AF.org Fantasy Football League 2015

[John V]

I can't believe some of the scores. His defense scored 37, his kicker scored 22, and 4 of his other players scored over 17 points each.

This was my first year. I also played in my office league, where I finished 9th out of 12. I think it's about 75% luck and 25% skill. In this game, I put no thought into my defense or my kicker and they combined for 59 points - just luck. i have put thought into my TEs through the season though and one scored 26 points, so that was somewhat skill.

In my work league I started 0-5, but at that point I was 6th in overall points. Every week my opponent had a killer game.

I think going by total points would somewhat reduce the luck factor. BUT, I'm not advocating that, because I think it would greatly reduce the fun factor.

[Cato]

I think you should get a medal, or a little trophy like the donator angel.

Me likey that idea...a football seems like the obvious choice, but anything will do!

Anything? Like this...



 Kidding of course. Congratulations!

[John V]

Yeah, maybe anything was a bit too broad! 

[Edwardo Piet]

How about a Flying Spagetti Monster trophy?

[Edwardo Piet]

By the way how does Fantasy football work? I'm always curious about it. Does one have to know the actual rules of American Football or something? Or is it a completely made up thing?

I am not sure how it works.

[Tiberius]

By the way how does Fantasy football work? I'm always curious about it. Does one have to know the actual rules of American Football or something? Or is it a completely made up thing?

I am not sure how it works.

You don't have to know the rules of American Football, but it would help if you knew the players, teams, etc. Fantasy Football isn't a "game" where you actively play, it's more of a game of stats.

At the beginning of the season you take it in turns to select players from the NFL until you have a roster of 17 players. You select 9 players out of your 17 to be your active roster, which includes a Quarterback, 2 Running Backs, 2 Wide Receivers, a Tight End, a Kicker, a Defense, and a final player who can be either a Running Back, Wide Receiver, or a Tight End.

Each week your team is up against another team from the fantasy league. Your objective is to out-score your opponent using your active players. Your active players score points by the games they play in real life football. For instance, if your Quarterback in real life scores 3 touchdowns in their game that week, they will score 18 points in your fantasy league. It's a bit more complicated than that because other actions they do will have an effect on their fantasy points (e.g. they gain points for every yard gained, lose points for every yard lost, etc.)

So it certainly helps to know about American Football, because if you do you'll probably know which players are good, which teams to support, and it will help you when you have to choose your players every week.

I highly recommend you start watching American Football anyways, it's a great game once you get into it.

[John V]

FWIW I only follow my home team and even with them I can only name maybe eight players, but I won. The league is run on Yahoo, and the site gives so many stats that you really don't need much knowledge of the players to be able to play reasonably well. It's more about understanding the fantasy structure. It's like a puzzle.

[Tiberius]

FWIW I only follow my home team and even with them I can only name maybe eight players, but I won. The league is run on Yahoo, and the site gives so many stats that you really don't need much knowledge of the players to be able to play reasonably well. It's more about understanding the fantasy structure. It's like a puzzle.

True to an extent, but knowing stuff like whether your running back is up against a team with historically good rushing defense is critical to making choices sometimes.

[Edwardo Piet]

Interesting. I take it being familiar with American Football would definitely help then?

If I started watching it are the rules easy to pick up or would you recommend I read about the rules first?

Main problem would be finding the time to watch it. But yeah I can imagine why I would need to know the teams really.

[Tiberius]

Interesting. I take it being familiar with American Football would definitely help then?

If I started watching it are the rules easy to pick up or would you recommend I read about the rules first?

Main problem would be finding the time to watch it. But yeah I can imagine why I would need to know the teams really.

The general gist of the game is easy to explain. I've had to explain it to a few of my British friends so I can write you a summary of you want. The rules are generally quite complex because they are often intricate, but after watching a few games you'll pick up most of them, and Google can help with the rest (or you can ask me).

If you are interested and are fine with torrenting I can link you to some good games. Watching the live games takes around 3 hours due to commercials and the way the clock is managed, but the torrented games have all the ads cut out so they last 90 mins to 2 hours.