World Chess Champion On the Verge of Topping Fantasy Football Table

Magnus Carlsen, the world's best chess player for the last decade, is on the brink of reaching the top in another game -- fantasy football. From a report: The grandmaster is enjoying his best season ever in the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game and after Sunday's results he climbed to the sixth position in a table of more than 7 million players worldwide. Carlsen, who is currently competing at the London Chess Classic at Olympia, puts his fantasy football success down to luck. But his FPL team, Kjell Ankedal, has consistently scored high in the overall rankings for the past four years, finishing among the top 3,000 players in the 2017-2018 league. This season, it took Carlsen just six weeks to make it into the top 1,000 and he has been climbing up the table ever since. It will not comfort anyone languishing in the FPL's lower millions to learn that Carlsen is also an occasional model. Like many Norwegians, Carlsen is obsessed with both the Premier League and its fantasy league spin-off. In 2017, eight players from Norway were in the top 50 FPL players in the world. Norway has an advantage for FPL obsessives because of the relatively free availability of live matches on the country's TV channels, compared to broadcast restrictions in other countries.

Thanks

[religionofpeas]

Thanks for explaining what the hell 'Fantasy Football' is.

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[lactose99]

Yeah I didn't see the Chiefs listed at all on that terrible premier league page.

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[hcs_$reboot]

an image is worth a thousand words

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[Chris Mattern]

And here's an image for the only worthwhile "Fantasy Football": https://cdna.artstation.com/p/... [artstation.com]

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[cayenne8]

Thanks for explaining what the hell 'Fantasy Football' is.

I"m under the impression this is talking about soccer instead of football.....

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[LordWabbit2]

Soccer is called football in EVERY other country except the US, where in your infinite wisdom you decided to call your pansy ass hybrid game of rugby, football. Because everyone has a foot and there is a ball or something. But hey, let the rest of the world change their name for a sport that predates your entire nation just because you couldn't think of anything better. Something along the lines of "armoured idiots who keep feeling each others crotches and then dropping the ball and starting all over aga

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[Major Blud]

They don't call it football in Canada?
https://www.cfl.ca/ [www.cfl.ca]

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[LordWabbit2]

Canada doesn't count, you may as well call in Americeh.

Re:Thanks

[Hodr]

Learn your own history. The name Soccer has been in use for over 200 years and was still the dominant English language name for the sport when the American's adopted the name "football" for American Football.

Just because English speaking Europeans changed from Soccer to Football 30 years ago or so doesn't make American use of the term Soccer incorrect. American's already had a sport with that name, so they kept the name of Soccer, which makes sense rather than change the name of both sports and confuse everyone domestically to prevent confusing a few people internationally.

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[K. S. Kyosuke]

The name Soccer has been in use for over 200 years

Hail, traveler from the future! [wikipedia.org]

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[DulcetTone]

If "soccer" (which can be found in early 20th century British print sources, and probably much earlier) rankles, just stick to "un-American Football". Ambiguity avoided!

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[cayenne8]

Soccer is called football in EVERY other country except the US, where in your infinite wisdom you decided to call your pansy ass hybrid game of rugby, football. Because everyone has a foot and there is a ball or something. But hey, let the rest of the world change their name for a sport that predates your entire nation just because you couldn't think of anything better. Something along the lines of "armoured idiots who keep feeling each others crotches and then dropping the ball and starting all over again"

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[mjpaci]

In Italy it's called calcio. AC Milan stands for Associazione Calcio Milan. Italy, 4x World Cup Winner and probably one of the most fanatical soccer countries, doesn't call it football. Soccer is a British English word, BTW.

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[PhrostyMcByte]

I don't watch football, but I'd watch at least a few minutes of a match if it involved Drow and Kobold.

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[chispito]

I don't watch football, but I'd watch at least a few minutes of a match if it involved Drow and Kobold.

That would approximately be Blood Bowl [wikipedia.org].

Re:Thanks

[NotTheSame]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

Fantasy football is a game in which the participants serve as general managers of virtual professional gridiron football teams. The competitors choose team rosters by participating in a draft in which all players of a real football league are available. Points are based on the actual performances of the players in the real-world competition. The game typically involves the National Football League, Canadian Football League, or college football.

