Preamble

The Pre-Match Preamble – Gameweek 1

I’m not sure it has sunk in yet.

Two weeks ago I left a secure, well paid job producing videogames to dedicate my day-to-day existence to Fantasy Football. Now it matters more than ever.

Of course I’m incredibly blessed to be in that position. To be handed opportunities to write, speak and gesticulate on matters Fantasy Football for a living is something I’d wistfully dreamt about, but never quite believed would materialise.

But Fantasy Football just seems to be on a relentless and quickening path into the mainstream.

The big daily game providers from the US have arrived.

The Premier League are determined to keep the growth of their game accelerating across the world. Other games will react to keep pace. Radio and TV are catching on.

While it would be nice to hunker down and keep our little secret on the dark web, we have to accept that Fantasy Football is being brought to the masses.

I’m now utterly convinced it’s acceptable to open a conversation at family function with an enquiry on who got the assist for Callum Wilson’s goal. I think that’s now permitted and even appreciated by at least another three other people in the room.

However, soon we may not need those incredibly enlightening conversations.

Soon those assists, and perhaps even bonus points, will be fed to us along with the classifieds by an Alexander Gordon. Later today you’ll see that Fantasy Football has become part of the Saturday results service – another step I never thought I’d witness.

My role in spreading Fantasy Football to a wider audience has already been questioned and that’s understandable.

But I don’t think I can fight it. The growth of Fantasy Football either happens with or without us and it seemed I committed my involvement the moment I wrote that first blog post.

Since then, you’ve all played a huge part in getting me to this point. I’m really not sure how to thank you for that – for the support and loyalty you’ve shown (except perhaps by introducing a full desktop view for mobile users).

When things do finally settle and sink in, I’ll have more time to reflect.

For now all I know is that those 15 names on my screen are important to me. More important than ever before.

There’s new responsibility, new pressure and with it an even bigger sense of anticipation and excitement.

Enjoy the kick-off.

Mark Mark created the beast. He's now looking to tame it.

2,824 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Chucky
    • 10 Years
    7 years, 10 months ago

    Fuchs and Mahrez Let's do it 🙂

    1. fiveyears
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      Fingers crossed 🙂

    2. Perthite
      • 13 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      Language

  2. Djerbil
    • 12 Years
    7 years, 10 months ago

    FPLVerified account
    ‏@OfficialFPL
    Huge apologies to those of you who experienced problems accessing the site this morning. This was due to unprecedented levels of traffic

    they have just apologized , no one is getting free anything

    1. Dušan Citizen
      • 10 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      Hope so!

    2. Sunden
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      An apology doesn't really help

      1. TheSteel
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 11 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        You sound like my gf

        1. Sunden
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 11 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          wise and correct?

        2. Clump
          • 9 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          ^ 🙂

    3. Jimmers
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      ...and rightly so, It happens every year in GW1. Never an issue for any other GW

    4. Adam West - Team Serbia for…
      • 13 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      But Jafooli told me I was getting a free wildcard 😯 . Can't believe I a mod would make something like that up 🙁

    5. Epic Fail
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      Good.

    6. ★Kuntheman★
      • 8 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      Good. 3 WCs is a bit much.

    7. SilkySkills
      • 10 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      Lol

    8. Wouter
      • 9 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      Same sh*t, different year

    9. Tobiathan
      • 12 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      Speak for yourself, they promised me a free t-shirt and an extra triple captain chip

    10. Valar(Keith)
      • 14 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      Lol.. i love Bemba Da in that twitter feed. Along the lines of
      Tweet 1: "You guys deserve No sympathy"
      Tweet 2: "I totally understand the problem with loads of people joining. it's not ur fault"

      😆

  3. Jay_
      7 years, 10 months ago

      Mertesacker has been made new Arsenal club captain, that's a strange one.

      1. Ziro
        • 9 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        was announced a fortnight back. going the way of Vermaelen imo. 😉

        1. Camp No No
          • 10 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          ^this! 😆

      2. Foreside
        • 8 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Mert and Cazorla?

        1. Camp No No
          • 10 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          Cazorla, I dot know about his leadership, but with his experience, calmness, quality and central role in the team he _could_ make a good captain.

      3. Wilshere Knowledge
        • 10 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Our captain in the last 3 seasons have played a cumulative 13 days...

        1. Somalion
          • 14 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          13 days

          13 x 24 = 312 hours or 18,720 minutes.

          Not too shabby.

