Season 4 Kickoff Tournament - The League

August 13, 2025

Hello everyone and welcome to The League! This is the first of our 3 mid-season tournaments this year and I am super excited about this format so I think it'll be a great time! But before we start, a few quick reminders:

Announcements (sorry)

1 - If you are in the B League, please be careful when placing waivers this week. Due to some issues with drafting, players drafted offline are currently seen as available on the site. Do not take these players. Please confirm players on your waiver list are not on the draft board or the banned players list.

2 - The banned players list (meaning you cannot add these players to your team in any capacity), is still active! The player list has not changed, but I will put it here regardless:

Sesko
Diakite
Thiaw
Masuaku
Hermansen
Broja
Calvert-Lewin
Wolfe
Alderete

3 - Don't forget to click Save Team if you make any changes to your lineup! It doesn't automatically save so let me save you the trouble of realizing it yourself.

The League

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, welcome to The League! I am super creative and totally didn't steal this from anywhere but this will be our homebrewed Champions League equivalent this season! For those unaware, last season the Champions League switched to a 36-team, league format in which the top teams get a bye and the other teams go into a playoff. Well, I've adapted that to 24 teams and this is what we have!

An 8 round group stage in which each manager will face off against 2 teams in your own league and 6 teams from the opposite league! I've decided on this split (after much consternation and a neck and neck Discord poll) to encourage early season cross-league discussion and give everyone a chance to play against some new people!

The first two weeks will be the intra league games, and the remaining six will consist of inter league matches! The matchups were lightly seeded into groups of 3 based on coefficient and then randomized before being drawn. For transparency I did have to adjust a couple of matchups due to double gameweek draws. c'est la vie

Anyway, after the group stage, the teams ranked 17th-24th will be eliminated, the teams placed 9th-16th will enter into a single week playoff, where the winners will face the teams placed 5th-8th in a second single week playoff. Then, the remaining 4 teams will face off against the 1st-4th ranked teams in the Quarter Finals. All matches from the Quarter Finals onward will take place over 2 gameweeks until we have crowned a winner!

But wait, while the group stage will take place across the first 8 gameweeks of the season, having the elimination games occur right after just isn't very Champions League-like, is it? How about let's start the knockouts in, say, Gameweek 20! The first gameweek of the new year is when we'll see our first playoff matches take place, with the final occurring across Gameweeks 26 and 27! And, same as last year, the winner will receive $30 + a mystery kit!

But also, I enjoy the holiday season soccer as much as the next fantasy premier league tsar, so a December cup will return again this year!

Enough about the format, let's get into the matchups! This week's highlights see myself facing off against Zach, Gavin take on Matt, Andrew use his 1st pick in an effort against John, and Cara take on Chris in a B league battle. Full matchups are as follows:

Mathew vs Zach
Luke vs Scott
MatthewR vs Coop
Gavin vs Matt
Darryan vs Jesse
Kevin vs Dylan
Andrew vs John
Matthew2 vs Emma
ZachA vs Divya
Travis vs Mack
Morgs vs Alex
Cara vs Chris

If you're curious about the full fixtures for all 8 group stage weeks, here they are:

The League - Group Stage

Gameweek 1 Power Rankings

And, in case you thought I forgot, I totally did. But then I was reminded! So here are your Gameweek 1, slightly based on vibes and slightly based on fact power rankings (with 5 from each league, which won't always happen):

10 - ZachA - League B - This spot was really difficult for me, since there are so many teams in and around this 10 position I was choosing between. I think ZachA's team has a lot of upside, João Pedro is in form, Mbeumo/Mitoma/Sarr are a very solid midfield core, and he picked up some of the best defenders on the board in Cucurella and Ait-Nouri. Solid draft (apart from the lack of FWD depth).

