The SKLW season for 23/24 sees the beginning of a new era as it’s the first since Greyhead and Boris Bodega decided to stand down and begin new careers as SKLW captains instead. The points-scoring system has been retained, but there have been plenty of other changes made to the tournament.
A weekend of SKLW friendly fixtures have been completed as SKLW rivalries have begun to be renewed and for the first time in its history, SKLW has been split into four divisions. We now have the Premier League, Championship, League One, and League Two. The placement of teams has been based upon performances from last season for those teams that have continued, and those who are new are starting off in League Two.
In League Two, we have eleven rather than twelve teams, which means that for each team they will have two free weekends where they won’t have an SKLW opponent. A potential opportunity for tactical changes to your sides when hits won’t affect your SKLW performance perhaps.
Let’s take a look at some of the participants in each of the leagues this season.
Premier League
The Premier League sees a number of familiar faces to followers of SKLW, FPL and Twitter. FPLRichard is back, and in charge of Son of a Gun, last season’s Champions League runners-up. The inimitable Legomané is part of his team this season and his statistical know-how is sure to provide a helpful edge against their fellow opponents. They also have one of the SKLW admin team in their ranks, Stuart Davies, who will be wanting to get bragging rights against the rest of the organisers. In the first match-week they are pitted against Netflix and Chilwell, captained by FPL Toni who has Dan Bennett as their Star Signing. Dan has ten top 10k finishes and has earned his place in a Premier League side with a record like that behind him.
El Sin Nombre are captained by Nima and have several Twitter alumni in their ranks. They have Rockstar, who was formerly well-known and appreciated for his team leaks on Saturday mornings in seasons past, and who will no doubt be tapped up by his team-mates for transfer tips. One of the many people from Scandinavia taking part in FPL is also in the side, appelsinjuss along with the unique Randy Shafter.
Toby Walker, the graphics man for SKLW, is in Fontaine of Knowledge and will probably have something fancy up his sleeve if he and his team get off to a good start.
All in all there are a great range of fixtures in the Premier League for the first round of matches to look forward to this weekend!
Championship
We now move onto the Championship in our preview of the weekend.
Speedy is the captain of Murder on Zidane’s Floor, a returning team from last season. Speedy is in his seventh season in FPL and will be hoping to help secure promotion for his side. No Fuchs Given provide the opposition for Speedy, and they’re captained by Mihir, a veteran of SKLW. Mihir’s side contains a titan of FPL, Pras, a familiar face on many YouTube streams and videos. He has an enviable record in FPL with a best of 4,841 two seasons ago, four top 10k finishes, and eleven consecutive finishes in the top 100k.
Panda Express CDF are captained by another member of the SKLW admin team, Rob, aka FPL_Panda. One of the stand-out members of this team is FPL Glasto who boast a top 10k finish in FPL from the 2016/17 season, and has managed two top 100k finishes since then. Experience of that top finish will prove helpful to the team. The Pandas are at home to Nusantara Gauchos, who are led by Luthfi. He’s one of several captains this season to have eschewed the option of bringing in a Star Signing this season, presumably with the aim of maintaining squad cohesion knowing that everyone is on the same wages as each other. Luthfi has got off to a good start personally this season, and sits just outside the top 300k in the world as we head into GW4.
League One
The Heroes start their campaign in League Two, away to Maritim +62. Ron Manager is the captain for the second year in a row of The Heroes, and leads a largely unchanged side. They do however see one change with James Doddy dropping out this season to be replaced by Ness Scott, Nessmonster on Twitter. She had a best finish of 9,992 three seasons ago and is known for non-template transfers, which usually prove very helpful in the SKLW format. Iggy (@IvlevYorke) is a star performer for the Heroes, and in life generally, as he spent the whole of last season in Ukraine helping people there and risking his life at the same time, all while doing amazingly well in FPL.
Rival Fach leads Maritim against the Heroes, and also does so without any “Stars” in his side. He still possesses a strong team that will be determined to do well. Stefan Edwin Damayudha has four top 100k finishes in his locker and is one of the strongest members of their squad.
Maradona Kebabs are led by the lover of pre-season polls on Twitter, FPLDanDave. He knows more about sweets and soft drinks than most people, and also knows a bit about FPL having two consecutive top 100k finishes and a best of 17,243. His side is also filled with plenty of big names such as FPLNym, who has a long-running YouTube channel and two top 30k finishes in FPL. Their Star Signing is Andy Martin, who mans an arcade in Bournemouth on the south coast of England and has a top finish of 2,204 just two seasons ago. Tactician by name on Twitter, and tactician by nature in FPL.
They will play away at No Koeman No Cry this weekend. They are led by Lexx Katz who is a stalwart of SKLW and will be aiming to get his side into the Championship in what will be a highly competitive league. His side contains someone who has two top 10k finishes in FPL, George Pîrcălabu and so must be considered a big threat to all who face him this season.
League Two
Finally, we come to League Two, which contains a mixture of established and new teams, but led by established members of the SKLW community. It is important to remember that with only 11 teams in this league, there will only be five fixtures each match-week.
Will, aka Top Marx, is also a highly valued member of the SKLW admin team, who in conjunction with Panda, has been responsible for the technical aspect of setting the tournament up and without whom, none of this would be possible. He is part of Unbelievable Geoff whose captain is Espen Hagestrand and is another with a top 10k finish to his name in season’s past.
They will be playing against The Generalists this weekend who are headed up by Tom of Who Got the Assist fame on YouTube and podcast. Tom is new to SKLW, but certainly not new to FPL. 2,353 is his best ever finish. His Star Signing is another very familiar voice and face to listeners of a certain podcast, and now viewers on YouTube, Mark McGettigan, better known as FPL General. Of all those featured in this article, he has the best record of all, with three finishes inside the top 500, and a best performance of 102. The Generalists will be seen as one of the favourites to progress from what looks like an extremely tough league.
What might be called the Todd Boehly of SKLW, Greyhead has this season formed his own team, appropriately called The Galacticos. His team features what some have referred to as one of his Star Signings this season, Richard, known as Flapjack, and part of the Scoutcast team made up of Andy North (FPL Mode) and Seb Wassel. With the investment made in putting this side together, and with his history of being part of SKLW, there will be a lot of pressure on Greyhead’s shoulders to deliver promotion at the first time of asking this season. Will they be like Ange Postecoglu’s “entertainers” of Greyhead’s beloved Tottenham or like the previous version under Antonio Conte? We will all find out soon.
The Nonchalant Twenty2 have the formidable challenge of facing this team, with FPL Beady the man tasked with dealing with them. His Star Signing is Edward Gray, also known as FantasyEd, again familiar to many on YouTube and Scout. FPL Logic has joined this team and like so many in SKLW, has a top 10k finish of his own, 5842, back in 2011/12. That experience will be needed in this fixture if they are to see off The Galacticos in MW1.
Thank you very much for reading all this way. Lord, a veteran writer for SKLW on Scout, will be writing next week’s article, looking back at what actually happened so please look out for that. We will publish links to both this article and his via @OfficialSKLW on Twitter.