The Community Round Up

The past seven days have been some of the most dramatic of the season, with the fixture list under threat from gales, falling masonry and the prospect of strike action – all this on the eve of Gameweek 29 being torn apart by FA Cup Quarter Finals. We look back at the Fantasy Football Scout community’s reaction to the week’s events and the discussion on the blanks and double Gameweeks to come. As ever, we also catch up with all the ongoing community tournaments, plus take time out to sift through some of the community’s early advice for those playing the newly launched beta of the Ultimate Fantasy Premier League game.

The Hottest Topics

Tuesday was the most anxious of days, as the community waited on the fate of the Fulham vs Liverpool clash – a fixture that hung in the balance thanks to potential strike action. Thankfully, Fantasy managers, and in particular Daniel Sturridge owners, were able to breathe a collective sigh of relief. The strike was called off, the game went ahead and the Liverpool striker notched up another huge points haul. But, as Bsloebadger’s post shows, if the game had been cancelled, there would have been some very strange formations this week among our depleted squads. Rasping Drive, who was staring at a potential 2-4-2 formation, was among the relieved masses.

While the threat of strike action looked to be our major concern at the start of the week, mother nature was to prove a far more threatening foe. Wednesday night saw Everton’s Goodison clash with Palace postponed due to storm-damaged buildings, while the gales also scuppered City’s meet with Sunderland at the Etihad. The fallout was certainly felt by the community, with Leaf amongst the biggest sufferers – he was seven players down thanks to Wednesday’s winds. Meanwhile, Yes The Sess was among those lucky souls to emerge smelling of roses – Laurent Koscielny’s points off the bench courtesy of the clean sheet for United helped a good few to a respectable Gameweek, despite the unforeseen blanks.

While we ponder just how Wednesday’s damage will create double Gameweeks down the line, the weekend’s FA Cup results will also lead to inevitable postponements in Gameweek 29. Buk II’s post proved one of the most popular this week as he calculated the probabilities of each Premier League fixture being cut from the Gameweek schedule. RabMac was also on hand to offer some sound Gameweek 29 advice – saving transfers to deal with the fallout of missing games topped his list.

Bsloebadger was on a roll this week with a further hot topic, this time focusing on an unlikely source of potential points – namely Norwich City’s key assets. He points out that, despite current form, their schedule, featuring home encounters against Stoke and Sunderland, makes them worthy of a punt.

Meanwhile, Tottenham’s next two plum fixtures (nor, CAR) sparked interest from James Collins, who has his sights firmly set on Emmanuel Adebayor’s run of form, while Von Ryan’s Express likes the look of Paulinho as a midfield differential.

This week also saw the launch of a Beta version of the Ultimate Fantasy Premier League (UFPL) game. Opening its gates on Saturday, the community was quick to set about constructing their 25-man squads for this spiced-up version of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) It’s not just the squad size that’s different to the traditional FPL game, the scoring also has some interesting tweaks, with extra points awarded for key passes and other performance stats. Studley was among those on hand to offer some guidance – his excellent spreadsheet on the point differences between players in the FPL and UFPL games proved a big draw. By the way, we’ve set up a Fantasy Football Scout league in the UFPL for those underway on the beta – the code to join is 1305-459.

The Community Tournaments

Teltzham Hotspurs has emerged as the stand out manager in Heelsoverhead’s Worst to First – 2 Million + Club – the tournament for FPL managers who suffered an overall rank below 2,000,000 in the first five Gameweeks. He’s been on the rise ever since and currently holds an impressive rank of 3,603.

TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing league lost 22 managers this week, with 138 now remaining. The Missing Link leads his “After Xmas League”, while Beric heads the seeding for both the FPL Open and Elite 64 competitions. Full details of his leagues can be found here.

Gameweek 26 saw myself reclaim the FFS Moderators and Contributors league lead and continue in front of the FPL part of the community’s Iron Man competition, for those taking part in multiple games. Gigging Order and In Like Flynn continue to top the competition’s Sky Sports and Metro leagues, respectively.

DonTheSpecialOne continues to lead the PuffinBoy Memorial Cup, named after one of this site’s first posters. His rank of 147th is looking unbeatable among the competition’s old guard.

Some late news came in last weekend, which thankfully we have time to squeeze in this week related to Thomass’ Big Bash League. He is delighted to announced that he and Giggs Boson‘s team has won the final against d1sable and BlueLion‘s team.