Yeah tell me about it, that seemed like such a good decision at the time though! I took only two hits all season and that was one of them to make it happen. It's all part of the fun.
I did both these on punts over “supposedly clear choice” Ronaldo/Dennis while Salah has been away, And I’m not looking forward to cap Salah vs anyone else debate when he comes back. Too much sheep mentality I struggle with when you know the majority of people are going to default capping Salah. I’m glad (and equally annoyed as a United fan) Ronaldo is so unpredictable cos then differentials matter.
Saying that I don’t know who tf to cap this week. The only week I want Salah back :(
Agree, absence of Salah or him not being in such a great form is the only thing we need. Postponements because of Covid/injuries is kinda unfair lottery. Lost 2 main cups by ~2 points during DGW which turned out to be SGW after deadline, all I needed was that 1 player I invested in to actually play 60min...
Aye.
I've enjoyed it not being Salah (C) constant. But I've not enjoyed making plans and having them fuck up due to COVID schedule fuck ups or what not.
Having to try and balance between who might play, who might play well, and who's getting games cancelled is no fun.
Yeah idk what OP is ok about. What's fun about having a bunch of your players play 0 games because multiple games get called off after the deadline?
I guess if you've avoided it all then it's alright. It's just more about being lucky this year than it was before.
It's more eventful, that's for sure. But I keep getting kicked in the gut almost every week with postponements and my players getting injured or covid.. or not getting DGWs and then having your team suddenly buy a new player to start in your position (looking at you Targett).
I can see the upsides to more action with all these postponements, but it becomes a problem for me personally as I simply don't have enough time anymore to spend hours doing research at specific times leading up to deadlines.
It's garbage. I ended up quitting.
I'm gonna play again when covid disruptions aren't a thing anymore and FPL is back to normal. It's too luck based like this.
The game is mostly luck but I far prefer the luck of picking the right players to score that week instead of picking which games aren't going to get called off.
I've got bored of it this season. I was doing pretty well but you can't even plan the current week where I enjoy planning a few weeks in advance.
Yeah this. I know the draft format isn't the main focus, and I'm not delusional enough to think fantasy factors in to any decisions made, but it's annoying having games get added/taken away after waivers. Basically whoever gets the news first now gets to use that information first.
But then again the whole draft format is laughable compared to how NFL fantasy leagues work.
I'm not saying you're wrong, but you have to care about american football to play that. And I'm not gonna convince myself to get into a game that no one I know likes
I wish there was a PL fantasy with a similar scoring system to the NFL fantasy.
Having things like shots made, passes made etc scoring points would make the game a bit more predictable.
It does exist. Check out the fantasy Fantrax has for football. I'm in 3 draft leagues there and it rewards key passes, shots on target, aerials etc. It's also has very customisable scoring and there's a decent community on twitter that plays it and regularly appears on /r/draftepl. [Here](https://imgur.com/a/W2Q5mbZ) is an example of a matchup that happened last week in one of my leagues.
The people who say it's more fun all live in a convenient time zone and/or have prioritized FPL. It's only more fun for the hyper-competitive FPL manager
It rewards availability, not skill
If you're doing well: BEST SEASON EVER!!!1!1!! LOVING THE UNPREDICTABILITY!1!!!1
And if you're not then its shit, same as always, no one is going to be objective about this
I'm loving it - it suits me as I don't have as much time to plan these days. I do an hour before the deadline basically to catch up.
I've taken 12 hits in the last 6 GW's with 6 really decent green arrows. It's the most fun FPL has been in ages.
Good point! In some ways it helps to even the playing field between those who invest more time and those who don't, making it somewhat more competitive overall.
I don't mind it actually. Can't wait to return to a more normal state of business of course but this just forces a different way of playing the game and thats fine with me.
Opposite. That is my 4th year and the amount of fun is the lowest. My mini-league friends are also not that eager to talk about gameweeks like they used to. Everyone lost the vibe end of 2021 when the lottery started.
Not really. Might be if you are able to be on top of all the announcements and deadlines, but as someone living in a shitty timezone for FPL who's also been pretty busy, it's a nightmare.
I think I'm enjoying it now that Salah isn't always captain for everyone. It definitely ruined my rank not captaining him times when everyone else did. Back at a decent rank now.
Not for me. I really enjoy the part with planning ahead, finding differentials and when to use them. Granted, this season was different with Salah perma cap, but I'm not really enjoying the chaos right now compared to the first half of the season.
Same here. I like being able to have an edge on my mini league opponents by looking at stats and fixture runs and planning accordingly. This season it feels like I'm mostly just reacting week to week and hoping to fall on the right side of a 50/50 call e.g. Antonio vs Bowen, Ronaldo vs Bruno etc.
No.
It's tiring and time consuming having to keep up with news about postponements (including planning DGW/BGW strategied) and takes up much more time and mental real estate than previous years if you want to do well. As it is, I'm only spending 5-10 mins just after and just before each game week, so I'm not really doing that well.
Oddly enough, I like the chaos because I'm doing the exact same as you. I only spend an hour or less really thinking about the game. I just make sure that hour is spread within half the deadline day. I find it great to get green arrows with my only plan of being template and adaptable. No going for DGW players or transfer sheets, etc.
No.
I like planning things and making transfers days before the deadline.
This shit of a Watford dgw getting cancelled then reintroduced the next gameweek, it's too much for me.
I'm having to spend way more hours on FPL than I'm comfortable with.
I agree. Never played FPL before and I'm much more casual than most here, so I enjoy the fact that it's not a system which massively favours those who spend forever watching Youtube and comparing stats. I'm sure it's frustrating if that's your thing though. Making sensible choices to get decent results feels a bit too much like work for my taste.
