J.League Fantasy creator Kurasawa on suggestions to improve Fantasy Premier League by FPL General and his fantasy philosophy.
Hello to all of you and especially to FPL General!
I have just read your article on how to improve FPL and have decided to share my thoughts as I have a lot to say about it.
But first, let me introduce myself. I go by the nickname Kurasawa and I run my own fantasy games with unique rules thanks to a platform Foontasy and writing detailed previews such as this. Currently, I do only J.League Fantasy (open this introduction article in the new tab to read it later). I stopped playing FPL one year and a half ago because I got tired of elements of randomness in traditional fantasy games.
How is J.League Fantasy different from FPL? Look at the picture below:
As you can see, your mental health is threatened less.
With the introduction over, let me start commenting on the suggestions, in order of least to most disagreement.
On Re-Adjusting the Gameweek Deadlines
I think the best route to take is to make the deadline coincide with the first kick-off.
There’ll never be a perfect solution
I think I have one. Since not everyone wants to check line-ups an hour before the deadline (especially those in Western Hemisphere), FPL should consider launching two different modes of the game. The first one with the deadline at kick-off with such chips available as post-deadline transfer. And the second one with a deadline of 2-3 hours before kick-off for those who just want to make transfers and don’t follow the games live. You’re welcome.
On Higher Prices
Top of my list of requests would be higher player prices. Make it much harder for us to fill our squads with picks from the top teams.
I think doing just that won’t help much. The problem is deeper. Prices don’t change fast enough. Miguel Almirón and Kaoru Mitoma have 15+ goals and assists each and their price didn’t even rise over 6.0. If FPL had a Foontasy price change system, they would be priced 8.0-9.0 (Haaland, for comparison, would be 16.5, and you would think twice about owning him).
How does that price change system work? To express it shortly, prices change based on player performances rather than managers making transfers (glad I don’t check potential price changes every evening anymore). The player price can change by 1.0 in four GWs.
You may wonder: with price changes so fast, aren’t budgets also becoming bigger making it easier to pick top players? Yes, they are. To stop this, every six gameweeks, I do dekulakization called ‘budget reset’, where a manager can make changes only if his new squad fits the budget equal to the initial one at the start of the game. Not a delicate solution, I know, but for me it’s when it gets interesting.
By the way, switching from a transfer-based to a performance-based price change system could allow such features as cancelling your transfers.
On FPL Chips
I don’t like them. Why? Because you know when you are going to use them: double gameweeks. I don’t like them too. Why? Because your range of choice is significantly narrowed, making you pick a player with 2 matches. On Foontasy, rather than summarizing points from two games, only one with the highest score is counted. But I digress from the main topic. For me, the ideal chip is the one where you don’t know when you will use it. This criteria is met by two Foontasy chips: post-deadline transfers and free-hit transfers (where you can loan in a player for just one gameweek). You could use them on average every three GWs.
To add another argument, FPL-esque chips are as much guesswork as picking a captain and bench.
On Making Captaincy Exciting
Captaincy delenda est (must be destroyed). I hate this part of the game the most. In some cases it makes you root against your own player just because you didn’t captain him. Also, if the optimal strategy is picking the obvious choice, then there’s no point in it. If you want to pick a differential captain, most likely you will fail, and those managers who didn’t fail are viewed as luckers in your eyes. I don’t like choosing between a 50% chance of return and 40%, that’s also why there’s no ‘pick the bench’ option on Foontasy.
Also, captaincy could mess up a game even with Foontasy price change system. If you can clone any player, why not clone the highest-priced one?
Other Things That Grind My Gears
Bonus points system and detailed scoring: A long time ago when Stat Revolution started, I wanted players to be awarded for such things as key passes, last-man tackles and clearance off the line. But when some games started to do it, I realised that it makes Fantasy even more difficult and even more random. Choosing between the one who simply contributes some goals and the other who makes a lot of event actions for me is an unnecessary headache. Also, this kind of scoring makes it harder to find a good differential, because the underlying stats are already translated to points. So I’m rooting for BPS delenda est too. I don’t like detailed scoring so many midfielders are not given one point for a cleansheet on Foontasy. Those who already play there may wonder: “But didn’t you start giving one point for defenders for every six clearances?“. OK, OK, you got me here. I did that to get managers to pick centre-backs more often than full-backs.
One free transfer between gameweeks: You make your only FT, it goes wrong, and you have to use another FT to sell him, but you also want to sell other players. Your unlucky choices delay your wished transfers or sacrifice points for them. You are literally getting penalised. To reduce this element of luck, I recommend giving 2 FT, but no more. If you give 3, managers will make more short-term picks therefore game becomes more random.
Well, that’s all! If you folks don’t want to take a break from fantasy, why not hop into J.League Fantasy?
— But didn’t it start 15 GWs ago?
Not a problem! You can compare yourself with others by average points per gameweek!
Go to that introduction tab you’ve opened earlier (if you haven’t, I give you one more chance). Create your team before the deadline on Saturday 3rd June 6:00 AM BST, the kick-off of the first match between 1st-placed Vissel Kobe and vice-champions Kawasaki Frontale.
Also, by following the game’s Twitter account, playing will be funnier and easier.
The end.
You can find Fantasy Premier League (FPL) resources for the 22/23 season here.
