Mini Leagues & Community Competitions - Gameweek 31 - Best FPL Tips, Advice, Team News, Picks, and Statistics from Fantasy Football Scout

Welcome to the Fantasy Football Scout mini-leagues and community competitions round-up after GW31, a rather underwhelming minor Double Gameweek.

We report on the two main FFScout Leagues, our new world number one, the recent Live Hall of Fame update and the chip strategy favoured by seven of its top ten, the Mods & Cons and FFS Family mini-leagues, Last Man Standing, the FFS Members Cup, the Head-to-Head Leagues and a selection of other community mini-leagues.

FFSCOUT OPEN-TO-ALL LEAGUE

Srecko Kurtovic tops the Fantasy Football Scout mini-league (league code gsnskx) for a 23rd week and is now 11th overall.

FFSCOUT COMMUNITY MEMBERS LEAGUE

Håkon Mangersnes has regained the lead from Joacim Lengroth in the Fantasy Football Scout Members mini-league, having previously led after Gameweeks 28 and 29. This League is also open to all, and the league code is visible in the widget on the FFS Home Page when signed in – but only those with a registered FFS account (paid or free) will be eligible for prizes.

Fantasy Football Scout Members is now the third best league in FPL, based on the average scores of the top five teams in each league. Our own top five are all in the overall top fifty.

WORLD NUMBER ONE

Håkon, who was recently interviewed by Neale (Skonto Rigga), is now.number one in the world. He has been in the overall top twenty since Gameweek 23 and is 609th in our recently updated FFS Live Hall of Fame. His previous best finish was 2,413th in 2019/20.

FFS LIVE HALL OF FAME UPDATE

The FFS Live Hall of Fame was updated again in the international break between Gameweeks 30 and 31, as reported in my comment here that listed the new top ten together with their positions in the FFS Career Hall of Fame and the overall ranks of the six that were in the overall top thousand at the time.

A few days later, this article looked at the squad template and chip strategies of these ten, many of which were remarkably similar.

I was surprised that only three of them (Fábio Borges, Brusdal Brusdal and Robert Wattel) triple captained Mo Salah against Norwich and Leeds for 28*3 points in Double Gameweek 26. The other seven played their Second Wildcards then in preparation for Bench Boosting in Gameweek 28 and didn’t triple captain him till Double Gameweek 29 against Brighton and Arsenal for only 10*3 points. Most of the leaders of our featured mini-leagues however DID triple captain him in Gameweek 26. See the Hot Topic that will be attached to this article for further details.

MODS & CONS

Chaz Phillips (Az) tops the FFS Mods & Cons mini-league for an 18th week. He is now 685th overall, and 128th in our FFS Live Hall of Fame.

FFS FAMILY

Obay Eid (FPL_Milanista) tops the FFS Family mini-league for a 28th week. He has risen to 34th overall and is 12th in our FFS Live Hall of Fame.

LAST MAN STANDING

The safety score for Gameweek 30 in TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing competition (see https://fantasy.premierleague.com/leagues/26234/standings/c and https://torresmagic.webs.com/lmsupdate.htm) was 44, with 46 teams to be removed and 132 going through to Gameweek 32.

The highest scorer was Sean C with 69, thanks to double digit hauls from Richarlison and Doherty.

FFS MEMBERS CUP

Gameweek 30 was the first round of the latest FFS Members Cup. The two previous winners had mixed results – Mohd Rodzi is through to round 2, but Scrumper was eliminated by Cheese pizza.

A.J. is still the highest ranked manager (322nd), but the best score of the round was Wolves42 with 86 thanks to double digit hauls from Richarlison, Bowen, Cornet and Son.

HEAD-TO-HEAD LEAGUES

Justin Spiegel still leads Martin Stubbs by two points at the top of League 1 of MIR’s FFS Head-to-Head Leagues. He is 238th in our FFS Live Hall of Fame.

Viktor Torkelsson in League 9 Division 72 is still the highest scorer in the Head-to-Head Leagues, with 85 points out of a possible 93. He is now 9,238th overall, and 167th in our FFS Live Hall of Fame.

TOPS AND VETS

Uroš Lorbek tops my Top 10k Any Season mini-league (league code kgmryk) for a third week and is now 137th overall.

Carl Evans tops my Multiple Top 10k Finishes mini-league (league code 03t1fd), which is for teams with two or more top 10,000 finishes, for a ninth week He is now 472nd overall, and 308th in our FFS Live Hall of Fame.

Tony Yorath (A.J.) tops PDM’s Top 1k ANY season mini-league (league code 01ef8y) for a fourth week. He has risen to 322nd overall, and is 142nd in our FFS Live Hall of Fame.

Jonathan Tan tops Livinginapool’s Top 100 Any Season mini-league (league code pztxjt) for an 11th week and is now 3,344th overall.

2018/19 FPL champion Adam Levy tops Simon March’s FPL Champions League for a 13th week and is now 4,197th overall.

Finn Sollie jumps straight in at number one in Chaballer’s Hall of Fame Top 1k mini-league (league code 1zpaad). He came 37th last season, 410th in 2016/17, has had another seven top 10k finishes and is currently 72nd overall..He is number one in our FFS Live Hall of Fame.

Callum Croal has regained the lead from Gerry Kerley in Skooldaze’s FPL Vets 2006 or before mini-league (league code hz9bz2), having previously led from Gameweek 11 to Gameweek 18, again after Gameweeks 20 and 24, and jointly with Gerry after Gameweek 28. He is now 5,661st overall, and 26th in our FFS Live Hall of Fame. Gerry is level with him on points but has made more transfers.