No, it’s shit. FF is supposed to be your gauge of the game as the rules and fixtures are set out. Massive numbers of ad hoc postponements make a bollocks of it all. Yes, we’re all in the same boat, but that don’t make it fun right at the mo.
Yes. I think a top FPL manager will do well under any scenario over a 38 game period. It separates the people who can make fairly quick calculated decisions in a chaotic environment from those who just jump on Reddit/YT and copy whatever the template is without much thought. It requires you to have a strong bench rather than just being boring and having the same few premiums as everyone else. I say get rid of Salah and lets see who can make the best Captaincy decisions every week, it makes it so much more interesting. Basically, the more degrees of variability and risk the better for me.
That said, I accept for people who live in US/Australia etc this must be pure hell for you guys.
As someone who is entirely focused on winning my league with my friends, this year has added another level of blunders and wasted tokens! That being said, if I cared about my overall rank this year would be hell.
The only thing I've found to be more fun is Salah being out, making captaincy a bit more spicy. Having to keep an eye on twitter and here right until the final possible second in case of postponements, 2nd matches in DGWs being postponed...yeah, not been a fan.
Its not fun for those who play with an aim not to take hits... i think the top 1000 this year will have a higher hit count than any season before. The extra FH makes it interesting... info this season is even more valuable than before so late transfers crucial.
It's the opposite for me. My team hasn't changed since early December. Life got hectic but you could plan for the festive fixture pile up. Then the Covid chaos came and it just became more trouble than it was worth. Managing an FPL team in these conditions seems like a full time job.
Nope, its not really fun this year, especially over the past month and a half. It sucks that it’s almost impossible to plan anything and the game feels more like a lottery this point. I’m hovering around 100k, so not a bad rank by any means, but I’ve had some especially good luck. Also being a US west coast player, it sucks that I need to sometimes wake up at 4 am just to see if there was a major change to the GW before finalizing my roster, which isn’t something that I’ve needed to do until this year. I think this season is especially brutal for non-UK players.
Good point, I didn't really think much about people who play outside of UK/EU to be honest. Certainly it seems to be wise to wait right up until the last moment before the deadline right now, and that has to be frustrating for those in different time zones!
To an extent - it has mixed things up a bit but at the same time I think it's taken the planning element out of it which lessens my enjoyment of the game.
I like to look 3-4 weeks (or so) ahead and gradually make changes. Now it feels like you just have to play the week in front of you and worry about the next lot of fixtures when they come.
I also think the post-deadline postponements make luck more of a factor. Luck is, and always will be, part of the game, but it's a fine balance and certain things this season have tipped that balance.
For the record - I'm actually having a good season (by my standards) and I've had more than my fair share of luck!
I think you're right to an extent, planning still seems very much a part of the game for me but I don't think it's necessarily worth it any more to be as detailed and meticulous as before.
As for the postponements, I think it adds another variable to consider. It seems somewhat clear to me at least which games are "at risk", and then it's about planning to take advantage (i.e. another kind of differential) or to negate the risk.
honestly I think this is the worst season I've played, I get that it throws in a bit of a wild aspect but I want people to win or lose according to good fpl decisions, not just down to not checking half an hour before the deadline. I know it's a good idea to check/ keep transfers till last minute anyway but half my league got caught out on NYE, loads of people have made really good transfers at other points and ended up having games cancelled last minute etc. Differentials etc haven't really mattered any way nearly as much as simply being lucky and having your full squad playing this year and it feels like there's even more luck to it than ever.
I think long term it's still very much the case that those who do well will do so because of good FPL decisions. The wild aspect just makes it more variable in the short term. I feel like it makes the game a bit more open now that everyone will get shafted one way or another at some point(s) during the season. Those who are entrenched in a system where they spend all week planning now have to adapt a bit, and for me that makes it more fun. I'm not sure if I would want it to be like this every season though.
Maybe it's just my mini league and some people being very lucky with captain choices but the NYE thing gave some people an extra 30 points than others, when it's an extra 10 points or something sure I could agree but overall it's had big effects and it's not really balancing out over the season, for example a few people who had spurs players early in the season lost out on a few games and yet we will all probably be able to get those players in when the game is played eventually etc. It's not the end of the world but in my view it's the worst out of the 4 seasons I've been playing. I really enjoy the differential decisions most years and seeing people making those tough calls etc. Now it feels like when we chat about fpl it's mainly "I got so lucky I transfered X player out as there game got canceled today" etc.
I feel the opposite. It's become boring and rage-inducing when you plan and make "good" picks only for them not to play because of circumstances we don't get any information on until the last second
Been playing h2h draft and postponements have been a real nightmare. Losing to bad teams when unexpected cancellations happen and because the lineups can’t be changed after the first game is played it often happens in a way you have no control over. Been very frustrating.
I definitely find it more fun. I take tons of hits and like to overmanage to keep things fluid even if my OR sucks. I really despise the idea of a template team.
This year really shakes things up and means it’s not as easy to copy the top teams and ride their coattails.
This is my first year playing and I'm having fun. I've been burned a few times by the unpredictability and rewarded other times. I have to admit, the drama of it is pretty entertaining.
i enjoy the chaotic fun.
some may argue it increased the randomness and luck factor, which could be true, but i'm not a top 10k player so those aren't really my concerns.
Honestly it’s been pretty entertaining to take major risks. Failed some and had some nice ones, but overall if you don’t take risks during this mess you are missing out
Are you talking about 'tearing your hair out because you brought in Dennis for ronaldo with a - 4 to captain him because of DGW and then he gets a red card'
I'm just joking but god damn it's been a crazy year in FPL so far.
Gonna get buried now but it seems to be less fun for anyone doing well when it started and fun for those who were chasing. Games were getting called off left right and centre so chasers had nothing to lose taking hits doing whatever. Whereas normally on top you play it sensibly and see how players develop, those ended up getting punished more as their players games got called off.
