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)