Seven years of drafting, a “Draft We Must” league title, an “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?
This week we go head-to-head with our oldest Togga/Fantrax friend and draft legend @tottiandor as well as an attempt to go 5-0 in the cup against overall Payet Posse leader @jmoneytaco!
File this in the “minor fantasy miracles” category. If you viewed last week’s article, you’ll have caught on to my massive pessimism ahead of going into battle against fantasy legend @tottiandor without star strikers Son Heung Min and Aleksander Mitrovic as well as third rounder (admittedly a terrible one) Philippe Coutinho.
A minor miracle was needed to defeat Totti’s Manchester City stack and that’s what we got with the four City stars combining for only 18 points, giving us a fighting chance going into Sunday’s games. We said last week that being in with a shot after the City match but streamers Crysencio Sumerville and Goncalo Guedes combined for 45 points to put us into a commanding position.
A good streamer or two is crucial in any matchup and this was certainly the case here. I picked up Summerville but didn’t start him for his winner against Liverpool with half an eye on this week’s fixture at home against Bournemouth. It proved to be an inspired add with the Leeds wonderkid scoring and assisting in a 28.5 point showing. Guedes was a gamble but timed his first goal of the season impeccably.
Sunday began with a narrow lead for us and was immediately extended by Leon Bailey enjoying another “new manager bounce”. Lucas Paqueta’s assist brought Totti back into the game but the star that is Michael Olise turned on the style to put it beyond doubt with an 11 ghost point performance topped off by a last minute goal. Is he a MID1 for the rest of this season? He’s definitely a great one to roster in Fantrax going forwards and trading him in feels like a great move right now.
The only upside of Son Heung Min’s injury (it’s a very small one, missing your best player in Fantrax really, really hurts) is that Ivan Perisic’s value shoots up. Dominating set pieces and playing up front, Perisic hit the woodwork twice and completed five key passes in a monster 17.5 ghost point performance. We’ll need more of the same from him this week.
Remarkably, despite now being the top FPts scorer in the Gold League (I’m milking that in the group chat), this is the first time all season that we’ve secured back-to-back wins. It’s been a slog and a half thanks to facing some massive scores throughout the first half of this season. Hopefully we can now kick on…
…which will be tough against another draft legend in @benchickens, again without my lethal strike partnership. Olise vs Nottingham Forest and Perisic vs Leeds will be crucial while this week’s streamers Brennan Johnson and Adam Lallana will need to do their best Summerville and Guedes impressions. Everything is crossed as we enter the top half of the Gold League for a long, long time!
The Champions Cup – Title defence
Incredible…we are 5-0 in the “Group of Death!”
It was super tight going into the Liverpool v Spurs game against @jmoneytaco with the Payet Posse league leader (who, by the way, has a ridiculous team. Some trade investigations need to take place over there!) going into the game with a narrow lead with Rodrigo Bentancur and Joe Gomez v Perisic to play.
Perisic’s monster ghost point display was enough to pull off an unlikely victory by 124.5 point to 121.5. A thriller!
We now go into the final three group games two wins ahead of our closest rivals, meaning one more win should be enough to secure a safe passage into the knockout rounds. Lovely stuff!
Fantasy Football 92 