    • Numb
      • 9 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      Ah well, FPL weren't to know that there'd be a lot of demand for their website this morning :rolleyes:

    • S.Kuqi
      • 11 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      Musa ags odds - 3.2 - 11/5

      Like printing money 😎

    • Wild Rover
      • 13 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      http://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/comment/13720713 😎

      Pity I took them both out this morning 😀

    • Seb Wassell
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      I either have Sanchez + Musa or Firmino + Vardy.
      Exciting times.
      Which do I hope for?

      1. Wouter
        • 9 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        The second two for me

        1. Seb Wassell
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 11 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          I really don't mind either way. Well, until hindsight is involved!

          1. Wouter
            • 9 Years
            7 years, 10 months ago

            Both are good choices, all comes down to a bit of luck in the end. Good luck!

    • Trigg ⭐️
      • 11 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      A) Fimino and Townsend
      B) Mahrez and Ramirez

      1. Perthite
        • 13 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Mahrez & Townsend.

    • Now I'm Panicking
      • 9 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      Anyone being wowed by the UHD on SS?

      1. Wild Rover
        • 13 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        o/ 😎

    • TheBusDriver
      • 8 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      I captained Vardy. Musa's gonna steal all his points omg.

      1. Epic Fail
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 13 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Maybe you should delete your team?

        1. Mr. Blonde
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 9 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          You definitely should. Give up now

      2. Q
        • 12 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Same

    • Boss Hogg
      • 14 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      Hmmm,Demari Grey...
      Interesting!

    • kinglourenco
      • 9 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      Would you prefer Stekelenberg or foster long term if the same price?

    • DeadStarComing
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      The site is still down. After everything Mark talks about in this article I still think Fantasy Footy has a lot of work to do. A site crash and apology on day one on their brand new site is a disaster to me.

      1. Mull
        • 12 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        The site isn't down. It does this every week after the deadline. It always takes longer at the start of the season as well.

      2. Wilshere Knowledge
        • 10 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Can any site handle 3 million people trying to get on simultaneously?

        1. Epic Fail
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 13 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          Easily. 3 million is nothing compared to some major sites.

        2. Coldplay
          • 12 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          Ummm.... All social media websites?

      3. DeadStarComing
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 13 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        I keep getting server errors. I'm just saying they are yet to have something that can cope with what they need it to do on day one. So many players couldn't make changes they wanted to make just before 11:30.

      4. dcarlito
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 13 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        This happens every gwk.

        Golden rule don't leave last minute changes to be made just before the deadline. Simple.

    • Revival
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      Musa only plays because a team-mates wife gave birth

      1. Trigg ⭐️
        • 11 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Baby Okazaki?

      2. Optimus.
        • 13 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        She was due

        1. Epic Fail
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 13 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          I'll get your coat.

      3. Now I'm Panicking
        • 9 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Sounds like a soap opera plot

      4. Numb
        • 9 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Who?

        1. Woy of the Wovers
          • 13 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          Mrs Okazaki?

    • Optimus.
      • 13 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      FPL ‏@OfficialFPL 10m10 minutes ago
      Huge apologies to those of you who experienced problems accessing the site this morning. This was due to unprecedented levels of traffic. A 2nd All out Attack chip will will allocated to all gameweek 2 as compensation

      1. Ayew Serious
        • 8 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Thanks, about time someone cleared up this situation

      2. Epic Fail
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 13 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        😀

      3. Podge
        • 13 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        The least useful chip 🙂

        1. dcarlito
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 13 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          Disaster. Imagine another TC 😉

      4. La Roja
        • 12 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        lol

      5. Mull
        • 12 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        That only rewards the feckers who can't afford a proper defence! 😉

      6. Revival
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 11 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        😀

      7. Hyperion
        • 12 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Acting like the a second waste of space AOA chip is compensation 😀

      8. Ziro
        • 9 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        looooooooooooooooool

      9. Nabs Kebabs
        • 12 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        I didn't want my first AOA chip. Now i have 2.... 😯

      10. Hyperion
        • 12 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Oh wait you got me 😀

      11. It’s gonna Ben Mee
        • 10 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Haha, wow!! An extra AOA chip. Some ccompensation!

      12. Sánchez
        • 11 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Excellent. I can start darren fletcher

      13. ★Kuntheman★
        • 8 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        🙂

    • Hyperion
      • 12 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      I'm actually pretty glad it went down, couldn't decide between Vert and Baines, FPL made my decision for me. Bainesy 8)

    • Dušan Citizen
      • 10 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      The worst case would be canceling GW 1...

