Wednesday, June 3, 2015

FMICL SEASON FINALE

The inaugural FMICL season is over and it is time to note some of the achievements of the past year.

First, to the awards you already know.

Asia Series:

While the regular season was well underway a side competition emerged in January based around the AFC Asian Cup.
An interesting exercise in tipping it was, as it was based on the margins of the games over the actual result.

From that series we found our Asia Series Champion, and first 'silverware' recipient was
@SgtButane

The Sarge swept through the entire series undefeated, 4 wins in the pool games and then 2 more wins in the finals to clinch the title.
Well played Sarge!

Defeated finalist and runner up was
@Footy_Maths

Third place could not be split and was shared between
@Amul82
@BrotherAmos

Well done to all finalists.

Hopefully this was a happy little distraction, and we can again play out a season like this again soon... maybe European Championships in 2016?


Also in the Asia Series:

Most Points scored award:
@SgtButane18
@BrotherAmos15
@amul8214

The Sarge scored the most and scores another side award.

Most scored in a Single Game:
@SgtButane7
@BrotherAmos7

Award shared between the Sarge and Amos


FMICL Cup:

The FMICL knockout Cup was also played throughout the year with all players involved, and only 1 winning the title.
With the oddity of running 20 teams into a round of 16, it meant we needed to run a preliminary round with 8 teams. Special mention should be made of both
@MattGoss_
@J_Foreigner
who both started in the preliminary round  and managed to progress to the Quarter Finals. A tougher road than most, well traveled.

But in the end the FMICL Cup of 2015 was won by
@NaylorMichael

Michael was a dominant Cup player, usually scoring 3 in each leg. A good outcome for him, after narrowly missing the finals in regular League play. 

Beaten in the Cup final and runner up was
@SgtButane
who missed a chance to get the Asia Series / FMICL Cup double.

Third place went to
@TheMattBungard
who defeated Hardsy in the playoff. MattB scores something of a consolation after a poor League campaign, and maybe that handy Cup run might save the manager.


Also in the FMICL Cup:

Most scored in a Single Game:
@hcdc934
@TheTipsGuru4
@Hardsy054

Another award shared. Henry and the Guru both scored their 4 in the same head to head match-up.




FMICL League Season Awards:

Before we head to the final overall winner, a few other things that happened in 2015.

Side Awards in the FMICL League Season:

While the normal season has been running, a few side awards were in train, tough were not officially announced. Some you may have seen as it was listed on the blog.

Player of the Month Awards:
@NaylorMichaelAUG@Hardsy05JAN
@TheMattBungardSEP@Andrewm_81FEB
@Hardsy05OCT@SgtButaneMAR
@BrotherAmosNOV@hcdc93APR
@SgtButaneDEC

As you know, these were awarded during the season, and are listed here again. Then Sarge and Hardsy both won twice, and its good to see another 5 names up there as well... Well played all.

FMICL Challenge Belt:
As always, to be the best, you gotta beat the best. And the FMICL Belt was shared around this year, and held at various times by players below.
@Andrewm_8110@Hardsy051
@BenCuzzupe6@Harri_Chas_171
@Amul826@ASpeedingCar1
@NaylorMichael4@hcdc931
@J_Foreigner3@Ethan_Meldrum1
@SgtButane2

Draw King!  (Most drawn game result in the season):
@hcdc9315
@J_Foreigner15

You may have seen this listed on the side-bar all year. Henry and J_F went toe to toe all year and mostly jointly held the title season long. Fitting then that it is shared at the final whistle.

Most Correct Tips in the Season:
@SgtButane117
@Footy_Maths116

The Sarge dominated the table for most weeks of the season, and also scored the most correct tips for the year, just shading FMI by 1.


Most Wins in a row:
@Hardsy055
@SgtButane5
@BrotherAmos5

All three players strung a 5 League game winning streak together in the first half of the season.

Most Draws in a row:
@J_Foreigner5
@LaurenceRosen4
@hcdc934
@Harri_Chas_174

Joint Draw King award winner J_F gets this one, with 5 draws over weeks 5 to 9.

Most Losses in a row:
@AndrewM_816
@BenCuzzupe6
@TheMattBungard6
@BrotherAmos5
@Harri_Chas_175
@NaylorMichael5
@Wal13Freo5

Not an award anyone wants to win, so its good to be able to share this one around. Something about wearing blue and not winning in the FMICL season 2015.

