To all X-League participants,

It is becoming apparent that FPL are probably not going to run their cup competition this season (with the current numbers of teams playing it would have to start tomorrow).

We (the organisers) had allocated a prize of £20 to the manager who got furthest in this cup, so now we need to reallocate this £20.

We want the prize to be something which any of the 41 managers can equally aspire to regardless of their performance so far (as was with the FPL cup), but we ruled out transferring it to the FISO Champions League since there is only limited space of 64 in that competition and I doubt all 41 of us will be included unfortunately.

So, I present to you a proposal for a new competition, which will consist of the 41 members of the X-League, and have a prize for the winner of £20.


THE X-LEAGUE CUP
The format would be similar to that of Euro 2008: groups of 5/6 with home/away matches to get 41 teams down to the last 16, then a round-robin stage before a knockout last-8.

However, I wanted this cup to have a twist so it does not become too similar to Shawpower's CL comp which will be running at the same time. So here is the bit that will make it different to all other side comps seen before, but it is something I need to check you guys are all happy with.

My idea is that matches won't be scored by your team score, but just by the number of goals and (gk/def) clean sheets attained by your players. I didn't want to do it just on goals, as that will encourage an 'unnatural' swing towards Dolly tactics for many managers, but stopped short of including anything else like assists for ease of admin.

So, each goal scored by a member of your starting XI (after autosubs) is 1 point, and each clean sheet kept by a playing goalkeeper or defender is 1 point. To illustrate, see my www: in Gameweek 17 my team would have scored 2 (Almunia & Tevez).


Here is my main concern about this idea. I want this cup to be able to run alongside the main league, and so not change managers tactics from how they would manage their team normally [Although I should note at this point that people could have started burning 10 trannies a week to progress in the FPL cup]. But my proposed format above means players that get most of their points from assists/boni (*cough* Fabregas) are not as useful... what do you guys think about the effect of this??


I will gauge opinion and conduct a vote before anything is confirmed, but if this competition does get the go-ahead it would start in mid-January.

could result in a lot of drawn games.

Fair point, but since the majority of the cup would be group stages I'm not worried about that. We can add in assists for 'extra time' and then revert to the actual point score as a 'penalty shootout' in the knockouts.

I've looked at the whole of the X-League for last week and there's a wide range of scores between 1 and 6, so there's not gonna be more draws than there are in real-life football (20% in fact, based on GW17's scores).

I admit the higher chance of draws (to be more like real life) was part of the reason I came up with this, but do feel free to criticise if you don't like it.

I like it reds, and I had forgotten about there being an FPL cup prize to play for. I am an easy going chap, and will go with just about anything decided, and appreciate the thought you have put into coming up with an alternative. Could you use this week as a dry run to check things out?

That's a good idea Jonathan. Later this afternoon I'll exclude myself and draw 20 random 'friendly' ties among the other 40 members. I'll publish these and then we can see how it goes this weekend under the proposed system.

why don't you just count up the proposed scores for last week and randomly draw.

I understand what your saying about it being similar to Shawpower's CL comp but would that be such a bad thing? After all, it's going to be highly unlikely that you'll be against the same opponent in both competitions very often. It would also mean that, say you have a decent GW score and just come up against an even better one for that week, then you would still more than likely win your game in the other comp.

I think it would be nice to try and keep competitions as different as possible. Rob will be putting in a helluva lot of work into the CL game (after I dumped it on him this year ), and there will be no small effort by reds for this new game, too.

I agree but just thougth that may kep it simpler for Reds. Let's be honest it doesn't matter as I'll probably not win a single game again like when you ran it last year

I can see a Digsby v Doughboys final coming up!

I agree with what you say there, but my view is that if the format and structure of two concurrent competitions is too similar, people may get confused between the two and/or end up taking less notice of one than the other which would be detrimental to the 'banter' in the relevant thread/s.

