TooSerious

Hi guys,

We kick off this week end shortly and with a few hours to before lockout, it is critical to check the injury tables, game previews and best buys in the VS competition.

The news is that Valencia, Zamora and McFadden (injured his knee in training this week) are out for about 5 months, Defoe is out for 3 or so months, Kuyt is out for another month, Bosingwa, Diaby, Vermaelen and Carrick are out for another 2 weeks. Carroll, Lampard, Van Der Vaart and Modic are very doubtful.

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With the table below, where no return date is indicated, because of the nature of the injury and the club not making any statements, it is not possible to give an accurate return to training date.

Fulham

R Halliche Groin Strain no return date

F Stoor Groin Strain no return date

B Zamora Broken Leg Feb 11

D Duff Calf Muscle Strain 18th Sep 10

D Stockdale Ankle/Foot Injury 16th Oct 10

D Kamara Ankle/Foot Injury 18th Sep 10

P Senderos Achilles Rupture Feb 11

A Johnson Jumpers Knee no return date

Arsenal

V Diaby Ankle/Foot Injury no return date

T Vermaelen Achilles Tendinopathy no return date

T Walcott Ankle/Foot Injury 24th Oct 10

R Van Persie Ankle/Foot Injury 24th Oct 10

E Frimpong ACL Knee Injury May 11

N Bendtner Groin/Pelvis Injury 18th Sep 10

A Ramsey Broken Leg 16th Oct 10

Sunderland

M Turner Ankle/Foot Injury 18th Sep 10

F Campbell ACL Knee Injury May 11

J Mensah Hamstring Injury 25th Sep 10 doubtful

A Reid Achilles Tendinopathy 18th Sep 10

G McCartney Ankle/Foot Injury 18th Sep 10

C Gordon Arm/Elbow Injury no return date

D Meyler ACL Knee Injury Mar 11

Tottenham Hotspur

R Van Der Vaart Calf Muscle Strain 25th Sep 10 very doubtful

Gomes Groin Strain 25th Sep 10...

Alright, so its been decided. Were going to crown.

More specifically though (cause Crown is a big place), were going to the Lagerfield- at crown.

I think the count starts at what- 8ish, and Ill be looking to get there around 7-7:30ish.

Now, I hear that theyll be showing the count- but there probably wont be sound. But Im sure we can live without that.

If I remember, Ill try to wear something- distinctive- otherwise youll just have to look for the guy that is bringing the 90s back- and sporting a killer Steven Seagal pony tail. PRESURE POINT!!

So yeah, Lagerfield @ crown @ 7-8ish.

And if you need more specific details on where in Crown Lagerfield is- youll just have to check the comments cause someone will let me know.

Hello all,

Welcome to another EPL thread, where this week will feed you all the European football news and results that I know you are hungry for. This weeks format will have the EPL round in review, followed by the preview for Game Week 5, followed with a wrap up of the 1st match day in the Champions League which went off with a bang Wednesday morning. We will conclude with a brief rundown of the 5AS competition and the links for all TS EPL leagues will be included as well...needless to say this is a big one!!!

Now, on the back of ripper week in the IKTS, following last week’s tipping prediction netted a huge 10 points, unless you went with the banker on Chelsea/Arsenal (I went with Man City...never again; its Chelsea/Arsenal for me from now on), or different banker and insurance chip placements altogether...oh well, you cant be right all the time

And on that note, what a strange weekend for results in the EPL where other than the usual suspects in Arsenal and Chelsea getting up, most other results did not go the way of the favourites.

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So Game Week 4 started off with a surprise result at Goodisen Park in the lunch time fixture where Everton scored 2 goals late into injury time against Man Utd to level the ledger and draw 3 all. The Arsenal hosted Bolton at the Emirates where Cesc Fabregas put on a dominate display and Andrev Arsharvin terrorised the opposition, and Arsenal cruised home to 4-1 victory against a 10 man Bolton. Over to Upton Park where the news gets worse for the Hammers as Chelsea put 3 past them before a late consolation goal to Scotty Parker made the result 3-1 but in West Hams defence, they had a Carlton Cole goal called offside early on and an easy chance crashed into the crossbar late in the piece.

