Fun/Games 2020 Vibe Premier League

[BatiGoal]

37 minutes ago, Crashhart said:

Bring on week 5!

You sure, mate? 😁 

32 minutes ago, Ian said:

I thought I’d done shite and it would appear so based on the above. Guess I’m considerably shitter than I thought on this game. 

As soon as the results are posted me and my big mouth may take a leave for a couple days until everyone's forgotten about this 👍 

[FuddledFox]

1 minute ago, BatiGoal said:

As soon as the results are posted me and my big mouth may take a leave for a couple days until everyone's forgotten about this 👍 

I certain Black Cat from the beautiful city of Sunderland never forgets anything.

[samhardy]

The results will be up at some point this afternoon.

[Crashhart]

7 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

You sure, mate? 😁 

As soon as the results are posted me and my big mouth may take a leave for a couple days until everyone's forgotten about this 👍 

LETS GO CHAMP!

[MikeF]

42 minutes ago, Woody said:

I chose to keep the team he plays for thinking he is better off playing in a weaker league. 

That was my thinking too. One of the biggest teams in smallest league. 30 fixture season wasn’t ideal though. 

[Woody]

38 minutes ago, MikeF said:

That was my thinking too. One of the biggest teams in smallest league. 30 fixture season wasn’t ideal though. 

No it probably wasnt but i thought 2 or 3 goals a game was doable but i think i only managed just over 60 team goals which is quite poor tbh. 

Ive written this one off and try harder in round 3 and hope i have enough time to keep me close enough to the play offs to stand a glimpse of still making it. 

[samhardy]

Week 2 Results

This was a very intriguing week and it was interesting to see the different ways everyone went about it. The big decision was what team to go for and whether to sacrifice a weaker league in Wales for more games in England. Some people sacked off Trundle altogether and just concentrated on winning the league which is a risky move but it turned out to be smart.

@MikeF v @Crashhart

Spoiler

Both these had encouraging starts in the opening week, Crash easing his way to a victory over Woody and although Mike lost to Bati he was unlucky not to get a result. All roads pointed towards an exciting encounter here and that is exactly what we got.

Two completely different strategies were employed, Mike went for Llanelli as his team of choice and accommodated Trundle up top. Crash however essentially sacked Trundle off straightaway and decided to just smash the league with Leeds. That is exactly what he did as he romped to the title with 118 points, but sacrificing any additional points from Trundle in the process.

Mike had 16 less league games than his opponent but crucially managed to win the league, doing so with 71 points. He was also one of only two managers to achieve 45+ goals with Trundle! 48 to be precise, very impressive which was enough for him to surpass Crash’s score, but he sweetened the deal with 3 hat-tricks.

What a match! The two highest scores of the round, meaning the clash ends in a thrilling 3-3 draw but it’s Mike who takes the bonus point for his efforts. Crash drops a place in the table to 3rd but has had the 2nd highest score in both rounds so far, whilst Mike can consider himself unfortunate to only have 2 points to show for his opening couple of performances.

Result - MikeF 3-3 Crashhart

@Ian v @Kanegan

Spoiler

Ian and Kanegan both enjoyed winning starts to their VPL campaigns but at least one of those 100% records had to end here, who would claim back to back wins which is so crucial in this tournament if anyone?

Just like the first match this saw two different approaches, Kanegan staying in Wales but taking Trundle to Haverfordwest, whilst Ian dipped his toe into Non League waters and went to Chester. The “Seahouses Seahorse” secured league glory with Chester, picking up 91 points in the process. But a very disappointing season from the main man up top, falling well short of the 45 target with no hat-tricks. So just the league points for Ian and very beatable for Kanegan you’d think.

Even more so when Trundle managed to scrape the 45 required goals to earn those points for Kane! 3 hat-tricks as well taking him up to 54. A league title in Wales would be enough for him to get past the score of his opponent... but 
he couldn’t manage it 😱 Absolute drama in this encounter as Kanegan falls an agonising 2 points short of the league title, not getting any points for doing so. He was one win away from posting a really good score here.

