2018-19 FPL season review! 21k OVERALL RANK is our best ever finish, top 0.3% out of 6.3 million players worldwide. Congrats U90 mini league WINNER! 🏆
FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE 2018-19
FPL Season Review
Before the season review, I have to get something off my chest. As an FPL content creator, I’ve always struggled to find the right balance between publishing new posts and focusing on my personal team.
Replying in detail to hundreds of comments and direct messages is time-consuming. It can burn someone out. When I help others set their teams, or scramble to publish a new FPL blog post on a Sunday night, my personal team suffers.
I’ve had to turn off messaging on Facebook because my phone was buzzing nonstop. It affected my personal life, and I’ve never even discussed the financial side. The worst part is I enjoy these conversations with my FPL friends.
After two frustrating seasons that saw my Overall Rank take a nosedive, the game itself became less fun to play. It’s difficult to write in a positive tone when the topics are painful to discuss.
Maybe I can fake it for a bit, but making others happy when I’m struggling on a personal level is unsustainable.
This season I wanted to prove to myself that I was still competitive by experimenting with new strategies. The goal was to enjoy playing again.
But it came at a price. Fewer blog posts meant disappointed readers. “Disappointed” is putting it nicely, some were downright abusive. Even though I never reply to offensive comments, I still read them. They must have an effect on a human level no matter how deep I mute them. What they will never do is make me quit because my whole life I’ve fed off proving others wrong.
Even though I failed to create regular content, I was always available, exchanging ideas nearly every day in the comments section of the latest post. Thank you for the support, either as an active commenter or just by being patient. 👍
Next season is about making it up to readers of this blog. Sharing the entire process from watching games to creating and executing a transfer plan.
Some of it will be from my experience since 2007, although the game changes quickly. The best stuff is what I learned this past season. Before, I was nearly 100% driven by instinct. But for the first time in over a decade, I studied direct competitors. Now I target the Top-10k template and other mini-leagues to build safeguards and identify vital moments to make my team unique.
One of those came in December when FPL influencers steered their followers away from Salah while I captained him nearly every game with success.
I documented it all, from how to use opponent teams to my advantage, to waiting until closer to deadline before making transfers. By the way, early transfers to beat price changes is a huge stressor and for the most part unnecessary. Being patient did not affect my Team Value (£108m on GW37).
I have big plans for next season! If I share my full team and tips weekly, my personal team will suffer. That’s okay. It’s not all about the Overall Rank, I also value the friendships I’ve made here.
I hope you stick around as I learn not only how to improve in FPL, but also as a content creator and friend. Stay in touch and have a great summer! 👊 -Bruno
Upper 90 Studios
🏆 Personal best total points 2,352 and finish in the top 0.3% out of 6.3 million.
Total Points: 2,352
Overall Rank: 21,488
Total Players: 6,324,237
Highest Rank: 18,627 GW36
Highest Team Value: £108.0m GW37
Total Transfers: 58
Overall Rank previous finishes.
*21k was the highest ever finish when factoring in the total number of players (6.3 million)
3 Key Moments
1. Fast start, price change algorithm. Betting on proven players with fewer newcomers was crucial to building an early lead. FPL also fixed the price change algorithm that was broken in 2017-18. That season, thousands of new teams were created daily to win weekly prizes. Those teams were then never touched again which meant less movement in the transfer market. To make matters worse, FPL used the inaccurate growing number of players (dead teams) to raise the threshold for price changes!
2. December. Began the festive period with a rank of 390k on GW14 and finished at 71k by GW20. Made up some ground thanks in part to Salah’s performances and an investment on center backs like van Dijk to reduce the risk of rotation in December.
3. Chips. For the first time ever, all three chips returned over 100 points! I’ll describe my step-by-step chip strategy next season. 💯 Subscribe to our email list at the top right of the page to stay up-to-date with the latest FPL tips and receive regular updates to our Fixture Difficulty Cheat Sheet.
U90 mini league.
| Rank | Team | GW | TOT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Shanonymous Shannon Shillington |
61 | 2562 |
| 2 |
ThePeleOfMissionary Fabian von Harling |
81 | 2534 |
| 3 |
Tripel Folie Thomas Gaens |
68 | 2512 |
| 4 |
Easy money David Wright |
64 | 2502 |
| 5 |
Hambooza mansour gabr |
77 | 2496 |
| 6 |
Reallygood James Astin |
76 | 2493 |
| 7 |
baldys boys martin dearlove |
74 | 2486 |
| 8 |
Passion of TS XI Trimal Singh |
48 | 2482 |
| 9 |
Deca Boris Pojer |
76 | 2478 |
| 10 |
CF JEZINO Jon Evwer |
58 | 2475 |
Reach out to us to collect your $100 PRIZE! >>>>> CONTACT
*CONGRATS Shanonymous – Shannon Shillington
Shannon finished 17th in the world! 🏆 Congrats to the Top-10 and all U90 mini-league members.
