THE FISO CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS

Introduction

A good number of people play a range of Fantasy Football games. There is often a healthy online debate over which manager has been the most impressive performer over the course of the season.

Was last season’s best performance from Andy Edwards, winning the Daily Telegraph game with just a single team? Were you more impressed by the sustained success of Bruce Baer? Or did Zoran Furlan’s twin successes in You The Manager and TFFO seal the win for Croatia? Until now, there has been no definitive answer.

This brand-new competition has been set up, through FISO and Fanbanta, to measure the overall performance of the UK’s Fantasy Football managers – in essence, to satisfy the growing demand for a contest to find the best performing Fantasy Manager of the season.

Do you think YOU have what it takes to be crowned FISO Champion of Champions? If so, read on.

How It Works

The competition will be set up to track the performance of entrants across a range of three fantasy football competitions:

Channel 4 Fantasy Football Monthly

Telegraph Fantasy Football

You The Manager

Entry Rules:

· Players would be required to have a minimum of one team in each of the competitions to qualify.
· There will be no maximum limit to the number of teams per entrant in YTM and TFF, but only the top-scoring team in each competition will qualify for scoring purposes.
· The Channel 4 game only allows one team per entrant, and this rule must be respected.
· Managers may only enter the ‘Champion of Champions’ once, and only in their own name (though, as above, this one entry may encompass many teams across the competitions).
· All entries must be registered under the same email address, and this will be used as the unique identifier across the three games.

Points Scoring:

· Points will be awarded based solely on the finishing position of an entrant’s best team in each of the relevant competitions, with bonus points on offer for an overall top 100 finish in any of the contests.
· This system deals as fairly as possible with the diverse entry levels and scoring systems across the three games, while offering suitable rewards for outstanding results within any one of the competitions.
· In the case of the Channel 4 Fantasy Football Monthly competition, scoring for the season-long table will be based on Channel 4’s ‘Best 3 Months Table’ and, as such, performance in this competition will not be incorporated into the season-long ‘Champion of Champions’ league table until 3 months have been completed.

Finishing position points (calculated in terms of placing as a % of total entrants)

As a guide, the figure in brackets represents the required position in TFF last season to reach this mark.

· Finishing in top 0.005% of entrants or better – 20 points (pos. 13 or better)
· Finishing in top 0.01% of entrants – 18 points (pos. 26 or better)
· Finishing in top 0.02% of entrants – 16 points (pos. 53 or better)
· Finishing in top 0.05% of entrants – 14 points (pos. 134 or better)
· Finishing in top 0.1% of entrants – 12 points (pos. 268 or better)
· Finishing in top 0.2% of entrants – 10 points (pos. 537 or better)
· Finishing in top 0.5 % of entrants – 9 points (pos. 1344 or better)
· Finishing in top 1% of entrants – 8 points (pos. 2688 or better)
· Finishing in top 2% of entrants – 7 points (pos. 5377 or better)
· Finishing in top 5% of entrants – 6 points (pos. 13443 or better)
· Finishing in top 10% of entrants – 5 points (pos. 26886 or better)
· Finishing in top 20% of entrants – 4 points (pos. 53772 or better)
· Finishing in top 30% of entrants – 3 points (pos. 80658 or better)
· Finishing in top 40% of entrants – 2 points (pos. 107545 or better)
· Finishing in top 50% of entrants – 1 point (pos. 134431 or better)

Bonus points
· Overall winner of a competition – 20 point bonus
· 2nd place in a competition – 15 point bonus
· 3rd place in a competition – 10 point bonus
· 4th-10th place in a competition – 8 point bonus
· 11th – 20th place in a competition – 6 point bonus
· 21st – 50th place in a competition – 4 point bonus
· 51st – 100th place in a competition – 2 point bonus

So, across the three competitions a very weak entrant might achieve somewhere in the region of 5 points, while a serious contender may achieve something in the order of 50 points.

Scoring for the competition will be updated monthly, on a ‘claims’ basis – that is, if you think you are in the running, submit your claim online at the FISO Champion of Champions forum and the competition’s organisers will verify your overall position in each of the competitions. The first league table will be published in early September, and the overall title will be decided at the end of the Premiership season in May 2008.

The monthly prizes will be decided on the basis of performance during each game’s monthly competition. So, although the dates for these periods do not directly correlate, the Champion of Champions prize for October, for example, will be awarded to the entrant who has the best combined performance in the October MOTM competitions in each of the three games. The dates for the ‘game months’ for each competition will be provided directly below this post.

