Community

Community tournament – The Pundits Playoff

“Will Chelsea qualify with ease? I think they will, but it won’t be easy.”Jamie Redknapp

“Footballers these days often have to use their feet.”Michael Owen

“The pass for Wright-Phillips was overweight.” – Alan Shearer

“He had it on a plate, he had the sausage, bacon and eggs on it as well, but he couldn’t take it.” – Chris Kamara

“The thing about goal scorers is that they score goals.” – Tony Cottee

“After Chelsea scored, Bolton epitulated.” – Paul Merson

Ahh those wonderful pundits, how they bring colour to the game we love so much. From Paul Merson trying to say Matteo Guendouzi and getting it so tragically and hilariously wrong, to Roy Keane verbally obliterating, well, pretty much anyone who’s ever kicked a football – what would we do without them? So in tribute, we are fittingly theming this season’s community tournament on the great Premier League Pundits, with each team being named after their favourite football expert.

What is the Community Tournament?

For those of us who have struggled to make it near the dizzy heights of a top 10k OR, a pathway to glory is still available to all in the Pundits Playoff. This season’s Community Tournament has it all – FFP, players drafts, transfer windows, both H2H and classic league formats, bonus points and, most excitingly, Champions League and Europa League style finals.

How the competition works

Twelve* teams of up to 15 FPL players from the FFS Community go head to head over 22 matchweeks. (*might stretch to 24 teams if we have enough Team Managers step forward)
The competition commences with a player draft, and the matchweeks are split up into 4 periods, each with a transfer window in between.
At the end of the four periods, the top 8 teams will progress to the Pundits Playoff Champions League finals, the bottom 4 will traipse their way to the Pundits Playoff You’re-Ropey League Finals.

Prizes

The winners of the PPCL Finals will be crowned Community Champions and receive free FFS memberships for the following season. (Thanks Geoff!)
There will also hopefully be other equally dazzling, but much less expensive prizes to be won along the road that I will be able to announce as we journey through the competition.

How teams are formed, the Draft process and Financial Fair Play

Each team will have a manager, who will be allocated a budget to buy players with. Every single applicant for the competition will be given a value based on their scores from GW1-8, ranging from £1m all the way up to £100m.
The managers will be given time to recruit a certain number of players from FFS, and after that there will be a player draft to fill the teams. More details for this will be revealed once we have confirmed the managers.
At the end of each period, the transfer window will open, players can be released, and the drafting fun begins again.

How to sign up

First and foremost we need 12/24 team managers, without whom the competition cannot commence. Managers need to be able to commit to running their teams for the entirety of the competition (GWs 9-35), and be comfortable using a simple google sheet to submit their teams on a weekly basis. If you are up for being a team manager, send an email to punditsplayoff@gmail.com with your FFS Username, FPL ID# and the pundit(s) you wish to name your team after.

DEADLINE FOR THIS IS FRIDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER.

Once we have a full complement of managers, we will release a second article with a registration portal for community members to sign up as players, just after gameweek 5.
The team sizes will depend on the number of applicants, but the highest we can have will be 360 (24 teams of 15).

Period info

Period 1 : GWs 9-12
Period 2 : GWs 13-20 (GW19 will not count)
Period 3 : GWs 22-26
Period 4 : GWs 27-32
Finals : GWs 33-35

(Above based on 12 teams, there’ll be an extra match week if we go with 24 teams so everyone gets to play each other)

Next article will be up in a week or so, big thanks to the rest of the community tournament committee – Swanmoretime, Bielsa’s Binoculars, rjcv177, TorresLove, Toblerone52, Mr Hindsight, Vobinho and Mr Perfectionist.

Who will win this year’s Community Tournament? Here’s Andy Townsend’s thoughts on it:

“I think one of these teams could win this.”

 

Boris Bodega Business Analyst and Spreadsheet Nerd. This kinda sums up my FPL life http://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/2015/11/05/sky-sports-focus-gameweek-15-3/?hc_page=1#hc_comment_11763056 Follow them on Twitter

72 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Rotation's Alter Ego
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 12 Years
    4 years, 7 months ago

    Cracking tournament, looking forward to seeing how this one goes!

    Thank you to everyone that helps organise it, you do a superb job. Get applying managers!

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

      Still waiting for news on H2H. If they are struggling why not just say so instead of leaving everyone in limbo?

      1. The Rumour Mill
        • 7 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        I think they seriously underestimated the popularity and scale of the challenge in setting it up!