2019-20 U90 mini league.
Ready to battle it out against top Fantasy managers? Join U90 mini league for a chance to become the next prize winner! It’s free to enter. Don’t miss out, sign up to our email list at the top of the page. 🙂
Fantasy Premier League strategy.
With a decade-long winning record in the top 1-2%, our Fantasy Premier League tips and tools help thousands from all around the world play and win. 2018-19 was our best ever finish: Overall Rank 21k, top 0.3% out of 6.3 million. All-new strategy ready for August, from analyzing direct competitors to learning how to maximize the effectiveness of the chips and smash the 100 club! Stay tuned…
Stay ahead of your competitors! Don’t forget to subscribe to our email list at the top right of the page. We’ll send you our weekly team prediction and best tips which you can use to tweak your team. Stay up-to-date with our last-minute transfers and captain choice on Twitter or Facebook.
2018-19 FPL season review. Best ever finish 21k OVERALL RANK, top 0.3% out of 6.3 million players. Congrats U90 mini league WINNER! Thanks everyone and enjoy your summer!
-Bruno
Nik
13/05/19
Hi Bruno,
Thanks for all your views this season.
I have improved last year OR 67k to 50k this year.
Mane C on gw 38 really help me.
Cant wait for 2019/2020 season preview article from you.
Cheers 🙂
Upper 90 Studios
13/05/19
Hi. That’s amazing! Congrats on a fantastic OR 50k in one of the most challenging seasons ever. 👊
Missing FPL already. Have a great summer!
-Bruno
Farabro
13/05/19
Hi Bruno, finished season with 2294 points and 60K OR best season ever so far! I want to thank you for all help and support buddy! Wish you a good summer and hope to come back to U90 in Aug.
Upper 90 Studios
13/05/19
Hi. That’s excellent! 🙂 60k OR in a season that frustrated many strong FPL managers.
Have a great summer and I hope to have you back again next season.
-Bruno
Pipshake
13/05/19
Hi Bruno
I hope you are well.
Let me be the first to congratulate you Buddy. Well done and great strategy this year that reaped the rewards. 21k and 0.3% is awesome!.
On another note, thanks for being sincere in your methodologies, I assure that has won you many supporters.
My 4th season in FPL, was a rather frustrating one, after a great start, OR at one stage was 30k, my season imploded and went downward around the midway point( the opposite of yours). I made too many transfers, focussed too much on team value. This season and with how more top managers are playing the game, its not all about team value.
I did learn a lot though, especially from your views and plan to revolutionize my game strategy from next year. I would really like to understand how you research the top managers.
I read somewhere where it was mentioned, starting the season with 40 transfers and counting down to manage and limit your hits. Interesting enough this year’s overall winner, Adam Levy had exactly 40 transfers!.Ive got more than double this. Hence my dismal 625k OR.
Whilst team value can help it hardly counted this year. Early transfers might only work where its a clear cut 100% transfer with no mid week matches and involves a top player or likely captain.
My main lesson learned: Patience is the new FPL chip that can move you up the rankings!
I also heard that VAR is coming in next year, which might mean more penalties and place for more penalty takers.
FPL aside, what a season where Liverpool and Man City swept everyone aside with many other teams having surprise results. Also player form streaks were less this year than before.
After the all England Europa and Champions League, looking forward to some interesting new player transfers soon and then to tackle FPL 2019/2020 refreshed with a renewed strategy.
Enjoy your break and once again thanks for all your efforts and hard work on this blog.
Cheers.
Upper 90 Studios
13/05/19
Hi. Appreciate the nice words, thank you.
I agree with your thoughts on Team Value. It was one of the best feelings to not worry about prices until closer to deadline. This season I sacrificed the extra 0.1m or 0.2m in order to have all the info to maximize points. I might’ve gone for an early transfer just once or twice. Team Value should increase naturally anyway if our transfers are effective.
I will definitely share everything I learned about targeting the top managers. 👍 It was the best feeling this season because I still trusted my instinct, but I was protected from having a catastrophic week. They’re safeguards, or shields. It’s based on an interpretation of player ownership with specific managers, some are popular FPL influencers. It’s easier to understand once you see my computer screen during transfer planning.
For example, this process alerted me that the majority of my direct competitors had Robertson GW36, so I took a hit (for a defender) then he smashed in 14pts. That would’ve been disastrous as a non-owner because my rivals had him.
In past seasons, I didn’t want to know about true player ownership. I trusted my instinct alone. My team was totally unique, so as the number of strong FPL managers agreeing on the same transfers grew, the bad weeks were really bad and I would fall behind like 30pts in just one round. I don’t think that ever happened this year. When I was below average, it was typically around 6pts, no serious impact.
You’re spot on about patience, and I see that concept of limiting transfers. My take on the number of transfers is that it felt safer to avoid transfers at key stages of the season, like at the start. Then there were other times when I was more aggressive like during Christmas. Either way, it’s worth experimenting and learning.
