FTL Cup 2025

 The FTL Cup returns in Game Week 4.

Everyone who is in level 1 or above has been entered into the draw.

We have an initial group stage where each team will play 3 matches and you will get 1 point for each match win you win.

There are 46 groups of 4 and the best 32 1st place teams will receive a bye to the 2nd Round where they will be seeded.

The remaining 14 1st place team plus 46 2nd place teams in each group will take part in Round 1. They will be joined by 4 lucky losers which is defined as the 4 teams in 3rd of 4th place who scored the most cumulative points in the cup game weeks.

Schedule

Game Week 4 1 v 2 and 3 v 4

Game Week 6 Both Winners face off and both losers face off

Game week 7 Remaining fixtures

Game Week 11 Round 1 (64 teams)

Game Week 13 Round 2 (64 teams - 32 1st rd byes)

Game Week 17 Round 3 (32 teams)

Game Week 21 Round 4 (16 teams)

Game Week 24 Quarter Finals

Game Week 29 Semi Final

Game Week 32 Final

The draw

Australian Open Results

I'd like to offer a massive kuddos to both of our Australian Open winners - Madison Keys and Jannik Sinner.

 

Coming into the AO, Jannik Sinner was the prohibitive fave to walk away with the title (this is what happens when you've won 30 of your last 31 matches lol, and won huge titles at the US Open, ATP Finals, Cincinnati, Shanghai and the Davis Cup) and when the Main Draw was posted, it was all but expected that he would at least make the final.  More often than not, these type of expectations seem to be too much for a player to deal with, but Jannik ended up walking away with his 3rd straight Hard Court Slam with relative ease.  His level of play in the Quarters, Semi's and Finals was borderline special.  In those matches, he made Alex De Minaur, Ben Shelton and Alexander Zverev look like they didn't belong on the same court.  Hell early into the 3rd set of the Championship match, Zverev looked resigned to the fact that the match was over!!  During the acceptance speeches he even commented that he's just flat out not good enough to beat Sinner right now!

Now lets discuss Madison Keys!!! She's had a hell of a career, but her emotions and nerves always seemed to get away in the big moments of big matches.  Entering the week, she would be on a short list of most talented players in WTA history to have not won a slam.  Her victory this week might be one of the most magical runs that I've ever seen.  She beat 4 top 10 players (Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina and Danielle Collins) and a former top 5 player (Elina Svitolina) in the same event!!!!  

Before getting into Maddies run, its hard to not bring up the elephant in the room - Coaching Pods.  I know, I know, what on earth are Coaching Pods?!?  This year, the AO decided that they would set up Coaching Pods right next to the court so that the players could talk to their coaches throughout their matches.  So instead of coaches giving their players signals and yelling single words to help their players, they could actually have a full conversation with them.  I'll be honest, I'm not sure Maddie ends up winning this title without these pods.  I know it sounds crazy, but thanks to the on-court coaching, Maddie was able to keep her emotions in tact, was able to stay in the moment and was able to change strategies quickly on the fly.  She ended up winning Five 3 set matches, included a 3rd set tiebreak in the Semi's against Iga Swiatek and in the Finals, she won 7-5 in the 3rd against the 2 time defending AO champ Aryna Sabalenka!!!  

Lets get this straight, Madison Keys was awesome at the AO, but without that coaching, I legit don't think that she gets that done.  Hell, I'm not even sure she makes it through Round 2, where she beats Ruse 7-5 in the 3rd!

Now in terms of FTL, I'd like to offer a massive congrats to our GW Winner - Blank (Bibek).  Apparently he knew something that most of us didn't, as he had all 4 players reach the finals this week!!  Between the 4 of them, he accumulated nearly 750 points!!!  The rest of his team didn't fare nearly as well, but it was still plenty good enough for him to win the week by 13 points as he accumulated 954.714 points.  What a way to start the FTL2025 season!!!

I'd also like to congratulate the rest of our top 5 finishers.  NEW CAL ACES 🎾🏝️ (Mathieu), Ultimate Zverev Hater (Devin), DalisVolleys (Jim A), Spotec25 (Martin H).  They were the only other managers to eclipse the 900 point barrier!!

Game Week 2 - lockout

 The Australian Open may now be over but FTL has only just begun and stops for no man! 

Game Week 2 features 3 events

ATP - Montpellier (250)

WTA - Singapore (250)

WTA - Linz (500)

The draws for all 3 events are available in the previous blog post together with handy price updates for each player.

Each game week starts when the first ball is played in any of the featured tournaments so with tournaments in different time zones, its important to stay on top of the lockout time which counts down on your team page.  All trades must be completed, lineups updated and teams saved before the clock gets down to 0.  I've "circled" trades, the lockout timer and the all important save button below. The save button will still be yellow if your changes have not been saved.  

Its likely that you will want to trade 2 or 3 players in this week for two reasons.

1. Firstly, you will want to have a strong team for Game Week 2.  Chances are you will not have 8 players for next week (especially after all the withdrawals from Montpellier) so try and trade out players who won't be playing and trade in a couple of players who will be playing and look like they have a decent draw.

2. Secondly, you will want to increase the value of your team. Every player who played in the Australian Open will now increase or decrease in value depending on how they performed in the event relative to their starting value.  

I've attached some of the more significant price increases and decreases to give you some idea.

Ideally you will want to actually trade out players who are dropping in value and not playing and trade in players who are both playing and increasing in value.   

Once you get the hang of FTL, you will find that it helps to plan ahead 3 or 4 weeks so that you have the best chance of fielding a full team in each game week.  I tend to keep a team planner which highlights which players are playing and when but just do what works for you.

I keep a spreadsheet updated which shows the player schedules.

ATP and WTA schedule

Here is a quick example taken from a team I created in the global league.

I'm quite fortunate with this team in that I already had 10 players playing in week 2 even before I did any trades so I have used my trades to increase the value of my team. 

I have therefore used my trades to bring in players who will increase significantly in value after the lockout and who will also be useful for future weeks.  As you can see from the above image my team will be worth 15m more after the lockout when taking into account the price increases of my existing players and the price increases of the players I intend to trade in, so you can imagine that you will be able to enhance the value of your team pretty quickly.

Kyrgios and Lulu Sun will both be going down in value. Even though Lulu is playing next week, I've decided I don't need her.

I've brought in Clara Tauson because she is increasing in value and should be helpful to my team in Game Weeks 2 and 3.   Neither Michelson or Vukic play in Week 2 but will be handy for Game Week 3 and as they are getting the maximum price hike, I feel they are a worthwhile investment.

You can check the prospective price increase or decrease of any players by using the calculator button on your team page.

I hope this gives the newbies among you some ideas for improving your team but as usual, feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Good luck in week 2 folks.

The week 1 updates will follow soon!

GameWeek 2 Draws - FTL Version

Sadly the Qualifiers wont be place in either Linz or Montpellier before the first Main Draw match starts in Singapore

LINZ

 MONTPELLIER

SINGAPORE