Welcome to the ISO challenge for season 2011/12, now in it's 2nd OFL season

Looks like OFL classic is back up and running... so thought I would wet your appetites with this post!

As like all great fantasy game providers, I have just blatently copied the rules from last years T & C's post

The ISO competition had previously been going for 5 years in the land of TFFO, but it looks like TFFO is unlikely to never return.

Introduction to the game
The rules of ISO are quite simple. Every participant starts with the same (agreed) squad line-up, and must make the same (agreed) selection choices over the first weekend of matches. From then onwards, everyone may manage their own team as they like, and by May we will see who has managed their transfers and subs best, and who has won ISO 2011/12!

Minileague
I will set up a F&E league for this competition:
League name: FISO ISO
Pin: 13796

Teams should be called "ISO <username>" (eg. ISO blessedbrian), and it is one team per person. Teams should be in the league by the first weekend (although with OFL's facility to see a team's history, exceptions could be made within reason).

Squad
By tradition, the starting squad is decided by the previous year's ISO winner, following a process of discussion and debate amongst entrants. The reigning champion happens to be me ( ), so hopefully by towards end of next week, I will put together a first draft of a squad. This squad will then be debated, criticised and changed until a final 16 is settled on.

We'll aim to have the squad finalised about a week before the season starts, so that managers away in the run-up to August 13 can still set up their team with the correct squad.

Squad CONFIRMED below (subject to change only if someone picks up a 'reasonably significant' injury or has an unexpected late transfer before August 13)

GK
Hart MNC 4.3
FB
Baines EVE 4.5
Riise FUL 3.6
Richards MNC 4.3
CB
Terry CHE 5.2
Vidic MUN 5.2
Huth STO 3.7
MID
Lampard CHE 6.3
VanDerVaart TOT 5.8
Dempsey FUL 4.4
Downing LIV 4.4
Hoolahan NOR 3.8
Etherington STO 4.1
Larsson SUN 3.8
Cabaye NEW 3.9
STR
VanPersie ARS 7.7

Total cost: 75.0

Under ISO rules everyone must make the same selections for the first weekend, so for 13-15 August you must field all 16 players for their matches.
Also under ISO rules no transfers are permitted until 20:01 on August 15 (ie after the last match of the first weekend has kicked off).


Participation
This game is open to any FISO member, whether you're an ex-TFFOer, an OFL regular, both or even neither! Obviously you can still win any of OFL's prizes, but there's no prize for the ISO competition itself, other than honour (and the right to choose next season's starting team). It's all the fun of any entry in OFL, minus the trouble of deciding your starting squad yourself, plus the extra banter and competition provided by the ISO challenge. Get involved!

I've got a lot to live up to after the great initial squad picked by reds363 last year! Feel free to express interest or ask any questions below. Cheers!

EDIT: to add prize details

I'm going to put up a small prize for the winner of the ISO league this year. I will give the winner £20 so that they can get themselves a shiny "Gold" team for next season

I'm in

Any initial thoughts on the profile of your squad? I think we started last season with 1 keeper - do you think you'll choose the same?

I'm in.

May reconsider if Berbatov is in your starting line up.

today no, next week yes

I`m in and raring to go. Glad to have BB doing the initial picking.

Thinking of giving this a go in 2011/12 - what's the best package to buy if I want just the one team for ISO?

Last season was the first time I had played OFL, and I enjoyed it (in the absence of TFFO), particularly as there were a number of ex-TFFOers involved, as well as some longer term OFLers, and it was competitive. Most managers in this league opted for the standard package, though a couple opted for the Gold.

It depends on what you want. Silver and Gold teams provide more prize money in case you win something (like Manager of the week/month and they have an extra competition next to the overall leaderboard) but they are also 5 and 10 pounds more expensive than a standard team. And if you want the thrill of seeing your team's score being updated during the games on Saturday and Sunday you might consider going for Silver or Gold.

