Fantasy (American) Football

[Arathrael]

I mentioned this on IRC last, um, December I think it was and there was a little bit of interest, so...

Who's up for some NFL fantasy football?

Some possible questions you might have and some answers:

Q: I don't really have time to watch much (or any) NFL at the moment, I have no idea who any of the players are and who's good and who isn't. Is that a problem?
A: Not a problem. The game basically tells you everything. It'll do the draft for you if you want, and it'll show you not only exactly how well players did last year, but how they're projected to do this year, including in their next games (it's wildly inaccurate of course, but so are most predictions), so you don't need to know anything at all to get a team and pick a lineup.

Q: I don't have much time, is this going to take ages?
A: Nope. Of course you can spend ages researching players and join in a live draft if you want, but if you don't, you can let the game do the auto draft and just check it out for a few minutes occasionally to change your line up week by week.

Q: How many people do we need?
A: Minimum 4. So not too many. More is better of course. Go on, do it.

Q: When do I need to decide by?
A: Wednesday, first game of the season is Thursday, so the idea is the live draft (which again you can skip and let the auto-picker draft for you if you want) would be Wednesday night, 8PM (that can be changed if people want). But you could also decide to join right now of course. Go on, do it.

Q: How do I join?
A: Go to http://hamsterff.league.fantasy.nfl.com/ . You'll need a password, it's the usual one. If you don't know it, just ask on IRC or PM me on here for an invite! Go on, do it.

Q: Anything else?
A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBSxAAJ_2SI

[|fury|]

I will be mostly beyond shit, apart from the bits where i'll be unbelievably beyond shit (hence my team name), but i'm in. (impressed I guessed the password)

[RichardWhitely]

I has also joined 

[Arathrael]

Huzzah! Only one more needed and we're good to go (although more than one more is even better!).

[Tricky]

I'm in! 

[|fury|]

 

[Undergrid]

Someone PM me the password please.

[Arathrael]

Someone PM me the password please.

Sent! 

[Undergrid]

Well I've joined the league and... I have no idea.

[Col]

I'm in 

[Arathrael]

Well I've joined the league and... I have no idea.

Well, since we have more than enough people for it to actually happen now  , here's a bit more info about how it works! (and if you just want the really really short version, skip to the end for a quick "what do I actually do now" list).

The Longish Version

The first thing you do is draft your team. Unlike other fantasy football games, where you just pick any old players and it makes no difference whether other teams have them or not, in NFL fantasy football games you put together a team in competition with the other teams, that is, every player can only be on at most one team. So there's a live draft for that to work (currently set for this Wednesday at 8PM our time). Teams take turns selecting players, in a randomised order which then runs in a 'snake' fashion (that is, it reverses each round - the team who gets the first pick in the first round gets the last pick in the second round).

You don't have to join the live draft. If you don't (or if you do, but don't pick a player during your turn) the game will auto-pick your players for you. There's a default, and reasonably sensible, ranking of players, which you can also edit in advance of the draft if you want to. If you're feeling really keen, there's a vast amount of information out there on who to draft just waiting to be googled!

As for what positions you need to fill on your team, in our league we have:

1 Quarterback (QB)
2 Running Backs (RB)
2 Wide Receivers (WR)
1 Tight End (TE)
1 'Flex' position (can be filled by a RB, WR, or TE)
1 Kicker (K)
2 Defensive Linemen (DL)
2 Linebackers (LB)
2 Defensive Backs (DB)
10 bench players
And 3 reserves (those slots are for keeping injured players in your team, who might be able to play in the future, without them taking up one of your main slots).

So that's quite a lot of players, but as mentioned, the game gives you all the info you need. The draft rankings will pick your players for you (or give you an idea of the currently available best options to choose from if you join the live draft), and once you have your roster, you can see all their stats (My Team -> Stats) and how well they're projected to do in their next games (My Team -> Projections).

