41. Man vs Machine Learning: Rank 1k vs Rank 600k

Gameweek 34 saw red arrows for both teams with my team getting its first red arrow in 8 weeks. The navigation of the double followed by the blank has proved to be tricky and the hope is that GW 36 will see the teams gain back some of the advantage.

A momentary occasion for me was when my team was in the top 1k for the first time ever, reaching a high live-rank of 651. The gap in the two teams now is almost 300 points. This can be explained by the over performance of my team combined with the underperformance of the ML team.

My team finished around 50k overall rank the last three seasons. Currently, I am a 100 points ahead of the 50k mark. Also, the Machine has been hampered by the fixture changes more drastically than a human would be. I believe this contributed to at least 50 points, if not 100. Finally, the model itself has room for improvement. Risky captaincy picks, ignoring obvious moves, lack of transparency of starts meant a gap of around 100 to 150 points between the two teams would have been a reasonable expectation in a normal season. 

The Machine's Team

• Gameweek 35
• Shaw got 2 points from three games. TAA was the only player in defence to do well, with his 16 points.
• Captain Bruno and Salah both got good scores and Pereira scored a goal to keep the points ticking
• Iheanacho got 9 points but Watkins' red and Kane's blank meant that the team did not cross 100 points
• The Machine got a red arrow to go from 596k to 670k

• Gameweek 36
• The suggested move is to bring Wood in for Iheanacho and it has been made (2 free transfers available
• Captain is Salah, vice Captain Kane (I know the pic says Wood but that's wrong)
• The second free transfer is not being used. In case Veltman doesn't play, Harrison should come on

Expected number of returns for GW 36-38 per position according to the Machine

My Team

• Gameweek 35
• Mendy and TAA got double digit returns in their double gameweek, with Mendy playing only one of the games
• The midfield all did well, except Lingard's 1 pointer
• Iheanacho ticked over with points one last time to finish on 115 points
• A red arrow from 1340 to 1707

• Gameweek 36
• One change has been made so far. Bamford comes in for Iheanacho. He's the second highest scoring forward and has 3 good fixtures + Leeds are in form.
• Forster may not play due to the Southampton goalkeeper rotation and Veltman is injured so there are a few options in mind with the second transfer
• One option is Veltman to Coleman, another option is Mendy to Meslier. The third option is to do both for a hit
• I considered a move for Bruno but decided against it
• Captain is Salah

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