Hey guys,

The new Premier League season is only a couple of months away now, so I've decided to set up the thread for a new competition! This competition is for the top scorers in the Premier League during the 2014/15 season.

In this competition, you have to first predict who you think will be the top scorer in the Premier League for the 2014/15 season. You will do this before the first games kick off and at the end of the season, if you guessed the correct top scorer, you will gain 25 points!

Then for each game of the season, you must predict how many goals your chosen top scorer will score in that game, if at all. The scoring will work as follows:-

• 1 point for every goal your chosen player scores.
• An extra 10 points if they score a hat-trick.
• Another 5 points for every goal you predicted them to score.
• A bonus 20 points if you predict the number of goals they score correctly, including if they don't score at all.

So for example, if you had chosen Luis Suarez as your top scorer and predicted him to score 2 goals against Norwich, but he scored a hat-trick, the points you would score for that game would be as follows:-

• 3 points for his three goals.
• 10 points for the hat-trick.
• 10 points for predicting two of his goals.

This would earn you a total of 23 points.

Another example is if your chosen top scorer was Wayne Rooney, you predicted him not to score against Chelsea and he didn't score, you would get 20 points for that prediction.

The points for each game week will be tallied up and I will post an update on the scores after each set of fixtures. Then at the end of the 38-game season the person with the most points will be the winner!

Please post in this thread if you would like to take part in this competition so I can compile a list of the players and if you have any alternative ideas/suggestions to make this more fun, please let me know.

Also if there is anything here you don't understand or want to ask about, then feel free and I will get back to you as soon as possible!

So if you pick a player who gets injured can you say no goals for him each week he is out and get 20 points ?

How do you define between an injured player and one who is just dropped or rested ? Or do you not score if he doesn't play ? What if he is a substitute ?

And also what if you pick a player who gets injured and is out for weeks ? You are out the comp ?

Sorry to throw questions at you but as Lostfool said in the other thread, running a comp is a lot more complicated than totting up scores. You need to have every eventuality sorted before it starts as you cannot make up rules whilst its running.

"Another example is if your chosen top scorer was Wayne Rooney, you predicted him not to score against Chelsea and he didn't score, you would get 20 points for that prediction."

Does that mean you could nominate a top scorer who will never get a goal in his life and gain 20 points a week for predicting it correctly ?

Sorry, it doesn't sound very logical to me.

I think willrelf92 is so desperate to run a DS competition after everyone ignored his World Cup one and his attempt at a premier league one that he will give anything a go.

Sorry to be harsh willrelf92 but I think you should give up with the comps. I'm just being honest.

If a player gets injured during the season then you are permitted to change to someone else for the time he is out, however you won't gain any bonus points if that player ends up being the top scorer.

If a player comes on as a sub/is substituted/doesn't play then scores still count, but predictions must be submitted the day before the game week begins; for example, if a game week begins on the Saturday, all predictions must be submitted on the Friday.

Don't worry about asking questions - it all helps to making this competition run smoothly.

Well the idea is to predict someone who at least has a reasonable chance of scoring goals, but possibly I can change the rules slightly so that you can't predict a player not to score on more than three consecutive game weeks.

Thank you for your comments but I just wanted to give it a try and if it doesn't work then it doesn't work.

I didn't make a World Cup one and the Premier League one was more an enquiry to see who would be interested and I realised it wouldn't be right to mimic TC and DB's competition.

This competition is something a bit different and if people aren't interested then fair enough, but it is only for fun so there's no harm in trying it out.

Plenty of time to iron out any kinks etc but when you come to post it you need to make sure you have a full set of rules at the start of the thread. Nothing worse than being stumped halfway through a comp.

Yeah I shall add extra rules to my notes as they crop up in this preliminary period, then post everything in full for clarity a week or so before the first game week (providing there's enough interest of course - at least 10 players would be ideal).

Remember people to let me know if you're down to be a part of this.

I'm guessing this would just be one of those competitions where everyone just picks a player and leaves the scoring to the host because its too confusing, then the discussion every week will be people complaining about there score and wanting a re-count

I did a game on the forums a couple of years ago, the most I ever got playing it was 11 (I think), it took up so much time doing tables and I couldn't wait for it to finish, I only did it for a few months because I started it mid-season, its tough doing a prediction game, especially if the scores are confusing like this one.

if you want to do it, then good luck, But I suggest you seriously think about a game that is easy to understand and will be a lot of fun, there's still plenty of time to think of something before the season starts.

Yes thanks for your comments; this may be a little confusing to start with but I'm sure it will start to make more sense as the season goes on and I will put the effort in to make sure everything works fine.

A goalscorer game is a good idea, different to all the other ones and people can play it as well as the other competitions on DS, I played a goalscorer game on the LFC forums a couple of years ago and that was great fun but it was simple.

There were no season-lasting predictions (like the season top scorer) so people could join in at any point, we simply predicted a goalscorer for each team, each week and got 2 points per goal scored.

Maybe you could do something similar, you could add new things like losing points if a player misses a penalty or something to shake it up a bit, I'm just trying to help you mate, we all are, we don't want you to waste your time and we don't want to get bored half way through the season from doing the same thing over and over.

Well thanks for your suggestions, it depends whether people are interested in my original suggestions or whether they want something a little simpler like you have suggested. It sounds good to me, but I'll wait and see what the preferred option is.

There was a World Cup prediction comp posted before the TC/Dim one. Sorry but I thought it was you. Sorry about that.

its up to you at the end of the day, its your competition, I'm just trying to give you some ideas, maybe you could find a way of mixing the two

No worries mate, mix-ups happen.

Cool. Thanks.

Yeah as I say, all ideas are welcome, I'll try and think of a way to make it maybe a bit easier to understand.

Clarky makes a good point about keeping the scoring simple. Sometimes, less is more. I do a couple of horse racing comps which run all year round. A Saturday flat one and then a Saturday NH one. Both are 26 weeks long ( ish ). But the scoring is simple, its based on the odds of the horse, nothing more or less so people can check for themselves too. Be sure not to over complicate things, that can put people off

Well perhaps I will simplify it slightly then, but first I need to see some more interest in the competition so I can hear more opinions on which option would be preferred.

I think you might have to wait a bit for some more opinions, the focus is very much on other sports at the moment and then of course you have the World Cup, don't think you'll get much interest until the world cup finishes at least, that's when people start looking ahead to the PL again.

we're agreeing a lot at the moment mate, don't know about you but it makes me a bit nervous, feels like we are due a disagreement lol

Yeah I can see why there's less interest right now, hopefully there will be more at the beginning of August.

Oh you are due one of your crackpot statements sooner or later

I could see something like that working. Predict a scorer for every team, each week. It's simple and should maintain interest. The problem with everyone choosing a player at the start of the season is that it will result in the same names cropping up.
It would be interesting to add assists, but I don't think the information is so readily available. Anyway, the simpler the better if you want people to stay involved.