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Hello everyone and (finally) welcome to gameweek 6! Waivers this week are due on Friday at 3:00am PT / 4:00am ET! I hope y'all had a good long international break and are ready and raring for some Premier League! And since I'm sure a lot of us need some reminders from what happened last week, there was only a small amount of drama, with most of it coming from Kevin's close 37-35 win against Alex and Chris's big 43-36 victory over Coop. Full matchups are as follows:

• Kevin 37-35 Alex
• John 31-48 Luke
• Jesse 28-42 Matthew
• Dylan 38-56 MatthewR
• Darryan 21-40 Zach
• Coop 36-43 Chris

League Table

Weekly Matchups

And over on the table, I keep the top spot for the 3rd week in a row as my PF lead over MatthewR dwindles to just a single point, with Luke also single digit PF behind the two of us. Meanwhile the group on 9 points is now led by Zach and Kevin, who both go ahead of Coop on PF, while Coop's head to head loss to Chris sees the latter join the 3 win quartet (behind Coop). Dylan, Jesse, and Darryan remain on 6 points, 6 ahead of John and Alex, who are so far winless (but not for long).

Game changers! It's been what feels like a year since this gameweek so who knows how much I'll remember from these matches.

• Kevin: Jordan Pickford - 8 pts - Everton kept their 3rd clean sheet of the season this week against Ipswich, with the English goalkeeper picking up 4 saves en route to a bonus point for his troubles.
• Luke: Pascal Groß - 14 pts - Brighton proved their the best team in the world probably this week as they just ran rampant at home against Arsenal, with their German talisman picking up his 3rd 13+ point week this season with a goal and assist on… 0.36xGI.
• Matthew: Alexander Isak - 8 pts - A 4th goal of the season for the Swede as Liverpool picked up a 1-0 victory against their coach's former team and somehow fed Wirtz another assist smh.
• MatthewR: Lewis Hall - 13 pts - The Newcastle left back continued his very solid start to the season with his first goal in their win against Hull this week. Along with 3 bonus and his 3rd defcon hit of the year. Which is kinda wild for a fullback.
• Zach: Kevin Schade - 9 pts - A huge week for the Brentford winger as he dispelled the "selfish goalscorer" rumors by picking up 2 assists as Chelsea were exactly who we thought they were. A team that concedes 3 goals with ease. Too bad for them they also couldn't figure out how to score against a competent defense either.
• Chris: Luka Vuskovic - 8 pts - Although it really should have been Brian Brobbey here, Chris isn't a fan of PF so he went ahead and benched the 17 pointer. Worked out though as Brighton predictably kept a clean sheet against Arsenal.

Congratulations to me for winning Manager of the Month! Geez it feels like it's been years since I won one of these. (MatthewR got 2nd on PF)

Manager of the Month

Next week will see some great matchups, headlined by, you guessed it, Alex vs John for their first points! Elsewhere, Kevin takes on Jesse in what should be an interesting one, Zach goes up against a solid Chris team, and Dylan looks to close the gap to the leaders with a game in hand against Luke! Full matchups are as follows:

• Alex (12) vs John (11)
• Kevin (5) vs Jesse (9)
• Luke (3) vs Dylan (8)
• Matthew (1) vs Darryan (10)
• MatthewR (2) vs Coop (6)
• Zach (4) vs Chris (7)

Shoutouts this week go to me and MatthewR for our 4 winstreaks! And to Luke and Zach for picking up back to back wins!

