An interesting aspect of the ISFL is that it doesn't just bring in football fans, there is actually a pretty diverse following that has experience in areas and interests outside of american football. This is of note because even regular football fans are split into categories of different fandom, interests, and a big divisor, whether or not they play in a fantasy football league. A lot of super hardcore fans don't like the idea of wishing success for any player not suited up for their team, which if you want to be any good at fantasy football is kind of a requirement. Actually now that I'm thinking this through maybe the best way to be effective at fantasy football is to not be a fan of football, to strictly look at the stats and patterns of use and not let team allegiances bias player selection. My point originally was that with the wide array of personalities and interests from the participants of the ISFL, a simulation league fantasy football league would be beneficial to those who know the sport, but now I may be leaning towards an opposing viewpoint. Although as the league moves to the new simulation, I think we can all agree this season is going to be a total crap shoot regardless of anyone's individual experience playing in fantasy leagues. So with that I will do a deep dive of my own ISFL drafted fantasy team and see if I think my team will perform and if I can delude myself into believing I'm a shoo-in for that sweet, sweet 5 TPE credit for coming out on top in my group. And without any further adieu, I present my team.
QB - Suleiman Ramza, Orange County Otters
RB - Joseph Petrongolo, Berlin Fire Salamanders
RB - Darrell Williams, Philadelphia Liberty
WR - Tychondrius Hood, San Jose Sabercats
WR - Luca Scabbia, Chicago Butchers
TE - Austin McCormick, New Orleans Front Line
Flex (RB, WR, TE) - Gunner Thorbjornsson, Arizona Outlaws
OL (Human only) - Lord Beerus, Orange County Otters
K - Blago Kokot, Yellowknife Wraiths
Team Defense - Orange County Otters
So at first glance I can see that I unintentionally got players from a variety of teams, which can be good in that my weekly success won't be tied to an individual team's performance. That said, having players from 8 of the 14 teams, with the duplicates being at QB, OL, and DEF (Orange County Otters) that does mean that I don't get those coveted double up points between QB and receivers.
For full disclosure, I am a football fan and do play fantasy football very regularly, being in to as many as 6 leagues at one time at one point. Now, playing in a lot of leagues for a long time doesn't necessarily mean that the person playing is any good, so for reference I did win one of my leagues last year, but as a counterpoint I also came in dead last in another after suffering a brutal slew of injuries. With that experience drafting in multiple leagues for multiple years I have kind of formed a general strategy as for what positions to draft in what order, but I wasn't actually sure how that would translate to this fantasy draft. So with that, this is the draft order for my team:
RD1: RB - Joseph Petrongolo
RD2: RB - Darrell Williams
RD3: WR - Tychondrius Hood
RD4: WR - Luca Scabbia
RD5: QB - Suleiman Ramza
RD6: TE - Austin McCormick
RD7: OL - Lord Beerus
RD8: RB - Gunner Thorbjornsson
RD9: DEF - Orange County Otters
RD10: K - Blago Kokot
Draft order will generally give an idea of what positions are valued by the drafter, so clearly I valued the skill positions with RB first, but also drafted a QB higher than most probably would in order to get the guy I wanted. The changes to the pancake/sack allowed scoring definitely threw in a big ol monkey wrench as I've never done anything with those stats before, so the rest was kind of a wild goose chase of picking positions that were needed. Oh and kicker last, always kicker last. Did get the guy with a cannon for a leg though, so that's cool. Now to give these cats some context, let's take a look at their relative TPE so we can see what kind of playmakers I picked up.
