FPL-[C] Recap - s0m opens the year with a win; handful of players removed to kick off 2020
As 2020 gets underway, players continue to fight through FPL to claim shares of the prize money. To kick off January, it was Sam "s0m" Oh who earned a first place finish, maintaining a thirteen-game winstreak at the end of the week to edge out the win over Owen "oBo" Schlatter by seven points.
The top twenty players for the first week of January are:
| Rank | Player | Points | Prize |
| 1. |  Sam "s0m" Oh |
1,590 | $3,000 |
| 2. | Owen "oBo" Schlatter |
1,583 | $2,000 |
| 3. |  Maxim "wippie" Shepelev |
1,555 | $1,000 |
| 4. | Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan |
1,552 | $800 |
| 5. |  Matthew "WARDELL" Yu |
1,548 | $700 |
| 6. | Austin "Cooper-" Abadir |
1,542 | $600 |
| 7. | Matthew "no_one" Congdon |
1,542 | $500 |
| 8. | Josh "PwnAlone" Pigue |
1,541 | $500 |
| 9. | Jake "Stewie2K" Yip |
1,540 | $450 |
| 10. | Kevin "4pack" Przypasniak |
1,539 | $450 |
| 11. | Pujan "FNS" Mehta |
1,538 | |
| 12. | Hunter "SicK" Mims |
1,537 | |
| 13. | Victor "food" Wong |
1,537 | |
| 14. | Gage "Infinite" Green |
1,536 | |
| 15. | Keith "NAF" Markovic |
1,525 | |
| 16. | Rahul "curry" Nemani |
1,524 | |
| 17. | Damian "daps" Steele |
1,522 | |
| 18. | Abdo "c4Lypso" Agha |
1,520 | |
| 19. | Kaleb "moose" Jayne |
1,520 | |
| 20. | Joshua "steel" Nissan |
1,520 |
The full leaderboard can be found here.
Two Liquid players made appearances in the top twenty, with Jake "Stewie2K" Yip continuing his streak of placing in the money as he ended the week in ninth place. Keith "NAF" Markovic trailed in fifteenth, while a quartet of Canadians brought up the bottom of the board.
A number of removals also occurred as the new year was ushered in, most notably including Collin "wrath" McSweegan, James "hazed" Cobb, Josh "jdm64" Marzano, and Daniel "roca" Gustaferri. Additionally, FPL-C promotees Stefan "Lacore" Paunovic, Bryce "PureR" Lovell, and Paytyn "Junior" Johnson were all cast out, leaving them to once again fight through the Challenger division if they hope to play among the pros in the future.
Over in FPL-C, ETHEREAL's Malick "dangle" Abid led the way as a result of winning 19 of the 25 matches he played, including ending the week on a seven-game winning streak.
The top ten players were as follows:
| Rank | Player | Points | Prize |
| 1. | Malick "dangle" Abid |
1,142 | $1,250 |
| 2. |  Stefan "Lacore" Paunovic |
1,112 | $600 |
| 3. | Shawn "Magowi" O'Malley |
1,110 | $300 |
| 4. | Paytyn "Junior" Johnson |
1,100 | $200 |
| 5. | Caleb "opportunity" Davis |
1,086 | $150 |
| 6. | Jordan "jitter" Ruggiero |
1,080 | |
| 7. | Chris "Slash" Petersen |
1,074 | |
| 8. | Ramal "Rampage" Silva |
1,070 | |
| 9. | Anthony "dawn" Hagopian |
1,066 | |
| 10. | Ryan "Winsum" Johns |
1,066 |
The full leaderboard can be seen here.
Following their demotion from FPL, Lacore and Junior were quick to fight their way to the top of the FPL-C weekly leaderboards by finishing in second and fourth, respectively. Still, the players will have a tall hill to climb as they look to continue placing near the top throughout the month in hopes of once again earning promotion.
