G'day folks, it's that time of year again where the sound of willow smacking leather is cheered on by big crowds.
Yep, Big Bash cricket fantasy is now just around the corner with the first round kicking off on the evening of Tuesday 20th December.
This year we have two fantasy comps for BBL-06 (much like last year where we had the official BBL fantasy comp and the Fox Sports fantasy BBL comp) - however for this, the sixth incarnation of BBL, we see the Fox Sports comp replaced by a Supercoach comp!!!
There are some differences with the 2 competitions, most notably in the make-up of your teams but also in scoring as well as (most importantly) the prizes - these differences can be found by reading up in the help section of the 2 different competitions, however I will just quickly run through some of them below.

Official BBL fantasy
Your squad will comprise 16 players - 5 Batsmen / 5 Bowlers / 1 Wicketkeeper on field and 2 Batsmen / 2 Bowlers / 1 Wicketkeeper on the bench - these 16 players must be accommodated within the $1million salary cap.
This season, the official BBL fantasy comp has done away with the seperate "All-Rounders" line on the field to better reflect the true nature of T20 cricket where All-Rounders are both Batsmen and Bowlers.
You can choose these players as either a Batsman or as a Bowler and use the DPP flexibility to get the best team possible on field each round.
There are 3 trades available during each of the trade periods following each round - but beware, you generally only have until the next afternoon/evening before the next round starts!!!
You are able to make an unlimited number of changes (on initial entry) to your team up until the start of the respective match for each player of the first round of the competition. With the Rolling lockout each round, you can trade and substitute players, and select your Captain/Vice-Captain, throughout each round right up to the start time of their team's match.
Only 2 of the 8 rounds see all 8 teams playing, so beware of the Byes and don't get caught out with a bye player on field!!!
Similarly, there are a total of 9 DGW's (Double Game Weeks) throughout the 8 rounds where players in those teams score in both games (provided they play in both) - great for extra points and ideal for Captain choices!!!
Now for Prizes - there is $10,000 up for grabs for the overall winner of the official BBL fantasy comp, however this isn't the only prize available.
The highest individual score for each of the 8 preliminary rounds will be awarded $500 (total of $4,000).
There is also a Pre-Registration prize where the participant who registers at any time from November 17 to 11:59pm AEDT on December 10 2016, and provides the most creative response (as judged by Cricket Australia) to the registration question "In 25 words or less, tell us who will be the player of the BBL|06 tournament and why" will win $1,000.
There are also 8 "BBL Team Supported" prizes where the supporter of each of the 8 BBL franchises with the highest scores wins 2 Premium Memberships for their supported team for the 2017/18 BBL season!!!
And that's not all - there is also a best performing league prize where the highest combined score of the eight participants in a private league (in 8-team leagues only) at the end of the competition will win $6,000 to be divided equally among the participants.

So there you go, that's the Official BBL Fantasy competition - you can enter here http://fantasy.bigbash.com.au
In the comments I will post League ID's for TS leagues for anyone here at TS interested in trying to have a crack at the League prize

Supercoach BBL
The new kid on the block, SC BBL virtually replaces the former Fox Sports BBL fantasy comp and they look like they seriously want to dominate the BBL fantasy market like they do with AFL and NRL!!!
As mentioned earlier, the main differences with SC BBL are the player selection set-up and the scoring - with SC BBL requiring you to still pick All-Rounders as opposed to having these players have DPP status, thus making it a far more complex game when selecting your squad!!!
In SC BBL you only pick a 15 man squad (4 Batsmen/4 Bowlers/1 Wicketkeeper/2 All-Rounders on field plus 1 in each position on the bench) - all in the constraints of a $2million salary cap with some fairly hefty prices for some of the really big names!!!
The same rules apply with DGW's, Byes, Trades and Rolling Lockouts as they do in Fantasy, it's primarily the composition of the squad that will give you the biggest headaches - but potentially greater rewards if you manage to get it right!!!
Prizes for overall placings run much deeper for SC than they do in Fantasy - check it out!!!
Finish the 2016-17 season as Australia's top BBL SuperCoach and you'll scoop
$10,000 CASH
PLUS...
If you're one of the NINE runners-up, you don't go home empty-handed!
2nd place wins
$2,000
3rd to 10th take home
$1,000 each
Each round, the top SuperCoach BBL (based on their round score) will win a cricket bat signed by personalities appearing on the on the Fox Sports Cricket Show - So even if your team is lagging in the overall rankings or you discovered the competition late, you'll be in the running for a SuperCoach round prize.
And that's not all - if you're a subscriber to any of the News Ltd publications/digital services then you are eligible to be in the running for the "Big Six - Subscriber Competition prize - In addition to playing the general SuperCoach BBL game, your entry will also accumulate points when any of your selected 15 players on your squad hits a 6 in the real competition. You'll receive 1 point each time a player in your selected and entered 15, as it stands during each round, hits a 6 during their match/es. The Big Six mini-competition is open EXCLUSIVELY to participants who are news network subscribers for the entirety of the period between 9/01/17 and 31/01/17. The eligible subscriber who accumulates the highest number of Big Six points at the end of the tournament will win $1,000
Unfortunately SC BBL do not have a League prize this season, but it wouldn't surprise me to see that change in future seasons.
I haven't got all the individual SC signup portals (with each News Ltd publication having different sites it is much the same as signing up for SC AFL or NRL through the site in your state) but this is the South Australian portal via the Adelaide Advertiser site - http://supercoach.adelaidenow.com.au/bbl

In the comments I will post the 2 different scoring formats as well as current TS leagues available (and I will edit this opening post with any new Leagues posted and how many positions are available).

So jump in folks and enjoy another season of BBL to give you a fantasy fix until our favourite SC AFL opens

Official KFC BBL Fantasy Leagues:
- TOO SERIOUS (420747) - 3 spots remaining

SC BBL Leagues:
- TOO SERIOUS (782059) - FULL
- TS TOO (369490) - 7 spots