Welcome to the new season of the Divisional Championships.

The game will run pretty much as last season. There will be seven Periods of five weeks each, with the top and bottom few in each division at the end of each five weeks being promoted and relegated.

This season’s main new feature is the introduction of the Divisional Championships’ Champions League (see below, in the rules, for more details), as a replacement for what I felt was a bit of a damp squib of the old ‘Team of the Season’ feature. Basically it will be a knockout cup running alongside period 7, for anyone who’s achieved a top-4 Premier Division finish over the previous six phases.


RULES OF THE DIVISIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Participants
The initial participant list has been compiled from all FISO members stating their wish to play the game on this thread. The initial divisions in which each member will start have been decided by a method described below, the positions published there are final.

New players may join the game at any time by stating their request to enter in this thread, and giving me a link to their team. New players will not have their points backdated; they will begin scoring from the first update after I receive their request to enter.

Game Phases
The game will take place over a number of ‘periods’ per season. Each period will consist of a pre-determined number of gameweeks. For the 2008/09 season, the periods will run as follows:
Phase 1: Gameweek 4 – Gameweek 8
Phase 2: Gameweek 9 – Gameweek 13
Phase 3: Gameweek 14 – Gameweek 18
Phase 4: Gameweek 19 – Gameweek 23
Phase 5: Gameweek 24 – Gameweek 28
Phase 6: Gameweek 29 – Gameweek 33
Phase 7: Gameweek 34 – Gameweek 38

Game Format
The participating teams are split into divisions. Teams compete in a league against other teams in their division over each period, using their score from the Fantasy PremierLeague.com game. All points as awarded by the administrator of this game are final. At the end of each period, the teams will be ranked in order by the points scored during the period. Depending on your position, you may be promoted to the division above, or relegated to the division below, in time for the beginning of the next period.

Structure of Divisions
There are five divisions, namely the Premier Division and Divisions 1-4. Each division will contain approximately 20 teams. This is variable and will change throughout the season due to new entrants. New players entering the competition late will always join in the bottom division.

Promotion and Relegation
The top 4 teams at the end of each period in each division below the Premier Division will be promoted to the division above. The bottom 4 teams at the end of each period in each division except the bottom division will be relegated to the division below. Extra promotion or relegation spaces may be created from time to time as divisions get larger, or to prevent an excess of teams accumulating in the lowest division as new teams join, these will be advertised and fixed at the first update of each phase.

Ranking
Teams within a division will be ranked on the following criteria:
1. Total points scored during the phase (taking into account relevant transfer deductions).
2. Week-by-week head-to-head record during the phase against tied teams.
3. Overall FPL rank for the whole season to date.
4. Most FISO posts on the current forum.

Transfer deductions
Any transfer deductions you incur during a phase will be counted in your score. However, deductions incurred at the beginning of the first week of each phase will be ignored. In the week you play your wildcard, no transfer deductions will be made. Additionally, if you make two free transfers in a week using FPL’s new “free transfer rollover” rule, you will incur no deductions.

NEW FOR 2009/10: Divisional Championships’ Champions League
The top four teams in the Premier Division in each of periods 1-6 win a qualifying ticket into the inaugural Divisional Championships’ Champions League! The DCCL will be a knockout competition staged during period 7 (alongside the main Divisional leagues). Any team finishing in the top four on more than one occasion will enter with multiple tickets, which will correspond to one ‘life’ each, ie if you have two tickets you will only get knocked out after losing twice! However many teams remain after GW37 (which should hopefully be 2, but may be more depending how things pan out), they will have all extra lives removed and go into a GW38 battle for the victory!
(Exact rules of this competition are now posted below!)

Updates
Tables will be updated once each gameweek, at my earliest convenience following the confirmation of the final gameweek scores by FPL.com. If you believe I have updated your score incorrectly, please make me aware of my error.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Divisional Championships 'Champions League'
The Champions League will take place over gameweeks 34-38, ie. concurrently with period 7 of the main game. The Champions League will be open to all teams that have finished in the top four of the Premier Division in any of game periods 1-6 inclusive. Each team begins the competition with one 'Ticket' per period in which they achieved a top-four place.

In each of gameweeks 34-37, all participants (who have not been knocked out) will be drawn randomly into head-to-head ties. If there are an odd number of teams remaining in any given week, there will be one three-way match, decided at random. Note that a team only plays in one tie per week, regardless of how many tickets they have.