As it turned out the title would have earned Kane a draw but that one win he couldn’t get means he takes a hard to stomach defeat here. Ian though despite probably not getting out of second gear yet has achieved back to back wins which can only be a good thing.

Result - Ian 1-0 Kanegan

@Mr Tree v @smoggy90

Spoiler

It wasn’t a bright first week for these two but that can be put behind them as both Tree and Smoggy aimed for their first points of the season in this matchup.

We saw Tree go for an identical approach to that of Crash in the opening match, simply fucking off Trundle straight away and going for the league points with Leeds. Smart move and a pretty sure fire way to achieve a nice score in this challenge. That is exactly what he did, securing a comfortable title with 116 points. A hefty target for Smoggy to try and surpass.

Smoggy also chose Leeds as his team, but attempted to accommodate Trundle in his system. Now as everyone who used Leeds did, he won the league with a hefty 109 points so if Trundle was used with success then Smog was on for a monster total here. Alas though the standard of the Championship was just too high for that to be a realistic ambition although he did manage one hat-trick.

Just the 4 points between these two, that doesn’t always equal a share of the spoils in the VPL but it ended up as a high quality draw on this occasion. Again though, like the previous match involving Kanegan, one more win for Tree and a couple for Smog would have seen them over the line for their first win of the season but it’s all ifs and buts.

Smoggy gets his first point on the board whilst Tree gets out of the minuses at his first attempt and off the bottom of the table.

Result - Mr Tree 2-2 smoggy90

@BatiGoal v @Woody

Spoiler

The campaigns of Bati and Woody couldn’t really have got off to any more contrasting starts, with a bonus point win and a heavy loss respectively. Taking that into account a win for the Dutch ace was big favourite here but you never know with Woody.

Unlike a couple of other matches in this round this was a very dull and low quality affair though. Bati had an absolute nightmare. He went with Llanelli and managed to win the league but dropped points in 11 of 30 games played, which meant 67 points was all he could muster. He also had a go with Trundle, but one solitary hat-trick was as good as it got as he fell 8 short of the required target of 45 for any additional points.

So surely Woody could pounce on this and condem Bati to a surprise defeat? Well if Bati had a nightmare then Woody played the starring role in an all action horror film, he was the only one to stick with Trundle’s original club Ammanford, and attempted to breach the 45. He was miles away though, suffering the same fate as a lot of others who went for the goals. But it got worse as he flopped to a disappointing 4th in the league, not getting any points there either. Woody finished this week with a mammoth total of 3.

It won’t come as any surprise to find out who posted the lowest score of the week and it’s Woody’s turn to take the dreaded trip to Minusville. Bati however gets away with absolute murder and somehow takes the three points despite an extremely uninspiring display to stay top of the pile!

Result - BatiGoal 1-0 Woody

Here is the full scorelist from week 2:

Spoiler

• MikeF - 128
• Crashhart - 118
• Mr Tree - 116
• smoggy90 - 112
• Ian - 91
• BatiGoal - 70
• Kanegan - 54
• Woody - 3

And here is the table following what was a dramatic second week. Tree moves off the bottom and is replaced by Woody, whilst Mike and Smoggy are lurking menacingly behind the top 4 of Bati, Ian, Crash and Kanegan ready to pounce. It’s already shaping up to be an exciting race for the playoffs after just week 2.

[Mr Tree]

Woohoo, target achieved, playing with house money from here

Was gonna come on here and predict a 2-2 or 2-3 loss to smog earlier - he was suspiciously quiet so I'll take it. One win or hat-trick away though, damn!

Respect to Mike and Crash 👏 Looking forward to the next challenge!

[Ian]

Sorry @Kanegan, you were horribly unlucky there. Ironically that was the very thing I feared would happen to me if I went the Welsh route as I just wasn’t at all confident that I could win the league without any transfers at most of the teams available.

I was confident of winning the league at Chester and tried to get goals for Trundle but couldn’t get anything out of him until I gave up around New Year as he was hindering us in terms of results. I spent the second half of the season pissed off as I knew I’d of been able to probably get more league points if I just didn’t use him at all from the start of the season.

