The Sad State of Today Fantasy League

The game has definitely improved in some areas, but it's pretty disappointing to see that Today doesn't even care about publicizing the game properly.

Their last article published was 14th September, just before the delayed starting deadline. No further articles to hype up the game, no more weekly summary emails, nor any follow-ups with the celebrities on how their teams are progressing.

Even though the September Manager of the Month has been decided, there isn't a congratulatory tweet from Today Sports. (I suppose the winner's interview will be shown next week.)

It makes one wonder if there's any point in supporting this game, when the organizers don't really care about it.

Kudos to Fantasy League Limited!

In my previous post, I mentioned that there seem to be duplicate accounts created by ***** Loh (no, that's not a typo, it's his actual username), who was occupying the 1st and 3rd position in TFLTalk league. 

So I've dropped a note to Fantasy League Limited to inform them about this issue, and they promptly responded within a day:

Thank for your email and vigilance. 

Having looked into this it seems that that user entered their email address incorrectly on the first team and then probably would not have been able to login because of the typo so re-registered with their correct email address and obviously chose the same team name etc. 

I think in this instance, as that user has not logged in to their first team since the 17th August, then we can give them the benefit of the doubt that this was a genuine mistake. I have removed their first team anyway just to confirm the mistake was genuine 

Thanks again for your eagle eyes and good luck in the game!

I am very appreciative of them taking the time to investigate and explained their findings. I have encountered responses from companies who responded with template answers, or took action based on a user's submission without further investigation.

Despite some gameplay grouses, Fantasy League Limited have definitely improved on the game interface, providing a greater breakdown of team and individual statistics, and giving myself plenty of ideas for new articles.

Kudos to Fantasy League Limited, particularly James Hay, whom handled my inquiry. Top notch customer service! :)   

TFLTalk Scoreboard - Week 1

First off, I would like to give a shout-out to all 97 (!) managers who have signed up for TFLTalk League. I didn't expect the huge turnout, especially since I haven't been writing on this blog nor on TodayOnline, so thank you all for participating in one of the largest (I assume) leagues in Today Fantasy League.

Now, let's take a look at the standings, shall we?

TFLTalk League - Week 1 (Overall)

Hm, I think I spotted a duplicate account....just to note, you are only allowed to enter one team into the game. Entrants who are found to have entered multiple teams will not be eligible for prizes and can be removed from the game entirely.

Until proven otherwise, I will not be discussing about those teams in my write-ups.

Kahirul Salleh's THE UNSANGKARABLE was unlucky not to top the league in Week 1, despite having 4 goals and 3 assists in his team, with almost all players contributing to a goal, or clean sheet. However, he has already made 2 transfers so far, so he is restricted to 3 more in September.

Kai Xiang Wong's KX is in 4th place with 47 points, which his entire backline contributed to 5 clean sheets. Derek Tan's Lekuasimi is looking strong in 5th place with his front 3 of RVP, Giroud & Benteke contributing to half of his week's score.


Overall Leaderboard - Week 1

Darren Sim's Dynamix tops the Overall Leaderboard with 60 points in Week 1, with everyone on his team, barring Fellaini, contributed by either scoring, assisting or keeping a clean sheet. Considering his team cost only £57.9 mil, this means that his team averaged more than a point per million spent.

2nd placed Kugendren K Puranavalu's Shepherd_21 is 2 points behind with 58 points, correctly opting for Giroud as captain for the week.

2 teams, Kian Haw Kong's [Artician] & afiq zulhilmi bin abbas' afiq FC are tied-3rd for Gameweek 1 with 57 points. Afiq took the most daring approach by captaining Aaron Ramsey, and was rewarded with 18 points from his captain's brace.


Congrats to all who have done well in Week 1. Remember, this game is a marathon, not a sprint, so for those who had a disappointing week, there's plenty of time for your team to turn around. 

HOLD THOSE ITCHY FINGERS!!!

So, how has the 1st day of Today Fantasy League been? Already making plans to press the Transfer button?

Here's a few reasons why you should wait till the next gameweek:

1) There is no price rises/falls

The main difference between Today Fantasy League and other fantasy league (FPL, Yahoo, etc) is that players' price remain the same for the entire season. There is no need to knee-jerk and transfer in a player right after a great game, which leads to point #2...