9 - Andrew - League B - This draft looked a lot like Darryan's draft, but Andrew spent his early rounds grabbing high value MIDs such as Cunha and Gibbs-White to put behind Haaland. Havertz will get minutes, Frimpong and Branthwaite are both very highly sought after defenders. A very good draft behind the obvious Haaland pick.

8 - Cara - League B - Somehow, Cara's auto-draft actually kinda went off. After picking Ekitike first (who is quite valuable as of writing this due to the Isak transfer stalling), she got a great suite of MIDs. Marmoush, Gakpo, Gordon, Schade, and Johnson all have very solid goalscoring records, even if they don't always get consistent minutes. She was still able to pick up a starting FWD in Welbeck and solid DEF picks in Hall, Nunes, and Robinson.

7 - Mack - League B - I flipped back and forth between putting Mack at 7 vs 6 because these two teams are just very close in my mind. But Mack has a lot going for her team: Gyokeres seems to be first choice currently, Strand Larsen had a surprising goalscoring record last season (especially when Cunha was off the field), Eze, Elanga, and Semenyo are 3 very solid attacking midfielders, and she was even able to pick up some valuable defenders in Kerkez, Collins, and Guehi.

6 - Darryan - League A - Just barely inching this position was the Haaland draft of the first round. Taking 3 FWDs in the first 3 rounds is brave, but it sets Darryan up really well, especially early in the season when anyone can find form. After his triple forward play, he followed it up with 2 of the best defenders in the game in Saliba and Frimpong. Where his team falters is in midfield, where McNeil and Bruno G are the highlights. But that means way less when you have a front 3 of Haaland, Evanilson, and Raul Jimenez.

5 - Kevin - League A - Honestly, really liked Kevin's draft here. Gyokeres and Pedro are a great FWD pairing for this moment, Gibbs-White, Tielemans, and Tonali are a solid attacking midfield trio along with defensive contribution beats Caicedo, and he made smart picks on defense too, with Kerkez, Ait-Nouri, and Konate forming his core. Solid draft that balanced consistent points and punts in my opinion.

4 - Matthew - League A - Unfortunately I think I'm just on the cusp of being in the top 3 but just don't make it. I think Mateta and Solanke are a very solid FWD pairing, especially with Semenyo and Mitoma in the midfield. Paqueta and Damsgaard have been pretty consistent scoring in recent years and I think everyone knows what Foden could do. I also think my defenders are quite solid, Munoz was one of the highest scorers last season, along with Robinson and N.Williams who made a number of offensive contributions.

3 - Luke - League A - 3 and 2 were another couple of drafts that I went back and forth on, since they are both very similar and honestly solid picks from both. The issue I have with Luke's draft has to be the FWD position, though. His MIDs are incredible, with Palmer, Marmoush, Gakpo, Ndiaye, and Georginio he really might not have to waiver a MID all season if they stay healthy. His defense is also very solid, with Murillo and Branthwaite as the core and Agbadou and Kilman as defensive contribution monsters he put together a good team.

2 - Zach - League A - If you could guess it, the FWDs are what tipped Zach into 2nd. Ekitike, Piroe, and Beto all should start (for now), and even though the midfield is a bit weaker I still think he edges out Luke. Saka, Rogers, and Elanga are all very good players and I don't mind the punt on Tel and Zubimendi as the Caicedo-like player. His defense is also solid, with Gvardiol, Guehi, and Konsa all being high scoring players in past seasons.

1 - Matthew2 - League B - I mean, I'm not sure if there is a little bit of bias playing into this, but I'll just list the players and see what you think. FWDs of Evanilson, Wood, and Guiu; MIDs of Salah, Rogers, Kudus, Georginio, and Savinho; DEFs of Murillo, Munoz, Schar, Richards, and O'Brien. And Richards is going out on waivers this week :wave:.

Feel free to fight me on these rankings or make your own and share or whatever, I'll keep these going in the regular weekly updates and they'll have more factual information rather than just vibes as the season goes on!

I hope everyone enjoys the first gameweek!