FPL Round 1 Recap

It's time once again for the FPL Awards, everyone's favorite award article where people get insulted and enjoy it because it makes them sort of famous. FPL is a serious business that very few get right, and it's much more interesting to look at the failures instead of the successes. After all, a quick look at the charts reveals the top FPLers, while looking for interesting, quirky teams is far more fun and painful.

Round 1 User Awards

The Borussia Dortmund Award for Worst Team Trying to be Good

tantalus



Oh tantalus. You tried so hard. Unfortunately, your fandom for the wrong players proved to be your demise. TaeJa didn't play, HerO lost twice, and MarineKing lost more games than even Flash or Solar. When soO is your best performing player, you know that something's wrong, but you didn't even try to trade away your dead weight. When you did try to swap out your low value players, none of your trades worked out. It was a trainwreck through and through, but at least you can use the excuse that "nobody knows anything in round 1!"

The Airforce ACE Award for Worst One Team team

JangBang - Samsung, 21pts

JangBang, true to his name, decided to pick an all Samsung team. Unfortunately for him, Solar's struggles and Stork's rotation policy combined to give him the worst 1 team team in FPL. He even picked an all MVP anti team for a 15pt penalty, and this is probably the first time we've given this award to someone so dedicated to supporting one team and hating on another.

Literally 10x Worse than DarkLordOlli Award for Worst Staff FPL

opterown and Lorning - 32 and 33 pts respectively



It looks like the two LR Bonjwas either side of me aren't very good at FPL. opterown and Lorning may have scored poorly, but their haul of 30 pts actually isn't that terrible. Their mostly-Prime teams usually end up sucking hard, but Creator and YoDa actually had decent rounds. It was optown's StarTale anti team that sunk him, and Lorning had a moment of madness when he traded Creator for eMotion. With 94 points and a spot on the first page, lichter has proven that he will always be the one true LR bonjwa. At least in FPL.

The LOL What A Successful Tryhard Award For Most Trades

Scarecrow - 9 trades, +31, no losses

With an impressive +31, Scarecrow managed to break even or profit from every single one of his trades. While other FPLers usually benefited from one big trade compensating for a few bad ones, Scarecrow made the right decision each time. His biggest plus was swapping Hurricane for Losira (+12), while he had three trades that ended up even.

The LOL What a Lousy Tryhard Award For Most Trades

The_Templar - 18 trades, +1



Poor Templar. I made him my stats slave and he has to be awarded a negative award for being the biggest tryhard in FPL. He was the only person to complete all 18 possible trades, and all he had to show for it was a 1 pt increase. That's a lot of work and analysis for little benefit, and you should all be wary the next time he tries to give you advice about FPL

Do You Even Know What You're Doing? Award for Worst Trader

MirGHeaT - 17 trades, -31

What the heck bro. Even though he didn't score the worst in all of FPL trading (Spyrosc2 had -37), this guy made 17 trades, including trading Solar out of his team, only to trade him back in in the same week. Instead of trading those people directly, he swapped Solar out and in to incur -2 trade tax for literally nothing. He swapped teams thrice, and only 4 of his 17 trades had a net positive. Youch.

Maybe You Should Play Stocks In Your Free Time Instead, You Bum Award

knecht - 6 trades, +35pts

This is how you salvage a shitty team. Despite gaining the most from trades in the entire round, knecht only managed to place 246th due to a badly handicapped initial team. He replaced all but two players (Capt. BravO and Zest), and his biggest coup was swapping MarineKing for Life during the first few weeks. Having no allegiances to teams nor players is a big advantage in FPL, and sometimes, you just have to sell out and dump your idols.

It Pays To Be Lazy Award For Best Team Without Trading

Cyroch - 0 trades, 108pts

This guy probably didn't even bother to look at results. 8th place is impressive for someone who didn't even bother to make trades, and his team consisted of some of the most efficient players. He had Life, Cure, Losira, YongHwa and Jin Air, and his anti team only suffered a point deduction due to Zoun, Stork and Solar.