2) The unexpected might befall upon him

The chosen player might get injured during a cup game, a training session, or even in his bathroom. It'll be best to wait till Friday team news, or even up till 1 minute before the game starts to select your chosen one.

3) Clearing the doubt for 50-50 players

From the FAQ:

When can I make transfers and are there any deadlines?

You can make transfers at any time, but in order for the new player to score points for you team he must be in your team before the scheduled kick-off time of his next match. If you complete the transfer after this time, the incoming player will score points from his next match onwards.

Hence, this means you can wait till the teamsheets are revealed before making the final decision on the transfer.

4) Might lead to more points for the Gameweek

An example: I currently have van Persie, and I want to swap him for Suarez this gameweek. I take a look at this week's fixtures, and found that Man Utd is playing on Saturday 7.45pm, and Liverpool plays later at 10.00pm.

Hence, I make the transfer after Man Utd's game has kicked off, but before Liverpool's game, thus I'll get both van Persie's and Suarez's scores for the gameweek.

Do note that this is possible so long as you are NOT transferring out the CAPTAIN for the gameweek. As mentioned in the FAQ:

When can I change my captain? 

If captains are available in this game (see the rules the first game of a fixture block. This means before the first match of a set of weekend fixtures (Friday to Monday inclusive) and before the first of any midweek matches (Tuesday and Wednesday). 

The window for changing your captain will open on Tuesday morning and will remain open until the first match of a Game Week (Tuesday to Monday), which will usually be on a Saturday, unless there is a midweek fixture or a set of midweek fixtures. When there are midweek fixtures the captaincy window will re-open at 07:00h (all times in Singapore/GMT +8 time) following the final midweek match.

Hope these tips will be useful for your team planning. Remember, you only have 30 transfers in a season, and there are 34 gameweek left in the season. Plan ahead, and don't waste those valuable transfers!

Increase in Participation Rate?

As I'm typing this, there's about 10 more minutes till the deadline closes, so I took a look at the Overall Leaderboard on the number of participants in the game:

Compared to the number of signup last season (14,000), this is still a disappointing figure, especially with the game opening up to Malaysians and Indonesians.

Nevertheless, I'm pleased to announce that there are 82 participating teams in this season's TFLTalk league! It's never too late to challenge me in the TFLTalk League (PIN: 3695840)

Good luck for the upcoming season! :)

Deadline is 12PM this Saturday!

Just noticed that the TFL Scoring countdown time at 11+pm today states

Which means the deadline for unlimited transfers this Saturday is 12pm, unlike the Fantasy Premier League, which is usually 6.30pm Singapore time.

Once the 12pm deadline passes, you're restricted to 30 transfers for the rest of the campaign. You can make up to five transfers in a month, but season transfer limit means you can't make five transfers every month.

Transfers can be made at any time, but must be completed before the scheduled kick-off time of the incoming player's next match, in order to score points from that match. This means it is possible to make changes between matches.

TODAY Fantasy League postponed till 14th September

From TodayOnline:

Good news for all TODAY Fantasy League managers

Due to the uncertainty over the futures of unsettled players such as Tottenham’s Gareth Bale, Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney and Liverpool’s Luis Suarez, and the possibility of new overseas players joining the English Premier League before the close of the transfer window on Sept 2, we have decided to start scoring only on Sept 14. 

This is to allow people to try out the game without being penalised, and get a feel of how the new EPL season is progressing, before making their strongest first-11 player selections.

From the comments, it seems like no one is pleased with the extension.

My friend joked that Today is trying to save US$500 by not awarding August Manager of the Month.

I already posted my thoughts on how disappointing the game has stalled and the lack of participation for this season. To have sprung such announcement just 1 day before the season kicks off further dampens my enthusiasm over the long-term direction of this game

Do you see any other reputable Fantasy Sports Games that postpone the launch date, so that team mangers can have a better feel on who to select? Isn't that what pre-season games are supposed to be about?

So what if there is uncertainty? There will ALWAYS be uncertainty in Fantasy Sports Games. For instance, Bale might stay in Tottenham come September, but he suffers an injury on 13th Sep. Will Today Fantasy League be postponed again till Bale recovers?

Despite my grouses, I will still take this game seriously come September 14th, and hopefully provide some useful articles along the way. In the meantime, good luck on your other Fantasy Games!