QB - Suleiman Ramza, Orange County Otters (1152 TPE as of 1/23 update) (7th highest QB)
RB - Joseph Petrongolo, Berlin Fire Salamanders (928 TPE as of 1/23 update) (9th highest RB)
RB - Darrell Williams, Philadelphia Liberty (1106 TPE as of 1/23 update) (4th highest RB)
WR - Tychondrius Hood, San Jose Sabercats (1049 TPE as of 1/23 update) (6th highest WR)
WR - Luca Scabbia, Chicago Butchers (905 TPE as of 1/23 update) (13th highest WR)
TE - Austin McCormick, New Orleans Front Line (796 TPE as of 1/23 update) (8th highest TE)
Flex (RB, WR, TE) - Gunner Thorbjornsson, Arizona Outlaws (870 TPE as of 1/23 update) (11th highest RB)
OL (Human only) - Lord Beerus, Orange County Otters (717 TPE as of 1/23 update) (12th highest OL)
K - Blago Kokot, Yellowknife Wraiths (628 TPE as of 1/23 update) (6th highest K)
Team Defense - Orange County Otters
From this we can see I didn't go for any super high TPE players, with my highest positional player being Darrell Williams as the RB with the 4th highest TPE total. Generally I would think that would be a bad decision, but as I saw from my teams fantasy discussion thread and @Frostbite's very useful fantasy rankings (found here https://forums.sim-football.com/showthre...?tid=29501), TPE doesn't always mean success, so I have that going for me. Truthfully that kind of follows with NFL fantasy leagues too, it's not always the guys with the crazy measurables and freak of nature athleticism that put up big statistics, and thus fantasy points, but those who have a more nuanced understanding of the game and can use their mental game to make big plays. Now how much mental game simulated players have and how the simulation uses that versus pure athletic measures...I have no idea. But by Frostbite's Rankings mentioned earlier I have the following players:
QB - Suleiman Ramza, Number 1 QB
RB - Joseph Petrongolo, Number 6 RB
RB - Darrell Williams, Number 3 RB
WR - Tychondrius Hood, Number 2 WR
WR - Luca Scabbia, Number 4 WR
TE - Austin McCormick, Number 3 TE
Flex (RB, WR, TE) - Gunner Thorbjornsson, Number 13 RB
OL (Human only) - Lord Beerus, Number 2 OL
K - Blago Kokot, Number 1 K
Team Defense - OCO, Number 2 D (granted he admitted this was the most unpredictable of all positions)
So if my team is to be gauged from Frostbite's rankings, I feel pretty good, which makes sense because I largely based my draft strategy around that media article, so I guess we'll see if I will be giving him a tiny portion of the credit for my success or outright blaming him for my incompetence and utter failure, should be fun. Anyway, back to the point about TPE not being everything, another important factor was the difference in TPE between the player and their closest back up, so by those metrics my team looks like the following:
QB - Suleiman Ramza, Orange County Otters (1152 TPE) - no back up 1152 TPE difference
RB - Joseph Petrongolo, Berlin Fire Salamanders (928 TPE) - Terry Yaki (382 TPE) 546 TPE difference
RB - Darrell Williams, Philadelphia Liberty (1106 TPE) - Fuzzy Dotson (511 TPE) 595 TPE difference
WR - Tychondrius Hood, San Jose Sabercats (1049 TPE) - Zach Crossley (603 TPE) 446 TPE difference
WR - Luca Scabbia, Chicago Butchers (905 TPE) - Sean O'Leary (748 TPE) 157 TPE difference
TE - Austin McCormick, New Orleans Front Line (796 TPE) - no back up 796 TPE difference
Flex (RB, WR, TE) - Gunner Thorbjornsson, Arizona Outlaws (870 TPE) - Tatsu Nakamura Starter (1204 TPE) -334 TPE difference
OL (Human only) - Lord Beerus, Orange County Otters (717 TPE)
K - Blago Kokot, Yellowknife Wraiths (628 TPE)
Team Defense - Orange County Otters
Taking into account positions like QB, OL, K, and D where the point differential really doesn't matter because there's not really competition for those spots, the TPE differences seem to be pretty in favor of my team. The only back up on the Team is Gunner Thobjornsson, who has one of the lower TPE differences to his starter, and honestly a pretty high rating in his own right. Additionally the lowest TPE difference on the team is between Luca Scabbia and his WR partner Sean O'Leary, however they are the only 2 receivers on the team and will both be playing at the same time, so I don't really see that as too much of a negative if Sean can draw coverage away from Luca by being competent. This again makes me feel fairly confident in my team and that perhaps following Frostbite's advice wasn't a terrible move.
Overall I have to say I'm pretty pleased with how my draft turned out, I think I put together a pretty solid team for my first time playing in the IFSL fantasy league, especially considering all the changes that happened this year. Plus worst case scenario I still get my one million cash prize just for participating.
Word Count: 1544
QB - Suleiman Ramza, Orange County Otters
RB - Joseph Petrongolo, Berlin Fire Salamanders
RB - Darrell Williams, Philadelphia Liberty
WR - Tychondrius Hood, San Jose Sabercats
WR - Luca Scabbia, Chicago Butchers
TE - Austin McCormick, New Orleans Front Line
Flex (RB, WR, TE) - Gunner Thorbjornsson, Arizona Outlaws
OL (Human only) - Lord Beerus, Orange County Otters
K - Blago Kokot, Yellowknife Wraiths
Team Defense - Orange County Otters
So at first glance I can see that I unintentionally got players from a variety of teams, which can be good in that my weekly success won't be tied to an individual team's performance. That said, having players from 8 of the 14 teams, with the duplicates being at QB, OL, and DEF (Orange County Otters) that does mean that I don't get those coveted double up points between QB and receivers.