Just went on the site for the first time this (coming) season. At the moment you can buy 1 standard team for £10, or 3 for £30 (ie no saving.) You can also buy 3 silver teams for £35, which is tempting given the multiplier you get on the prize money, in the (unlikely in my case) event that you win one.

Any views, or would I just look a bit flash on the league table with a little S against my team name?

I'm going all flash this year too biscuitman and bought the £35 Silver bundle, can't wait to get that S by my teams For the sake of a fiver over the season reckon it's worth it. I'm actually going to enter a 4th side this year as it's pretty low maintenance and the only game I'll play, am due a freebie from finishing top 50 last year and just need to figure out how to access it

I'm in again, 2nd year hope to do better this time!

I'm now the proud owner of three bright, shiny, randomly selected silver teams.

I'd like to give this a try this year. Long time player of OFL, usually only play 1 team, but looking forward to a different kind of challenge.

BB - would love another crack at this competition this season

Hi, I think I will give this a go this season as it seems a fun challenge. I found out about it last season after spotting a few teams in the top 100 starting with ISO. Especially as ISO Blessed Brian was a rival to my own aspirations of a top 10 finish. Unfortunately with my own team (Flitwick Coldspur) finishing agonizingly short in 11th and missing out on an extra £200.

Welcome Tot10Ham. And Ak, would love to see you playing.

Yes - I second Pouzar's comment above.

I would really like to join again and I'm looking forward to BB's initial selection.
Would be funny if this team manages to be Manager of the Week for round 1. Wonder what they would do with 30 prize-winners

At the moment I'm busy building an Excel where I can build my own team offline. When it's done, I think I will go for 4 or 5 teams.
There are some changes in the prizes this year (f.i now only the Double Team Champion gets a prize and not the first three like last year) so I must have more ammunition now!

Not really on topic, but the home-made Excel is finished.
Based on the chosen values in column B (GK, FB, etc.) a pulldown menu of the relevant players is displayed with Name, Club, Last season's points and Value.
Column B is flexible, so you can go for whatever line-up you want.
This Excel allows me to choose my teams at my own convenience. The only thing is that I need to keep track of the latest player additions, but luckily OFL marks them with "new"



And in column J the amount of players from each team is monitored.
Don't think anyone might be interested in this, but it gives you an insight in my preparations

let's start this team off with my first pick:

Charles Insomnia

and the best AMERICAN in EPL

Clint

unfortunately kdub, it's not your initial team to pick.

firstly you have to take part in the ISO comp, are you going to join in this year?

oh and then of course try and win it, so you can have the honour next year

Dont think I've ever tried seriously to draft up a team this early in pre-season! Seems strange to do it with so many transfers and potential lineups unknown. The likes of Cahill, Samba, Enrique could become essential if they get big moves.

Nevertheless, I need to feed you hungry folk and get the debate flowing. Left a bit in the budget for upgrades

I've gone for an initial 1-3-3-8-1 squad

GK
Hart MNC 4.3 - straight forward choice, along with kompany most assured starter in MNC defence.
FB
Baines EVE 4.5 - essential member of the ISO squad
Enrique NEW 3.4 - If he goes to ARS or LIV then bargain, if he stays gives us fixtures coverage
Johnson LIV 4.2 - he's in for now, but not sure 100% convinced he will stay come final draft!
CB
Terry CHE 5.2 - nice fixtures give Terry a narrow nod over Vidic for the same price
Hangeland FUL 3.8 - consistent points scorer at that price, also in europa so our squad will benefit from him playing sundays
Huth STO 3.7 - see Hangeland above for same reasons
MID
Lampard CHE 6.3 - guess choosing Frank will split opinion. chelseas fixtures make him hard to leave out for me!
VanDerVaart TOT 5.8 - spurs star man by a mile, again europa = sunday games
Dempsey FUL 4.4 - consistent points scorer at that price, did i mention europa & sunday games
Downing LIV 4.4 - fancy him to step up at LIV, always been reliable scorer + fitnesswise for decent price
Hoolahan NOR 3.8 - "Wessi"to set the Prem alight... hopefully it's not just my heart ruling my head
O'Hara WOL 3.8 - Scored well on loan last year, could do even better now signed permanently
Larsson SUN 3.8 - Steady scorer for BIRM, looks decent value at this price
Young MUN 5.2 - was worried by lack of MUN coverage, but originally was trying to use this slot for a second striker
STR
VanPersie ARS 7.7 - 18 goals in 18 games, can score against anyone so I dont fear arsenals fixture list, hope he can stay fit!