TFLTalk Teams Review

As a bonus, I took a look at all the teams in TFLTalk League (37, and counting! PIN: 3695840), and noted down players to drop/improvements which they can make in their team.

Note: I'm not going to include players who are in rotation (except for one), as they might actually score huge in Week 1, and become a 1st team regular. 

Gareth Bale (Tot) (£5.2m) - Out for 1st 3 gameweek. Only worth consideration after transfer window closes, and he's still in BPL.

Mousa Dembele (Tot) (£3.8m) - Good player, but not a good Fantasy player. The only way which midfielders can earn points is via Assists & Goals, which he isn't the focal point of either. Never scored or assisted more than 5 times a season.

John Arne Riise (Ful) (£3.5m) - His future in Fulham is up in the air.

Bacary Sagna (Ars) (£4.3m) - Ankle Injury, could be out for weeks.

Andre Schurrle (Che) (£4.3m) - I saw a team that placed the Captain's Armband on him for Week 1. That's pretty risky for a player who I considered not to be a first-choice player.

Jan Vertonghen (Tot) (£4.5m) - Doubtful for Gameweek 1 due to ankle injury.

Jack Wilshere (Ars) (£4.3m) - Same reason as Mousa Dembele.

Double gameweek - Filling up the team with 2 Chelsea and 2 Aston Villa players seems like a fine idea...until I notice that the team chose 2 Aston Villa strikers (Benteke & Weimenn), and 2 defensive Chelsea players (Ivanovic & Cech).

The manager can't be hoping for a 0-0 draw, since he captained Benteke, so what's the point of this setup?

Also, in week 3, when both teams do not have a fixture, he will have to use up 4 transfers to get the active players in. Considering one only has 30 transfers in a season, that's a risky move at the beginning of the season.

Worrying Statistics (or More Chances For Me To Win the Grand Prize)

I actually planned on writing an article today, and when I took a look at the GK ownership, something stood out:

The total ownership % for the top 12 most selected Goalkeepers results in 77.73%, and if you add up the ownership of all GKs, it'll be 80.28%.

As every team needs to select 1 goalkeeper, this means that nearly 20% of the registered teams in Today Fantasy League did not set a starting lineup.

From the Leaderboard page, you can see the total number of signups, which stands at 5,659. Excluding those 20% inactive managers, there are only roughly 4,500 managers which are deemed active.

This is a far cry from the 14,000 signups from last season's game, which was limited to Singaporeans only. With the game expanding to Malaysia & Indonesia & flood of Twitter posts, I believe the low turnout would come as a shock to the organizers.

Nevertheless, with lesser active manager, this increases our chances of getting the US$5,000 Grand Prize.

Hurry, the season starts on Saturday! Sign up now, and challenge me in the TFLTalk League (PIN: 3695840)

Today Fantasy League 2013/14

Today Fantasy League is back for 2013/14, but somehow, I'm not as enthusiastic as the previous season. Yes, the game may have expanded to include our regional neighbours from Malaysia & Indonesia, but it's negated by other changes.

- Last season, TFL started on Week 4, which is after the international break. This season, TFL will begin on start of Week 1....with the same amount of 30 transfers.

This game is created by Original Fantasy League, and this game also has a limit of 30 transfers, but managers will have to select 16 players from £75mil budget. 30 transfers limit actually makes sense here, as you can rely on the depth of your squad to make weekly decisions.

However, you can only select 11 players from £60mil budget in Today Fantasy League. Once you hit your transfer limit for the week/month, there will be no further incentive for managers to log in.

Of course, one might argue that managers should have made long-term decisions, looking ahead on players' schedule prior to transfers. I agree with this point, but game-makers should also take note of mass audience participation and playability.

The mass popularity of Fantasy Premier League is due to managers having active discussions on how to tweak/improve their squad & who to field. I didn't see much discussions occurring for Today Fantasy League after the 2nd half of the season. 

I've followed Today's editorial private league last season, and found that their top manager did not make a transfer after November. Only 1-2 managers were actively managing their teams, though they ran out of transfers before the end of season.

- Also, with an increase budget of £5mil to £60mil, it decreases the challenge of forming a team, and increases the luck factor of the game.