    • Mr. Blonde
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 9 Years
      7 years, 10 months ago

      Leicester @ 10/11 surely free money?! Emptied what was in my betting account on it

      1. Bubz
        • 10 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Bizarre odds

      2. Revival
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 11 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        The bookies never coped on at all Last season that Leicester where the best team in the league, seems they are going to be caught out again today

      3. Jay_
          7 years, 10 months ago

          I got 21/20

          1. Mr. Blonde
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 9 Years
            7 years, 10 months ago

            Nice !

        • Jönny
          • 15 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          Weirdly on Betfair you get slightly better odds by picking yes on "Leicester to Beat Hull,Yes/No"

      4. Nabs Kebabs
        • 12 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        2-3 years ago the game would update in 15 minutes. They are going backwards lol.

      5. FPL Emu
        • 13 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Seriously, it is obvious that many, many players will fix their teams right before the deadline. Not compensating for the crash is rubbish.

        1. Epic Fail
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 13 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          Compensating people who didn't sort out their teams, will inconvenience those that did bother sorting out their teams.

          1. DeadStarComing
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 13 Years
            7 years, 10 months ago

            If the site was crashing before 11:30 they should at least have extended the deadline a little

        2. Podge
          • 13 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          Free chip

        3. fiveyears
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 8 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          11-11:30am on GW1 when you have millions of users is not the time to be messing around with your team.

          Anyone worth their salt knows that.

          1. DeadStarComing
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 13 Years
            7 years, 10 months ago

            Yes you're right. How silly of me to think I could change my team up to the deadline

            1. DeadStarComing
              • Fantasy Football Scout Member
              • 13 Years
              7 years, 10 months ago

              Sorry. I'm angry.

      6. kinglourenco
        • 9 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        With europe qualifiers, payet and kdb likely to start them if they miss this game?

      7. Bielsa's Bucket
        • 12 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        What happen to live.premierleague.com ?

      8. RᴀᴄɪɴɢTᴏᴀᴅ
        • 8 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Musa and Gray will out score Mahrez and Vardy. Remember this.

        1. Tadic is the new Eriksen
          • 11 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          Lol

        2. devils advocate
          • 10 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          Can you repeat that please?

      9. Sánchez
        • 11 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Last minute team changes are always bad ideas anyway. Why all the upset?

        1. dcarlito
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 13 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          This. Sure the amount of traffic around that time in the past, was always a bit dodge and likely to crash and did in the past.

      10. Geri-hatricks
        • 7 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Any Aussies going to be streaming games with Optus this year?

        I'm curious as to how it'll be. At least Optus customers got this year free 😀

        1. ItsJonesy
          • 13 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          Yep, I will be. So far it's been rock solid but tonight will be the real test to see how it holds up.

          1. Geri-hatricks
            • 7 Years
            7 years, 10 months ago

            Yeah, the quality for preseason was nice but there'll be a lot more people tuning in tonight.

      11. MDK
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 14 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        unprecedented

        adjective
        never done or known before.

        hmmmmmmmm

        1. Podge
          • 13 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          level

          1. MDK
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 14 Years
            7 years, 10 months ago

            It's a lazy excuse, especially given the fact it happens almost every year

      12. Boss Hogg
        • 14 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        For those of us old enough to remember playing fantasy football from newspapers and making transfers by post or over the phone, the FPL competition is a miracle.

        So, the websit crashed for a few minutes? Get over it.

        FPL is an amazing thing.

        1. Sánchez
          • 11 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          Hahaha. I played the daily star game once. Never made any transfers at all.

          1. Boss Hogg
            • 14 Years
            7 years, 10 months ago

            Daily Telegraph for me. I hate that paper but it was the best game.

            I remember ringing them up and repeatedly shouting EFAN EKOKU at the automatated phone thing!

            1. palace ash
              • 14 Years
              7 years, 10 months ago

              Paulo Wanchope!!!

              1. Boss Hogg
                • 14 Years
                7 years, 10 months ago

                You have signed....
                Marco Boogers.

                Press 1 to confirm.

        2. Epic Fail
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 13 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          Couldn't agree more.

      13. fab
        • 9 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Here we go again. Good luck everyone

      14. Swan - Villa Proud
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 8 Years
        7 years, 10 months ago

        Good luck everyone. 🙂

        1. Jay_
            7 years, 10 months ago

            You too mate 🙂

        2. Revival
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 11 Years
          7 years, 10 months ago

          Aguero off at 59 minutes today so he can be rested for Tuseday's Champions league qualifier?

          1. TheSteel
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 11 Years
            7 years, 10 months ago

            Nah

          2. Epic Fail
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 13 Years
            7 years, 10 months ago

            Aye, just after his hattrick.