TOTAL 74.3

so there we are, an early draft which by my reckoning will give us no squad clashes up until end of november

Looks very good as a first go BB!

Solid defence with my only question mark over Enrique - will be a bargain if he gets a transfer as you say, but would have reservations picking him if he remains at Newcastle (scored just 8 points there last season). I notice you mentioned fixture coverage there (and a couple of other places), you seem to pay this more attention than I usually do in OFL. Dunno who's right, but I'd thought with the flexible formations and spread of kickoff times each weekend, you should quite rarely encounter problems with most squad compositions. Full-back is possibly the position to be most careful about since it's the only inflexible position (bar GK) - I'd say it's here that having a Europa League player (for Sunday games) would be most useful, Newcastle are likely to have more Saturday 3pm's and cause clashes in the future (although I trust when you say it's fine till November, and our tinkering fingers would have taken their effect by then!).

Midfield looks pretty good too. Think I'm with you on Lampard - Chelsea's fixtures are great and with doubts over which striker/s will be first-choice at Stamford Bridge I think he's the best option. Plus his price has come down after a mediocre/injured first half of last season, although he picked up again nearer the end. Don't know much about Hoolahan except he scored quite a few in the Champo but lost penalty duties to Holt near the end of last season... how badly will that knock his tally? Liverpool have loads of attacking options this season but as long as he gets on the pitch Downing should be a good shout; O'Hara I could take or leave against Hunt; Ash Young I'm dubious how he'll settle in and split time with Nani/Valencia but can live with.

Up front, RVP, the standout choice.

Great squad, all in all!

I mostly agree with Reds. RVP is a must have and Enrique is the only question on D. Maybe an MC defender instead, although that would require a little MF juggling. Lampard is a gamble, but possibly a wise one if he is fully fit and Ch have a good year. If we stick with him I will watch him very closely to see if he is the same old must have. Agree about VDV as well. In the end only Enrique raises serious doubts. I will have other teams and this looks like a worthy variation on them with plenty of overlap. Thanks BB and I will full support your final decisions whatever they are.

I'll raise a doubt about RVP. Not only is there a new striker in town to take some points off him, but there's a chance two of the creative players will be leaving. Having fewer chances and sharing them means RVP might not hit the highs of previous years. How about Hernandez instead? If you choose Young as a provider, I don't think MU have a better guy for poking/nodding them in.

cheers for the feedback so far guys... keep it coming, good or bad

reds/pouzar - point taken about enrique, and he was far from a cert on my list. Ideal scenerio he moves to Liverpool and we upgrade Johnson Lets see what the next week holds transfer wise as that might help juggle the squad.

bspittles - agree Hernandez looks a great prospect to do even better this year. I just cant see past RVP (if fit) as the standout striker to start the season with, especially with the Tevez saga ongoing. Arsenal will still be scoring plenty and will be there or thereabouts. Fergie has more options to rotate Hernandez than Wenger does to rotate RVP imo. Has hernandez joined up for pre-season yet, as I know he was playing for Mexico in the summer?

I've added the ISO league PIN to the first post

Team looks good - just raising a query about Larsson: is he a likely regular starter? Sunderland seem to have a group of fairly samey (in FF terms) midfielders. Richardson, Cattermole, Malbranque, Sessegnon...

BlessedBrian, just sent you "formal" request to join the league.