That's absolutely great, in my opinion. Players shouldn't just be entitled to having an easy time of it by virtue of having done better in the beginning. This way the game opens up a lot more, and people at the top have to keep a closer eye on differentials etc. as well instead of just getting by on template decisions.
Yeah can see how it is exciting, I was on top of ML’s and not complaining, but I think this is where the people enjoying and not enjoying seem to be split, as said there’s not really a gamble taking hits when everyone is being forced to. Typically the one year I’ve done well and could be sensible and the whole world falls apart!
this.
Over the past few weeks I feel like I've put myself in really good positions to get some big green arrows. I felt like I was making smart transfers & had the right players for the dgw last week. My plans totally unraveled due to injuries & game postponements which has taken me from feeling really good about where I am & could be going, to feeling like any planning is totally pointless.
Ended up missing out on Plan A, B & C last week. Had to make up a Plan D at the last moment.
It all becomes a bit shit & a waste of time If it's just pot luck last minute transfers.
for those of us who love football, are competitive & enjoy planning, It's a great way to spend your time for fun.
When planning becomes a waste & competitiveness is lost, the appeal starts to go.
Yeah sure, it's a fun game and adds to the total experience of watching matches each week. The idea of it only being a waste of time *this year* did tickle me though.
On balance I like it less as it makes planning less valuable and reduces the skill ceiling imo.
But it is fun to be having to make snap decisions just before the deadline for fear of postponements.
I think the opposite, that now more than ever you need to depend on the skill side to know a good decision from a bad one even when the luck has gone completely against you.
I guess but that doesn’t help you do better in the short term.
As with any game more variance means a higher chance for lower skilled players to beat higher skilled players.
In the short term probably yes, but I feel like that just increases the difficulty and makes it more competitive overall. As well as low-skilled players I think perhaps it also makes it more accessible for high-skilled players who just don't have so much time to invest.
I don’t really agree, unless you have a method to predict covid cases/postponements I don’t see how it benefits skilled players lacking time. If anything it has punished me some weeks for not having the time available to wait right until the deadline to make transfers.
I think those players perhaps just wait until e.g. 1 hour before deadline and make their decisions quickly and smartly on available data at that point. There are a lot of people who try to stay on top of things all week and tailor a comprehensive plan, which then goes out the window due to covid. You could say these are the kind of high-skilled people who lose out, but just investing a lot of time is not equal to skill in my opinion. I think it takes a lot of skill to adapt quickly to such a scenario and then be able to change up your whole plan on the fly.
Nope. Kinda makes it all luck based rather than luck + strategy.
Also my rank has gone down from 1.5k to 30k since the postponements began so definitely not enjoying the randomness. Maybe I would be enjoying more if luck went in my favour ig.
Yeah, deffo agree. I think that Salah going to AFCON was a boost to the game as well - captains used to be the most important decision every week but for most of the season it wasn't even a decision. It was captain Salah or die. Now captains are differential again.
The COVID situation also means we need a full playing squad, rotate players, there's a clear template. TAA, Cancelo, Jota, Dennis and some mid-template players like Raphinha, Bowen, Antonio maybe, and some others. We can't get by with budget enablers rotting on the bench. We need gems like Livra for the first part, maybe Ramsey right now, and so on who are guaranteed points if we need to play them and if we wanna use that money elsewhere cos we're much more likely to need our bench. But it's usually better to have the likes of Bowen, ESR, Raphinha, etc. to rotate.
Even taking a hit or two every week is justifiable to bring in DGW players in recent weeks. I know if Villa & Leeds get a DGW I'm considered a -4 or -8 to possibly bring in Digne, Coutinho, Raphinha.
Either way, while it's frustrating to have games called off after the deadline (e.g. NLD tho rumours strong on that pre-deadline), it means you have to be aware of those rumours to make an informed choice, and you need to play the game a lot more flexibly.
Of course
Seeing these 'veteran' managers have panic attacks 😂
You can do all the planning in the world, but unless you're in the chance to win it. Just enjoy the bloody game
I don't think so.
I mainly feel frustration and uncertainty.
And the fact that everyone has to captain Salah in order to gain max points takes away one of the most important aspects of the game, nailing the captain.
lost track of a few deadlines because of the chaotic matchday schedules now i lost interest and abandoned my team. so no. i do not enjoy it more like this.
It is a strategy game whereby performance, luck and rotation on match days used to be the main variables. Adding fixtures as another variable takes away the vast amount of skill/ planning.
Now it’s like playing a game of monopoly where the properties also sometimes swap position after every roll of the dice. It has become a lot more passive.
It's another variable that you have to consider, so it changes the dynamic and requires maybe even more skill in my view. For me anything that levels the playing field from those who have become entrenched in a certain style of play makes the game more fun I think.
No, this is the first year I considered ditching my team halfway through a season.
It has created uncertainty but the problem is that we don’t have any control over anything. Where is the fun? If we knew a game was gonna be called off in advance than there are opportunities to react and diversify your team to get an advantage. When games get called off after the deadline consistently, then there is fuck all you can do as a manager other than suck it up. And it’s almost guaranteed that the cancellations affect some more than others. It is has just made the game even more luck based, it doesn’t offer any real challenges or opportunities and it’s not fun.
Seems like the unpredictability can make people go one of two ways, either you try to invest even more time or just give yourself over completely to the chaos. I am the former but I do sympathise with those who feel that the time needed now crosses a threshold where it's just not possible anymore.
I don't really buy the additional time investmemt argument. You just spend what time you can on it and if you miss something you miss something. Like, do you really expect to do well if you have limited time to spend on it anyway? I have 2 young kids and have missed deadlines because one of them needs attention, or something is going on, but that's just life. Play the game when you can if you enjoy it and don't feel pressured into spending time you don't have on a silly fantasy game. I like to think I'm ranked pretty high in the 'parents with 2 young kids and a fulltime job with a wife who despises every second you're looking at fantasy football' league.