Fulham found themselves 1 nil down at home early on against Wolves but double from Dembele, one of which was deep into injury time gave them points. Blackburn travelled to the City of...

Howdy everyone-

Now, this excites me. Honestly, I dont know what will come of it, but I like the idea of being part of the process. Ah well, enough talk from me, heres the pitch:

<blockquote>
BE PART OF THE CREATION A FANTASY TENNIS COMPETITION
Tennis Australia, the governing body for the sport in Australia, are looking at a number of initiatives to drive growth in the sport (both participation and fan based) through digital channels. As Head of Strategy, and an avid fantasy competition player, I believe that there is huge potential for an international fantasy tennis competition. I also believe that there is no better group of people to get ideas for how this may look and work than from the Too Serious family.
So, I’m after some creative thoughts on what this fantasy tennis competition looks like. Some of the questions I have are:
· What tournaments would be included?

· How would you score?

· How do you choose a team?

· What prizes do you think need to be offered?

· What can be done different from other fantasy competitions to make this stand out?

I’m a firm believer that any idea has merit, so please throw them out there, no matter how left field.
Those that offer the most constructive/valuable feedback will be rewarded.
</blockquote>

So if this interests you, get on board guys! I certainly know that Ill be putting on my thinking hat over the next few days to try and add to the conversation. (I gotta say though- great work guys! Looks like this community is being recognised as one of the smartest around. )

Related to the Tennis Post - which I encourage you to put views forward with - the thought was raised, what makes Supercoach a great fantasy game, which of course it is, otherwise we wouldnt spend so much time playing it.

Ive had a crack, along with Fester at developing a list of things. Heres a few reasons. What are yours? Feel free to add things from a game players perspective, from a league/general perspective, or prospective investors.

Heres a short list...
1. every quality possession matters
2. even dud games matter when you play it
3. competitive leagues which are free to enter
4. good prizes
5. regular event-driven competition
6. different goals for different players
7. skill needed to win

8. a layered game approach where there can be multiple winners (overall, league, multiple leagues, weekly)
9. language that transcends the sport and becomes part of the lexicon (‘he got 100 SuperCoach points tonight’)
10. media that promotes the game, which feeds the sport and media, which feeds the game…
11. live interaction – akin to SimCity and all control games that have come from it – you can make changes during the competition
12. a wider community than just your local ‘tipping competition’
13. greater interest in the overall game, because to be good you need to know even the teams/players you don’t want to get to know!
14. good option for branding of sponsors with continual page refreshes
15. akin to 8 a game that encourages different tactical alternatives to win

Contribute if youre still online!

So, week 1 has finally been and gone and now everyone has some idea of how their team is shaping up.  I had intentions of writing an introductory post but time got the better of me, however I will do my best to get a round review up every week.  Anyway without further ado here goes nuthin...

The first game saw the AUSSIE BATTLERS come up against TEAM STOWIE.  This was an all Eastern conference matchup which saw Team Stowie take the chocolates with a handy 18 point victory.

Next up was BOLDIN SHOWERS against DOOBIA DOOBS , both these teams coming from the western conference.  Showers, led by all-star QB Payton Manning were too strong for Doobs by a healthy 32 points, with Manning providing 29 points of his own, the third highest individual score for the week.

The third game saw the closest battle for the week, both teams coming from the East with TOO SERIOUSESES up against ADELAIDE MAGGOTS.  This was a ding dong battle with the Maggots from Adelaide holding out to a slow finishing Seriouseses by only 5 measly points.  TS was not helped by Greene  from the Jets putting up a shocking -1 to start the season.  A week on the bench should teach him a lesson!

