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The MacRumors Fantasy Football League 2014-15

Jaffa Cake

Jaffa Cake

macrumors Core
Original poster
Aug 1, 2004
19,801
9
The City of Culture, Englandshire
Ladies and Gentlemen, gather around - it's time for another season of MacRumors Fantasy Football. :)

attachment.jpg​

In a few short weeks we'll be kicking off our eighth season, as the forum's foremost fantasy gaffers plot to steal the title away from last season's champions Prism and their manager pknz. Equally keen to hang onto his silverware will be twietee, whose t!llionaire's iToys won the MacRumors Fantasy Cup in a memorable final.

First though, some important business. I'll be opening up the League to entries over the next few days, but first I wanted to run something by you all...

An idea I had to freshen things up a bit was to make the main league a head-to-head competition - essentially as we've run our Cup the last few years. We'd have to cap the league at 20 teams in order to ensure that each team plays each of the others home/away (just like the actual Premier League), but I think people do enjoy the friendly rivalry that head-to-head matches create as evidenced by the Cup.

From my point of view, I'd sort out a full fixture list pre-season and once we get underway I can maybe pick out a 'match of the week' to do a little preview on.

The Cup meanwhile could then be run as a proper knock-out competition, with a random draw and set dates when teams would be playing each other - the cup matches would run alongside the League games in those given weeks, but we could make a bit more of the cup matches as occasions rather than having things almost running in the background as they are at the moment.

So, what do you guys reckon?
 
swiftaw

swiftaw

macrumors 603
Jan 31, 2005
6,328
25
Omaha, NE, USA
So, if I understand you correctly, you are thinking of running a league and a cup with scoring 'off-book' that is, being kept manually (since I don't think the setup you want is available directly in the game)?

Edit: I suggest we run 3 competitions then. They regular one through the site, with an unlimited number of participants, and the winning being the one who has accumulated the most points over the season. A league and a cup as you described, limited to 20 for the league and 16, 32, 64, etc for the cup, scores recorded manually and posted here.

If we go that way, count me in for all, and if you need assistance generating fixtures, tables, etc let me know.
 
Jaffa Cake

Jaffa Cake

macrumors Core
Original poster
Aug 1, 2004
19,801
9
The City of Culture, Englandshire
Yep, that's pretty much what I'm thinking.

No problem with setting up the League head-to-head - there's an option to set it up that way, and it'll generate the fixtures for us.

As for the Cup... my thinking is we'd schedule Cup weeks at regular intervals throughout the season. We'd draw the teams at random, and these ties would be played in addition to that Gameweek's League fixture. Just like the knockout phase of the current format, the highest scoring team goes through.

With 20 teams, we'd need...

  • Qualifying Round (19 teams)*
  • First Round (16 Teams)
  • Second Round (8 teams)
  • Semi Finals (4 teams)
  • Final (2 teams)

In the qualifying round, there wouldn't be set ties - the highest scoring 15 teams go into the hat for the First Round along with the Cup holder who qualifies by right.

Mind, as you suggest there's nothing to stop us running the traditional league with unlimited participants - if we took this route we could then open the Cup up to everyone taking part.
 
swiftaw

swiftaw

macrumors 603
Jan 31, 2005
6,328
25
Omaha, NE, USA
So, in previous years they did head-to-head followed by 3 weeks of playoffs, have they killed that now, so it's head-to-head for the entire 38 weeks?


I say we do a head-to-head (obviously limited to 20), a traditional (unlimited) and then a manual cup at regular intervals, calculated by how many we have in the traditional league come opening day.
 
swiftaw

swiftaw

macrumors 603
Jan 31, 2005
6,328
25
Omaha, NE, USA
Jaffa Cake said:
You could set up your league with three, two, one or no weeks of play-offs - we had ours set up with them for a bit of knock out play.
Click to expand...

Ah, I see.

So, to clarify, IMO, I would like to see

1. Pure Head-to-head league (20 teams)
2. Traditional league (unlimited)
3. Manually Run Knock-Out cup with rounds at regular intervals (Unlimited)
 
pachyderm

pachyderm

macrumors G3
Jan 12, 2008
9,955
4,873
Smyrna, TN
Jaffa Cake said:
Yep, that's pretty much what I'm thinking.

No problem with setting up the League head-to-head - there's an option to set it up that way, and it'll generate the fixtures for us.

As for the Cup... my thinking is we'd schedule Cup weeks at regular intervals throughout the season. We'd draw the teams at random, and these ties would be played in addition to that Gameweek's League fixture. Just like the knockout phase of the current format, the highest scoring team goes through.

With 20 teams, we'd need...