Ya'll Suck Award For Best/Worst Anti Team

Solar, Stork, eMotion - 0pts

Oh, the mythical 0pt anti team. I heard it as a legend when monk was still showing me how to do FPL, and I never thought it would happen. It takes an incredible series of coincidences for this to happen, including a high value player sucking, a middle value player not playing, and a benchwarmer on a winless team. Solar's -2 certainly helped, but we finally have a 0 point anti team in the history books.

Round 1 Player Awards

Most Valuable Player

INnoVation - 27pts, 6-0 record

As expected, RoBogus returned to Proleague and switched it on in Round 1. Only 2 players with more than 2 games went undefeated, and INnoVation scored 4 more points than the second best player. Strangely, the SKT Terran wasn't even fielded in any ace matches, the only person in the top 7 not to play a game 5. That only makes his record more remarkable, and it'll be interesting whether he'll ever get to play a deciding match in the future. If he had played (and won) both ace matches, he would have earned a blistering 34 pts.

The King of the Bargain Bin Award for Best Value

Losira - 20pts, 5-1 record, $3



When Choya decided to overhaul the entire MVP roster entering Proleague, nobody had any idea who was any good, who would be played, or who would even win a single game. Turns out MVP actually have two decent players, and Losira has might just be their best. With an enviable record that's actually second best in the league, the spider hands zerg could have scored more had his team won more games. He should become a definite starter in Round 2, so don't expect him to be as cheap going forward.

The Dead Weight Award for Least Valuable Player

Solar - -2pts, 0-6 record, $8

What. The. Hell. This is the first time in history that a player has ended a round with negative points. This is an historic failure that will likely never be repeated again. It's a mystery why Stork decided to send him as their ace even during this interminable downward spiral, even on days when he wasn't fielded in the starting lineup. Savor it folks, because we'll be referencing it for the rest of time.

The We Need to Find a New RorO Award For Player that No One Should Pick

sKyHigh - 9pts, 1-2 record, $4

It's tough to find a new RorO with only one round done. Usually, the role of FPL Destroyer is given to a player that cycles in and out of form, sucking when you pick him and doing well when you anti him. This player is usually a mid to high tier player, and it seems like no matter what he does he ruins most people's teams. Last year, DongRaeGu sort of fulfilled that role by swapping 18+pt rounds with 8pt stinkers. With him gone, the award temporarily goes to sKyHigh, whose rich vein of form didn't transfer to Proleague, but he still earned 9 pts for $4, making him neither a good buy nor a good anti.

Shouldn't Have Drank the Koolaid Award for Player We Mistakenly Hyped

TY - 9pts, 2-4 record, $6

As one of KT's big 4 and qualified for GSL, everyone thought that this would finally be the year when TY stopped being a glorified sidekick on KT. Unfortunately, his success in individual leagues (Ro8 GSL now) has come at the cost of his Proleague performances. 9pts for $6 is a poor return on investment, and his 2-4 record isn't good enough to retain his place in the starting lineup now that Life is on board. Flash, even though he's done worse, is undroppable, and TY could become a benchwarmer after a lackluster first round.


The You're Bound to be Better than Sora Rising Star Award

Some Samsung Rookie



The only team willing to field benchwarmers so far this season has been Samsung. Stork isn't afraid of giving his young players experience, and if a true rising star is likely to appear, it's probably going to come from this team. We still don't know who it's going to be—Guilty? Journey? Armani? BravO?—but they have been the only team willing to give us choices.

The Toilet Seat Award for Most Ups and Downs

Dear - 9pts, 3-3 record, $7

Dear was supposed to become Samsung's ace when the team signed him after his foreign nightmare. A return to KeSPA was supposed to signal a rejuvination for the former double champion. It sorta happened, and then it kinda didn't. He won his first two games in impressive fashion, downing herO and Life for a quick start. Then, he lost to Action. A win against Center was followed by an ace match loss against MarineKing, and he ended the round with a loss to Dark. It hasn't been smooth sailing for him, and he'll hope to emulate INnoVation's comeback tour in round 2.