On that note, once the draft is done, it's mostly just a case of logging in once a week and selecting your line-up for that week's games (which is where that projections info comes in really handy). NFL games are played on Thursday (one game, Thursday Night Football), Sundays (most of the rest of the games), and Monday (one game, Monday Night Football), so any time Tuesday-Thursday is a good time to log in, see how your team did, and set the line up. (That said, if you're looking to add players, Tuesday is the day to get your advance requests in - see the bit on trading players below).

Why might you need to change your line-up from one week to the next? Apart from trying to pick in-form players against favourable opposition, players get injured (well, they are regularly trying to smash each other to the ground), and every team has a 'bye' week off, so there's not a lot of point picking players when they're not playing that week. This is why you have a bench of 10 players.

Additionally, you can trade for players during the season. As well as trading players with other teams, you can bring in undrafted players to join your team. Players are locked from being traded when their team's game starts each week, and unlocked on Wednesdays. You can put in a request to add them to your team before this, but there's a priority order for it (basically, whoever's doing worst gets first dibs each week). After they're unlocked on Wednesday, you can add any remaining free players to your team immediately.

The Really Short Version

1) (Optional) Before Wednesday 8PM: Edit your team's pre-draft rankings (My Team -> Pre-Draft Rankings -> Edit Overall Pre-Rank)
2) (Optional) Join the live draft which starts on Wednesday 8PM (as it starts at 8PM sharp, you'd probably want to join a bit before this if you're taking part live)
3) Log on after the draft to see who you ended up with and to change your initial line up if desired (see My Team -> Stats and My Team -> Projections)
4) Log on occasionally during the weeks thereafter to see how you're doing and change your line up. If your players all got broken and you need new ones, go to 'My Team -> Add' to get replacements!

That's basically it. Any questions? 

[Tricky]

I got an email (pretty neat! to use yank speak) analysis of my team summary:

Tricky's Tossers Assembles a Solid Ground Game
Draft GradeProj RecordProj Finish
B- 5-9  T4

Draft Summary
Tricky's Tossers, who owned the first overall selection, is aiming to prove the pundits wrong. They ended up with the highest-scoring foursome of running backs in the league.

[Undergrid]

FUELED BY SOME EARLY-ROUND VALUE PICKS, WTF IS THIS GAME EXPECTS TO FACTOR INTO THE PLAYOFF PICTURE

Draft Grade   Proj Record   Proj Finish
B+   9-5   2

DRAFT SUMMARY

WTF is this game finished with a solid, if unspectacular, draft performance, taking the third overall draft slot and assembling a team that may be playoff caliber. They acquired the highest-scoring pair of running backs in the league.

So who got the "Proj Finish" of 1?

[Arathrael]

Not me.

With a Pair of Saints, Warrington Wodents Expects to Land Among the Elite   

Draft Grade Proj Record Proj Finish                                           
       B+      8-6             3                                                 
                                                                                 
                                                                                 
   Draft Summary                                                                 
                                                                                 
      When a bottom-half draft slot yields top-half results, that's the sign of   
      a focused GM. Such was the case with Warrington Wodents, which flipped     
      their last overall pick into a projected third-place finish in Hamster     
      FF. They secured the best pair of quarterbacks in the league.

I want to see what it said about Col's draft. 

[RichardWhitely]

WITH A FEW EARLY STEALS, DOITTWICEKNIGHTLY HOPES TO FIGHT HARD
Draft Grade   Proj Record   Proj Finish
B    5-9    T4

After picking fourth overall, DoItTwiceknightly is also projected to land in fourth place in Hamster FF. Let's hope that prediction serves as bulletin board material. They acquired a tandem of tight ends with the most room for improvement.

DoItTwiceknightly might be interested in shopping a RB to upgrade in other areas. Their fourth-ranked RB, Alfred Morris, is projected to be better than the league average at his position.
DoItTwiceknightly got off to a sizzling start, amassing the most projected points in the league during the first half of the draft.
The GM of DoItTwiceknightly must have had to leave their draft party early. After tallying the most projected points in the league over the draft's first half, they racked up the fewest during the second half.