Categories: Co-EdComplementaryDivisionFallMen'sTier 1Tier 2Tier 3

FPF Cup 2020 Pre-season article; We’re Back!

Damn, it feels good to be back reading and writing about our beloved FPF league! While it certainly feels amazing that FPF is kickstarted tonight, this season will have a bit of a different feel to it, no doubt. Now, before diving straight into Fall Cup content, let me take a second to introduce myself and my role this upcoming Fall Cup season, followed by a quick comment to close the Winter season since it was shutdown in a flash. I’ll then move onto the FPF Cup details since there’s been an influx of information via different formats (emails, podcasts, links) handed out this past month, so I’ll condense here, all in one place.

My name is Ignacio, but I’m better known around the FPF world and by friends as Iggy. I’m that guy that was posting the record of the FPF media members and their picks of the week during the 2020 Winter season every Friday on the FPF Facebook group. You and your team may also have been mentioned in my lengthy game recaps or have read my Power Rankings in Div 6/6D; my first as part of the FPF media team. If you don’t partake in the above-mentioned media outlets, then perhaps you’ve seen me on the field as opponents, playing against me when you played against Honey Martin (Div 5B) or the Average Joe’s teams (Div 6).

(FYI, I’m on the bottom left)
(With the Ball)

My role this time around will be a bit deeper, taking on the English media articles for the whole Fall Cup (Tiers 1, 2, 3, and Co-Ed). I’ll be writing weekly articles that recap games from the previous week that caught my eye, highlighting games for the following weeks, analyzing matchups, standings, providing thoughts and insight on team progression, outstanding performances, performances relative to expectations, and occasionally write a fantasy lineup. These are a few of the things you can expect out of my articles. I’ll also be scorekeeping on Tuesdays and Wednesday nights, so I’ll be catching most of the action and be close to the Fall Cup pulse. 

Before I get too ahead of myself though, I mentioned I would make closing statements for the Winter season. As Rob mentioned in the “State of the Union” podcast 2 weeks ago (see Youtube video embedded below) with Moe, Peeze and Eagle, the Winter 2020 season will be resumed in late November 2020, concluding the week 11 games and playoffs, with several teams earning a Championship title a week or so before Christmas. One thing I mentioned above, is that I began tracking the FPF Media members game predictions. In doing so, the picks were made, the results were analyzed, and here are the top 3 analysts (based on prediction %) from this past Winter 2020 season in the Men’s Division:

  1. As much shit as he gets, yes, Peeze Delle Reeze sometimes actually knows what he’s talking about, and he proved it this past Winter season, emerging as the most accurate FPF media analyst, correctly predicting 25 games to his 8 mistakes in Div 2, giving him the best prediction % at 75.76%.
  1. You may be wondering why I rounded Peeze’s percentage 2 decimals… Yep, it was that close to separate 1st and 2nd place. Just short of the #1 spot by a mere 0.1%, Alex Blais landed in as the 2nd best predictor, correctly predicting 56 games to his 18 incorrect picks in Div 4B, predicting his games at a 75.68% clip (and even correctly predicted 72% of the Div 4A games too! At his tender of 19, the guy already knows his FPF!).
  1. I’m just the new guy here, but I think I started to prove my voice by ending the shortened Winter season with the 3rd best prediction rate, correctly predicting 73.33% of the Div 6D games that were played; going 66 games up and 24 games down.

As for the Co-ed Division last Winter, it wasn’t even close. Alexi Dubois was the runaway #1 Co-Ed analyst, predicting best in the Co-Ed 2 division at a 73.33% rate, predicting 22 games correctly out of the 30 games that were played (no picks were made during week 1 and there are only 8 weeks in the FPF Co-Ed Winter seasons, in case you were wondering why only 30 games were predicted).

Ok, say goodbye to the Winter 2020 season until November, let’s move on to the Fall Cup season that starts tonight! The rest of this pre-season article will bundle up all the visible (and some behind–the-scene) differences that President Rob Campana and his team have come up with to ensure a safe return-to-play campaign, as well as go over the FPF Cup 2020 format, what to expect from the FPF media team.

Instead of long paragraphs that can, frankly, be hard and tiring on the eyes, I’ll talk about the FPF Cup season and its key differences in bullet-point form.

What’s the same?

  • FPF Cup 2019 Format
    • o The FPF Cup document (found below, at the end of the article) does a great job of explaining the format, rules, and cash prize incentives, but here’s the shortened version if your pressed for time:
    • o 3 Tier’s (1,2,3) and 1 Co-Ed Tier with no overlapping or cross over games between Tiers 1, 2, and 3.
    • o Each team plays 4 preliminary round games. Teams are then re-seeded into top-half and bottom-half pools and play another 4 games against teams in the same pool as you.
    • o Once teams have played their 8 games, the teams will be re-grouped from first to last to determine who advances to the Knockout (Playoff) Round. As mentioned, there are cash prizes if you part of the in the playoff grouping with the 4 top teams in your Tier.

What’s new/different because of Covid?