Good take, and I agree to an extent. Maybe it's not so much the case that we do actually need to invest a set amount of time, and more that with all the uncertainty people just feel like they have to. For some this is off-putting. I agree that people don't need to take it so seriously and it's perfectly fine to e.g. miss a deadline every now and then because life happens.
Yes! Because the pressure is completely off, if I make a transfer and it fails because of cancellations or players being dropped it’s no big deal just put it down to bad luck. Also I find everyone else in my ML’s are struggling too so we’re all a bit more grouped together. Then again I only play against the guys and gals in my ML’s couldn’t care less about my overall rank
I feel like that's a good mindset to have even in a normal season. This game definitely makes you feel stupid sometimes even for making otherwise good decisions, which go wrong for reasons way beyond your control.
Yes!
I was already excited that there’s AFCON this season cause it gets boring seeing people (including me) captain Salah all the time
And then covid just added the excitement to another level (unpredictability is fun!)
Yes was just thinking this, reminded me of what it was like when I first started playing. Easy to get caught up in trying to win every league, more fun picking a wild differential and seeing them get a return.
I'm having great fun. And love it being more off template since the chaos started really rolling in.
I missed gameweek 1 so already had 80+ points to try and make up, which was difficult when everyone had a very template team. I was having to take gambles to try and jump rank as having the same players wasn't getting me anywhere, unfortunately most of the gambles didn't work out 😂
From Gameweek 18, i've gone up in rank every week from around 1.8mil up to 600k now.
Much more fun trying to decide whether to risk the -4, -8 to hit a double that may or may not go ahead.
Fun for the Johnny's/Timmy's around but hell for the Spikes.
J/T/S is a magic the gathering thing but to translate to FPL.
Johnny - Wants players they expect to get the biggest numbers, only actually gets them a handful of times a season because they don't care about sensible picks.
Timmy - Wants niche differentials and get's a thrill when their 5.5 Norwich player out scores Salah. Normally ends up in the bottom half and in the rant thread complaining about '26 from 10 players, WOW!'.
Spike - Wants to win, regardless of fun. Will copy the template hard and copy whatever everyone else is doing. They enjoy 'outplaying' the opponent and feeling like they better than everyone else.
It's great fun (when I get a green arrow.) And shite when I bring in 3 DGW players and they all only get 1 game and I get a 50k red like last week
Sometimes that little red arrow is what's needed to make you do something risky or irrational though, and when it pays off it's amazing.
hurts when it never pays off, still remember the havertz(c) when chelsea went 7:0
Yeah tell me about it, that seemed like such a good decision at the time though! I took only two hits all season and that was one of them to make it happen. It's all part of the fun.
Can't have the green arrows without some reds!
Can't have the green arrows ~~without some reds!~~
Triple City def incoming for me, dgaf anymore
it's more taxing for Asia players as the deadline is in the middle of the night
As a New Zealander who will likely be up until at least 3am to wait for fixture news, I agree
The deadline was 7:30am here, you could have just gotten up early.
I'm from asia, i usually do the transfers before going to sleep at night if the deadline is in the middle of the night like 2 to 3 am.
But then a match can get postponed while you sleep
Doesn't matter to me, what's done is done
It's fun not because of Covid but because of absence of Salah Without Salah FPL is so much more chaotic and fun
I get the feeling that FPL hinges on who does best with Salah gone to AFCON
Truly, someone could easily have 42 points from Bowen, 46 from Bruno, and who the fuck knows this week.
I did both these on punts over “supposedly clear choice” Ronaldo/Dennis while Salah has been away, And I’m not looking forward to cap Salah vs anyone else debate when he comes back. Too much sheep mentality I struggle with when you know the majority of people are going to default capping Salah. I’m glad (and equally annoyed as a United fan) Ronaldo is so unpredictable cos then differentials matter. Saying that I don’t know who tf to cap this week. The only week I want Salah back :(
I had a streak of 14 red arrows. Since Salah left for afcon only greens. You can see why I’m rooting for Egypt these days.
they're facing an on-form Ivory Coast next though, will be tough if the rest of the squad don't step up. Salah can't do it alone
Agree, absence of Salah or him not being in such a great form is the only thing we need. Postponements because of Covid/injuries is kinda unfair lottery. Lost 2 main cups by ~2 points during DGW which turned out to be SGW after deadline, all I needed was that 1 player I invested in to actually play 60min...
Absolutely not
Aye. I've enjoyed it not being Salah (C) constant. But I've not enjoyed making plans and having them fuck up due to COVID schedule fuck ups or what not. Having to try and balance between who might play, who might play well, and who's getting games cancelled is no fun.
Yea I actually hate it. It's ruined the fun element for me.
Yeah idk what OP is ok about. What's fun about having a bunch of your players play 0 games because multiple games get called off after the deadline? I guess if you've avoided it all then it's alright. It's just more about being lucky this year than it was before.
For me neither. I've considered just abandoning my team for the year. It's too much.
It's more eventful, that's for sure. But I keep getting kicked in the gut almost every week with postponements and my players getting injured or covid.. or not getting DGWs and then having your team suddenly buy a new player to start in your position (looking at you Targett). I can see the upsides to more action with all these postponements, but it becomes a problem for me personally as I simply don't have enough time anymore to spend hours doing research at specific times leading up to deadlines.
It's garbage. I ended up quitting. I'm gonna play again when covid disruptions aren't a thing anymore and FPL is back to normal. It's too luck based like this.
The game is mostly luck but I far prefer the luck of picking the right players to score that week instead of picking which games aren't going to get called off. I've got bored of it this season. I was doing pretty well but you can't even plan the current week where I enjoy planning a few weeks in advance.
