Interview – Alex Bowers – UFPL Winner

We continue our summer interviews with Fantasy Football Scout member Alex Bowers, otherwise known as Gavigon within our community, who scooped top spot in the Beta version of the Ultimate Fantasy Premier League (UFPL) game and a tablet computer.

Congratulations on achieving first place. You were first going into the final Gameweek and ended up winning by just five points. Where were you when you realised you had won and what does it feel like to be the inaugural winner of this competition?

My wife had a family hike planned for that day. When I told her that it was the last day of the season and I’d be glued to scoring updates in front of the TV and internet for those two hours it nearly caused a divorce. I was fortunate enough to have a small lead going into the Gameweek, but there were probably ten teams that could have overtaken me with the differentials they had. During the game I had no idea how my team was doing compared to others, and was forlornly hoping that Manchester City would hand the title to my team Liverpool but kept an eye on goal updates. At the end I quickly checked the top ten teams weekly scores and noticed that no-one had enough to go past me and was pretty sure I’d won. It’s polarising being both a fan and a Fantasy player as you usually take both the good and bad from each weekend. As a lifelong Liverpool fan I believed this would be our year even after the Palace game, so there was disappointment together with elation at winning a big Fantasy competition.

What is your history with Fantasy Football?

I started with the Telegraph Fantasy Football game some years ago, and for the last few years have played Fantasy Premier League (FPL) and OFL (Original Fantasy League). I’m also part of a small group which has played an auction game for the last ten plus years, where the highlight is the start of season bidding. I took the wooden spoon this year, so not everything went well. My best finish in FPL was 800 or so a couple of years ago, this season I ended up around 25,000.

What did you think of the differences between UFPL and FPL in terms of squad choice, points scoring and its focus on loans rather than transfers?

Like most I was intrigued by what the FPL team would introduce as their premium game format so wanted to give it a try in Beta. The main differences in mechanics seemed to be the larger squad, which would rotate according to fixtures each Gameweek, and the restriction on transfers outside of windows meaning the initial choices carried more weight. After the first couple of Gameweeks I found I really enjoyed the format; each week brought new, tough, decisions on who to bench and who to leave out as eight of your squad had to be omitted completely. Additionally there was a decision to make on Saturday and Sunday night on whether to bring in a substitute or not. Four or five points seemed to be a good threshold for swapping a player, but this varied if, for example, it was Luis Suarez being brought in. Whether to change the armband each day was another key decision point I enjoyed, and paid off for me more than once.

To be honest I couldn’t figure out the value of the loan system, it seemed overly complex and the price to use it was high compared to the potential of bringing someone in if you already had a good squad to choose from. I did use a couple of loan moves towards the end but this was more to test the system to see what happened than anything else. None of my moves worked out (Aaron Ramsey in for Adam Johnson, then for the final double Gameweek Juan Mata and Connor Wickham in for Steven Gerrard and an injured striker). There are some situations in which a loan makes more sense, like captaincy choices and double Gameweeks, but in my case it didn’t help or wasn’t needed.

One concern from some Fantasy managers before the UFPL game launched was that it would become boring with no transfers? Did you find there was less excitement without changes to prices, transfers and points hits?

I actually found it more interesting than the transfer system in FPL, where everyone tends to jump on the same bandwagons and the timing of them are influenced by price rises or falls. Not having to worry about who might rise or fall on any particular day made things a lot easier for me. I enjoyed being able to set my team up in midweek with the knowledge that if someone didn’t start I could just bring in a bench player the next day. The decisions on who to bench versus who to leave out or who bring off the bench were interesting ones. I did have a good team, however, so I can imagine that not having the best team and being unable to do much about it outside of the loan system would be frustrating.

Who were your key players and who were you biggest mistakes?

For the Beta the squad choices were heavily influenced by the fixture list and double Gameweeks. I wanted to pick a balanced team that had several bench options for Sunday and Monday games, but also wanted to make sure that Manchester City, Liverpool, Everton and Sunderland had a lot of coverage for doubles. With this in mind I had to leave out some expensive players that at the time were seen as ‘must haves’ in favour of mid-range players. For example, I chose Raheem Sterling and Steven Gerrard over Daniel Sturridge, Edin Dzeko over Sergio Aguero for City and left out Eden Hazard and Chelsea defenders completely. The 11 players I chose from Liverpool, City and Everton were the key players, plus notable contributions from Christian Eriksen, Olivier Giroud and Jay Rodriguez. The rest of my squad hardly made any difference, as they rarely got selected over the core. I thought my biggest mistake was having too many players playing on Sundays or later as you can only have 7 on your bench. I often ended up with very few playing on Saturday because of this, but it never hurt me too much.

What were you best captaincy and substitution sticks or twists? What were your worst?

The best for me was the Gameweek where I’d changed the captain twice already due to only four to five points being scored, and gave Eriksen the armband for a Monday night game where he went rampant. I felt that seven to eight points was a good threshold for sticking with a captain, and remember one late Gameweek where I stuck in that situation when Suarez was playing the next day and being very nervous he could have a big game. I lost a couple of points on occasions when I twisted and the new choice scored two points, but it was no big deal given the seven to eight point guideline.

You are a FFS member. What were the key tools you used to help you?

I love all the data that’s available in the members area. The articles are the main benefit I get from the membership, particularly those paying attention to players that are creating or receiving a lot of chances without necessarily getting end product. There’s been a big change in the way I’ve played Fantasy Football the last couple of years: now I look for players to bring into my team, whereas previously I used to look for players to ship out who weren’t doing well. It’s a subtle difference, but helps to manage transfers better and avoid tinkering. As I’ve seen pointed out elsewhere, a great approach is to combine form with stats from the members area and also TV highlights so you can see who’s getting real chances versus random long shots.

Do you think the FPL game could learn from the UFPL, for example defensive midfielders benefit from the UFPL scoring? Could this more stat based form of scoring replace bonus points?

I really like the scoring system in UFPL, the way that core points are still for goals, assists and clean sheets but additionally points are award for defined actions such as key tackles, chances created, etc. It means that strong players in those categories will score four to five points consistently even if they end up with no goals or assists, making investment in them a reliable option. So yes I prefer the scoring system to FPL, which changes every year and seems overly contrived.

Finally, tell us a bit about yourself and what your family thinks of your achievement?

I work in business intelligence, so using data to make smarter decisions is something I do every day and plays into Fantasy Football. My wife was great when I explained I won UFPL, she doesn’t know much about Fantasy or what goes into it but is very excited about the achievement and hopefully that and a box of chocolates makes up for not going for a hike last Sunday.