The Fantasy Football Scout community spent the last seven days dusting down after another eventful double Gameweek, whilst beginning preparations for yet another to come in a fortnight’s time. We look back on discussions of the current best-laid plans, whilst revisiting the reaction to our new live and interactive ScoutCast. Elsewhere, in this week’s round-up, we focus on the community leagues dedicated to those Fantasy managers rising like a phoenix from the ashes of a dismal start.
The Hottest Topics
For many of the community, Gameweek 34 was one to forget, as faith in much-fancied double Gameweek captains, Sergio Aguero and Romelu Lukaku, fell flat. It was left to Jason Puncheon to supply the Gameweek’s biggest score – an unlikely source which inspired us to ask whether Gameweek 34’s events will influence decision-making when the next double rolls around. Saata was unshaken in his support of the heavy-hitters, announcing his backing for Aguero for City’s matches. Meanwhile, Applebonkers offered a word of caution for those holding out on David Silva – stating that his ongoing ankle problems are likely to see the Spaniard miss out on one of City’s pair of fixtures. It was a subject that received further analysis from Bantamphil only this morning in his post on Silva’s prospects through to Gameweek 38.
Not content on looking ahead to Gameweek 37, Archie focused on the great Fantasy Football lottery that is the final Gameweek of the season. His excellent analysis singled out those teams still driven by the motivation of glory or survival and those with their minds already on the first tee.
With Aaron Ramsey back in action and back in the points, the pool of midfield talent is filling up by the week, providing the catalyst for Fantasy managers to consider a move away from the trusted 3-4-3 and consider drafting in five across the middle. Irish Madridista was on hand to offer this nuts and bolts guide to the midfield options, covering heavy-hitters, form players and some cheaper punts for those seeking an end-of-season flair pick.
We jumped on that bandwagon further by asking for your views on the perfect midfield five. Moin piped up to nominate David Silva, Juan Mata, Christian Eriksen, Santi Cazorla and Raheem Sterling as his quintet of choice, while Crystal Pulis, included Adam Lallana and Steven Gerrard in his selection. Few of those involved picked out “traditional” midfield generals other than Gerrard, a view that inspired one of our most active hot topics of the week, as we pondered whether Gerrard and his fellow central midfielders can continue to keep pace with their attacking counterparts next term. Saint Adam questioned whether Yaya Toure could replicate this season’s haul, while Yes the Sess! also felt that the era of the high-scoring central midfielder will be short lived.
The week also saw plenty of discussion surrounding our revamped ScoutCast. For the first time the community were given the opportunity to interact during the recording of an episode, whilst watching a live stream of Mark, Granville and the team. TorresMagic asked for the community’s thoughts on the new format with The 3rdTurd calling for fewer beards, after discovering that the hosts and special guest Luke Weston, the Fantasy Premier League number one, were all sporting unkempt facial hair on the night.
The new podcast format involved the community quizzing the hosts and their guests on their season so far. Arbroath 36-0’s question on this season’s most infuriating player, was among those aired on the night. Pug Life announced that he was most frustrated by Charlie Adam’s inconsistencies and on-field squabbles, while Rigby of St Pauli was quick to consign Lukaku to the dog-house – a fate compounded by his Gameweek 34 failings. It was a subject that received further attention earlier today, with Fortunesalwayshiding enquiring as to our Heroes and Villains from the season.
Finally, just a week on from nominating the community’s most helpful posters, The Stock did his bit as a good Samaritan by submitting a superb stat attack, packed full of useful information about the key teams and players to digest as the season draws to a close.
The Community Tournaments
There was celebration in HeelsOver Head’s Worst to First- 2 Million+ Club, for teams with an overall rank below 2,000,000 in the first five Gameweeks, as leader Teltzham Hotspurs became the competition’s first manager to break the 1,000 rank mark. He ascended to an impressive 908 following Gameweek 34’s matches. Yolo Toure is in second with a rank of 5,564 and Bales of Fury sits in third with a rank of 8,280. There are now seven teams within the top 100,000.
There were some similarly impressive climbers in Kings of Lyon’s Who Wants To Be A Millionaire league, for those with a rank outside of the top 1,000,000 at the Gameweek 8 mark. Of the 61 entrants, all but two are now safely in the top 1,000,000, 19 are within the top 100,000 and there are two managers in the top 10,000, including top place Elizabeth Genius, who sits in 2,982.
Chickenwithpeas’s score of 83 was enough to secure top spot in @ocprodigy’s Gameweek 34 Scout Pick Challenge, which is loosely based on our own Scout Picks. Legendkiller was in second with 79 points, while Greenwindmill and LilMessiPran were tied in third on 70 points.
In the Fantasy Football Scout contributors and moderators league, Spencer extended his lead at the top to 13 points following Gameweek 34 and the final of AZ’s FFS Non-Qualifier Cup saw our Sky expert D1sable crowned champion, after beating DannyRex25 by a 14-point margin.
In TorresMagic‘s competitions, AJ topped Last Man Standing where six were eliminated leaving 11 to fight out the last three rounds. His FPL Open and Elite 64 competitions have now reached the quarter final stage. Full details can be found here.
