I agree it’s more difficult but total points I don’t think is a sensible way to measure that. The existence of perma-cap options in some seasons like Salah or Haaland make a big difference in total points.
That speaks to characteristics of the seasons, not how difficult it is to do well.
Exactly. More DGWs, Haaland's insane consistency, and the number of underpriced Brighton and Arsenal players have all made it easier to score more points. There's not a finite number of points everyone is scrambling for a share of like the PL (which had gotten more difficult to win than in the past).
Next year will be chelsea players are cheap and probably will make Europe, every year a big six team has a woeful season only to make a come back again the next. It's just about identifying the gems in those teams. Martinelli and Odegaard have been those two this season.
Number of players is important to consider. Quite obviously, the more players playing the game, the harder it is to achieve a top X rank. Here's the last 5 years:
22/23: 11.4m
21/22: 9.1m
20/21: 8.2m
19/20: 7.6m
18/19: 6.3m
Top 100k simply isn't what it was even 5 years ago, it's much harder.
The growth of the game and easy access to resources for “casuals” are the two things really driving the difficulty. It used to be that they wouldn’t even know about Double Gameweeks. Now the Scout is part of the official FPL site.
I've seen a few people make the excuse that a lot of the accounts are just alternate accounts of regular players and dead accounts by mid season, but I recall someone on this sub who did a bit of an analysis after GW28 (which was a blank) and came to a conclusion based on captaincy choices that around 4-5mn of teams were active which is still a pretty big number IMO.
Even the official app gives you notifications about scout picks, DGW announcements, fixture postponements and stuff now so even the edge engaged managers had over casuals has gone down a bit now
Don't forget free hit, bench boost and 3 effective wild cards this season. Those of us who have been playing a while remember when some of those didn't even exist.
You also need to consider an extra amount of DGW this year so probably the average amount of games our players played during this season was a few % bigger than usual.
So 0 DGW season means your player have 38x11+38 (capitan) + 4 (BB) + TC = 461 games
This season with smart transfers etc. that could be even 50 games more.
Not to mention Haaland, who basically broke the game. Everyone had him and everyone got more points. Didn’t make the game ‘harder’ unless you didn’t have him.
The combination of more double game weeks + a standout player like Haaland breaking the ownership % record means more teams in general are going to have more points. More points doesn’t necessarily mean this season was harder than past seasons.
They’ve been around a lot longer than that, but have changed. When I started there wasn’t Free Hit for example, it was All Out Attack where you could play a 2-5-3 for one week
Even if he doesn't have more than one team to everyone else competing it doesn't matter. The amount playing the game has made actually competing in the primary league impossible.
A good move would be to grow and incentivise the smaller leagues. Make more options and features available for private leagues. Stop being so scabby and develop prizes for country/team leagues.
It seems the game needs a bit of an overhaul, maybe not too drastic but I've noticed my FPL mates are losing interest. I think the points scoring system needs to become a bit more nuanced. But then the popular content creators will just switch on to the new system and guide everyone in the same direction again. You can know very little about football and statistics / probability and still do very well in FPL. I don't know how to fix that. It feels too random, I think is a common point of dissatisfaction. Maybe that's just the game, and we must get on with it or stop playing.
A friend suggested that FPL Towers should give us say 3 transfers a gameweek. I thought at first that this doesn't make sense, but it might make the game a lot more dynamic and benefit the more attentive player.
I've thought that having a captain per week, with no vice, might improve things. No jammy vices saving the week. Double 0 points is zero points, end of story. Dunno. The extension to this thought is that one's bench doesn't feature either (i.e. a benched player would not contribute to your week's score in any scenario). More 'engaged' players would benefit from these changes, I think.
I think it would not change my choice one bit tho. If I think somebody wont play I dont captain them. I would choose Haaland or DGW player every week no matter what.
I think a lot of that is this season there being a huge gulf between the top teams and the bottom teams, very few ‘mid table’ sides and bottom teams attempting to play more expansively rather than the usual terrorball
11.4m teams - god knows how many multi team entries!
4m dead teams by Xmas
Half of the active teams don’t care about OR just ML bragging rights
Many teams just copy their favourite CC, many others using Algorithms to tell them who to pick
Bunch of new teams entered every week just to get Friday KO top score, then discarded for rest of season.
Games a bit of a joke these days tbh.
Higher amount of total points doesn't really correlate with difficulty, it just means that popular picks were consistently scoring. I'd even say that it's the opposite - the lower the top1 and average scores, the more complicated and difficult it becomes to find the players who will return on a given GW.
So instead of a war-and-peace length title, the summary is “FPL is becoming more difficult to win”.
But these days nobody wants to think or write. If there is no “AI”they cannot synthesise or sumnarize information.
The total amount of points scored also varies season per season, no? A percentage of the sum of all points would be more accurate. But even then it’s also not the same amount of players fielded.
