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The end is nigh

FPL Draft format starting in 2017/18
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Mav3rick
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The end is nigh

Post by Mav3rick »

There's something both sad and also relieving about seeing GW38 scroll into view on the transactions screen... The end of the season is nigh!

So how have people found draft? I personally think that I prefer it to classic FPL, but maybe that's just because all four of my draft teams this year are competitive. I like the fact that there's no captains, no chips, I like the fact that there's no interest from anyone outside the draft (it means certain troll type posters stay away) and I even quite like the limited DGW/BGW strategy. I haven't decided if I'll play for cash again next season, but I do think it's easier to keep interest in a draft league with money on it, although I do fear for the popularity of the game going forward as it's hardly been a hotbed of discussion, here or on Reddit and I'm not sure I've seen much content at all on FFS targetted at draft.

It will be interesting to see how the particpation of Taca's big draft money league goes, I think the format has been a bit marmite so after a year's experience I wonder how many will be excited by a second season. Shorter, frequent competitions might be the way to go, the divisionals run by bspittles are competitive and fun.

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Tacalabala
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Re: The end is nigh

Post by Tacalabala »

I'm not sure to be honest, I can't see myself playing if we don't get the numbers for the money league, will push that again soon. I think they have done a good job with it.

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Mav3rick
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FS Record: FPL: 1082, 1201, 1800, 10203

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Re: The end is nigh

Post by Mav3rick »

They (FPL) have managed to incrementally improve the interface too. It's still got issues, such as the transaction screen resetting each time you add a waiver, and there could be general improvements made to the way the waivers are presented each week.

I like the game, but it's hardly gonna be the FPL centre piece so there's a chance it goes the way of Ultimate FPL I guess, especially if they go down the daily play route which seems more and more popular.

How many confirmed signups do you have for next years money league?

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Tacalabala
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Re: The end is nigh

Post by Tacalabala »

Three if you include me. But it's still early days and I haven't really pushed it enough yet.

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Ruth_NZ
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Re: The end is nigh

Post by Ruth_NZ »

I have played 2 leagues, a 10-team and a 5-team. The 5-team was dead boring with huge gaps between the teams. Not competitive at all and very reliant on the original draft. The 10-team was interesting and very competitive, even now there are only 17 points separating the top 4 teams. Partly that is down to everyone having a bunch of base-price players which leads to lots of room to make/lose ground by making changes every week. Also it spreads the player pool much wider than in the standard game - I have had players like J-Rod, Cresswell, Bernardo Silva, Wijnaldum, Brady, Demarai Gray, Aurier and Izquierdo do well for me at various times in the season. That makes it interesting because with the possible exception of Brady they are none of them players I would ever have considered in FPL. It also rewards those that work at it - in that league 3 of the top 5 teams have averaged 160 waiver/FT transactions each.

That's the reason I haven't enrolled for Tacalabala's cash league. I'd be interested but not with leagues so small. 8 teams would be the absolute minimum for me, otherwise it is too much of a lottery from what I have seen so far.

I also quite like the game but not as much as vanilla FPL, which I think has more depth. But it has sometimes been therapeutic to poke around in the Free Agent bin for 30 minutes on a Friday after the waivers are done. :)

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robot
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Re: The end is nigh

Post by robot »

I love the game but do not put enough effort into waivers and nearly all my changes are free agents, which although obviously doesnt help me I also am doing okish in the leagues i'm in which shows how important the initial draft is.
I agree with ruth in that hunting the base price players makes it interesting and I prefer the larger leagues.(8 ideal)
That I believe is a fundamental issue with getting people to join leagues half want a game which deals with the core 100 ish players and others want a wider game involving 150ish players.

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Mav3rick
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Re: The end is nigh

Post by Mav3rick »

I think that's a good observation robot, that some of us like (for want of a better word) a 'harder' league where you have to be a bit creative.

I'm with Ruth and much prefer the 9 team money league to the 6 team divisional in terms of squads, but the divisional being H2H means the large player pool lets you match up each week. I quite like that aspect, and being H2H the total points don't matter.

Mind you, even in a larger money league there can still be runaway teams, like BFM's dominant points team, so definitely having multiple drafts helps keeps things more level.

bspittles
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Re: The end is nigh

Post by bspittles »

I love the H2H draft game. My works league was non-H2H and had pretty much died by Christmas. For a non-H2H league, you really need to find a way of increasing player turn over otherwise it can become very sterile. In the OFL draft league I play, we have to jettison five players at the end of each season. I'm not sure that's often enough.

I did toy with the idea of a league where each month the bottom teams could select a player from the top teams, but then you'd lose a lot of the skill.

I really hope they carry on with it (and bring back UFPL as well).

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Talkie Toaster
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Re: The end is nigh

Post by Talkie Toaster »

I'm very much enjoying the game, although standard fpl is still my priority.
I've found the smaller, short season H2H game of bspittles more fun than the season long, larger classic league, but that may be influenced by league position. :lol:
The smaller, shorter games do tend to be a bit more dynamic though as you're more willing to let your players go when the seasons are shorter.

I think one of the things draft does have going for it is that there are several ways in which it can be played - H2H, classical scoring, full season, short multiple seasons, small leagues or large leagues, so there should be a format for everyone.
It would be helpful if fpl could either increase the number of game slots available to everyone or allow admins to delete a league to enable more short season games to be entered. Maybe even an option to specify a start and end week when creating the league as well.

It will be interesting to see if they introduce trading between managers next season and if it will be compulsory or optional.

The fpl could do more to make the game a bit more engaging on a week to week basis. The new Home Tab is a big step in the right direction for improving visibility of what's going on in the league, but it still needs work. The waiver process is something unique to draft so they should do more to showcase it and make it easier to see what' transactions have been made.

The other thing which has been on my wish-list all season is a better system to manage the watchlists, so you don't have to start from scratch for every league.
And hopefully they'll fix last year's issues with the drafts crashing in the final week before the season started.

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zipnolan
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Re: The end is nigh

Post by zipnolan »

I'm in three draft leagues - two containing friends, one random done in advance to see what the interface was like.

I've enjoyed it, but the dominance of Salah has proved critical in two of the three leagues. Very hard to compete with someone who has an 80 point head start on the field. The earliest he was drafted in the three leagues was fifteenth. Nothing much to be done about it with scoring structure as it is, though.

Interested to see the comments about how larger leagues are more competitive. Most of my friends were resistant to large leagues (too much work), and I think that is the position of most "amateur" players. I'll try to push for larger leagues next year. Definitely feel as though I've learnt a lot of strategy during the season and will be a bit better next year.

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