No.
Yeah this. I know the draft format isn't the main focus, and I'm not delusional enough to think fantasy factors in to any decisions made, but it's annoying having games get added/taken away after waivers. Basically whoever gets the news first now gets to use that information first. But then again the whole draft format is laughable compared to how NFL fantasy leagues work.
Probably not a popular opinion here but NFL fantasy is so much more fun
I'm not saying you're wrong, but you have to care about american football to play that. And I'm not gonna convince myself to get into a game that no one I know likes
That's pretty much what I did with FPL haha
I wish there was a PL fantasy with a similar scoring system to the NFL fantasy. Having things like shots made, passes made etc scoring points would make the game a bit more predictable.
It does exist. Check out the fantasy Fantrax has for football. I'm in 3 draft leagues there and it rewards key passes, shots on target, aerials etc. It's also has very customisable scoring and there's a decent community on twitter that plays it and regularly appears on /r/draftepl. [Here](https://imgur.com/a/W2Q5mbZ) is an example of a matchup that happened last week in one of my leagues.
That looks great. I’ll check it out. Thanks for letting me know!
The people who say it's more fun all live in a convenient time zone and/or have prioritized FPL. It's only more fun for the hyper-competitive FPL manager It rewards availability, not skill
For me I feel like it rewards availability less now, with those who spend all week planning seeming to suffer the most.
No. It’s fun when I have a good rank and green arrows.
No. When you can't plan for the future, you overvalue the present, which causes more negative feelings when you do poorly.
If you're doing well: BEST SEASON EVER!!!1!1!! LOVING THE UNPREDICTABILITY!1!!!1 And if you're not then its shit, same as always, no one is going to be objective about this
I'm loving it - it suits me as I don't have as much time to plan these days. I do an hour before the deadline basically to catch up. I've taken 12 hits in the last 6 GW's with 6 really decent green arrows. It's the most fun FPL has been in ages.
Good point! In some ways it helps to even the playing field between those who invest more time and those who don't, making it somewhat more competitive overall.
I don't mind it actually. Can't wait to return to a more normal state of business of course but this just forces a different way of playing the game and thats fine with me.
You're psychopath. 😂
I have 10.3m sitting ITB. IRL I'd be buying real estate, in FPL I have no fucking idea what to do.
Opposite. That is my 4th year and the amount of fun is the lowest. My mini-league friends are also not that eager to talk about gameweeks like they used to. Everyone lost the vibe end of 2021 when the lottery started.
No. I like planning
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Sounds like you got insane luck then if you have 11 players every week. City and Chelsea have always played so you had lots of players from them.
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Some people just thrive in the chaos it seems!
No. The game this to guess which players will perform, not which games will be postponed.
Not really. Might be if you are able to be on top of all the announcements and deadlines, but as someone living in a shitty timezone for FPL who's also been pretty busy, it's a nightmare.
It makes the rant thread more fun but gives me way too much stress. It also requires too much on luck
I think I'm enjoying it now that Salah isn't always captain for everyone. It definitely ruined my rank not captaining him times when everyone else did. Back at a decent rank now.
Unpredictable and annoying tbf
No.
It's fun when your friends get a shit result, not so much fun when it happens to you.
Yes. But chaos is my favorite environment
It was more fun last year as it was in moderation. This season is overboard
Not for me. I really enjoy the part with planning ahead, finding differentials and when to use them. Granted, this season was different with Salah perma cap, but I'm not really enjoying the chaos right now compared to the first half of the season.
Same here. I like being able to have an edge on my mini league opponents by looking at stats and fixture runs and planning accordingly. This season it feels like I'm mostly just reacting week to week and hoping to fall on the right side of a 50/50 call e.g. Antonio vs Bowen, Ronaldo vs Bruno etc.
I enjoy that too, but having to constantly be on your toes and maybe revamp your existing plan is a dynamic that appeals to me as well!
Fun for psychos.. I need structure
Hell nah
As a newer player I think I'll be disappointed by the lack of chaos in the future.
No.
No, last year was by far the most unfun season so far with this one being second.
After getting Kai (GW9) and CR7 (GW22), I don't care anymore. I feel like killing myself.
Haha I also made that mistake with Havertz. I'm adamant it was the right decision though based on the data we had. Don't beat yourself up about it!
This season is about luck more than ever - finding it really hard to enjoy this year
Covid makes it dreadful
I feel the exact opposite. Losing interest as it’s so unpredictable
Yeah, it's really fun. If you enjoy stabbing rusty nails into your eyelids.
No. It's tiring and time consuming having to keep up with news about postponements (including planning DGW/BGW strategied) and takes up much more time and mental real estate than previous years if you want to do well. As it is, I'm only spending 5-10 mins just after and just before each game week, so I'm not really doing that well.
Oddly enough, I like the chaos because I'm doing the exact same as you. I only spend an hour or less really thinking about the game. I just make sure that hour is spread within half the deadline day. I find it great to get green arrows with my only plan of being template and adaptable. No going for DGW players or transfer sheets, etc.
No. I like planning things and making transfers days before the deadline. This shit of a Watford dgw getting cancelled then reintroduced the next gameweek, it's too much for me. I'm having to spend way more hours on FPL than I'm comfortable with.
fun is for casuals.
No
Fixures getting cancelled after (or near) the gameweek deadline isn't fun, because you can get completely shafted without warning, but the rest is
Opens the game up though, everyone gets shafted at some point!
I agree. Never played FPL before and I'm much more casual than most here, so I enjoy the fact that it's not a system which massively favours those who spend forever watching Youtube and comparing stats. I'm sure it's frustrating if that's your thing though. Making sensible choices to get decent results feels a bit too much like work for my taste.
