How to Play Strat-O

The core of Strat-O is building your fantasy team for each event. Your team must consist of exactly **6 athletes**: 3 male and 3 female.

You'll select these athletes from a roster of real-world orienteers who are on the start list for the event.

Strategy comes into play with the budget system. Each athlete has a "star" rating based on their skill, and you have a limited budget.

• Discipline-Specific Stars: An athlete's star rating depends on the event's discipline ('Forest' or 'Sprint').
• Total Event Budget: Your entire 6-person team must not exceed the event's total star budget (e.g., 20 stars).
• Gender Budget: Additionally, your 3 male athletes have their own budget (e.g., 12 stars), and your 3 female athletes have a separate budget of the same amount. You must stay within all three budgets!

Your team earns points based on how your chosen athletes perform in the real-world event. Points are awarded for podium finishes:

Your total event score is the sum of points earned by all 6 athletes on your team.

Before an event, you'll have the chance to answer one or more yes/no bonus questions. A correct answer adds a significant number of points to your event score.

Your performance is tracked on two types of leaderboards:

• Event Leaderboards: See how you stacked up against others for a specific event.
• Global Leaderboard: Your total score from all events contributes to your global rank for the season.

If you are an orienteering athlete yourself, you can link your Strat-O account to your official athlete profile on your Profile page. This gives you several perks:

• A special
  verified badge
  next to your name.
• A **1-star discount** when you pick yourself for your own fantasy team.
• Access to view the **Top 10** on the global leaderboard (instead of just the Top 3).