It's like that, but for soccer.

The best players are the most expensive - every player has a fixed price. You have a limited budget with which to buy players. Each player scores points based on how they perform in each game - for example, maybe scoring a goal gets 5 points. Not conceding a goal could get you 3 points. You have a limited number of "transfers", where you can sell one of your players and use the money to buy a different one. If one of your players gets injured, isn't getting picked, or is playing very poorly, you should transfer them out immediately for a new player.

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[drinkypoo]

Thanks for explaining what the hell 'Fantasy Football' is.

It's RPGing for jocks, in which they all play managers. i.e. it's a boring game for boring people.

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[mjpaci]

It's a lot like D&D - character sheets, parties, etc...

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[drinkypoo]

It's a lot like D&D - character sheets, parties, etc...

Right, but no one needs to have enough imagination to be a DM.

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[DThorne]

I have, so far, gotten through life without having a single clue what it is, except in the vaguest sense. From context it seems to appeal to types that think tailgate parties are the best and spend Sundays on cable sports channels.

Now that this nerdiest of game celebs is tied to it, I *suppose* I should look it up. *sigh*

Futbol, not football

[110010001000]

When will Europeans ever learn?

Fantasy Soccer

[DulcetTone]

You top the charts if your team scores a goal

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[chispito]

I only watch soccer at my in-laws'. Football (American) and baseball lend themselves really well to fantasy sports because of all of the stats. Does soccer have enough hard stats? It seems like such an organic sport by comparison.

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[110010001000]

There are entire video games that are JUST soccer stats. No actual on-field gameplay, just stats.

Re:Fantasy Soccer

[Nidi62]

I only watch soccer at my in-laws'. Football (American) and baseball lend themselves really well to fantasy sports because of all of the stats. Does soccer have enough hard stats? It seems like such an organic sport by comparison.

The soccer stats can get pretty detailed. There's FGS (Flops per Goals Scored), their FIT rate (faked injury time per minutes played), SRpS (pronounced srips)(Shirts Ripped per Season), and of course their 50 meter flying celebration time.

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[ljw1004]

I only watch soccer at my in-laws'. Football (American) and baseball lend themselves really well to fantasy sports because of all of the stats. Does soccer have enough hard stats? It seems like such an organic sport by comparison.

Wikipedia has a list of professional sports leagues, by revenue. Here's how they add up:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

Soccer - $39billion
American Football - $12billion
Baseball - $12billion
Basketball - $8billion
Ice hockey - $6billion
Rugby - $1billion
Cricket - $1billion

I reckon that with this much money at play, market forces will simply REQUIRE there to be hard stats. Got to figure out how to invest that $39 billion.

Fantasy?

[battingly]

Thanks for answering the question: what could possibly be more boring than soccer? Answer: Fantasy Soccer.

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[Nidi62]

I think golf, cricket, curling, and American Football belong on that list too.

Curling can actually be more entertaining than you think, and some of the women on the national teams are kind of cute.

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[Brett Buck]

Agreed. However, Fantasy Curling is just plain wrong.

Re:Fantasy?

[Nidi62]

Agreed. However, Fantasy Curling is just plain wrong.

I think they just call that sweeping.

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[TimothyHollins]

I don't know. If there was an ogre and a dragon playing soccer on the field I'd probably watch it.

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[iserlohn]

First time I saw baseball spelt starting with an S, but hey ho.

Magnus Carlsen

[93 Escort Wagon]

Well, at least now we know who currently fills the role of SPECTRE's Number 5.

Skills transference

[Empiric]

Just pick all the players from Newcastle.

Castling is always good in chess.

Easy.

Umm? Who Cares?

[sqorbit]

To sum this up. Someone who is good at one thing, is possibly good at another. He hasn't managed to "top" a fantasy league He finished in the "top 3000 in 2017-2018" Save yourself the time and skip this article. It is someone creating a news story where there is none.

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[null etc.]

He's presently in sixth place, out of 7 million players. How is that not topping the league?

WTF?

[nuckfuts]

It will not comfort anyone languishing in the FPL's lower millions to learn that Carlsen is also an occasional model.

What kind of babble is this?