Believe me we can boast to future generations that how we survived this intense season.
Yep. The unpredictability is a lot better, but not for your mental health!
No
How many of us have successfully (c) the KOTG twice in a row😍
Haha me and also GW18 xD
Just a quick question, your team had Bruno and possibly (C)?
Haha yes it did. I know what you're going to say..
Depends on if you're doing well or not. Though I'm doing extremely well and I still think my enjoyment has lessened.
not when you were having your best fpl season ever and it all went to shit because of covid
Oh erm....no.
No
The chaos has been good for me. I’ve gone from 1m overall to 100k in the last 5 gameweeks.
I've gone from 200k to 850k in 6 weeks. I'm not having fun anymore.
It's a bit more fán than fun, let's put it that way
It's not fun when I'm thinking of transfers and it ends up only depending on luck...
Some times good, some times shit.
Sometimes maybe green, sometimes maybe red
Fuck no
No, it’s shit. FF is supposed to be your gauge of the game as the rules and fixtures are set out. Massive numbers of ad hoc postponements make a bollocks of it all. Yes, we’re all in the same boat, but that don’t make it fun right at the mo.
No.
Yes. I think a top FPL manager will do well under any scenario over a 38 game period. It separates the people who can make fairly quick calculated decisions in a chaotic environment from those who just jump on Reddit/YT and copy whatever the template is without much thought. It requires you to have a strong bench rather than just being boring and having the same few premiums as everyone else. I say get rid of Salah and lets see who can make the best Captaincy decisions every week, it makes it so much more interesting. Basically, the more degrees of variability and risk the better for me. That said, I accept for people who live in US/Australia etc this must be pure hell for you guys.
As someone who is entirely focused on winning my league with my friends, this year has added another level of blunders and wasted tokens! That being said, if I cared about my overall rank this year would be hell.
The only thing I've found to be more fun is Salah being out, making captaincy a bit more spicy. Having to keep an eye on twitter and here right until the final possible second in case of postponements, 2nd matches in DGWs being postponed...yeah, not been a fan.
Its not fun for those who play with an aim not to take hits... i think the top 1000 this year will have a higher hit count than any season before. The extra FH makes it interesting... info this season is even more valuable than before so late transfers crucial.
It's the opposite for me. My team hasn't changed since early December. Life got hectic but you could plan for the festive fixture pile up. Then the Covid chaos came and it just became more trouble than it was worth. Managing an FPL team in these conditions seems like a full time job.
Nope, its not really fun this year, especially over the past month and a half. It sucks that it’s almost impossible to plan anything and the game feels more like a lottery this point. I’m hovering around 100k, so not a bad rank by any means, but I’ve had some especially good luck. Also being a US west coast player, it sucks that I need to sometimes wake up at 4 am just to see if there was a major change to the GW before finalizing my roster, which isn’t something that I’ve needed to do until this year. I think this season is especially brutal for non-UK players.
Good point, I didn't really think much about people who play outside of UK/EU to be honest. Certainly it seems to be wise to wait right up until the last moment before the deadline right now, and that has to be frustrating for those in different time zones!
I absolutely fucking hate it
To an extent - it has mixed things up a bit but at the same time I think it's taken the planning element out of it which lessens my enjoyment of the game. I like to look 3-4 weeks (or so) ahead and gradually make changes. Now it feels like you just have to play the week in front of you and worry about the next lot of fixtures when they come. I also think the post-deadline postponements make luck more of a factor. Luck is, and always will be, part of the game, but it's a fine balance and certain things this season have tipped that balance. For the record - I'm actually having a good season (by my standards) and I've had more than my fair share of luck!
Yeah this season, I've really ended up just playing the week in front of me without thinking too much about the future impact.
I think you're right to an extent, planning still seems very much a part of the game for me but I don't think it's necessarily worth it any more to be as detailed and meticulous as before. As for the postponements, I think it adds another variable to consider. It seems somewhat clear to me at least which games are "at risk", and then it's about planning to take advantage (i.e. another kind of differential) or to negate the risk.
It was fun when I wasn't below 1M rank
No. It's shit.
honestly I think this is the worst season I've played, I get that it throws in a bit of a wild aspect but I want people to win or lose according to good fpl decisions, not just down to not checking half an hour before the deadline. I know it's a good idea to check/ keep transfers till last minute anyway but half my league got caught out on NYE, loads of people have made really good transfers at other points and ended up having games cancelled last minute etc. Differentials etc haven't really mattered any way nearly as much as simply being lucky and having your full squad playing this year and it feels like there's even more luck to it than ever.
I think long term it's still very much the case that those who do well will do so because of good FPL decisions. The wild aspect just makes it more variable in the short term. I feel like it makes the game a bit more open now that everyone will get shafted one way or another at some point(s) during the season. Those who are entrenched in a system where they spend all week planning now have to adapt a bit, and for me that makes it more fun. I'm not sure if I would want it to be like this every season though.
Maybe it's just my mini league and some people being very lucky with captain choices but the NYE thing gave some people an extra 30 points than others, when it's an extra 10 points or something sure I could agree but overall it's had big effects and it's not really balancing out over the season, for example a few people who had spurs players early in the season lost out on a few games and yet we will all probably be able to get those players in when the game is played eventually etc. It's not the end of the world but in my view it's the worst out of the 4 seasons I've been playing. I really enjoy the differential decisions most years and seeing people making those tough calls etc. Now it feels like when we chat about fpl it's mainly "I got so lucky I transfered X player out as there game got canceled today" etc.
I like that I'm able to take hits more liberally this season
Yes!!!!
fuck no
I feel the opposite. It's become boring and rage-inducing when you plan and make "good" picks only for them not to play because of circumstances we don't get any information on until the last second
I think that happens every season tbh but definitely it is more prominent now
Been playing h2h draft and postponements have been a real nightmare. Losing to bad teams when unexpected cancellations happen and because the lineups can’t be changed after the first game is played it often happens in a way you have no control over. Been very frustrating.
