Is there any way those of us in VSR and SR can follow the action in Sand? Would at least like to know how the table stands.
We are a head-to-head league. We've had zero issues of picking up players who were on other's teams (can't be done). There is no selection of captains or the special week options in the regular game. It does automatic bench subs as in the regular game. The draft went really well. All of us online simultaneously from Australia to Europe to India to USA and it went surprisingly fast, yet didn't feel insanely out of control even with only 2 minutes to pick (I think?). Code: Rank Team & Manager W D L +Score League Pts 1 ChickenTikkaMoSalah cian 8 0 4 575 24 2 BiggerBoat Darren 8 0 4 502 24 3 Stormin Gunners Norman 6 0 6 514 18 4 WhataBunchofMuppets Raurie 6 0 6 513 18 5 Keysersoze Wanderers Tony 5 3 4 511 18 6 Soccer Steve Jacob 5 1 6 520 16 7 LöweMoDijk Simon 5 1 6 493 16 8 Potomac No Rudder Paul 2 1 9 441 7
Oh, and what is awful for me is that I don't think my team actually sucks... it just seems that whenever I happen to score decently, my opponent scores more decently... <sigh>
Just a heads-up that I’ll be planning to run the Sandy Cup divisional tournament again this season. We’ll start with the Boxing Day matches and have two-leg matches seeded by standings and then a one match final. Seedings will be based on the Sand league standings right before the Boxing Day fixtures. I’ll send out the schedule and matchups then
Some added info for the 8 team Sandy Cup tournament: Seeding will be based on division standings after gameweek 18 (Dec 21) Quarterfinals will be during gameweeks 19 and 20 (Dec 26,27 and Dec 29,30) Semifinals will be during gameweeks 21 and 22 (Jan 1,2,3 and Jan 12,13,14) Final will be during gameweek 23, winner announced after final scores posted for gameweek 23 (Jan 19,20)
That's the interesting thing about head to head. I still like the classic scoring system but head to head is relevant to how the actual leagues work. Thanks for the update.
Glad that my divisional opponent this week Chicken Tikka Mo Salah doesn’t actually have him on his team. Salah destroyed Bournemouth today and hoping Lacazette can match his performance today vs Huddersfield. Go Gunners!
Just a heads-up that the fixture schedule for the Sandy Cup will be posted on this thread two weeks from today. Get ready for it
You never know, the divisional tournaments can be unpredictable. As the probable seventh seed I’m hoping this will be the case this time around
I know this is mostly a EPL focused thread but just had to say something about the USMNT. After a brutal year as a USMNT fan, with our national team missing out on the latest World Cup for the first time since the ‘80s and not having the coaching situation sorted out for a long time, I think we’re finally getting on the right track. Gregg Berhalter is a good choice as coach, I think he will have a long run and has a good amount of experience as player and coach (both domestic and in Europe) to do the job. And we have some promising young players like Pulisic, Yedlin and Sargent leading the charge. As a Bremen fan I loved seeing Sargent recently score his first bundesliga goal within two minutes. Go USA!!!
I appreciate your enthusiasm Norm. We squandered a year where we could have had a head coach in place. I'm keeping an open mind on GB. Everybody deserves a pass until they establish their system, assuming they have one. American players seem to have a poor perspective on what it takes to step up their game to an international level. We still lack a depth of competitiveness within our own pool of players that drives a team forward. Maybe the young guys will bring that with them.
But with Gabriel Jesus on your squad you could pull an upset (you beat me to him). You also had the third highest total for the week so you never know. That’s the thing about the Sandy Cup that anyone can win it regardless of table position.
Dec 23 will be the final seedings for the Sandy Cup. I’ll post the divisional matchups after final results for gameweek 18 are posted on the official site on the 23rd
This is what I'm starting to like about the head to head format of our league. The past performance of a team is not so heavy an anchor. In standard league, you have a crap month due to lots of injuries and you are now 100 points down. With your team coming back online, all you are doing then is matching, maybe beating the league average by a handful of points and it can take a long time to catch up, if at all. Head to head, though, the week your team is hale is a week you can get a win and wins tally up the table quickly because they are coming directly at the expense of folks ahead in the table. I had a real shot of winning this past week, and I think more may be to come.
One more game until the Sandy Cup fixtures are announced. Some close divisional matchups this week that will change the seedings so will be posting the SC matchups later today once all the points are in.
Sandy Cup quarterfinal matchups are set. Here are the matchups based on the Sand division table seedings: Bigger Boat (1) vs Potomac No Rudder (8) Chicken TikkaMoSalah (2) vs LoweMoDijk (7) Soccer Steve (3) vs Stormin Gunners (6) WhataBunchofMuppets (4) vs Keysersoze Wanderers (5) First leg games start on Boxing Day and second leg the following week. I’ll post results after each leg of the quarters, semis, and the final will be a single gameweek to decide the Sandy Cup champion. Based on recent results there is no favorite to win this tournament. Any of the eight teams has a fair shot to win it. Good luck to all
Also in the case of any ties after the two legs of the quarters and semis and the single gameweek final, the tiebreaker is whoever has the higher seeding. Unlikely it will be used but you never know, I noticed Keysersoze Wanderers has three ties so far this season so it’s a possibility the tiebreaker rule could be used.
Soccer Steve running away with it in the first leg of my SC matchup. Need a big game from Lacazette today to have even a slim chance of catching up. Of course I had to draw the team on a hot streak in recent weeks...
OK, @Norm Coyle , I'm 2 points behind you with Snodgrass to play (taking bench points into account). Of course, chances of him playing are not 100%. I had 3 starters not play at all, and have only 2 bench points to replace. If Snodgrass plays, I think I'll catch you.