FPL is Fantasy Premier League. I have played for years. Each season runs a long time, and by the end I always want my own numbers — weekly points curves, rank curves. That was a real need. After searching online and finding nothing that fit well, I decided to build one myself.
2024 was still before the AI-coding wave. This project was handmade end to end. I used Next.js on the front end and ECharts for charts.
A big problem with FPL projects is that official data is not really open. You need hacky ways to pull from their APIs. Players who want their own data have to enter a player ID by hand. There is no proper login or data API for third-party apps — clearly they are not eager for that kind of integration.
They ship a huge JSON of players: teams, IDs, names, and so on. That table barely changes, so I stored the stable bits locally. Weekly fixture data was harder; I had to update the repo by hand each week. The whole thing did not feel very “smart.”
I put up a simple landing page and some SEO, and did light promotion in Chinese player communities. It brought a little traffic. Overall, users stayed few — below what I hoped for — and there was no revenue.
I have now finished four full FPL seasons. My rank has climbed each year; last season peaked in the top 6% of my career.
Last year I played almost obsessively. Premier League kickoff times are rough for China, so matches often wrecked my sleep. I even dreamed about scoring my current squad.
That was too much for daily life, so this season I lean on AI help and try to care less myself.
I have a few FPL player groups in China — among the longest-lived, most solid circles I have. In that wild last season I also admin’d an H2H league: recruiting teams early on, then writing match reports after every gameweek. It was a memorable stretch.
I will keep playing FPL, but I need to dial in how deep I go. The game can grind you down.