On Thursday I did a little test with Haverfordwest to see if I could’ve maybe got more goals with them but just before the first game of the season he got a two month injury so I took that as my cue to forget about it and prepare for the next week.

Well done all.

[Crashhart]

@MikeF Great matchup mate and well played on the win!

 

@Mr Tree a man after my own heart, fuck Trundle!

Edited January 19, 2020 by Crashhart

[Kanegan]

Well done @Ian and all others. I actually had faith in my lone striker tactic and thought Trundle could definitely hit it in a weaker league so went with Haverfordwest and i was equal on points with Undy and Cwmbran Celtic going into the final match of the season and despite Trundle scoring a brace to hit his 45, we conceded 3 and lost the match when a draw would have been enough to win the title as Undy drew and Cwmbran lost but luck was not on our side. Anyways, looking forward to the next challenge.

[smoggy90]

Well played @Mr Treeand everyone else, especially those who got trundle to 45 goals!

this was my first game of the season and thought I was on to a winner

Couldn't sustain it though and this was my only hat trick. 

thanks sam and foxy and look forward to the next one. 

[Woody]

Well there you go @BatiGoal told you it went shit 😂

Really off me game at the moment. 

[Mr Tree]

8 minutes ago, smoggy90 said:

Well played @Mr Treeand everyone else, especially those who got trundle to 45 goals!

this was my first game of the season and thought I was on to a winner

Couldn't sustain it though and this was my only hat trick. 

thanks sam and foxy and look forward to the next one. 

Blimey!

I lost there and thought it might not be so easy, but we soon got rolling and yeah, smashed it - although little did I know that one more win would have been useful!

How the hell they're not smashing it in real life, I don't know - what a squad! I'm still using my 4-2-2-2 from last year, and them having a quality BWM really helped with that. Add in Klich as the AP, great winger options in Pabs, Costa and Alioski, and quality strikers in Patsy, Nketiah and Roberts, unlike their real-life versions, and you're laughing. Centre-backs are a bit weak and lacking cover, but they've got two ex-Brentford lads in the squad who I liked, but I couldn't really find game-time for Dallas - the other wingers were so good.

added 0 minutes later

25 minutes ago, Kanegan said:

Well done @Ian and all others. I actually had faith in my lone striker tactic and thought Trundle could definitely hit it in a weaker league so went with Haverfordwest and i was equal on points with Undy and Cwmbran Celtic going into the final match of the season and despite Trundle scoring a brace to hit his 45, we conceded 3 and lost the match when a draw would have been enough to win the title as Undy drew and Cwmbran lost but luck was not on our side. Anyways, looking forward to the next challenge.

Unlucky mate - win some lose some, you win more than most 👍

[smoggy90]

12 minutes ago, Mr Tree said:

Blimey!

I lost there and thought it might not be so easy, but we soon got rolling and yeah, smashed it - although little did I know that one more win would have been useful!

How the hell they're not smashing it in real life, I don't know - what a squad! I'm still using my 4-2-2-2 from last year, and them having a quality BWM really helped with that. Add in Klich as the AP, great winger options in Pabs, Costa and Alioski, and quality strikers in Patsy, Nketiah and Roberts, unlike their real-life versions, and you're laughing. Centre-backs are a bit weak and lacking cover, but they've got two ex-Brentford lads in the squad who I liked, but I couldn't really find game-time for Dallas - the other wingers were so good.

added 0 minutes later

Unlucky mate - win some lose some, you win more than most 👍

Agreed, great squad. I used my triple threat tactic I’m using for my Bermuda challenge and Bamford, Nketiah and Roberts were fantastic. Then like you say chuck in Clarke, Costa, Hernandez, klich etc the squad was all set. 
As a boro fan I get great amusement from their struggles and their fans having meltdowns, but I think if they can get a solid alternative to bamford they may just sneak it this year and get promoted. 

[BatiGoal]

Congrats to today's winners. 

I got way more than I deserve, I'm the first to admit that. Wasn't your day Woody. I took a risk and it simply backfired. I'm quite used to getting poor players to score, but this time I came 8 gls short as the league was simply too short for that number of goals. Goes to show how thin the margin can be of getting an average score or great score.

