Proposed FPL Draft money league for 2018/19

[Tacalabala]

I thought it was probably the best time to ask for next season now that we have an idea of whether we like FPL Draft or not and if we are going to have a competition next season I will probably start taking entry fees before the end of this season.

I've created a Google Form to gauge interest, please fill this in - https://goo.gl/forms/KVyklThO0ALR32Gr2

The format I'm proposing is as follows:

- All entrants will enter two teams into the competition. The combined score of both teams will constitute the entrant's overall combined points score.
- Entrants will enter their two teams into two different four team leagues on FPL Draft, or as we will call them 'divisions'.
- Entrants that are approved by the competition administrator will create four team divisions on FPL Draft. All divisions will start on Gameweek 1. The format (classic or head-to-head) and draft times will be at the discretion of the division creator in cooperation with the three other league members.
- No two leagues may have the same four members (a maximum of three may be the same).
- There will be cash prizes for at least the following:
# 1st, 2nd, 3rd overall entrant (combined score of both teams for each entrant).
# Highest combined scoring division (cash to be divided equally between the four division entrants).

[robot]

4 team drafts for me would be a no, 6 possibly 8 or above yes.

[Mav3rick]

What did we have this year? 8 or 9 team leagues? I do think that restricted options in terms of transfers too much, especially in forwards which there are really not enough options, but maybe 4 would go too far the other way. 6 might be the right number if the total number of players can be made to work with that (18/24 entrants required I guess?). Last year it seemed hard to gather enough entrants, and I don't know if people's experience of draft in this maiden season will make it more or less likely that they will play again next season.

The Draft leagues seemed to go stale very quickly this season, I have felt like I've just been going through the motions despite winning the cup and being in contention in the overall standings. I can't imagine people lower down are bothered anymore. I wonder if it might be more interesting to run a series of shorter competitions, each with a draft and total points added up at the end? I suppose that would present it's own issues with absent managers etc, perhaps at least 2 drafts though, one at the start of the season and one for GW19?

The head to heads in the cup definitely added another layer of strategy/interest. I'm not sure if that adds anything to the discussion but it was interesting looking at your opponent and wondering if you had any means to counter their strengths.

[Ruth_NZ]

4 team drafts for me would be a no, 6 possibly 8 or above yes.

Agreed, would need to be minimum 8 for me, ideally 10. That way the pool is stretched. With 4 teams you are basically playing with the same pool of players as in FPL. Pretty boring.

[Tacalabala]

The appeal for me when we started was that the people at the bottom would have first dibs every week, but that 'advantage' is non-existent in a league of 8/9, there just aren't enough players in the Prem to give you that choice like there is in the 32 team NFL. I'm in a 5 team one for the Divisionals and the availables are still just that little bit short of real solid options. The conclusion I've come to is that to make it interesting for majority of the season, you actually need an oversupply of players available, then the waivers is going to be competitive every week. I'm sure that if we did a test 4 team draft right now, the leftovers would be decent enough to give options every week. And having to organise split and in-season drafts is going to be a total pain in the arse :laugh:

What do people think of having a prize for the highest scoring league? I think that could be a really interesting concept both during the league recruitment stage and the run-in. I've also thought about opening it up to make it a FISO+Reddit competition, what is the feeling on that?

[mad dog]

Sorry not for me next season guys. Took too much on with sky sun and tff even Fpl to then have to think about another game.

[Ruth_NZ]

The appeal for me when we started was that the people at the bottom would have first dibs every week, but that 'advantage' is non-existent in a league of 8/9, there just aren't enough players in the Prem to give you that choice like there is in the 32 team NFL.

I play in a 10-team draft. There are worthwhile players to be had on waiver/FT every week. Seriously there are.

The only position that is in short supply is strikers, because most PL teams only play with one upfront. But even on that basis, each team in a 10-team draft can have 2 first choice strikers. Plus a lot of #10s are categorised as strikers. Plus a lot of teams use rotation. It just means that you see a lot of 5-4-1 or 4-5-1 being used. Which makes the game more interesting.

