The Secret Tournament
- Pirlo's Beard
- FISO Jedi Knight
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Re: The Secret Tournament
Last edited by Pirlo's Beard on 13 May 2019, 21:00, edited 1 time in total.
- Pirlo's Beard
- FISO Jedi Knight
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Re: The Secret Tournament
The undisputed champ. Claimed top spot in GW5 and never looked remotely likely to relinquish it thereafter, winning by a frankly ridiculous margin of 222 points. Doherty, Robertson, Sterling, and Vardy did much of the damage. He drafted Doherty in GW5, right before the start of his big scoring run, and brought in Jota two weeks before his hat-trick. In fact, his squad was so much better than everyone else's, he didn't even bother touching it for the final twelve weeks.
An utter, utter spoilsport.
I did my best, but my best was only good enough for a distant 2nd place. Agüero and Van Dijk were the mainstays and helped keep things semi-respectable. And although Mav was the undisputed champ, 205 total transactions meant that I was the undisputed tinkerman. Which is something, I guess.
Tall Paul clung to my coattails right until the very end, finishing just three points behind me despite only making three transactions all season. Either TP is an incredibly patient Draft player who puts great faith in his initial picks, or he basically lost interest after GW2.
Neck and neck with Stemania going into the final gameweek, a blistering final score of 69 gave Archy a very respectable 4th-placed finish in his first season playing Draft. It's an especially impressive finish given that Archy wasn't present for the actual draft itself, relying on his watchlist to give him a competitive auto-pick team (which it did, supplying him with the likes of Alexander-Arnold, Eriksen, and Mané).
I'm not sure he had much fun though, he appears to have lost interest somewhere around GW16.
Picked Phil Jones in his initial draft, naturally. Also picked Pogba, who was very good, then very shit, then very good again, then very shit again. Jiménez and Wilson were outstanding picks, and would have given him a formidable front three had Lukaku not been there stinking up his squad for the entire season.
Made his final transactions in GW34 so seems to have stuck with his team for most of the way.
Dino had a tough break in GW1 when De Bruyne picked up an injury that kept him out for much of the season. He'd likely have finished quite a bit higher than 6th with an injury-free KDB, which illustrates the amount of luck involved in Draft. In a 10-player Draft league you only get a couple of premium players, and you really need them to stay fit for the duration to have any chance of a good finish.
Nearly nabbed 6th place from dino on the final day but missed out by a couple of points. Picked Doherty in his initial squad ( ) but removed him in GW2, allowing Mav to snap him up ( ). Aubameyang, Azpilicueta, and Zaha were his best picks. Charlie Austin not so much.
A tough season.
Another Draft debutant, baganboy's season was a bit of a slog, toiling manfully before eventually losing interest somewhere around GW26. Of his initial picks, Hazard was the star man, and Sánchez his biggest flop.
As mentioned though, it was his first time playing Draft, so it would be cruel to focus unduly on his mistakes. Like picking Juan Foyth. Three times.
Unluckily fell short of his predicted score of 200 for the final week, missing it by just 159 points. I'm sure 9th place wasn't quite what he was hoping for, but at least he avoided finishing bottom. Which brings us on to...
Draft isn't much fun when you're the one looking up at everybody else.
Last edited by Pirlo's Beard on 13 May 2019, 21:00, edited 2 times in total.
- Mo Bot
- Dumbledore
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Re: The Secret Tournament
Salah was the obvious first pick but Tosun, Morata, Rashford (when I had him), Lingard and Yarmolenko were not good enough picks to start the season.
- Mo Bot
- Dumbledore
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Re: The Secret Tournament
Well done to Mav and see you next season if you need another whipping boy?
- Archy
- Grumpy Old Man
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Re: The Secret Tournament
Hey Pirlo, thanks for the write up on here.
Can’t believe I got 4th with an auto-pick team that I didn’t touch for over half the season!
I think a miserable season in the ‘main’ FPL comp (finished a career worst 70,000th and couldn’t even win my main ML ) gave me a a kind of “meh” attitude to this too.....I do promise to engage better if invited back again next season .
Another problem of course is the lack of any decent players to sign once the draft is over and the season’s underway...it’s not like there’s much anyone could have done to catch Mav, no matter how hard they tried! Don’t know if there’s anything that can be done to change this in future?
Can’t believe I got 4th with an auto-pick team that I didn’t touch for over half the season!