  • Player
    • Uniform: Have your primary color jersey with a secondary color jersey on hand (if no secondary color jersey, a white t-shirt to write a # on the back will suffice for this COVID season), as no pinnies will be handed out.
  • Team: Players can only join 1 team. Keep that in mind if you are ever short a man 5 minutes prior to your game. You can no longer ask someone who just finished his or her game to play for you, or else you forfeit your game due to a roster violation.
  • No spitting: This one is obvious to mention as I’m writing this off the field, but will be more difficult to adhere to, as it is second-nature for some of us to spit on our gloves to gain back a bit of that stickiness. A warning will be issued by the referees, and if repeated, a penalty will be drawn by the official.
  • Gaitors: While not mandatory, FPF will be providing free neck/face gaitors to all Fall Cup participants to feel safer in the offensive/defensive huddles.
  • Teams
    • Team Caps:
  • TIER 1: 490 cap; QB cap: 100.0
  • TIER 2: 440 cap; QB cap: 80.0
  • TIER 3: 390 cap; QB cap: 70.0
  • Co-Ed: 430 cap; QB cap: 80.0
  • Fields/Sites
    • There will be an outdoor field available for the upcoming Fall season. While Covid-19 made this possible, outdoor fields were already on the FPF landscape and this is a great way to fast-track an outdoor pilot project.
  • Heavy downpour: Delay game until rain stops or postpone game if heavy rain continues for hours.
    • N.B: It will be at the discretion of FPF staff to delay or postpone a game if and when it is felt that player safety is compromised.
  • Thunder & Lightning: Automatic game postponement
    • N.B. There is a pre-determined bye-week already set-aside during the Fall Cup season in case any game(s) were postponed due to weather or any other factors.
  • Pre-Game
    • Entering the Complexes: As the new law in Quebec stipulates, masks will be mandatory when entering both the Laval and Brossard Complexes.
  • Entering the Field: A Sanitation and Safety Supervisor will be present before entering the fields/sites. Their role will be to:
    • Ensure player’s hands/gloves are properly sanitized,
    • Ask if you have any Covid-related symptoms,
    • Ask if you’ve been in contact with someone who’s tested positive for Covid-19,
    • Measure player’s temperature with an infrared thermometer gun.
      • N.B: A reading of 38 degrees C or higher will warrant a second reading. If the second reading is still 38 or above, the player will not be permitted to access the turf. The player will still receive credit for a Game Played.
  • Entering the Field (2): Since access to the locker rooms are closed, it is highly suggested you come to the field with your jersey on and pocketless shorts. 
  • Entering the Field (3): Please wait until all the players have left the field with their belongings before going onto the field and heading to your bench at the endzones and warming up. 
  • Roster submission: 15-30 minutes prior to the game, captains will be asked to submit their roster via a text-messaging service that Rob and Eagle have worked on to replace the paper submission to scorekeeprs, in order to limit contact with FPF staff.
    • Text 833-507-2310 and be sure to include your team name, your player names for the evening (including jersey #), and the field code, so the correct scorekeeper gets the correct roster.
      • The Field Codes are: Laval1; Laval3, Brossard1, Brossard3, CND1, CND2
  • Game-Play
    • Captains Meeting/Coin Toss: There will be no captains meeting and coin toss at mid-field before the start of games. Instead, like it is during FPF playoffs, the Home team will have the option to start with the ball or on defence.
  • Bean bags/markers: Bean markers will no longer be placed on the field of play; instead, they will be on the sideline where the sideline ref will move them up and down the field.
  • Footballs: There will be no sharing of footballs, so make sure to bring one for your team. Footballs on both squads will be sanitized at the start of the game and at halftime.
  • Spitting: As previously mentioned, spitting as well as squirting your water bottle is not tolerated this season. A warning will be given the first drives and weeks of the season, but continued spitting it will result in a penalty
  • New Pop-Flag Belts: While the old flag belts will still be allowed during gameplay, the new FPF pop-flags will be allowed to be used and are available for purchase, $5 individually or a promo of 12 flags for $50.
  • Post-Game
    • No post-game handshakes between teams.
    • Leave the field as quickly as possible to allow the next teams to enter the playing field. We remind you to please change in the stands and not on the player bench after your game has finished.
    • The dressing rooms will not be opened for players to change and take showers.

As mentioned, there were a lot of documents handed out in the past month, so I’ve bunched them up here for a one-stop-shop source of information available to you and your teammates. They are very detailed and well explained to answer the majority of your questions!

New documents/ sources of information :

Well, that’s it for now. I hope we can all adhere to the new measures in place by Rob and his FPF team in order to continue playing in the league we all love! Remember to stay home if you don’t feel well, and I encourage you to get tested if that’s the case! If you are sick, as much as you love football and really want to play, remember that’s the case for all of us. I’m sure you wouldn’t want someone who feels ill to be playing and potentially shutting down your team’s season for 2 weeks, so think twice before heading out to your games!

I’m super excited to get the Fall Cup started and talking all things FPF. If you ever want to reach out and have comments on bettering the article experience, or have a tidbit of information about your team and why you think you can win it all this Fall, I’m all ears and can be reached on Facebook/social media as Ignacio Valdes-Manzanedo (ya, it’s a doozy) or via email at [email protected]. See you guys on the field and goodluck to you in this tournament of champions.