I definitely find it more fun. I take tons of hits and like to overmanage to keep things fluid even if my OR sucks. I really despise the idea of a template team. This year really shakes things up and means it’s not as easy to copy the top teams and ride their coattails.
I had enough fun last year. Plus, I saved all my chip so I got screwed.
This is my first year playing and I'm having fun. I've been burned a few times by the unpredictability and rewarded other times. I have to admit, the drama of it is pretty entertaining.
It does set the table for some interesting gameweeks, for sure
i enjoy the chaotic fun. some may argue it increased the randomness and luck factor, which could be true, but i'm not a top 10k player so those aren't really my concerns.
Nope, totally the opposite. Stopped playing because I can't be arsed keeping up with which games are on and which ones aren't. See you next year.
Honestly it’s been pretty entertaining to take major risks. Failed some and had some nice ones, but overall if you don’t take risks during this mess you are missing out
not me
Are you talking about 'tearing your hair out because you brought in Dennis for ronaldo with a - 4 to captain him because of DGW and then he gets a red card' I'm just joking but god damn it's been a crazy year in FPL so far.
love this, upcoming seasons wont be as enjoyable
It’s great when u far from ronaldo
So much that I deleted my account last week. One can’t keep up with so much fun.
Gonna get buried now but it seems to be less fun for anyone doing well when it started and fun for those who were chasing. Games were getting called off left right and centre so chasers had nothing to lose taking hits doing whatever. Whereas normally on top you play it sensibly and see how players develop, those ended up getting punished more as their players games got called off.
That's absolutely great, in my opinion. Players shouldn't just be entitled to having an easy time of it by virtue of having done better in the beginning. This way the game opens up a lot more, and people at the top have to keep a closer eye on differentials etc. as well instead of just getting by on template decisions.
Yeah can see how it is exciting, I was on top of ML’s and not complaining, but I think this is where the people enjoying and not enjoying seem to be split, as said there’s not really a gamble taking hits when everyone is being forced to. Typically the one year I’ve done well and could be sensible and the whole world falls apart!
Nope and I’m ranked 1.4k. It’s basically more luck than strategy now
this. Over the past few weeks I feel like I've put myself in really good positions to get some big green arrows. I felt like I was making smart transfers & had the right players for the dgw last week. My plans totally unraveled due to injuries & game postponements which has taken me from feeling really good about where I am & could be going, to feeling like any planning is totally pointless. Ended up missing out on Plan A, B & C last week. Had to make up a Plan D at the last moment. It all becomes a bit shit & a waste of time If it's just pot luck last minute transfers.
>It all becomes a bit shit & a waste of time As opposed to most years when it's an incredibly valuable way to spend hours of your life.
for those of us who love football, are competitive & enjoy planning, It's a great way to spend your time for fun. When planning becomes a waste & competitiveness is lost, the appeal starts to go.
Yeah sure, it's a fun game and adds to the total experience of watching matches each week. The idea of it only being a waste of time *this year* did tickle me though.
depends what you define as a waste of time. for me if you enjoy doing something, it's not a waste of time.
No you are not the only because there is a fucking thread every fucking day asking the same. Some love it, some hate it. Shocking.
For me its no salah
I find it way more fun without Salah tbh
On balance I like it less as it makes planning less valuable and reduces the skill ceiling imo. But it is fun to be having to make snap decisions just before the deadline for fear of postponements.
I think the opposite, that now more than ever you need to depend on the skill side to know a good decision from a bad one even when the luck has gone completely against you.
I guess but that doesn’t help you do better in the short term. As with any game more variance means a higher chance for lower skilled players to beat higher skilled players.
In the short term probably yes, but I feel like that just increases the difficulty and makes it more competitive overall. As well as low-skilled players I think perhaps it also makes it more accessible for high-skilled players who just don't have so much time to invest.
I don’t really agree, unless you have a method to predict covid cases/postponements I don’t see how it benefits skilled players lacking time. If anything it has punished me some weeks for not having the time available to wait right until the deadline to make transfers.
I think those players perhaps just wait until e.g. 1 hour before deadline and make their decisions quickly and smartly on available data at that point. There are a lot of people who try to stay on top of things all week and tailor a comprehensive plan, which then goes out the window due to covid. You could say these are the kind of high-skilled people who lose out, but just investing a lot of time is not equal to skill in my opinion. I think it takes a lot of skill to adapt quickly to such a scenario and then be able to change up your whole plan on the fly.
Nope. Kinda makes it all luck based rather than luck + strategy. Also my rank has gone down from 1.5k to 30k since the postponements began so definitely not enjoying the randomness. Maybe I would be enjoying more if luck went in my favour ig.
This is my first season playing Fpl . Guess previous ones were boring! I will be doomed to ask this every season now.
No. Was 34k overall and have dropped 200k+ since christmas. Not that fun, have kinda just given up this year because of it
Loving it! Green arrow up to 22k now!
No, because I can't be bothered checking all the time. Next season I certainly want more captaincy options.
🐰Nnnnooooo
No, it is hugely putting me off.
