Seven years of drafting, a “Draft We Must” league title, a “International Genie League” title and (most importantl) a Draft Community League Champions Cup title…it’s not often you get to brag about your Fantasy Football achievements so I’m grabbing this opportunity with both hands!
Why the (not so) humble brag? Well, my Togga/Fantrax experience has inadvertently landed me with my biggest and toughest task of all…qualification to the Draft Community Gold League and (in partnership with the Fantasy Football Community) I am tasked with writing about my experience. This is unarguably the toughest league and Twitter so I could genuinely finish dead last…hopefully not eh?
After a break for the internationals, we faced another very tough fixture in Gameweek 12 against last season’s Payet Posse title rival @25jstep as well as trying to maintain a strong start in the Champions Cup!
Last week we left you on a “cliffhanger” as to who Kevin De Bruyne was on the chopping block for as we were on the verge of pulling the trigger on another deal. I can confirm that the trigger was pulled as the best player in the game was sold for Son Heung Min and Michael Olise…
Time will tell whether this is a good deal but while Son Heung Min is a top five forward this season (maybe top 10 overall), it’s probably Olise I’m most excited about in this deal. Despite some rotation concerns (he wasn’t seen this week, for example) he has everything needed to be a Fantrax star, picking up key passes and assists for fun.
My initial plan was to make some kind of profit on my original deal for KDB where Mo Salah and Jack Harrison were sold. While Son and Salah feels like a bit of a coin flip, I feel there’s a chasm between Harrison and Olise so I’m very satisfied with the fortnight’s trading activity.
I’d still like to strengthen the midfield but a front three of Son, Mitrovic and Sinisterra (SMS if you will) feels more than solid.
Despite starting the week as an injury worry, Mitrovic became one of the stars of the Gameweek for me as I exacted some revenge on @25Jstep after he somehow popped me to last season’s Payet Posse title. Jacob is an incredible competitor and is at the top of all the top leagues this season so this felt like a very satisfying way to end my awful recent form.
The big Serb contributed 20 of my 110.25 points this week and trading him in for Martin Odegaard feels like a good move at this moment. My trades in general feel like they’ve been worthwhile so far.
Scoring throughout was pretty steady and consistent with my front three contributing a very tidy 40 points despite scoring only one goal between them. Ivan Perisic also turned into the ghost point machine I was hoping for at the start of this season!
Jacob’s excellent former Burnley defence threatened to bring him back into the matchup but in the end I did enough to sail to a satisfying victory to help stop the rot. Next target: get back into that top half! Still only four wins away from top spot with considerably more Fpts too…
The Champions Cup Title Defence
The title defence has started in immaculate fashion! As I said last week, this draw probably couldn’t be tougher so I’ll need to be at the very top of my game each week to even get out of this group. Qualifying for the knockouts is an absolute must when you’re the defending champ though!
This week I face @shyamssivakumar who I’ve been in numerous leagues with over the years. Shyam is a top competitor but didn’t have one of his better weeks this week, scoring just 69.5 points to ensure I went 2-0 and kept the 100% record at the start of this group of death.
It’ll be intriguing to see what record will secure qualification from this group but three of us still sit pretty with 100% records! Next week we take on @fpl_eeezeya who will endure it won’t be easy at all to go 3-0!
Fantasy Football 92 