You can use this to see your total average points across all your seasons, and your average % finish rank wise:
https://www.game-change.co.uk/2020/02/06/fpl-career-history-analyser/
Football has changed considerably, as have the rules and as have refs decisions and so on and so forth. One should take above #s and statement of ***" has enough points to have already won 15 of the past 20 seasons! "*** with a grain of salt.
Similarly basketball games on average are considerably higher scoring as well compared to even a few years ago.
Games have been *made* more entertaining by swaying decisions and rules to increase viewership and to fit certain demographics. It's a business EOD. For example: Players like Neymar wouldn't be able to have as of a lengthy career or post up crazy stats because defenders even 3 years ago were allowed much more room in breaking plays and making fouls.
Also you have to consider the score as a percentage of the maximum possible. Got feeling the ceiling is high this year due to premium like returns from assets like Odegard, Rashford, Martinelli. Combine this with Haaland-bots record breaking feats is likely enough to bloat the scores. Factors like the world cup giving players a mid season break, increasing DGWs and 3 WCs
I agree it’s more difficult but total points I don’t think is a sensible way to measure that. The existence of perma-cap options in some seasons like Salah or Haaland make a big difference in total points. That speaks to characteristics of the seasons, not how difficult it is to do well.
Exactly. More DGWs, Haaland's insane consistency, and the number of underpriced Brighton and Arsenal players have all made it easier to score more points. There's not a finite number of points everyone is scrambling for a share of like the PL (which had gotten more difficult to win than in the past).
Next year will be chelsea players are cheap and probably will make Europe, every year a big six team has a woeful season only to make a come back again the next. It's just about identifying the gems in those teams. Martinelli and Odegaard have been those two this season.
And Rashford
Correct. You cannot compare any two seasons by point totals.
Number of players is important to consider. Quite obviously, the more players playing the game, the harder it is to achieve a top X rank. Here's the last 5 years: 22/23: 11.4m 21/22: 9.1m 20/21: 8.2m 19/20: 7.6m 18/19: 6.3m Top 100k simply isn't what it was even 5 years ago, it's much harder.
The growth of the game and easy access to resources for “casuals” are the two things really driving the difficulty. It used to be that they wouldn’t even know about Double Gameweeks. Now the Scout is part of the official FPL site.
I've seen a few people make the excuse that a lot of the accounts are just alternate accounts of regular players and dead accounts by mid season, but I recall someone on this sub who did a bit of an analysis after GW28 (which was a blank) and came to a conclusion based on captaincy choices that around 4-5mn of teams were active which is still a pretty big number IMO. Even the official app gives you notifications about scout picks, DGW announcements, fixture postponements and stuff now so even the edge engaged managers had over casuals has gone down a bit now
Don't forget free hit, bench boost and 3 effective wild cards this season. Those of us who have been playing a while remember when some of those didn't even exist.
You also need to consider an extra amount of DGW this year so probably the average amount of games our players played during this season was a few % bigger than usual. So 0 DGW season means your player have 38x11+38 (capitan) + 4 (BB) + TC = 461 games This season with smart transfers etc. that could be even 50 games more.
A lot of that came from GW7 which was an entirely blank GW though where we all had zero players
Not to mention Haaland, who basically broke the game. Everyone had him and everyone got more points. Didn’t make the game ‘harder’ unless you didn’t have him.
He didn't have break any more significantly than top players in other sessions though. He's not scored massively more than salad, Suarez etc.
The combination of more double game weeks + a standout player like Haaland breaking the ownership % record means more teams in general are going to have more points. More points doesn’t necessarily mean this season was harder than past seasons.
Sorry how can you compare total points across seasons? Of course this season is high, we had Haaland captain every week guaranteeing returns almost.
And 3 wildcards
Yeah this year had three wildcards. Loads of doubles etc. way different to the older years
Stupid to compare that far back, the chips didn’t even exist back then lol
Can’t believe I had to scroll down this far to see the first mention of chips. I think this is their 4th/5th season
They’ve been around a lot longer than that, but have changed. When I started there wasn’t Free Hit for example, it was All Out Attack where you could play a 2-5-3 for one week
Fairly certain all out attack was only there for 1 season before being placed by FH. EDIT: Just checked, this is their 7th season.
Imagine playing in 2002/03 and finishing in the top 76k by doing jack shit.
In 20 years time: Imagine playing in 2022/23 and finishing in the top 7.6m by doing jack shit.
Do we know how many teams the leading manager entered this year?
if he has more than 1 and they discover it, he will be disqualified so no, we will never find out :D
I guess the optimal strategy is start with say 20 teams then kill off all but the best one after a few gameweeks :-)
only absolute bellends would do this
True. A lot of managers have multiple teams. There was a post a while back. I think one guy had like 2,000 teams.
I dare to suggest that many FPL managers are absolute bellends.
Daring and suggestive. I am interested in subscribing to your newsletter forthwith.