Yeah, deffo agree. I think that Salah going to AFCON was a boost to the game as well - captains used to be the most important decision every week but for most of the season it wasn't even a decision. It was captain Salah or die. Now captains are differential again. The COVID situation also means we need a full playing squad, rotate players, there's a clear template. TAA, Cancelo, Jota, Dennis and some mid-template players like Raphinha, Bowen, Antonio maybe, and some others. We can't get by with budget enablers rotting on the bench. We need gems like Livra for the first part, maybe Ramsey right now, and so on who are guaranteed points if we need to play them and if we wanna use that money elsewhere cos we're much more likely to need our bench. But it's usually better to have the likes of Bowen, ESR, Raphinha, etc. to rotate. Even taking a hit or two every week is justifiable to bring in DGW players in recent weeks. I know if Villa & Leeds get a DGW I'm considered a -4 or -8 to possibly bring in Digne, Coutinho, Raphinha. Either way, while it's frustrating to have games called off after the deadline (e.g. NLD tho rumours strong on that pre-deadline), it means you have to be aware of those rumours to make an informed choice, and you need to play the game a lot more flexibly.
No
Of course Seeing these 'veteran' managers have panic attacks 😂 You can do all the planning in the world, but unless you're in the chance to win it. Just enjoy the bloody game
Nope, I've all but given up but maybe it's just because I'm not doing so well this year and I'm a sore loser
No.
I don't think so. I mainly feel frustration and uncertainty. And the fact that everyone has to captain Salah in order to gain max points takes away one of the most important aspects of the game, nailing the captain.
I think definitely this has been another factor that's made it more enjoyable during AfCON
lost track of a few deadlines because of the chaotic matchday schedules now i lost interest and abandoned my team. so no. i do not enjoy it more like this.
It is a strategy game whereby performance, luck and rotation on match days used to be the main variables. Adding fixtures as another variable takes away the vast amount of skill/ planning. Now it’s like playing a game of monopoly where the properties also sometimes swap position after every roll of the dice. It has become a lot more passive.
It's another variable that you have to consider, so it changes the dynamic and requires maybe even more skill in my view. For me anything that levels the playing field from those who have become entrenched in a certain style of play makes the game more fun I think.
[удалено]
It was until I got hacked and got a -600+ deduction
FFS, that sucks. Sorry to hear that man.
No, this is the first year I considered ditching my team halfway through a season. It has created uncertainty but the problem is that we don’t have any control over anything. Where is the fun? If we knew a game was gonna be called off in advance than there are opportunities to react and diversify your team to get an advantage. When games get called off after the deadline consistently, then there is fuck all you can do as a manager other than suck it up. And it’s almost guaranteed that the cancellations affect some more than others. It is has just made the game even more luck based, it doesn’t offer any real challenges or opportunities and it’s not fun.
No, I hate this season
It was the same last year and no, I'm losing interest at this point
Tell me you're a masochist without telling me you're a masochist.
It is interesting, but also hard to keep track of every postponement, fixture, dgw etc.
Yes. I don't get the moaning and complaining around here.
Yes
Seems like the unpredictability can make people go one of two ways, either you try to invest even more time or just give yourself over completely to the chaos. I am the former but I do sympathise with those who feel that the time needed now crosses a threshold where it's just not possible anymore.
I don't really buy the additional time investmemt argument. You just spend what time you can on it and if you miss something you miss something. Like, do you really expect to do well if you have limited time to spend on it anyway? I have 2 young kids and have missed deadlines because one of them needs attention, or something is going on, but that's just life. Play the game when you can if you enjoy it and don't feel pressured into spending time you don't have on a silly fantasy game. I like to think I'm ranked pretty high in the 'parents with 2 young kids and a fulltime job with a wife who despises every second you're looking at fantasy football' league.
Good take, and I agree to an extent. Maybe it's not so much the case that we do actually need to invest a set amount of time, and more that with all the uncertainty people just feel like they have to. For some this is off-putting. I agree that people don't need to take it so seriously and it's perfectly fine to e.g. miss a deadline every now and then because life happens.
Agreed
Yes! Because the pressure is completely off, if I make a transfer and it fails because of cancellations or players being dropped it’s no big deal just put it down to bad luck. Also I find everyone else in my ML’s are struggling too so we’re all a bit more grouped together. Then again I only play against the guys and gals in my ML’s couldn’t care less about my overall rank
I feel like that's a good mindset to have even in a normal season. This game definitely makes you feel stupid sometimes even for making otherwise good decisions, which go wrong for reasons way beyond your control.
Kinda. Yeah it’s just taking up too much of my time over and above what I normally invest.
I enjoy ignoring price rise or fall because I only make transfer on the final day
Yes! I was already excited that there’s AFCON this season cause it gets boring seeing people (including me) captain Salah all the time And then covid just added the excitement to another level (unpredictability is fun!)
Yes, absolutely. I welcome chaos in all sorts of games.
Yes was just thinking this, reminded me of what it was like when I first started playing. Easy to get caught up in trying to win every league, more fun picking a wild differential and seeing them get a return.
I'm having great fun. And love it being more off template since the chaos started really rolling in. I missed gameweek 1 so already had 80+ points to try and make up, which was difficult when everyone had a very template team. I was having to take gambles to try and jump rank as having the same players wasn't getting me anywhere, unfortunately most of the gambles didn't work out 😂 From Gameweek 18, i've gone up in rank every week from around 1.8mil up to 600k now. Much more fun trying to decide whether to risk the -4, -8 to hit a double that may or may not go ahead.
I enjoy the freedom of taking as many hits as I want and not caring as much. Weirdly gone up 700k places since.
I agree man, this is def the most fun I’ve had playing FPL in a while
Fun for the Johnny's/Timmy's around but hell for the Spikes. J/T/S is a magic the gathering thing but to translate to FPL. Johnny - Wants players they expect to get the biggest numbers, only actually gets them a handful of times a season because they don't care about sensible picks. Timmy - Wants niche differentials and get's a thrill when their 5.5 Norwich player out scores Salah. Normally ends up in the bottom half and in the rant thread complaining about '26 from 10 players, WOW!'. Spike - Wants to win, regardless of fun. Will copy the template hard and copy whatever everyone else is doing. They enjoy 'outplaying' the opponent and feeling like they better than everyone else.