(AKNel1) Nelson Admirals v Trigger Happy (trigger happy)
(Wyld) The Wyld Ones v The Goats (viddleodge)
(Billy Whiz) Whiz Bang Wallop v Trumpton Hotspur (lazyboy)
(Not our Donna) Förbrytarbeteende IK v Ndidi's Kraal (nash0819)
(grob) grob's gobsmackers v The Drogs (Shawpower)
(Vannie) Roman Villa v Embrace The Tortoise (odelay)
(dachshund) Diaby Does Gallas v No-Eye Deer (RomynPG)
(Maradona_Is_God) The King Of Kings v Whores wi nae Bling (Aldo1)
(sligorover) Sligo's Donkeys v Busk When It's Xmas (flyingkillercob)
(BLOUFO) Thierryless XI v Montreal Grizzlies (fancy dan)
(1086) 1086 v Honeyballs (Cherylhoney)
(reg) Strunken Allstars v Yellow Snow (DixieDean)
(Elvis77) Olivers Troops XV v Book Em Delgetti (Beerfuelledman)
(padrock) Fuggin' Douchebags v Mongoose Budvar King (mongoose)
(nigel1305) The Hand Of Dodd v Smelly Crazy Skunks (vinnyutd6899)
(Cocky) AFC Cocky v Y'all be bad (krispdafunk)
(Flyman) Apathetic Thistle v Athletic Philbao (Sarky)
(Jonathan) The Doughboys v Space Hoppers Zurich (nemo)
(Digsby) Bully's Special Prize v The Fat Puppies (ketabank)
(Five Long Bones) The Bare Bones v thespecialones (TSO)

I'll post the scores to these mock fixtures on Sunday evening so you can all see how it would work.


I should just mention that captains don't score double, and that when opposing teams contain the same player then that player won't be counted for either team's score (ie if team A scored 6 and team B scored 5 last week but both included Santa Cruz, the result of their match would go down as 3-2).

Sounds good to me, Reds - go for it!

apparently they've just announced it.

http://www.fiso.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.p ... 9&start=14

It seems a good idea to me,and sufficiently different for it not to matter that the Official FPL Cup starts tomorrow.

So what's the score then Reds?

Original X-League plan of last man standing (less admin for you ) or the idea on this thread?

Well what about that eh?

The £20 will now be allocated as originally planned, to the member of the X-League that progresses furthest in the FPL-run cup.

Thanks to all those who contributed to this thread, damn those pesky FPL elves leaving us hanging until the last minute.


Now, what a bad week this would be to make my first visit to the millionaires club...

At least you had your eye on the ball though, reds. Thanks for setting up the alternative before FPL got themselves into gear!

Remember. This season, transfer points are deducted from your cup score!

Something else to bear in mind

Just thought I'd do these anyway for my own interest, despite the cup returning for X-League purposes. Who knows, there could be a side comp in this in the future...

(AKNel1) Nelson Admirals 1-2 Trigger Happy (trigger happy)
(Wyld) The Wyld Ones 1-1 The Goats (viddleodge)
(Billy Whiz) Whiz Bang Wallop 4-1 Trumpton Hotspur (lazyboy)
(Not our Donna) Förbrytarbeteende IK 3-4 Ndidi's Kraal (nash0819)
(grob) grob's gobsmackers 1-4 The Drogs (Shawpower)
(Vannie) Roman Villa 2-3 Embrace The Tortoise (odelay)
(dachshund) Diaby Does Gallas 1-2 No-Eye Deer (RomynPG)
(Maradona_Is_God) The King Of Kings 3-1 Whores wi nae Bling (Aldo1)
(sligorover) Sligo's Donkeys 0-4 Busk When It's Xmas (flyingkillercob)
(BLOUFO) Thierryless XI 0-1 Montreal Grizzlies (fancy dan)
(1086) 1086 1-4 Honeyballs (Cherylhoney)
(reg) Strunken Allstars 2-1 Yellow Snow (DixieDean)
(Elvis77) Olivers Troops XV 4-0 Book Em Delgetti (Beerfuelledman)
(padrock) Fuggin' Douchebags 0-2 Mongoose Budvar King (mongoose)
(nigel1305) The Hand Of Dodd 4-1 Smelly Crazy Skunks (vinnyutd6899)
(Cocky) AFC Cocky 1-2 Y'all be bad (krispdafunk)
(Flyman) Apathetic Thistle 1-1 Athletic Philbao (Sarky)
(Jonathan) The Doughboys 0-1 Space Hoppers Zurich (nemo)
(Digsby) Bully's Special Prize 2-0 The Fat Puppies (ketabank)
(Five Long Bones) The Bare Bones 5-3 thespecialones (TSO)

Ah sh1t. That would have been the first time I'd have beaten Grob in one of these side games.

Loosing to a girl
Lucky this was a test run

Yeah,I'm afraid it'll have to remain just a fantasy,Rob ! Happy Xmas