Since the Telegraph game does not have a Manager of the Month for August, the first monthly prize will be awarded on the basis of performance in the two remaining competitions.

Prizes (courtesy of www.Fanbanta.com)

The overall winner will receive a soon to be confirmed excellent prize, and, just as importantly, the worldwide adulation that comes with the glorious title of ‘FISO Champion of Champions 2007/08’.

There will also be nine monthly prizes, which will be awarded based on performances during each game month from August 2007 to April 2008.

This month (August) Fanbanta are offering…

1st place: Pair of tickets to any league game in the UK (excluding ROI)
2nd place: Football shirt of your choice
3rd place: Limited edition Fanbanta t-shirt

In subsequent months they’ll be offering prizes to this standard and above, including tickets, football trips/holidays, signed memorabilia, cash prizes and a host of other sought-after goods.

As for the season-long prize, you’ll find out soon (sorry we can't confirm this just yet).

NB. The monthly winners will be announced 14 days after the end of each game month. You must make a “claim” within 7 days of the end of the game month to qualify for the prizes. The overall winner will be announced 14 days after the end of the season – again make sure you “claim” within 7 days of the end of the season to qualify for the prizes.

Enter NOW!

The inaugural ‘FISO Champion of Champions’ competition will finally put an end to the empty boasting and online bluster, and really sort the fantasy wheat from the chaff!

If you know that your mate is more of a John Barnes to your Jose Mourinho, why not challenge friends to play too? There will be no more excuses – the title, along with all the glory that comes with it, is well and truly up for grabs, and it’s time to settle those old arguments once and for all!

If you think you have the guile and the know-how to triumph over all comers, and want to see your name up in glittering lights next May, then register your interest by posting below.

Here are the links again to get registering those teams:

Channel 4 Fantasy Football Monthly

Telegraph Fantasy Football

You The Manager

sounds great i have teams in all three so i guess i qualify..?

TFF & YTM I can understand but C4? Not one that many are going to take seriously when there's cash at stake in many other games surely?

I'm interested, in all 3 comps.

Due to the late launch of Champion of Champions I think it's a good one to use. One can enter Channel 4 half way through the season and still have a good chance of doing very well on the 3 month leaderboard.

Also good to have a 'Fantasy League' run game on board.

Furthermore Channel 4 is very popular with 70,000 to 100,000 people likely to take part.

hope I'm wrong but the whole setup strikes me as a ploy to promote the C4 game that I'd never heard of before

Consider my interest (for all three competitions) registered ...

Yep. I would've liked a crack at this and it's a good idea for the future but I feel it's a bad idea to rush something that deserves a little bit of time spent on it.

This could be and should be the 'blue riband' competition for all Fantasy Sports enthusiasts but the Channel 4 inclusion spoils it IMO.

Good luck to all involved, but will it fulfil its purpose of finding the best overall FF player ? As the first event of its type I doubt it (a bit like that World Club Championship thingy that United took part in).

Looking forward to a more meaningful competition next season though !

Channel 4 'took over' the very popular BBC game a couple of years ago which the BBC were forced to drop, not being in line with their charter.

As I said, over 70,000 individuals played it last year making it one of the most popular Fantasy Football games and it's run by Fantasy League. Any game included needs to have a wide appeal.

In terms of people playing the games, based on last season's entries YTM is the least popular game although with their rule changes this season perhaps they will get more this season.

I did approach the Premier League for permission to include Fantasy Premier League (FPL) in Champion of Champions but they objected to its proposed inclusion so I don't think that one will ever be included.

I like the idea,I'll be in.
It could have been even more FF competitions from different points system and transfers like Yahoo and at least 1 squad base FF like OFL or TFFO.I like including the Channel 4 FF because it's different than others.
Even 5 different FF would be nice.
My best 5 selection would be;
YTM-TFFO-Yahoo-Channel 4-FPL(or 1 from SM)

I've been working on this for the past 2+ months so it's not rushed as such but there were unfortunate delays in the last couple of weeks meaning we were not able to release it as early as we wanted.

Due to Channel 4's 'best 3 month leaderboard', as long as you have 1 team in TFF and 1 team in YTM at the season start then you'll be able to have a good shot at being the 07/08 FISO/Fanbanta Champion of Champions. Finish top 20 in all 3 comps and I think you will very much deserve it.

how come no one has mentioned the sun dream team? is it because its too much based on luck..?