  • Qualifying Round (19 teams)*
  • First Round (16 Teams)
  • Second Round (8 teams)
  • Semi Finals (4 teams)
  • Final (2 teams)

In the qualifying round, there wouldn't be set ties - the highest scoring 15 teams go into the hat for the First Round along with the Cup holder who qualifies by right.

Mind, as you suggest there's nothing to stop us running the traditional league with unlimited participants - if we took this route we could then open the Cup up to everyone taking part.
Click to expand...

do it
 
WoodNUFC

WoodNUFC

macrumors 6502a
Apr 30, 2009
641
68
A Library
Hopefully my boys won't fizzle out like their real life Newcastle brothers, again. I enjoyed the first few months of the season last year, then couldn't select a winning side to save my life!

Btw, I think your plans for this year look good. I'm not sure if I'll join the Cup, but I'm definitely in for a head to head league.
 
twietee

twietee

macrumors 603
Jan 24, 2012
5,300
1,675
Congrats, McWildly! Enjoy the fries!

Just a brief connection to the world so thx a lot for the PM Jaffa, hope there's still a spot free for me!
 
Tilpots

Tilpots

macrumors 601
Apr 19, 2006
4,195
71
Carolina Beach, NC
twietee said:
Congrats, McWildly! Enjoy the fries!

Just a brief connection to the world so thx a lot for the PM Jaffa, hope there's still a spot free for me!
Click to expand...

Welcome back 'ol Boy! How was life in the real world? Any stories to share?

Jaffa Cake said:
Don't forget chaps - you can make unlimited changes to your team (within budget, of course) until it locks at the start of Gameweek 1.

Tinker away! :D
Click to expand...

WHEN DOES THE JANUARY TRANSER WINDOW OPEN??? It's my only hope!!! :D:D:D
 
P

phil.black

macrumors newbie
Apr 13, 2009
12
0
I'll chip in with my 2c/1.2p and state a HUGE preference for Head to Head competition. No cumulative points haul can beat the thrill of pipping iTillionaire's iToys to grab three points and a place in the knockout stages - even if he 'did' me in the final! (well played, by the way)

That said, would we still have a tournament where finishing top eight is meaningful? It's a great way of keeping loads of teams interested until the back end of the season, and I'm not so keen on being dumped out the cup 'early doors' and off the pace in the league by January - which the past two seasons tell me is likely.

Thanks again for organising Jaffa, and please reserve a place for my Tall Saints in each league/cup you set up.

Ces
 
Tilpots

Tilpots

macrumors 601
Apr 19, 2006
4,195
71
Carolina Beach, NC
phil.black said:
I'll chip in with my 2c/1.2p and state a HUGE preference for Head to Head competition. No cumulative points haul can beat the thrill of pipping iTillionaire's iToys to grab three points and a place in the knockout stages - even if he 'did' me in the final! (well played, by the way)

That said, would we still have a tournament where finishing top eight is meaningful? It's a great way of keeping loads of teams interested until the back end of the season, and I'm not so keen on being dumped out the cup 'early doors' and off the pace in the league by January - which the past two seasons tell me is likely.

Thanks again for organising Jaffa, and please reserve a place for my Tall Saints in each league/cup you set up.

Ces
Click to expand...

Good points. From what I understood, there still would be a H2H comp. Right?





Also wanted to see if any of you subscribed to the xG (expected Goals) theories gaining popularity? I have just gotten into them for the WC and found them pretty fascinating. Here's an article that describes it pretty nicely: A Shooting Model – An Exp(G)lanation and Application.

I actually don't follow this guys model, I like Michael Caley from the Washington Post and his Fancy Stats. It's not 100% and never will be, but like baseball, soccer really is a game of numbers and the stats do back it up. Interesting nonetheless.

So any of you guys use it, interested in it? Who do you follow?
 
timsutcliffe

timsutcliffe

macrumors 6502
Jun 18, 2007
349
78
I'm in again. I think I've automatically renewed for this season.

Really hoping to be manager of the month. I'm keen to see what my shirt will look like.
 
twietee

twietee

macrumors 603
Jan 24, 2012
5,300
1,675
Tilpots said:
Welcome back 'ol Boy! How was life in the real world? Any stories to share?
Click to expand...

Sorry pal! Took me ages to reply...

Real life was awesome!! You'd never guess..

Croatia / Split got some really nice chicks - should have been there when I was single. And boat loads of Americans. Guess it was spring break? Bit annoying if you ask me..:D

Those Dalmatian islands got some beautiful waterand nothing beats native olive oil and wine from the next village nearby ... no idea how it looks on your little island but I have to admit that I get a bit jelly to think about it. Time to kick yo ass fantazy wise again I suppose..:D
 
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