[DAREEL]

The appeal for me when we started was that the people at the bottom would have first dibs every week, but that 'advantage' is non-existent in a league of 8/9, there just aren't enough players in the Prem to give you that choice like there is in the 32 team NFL. I'm in a 5 team one for the Divisionals and the availables are still just that little bit short of real solid options. The conclusion I've come to is that to make it interesting for majority of the season, you actually need an oversupply of players available, then the waivers is going to be competitive every week. I'm sure that if we did a test 4 team draft right now, the leftovers would be decent enough to give options every week. And having to organise split and in-season drafts is going to be a total pain in the arse :laugh:

What do people think of having a prize for the highest scoring league? I think that could be a really interesting concept both during the league recruitment stage and the run-in. I've also thought about opening it up to make it a FISO+Reddit competition, what is the feeling on that?

4 or 6 teams would be of intrest to me. I don't use reddit but by all means open it up to more people and create multiple leagues. Dependant on the entries a prize for highest scoring league could keep it intresting even for those at bottom who have nothing to play for

[robot]

Would a mixture work say 16 entrants and 1 team in a 4 team league and the other in an 8 team league?

[Tacalabala]

Would a mixture work say 16 entrants and 1 team in a 4 team league and the other in an 8 team league?

The problem with that is that you'd need to recruit in multiples of 8:

8-16-24-32

Whereas with 4s it would be easier to reach smaller increments:

4-8-12-16-20-24-28-32

[MoSe]

It's not just that.
In your format each manager plays TWO same sized legues, which can overlap.
This allows for even smaller increments than by 4
For instance, in Taca format one game could be played by 6 managers in 3 four-member-leagues
ABCD
ABEF
CDEF

In robot's format, each manager plays only one 8-league, which can't thus overlap, or some manager would play two. This is what's forcing 8-managers increments.
A format where each manager plays TWO 8-leagues, would allow for instance a game with 12 managers and 3 8-leagues.
It's the overlapping which allows for smaller increments

[Beerfuelledman]

Id be interested in playing again. Even cutting the 9 teams to 8 would give a decent boost to the player pool.

[Mav3rick]

Id be interested in playing again. Even cutting the 9 teams to 8 would give a decent boost to the player pool.

I'd agree with that, even more so if 8 per league is a good number to work with from an admin perspective.

I suppose the trick is trying to keep people engaged as if one league is close while 4 managers have checked out of another league, then there's some advantage to one set of managers in that. Perhaps some prizes per quarter-season, a second cup competition, or maybe the end part of the season could be broken off into a smaller set of "play-off" head-to-heads, for the teams outside of the top 4 who could play head to heads against each other in a small (manual) league for a small prize (say, their entry fee back or something like that?).

I don't think being late in an 8/9 team draft is a disadvantage, I was 7th and 8th out of 9 in both my drafts and feel like I did ok out of the draft itself. The issue for me is around lack of options when (like for me) a Coutinho leaves the league. Yes you can mess around with the Stanislas', Antonio's or 4/5th defenders of the world (as I have been) but there's undeniably a huge slice of luck involved in who picks up a long term injury and with so few waiver options in the league you're really left struggling to catch up.

[Tacalabala]

You've hit the nail on the head. I anticipate that 4 team leagues would be more competitive for the duration of the season, because it would be difficult to be cut adrift and at the same time for the leaders to lock in the top performers.

I think the way to keep that interest going, in a way that is easiest to handle the administration for, is to have league v league prize. Cups are nice but there is a fair amount of luck and you have to manually input everything. Also, there is nothing to stop the 4 team leagues themselves having intra and inter cash prizes separate from the main competition, and I'd be happy to act as treasurer for this as well.