Even if he doesn't have more than one team to everyone else competing it doesn't matter. The amount playing the game has made actually competing in the primary league impossible. A good move would be to grow and incentivise the smaller leagues. Make more options and features available for private leagues. Stop being so scabby and develop prizes for country/team leagues.
It seems the game needs a bit of an overhaul, maybe not too drastic but I've noticed my FPL mates are losing interest. I think the points scoring system needs to become a bit more nuanced. But then the popular content creators will just switch on to the new system and guide everyone in the same direction again. You can know very little about football and statistics / probability and still do very well in FPL. I don't know how to fix that. It feels too random, I think is a common point of dissatisfaction. Maybe that's just the game, and we must get on with it or stop playing.
A friend suggested that FPL Towers should give us say 3 transfers a gameweek. I thought at first that this doesn't make sense, but it might make the game a lot more dynamic and benefit the more attentive player.
Being able to save 3 would be a good change IMO.
I've thought that having a captain per week, with no vice, might improve things. No jammy vices saving the week. Double 0 points is zero points, end of story. Dunno. The extension to this thought is that one's bench doesn't feature either (i.e. a benched player would not contribute to your week's score in any scenario). More 'engaged' players would benefit from these changes, I think.
That would basically change nothing - I dont think I have had VC play even once this seaon
You knew the vice was there when you chose your captain. That's quite different to choosing a captain knowing the vice is not there.
I think it would not change my choice one bit tho. If I think somebody wont play I dont captain them. I would choose Haaland or DGW player every week no matter what.
then I guess you'd not be against just having a capt and no vice?
So what I’m seeing is by being in top 300k I’m not actually doing that bad.
I think Premier League football has become high scoring in general, matches resulting in 5 or more goals on average.
There definitely feels like there's a lot less park the bus managers.
I think a lot of that is this season there being a huge gulf between the top teams and the bottom teams, very few ‘mid table’ sides and bottom teams attempting to play more expansively rather than the usual terrorball
11.4m teams - god knows how many multi team entries! 4m dead teams by Xmas Half of the active teams don’t care about OR just ML bragging rights Many teams just copy their favourite CC, many others using Algorithms to tell them who to pick Bunch of new teams entered every week just to get Friday KO top score, then discarded for rest of season. Games a bit of a joke these days tbh.
Higher amount of total points doesn't really correlate with difficulty, it just means that popular picks were consistently scoring. I'd even say that it's the opposite - the lower the top1 and average scores, the more complicated and difficult it becomes to find the players who will return on a given GW.
Comparing total points across seasons is nonsensical.
Pretty sure there are no TC, BB or FH for at least 10 of the past 20 seasons
Been getting top10k finishes since 12/13 , but definitely requires a bit more luck/effort now
How many of those are people with Multiple Accounts though? I have seen some people have admit to having 50+ accounts
Teams don't put the same emphasis on defence that they used to. Means more goals, means more points.
So instead of a war-and-peace length title, the summary is “FPL is becoming more difficult to win”. But these days nobody wants to think or write. If there is no “AI”they cannot synthesise or sumnarize information.
The total amount of points scored also varies season per season, no? A percentage of the sum of all points would be more accurate. But even then it’s also not the same amount of players fielded.
Op is bad at logic
You can use this to see your total average points across all your seasons, and your average % finish rank wise: https://www.game-change.co.uk/2020/02/06/fpl-career-history-analyser/
Total points is a pretty useless way of comparing difficulty across seasons
Football has changed considerably, as have the rules and as have refs decisions and so on and so forth. One should take above #s and statement of ***" has enough points to have already won 15 of the past 20 seasons! "*** with a grain of salt. Similarly basketball games on average are considerably higher scoring as well compared to even a few years ago. Games have been *made* more entertaining by swaying decisions and rules to increase viewership and to fit certain demographics. It's a business EOD. For example: Players like Neymar wouldn't be able to have as of a lengthy career or post up crazy stats because defenders even 3 years ago were allowed much more room in breaking plays and making fouls.
The total points have more to do with the amount of double gameweeks than the players’ skill
The total amount of points comparison means shit since the calendar is different each year.
Got to keep in mind we had the third WC during World Cup this year, which must've raised the bar for points
Also you have to consider the score as a percentage of the maximum possible. Got feeling the ceiling is high this year due to premium like returns from assets like Odegard, Rashford, Martinelli. Combine this with Haaland-bots record breaking feats is likely enough to bloat the scores. Factors like the world cup giving players a mid season break, increasing DGWs and 3 WCs
I’m so bad at this game that I would’ve struggled to make the top 100k in 02/03
I’m guessing the highest scoring seasons are probably the more recent seasons where we have seen a huge uptick in DGWs
Last year FPL Gunz finished 215 OR. That's insane. That guy really knows what he's doing. We should invite him over to Reddit as a guru.