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Stats

Copium Tables

Performance Table

Luck Table

xP Table (manager vs average)

All Manager Table

Statistical Breakdowns

Gameweek Breakdown

Manager Breakdown

Timelines

Position Timeline

Points Timeline

Points For Timeline

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The League of Champions

Welcome to gameweek 6 of the League of Champions! Another week of drama completes with 2 more 1-point victories: my 42-41 win against Andrew and Maddie's 36-35 victory over Alex! Elsewhere, Scott picked up a big win to secure his spot in the playoffs 30-28 over Jesse, ChrisB and Mack rocket up the table following their 68-37 and 55-39 wins against Emma and Anthony, respectively, and Cole picked up an upset over Coop, 41-36. Full results are as follows:

• John 31-36 JohnM
• Kevin 37-26 Jackson
• Zach 40-71 Charlotte
• Darryan 21-36 Tori
• Alex 35-36 Maddie
• Luke 48-26 Travis
• Matthew 42-41 Andrew
• Dylan 38-52 Gavin
• Coop 36-41 Cole
• MatthewR 56-39 ZachA
• Chris 43-33 Angus
• Jesse 28-30 Scott
• Mack 55-39 Anthony
• Amber 25-34 Aarushi
• ChrisB 68-37 Emma
• Kim 27-45 Katie
• Delaney 26-46 Morgan
• Morgs 43-33 Brylan

And with just 1 week of group stage matches left, that means we have a duo of top 8 confirmed managers on 15 points: Luke and Chris! The other managers in the hunt include Scott, who sits just 2 points behind the two. The group on 12 points is led by Gavin, who is just a few PF ahead of Charlotte following her huge 71 point week, along with Katie, MatthewR, Aarushi, and Kevin, who sits as the first name in the playoff zone. My draw (and win this week) takes me up 4 spots to 10th, 2 points behind Kevin, and 1 ahead of the group of 7 managers on 9 points. ChrisB's big week sees him up 9 places to 11th, and he is followed by Zach(-4), Mack(+8), Tori(+5), Jesse(-4), Kim(-4), and Travis(-4). Maddie keeps herself in the mix with her win taking her to 7 points and 18 place (+6), ahead of the group of 7 on 6 points. That septet includes Anthony(-3), Amber(-5), Coop(-4), Dylan(-4), Morgan(+8), Darryan(-2), and, now outside of the playoff spots, Alex(-2). There are a whole slew of managers on 3 points (and one on 4), so the playoff line will surely be an interesting one to watch.

So, looking ahead to our final matchups of the group stage, we have a number of key matchups in the battle for the top 8, and around the top 24 line as well, headlined by a "win and in" match between Kevin and Charlotte for the top 8! Elsewhere, I take on Gavin in a match that would all but guarantee my spot in the top 8 if I take home the 3 points, Zach and Tori face off as two teams that could sneak into the top 8 with a win and some PF help, Mack takes on Aarushi in a must-win to give her a shot for top 8, while a win for Aarushi will confirm her spot, Dylan has his tournament life on the line in a must-win match against Cole, Katie goes up against ChrisB to defend her top 8 spot, and to top it all off, we'll see Chris and Scott face off in a top 3 match that will (mostly) be for seeding. Full matchups are as follows:

• John (35) vs Jackson (33)
• Kevin (9) vs Charlotte (5)
• Zach (12) vs Tori (14)
• Darryan (24) vs Maddie (18)
• Alex (25) vs Travis (17)
• Luke (1) vs JohnM (29)
• Matthew (10) vs Gavin (4)
• Dylan (22) vs Cole (26)
• Coop (21) vs ZachA (30)
• MatthewR (7) vs Angus (28)
• Chris (2) vs Scott (3)
• Jesse (15) vs Andrew (27)
• Mack (13) vs Aarushi (8)
• Amber (20) vs Emma (36)
• ChrisB (11) vs Katie (6)
• Kim (16) vs Morgan (23)
• Delaney (31) vs Brylan (32)
• Morgs (34) vs Anthony (19)

League of Champions - Group Stage Table

League of Champions - Group Stage Matchups

And since y'all are probably wondering what the group stage will look like, and honestly I probably should have mapped it out earlier but it's been done so here ya go:

• Playoffs (8-24): Gameweek 7
• Round of 16 (1-8 vs winners of playoffs): Gameweek 8
• Quarter Finals: Gameweek 9-10
• Semi Finals: Gameweek 11-12
• Finals: Gameweek 13

That means we'll start the December Cup Gameweek 14 (and probably go to Gameweek 20)! More on this one later though! (read: I haven't planned it)

Anyway, here's the bracket as it stands!

