The Pre-Match Preamble – Gameweek 33

Motivation is a problem. It’s an x-factor that can warp results, inspire teams to rip up the form book and earn goals and points from unlikely scenarios. At the same time a lack of drive can see established sources of Fantasy points fail to live up to their billing and disappoint.

Then there is our own motivation as Fantasy managers. I can’t help but feel this morning that, if I was comparing my season to a Premier League side, I’d be Aston Villa: brief moments of promise have punctured a campaign riddled with a lack of consistency and a failure to string together results. Now, just like Paul Lambert, I look on the remaining Gameweeks and wonder what motivation I can gain.

There’s not a sniff of prize money. No real opportunity to make a dent in my mini-leagues. I’m effectively seeing out the season and trying not to allow my mind to wander to next season’s likely player pricing.

It’s makes me wonder if the Fantasy games are missing a trick. Coming from a videogame background, and as someone still part of that industry, it’s interesting to note the parallels between that pursuit and Fantasy sports. In video games, loyalty to a brand (shudder) or game is a key factor and yet, in Fantasy Football, the game organisers appear to put little stock in attempting to claim loyalty from their customers. Or at least it appears that way.

I’m talking about cross-season game elements – rewards that can be gained in one season that affect or are present in your next. As more and more Fantasy games enter the marketplace, gaining the loyalty of your player base seems a key objective and yet, aside from the fact that we have our preferred rulesets, Fantasy Football seems to rely on the fact that we are drawn to the games that our friends or colleagues play.

What if the majority of Fantasy managers still had something to play for in April? What if I could gain a trinket for finishing in the top 100,000 rather than settle for my current miserable rank? Obviously I have some drive to do better but, at this stage in the season, what can I really gain from trying? A sense of pride? Is that enough to hold my interest?

Wildcards, extra transfers, free transfers or extra funds – these are all rewards that could potentially unbalance the game and cause longer-term issues season on season. I can understand the reluctance to open those particular cans of worms but how about qualification for a new cup – tournaments created from pools of players who finish in particular rank brackets? If I finish in the top 100,000 I get to enter a cup with other Fantasy managers in that bracket next season, with a better prize on offer than the cup tournament created from teams finishing this season outside of that rank. It’s a Europa League of sorts – except, unlike that particular tournament, there’d be a genuine clamour to qualify.

Even in a campaign where I find myself sharing a late night dram with Paul Lambert and reflecting on what might have been, I’d still have something to aim for. In turn, the Fantasy games would keep players motivated to the end and go some way to ensuring that players return next season rather than look elsewhere. When the suits meet around a table in the summer, that’s got to be a key discussion, right? Unlike their other potentially wacky marketing ideas, I reckon we’d be up for this one.