The MarineKing Winning A Finals Award for Something That Didn't Happen

Solar winning an ace match



Having a struggling star player is a difficult situation to handle. On the one hand, you don't want him to dig a deeper hole for himself. On the other, you want him to get a chance to regain some confidence. Ace matches are the best to regain that winning feeling again, and Stork tried in vain to get Solar back on track by giving him the responsibility of dragging Samsung from the bottom of the barrel. Unfortunately, it didn't work, and he lost 3 straight game 5's in Round 1. Still not as sad as MarineKing's record in Korean finals.

Holy Shit Seriously? Award for Player that Wasn't Supposed to Earn Me Points but Did

Has - 5pts, 0-0 record, $1

Picking 1pters is a tough business. You normally just hope that some 1pt player from a bad team miraculously plays, but picking up someone from a team that just might do well also can work out. In Round 1, StarTale and CJ's 1pters both earned 5 pts for not playing, but we're giving this award to Has, just because I'm sure a bunch of people picked him for laughs and ended up not doing so bad.

The You're Literally Worse than a Foreigner Award

Flash - 6pts, 1-6 record, $9

For $9, Flash earned a miserable 6pts. Has, who didn't even play and was worth $1, earned 5 pts. Thorzain, when EGTL was still around, scored 6pts in round 1 of that season. As the winningest player in Proleague history, that has got to be embarrassing.

Let's All Get On the Hype Train Award for Most Bought Player

TY - bought 228 times

This doesn't even make any sense to me. TY didn't perform very well in Round 1, and never looked like he'd put together a strong one with losses to sOs, INnoVation, Guilty and Curious. Perhaps people expected him to bounce back after sinking in value, but it never happened.

Let's Get The Hell Off This Train Award for Most Sold Player

Classic - sold 292 times

Poor, poor Classic. You win a GSL, and then you become your team's auxilary player. SKT tried to experiment with their lineup by playing Dream, Sorry and Billowy, and Classic was often the one who had to settle for a day off. Neo Chin Toss just keeps getting the stick from fans, coaches, and even writers, and it's weird that SKT no longer have a starting protoss in what was once PvProleague.

The ByuN Award For Most Mysteriously Disappeared Terran of the Round

ByuN

After the announcement that ByuN was supposed to play in Proleague, Prime fans around the world buzzed with a potential ByuN sighting. Unfortunately, it turned out to be another diversion as ByuN continues his run from KeSPA Jail Authorities. Prime didn't even bother to put him on their roster, even though it was rumoured that he would play. The ongoing mystery regarding the player just keeps getting better, and anyone with any further information should PM stuchiu with the details.

The BackHo Award for Player Most Likely In Kespa Jail

The StarTale driver

Sure, this had no effect on FPL because it happened in the playoffs, but KeSPA Jail is open 24/7, 364 days a year. There's an annual KeSPA Jail Barbeque sponsored by Arcturus Mengsk, but on every other day KeSPA Jail is open, welcoming new residents and criticizing inmates. As the first team to ever miss a playoff match in over a decade of Proleague, the KeSPA driver, or whoever the heck told them not to leave earlier, ends up in jail as the team's scapegoat. Or, they could blame Curious for not getting out of the car, punching a guy riding a motorcycle, and driving furiously into the studio and playing a 2hr swarmhost game to delay until his team arrived.

Wolf Schröder Award for Best Hair

Sojung



Everytime Sojung appeared on screen, her hair was different from the last time we saw her. From a short bob to pigtails to a bun to poodletails, Sojung has had more hairstyles in Round 1 than Wolf has had since the start of 2014. Wolf's position as the Proleague Follicle Aficionado is under threat, and he'll have to step up his game if he wants to win his eponymous award any time this season.

The Louis van Gaal Award for Best Coach that Sorta Sucks, But Is Kinda Great, We Can't Really Tell

Stork

It was a tough call between Stork and Choya. Samsung was worse than Prime and MVP only one game better, but somehow it's difficult to tell whether the coaches did a good or bad job. Choya was able to get a lot of MVP players into individual leagues, while he has guided the resurrection of YongHwa and Losira. Stork gave many an unknown player his debut and his rotation policy wasn't that bad. Four of their losses were in ace matches, and if it weren't for Solar's slump, they'd actually be a playoff team. Following Samsung's debutantes was one of the most interesting developments in Round 1, and we can only hope that other coaches follow suit to shake things up in Round 2.