League of Champions - Knockout Stage Matchups

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Power Rankings

On the bubble (in no order): Scott, Anthony, Mack, Morgan Fell off: Scott, Anthony

10 - ChrisB (NEW) - League B - Last 5: 25 (L), 58 (W), 40 (W), 44 (L), 68 (W) - A well earned spot on the list as other Chris guns for Chris's spot as regular Chris. And with ChrisB making the correct choice to not bench Brobbey I'm starting to think maybe he does deserve to drop the B. Anyway, 3 double digit returns for ChrisB as the aforementioned Sunderland striker put up 17 (and …died? playing for the Netherlands), Gross somehow hit double digits for the 3rd time this season with 14, and Lewis Hall led Newcastle to victory against the best team in the league with his 13 pointer against Hull. Add to that Nicolas JACKson scoring and getting his usual -1 from a yellow card and Ajer keeping a clean sheet against a team renowned for their poor goalscoring record this season in Chelsea, that's how you get 68 points. Take notes y'all. Also, sidenote, did anyone else see Ajer's screamer for Norway? holy

9 - MatthewR (NEW) - League A - Last 5: 43 (L), 51 (W), 40 (W), 41 (W), 56 (W) - Yeah yeah, controversial to put MatthewR on this list. It only took him scoring 40+ for 5 straight weeks for me to do it. Anyway his semi-autodrafted team has been killing it, and as also a Lewis Hall owner that's pretty much what you'd expect. Unlike other Chris, though, MatthewR only had one other player join the double digit club: Cunha, at 10. Because apparently he scored against Fulham at some point. Add to those 23 points Cherki, Richards, and Alisson all picking up 8 pointers and he's totally made up for the Timber 59th minute substitution and the fact that Rutter just came back from injury and only got a quarter of an hour on the field. Anyway, solid team and he's even got Reece James out there just in case he comes in contact with some sort of wizard who can heal him of his brokenness.

8 - Matthew (+2) - League A - Last 4: 31 (L), 47 (W), 65 (W), 47 (W), 42 (W) - Why not give myself +2, even though half my team died during the international break to some degree. I think Isak is probably fine, Jacquet is probably fine, Porro plays for Spurs, and Scott is definitely very injured, so that's really only 1 gap I need to fill. And the cool thing is nobody on my team is even really that important, considering my high scorer last week was an 8 pointer and I had 5 other players at 4+ points. I could probably get rid of half of them and not even notice the difference tbh. Except for Ampadu, that guy's my goat for his performance a couple weeks back.

7 - Andrew (-) - League B - Last 5: 53 (L), 28 (L), 32 (D), 54 (W), 41 (W) - Andrew followed my lead this week as he had a duo of 8 pointers, a couple 6 pointers, and a whole lot of 1s and 2s as he climbed his way to 40+. He also has a very colorful bench, which I can respect. Wright and Caicedo are injured for who even knows how long, and Joao Pedro decided an early holiday could be good for the mind and soul, so he skipped school for GW5. Kinda similar to what Dango has been up to, except it's a little bit closer to the teacher making him sit outside in the hallway for most of class. Anyway, rumor has it that Andrew has added one Pascal Gross to his team, so that'll be one to keep an eye on.

