episode on British television. Please therefore ensure that your nominations are made before 8PM BST on Tuesday each week and that you do not access the site between Tuesday evening in the UK and Friday if you want to avoid the results.
What happens if I forget to update my weekly choices prior to the deadline?
You need to update your choices after every episode in order to have a chance of scoring points in the next episode, even if you want to nominate the same bakers as you did for the previous round. If you do not make an update in time you will have no nominations for that episode and will score no points that week.
I joined FBO after the second episode, can I still get points for choosing the three contestants that I think are most likely to win the competition?
Unfortunately not. In order to ensure that all the predictions for the final three are made with the same level of knowledge regarding the bakers in the programme, the deadline for this has been set to expire immediately prior to the second episode being broadcast.
What do the following terms mean?
Best Baker is the contestant thought by the judges in the programme to have been most successful in a particular week’s episode.
Technical Round is the second bake in an episode whereby contestants have to follow a recipe provided by one of the judges.
Why can I only see some of the other user records in the overall and regional leagues?
For the smooth running of the site for all users you can see the records of the users in the five positions immediately above and below you in the overall and regional leagues, plus the top ten in each league. In a private league you will be able to see everyone’s records.
When can I view the weekly choices of the other users in the leagues?
As soon as the weekly deadline has expired you can see the latest choices of all the users in your private leagues and those of the five users immediately above and below you in the overall and private leagues.
Why are my friends not receiving my league invitations?
Your email invitation might have been deemed as spam or junk mail. In which case just email the league ID & details directly to them.
Why is the site not displaying correctly for me?
There are a number of different browsers (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Opera, Firefox and more) and many different versions of each browser. This website makes use of computer language JavaScript, and your browser must support that language, otherwise not be displayed correctly.
In order for this website to work correctly you must use Internet Explorer version 10.0 or later.
To find out which version of Internet Explorer you are running, press ‘Help’ in the browser menu and select ‘About Internet Explorer’.
If you want to get a new version such as Internet Explorer, you can download it free here: Download IE
What happens if a contestant leaves voluntarily during the competiton?
Points are to be awarded or subtracted in respect of a contestant being eliminated from the competition following a decision of the judges in the programme. If a contestant leaves due to illness, injury or to any other personal circumstances FBO points will be unaffected by their departure from the tent, eg if “Mr X” falls ill either during an episode or between episodes and has to withdraw from the programme, a user who predicted Mr X to leave will not score for that, nor will a user who predicted Mr X as Best Baker lose points. In the unlikely case of a baker voluntarily deciding to quit the show during the filming of an episode, points will be affected if, in the opinion of fantasybakeoff.co.uk, their decision is related to their performance that episode and the judges regard that contestant as having left due to under achieving during that episode, even if they are not the only contestant to leave that week. The decision of fantasybakeoff.co.uk in such circumstances is final.
How many user accounts can I have?
In the interests of fair play this is a strictly one user account per individual. One user account can be used in any number of private leagues (subject to chairperson approval for each league), using a single set of nominations. If it comes to our attention that an individual user has more than one user account, all of his/her accounts other than the first one registered will be deleted.
My question has still not been answered..help!??
The following links might be useful:
If you are still stuck then please contact us via [email protected]