You know how some players look decent in the lower leagues, but then get shown up in the top flight? Well, that was me this weekend in 11Kicks fantasy football. After a few wins at Silver level ($4.99 to enter, $25 for finishing first) I took the 11Kicks House Team up to Platinum level for game week 24 ($24.99 to enter, $125 for finishing first) and promptly came 10th out of 11 teams. Ouch.

In hindsight, the most interesting thing is that I didn’t have a terrible week. Two goals from Fernando Torres, one from Nani, and clean sheets for Wojciech Szczęsny, Brede Hangeland and Nemanja Vidic, all of which totaled 47 points. But Platinum is the big boy league, where it seems you need players scoring in every position to have a chance at winning.

Speaking of which… congratulations to player Jimstaelhi and his KING RED HOOK team for finishing first with 68 points. His team selection masterstroke was making hat-trick hero Robin van Persie captain (worth 18 points) and picking fellow hat-trick hero Dimitar Berbatov (11 points) to play alongside him.

Despite the beating I took, Platinum level was enjoyably competitive, especially because all 10 rival managers seemed to take it seriously enough to pick a carefully considered team (no one was dumb enough to pick a suspended player, for example). So, like the lower league player who’s made a tough Premier League debut, I’m a little wiser for the experience, and will almost certainly be back to try my luck in top flight again.