I think a miserable season in the ‘main’ FPL comp (finished a career worst 70,000th and couldn’t even win my main ML ) gave me a a kind of “meh” attitude to this too.....I do promise to engage better if invited back again next season .
Another problem of course is the lack of any decent players to sign once the draft is over and the season’s underway...it’s not like there’s much anyone could have done to catch Mav, no matter how hard they tried! Don’t know if there’s anything that can be done to change this in future?
- Pirlo's Beard
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Re: The Secret Tournament
For sure, every good Draft league needs a whipping boy.
I'll definitely be running the league again next season. I know a few of you may have lost interest as the season wore on (which is understandable, as a 10-team Draft league can be a bit of a slog), but as founding members of The Secret Tournament you'll all be invited to compete in The Secret Tournament II.
- Pirlo's Beard
- FISO Jedi Knight
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Re: The Secret Tournament
Turn up for the draft would be a start.
I think Mav winning by such a huge margin was a bit of an anomaly (no disrespect to the champ!). I took part in Ruth_NZ's 10-team Draft league last season and the two of us were battling it out for first place pretty much all season, Ruth only managing to finally pull away in the last couple of weeks. For sure though, your starting team is so important. A strong initial squad + astute tactical switches week to week will keep you competitive throughout the campaign.
Hopefully next year it will be a bit closer and we'll have a proper title race. Thinking maybe I should disqualify Mav from entering though, just to be safe.
- Stemania
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Re: The Secret Tournament
Very well played Mav. Schooled us all.
Thanks PB for organising.
Thanks PB for organising.
- Archy
- Grumpy Old Man
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Re: The Secret Tournament
I'm completely new to this, but it seemed to me, once the initial draft was complete, there was little really that could be done to improve your team. Any changes that were made just felt like tinkering around the edge, ie changing the worst player from your squad for another available player who might be marginally better.
Sure, if you're in a close head-to-head battle, those marginal calls at the bottom end of your squad might make a difference.....but with the best 150 players in the game already spoken for, it was a real struggle to find anyone who looked capable of making any significant impact......so the inevitable consequence was to give up trying.
So, my question about whether anything might be done was thinking along the lines of something radical, like forced changes during the season, so those 150 players get shaken around, somehow. Just a thought, not sure how difficult such a thing would be to implement in practice.
Sure, if you're in a close head-to-head battle, those marginal calls at the bottom end of your squad might make a difference.....but with the best 150 players in the game already spoken for, it was a real struggle to find anyone who looked capable of making any significant impact......so the inevitable consequence was to give up trying.
So, my question about whether anything might be done was thinking along the lines of something radical, like forced changes during the season, so those 150 players get shaken around, somehow. Just a thought, not sure how difficult such a thing would be to implement in practice.
- dino1980
- Grumpy Old Man
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Re: The Secret Tournament
Thanks for running/organising PB. And wp Mav on taking the title.
A horrific start was too much to come back from, but I enjoyed the challenge of hauling myself out of the relegation zone and into mid-table mediocrity. I think you twigged quite early that as most people weren't making many switches, you could go nuts on a weekly basis and get most of the players you'd ditched back if you needed to.
One observation I'd make is that H2H draft leagues keep a higher percentage of teams interested for a longer percentage of the season. The teams that score well still end up at the top and those that don't towards the bottom. That being said whatever format you chose for next season I'll be back in.
A horrific start was too much to come back from, but I enjoyed the challenge of hauling myself out of the relegation zone and into mid-table mediocrity. I think you twigged quite early that as most people weren't making many switches, you could go nuts on a weekly basis and get most of the players you'd ditched back if you needed to.
One observation I'd make is that H2H draft leagues keep a higher percentage of teams interested for a longer percentage of the season. The teams that score well still end up at the top and those that don't towards the bottom. That being said whatever format you chose for next season I'll be back in.
- Magic
- Grumpy Old Man
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Re: The Secret Tournament
I'd have beaten the lot of you!
- Mav3rick
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The stats are dark and full of errors.
Re: The Secret Tournament
Thanks for the kind words gentlemen, I assure you that such a big win was more luck than judgement
- From4corners
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Re: The Secret Tournament
What a shit draft season this was, worst draft I have ever participated in.
Congrats, Mav.
Yeah as you said in your kind write-up, for which thanks, ... ah there's always next year.
Congrats, Mav.
- taivt
- FISOhead
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Re: The Secret Tournament
If there is any available slot for new season league, please count me in.
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