Game 4 an all Western affair, saw the biggest win of the week with THE PACK smashing SAM CROW to the tune of 43 points.  It was always going to be hard for Sam to overcome The Pack boasting Arian Foster, the highest scorer for week 1 with a whopping 41 points of his own.   Poor Sam was not helped with his starting QB getting injured and the 49ers D/ST getting belted and managing a score of  -1.  Sam things can only get better, right? Hopefully!

Finally my boys, MR WIGGLES came up against UNDER ACHIEVERS in what turned out to be the only cross conference matchup for the week.  Happy to say my Pats heavy team dominated the UAs by 42 points, with RB Matt Forte the second highest scorer for the week putting up 30 big ones and everyones favourite QB Tom Brady an excellent 22.

That rounds...

Alright, time to get this discussion back on track. Monday night is brownlow night. The night of nights, where the big names of footy come out to play, maybe even cause a little bit of a stir(ven seagal?- no, that play on words is even bad by my standards!)

Now, I believe there has been some interest in gathering round, with our betting stubs, and cheering on our picks as at least one of us goes on to win thousands.

Well, thats the dream anyways.

So- the question comes back to- where? and what time? should be do this thing. Being a married guy with three kids who lives out in the sticks, Im completely out of the loop when it comes to making the call on a location here, so Im hoping that you lot can work out somewhere, central, that we can all congregate.

Also of note- its my birthday the day before, so you all owe me a beer. Cheers, that is all.

On the strength of the entries to the informal comp, heres our best team. Knowing that none of us are as smart as all of us (and forgiving my demotion of Selwood...):

B,Enright,Lake,Frawley
HB,Hodge,Taylor,Goddard
C,Montagna Swan,Judd
HF,Didak,Pavlich,Chapman
F,Le Cras,J Riewoldt Hall
RUC,Sandilands Selwood Ablett
INT,Pendlebury Boyd,
,Franklin,Hayes/Kelly,

If you want to put a late entry in, heres the spot.
The side is announced tonight.

We have now set the draft date and time for the 30th September at 10pm AEST, and not long after, the first trade was accepted!

Firstly, thanks to everyone who replied to me about the draft date. 18 coaches gave some input, and there was overwhelming support for the 30th, however unfortunately ElBonz will most probably not be able to make it live.

Out of all that replied, ElBonz was the only one that could not make it on the 30th; and one other said that they preferred a weekend but could still make it on a Thursday evening. Yesterday I sent an email out to all that were happy with the 30th and asked if everyone could also attend on the 23rd if we had it that day, however 2 people out of the first few that replied could not do the 23rd, so i decided to stick with what we first planned, and go with the 30th. Also, as pointed out by Steve, the Grand Final Footy Show is on the 23rd September, so it probably wouldnt be a good night for us on that factor alone.

So at the time of writing this, we have approximately 17 days, 4 hours and 7 minutes to go until our draft begins!


***  Now, the next thing i want to organise is the conferences.

As some of you have realised, the league is set up into two conferences. Originally they were called East and West, and then changed to Fez conference and not fez conference after Fez had complained about being in the West ... Then I changed them to A and B. In my opinion, the names are not so important, however we can choose names for them so we may as well discuss it in the comments.

** What is important, is who is in each conference. This is important because, contrary to what i first thought, Im pretty sure the top 4 teams from each conference make the playoffs, as distinct from the top 8 teams in the league.

At the moment the first 10 teams that i sent invites to are in one conference and the other 10 are in the other. We can leave it at that, however Im interested to know what everyone thinks...

So, were moving towards the shiny new version of TooSerious. New and Improved are the two thoughts that come to mind. But as always, I cant go into a redesign without shaking up whats there.

So Im doing two things. Firstly, Im giving you a sneak peak into what Ive been working on, and two, Im asking for the input of any budding designers out there.

Ive got a layout which Im fairly happy with, maybe even a colour scheme that Ill be sticking with- what I dont have is a new banner to run with.

So if there is anyone out there who might be interested in helping out, I would love for you to drop me an <a href="mailto:too.serious.team.management@gmail.com">email[/url]

Anyways, the new design is over the page
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