Some of the shrewdest FF managers are excluded from this contest, including at least one mentioned in the blurb. The Telegraph and C4 comps are both restricted to UK based managers. It kind of defeats the purpose. About 90% of the available prize money in the YTM game went to non UK based players last year. Good luck with it anyway

I think the competitions chosen are good. I welcome the inclusion of fantasy league via CH4 as that complements well the contrasting formats of TFF and YTM.

well wasn't gonna play channel 4 but looks like i'll have a bash now.

id of thought 1 of the other few games run by OFL would of made sense

Daily Mail
Virgin
Sky

I was wondering how you know where you have finished in a monthly TFF comp. They only do a table for the top 50. Unless that is changing this season.

This also brings up a real bug bear of mine. Why can't competition organizers stick to calender months. The Mirror and Sun can manage it why can't The Telegraph, and one or two others ?

Play many games, but not two of these, seems a shame as it's a good idea.

More flexibility wanted/needed.

Can we have a Numpty of Numpties competition to find the worst performing FF player across a range of games?

What do you want to call it? Jeffersdn vs CanaryYellow?

Hey you, he's not here to defend himself.

Call it Jeffersdn vs CanaryYellow

Can someone at fanbanta please get in touch with me and explain why I never got my free t-shirt when I registered as one of the first on the site?

... I won't be entering anything until that is resolved... Grrr.

TFF is one of the most popular interactive management games and so it was important to include it within the Champion of Champions. I too am disappointed that, as a result of the Gambling Act, TFF have restricted the breadth of their entries this season.

Dail Mail could be an option next year to approach. Don't think they had as many entrants as Channel 4 though. It's not just the prize element that's important about the right games to include.

Both Virgin and Sky are brand new games this season so weren't really options for this season.

This season you have 3 games, each run by one of the main providers of Fantasy Football games: GFM (TFF), Fantasy League (Channel 4) and Clever.tv (YTM). So from a gaming perspective there is a good test set in order to become the innaugral Champion of Champions.

isnt it enough that you are flogging fiso goals on every page without the poor, made up chanel 4 tournie.

A great idea. not sure that i'd be eligible as my ytm teams are entered under a different email address; my regular addy brings up an old paypal account when trying to register with ytm, and i don't deal with that shower, so created a new address just to enter that comp. still, only a minor technicality. edit - started writing this before mephisto posted - am refering to the champion of champions thing being a good idea.

well as i will be playing all 3 games i might as well have a crack at it, you always need somebody bringing up the rear

YTM is not supposed to compare to C4 comp, this is the point...its all a matter of variation and determining who has got the overall nouse to do well in differing formats simultaneously making it an extention to the whole FF genre and well placed within FISO, which at the end of the day serves to embrace the whole community aspect. There is, has and hopefully always will be a healthy competetive edge created through FISO. To be quite honest, I find it is your comments that do not stand up, you aim critisism at FISO simply because you do not like one idea, many FISO members are continuously looking to enhance the game experiences and just because those with the commitment to maintain the site decide to launch intergrated OPTIONS you spit your dummy....oh dear.
I dont post that often, but use this community day in day out throughout the season, as with all things you use/take/give what interests you and while constructive critisism has its place, sledging does not and is unnecessary.

rant over

Is there a limit on monthly prizes that can be won by one person? If not then the prizes are just going to be hoovered up by those who enter motw/motm teams - Crabby and Browny for example must be just rubbing their hands at this prospect. Its not going to matter how badly their Ch4 team is going when they have huge hauls from YTM and TFF.

A one team manager doesnt have a prayer of a monthly and i cant possibly expect to compete with the likes of Zoran Furlan or Adrian Walshe. I think its a shame we didnt have more time and asked people to declare a single team in each game before it starts. In my opinion people with money to invest are just going to romp away with this.

Very much a case of the rich getting richer, the chances are high that the YTM and TFF champion will be winning this too.

I am sure this has encouraged a few extra entries which is great for the games in question, but i cannot justify shelling out for YTM teams in the hope of winning something here as much as i'd like to because no matter what way i look at it i just cannot compete.

As great of an idea as this potentially was i cant help but feel the monthly/overall prizes would have been far better if swapped with FISO goals.

Im in all 3..so count me in.

Just stuck a team in the Channel 4 game so i've got teams in all three now, therefore consider me in