[thebillfella]

Played in a draft league with only 6 and not as enjoyable for me as everyone has very good teams throughout so thus not as much of a need (or want as don't want to lose your best players when injured say so you end up sitting tight) to hit the waiver market. With the 9 man league it's a bit more of a 'challenge' which for me makes it more entertaining - more waiver requests in the larger rather than smaller leagues for me. 8 man would be fine I suspect but no lower.

There was mention in the PM of success being based on look of the draw. Certainly the chances of getting say Harry Kane are related to this, but it's worth noting that in both the 9 man Points League and 9 man H2H league that only 4 and 5 no. of the top 18 points scorers as things stand right now were drafted in the first two rounds. So draft position may help with the obvious stellar picks but success is linked more to picking the right players at the right time!!!

[DAREEL]

Played in a draft league with only 6 and not as enjoyable for me as everyone has very good teams throughout so thus not as much of a need (or want as don't want to lose your best players when injured say so you end up sitting tight) to hit the waiver market. With the 9 man league it's a bit more of a 'challenge' which for me makes it more entertaining - more waiver requests in the larger rather than smaller leagues for me. 8 man would be fine I suspect but no lower.

There was mention in the PM of success being based on look of the draw. Certainly the chances of getting say Harry Kane are related to this, but it's worth noting that in both the 9 man Points League and 9 man H2H league that only 4 and 5 no. of the top 18 points scorers as things stand right now were drafted in the first two rounds. So draft position may help with the obvious stellar picks but success is linked more to picking the right players at the right time!!!

That was me who mentioned that Bill . I see you did quite well though and it's entirely normal that you would like the strategy . I'd probably be same, but when paying the cash to join a game I like to belive I have as much chance as anyone from the start. That 9th pick meant I had the mighty sandro as an only viable striker. I felt 9th really left me with the drags of FPL. The other team i faired much better with 5th pick. I did not have a chance from the get go with my 9th place. It was an uphill struggle from the start. Maybe the draft isn't as much luck when there is a nice pool of players to choose from but where people had Aguero , Kane, Bobby etc. I had to take a punt on Sandro. I'd be intrested to hear from the other 9th place drafts and see what they thought

[Tacalabala]

I've created a four team test league to see how it pans out

1001497-247221

Tonight 9pm UK draft min max 4

[DAREEL]

Played in a draft league with only 6 and not as enjoyable for me as everyone has very good teams throughout so thus not as much of a need (or want as don't want to lose your best players when injured say so you end up sitting tight) to hit the waiver market. With the 9 man league it's a bit more of a 'challenge' which for me makes it more entertaining - more waiver requests in the larger rather than smaller leagues for me. 8 man would be fine I suspect but no lower.

There was mention in the PM of success being based on look of the draw. Certainly the chances of getting say Harry Kane are related to this, but it's worth noting that in both the 9 man Points League and 9 man H2H league that only 4 and 5 no. of the top 18 points scorers as things stand right now were drafted in the first two rounds. So draft position may help with the obvious stellar picks but success is linked more to picking the right players at the right time!!!

Ps. You done very well to do as well as you have and I don't mean to take away any achievement by saying it was the draft draw that was the reason for how well you did. I'm more saying it's impossible make a come back without decent strikers

[Mav3rick]

Played in a draft league with only 6 and not as enjoyable for me as everyone has very good teams throughout so thus not as much of a need (or want as don't want to lose your best players when injured say so you end up sitting tight) to hit the waiver market. With the 9 man league it's a bit more of a 'challenge' which for me makes it more entertaining - more waiver requests in the larger rather than smaller leagues for me. 8 man would be fine I suspect but no lower.

There was mention in the PM of success being based on look of the draw. Certainly the chances of getting say Harry Kane are related to this, but it's worth noting that in both the 9 man Points League and 9 man H2H league that only 4 and 5 no. of the top 18 points scorers as things stand right now were drafted in the first two rounds. So draft position may help with the obvious stellar picks but success is linked more to picking the right players at the right time!!!