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

          I get that and I think people would be very understanding if they said that it wasn't going to work and was too big to manage, especially if it was going to stress them out. It's just the lack of communication that is the problem. Last update was that it should be up and running before gw3 deadline, nothing since.

          1. Geoff
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • Has Moderation Rights
            • 11 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            People do seem very understanding 😀

            It is going to work and it's still almost ready - the thing is it needs about a half day from tech and we've had a few things come up that have required more urgent attention.

            We're getting some more tech support soon and these bottlenecks shouldn't happen as much going forward.

            Again I'm hoping for pre-deadline but it might just be something for the International Break. If I could do the work needed I would!

            1. Zladan
              • 6 Years
              4 years, 7 months ago

              Do you know how I’m doing, Geoff? ID 54.

              1. Gnu
                • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                • 14 Years
                4 years, 7 months ago

                Seriously?
                Yeah, let's all ask Geoff how we're doing and then wonder why it takes so long.
                Sheesh.

                1. Zladan
                  • 6 Years
                  4 years, 7 months ago

                  Well it seems everyone else is well aware of their league and current standings. Most have been replied to by MIR and Geoff.

                  1. Gnu
                    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                    • 14 Years
                    4 years, 7 months ago

                    Really?
                    Who has had this info, I certainly haven't unless their slowly releasing info. But answering individual posts isn't going to speed things up.

                    1. GreenWindmill
                      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                      • 12 Years
                      4 years, 7 months ago

                      Most of the replies were to individual posts in this article: https://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/2019/08/20/ffs-head-to-head-leagues-2019-2020-update-part-2/

                      My guess is that the leagues will get published during the international break either way.

                      1. Gnu
                        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                        • 14 Years
                        4 years, 7 months ago

                        Cheers GW and apologies Zladan if a bit snippy.

            2. The Rumour Mill
              • 7 Years
              4 years, 7 months ago

              Thanks for the update Geoff 🙂

      2. GreenWindmill
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 12 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Gave Geoff a friendly nudge yesterday - https://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/comment/20742871

        All a bit vague still but hopeful it's very soon.

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

          Cheers, I've already lost 3 games in an unknown league to imaginary opponents. Not ideal 🙂

          1. GreenWindmill
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 12 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            Haha, they should run the whole season like this - don't publish any fixtures and just give results upon request. I haven't asked how I'm getting on so in theory I could be top of the league 🙂

      3. Rotation's Alter Ego
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • Has Moderation Rights
        • 12 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        I know nothing more than you!

        As GreenWindmill says, sounds like it's coming soon.

    2. Boris Bodega
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      Cheers guys

    3. FPL Ron Manager
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      Looking forward to this. The idea of being a manager is tempting but I think I'd rather just take part this year within a team to see how it all goes first.

  2. Toblerone52 - Zlatan Ibra-H…
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 7 Years
    4 years, 7 months ago

    This tournament will have it all! Dramatic head to head battles, Deadline day drama and probably some terrible Pun-dit jokes.

    Get signing up if you want to be one of our managers 🙂

  3. Greyhead
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 5 Years
    4 years, 7 months ago

    Great work!!!

  4. Ci Siamo
    • 8 Years
    4 years, 7 months ago

    Looking forward to this! 😀

  5. Boris Bodega
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    4 years, 7 months ago

    Big shout out to Geoff for getting this up so quickly, hopefully will be an enjoyable tournament for all.

    1. Rotation's Alter Ego
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 12 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      Twas' me but Geoff ain't bad either 😉

      1. Boris Bodega
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 8 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Big shout out to RAE in that case, it was a fantastically quick turnaround. 🙂

  6. Vobinho
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    4 years, 7 months ago

    Very exciting, looking forward to it already!

  7. Az
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 14 Years
    4 years, 7 months ago

    Gonna take a break from management duties for this one, but would love to be in as a player! 😀

    1. RedLightning
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 13 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      Let someone else face the mutiny!

  8. Edpremium
    • 5 Years
    4 years, 7 months ago

    So guys. Im going to use my WC on gm5
    I have jimenez and ryan...
    want to swap one of them to heaton or abraham. Which one ?

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

    Looking forward to this - with a Boris in charge what could possibly go wrong 😉

  10. Jubilanus / BSC Small Boys …
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 13 Years
    4 years, 7 months ago

    Will there be an avatar creation competition? I;m looking to go back to back.

