The international break is upon us 🥱 BUT FEAR NOT - I have something FUN for you 👇 I've created a new fantasy football game 👀 I've played fantasy for a LONG time, I've got 3 top 1k finishes in FPL, finished 2nd overall in the Sky game, top 10 in FanTeam. I also helped get fantasy champ man going during lockdown. All in all, I know fantasy! And for my day job, I literally invent (board) games. Much as we love it, I think FPL is a bit broken. I've put my experience together to create a genuinely new fantasy football format that I think should be a LOT of fun, and addresses a lot of the ways I think FPL is broken: - better points system brings many more players into choice - scarce supply of players forces variety in teams - dynamic market-based pricing *set by the players* avoids dead spots and keeps things fresh and interesting - you're genuinely playing other managers rather than the pricing system. - no copycat/template teams can emerge, everyone has to find their own path - genuine strategic decisions, and more uncertainty, makes a more varied and challenging game I've honestly got a bit bored of FPL in recent seasons. So I created the fantasy game I want to play. It's free to play and I'm confident it's going to do well, but it needs testing with a small-ish game to make sure it works OK. We've already run a successful rehearsal test, now we're looking for managers who want to play for at least 5 GWs up until the next international break (and longer if you can). All you need to do is play it, and give your feedback. During this international break you'll be planning, building your initial auction, setting maximum prices for players you like and getting everything ready for GW6 (aka GW1!). And then the game kicks off, with variety and originality from FPL, a stock-market style trading system and (hopefully) a much better fantasy football experience. I would LOVE help - if you're up for playing and feeding back your honest thoughts please comment below and I'll get in touch 👇

Massively lucked out with Bruno staying in the bench today. MGW vice captain and Gross subs in for Bruno 😍

Genuine question. I've never seen so much frustration with FPL, but as someone trying to build a fantasy football game that 'solves' many FPL issues, I've found it incredibly hard to get people interested. Why is that? Is FPL just too entrenched? Genuinely interested.

Didn't check my FPL team last few days, and didn't think until after deadline. Captain: Bruno 😬

A genius is rarely appreciated in their own lifetime #genius #prophet #trailblazer

Seeing people rolling 4 or 5 transfers in FPL. Good planning. Meanwhile in market we've just seen Palmer sell for £44m and I've just bid £11m for Solanke 😆💀💀 It's certainly.... different

This PHP/internet issues stuff could get crazy. I think we might see this snowball in the next couple of days. Make sure your internet arrangements/passwords etc are secure, and be extra watchful for phishing. Hopefully I'm wrong 🤞

Any of my FPL friends here going to the Essen Spiel board game show this week?!

Stuff like this is why I think we need another game. So many FPL mis-steps, slowly making what was a great game 10 years ago either stale or directly worse. FPL should step up and do it, but if they won't...

What on earth has happened to Carl Rushworth? Absolutely quality in the Championship for years (including for Cov last season), but has had such a poor start to the season. Hope he can find his form again, thought of him as a future England player before.

Turns out fantasy football is more fun when everyone doesn't have the same team 😍

There were always 2 market models for the fantasy game I've made - both to be beta tested... We've just introduced the second model. It's way better ❤️ I think we might just have a game here! Confident we can full launch in the Nov IB now 🔥

Bought Semenyo last week. Captained him. Now I get to sell him. OR 6.3m 🫪

this is fine

Launching my first digital game has certainly been a learning curve! Some key learnings: - Make it as intuitive as possible - Strip out stuff that isn't 100% essential to fun/gameplay - If decision is close, choose simple over complex. - Don't assume people will read the rules. We're totally shaking up the weekly market, which proved to be overly complex. Perfect if you're a hardcore strategist, but not quite right for this game. Here's v 1.1 changes: > NEW ‘EBAY’ TRANSFER MARKET MODEL. The weekly transfer market didn’t really work - we need one that gives more control and ability to buy/sell. So it has been replaced with an eBay style market. Players are now bought and sold by individual auctions and ‘buy it now’. It has been set up so you don’t have to constantly check the site! > CREDIT IS DEAD. Credit was confusing people. It’s been replaced with cash. Everyone has been given £20m. If you had debt, this has been used to clear debt and the rest tops up your account. > INCREASED RELEASE PRICE. You now get 80% of price paid when you release a player, instead of 50%. > FREE AGENTS are now available anytime. When 1 final copy of a free agent is left they become an auction item. I was delighted with the auction, but disappointed by the first transfer window. I'm still super optimistic that we're making something better than FPL, and think this will be a big improvement 😊 Let's see!

I know I'm biased, and this might not be quite the model we end up using, but I am 100% sure that this pricing and transfer model is 5x better than FPL. So many more decisions and so much more interesting!