Ps. You done very well to do as well as you have and I don't mean to take away any achievement by saying it was the draft draw that was the reason for how well you did. I'm more saying it's impossible make a come back without decent strikers

The thing is though that even at 9th, you get 9th and 10th pick in the snake. I suspect there is a disadvantage somewhere (with an odd number of picks, maybe the late drafters get a significantly worse last pick) but essentially every run up and down the snake should be fairly equal. 1st pick and 18th pick... is that demonstrably better than 9th and 10th?

What I do think is true though is that the draft order changes the formation you can play. I have rarely played a 3 striker week, due to being late in the draft order (7th & 8th) I've had various low quality strikers at different points in the season but if you let all the top strikers go in round 1, and then you get KDB and Hazard in the snake (as I did) then it feels competitive, you just have play a different game/formation to those early in the draft.

I do think there's an element of strategy in the draft in that way, but also I'm definitely open to the possibility that an odd number of teams in a league damages the last pick in the last round. I still think its lack of viable options that has been the issue in a 9 man draft, however I hear the comments of the small leagues being too "easy".

I would definitely back the idea of limiting us to 8 team leagues and seeing how that goes, I do think that 15 players back in the pool would loosen waivers up quite a lot.

[thebillfella]

Played in a draft league with only 6 and not as enjoyable for me as everyone has very good teams throughout so thus not as much of a need (or want as don't want to lose your best players when injured say so you end up sitting tight) to hit the waiver market. With the 9 man league it's a bit more of a 'challenge' which for me makes it more entertaining - more waiver requests in the larger rather than smaller leagues for me. 8 man would be fine I suspect but no lower.

There was mention in the PM of success being based on look of the draw. Certainly the chances of getting say Harry Kane are related to this, but it's worth noting that in both the 9 man Points League and 9 man H2H league that only 4 and 5 no. of the top 18 points scorers as things stand right now were drafted in the first two rounds. So draft position may help with the obvious stellar picks but success is linked more to picking the right players at the right time!!!

That was me who mentioned that Bill . I see you did quite well though and it's entirely normal that you would like the strategy . I'd probably be same, but when paying the cash to join a game I like to belive I have as much chance as anyone from the start. That 9th pick meant I had the mighty sandro as an only viable striker. I felt 9th really left me with the drags of FPL. The other team i faired much better with 5th pick. I did not have a chance from the get go with my 9th place. It was an uphill struggle from the start. Maybe the draft isn't as much luck when there is a nice pool of players to choose from but where people had Aguero , Kane, Bobby etc. I had to take a punt on Sandro. I'd be intrested to hear from the other 9th place drafts and see what they thought

I can see why you think that having a top striker gives you any advantage, but again I think the facts don't necessarily back up this assumption. I am doing well but this is in spite of my forward line not because of it - my main striker in H2H is Jesus for example who is only the 10th top striker in points scored and only 76th place overall!!!

My top scoring players in Points is Salah (17th pick) and in H2H is Sterling (52nd pick) - you for example could have had both of these before me but chose elsewhere. You didn't pick up Sandro until your pick number 5 so that wasn't about draft position that was about your strategy and choices (and thus you had a very good chance from the get go but were unlucky).

By drafting in the position you had, yes the top striker options had gone but you therefore had first dibs on the top midfielder options - you've just been unfortunate that your first drafts of Sanchez and Alli haven't had the seasons they had last year thus far as they both could easily have scored as well as Salah or Sterling (and thus better than all strikers). So strategy, choices and an element of luck all have as much bearing as draft position IMO.

[DAREEL]

Played in a draft league with only 6 and not as enjoyable for me as everyone has very good teams throughout so thus not as much of a need (or want as don't want to lose your best players when injured say so you end up sitting tight) to hit the waiver market. With the 9 man league it's a bit more of a 'challenge' which for me makes it more entertaining - more waiver requests in the larger rather than smaller leagues for me. 8 man would be fine I suspect but no lower.