    1. Boris Bodega
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      Could do, I'll run it past the committee.

    2. Lawrø
      • 12 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      I bloody hope so! Some of those last year were just amazing 😀

    3. JohnnyRev7
      • 13 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      Crawls out from his cave in the Tora Bora, packs up his donkey ... and gets ready to ride again. 😉

  11. Wally banter
    • 11 Years
    4 years, 7 months ago

    This is Big

    1. Now I'm Panicking
      • 9 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      I don't want to know about your erection

    2. Party time
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Get a room boys

        1. Now I'm Panicking
          • 9 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          He might take my eye out

          1. Party time
              4 years, 7 months ago

              Lol

        2. The Fantastic Mr Fox
          • 9 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          😉

        3. FPLNormalOne
          • 6 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Lol

      • The Fantastic Mr Fox
        • 9 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Nice to see the Community tournament back in action.
        Went out in the QFs last season, hoping to be the winning team this time around

        1. FPLNormalOne
          • 6 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Yes Boss.!!

      • The Fantastic Mr Fox
        • 9 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        This is the automated reply I got for the application email

        I am out of the office until Monday 2nd September.

        And it came from one Mr. S. A.'s personal email ID. Perhaps all mails are being forwarded to this

        1. Boris Bodega
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 8 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          That’s my OOO reply, because emails to the pundit address are forwarded to my work email. Had no idea this happened, but message received so no problem.

      • Lawrø
        • 12 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Nice one lads! Team Kenyaya/Godfather are planning our reunion 🙂

        Will be tough to think of a pundit to base our team around though 😆

        p.s. WhatsApp me if you need a hand/head/advice

        1. Boris Bodega
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 8 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Pressure is on to follow up on the last few you organised Lawro, we’ll certainly be asking for some tips!

      • Lord.
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 9 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Well done Boris; I’m looking forward to being signed up for big money as a player, and being released by Christmas.

        I would like to play for an Italian club like Barcelona; and I don’t mind if we lose every game so long as we win the league.

        1. Boris Bodega
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 8 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Great to hear you'll be back mate.

      • Narcos
        • 10 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Mail sent

        1. Boris Bodega
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 8 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          recieved, thanks and apologies about any OOO reply, I've turned it off now.

      • Johnmph
        • 9 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        If you had to choose either Firmino or Pukki to have in your team from now until the end of the season, who would you choose?

      • Geevious
        • 13 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        This may be a stupid question but would someone not from the UK be able to sign up for this tournament? I have no idea how the tournament works but it sounds like a lot of fun and I would love to register. However, I'm not British and I live in Asia so not sure if the time zone difference may not work. Thanks for reading and answering!

        1. Lord.
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 9 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Absolutely. Community tournaments are great fun and you’ll make a load of new FPL friends.

      • The_Socca_Philosopha
        • 9 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Player-manager possibilities???

        1. Boris Bodega
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 8 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Team managers are players as well, they just have the extra responsibility of organising their team.

      • Majestic Chanka
        • 7 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        With all the inflation in the transfer market, just how expensive will Green Windmill be this time round?

      • Back on the horse
        • 13 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Good work, Boris. Sounds like a good format.

        1. Boris Bodega
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 8 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Thanks mate, looking forward to getting things underway 🙂

      • have you seen cyan
        • 4 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        whats going on with Kane guys? I think every night this week he was meant to drop and has not dropped once, they are clearly protecting him from drops. WTF is that about. Once again tonight he is due to drop but I bet he doesnt. Its 2133 and he already is at 102.... if no drop tonight what a joke honestly

      • tets mcgee (Bachmann an Rob…
        • 8 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        If there is gonna be a community fight the Afghani casual HarrymetSarri crew want in 🙂

      • Speédy
        • 7 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Looks like a fun tournament,well done guys.

      • VIRATKOHLI18
        • 6 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Amazing work!
        'The Hills Have Moyes' would be looking to reunite! Would be so much fun.
        Well done organizers for getting this in nice and early!

      • Pras (FPL)
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 12 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Nice one Boris! Looking forward to it.

        1. Boris Bodega
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 8 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Cheers PU 🙂

      • Get up ya bum
        • 14 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Sounds fun. I should be available for a bargain price considering my start

      • The Overthinker
        • 7 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Looking forward to this. Was fun playing it last time 😀

      • Doosra - ☭DeclanMyGenius…
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 14 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        This has now come to my attention. Emails are on their way ... I will be away, Sept 2nd to Sept 11th. Great Competition! 🙂

      • Boris Bodega
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 8 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Thanks to everyone who has stepped forward to be a team manager, we have now had 17 applications. However keep them coming, just in case we get a lot of players signing up and we need to go to 24 teams. Registration for players will be opened on Monday, so keep your eyes peeled for another article.