JANUARY TO MAY LEAGUE

Diyar Kocdemir tops my January to May League (league code fy0acw) for a second week, having risen from 4,939th after Gameweek 20 to 162nd now.

GET INVOLVED

To join a featured mini-league FOR WHICH YOU ARE ELIGIBLE, simply enter the League code in the ‘Join private league’ section on the FPL site. For any questions relating to community competitions please email geoff@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk or comment below this article.

Rotation's Alter Ego

2 years, 12 days ago

Thanks for the roundup RL 🙂

Open Controls

Chip strategy, groupthink and luck

RedLightning

A majority of the leaders of our featured mini-leagues triple captained Mo Salah for 28*3 points against Norwich and Leeds in Gameweek 26, but only three of the top ten in our Live Hall of Fame did so.

The other seven in the Live Hall of Fame top ten triple captained him for 10*3 points against Brighton and Arsenal in Gameweek 29 instead, all following the same ‘Wildcard 26, Free Hit 27, Bench Boost 28, Triple Captain 29’ sequence, and their average total score for these four Gameweeks was 418.7 points.

The three top ten Hall of Famers who triple captained Mo in 26 all beat this average - Fábio Borges with 427 and two chips left, Brusdal Brusdal with 437 and one and Robert Wattel with 425 and none. Some of the featured mini-league leaders also still have a Bench Boost and/or Free Hit left, but all of them have now played their Triple Captain chips and only two still have a Second Wildcard to play.

The Hall of Famers are all experienced managers with impressive histories, but were seven of them unduly influenced by groupthink or fear of being different? Was it a poor decision by those who chose not to triple captain Salah in Gameweek 26 or were they just unlucky?

P-h-o-e-n-i-x
2 years, 12 days ago
They were unlucky. Could have easily gone either way. And they did not have the benefit of hindsight.
Open Controls
- Permalink
Login To Reply
Make Arrows Green Again
2 years, 12 days ago
I was very surprised by the number of managers who wildcarded in 26, when on paper Salah's TC fixtures were perhaps the best in FPL history.

I personally believe the WC26 strategy was a slight mistake, compounded by slight bad luck (the 26 TC being much more valuable in the end than the 29 TC). The reason I say this is, I hope, not just hindsight.

The thing about the 26 WC that stands out to me was that the doubles were a very late announcement before 26. There wasn't time for many people to react. I think for a lot of the better managers there was an element of "I'm engaged, I've spotted this, I can react", and I think the potential gains were possibly exaggerated in the rush to do something different to what almost all managers had planned up to that point (TC Salah 26).

The main reasons I think it was a slight mistake *on average* (with all teams being different) was that it required a WC to immediate FH, which undermined the value of rolling a transfer after WC, and because many of us had good teams to attack the doubles without wildcarding. Coupled with the luck involved with the 26 Salah haul, I think holding the WC was the best shout, but I still think it might have been the better option on paper even before Salah took to the pitch. It's hard to say given the power of hindsight, but that was the reason I personally didn't follow the approach - but fundamentally I don't think quite so many managers would have done it if there had been more time to think and reflect.
Open Controls
- Permalink
Login To Reply
A.J.
2 years, 12 days ago
WC26 was very much dependant on having 2FHs. It wouldn't have worked without both. It looked rushed but made perfect sense once you got your head around it and I also wasn't that well prepared for GW26 anyway.

I didn't gain much by wildcarding initially in GW26/27 but undoubtedly found that part of the season easier to navigate by doing so. The BB28 set up also worked out nicely.
Open Controls
- Permalink
Login To Reply
1. RedLightning
  2 years, 11 days ago
  Thanks, A.J. - I hadn't spotted that.
  The seven Hall of Famers who Wildcarded in 26 did indeed all have two Free Hits available, whereas the three who triple captained Mo then had already used one of theirs earlier.
  Brusdal and Robert both then used their Second Free Hits in 27 anyway, but Fábio has not used his yet.
  Open Controls
  - Permalink
  Login To Reply
  1. A.J.
    2 years, 11 days ago
    That makes perfect sense.
    
    It was a really interesting part of the season where there were a number of different strategies in play. Originally I had planned to WC28, then the fixtures dropped and changed everything.
    
    The extra FH changed the chip template from quite a boring time to a really exciting part of the season.
    Open Controls
    Login To Reply
    1. RedLightning
      2 years, 11 days ago
      I presume that one of the main points of WC26 rather than WC28 was to set up BB28, when a number of cheap benchable players would have doubles.
      But did you calculate that a BB in 28 would probably outscore a BB in 29 by more than a TC in 26 would outscore a TC in 29 (though in hindsight it didn't) - or was it really more of a differential play that would move you up the rankings if successful?
      Open Controls
      Login To Reply
      1. A.J.
        2 years, 11 days ago
        The BB was planned for sure with a really nice set of fixtures that week for my team.
        
        No calculations made, just trying to find a way to differ from the norm as I was about 1.5k at the time and was actually quite surprised so many well respected players went that way given the short timeframe. In hindsight I should have kept the TC for a differential later after missing the big haul in GW26, but 10pts wasn't a bad result.
        Open Controls
        Login To Reply
        
        RedLightning
        2 years, 11 days ago
        So perhaps it wasn't groupthink then - more a case of great minds thinking alike!
        Open Controls
        Login To Reply
        
        A.J.
        2 years, 11 days ago
        I can't claim that I'm afraid. It was more conveniently forced on me as I wasn't looking great that week.
        Open Controls
        Login To Reply
DaisyDaisyDaisyDaisy
2 years, 11 days ago
TC on the best player in the game versus the 2 worst defences for me was the right decision regardless of the outcome. Could have done a Mane and got one point or just had off days but thats outcome not decision
Open Controls
- Permalink
Login To Reply