There was mention in the PM of success being based on look of the draw. Certainly the chances of getting say Harry Kane are related to this, but it's worth noting that in both the 9 man Points League and 9 man H2H league that only 4 and 5 no. of the top 18 points scorers as things stand right now were drafted in the first two rounds. So draft position may help with the obvious stellar picks but success is linked more to picking the right players at the right time!!!

That was me who mentioned that Bill . I see you did quite well though and it's entirely normal that you would like the strategy . I'd probably be same, but when paying the cash to join a game I like to belive I have as much chance as anyone from the start. That 9th pick meant I had the mighty sandro as an only viable striker. I felt 9th really left me with the drags of FPL. The other team i faired much better with 5th pick. I did not have a chance from the get go with my 9th place. It was an uphill struggle from the start. Maybe the draft isn't as much luck when there is a nice pool of players to choose from but where people had Aguero , Kane, Bobby etc. I had to take a punt on Sandro. I'd be intrested to hear from the other 9th place drafts and see what they thought

I can see why you think that having a top striker gives you any advantage, but again I think the facts don't necessarily back up this assumption. I am doing well but this is in spite of my forward line not because of it - my main striker in H2H is Jesus for example who is only the 10th top striker in points scored and only 76th place overall!!!

My top scoring players in Points is Salah (17th pick) and in H2H is Sterling (52nd pick) - you for example could have had both of these before me but chose elsewhere. You didn't pick up Sandro until your pick number 5 so that wasn't about draft position that was about your strategy and choices (and thus you had a very good chance from the get go but were unlucky).

By drafting in the position you had, yes the top striker options had gone but you therefore had first dibs on the top midfielder options - you've just been unfortunate that your first drafts of Sanchez and Alli haven't had the seasons they had last year thus far as they both could easily have scored as well as Salah or Sterling (and thus better than all strikers). So strategy, choices and an element of luck all have as much bearing as draft position IMO.

It was a forced strategy. Salah and Sterling where never going to be first picks last season. Sanchez and alli where the 9th and 10th best players left. Then by time it came round again everone was gone . You just going to have to trust me when I say I knew whilst i was picking I knew i had no chance and boy I was right. The other draft 5th place was much smoother and lot better position

[bloggie]

I've created a four team test league to see how it pans out

1001497-247221

Tonight 9pm UK draft min max 4

[Tall Paul]

I'm not sure whether I'd play again.

While I really enjoyed the draft itself at the start of the season, I've found myself either forgetting or not being bothered to do anything with my team most weeks.

[bspittles]

I think a draft league is fun, but only for a short season. Then start another one...

[bspittles]

I think a draft league is fun, but only for a short season. Then start another one...

[MoSe]

I think a draft league is fun, but only for a short season. Then start another one...

[dino1980]

I'll play again next season. I've been running six draft teams this seasons in leagues varying from six to ten players. I agree with those that say there's enough choice of players even in eight-player leagues and would prefer eight or six team leagues over a four-team league.

The big takeaway for me though is that I think the draft game works better in H2H format than Classic, especially if you want to keep the game competitive and keep players engaged for longer. For instance, BFM is 130 points clear of second in the FISO ML Points A, whereas in the H2H league there are 126 points between the top five teams in the league but only 9 actual points with Taivat on 49pts and Tall Paul on 40pts.

I think the bspittles Divisional Seasons serve as a good example of how H2H can keep the game competitive.

[MoSe]

their main plus is that they're SHORT (10 GWs)
that way not only you can look forward to next one, if the current is unredeemable,
but that you can find more appealing leftovers if you assess them over short term, while they'd damage you in the long term in a season-long league

[wonkypenguin]

I would play. I've been very lax in bspittles league due to personal issues, but that's no longer relevant, plus I think a small entry fee would re-motivate me. H2H format is fun.

[wahine]

the time of the draft is difficult for me and its a disadvantage to draft by the prepared list so unless its only a small "donation" i wouldnt play for money in a NH league.