Case in point, I just formed a team with the highest scoring GK, 3 highest scoring Defenders (Agger was the 4th, but Toure is likely to be his 1st-choice partner), 4 of the top 6 highest scoring Midfielders, and 2 of the top 3 highest scoring Strikers. (FYI, this is not my finalised team)

Where's the challenge in discovering this season's Michu prior to the start of the season? Where's the challenge in trying to balance your squad with players from lesser clubs, when you have enough budget to purchase Bale & RVP AND still have enough budget in filling the rest of your team from the Big 6?

Nevertheless, I've created a team for Today Fantasy League, though I'm likely not to be spending as much time as previous season. I've also created a league for TFLTalk, PIN: 3695840

Good luck to all managers!!

Differential (con't)

In addition to my article on TodayOnline, there is an additional player to highlight based on his recent performance:

Valued at just 3.6mil, he has made a bright start to the Premier League with a brace and an assist in just 2 games. With Michu having a poor run of form, and Fellaini facing Man Utd, Arsenal and City in their next 5 games, Sissoko might be worth a punt to replace either fantasy favourites.

I have to emphasize the word might, as Sissoko was never a prolific scorer. As a box-to-box midfielder in Toulouse, he managed 24 goals and 9 assists in 218 games, though in 09/10, he scored 7 goals in 31 league games.

Also, the regular #10 role for Newcastle, Hatem Ben Arfa, is currently injured, as mentioned in the conversation from a forum below:

But, a word of caution. Marveaux was going to start in that position until he was injured just before the villa game. Perch came in and Sissoko was pushed forward. It could well be that when HBA returns he'll come into the number 10 role with Sissoko dropping back alongside Cabaye.  

It may be that HBA returns to the wing, but Gouffran has played very well on the left and Gutierrez seems vital to us in terms of workrate and defensive ability on the right.

Won't Tiote slot in next to Cabaye after the ACON? 

Thus leaving any 3 of Sissoko, HBA, Gutierrez and Gouffran for the 3 places behind Cisse?

Oops, I forgot about Cheick - mainly because he's been poor this season so far this season. Good point though, it's very possible, although Sissoko did say in an interview in the last couple of days that Pards had told him he would play in the advanced role for his first two games. Whether he says this because there has only been two games so far or because he knows the long term plan for him not to play there is not clear.

Deschamps certainly seemed surprised Sissoko had been deployed in the no 10 role in his press conference, but by some accounts replicated the idea for France tonight.

Somehow, I feel that his fantasy potential is similar to Yaya Toure, whose attacking returns come in spurts. However, since Sissoko comes at a much cheaper price (4.8mil vs 3.6mil), and with nice upcoming fixtures, I might consider rolling the dice if Michu doesn't perform in the next 2 gameweeks.

Possibility of Blank Gameweek in March

I know this relates to another fantasy game (Fantasy Premier League), but this information is also useful to managers who are aiming to win Manager of the Month in March:

Source: http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/k540/eza147/PossibleGW29Blanks_zpsc73b0d15.png

Based on current form, Chelsea winning 3 games looks unlikely. :P

Of course, these games will be replayed at a later date, but one should bear this in mind when making their transfer plans.

Quick Tip on Captaincy

Happy 2013 guys! Sorry it took a while for me to update, but I've been pretty busy with work and stuff...hope you guys have better luck than me in Today Fantasy League.

After observing the midweek Chelsea-Southampton game & the top teams inactiveness to capitalize on the rules, here's a quick tip regarding Captaincy for all fantasy managers:

From the FAQ:

When can I change my captain?

You can change your captain right up to the scheduled kick-off time of the first game of a fixture block. This means before the first match of a set of weekend fixtures (Friday to Monday inclusive) and before the first of any midweek matches (Tuesday and Wednesday).

The window for changing your captain will open on Tuesday afternoon and will remain open until the first match of a Game Week (Tuesday to Monday), which will usually be on a Saturday, unless there is a midweek fixture or a set of midweek fixtures. When there are midweek fixtures the captaincy window will re-open at 07:00 following the final midweek match.

Your captain will score double points. To change your captain click on Change Captain.

This means that you are able to change captaincy during the midweek games, and switch again prior to the weekend games.

For instance, this weekend you can captain Suarez (vs Norwich) or van Persie (vs Spurs) rather than Walcott (vs Chelsea). Once the window is open on Tuesday afternoon, you can change your captain to Walcott just for the game against West Ham, and you'll be able to switch on Thursday morning for the next weekend game.

Take advantage of it during this week's games! :)