Good points about VAR and player form. That’s where trusting instinct can sometimes work against us. We might bet on a player based on his performance, but what if FPL influencers go in a different direction and our player blanks while theirs scores? Red arrows.
Thank you for the support throughout. Can’t wait for August FPL, have a great summer.
-Bruno
BoldandWondrous
19/05/19
Hi Bruno,
Congratulations on your fantastic result in FPL.
Well deserved, enjoy it!
My own season somehow ended in the mediocracy it started with.
Humbly taking the opportunity, I’d appreciate to summarize as follows:
– high expectancies from Everton: ruined on day one,
– early GW3 wildcard to fill the holes in a than already leaking ship,
– managed to stabilize the vehicle, but the damage was done,
– struggled for 4 weeks to make a jump from 1,8m to 1,2m
– thrown back again, to finally reach the 1m-mark in GW11,
– still no consistent progress, being back at 1,3m in GW13,
– but . . . . from there it looked all could come good, after all,
– Salah- and Sterling-captaincies alternated positively,
– by GW23 at 672k, with a trend due to at least a 100k finish,
– than trouble got in again:
– DGW25Sanecap2pointer,
– GW26noAuba&Rashfordbenched,
– GW27Aubacapfailure&PogbainforsomepoorGW’s.
– GW29: back to just above 1m!
– Still time though for a result, in the weeks to follow Sterling-, Aguero(3C)- and Hazard-captaincies led to 448k!,
– 5 weeks to go, maybe 100k is too much of asking, but within 200k . . . ?! No way:
– noWCleft,
– DGW34Murrayblank,
– DGW35weakBB,
– GW37Aguerocapblank&transferredinSonred,
– GW38Wilsoncapblank.
– in the end I was just 140k better than my worst season ever at 687k.
Positive thrill this year though, was the battle for top-spot in my mini-league.
Three of us more or less collided round the 600k mark in GW30.
After a few leadership-changes I had to make up a 19 points difference in the last GW.
But it came to no good by a bad decision I made just before kick-off:
After offloading Son for Bernardo and giving Mane the armband, I had settled for Murray op front, without taking a hit. Doubts did rise though, I had to consider a goal-fest at CP-BO. Thus, following ‘The General’s’ lead – to end the season with a frivolous guess – Wilson-in-and-captain, yes! We know that his season wasn’t what he’s used to, either. And Murray? . . . he scores, against MC, pfffff!!! Had I stuck to my initial plan I would’ve won the minileague by 2 points!
Among my evaluations:
– A magnificent start in GW1 is crucial, soon after the template will be set,
– Don’t try to be too ‘creative’, certainly not in the first stages,
– Save your chips as much as you can,
– Follow the ‘info’ but don’t get carried away.
– Keep being cautious not to overdo on transfers (I made: 52, 19 of which led to a -4)
– Captaincies maybe have too big an influence . . .
All in all, my mediocre season has not diminished my joy playing the game.
Already looking forward to start it all over again in August.
Would like to thank you, Bruno, for your insights and elaborate replies on our comments.
There is always something in there to be aware off.
Have a nice summer, would be happy to be back in 2019-20.
Kind regards,
Wouter
Upper 90 Studios
20/05/19
Hi Wouter,
Thanks! So grateful for a strong OR after an experimental season.
Know what you mean with Everton at the start. Then a strong finish by their defense late in the season. DGW25-GW29 sounds like a nightmare and it was mainly bad luck. Not much you can do when top players don’t deliver as expected or are left out of the lineup.
Hopefully you had a few positives like Aguero TC. That’s brutal with Murray vs. Wilson at the end. Murray was a sneaky choice for Brighton’s DGWs, but failed. Then he scores on the final day. Crystal Palace 5-3 Bournemouth… 8 goals and nothing for Fraser or Wilson.
Your evaluations are spot on. Conservative transfer strategy at the start. Save the chips (follow @BenCrellin on Twitter for DGW and BGW info). Vital decisions like the Chips pose a big risk of backfiring if we go against the crowd. It’s boring, but it works.
With transfers, I made 58 which is a lot, but about the average for me. It depends on your playing style, I’m curious whether fewer hits mean a stronger OR. What’s interesting is when to take hits. For example, I took just one -4 hit in the first 6 Gameweeks, then went for it in December with at least one -8 and even a -12.
Yes, captaincy is becoming too crucial because we can no longer count on our team core to deliver consistently. It used to be about letting the team core pull a solid base score, then a few differentials made the difference. Now I’m more tempted to go with the crowd with key decisions, including captaincy. But not always. There are opportunities to sneak in some unique picks.
Glad to hear this season won’t let it get you down. You can experiment with the new strategies you have in mind.
Thanks for the brilliant comments throughout the season. Hope to have you back again next season. Have a great summer!
-Bruno