Each tie will be decided on the teams' gameweek score (NOT including transfer deductions), with the following tie-breakers to be used if necessary:
1. Fewest transfers made that week (note: here, a wildcard will count for as many transfers as you actually made with it!)
2. Most goals scored by your team
3. Most assists by your team
4. Most clean sheets (keeper/defence only)
(Note points 2-4 refer to your XI after autosubs, captain not counting double)
5. Most captain points
6. Most points on bench
7. In the unlikely event the teams are equal on all the above, they will be deemed to have both won if their common score for the week was greater than the national FPL average, or both lost if the score was less than or equal to the national average.

The loser of each tie (or the two losers, in the case of a three-way match!) surrenders one of their Champions League Tickets, and when this leaves a team with no more tickets they are knocked out of the competition.

In gameweek 38, however many teams remain in the competition, they all go into a single tie (the Final), decided using the same tiebreakers as above, with the winner becoming the Champions League champion!

The starting divisions for the entrants that signed up on this thread are published below. Anyone else wanting to join from now on may do so, but will start in the bottom division.

The entrants were ranked from 1-117 (with half points for ties etc) by each of (a) their total score during 2008/09 and their final division in these championships last year, and (b) their score so far in the 2009/10 season. The ranking for 2008/09 was given double weight, with the exception of "FPL newbies" whose 2009/10 rank was given double weight. "FPL newbies" are players who did not play FPL last season (ie had no previous season’s score recorded on their current team’s GW history) and I had no other record of them competing last season.

Players were then sorted by the combined rank, however some players were then moved up the order due to the guarantee to start in at least the division you ended last year's championships (these are the players shown written in blue text in the chart below).

The top 20 (in the purple shaded part of the chart below) will make up the Premier Division for phase 1. Numbers 21-44 (blue) will be in Division 1; numbers 45-68 (green) will be in Division 2; 69-92 (yellow) will make up Division 3; and 93-117 (orange) will begin in Division 4.



Barry has made a late request to join, after I completed the seedings, and so he will join in Division 4 for the start of period 1!

Period 1 starts TOMORROW (GW4) and last until the end of GW8 (ie up to the October international break)! Good luck all!

Superb stuff

Well, I suppose things can only get better for me... can handly get worse

Good work.

I deeply regret trying to second guess Krispy and Nickchild in the X-League distract me from this last year, that won`t happen again, I`ll most probably be languishing at the bottom of both leagues

Looking forward to trying to win both though

you're a star

Really looking forward to this, but have my work cut out trying to climb to glory

Finally, this is one of my favorites

This looks so good, well done reds363, you are a credit to fiso.

Looking good Reds

I'm aiming for promotion to the prem from the get go....

Seeded to be relegated. Oh well, it can only get better from here. Just a good job there's no Conference league to be relegated into.

Top division for me!!

At least I can say that for the first 4 weeks!!

Very nice Reds. Good to see I'm in Division 1 by rights and not one of these blue-texted wannabes

Only just seen this thread and sidecomp. Anymore space in Div4 ?

Excellent as always, and I like the introduction of the Champions League.

There's always more space in Division 4!

Welcome Totempaul, alongside IndEleven and Discogod (who posted late in the signup thread), and Ironfist (requested via PM). Div 4 now has a whopping 30 teams! To compensate (and to shift some of this number up to Div 3), at least the top 6 will get promoted in period 1 (exact number to be determined before the first update)


We're kicking off now!

Bring it on! Top 6 sounds do-able in D4.

A double promotion in the off season. Marvelous!

Only just held on to that D1 place no thanks to my start this season.

Good work Reds363 - looking forward to the launch of this.

Great work there Reds363.

I dragged my self up a division or two last year, but again start in the bottom division. Ah well I will have to do it all again

Hi everyone, here's the standings in the leagues after the first week of the game!

(Number of promotion/relegation spaces shown in each league is now fixed for this period)

Congrats to the early table-toppers SgB, Flyingkillercob, Alwaysonthebeer, Johnnyhp and Totempaul!

Hope you all have a good international break, and come back with your teams well-prepared for the next four weeks!

Great work reds363!

Looks great Reds, cheers

Looking for some luck from the new avatar

Nice one red, if I stay where I am I'll be delighted!

Nice typeface! As always, you can see instantly how you are performing against fellow FISOers. Division 2 looks a toughie. Fave side game EVER!

First time for ages and ages that I've seen Times Roman complemented in public...


Great game Reds... always was... always will be mate.

I don't think it is Times, Dixie. It's a slab serif along the lines of Rockwell. Besides, you can't beat the classics!

Agreed about the classics mate... and maybe my eyes are going TBH... looked like Times to me. Reds should have used a bigger point size and then I might have had a clearer view.