6 - Luke (-) - League A - Last 5: 53 (W), 45 (W), 37 (L), 44 (W), 48 (W) - The other Pascal Gross owner over here also decided to come out of the international break with a splattering of hazard symbols attached to his team, including Palmer, Van Hecke, and Mykolenko. He also decided that he didn't need the Manzambi 13 and Justin 8 pointers last week, which was brave. Anyway, the couple of defenders mentioned earlier decided clean sheets are cool- wait, Van Hecke's 6 points isn't your standard, run-of-the-mill 2 points for playing time + 4 points for the clean sheet? Ohh right, he plays for Spurs now. That's a 6 pointer via 2 points for minutes, 6 for scoring a goal, -1 for conceding 3 goals, and -1 for a yellow card. Right. Anyway, Wirtz also got a defender's clean sheet amount of points with a whacky assist to Isak, Ndiaye had a defender's clean sheet + a yellow card, and Wissa got a defender's 2 goals conceded and subbed at 59' amount of points, since he missed a penalty.

5 - Zach (-) - League A - Last 5: 47 (W), 45 (L), 35 (L), 55 (W), 40 (W) - Zach really needed the Manchester City vs Sunderland shootout this week considering his opponent had… exactly 0 returns. Well, actually Antonio Silva hit defcon and got a yellow for 3 points, but literally every other player for Darryan scored 1 or 2. Meanwhile, Zach profited from the obligatory Haaland goal plus an Enzo Fernandez free kick(if I'm remembering correctly?), which was almost enough to win the matchup on its own. Add in the Stach defcon beast arc and the Schadenaissance for another 14 he was able to hit 40. Which was just over average for the week. Nice.

4 - Aarushi (-2) - League C - Last 5: 55 (W), 51 (L), 33 (W), 50 (W), 34 (L) - A rougher week for our 4th (?) Gross owner on this list as he was basically Aarushi's entire team this week. Ndiaye did his best and got an assist and Muharemovic returned the classic bread and butter defender score, but Sangare seems to only start every other game, Nketiah and Doku are on pretty low minutes currently, and Manchester United's defense would probably concede against 8 year olds. It also definitely didn't help that Wissa had a ~6 point swing from missing his penalty and if you adjust Raya's stats, removing outliers to predict the future, he heavily regresses to around the level of a golden glove winner, so you really should just be banking on the classic defender score from Raya every week.

3 - Katie (+1) - League C - Last 5: 30 (L), 80 (W), 37 (L), 54 (L), 45 (W) - On the other side of the league page matchup card was Katie, who trotted out Pascal Gross but taller and more English: James Tarkowski. He also got an assist, but unlike the German, he actually hits the defensive contribution threshold and gets 4x the amount of points for a clean sheet. Other contributors to Katie's score included a duo of 8 pointers from Branthwaite and Alisson, along with Kudus playing half a game and getting an assist for a Spurs team that has maybe figured out that they are supposed to put the ball in the back of the net?

2 - Charlotte (+1) - League C - Last 5: 50 (D), 50 (W), 42 (W), 47 (W), 71 (W) - A huge week from Charlotte as she keeps the 42+ streak going with our only 70+ score this week with a team that looked just like ChrisB's but just a little bit better. Keep the Brobbey and Hall, add a Trafford 10, Mitchell 7, Schade 9, along with Tielemans and Guehi 4s. AND maybe if Igor Jesus could get a START he'd be scoring instead of getting VAR'd for the slightest step on the foot of all time. That was this game, right? Anyway very solid week and there was even a rare Dorgu goal contribution sitting on the bench cheering on the squad.

1 - Gavin (-) - League B - Last 5: 63 (W), 52 (W), 59 (W), 38 (W), 52 (W) - And of course, what's a Power Rankings list this season without Gavin at #1 (but Charlotte may put that to the test with some more of these scores…). For now though, the Isak/Cherki/Tarkowski/Araujo/Ndiaye returns pulled Gavin back into the 50s after his week off. And apparently he caught whatever Luke has and also decided to bench 8 points from Justin and 4 from Fofana. Completely fair though I wouldn't expect Sangare to continually get benched either. Or for his Arsenal duo to do nothing against Brighton, but apparently the seagulls are the best team in the league so maybe Gavin should have considered that. Anyway, apparently Mateta will be back next week and when that happens League B is done for.