Most Points in a Single Game:
@BrotherAmos** 7
@LaurenceRosen* 6
@Andrewm_81* 6
@J_Foreigner6
@ASpeedingCar6
@Footy_Maths6
@Hardsy056
** Also scored a 6
* Scored a 6 twice

Throughout 38 weeks and 760 individually tipped games, we only had one perfect weekend for one player, and that was the 7 correct as tipped by BrotherAmos.


"Grande Bretagne, Nil Point":
In Eurovision style, the players who scored Nil Points in a weekend should also be recognised.
@DemP_9@MattGoss_
@TheTipsGuru@NaylorMichael
@BenCuzzupe*@Andrewm_81
@Wal13Freo@Footy_Maths
@LaurenceRosen@Harri_Chas_17
@BrotherAmos* Scored nil twice

Quite an effort by Cuzzupe there.


Correct Tip Streak:

@BrotherAmos13
@Hardsy056
@LaurenceRosen6
@hcdc936
@Andrewm_816

As you can expect, getting 7 correct in a week would put you in prime position to win this, and Amos deserves it. 13 correct tips in a row was the high water mark for this competition, with most others trailing far behind.


Incorrect Tip Streak:
@BenCuzzupe20
@Footy_Maths14
@TheTipsGuru13

For not getting a tip right, the longest streak belongs to Cuzzupe. Far in advance of any other player.



Main FMICL League Season Awards:

Enough of the preamble, lets round out the season blogs with the key awards of the year.

Minor Premier:
As you would know, at the end of the 38 weeks season, the final table rounded out as per here.
CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE
TEAMPWDLFASDPT
1@SgtButane38208101171011668
2@Hardsy053818911112105763
3@Footy_Maths381612101161021460
4@hcdc933815158109100960
5@Amul8238169131111011057
6@DemP_9381691310598757
7@BenCuzzupe38151013106108-255
8@Ethan_Meldrum38141212100101-154
9@NaylorMichael38141113111107453
10@Harri_Chas_1738141014104102252
11@Andrewm_8138131114107103450
12@Sjhross38131114110109150
13@ASpeedingCar381481697108-1150
14@J_Foreigner38111512112109348
15@BrotherAmos3813916112119-748
16@Wal13Freo381451998111-1347
17@TheTipsGuru3811141394112-1847
18@TheMattBungard38111116112112044
19@LaurenceRosen3891217109116-739
20@MattGoss_3861319100118-1831

Of course this makes the 2015 FMICL Minor Premier
@SgtButane

The Sarge doubles up his Asia Series win with the best performance over the 38 weeks of regular play. What a double! 
Well done Sarge.


Wooden Spoon:
Of course we just have to...
@MattGoss_

MattG had the title in the bag weeks out from the end of season.


FMICL Championship Week:
Another 4 weeks for play saw the 8 teams in the top get whitted down to just two for the title.
And another game to settle 3rd.
This game was won by Ben
@Footy_Maths3-4@BenCuzzupe

Ben finished officially in 3rd, with FMI fourth.


To resolve the FMICL Championship Final...

It was a battle between
@SgtButane
-
@Ethan_Meldrum

And their selections were:
HOMEAWAYSgtBEtha
EvertonTottenhHH
NewcastWest HaHH
Hull CiMan UtdAD
B DortmW BremeHH
HannoveFreiburHD
LazioRomaHH
BordeauMonpellHH
Difference Indicator2

That match week (played weekend 23/5) ended with match scores as here:
RMHOMEAWAYHARES
42
1Evertonv Tottenham01A
2Newcastlev West Ham20H
3Hull Cityv Man Utd00D
4B Dortmundv W Bremen32H
AHannover 96v Freiburg21H
BLaziov Roma12A
CBordeauxv Monpellier21H

Total scores for both players then was
@SgtButane4-4@Ethan_Meldrum
meaning we had a Grand Final tie.


Under the rules of separating tied players in finals, if the total score is tied, then the sum of the first 4 games is taken as the first separator of the players.

Counting the first four, then the scoreline reads
@SgtButane2-3@Ethan_Meldrum

Which means our inaugural and 2015 FMICL Season Champion is
@Ethan_Meldrum

Extraordinary tipping from Ethan sees him win the title from eight place and defeat the red hot favourite the Sarge as well.

Congratulations Ethan!


For the Sarge, he leaves with 2 main awards and very nearly won all 4 titles on offer. A magnificent first-up season by him. Well done.



That wraps up official play for season 2015... there may be a few blog posts up later as ideas get floated for season 2015-16, and I look forward to feed back on my ideas as well as any input from you... its your comp as much a mine.

Thanks all for playing - look forward to seeing you all back for action next season!