As the Fantasy Premier League season draws to a close, I wanted to highlight some alternative sources of Fantasy entertainment taking place over the summer, in Fantasy Eliteserien (FES) and Fantasy Allsvenskan (FAS), the equivalent games for the Norwegian and Swedish leagues respectively.
In this article I’ll take a look at these games, which have been designed by the same development team behind FPL but crucially offer some interesting variations that are helping to transform Fantasy Football.
Children of the master
So, the big thing about these Scandinavian Fantasy games compared to others, is that they are developed by the makers of, and in the style of, the grand master of football fantasy games, Fantasy Premier League.
As such there are a lot of things FPL managers will find comfortingly familiar, like the layout, the main scoring, the captain and vice captain, what kind of players are haves and have-nots, the value of a double Gameweek, the wildcard chip and more. Essentially they are part of a core Fantasy family of games now cropping up.
Technical differences
Live updates
Being of cut from the FPL cloth but aimed at a different league there has been some leeway to play around with the format and try out some new themes. Chief among these is the hipster perk of Live Updates.
These offer bang up to the minute updates on leagues and average scores. Featured in both FES and FAS, these updates really draw you into the rollercoaster ride of a Gameweek, looking not only at what you would like to happen for your team, but seeing what you need to keep over the average, and how close are you getting to the top of your mini-league or ranking milestone.
It’s a nice little perk that is made possible with FES and FAS’s comparatively low base of users. For FPL, with millions of managers involved the logistics are simply too great.
Team sheet heads up
Another technical twist is that FES offers a heads up on team sheets, in the same way Sky Fantasy Football does. This means managers have the chance to see the team sheet and make changes accordingly. This is a huge bonus for savvy managers looking for an edge.
Chip innovation
Chips are available in FES, but are markedly different to those used in FPL as each set of chips are proprietary to each league,
This means we get to experience a whole new set of chips, something that has sparked myriads of debates on chip design and the uses of chips. We are sure Allsvenskan will follow suit, but it does make sense for them to start up without for the first season.
Here are the innovative chips used in FES:
“Parkere Bussen” – Literal translation “Parking the Buss” – essentially a captaincy on the entire defence (double points on all defenders)
“Spissrush” – Striker rush – double points on all strikers
“To kapteiner” – Two captains – Get your captain-points from both the captain and vice captain
Return of the man in the stand in Norway….
For veteran FPL managers, FES uses its old man in the stand bonus system, where the commentators for each game also assign the bonuses after the match. The points themselves are the standard 3,2,1 assignment FPL managers are now used to, but there is no BPS or stats allowing you to predict them to such exacting degree, just the opinion of who was impressed by what player.
This opens up the possibility of the bonus magnet player to a much higher degree, especially in a league where, if you stand out, you REALLY stand out.
….but not Sweden.
In contrast, FAS went a completely different route with their bonus system, assigning points directly based on statistical milestones. Rather than explaining it in detail, think of it like tracking FPL’s Bonus Point System parameters and seeing points assigned to your player as milestones are reached. These cover aspects of play such as key passes, crosses, recoveries, missed sitters and even mistakes directly responsible for goals have an immediate impact on your player’s chances of bonus.
Testing your research skills
FES and FAS have some obvious problems when it comes to creating a base for managers of Fantasy, most of them revolving around specific league, player and team knowledge. Unlike the Premier League, which is known around the world and reported on religiously, taking part in Fantasy football in Scandinavia requires you to either do much more research, have much more luck or be native to it.
The FFScout community has provided a solution to this. Each week we produce an article to preview the next set of fixtures and discussions on the game and key players to consider. As a result w have seen some very good manager results even for those with no prior knowledge of the league. We can only hope Allsvenskan experts will follow suit.
Another challenge is language, as these games’ language are inherent to their native country in Norwegian and Swedish respectively. The Norwegian one saw popularity outside their borders and have added an English translation version as of this season.
Unpredicatability
Each season in FPL double and blank Gameweeks tend to fall at the same time of year and are caused by Cup commitments. Some have raised concerns that this makes the game too predictable, with chips deployed by savvy veterans at the same time each season. In Scandinavia this is not the case, with more randomness to double Gameweeks as they are often caused by weather cancellations or possible European cup qualification commitments. This makes chip-play a bit more difficult, particularly in FAS, which has seen three double Gameweeks already and perhaps more to come.
This randomness also means that hits are less potent, as expected returns are harder to predict.
Third party woes
FPL has left us spoiled silly when it comes to data, tools and analysis for the game. The lack of comparable tools for the Scandinavian games thus far leaves a void hard felt by the managers really going for it. I’ll just leave this challenge here though: An adaptable open source for such tools to apply to these games (and maybe more to come?) could be a real “in” to a new market.
Reflections and debate
Scandinavian football’s calendar year focus makes FES and FAS work as good low-pace, off-season alternatives for FPL managers, who are used to a season running from August to May.
Much more than that though, the introduction of these games, with the variations they present, are excellent platforms for discussion on how Fantasy Football can be developed further. To exemplify this I’ll leave some points of discussion here to discuss in the comment section below.
Chips – shaking up the template
As already mentioned FPL’s chips are often deployed at the same time of year, around Double Gameweeks, which can create a template to teams. With no such predictability in the fixture schedule coupled with some innovative design, FES chips offers Fantasy managers far more flexibility.
For example, having one chip all about the defenders presents Fantasy managers with a whole new challenge to how they set up their team, such as whether to play in a single Gameweek when a team with a tight defence has a particularly good fixture.
Certainly, anything that expands the possibilities when it comes to building and balancing squads makes for a more interesting game.
Bonus changes
Could the FAS bonus system be a better alternative to FPL’s Bonus Point System? Could the man in the stand offer a more realistic view of who deserves extra points? The approaches in the Scandinavian game certainly give Fantasy managers food for thought. What do you think? Could FPL also look at tweaking how it hands out extra points?
Those are my thoughts for now, and I hope this article generates further discussion, and that you feel, like I do, that Fantasy Football is moving into a new age, with the North of Europe lighting the way to present some interesting variations to the game we love.
LINKS
Fantasy Eliteserien – (English, Norwegian)
Fantasy Allsvenskan – (Swedish)
And join our leagues:
FFS Eliteserien (30-731)
FFS Allsvenskan (13767-2471)
