2023 RedCafe NFL Fantasy League - Sign-up Thread

altodevil

Odds winner of 'Odds or Evens 2023/2024'
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Oct 16, 2013
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Hi all,

To accommodate as many of the growing number of NFL fans and fantasy players on this forum, I'm proposing a 16-Team best ball format for this years redraft (conventional) league.

Best Ball is a very simple format - essentially you do not set a line-up each week. Instead your best performers at each position slot are chosen automatically.

Rosters and Scoring
Given there are 16 teams, it will be reduced roster sizes. The typical roster will be:

'Starters':
1 QB
1 RB
2 WR
1 TE

'Bench':
5 Slots

Injured Reserve:
2 Slots

Again, note that your starters will automatically be your highest scoring players that week at each position slot. There will be 2-QB, 2-TE 2-RB, 4-WR roster quotas which you cannot exceed in order to ensure league parity.

Injured Reserve slots are additional roster spots where you can put injured players while they are side-lined. Basically it means you don't have to drop one of your best players if they are injured for a few weeks in order to get a replacement from waivers.

Currently I'm proposing standard scoring with 0.5 PPR. Happy for this to be changed depending on feedback from everyone.

Scheduling and Play-offs
Everyone will play each other once, head-to-head, from Weeks 1-15.

Week 16 will be the play-off semi-final for the top 4 teams.

Week 17 will be the play-off final for the remaining 2 teams.

I'd also propose a mirroring 'toilet bowl' for the worst 4 teams. With the final loser (who lost their toilet bowl games) being booted from the league for next year. This might not be for everyone so happy to ditch this.

Tiebreaking is via total points scored.

Draft
Currently I have a provisional date of Sunday 3rd September at 4pm UTC

This can be changed obviously. It was chosen as it will be the last Sunday before the season starts.

I am proposing a 10-round Auction draft. Auctions drafts are fair, more exciting, but take a bit longer. Again if the majority wants a standard snake draft that can be changed.

Misc.
Don't want anyone to miss out so suggest this is free to play. If somehow everyone agreed we could make it very low stakes - £5/$5 each. But again that is not needed.

The league will automatically renew each year with the same teams. So sign-up quickly if you want to be one of the original 16 teams. The only other way to get in would be if someone drops out, or we go with the toilet bowl relegation idea.

Sign-ups
1. altodevil
2. JJ12
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Such a small roster size sucks. Feck league parity, you need to win your BB leagues in the latter rounds of your draft. Also not sure what you mean with IR spots, they're useless in BB as there is no in-season roster management (and you can't have waivers either like you mention). BB also doesn't have H2H match-ups, so really not sure which format you are proposing.

Also the regular redraft league will most definitely be renewed for the new season, so might be best to put best ball in the thread title.
 
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Such a small roster size sucks. Feck league parity, you need to win your BB leagues in the latter rounds of your draft. Also not sure what you mean with IR spots, they're useless in BB as there is no in-season roster management (and you can't have waivers either like you mention). BB also doesn't have H2H match-ups, so really not sure which format you are proposing.

Also the regular redraft league will most definitely be renewed for the new season, so might be best to put best ball in the thread title.
You are completely wrong - there are many best ball leagues on a number of providers which allow in-season management including waivers and trades. Sleeper is one of them, and all of these settings are on there. Including H2H match-ups.

The purpose behind the small roster size is given above, and perhaps you are conflating between the best ball leagues you have played which have no in-season management, and this format which does.
 
You are completely wrong - there are many best ball leagues on a number of providers which allow in-season management including waivers and trades. Sleeper is one of them, and all of these settings are on there. Including H2H match-ups.

The purpose behind the small roster size is given above, and perhaps you are conflating between the best ball leagues you have played which have no in-season management, and this format which does.
Best ball leagues = no in-season roster management, it's the very definition and underlying purpose of BB drafts :lol: Google "what is a best ball league" and see for yourself.

You're now just proposing a weak ass version of a redraft league with rosters so small that every team is able to field a superstar line-up.
 
Best ball leagues = no in-season roster management, it's the very definition and underlying purpose of BB drafts :lol: Google "what is a best ball league" and see for yourself.

You're now just proposing a weak ass version of a redraft league with rosters so small that every team is able to field a superstar line-up.
The underlying purpose of best ball is the principle of the 'best ball', i.e your best players start regardless, reducing some of the randomness of fantasy. Yes traditionally these leagues have been points based, but it's quite fashionable now for them to be H2H and also to include roster management.

Sleeper just jumped in to that this year: https://support.sleeper.com/en/articles/4100708-do-you-offer-best-ball

I have no idea why you are being so silly. Every team a superstar line-up? 16 teams means you will have people starting well below average QBs and TEs. There will be a potential for tactical waiver pick-ups and trading in a league set-up in this way. Also, as I've made clear in the OP, I'd be open to suggestions. If you think it would be better to have larger rosters then state your case. I could perhaps see the argument for a 2nd RB slot, with associated bench increase, for instance.
 
The underlying purpose of best ball is the principle of the 'best ball', i.e your best players start regardless, reducing some of the randomness of fantasy. Yes traditionally these leagues have been points based, but it's quite fashionable now for them to be H2H and also to include roster management.
In the format suggested in the OP it's not reducing randomness - it's just a watered down version of a regular redraft where you are not punished anymore for benching players who perform well in a given week (which is a skill, not random). Reducing randomness is e.g. playing against the league average each week.
I have no idea why you are being so silly.
Because you seemed to propose it as the 2023 replacement for the regular redraft league(s), but those will still be running again (if enough people are up for a regular league, I guess).

Have fun with this one, won't disturb you any further :D
 
In the format suggested in the OP it's not reducing randomness - it's just a watered down version of a regular redraft where you are not punished anymore for benching players who perform well in a given week (which is a skill, not random). Reducing randomness is e.g. playing against the league average each week.

Because you seemed to propose it as the 2023 replacement for the regular redraft league(s), but those will still be running again (if enough people are up for a regular league, I guess).

Have fun with this one, won't disturb you any further :D
Laughable.
 
Laughable.
If it were random there wouldn't be a million Start Em Sit Em articles and podcasts each week of the regular season by fantasy analysts :p Identifying and exploiting good matchups is most definitely a skill.
 
If it were random there wouldn't be a million Start Em Sit Em articles and podcasts each week of the regular season by fantasy analysts :p Identifying and exploiting good matchups is most definitely a skill.
You mean charlatans? The fantasy industry is built upon very vague and subjective advice for which there is little to no repercussions for being plain wrong. The only material that holds any weight are pre-season projections and tiering. In-season is a complete crapshoot. Besides, best ball with in-season roster management still allows the exploitation of 'good match-ups' via the waiver wire.