Stories of your competitive genius

[Tom QC]

Evening all. Roughly halfway through the season and somehow I'm still, very narrowly, leading the FISO league (before tonight's game anyway).

I doubt I would have time to do the whole "keeping track of who someone else has", even if it didn't seem like a very tedious exercise (it does), and I don't think it would make much difference to my decisions. I've never bothered doing it as have always just been in informal mates' leagues where I have either won or lost by a fairly wide margin!

But for those who have been in this position before and taken it seriously, is it about now, halfway through the season, that you would start to do it?

Is it always essential when you are in a tight race? What do you actually gain from it?

In years gone by I've read the overall winner's thread (usually a great read), and by the end of the season they always seem to have worked out who their nearest competitors have in their teams. If you were minded to do that, it would presumably be even easier this year with virtually live points updates.

Would be interested to hear stories of when people have worked out their rivals' teams and punted on a different direction to try to close the gap. Did you succeed or fail miserably?

Thought it might be an interesting topic, if anyone can be arsed!

[Tom QC]

56 views and no takers? Oh well, I thought it might be interesting. Maybe it's not many who do it or they only do it right at the very end of the season.

[murf]

I wouldn't bother yet. Play your own game.

Many years ago I set up a spreadsheet to track scores when I was leading a £1k league so I could counter any rivals. Didn't need to implement anything from it as I won by about 80 points!

[admin]

If you're leading overall with a month or so to go then can definitely pay to know who your closest challengers have. If easier to work out due to Live updates then I'd be leaving this until later in the season unless you've loads of time on your hands.

[Tom QC]

Thanks guys, don't worry I'm under no illusions about the actual likelihood of leading later in the season! The only reason I'm up there is my starting XI. Most of my transfers have been failures.

Would love to still be in contention for the FISO league late on though. Could be some fun banter on here.

[Darbyand]

Is it still All Out Attack or have you seen the benefits of more expensive defenders recently??

[Jamjack]

Didn’t feel qualified to comment as I have never reached your heights but my gut tells me that tracking others too early would be a distraction for me but you should be closer to who others have by the time you get down to your last half dozen transfers.

Interestingly, I have a pal in my mates league who used to win our league almost every year back in the day when teams were public as a rule. He would hit the top in the first few months then use his transfers to block other people’s move. Since the change he has never won our league so clearly he is someone who is really effective at putting in the time to watch others.

[Tom QC]

Is it still All Out Attack or have you seen the benefits of more expensive defenders recently??

The latter, although I've not touched 5-4-1 and would hope not to as it's a bit "anti-fun". (I could just about stomach 5-3-2). The early season goalfest dried up pretty quickly. Wonder if it was just brought about by increased discrepancies in fitness between the teams while they were all getting up to speed?

Looks to me like several cheap defenders are still good value, I have just somehow managed to pick mainly the wrong ones at the wrong time (James just before his injury problems, Balbuena instead of Ogbonna/Cresswell when I was looking at WH!).

To be honest I think lack of transfers will probably limit how long the team can contend for, but it's been fun so far. I'm prone to getting disillusioned by FF when my teams do poorly, and losing interest or making tons of stupid transfers to try to catch up too quickly.

[CITY CASUALS]

Interestingly, I have a pal in my mates league who used to win our league almost every year back in the day when teams were public as a rule. He would hit the top in the first few months then use his transfers to block other people’s move.

What a miserable way to play the game. And exactly why the league I play is private.

[Jamjack]

Interestingly, I have a pal in my mates league who used to win our league almost every year back in the day when teams were public as a rule. He would hit the top in the first few months then use his transfers to block other people’s move.

What a miserable way to play the game. And exactly why the league I play is private.

Funnily enough he asks the group every year if anyone wants to do a public league and gets a tumbleweed response.

[CITY CASUALS]

Ha ha ! Good !
I used to do the scores for a league (before it all went online) and I remember a mate used to come round on Wednesday to check the scores. He then started to check other peoples teams sheets and then started to talk about strategies around and actually putting players in just because other teams had them to 'block' them.
I found it a very unedifying and disappointing display of unsporting behaviour and I made sure we got into an online private league the very next season.

[Darbyand]

It's only my first proper season in the public Egg leagues but I haven't seen any of that. Most managers just go batshit mental with their transfers actually. Maybe it'll get more competitive as we get into title/promotion/relegation battles.

[Tom QC]

Never done the Egg leagues before. Might give it a go next year if there's space. Regularly have a look at the thread to get a feel for people's ideas. Such a great idea for a side game.

[murf]

It's only my first proper season in the public Egg leagues but I haven't seen any of that. Most managers just go batshit mental with their transfers actually. Maybe it'll get more competitive as we get into title/promotion/relegation battles.

Everyone on there does seem to play their own game. The fact we start with a strange team means we tend to be unhappy with it and over-tinker meaning by the end we are too short on transfers to be able to do anything clever! There is the occasional 'blocking', i.e the leader sensibly copying second place's star striker but that is all.

[Darbyand]

What's the rule about announcing transfers? I tend to put mine in the thread 5 mins after kickoff.

[murf]

What's the rule about announcing transfers? I tend to put mine in the thread 5 mins after kickoff.

Traditionally you are supposed to announce on the day. I often do it at kickoff before I forget.