The Community Round Up

A pair of community statisticians surfaced in our community articles this week, as the complexities of the Fantasy Premier League’s (FPL) Bonus Point System and the attack and defence ratings for the World Cup teams came under examination. Elsewhere, our globe-trotting scribes continued on their tour of the 32 qualifiers for Brazil, while closer to home, the key goalkeeper strategies for the forthcoming Premier League campaign were assessed. We revisit those articles, whilst also checking in on the week’s Hot Topics discussions, where we find the community in nostalgic mood:

The Community Submissions

We start our look at last week’s community articles with two impressive slabs of number-crunching. Bedknobs and Boomsticks began proceedings with an in-depth look at the FPL’s Bonus Point System (BPS) to investigate how players are benefitting from the method of calculating bonus points, which made its debut last season. His analysis, which he calls “The BPS baseline”, proved to be one of the week’s most talked-about articles of the last seven days. Be sure to also have a look through the discussion that follows, particularly for the further stat analysis provided by Smarty Pants and 3^rd Turd.

For The Sarjeant, the World Cup proved the inspiration for some numerical analysis. He chose to develop his own attacking and defending rating system for each of the tournament’s teams based on their qualifying campaigns. Another must-read article for those wishing to soak up some stats ahead of their World Cup Fantasy squad selections.

Not surprisingly, the World Cup continued to dominate the submissions heading our way, as writers took us on a tour of the teams taking part. Christina not only gave us a handy round up of every team’s warm-up matches but also found time to have a close look at Greece’s prospects.

Demi weaved his teamsheet magic over Bosnia, while Mata is the Juan was off to Ghana for a spot of scouting, leaving FC Borcelona to investigate Nigeria’s chances.

Bosnia also came under the spotlight as Asquishypotato’s series of Group round-ups reached Group B. Meanwhile, El Muneco focused on Italy’s prospects.

Domestic issues were not neglected entirely, as JK and Dino chipped in with further submissions to help prepare us for the new Premier League season. JK’s article examined the pros and cons of the various goalkeeper strategies, examining the merits of rotating shot-stoppers or sticking with one reliable asset. Meanwhile, Dino’s focus was on the players in all areas of the pitch, as we rolled out the second part of his “Prime Targets” series. Look out for the final part early next week.

The Hottest Topics

Bedknobs and Boomsticks’ BPS analysis spilled over into the Hot Topics this week as we asked whether the FPL’s new bonus point system should be tweaked or even scrapped entirely. Dino rightly stated that bonus points add an extra layer of excitement and interest to the game, but wanted to see more points awarded for midfield creativity. Wakey, however, called for a threshold whereby players had to achieve a certain BPS totals before being considered for bonus points.

Wakey was also busy in the Members Area this week, tweaking his custom statistics tables to showcase 2013/14’s top performers and give us an insight into some of the players to consider next season. Attacking defenders and touches in the box were the two sets of statistics he assessed this time around.

The managerial merry-go-round continued this week with Mauricio Pochettino leaving St Mary’s for the head coach position at Tottenham. Among those to take part in our discussion on his move were Heydudes13 who pondered whether Southampton forward Jay Rodriguez could follow his former boss. Meanwhile, I Am Not For Kinnear wondered how Southampton will perform next season without their inspirational manager and potentially a raft of players, with Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana and Luke Shaw seemingly amongst those on the verge of exits.

The cavalcade of World Cup community submissions also prompted a number of Hot Topics focused on the tournament. We’ve already discovered that the official FIFA game incorporates recovered balls into its scoring, a stat that could well prove pivotal to our success in the game. Heydudes13’s look at the Champion’s League top earners of recovered balls could well prove crucial reading for those looking to get involved in the McDonald’s-sponsored effort. Meanwhile, for those dabbling in the Fantasy iTeam game, Anonymous was on hand to provide a complete player list.

Welbztree is renowned in the community for delivering the team line-ups for the Premier League’s Saturday afternoon kick-offs. Ahead of the World Cup, he’s turned his attention to international team-sheets, rolling out his predictions for the World Cup teams’ starting XIs.

Finally, Sully Sonic chose to roll back the years and quiz the community for their favourite World Cup players, teams and moments. Maradona’s 1986 World Cup performances were cited as Royscalleranne’s treasured World Cup memory, while Damo has fond recollections of Cameroon’s Roger Milla – one of the stars of the 1990 tournament.

The Community Tournaments

The FFS UEFA World Cup tournament has reached its main recruitment phase. Today’s community article listed the selected captains for the 32 nations and now those guys are getting busy filling up their five-man squads. Check out the article and the comments for details on how you can get involved in FFS UEFA’s latest competition.