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UKFF Football Predictions League 2012-13

Fog Dude

By Fog Dude
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Fog Dude Veteran

Fog Dude

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Well, this feels like it's come round all too quickly, but it's time to start asking people to declare an interest in the forum's FPL for the forthcoming season. Although the first set of 10 matches could go up as soon as a week on Wednesday, I've decided to narrow it down to two slightly later dates than that and let others decide when we begin this year's league. Here's a reminder of how it all ended up last time, and now I make no apologies for a slightly revised copypasta from the equivalent thread from a year ago:

 

If you've played before, you know how this works. Just bump this thread declaring your interest in participating (a simple "I'm in" will do) and PM me three D2D team choices. If you're a noob at this or a returning player from years ago, the first part of those instructions should be straightforward, but the second part requires some explanation.

 

First, the fundamentals: most weeks consist of one set of ten matches (the "card"), everybody posts their picks in the thread and you can earn 3 points for an exact score, and 1 point for any other game where you got the correct result. This should mean you can score a maximum of 30 points. In practice, double figures in any single week is considered pretty damn good. Besides that, there are 'double' and 'bumper' rounds along the way with more than ten matches to pick. In addition, there are various way of earning bonus points, of which D2D has become the main one for a good few seasons now, and has generally worked well. There used to be a 'Big 4 Gamble' too, but with the idea of a 'Big 4' in flux the last couple of years, I think we scrapped that.

 

Basically Dare2Disagree (D2D for short) was Seph's idea when he ran this, but he gave up as of last season so I've had to remember the rules for myself since then. Roughly every other week, depending on the number of players, it'll be someone's turn to bet on 'their' team - ideally the club you support, but this obviously isn't possible for the very top teams. That's why you need to send me at least 3 picks as possible D2D teams, in order of preference. And that's all done via PM only so we don't know whose team is whose, or which week they'll be called on to make their guess.

 

The game in question will be one of the usual 10, so the prediction will be visible to everyone else and ideally made as early as possible so the rest can decide if they'll agree or disagree with the person whose turn it is. If the D2Der is correct, he gets 2 bonus points for everyone who disagreed with him. The incentive for other players to disagree is that if he (or theoretically she, I suppose) is wrong, everyone who disagreed gets 2 bonus points instead. The twist is that there are of course 3 possible outcomes to a game, so if the D2Der goes for a home win and the actual result is a draw, anyone who went for an away win will still get 2 bonuses even though they scored 0 from the match as an ordinary fixture.

 

Sorry I made it sound so complex, don't want to put off potential new players too much. I never used set restrictions on what D2D teams people can ask for, but as of last season I've felt it was necessary. Your three or more choices may consist of the following:

 

No more than 1 international team (i.e. you have to select at least two club sides), who must be still involved in World Cup or African Nations Cup qualifying, and not come from the Asian Confederation (not me being racist, they've decided to schedule all their competitive fixtures in midweek);

Any EPL, FL or Blue Square League (National/North/South) club;

Any club from the top 3 tiers of the French or German league system;

Any club from the top 2 divisions of any other European league (except 'B' teams); or

Any top-flight club from the rest of the world.

 

Women's teams are not allowed.

 

Last year, the list also included: "any SPL, SFL or Highland League club, or another Scottish club that is definitely in the Scottish Cup". Sadly, given the clouds over Scottish football at the moment, I'd ask our many participants from north of the border to hold their horses for a while longer, because it's far from certain who's going to be playing in what division in just a few short weeks' time. You can of course, still choose the national team if you so desire.

 

That's the first of the issues specific to this season. Another is that Boxing Day is very inconveniently on a Wednesday, but we'll figure out how to deal with that nearer the time. An experiment with a midweek round a few years ago ended in cheetah69uk being threatened with a points deduction, which would've cost him the title that season had it been upheld. For that reason I'm not inclined to try it again, but Christmas is a pretty important time of the season and it would be strange to leave out the crucial Boxing Day meetings. What's more, La Liga and the French Cup final are both scheduled for the beginning of June, but there's no way we're going to end that late.

 

Three slight rule changes I came up with after much thought during the past season: the bonus point 'yielded' to everyone else if someone gets 4 or more exact scores will only apply when the player in question is at the top of the table; if you succumb to a name-change mid-season you're disqualified, so try to get that out of your system before the first table goes up, or else wait until next summer; international rounds will consist of 12-game cards, since it's tough to fit the home nations and best of the rest from Europe and the world into just ten matches.

 

Speaking of internationals, that's the one time I have had to allow Friday night fixtures for the past two seasons, and will continue doing so unless FIFA/UEFA go back on their decision. In those cases I try to post the thread a bit earlier, sometime on Tuesday instead of early Wednesday. Fortunately this is only a problem 3 times per season, but that's also the reason you can't pick 3 national teams as your D2D choices.

 

My travelling days are almost over, so I shouldn't have any major problems with connections and the like this year. Nevertheless I'm grateful to anybody who offers to be on standby in case there are unforeseen troubles or absences. As always, feedback and questions are welcome because I'm sure something of the above is unclear, if anyone's bothered to try to read it all.

 

I'll probably bump this once the Scottish situation becomes clearer in any case... if it ever does. Tell me if I've forgotten anything, and take it away chaps!

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Fog Dude Veteran

Fog Dude

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Mini-update: Pleased to say that everyone's got their first choice D2D team so far, but it's interesting to see which clubs people have a soft spot for. All international dates are still open. I've taken note of the 2nd choices on my spreadsheet as well this time, just in case there's a problem. I can't keep all the PMs because I have to keep my inbox somewhat clear.

 

Two people have signed up here but not sent me a PM yet. Then again, one is Scottish and may be waiting for the outcome of the latest meeting tomorrow. The poll is currently two to one in favour of an early start, so it looks like the first card will be going up on August 8th, but there's still time to change that.

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seph Veteran

seph

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Aww fuck it.

 

I'm in again. Please feel free to prod me on Fridays if I haven't done any picks.

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