After 38 often gruelling Gameweeks, the Fantasy Football community waves goodbye to the 2017/18 season and starts preparing for the next campaign.
The Hot Topic posters look back on the key events over the last few months and start to consider which players will help earn us a flying start when the new season kicks off in August.
The success and failures of the Premier League prediction business come under scrutiny in our community article section, which as usual features the latest developments in Norwegian top-flight Fantasy game, Elitserien.
Our community tournament round-up is extended this week as we congratulate the winners across a range of leagues, cups and competitions.
The Community Articles.
Armed with a season’s worth of crowd canvassing, Hutch_James delivered his final look at how groupthink fared in terms of predicting results this season.
The underlying statistics kings of the campaign are the focus of FPL Virgin’s latest article.
But while domestic action may be over Mr Klin of Norway served up a reminder that Norwegian game Fantasy Eliteserien is available to play throughout the summer with his latest weekly preview.
Don’t forget, if you’ve got some analysis, scout reports or features brewing, be sure to visit our community section to submit your article.
The Hottest Topics
The 2017/18 ended in dramatic fashion with 31 goals scored on the final day. Our “rough with the smooth” collection of your Gameweek 38 scores reveals how this action-packed 90 minutes impacted on the community’s overall ranks and quest for mini-league glory.
Stat also dropped by to reveal how this year’s rank milestones compare to last season, while Red Lightning looked at the end of season chip strategy of FPL’s top players.
Discussions also took place on how the best FPL managers across a number of seasons are defined.
Our own Hall of Fame update revealed the top managers from our leagues as well as some of their key strategies for success this season. While Zan Keroski let us know about an alternative way of measuring career achievements, with a stronger focus on more recent ranks.
FPL Freddo added further thoughts to this debate, while former Hall of Fame top ten manager Triggerlips launched his own ‘haul of fame’ which rewards multiple top 1,000 finishes, even if they were some time ago.
Triggerlips was in fine form this week with two further Hot Topics, looking at the effect of the Triple Captain chip and whether anyone had a worst best Gameweek than him.
The 2017/18 campaign came under further scrutiny when we quizzed you on your most impactful decisions made over the season. Swinner added to the discussion by asking what defines a successful season, a good rank or beating a rival.
Fusen also waded in to let us know that he has bolstered his FPL Statistico season review tool to include a section that divides up the season in stages.
Elsewhere, this campaign’s most successful formations were the focus of The Mighty Hippo’s latest Hot Topic, while Legomane pondered the importance of a great start.
Ignoring Mohamed Salah for the captaincy was perhaps one of the more obvious oversights at times this season. Given the Liverpool winger has just accrued the largest points haul in Fantasy Premier League history a price hike seems inevitable. But, we asked, how much is too much to pay for the Egyptian record breaker.
This week’s chat also featured plenty of forward thinking as managers started scouting for the 2018/19 Berbinho’s Forehead, Giggs Boson and Asquishypotato all canvassed opinion on a number of clubs as they asked how Manchester United, Spurs and Liverpool can build and improve next season.
Champions Manchester City are one team who can perhaps relax their summer activity in the market, with Fantasy Gold predicting that they could dominate the Premier League for years to come.
Meanwhile, Grooveymatt65 has already started bargain hunting with his discussion on next season’s potential cut-price gems.
Among them could be teenage sensation Ryan Sessegnon, who may well be playing top flight football in 2018/19 should his Fulham side prevail in the play-off finals against Aston Villa. Fantasy Gold urges Fantasy managers to keep a close eye on the England Under 21s international.
England’s senior squad for the World Cup, which was announced this week, came under scrutiny in Giggs Boson’s Hot Topic, in which he asked the community to name the best starting XI from this group.
The World Cup chat continued with FFFrog’s number crunching post.
Back to domestic matters, the potential reclassification of some midfielders and forwards next season gets discussed in a post from Aarono23, while discussion on potential rule changes is the focus of Scoutcaster Az’s Hot Topic, where he asks whether FPL’s assist and bonus awards, as well as chips, need an overhaul.
Az earns a further mention after scooping an award for his appearances on our weekly podcast, which picked up a raft of other accolades this week.
With no Premier League action until August Niemi recommends Fantasy managers turn to Norway’s Eliteserien to fill the gap. He has set up a new league, which started scoring this week and also put forward a list of key players to consider.
Niemi’s hard work has been duly noted by community manager Geoff, who let us know that our Norwegian football expert has joined his expanding crew of moderators, with community regular Zoumasbloomers also joining the team.
A raft of new community features are planned over the summer, many of which will be based on feedback collected by Geoff this week. We also asked what improvements Members would like to the tools available to them.
To view all our discussions please visit our Hot Topics page.
The Community Tournaments
Congratulations to Gregor, who has won 2017/18’s Scout Picks community champion competition. His 33 point margin of victory, achieved in Gameweek 5, proved unbeatable. He wins a £100 Amazon voucher and a place in next season’s moderators and contributors league.
Gameweek 38’s community champion Choppers 13 lost 89-74 to the Scouts.
A score of 74 was enough to secure Az first in the FFScout moderators and contributors league, six points ahead of second-placed Jack Wain.
I snatched the summit from QPR Utd in his own FFS Frequent Summer Posters league by transfers made (42 to 45), while Dan Jeffries wins the FFS Old Farts Club league for the site’s elder statesmen and women.
Epic Fail has won Gnu’s Wigan to Me head to head contest. However, he missed out on top spot to me in the Dugout draft leg of Teddy’s Iron man competition, in which Paul Brett scooped first in the FPL Draft element.
Sticking with FPL Draft, our fixture ticker guru Pure Olivia claims bragging rights at the top of the FFScout moderators and contributors league.
In Red Lightning’s competitions, Anders Lium has won his Top 10K Any Season league, Shirin Nizar grabs the January to May league crown, Balders takes top spot in his Doubles, Blanks and Chips mini league and Stuart Blakely scoops his Opening Day contest.
Grant Barclay won Az’s £20 cash league, beating the contest’s host by one point. Meanwhile, TimothyJ, who comfortably won Az’s £5 cash league, finishing with an overall rank of 238.
If you are running a community tournament for the World Cup and would like the latest scores included in future Community Round-ups, please email us a summary of the current leaders and a link to your league, spreadsheet or head to head competition, at jonty@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk.