Maybe I underestimated the challenge a little bit as well tbh. A combination of that, the poor Welsh team I picked and the greed of wanting to go for all possible bonus points. I'd like to say that's a mistake I'm not making a second time this VPL but I'm a sucker for risks so we'll see what's next 🙂

[Mr Tree]

39 minutes ago, smoggy90 said:

Agreed, great squad. I used my triple threat tactic I’m using for my Bermuda challenge and Bamford, Nketiah and Roberts were fantastic. Then like you say chuck in Clarke, Costa, Hernandez, klich etc the squad was all set. 
As a boro fan I get great amusement from their struggles and their fans having meltdowns, but I think if they can get a solid alternative to bamford they may just sneak it this year and get promoted. 

Yep fully agree - if they get a decent striker they should piss it. West Brom look a more viable target for us to overhaul (nothing special). Still plenty of potential twists over the next couple of weeks, who knows who we or they or F*lham or Forest manage to bring in to help with the final push...

[MikeF]

Well played everyone. Nice little challenge this one. I was lucky in that my 1500 goal challenge tactic worked a treat here. Well, as well as the lower welsh leagues and a 42 year old striker could do anyway. 
 

@Crashhart - damn that was close!

[Crashhart]

7 minutes ago, MikeF said:

Well played everyone. Nice little challenge this one. I was lucky in that my 1500 goal challenge tactic worked a treat here. Well, as well as the lower welsh leagues and a 42 year old striker could do anyway. 
 

@Crashhart - damn that was close!

I knew those 7 draws would come back to bite me in the arse

[samhardy]

2 hours ago, Crashhart said:

@MikeF Great matchup mate and well played on the win!

You didn’t get beat 😂

[Crashhart]

1 minute ago, samhardy said:

You didn’t get beat 😂

I’m still working out how this all works 😂😂😂,

BTW a massive thank you to you and @Foxy for the amount of effort put into this, what with the graphics and the write ups. I’m sure I talk for everyone when I say this is a great competition 

[samhardy]

Week 3 fixtures. Challenge up tomorrow.

[Rob]

Great attempts guys, and brilliant write-up as always @samhardy.

Woodster, don’t you worry mate - we will bring home the Vibe World Cup.

[Ian]

I have this little fear that at some point we will receive a challenge that you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy.

[Mr Tree]

Oh god, basement battle and a big bounceback opportunity for Woody...

[Woody]

24 minutes ago, Rob said:

Great attempts guys, and brilliant write-up as always @samhardy.

Woodster, don’t you worry mate - we will bring home the Vibe World Cup.

We will mate if i can get my bloody finger out 😕

added 0 minutes later

2 minutes ago, Mr Tree said:

Oh god, basement battle and a big bounceback opportunity for Woody...

Rate im going mate you wont have to worry. 

[FuddledFox]

20 minutes ago, Ian said:

I have this little fear that at some point we will receive a challenge that you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy.

Funnily enough Sam is doing this weeks challenge....

[BatiGoal]

1 hour ago, Ian said:

I have this little fear that at some point we will receive a challenge that you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy.

1 hour ago, Foxy said:

Funnily enough Sam is doing this weeks challenge....

 

Funnily? From the outside maybe 😂 

@Ian goodluck. Sorta. Last challenge was a one off, a mistake on my part, and I have no intention of getting a second substandard score in. So I suggest you don't pin all your hopes on another BG blunder cause those are as common as @samhardy is baking Christmas cookies on a Spring day. 

[Woody]

12 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Funnily? From the outside maybe 😂 

@Ian goodluck. Sorta. Last challenge was a one off, a mistake on my part, and I have no intention of getting a second substandard score in. So I suggest you don't pin all your hopes on another BG blunder cause those are as common as @samhardy is baking Christmas cookies on a Spring day. 

Yeah... You only won cus i was garbage but that doesnt really say alot does it 😂😂😂

[BatiGoal]

57 minutes ago, Woody said:

Yeah... You only won cus i was garbage but that doesnt really say alot does it 😂😂😂

That goes for everyone, doesn't it 😜