For full disclosure, I am a football fan and do play fantasy football very regularly, being in to as many as 6 leagues at one time at one point. Now, playing in a lot of leagues for a long time doesn't necessarily mean that the person playing is any good, so for reference I did win one of my leagues last year, but as a counterpoint I also came in dead last in another after suffering a brutal slew of injuries. With that experience drafting in multiple leagues for multiple years I have kind of formed a general strategy as for what positions to draft in what order, but I wasn't actually sure how that would translate to this fantasy draft. So with that, this is the draft order for my team:
RD1: RB - Joseph Petrongolo
RD2: RB - Darrell Williams
RD3: WR - Tychondrius Hood
RD4: WR - Luca Scabbia
RD5: QB - Suleiman Ramza
RD6: TE - Austin McCormick
RD7: OL - Lord Beerus
RD8: RB - Gunner Thorbjornsson
RD9: DEF - Orange County Otters
RD10: K - Blago Kokot
Draft order will generally give an idea of what positions are valued by the drafter, so clearly I valued the skill positions with RB first, but also drafted a QB higher than most probably would in order to get the guy I wanted. The changes to the pancake/sack allowed scoring definitely threw in a big ol monkey wrench as I've never done anything with those stats before, so the rest was kind of a wild goose chase of picking positions that were needed. Oh and kicker last, always kicker last. Did get the guy with a cannon for a leg though, so that's cool. Now to give these cats some context, let's take a look at their relative TPE so we can see what kind of playmakers I picked up.
QB - Suleiman Ramza, Orange County Otters (1152 TPE as of 1/23 update) (7th highest QB)
RB - Joseph Petrongolo, Berlin Fire Salamanders (928 TPE as of 1/23 update) (9th highest RB)
RB - Darrell Williams, Philadelphia Liberty (1106 TPE as of 1/23 update) (4th highest RB)
WR - Tychondrius Hood, San Jose Sabercats (1049 TPE as of 1/23 update) (6th highest WR)
WR - Luca Scabbia, Chicago Butchers (905 TPE as of 1/23 update) (13th highest WR)
TE - Austin McCormick, New Orleans Front Line (796 TPE as of 1/23 update) (8th highest TE)
Flex (RB, WR, TE) - Gunner Thorbjornsson, Arizona Outlaws (870 TPE as of 1/23 update) (11th highest RB)
OL (Human only) - Lord Beerus, Orange County Otters (717 TPE as of 1/23 update) (12th highest OL)
K - Blago Kokot, Yellowknife Wraiths (628 TPE as of 1/23 update) (6th highest K)
Team Defense - Orange County Otters
From this we can see I didn't go for any super high TPE players, with my highest positional player being Darrell Williams as the RB with the 4th highest TPE total. Generally I would think that would be a bad decision, but as I saw from my teams fantasy discussion thread and @Frostbite's very useful fantasy rankings (found here https://forums.sim-football.com/showthre...?tid=29501), TPE doesn't always mean success, so I have that going for me. Truthfully that kind of follows with NFL fantasy leagues too, it's not always the guys with the crazy measurables and freak of nature athleticism that put up big statistics, and thus fantasy points, but those who have a more nuanced understanding of the game and can use their mental game to make big plays. Now how much mental game simulated players have and how the simulation uses that versus pure athletic measures...I have no idea. But by Frostbite's Rankings mentioned earlier I have the following players:
QB - Suleiman Ramza, Number 1 QB
RB - Joseph Petrongolo, Number 6 RB
RB - Darrell Williams, Number 3 RB
WR - Tychondrius Hood, Number 2 WR
WR - Luca Scabbia, Number 4 WR
TE - Austin McCormick, Number 3 TE
Flex (RB, WR, TE) - Gunner Thorbjornsson, Number 13 RB
OL (Human only) - Lord Beerus, Number 2 OL
K - Blago Kokot, Number 1 K
Team Defense - OCO, Number 2 D (granted he admitted this was the most unpredictable of all positions)
So if my team is to be gauged from Frostbite's rankings, I feel pretty good, which makes sense because I largely based my draft strategy around that media article, so I guess we'll see if I will be giving him a tiny portion of the credit for my success or outright blaming him for my incompetence and utter failure, should be fun. Anyway, back to the point about TPE not being everything, another important factor was the difference in TPE between the player and their closest back up, so by those metrics my team looks like the following:
QB - Suleiman Ramza, Orange County Otters (1152 TPE) - no back up 1152 TPE difference
RB - Joseph Petrongolo, Berlin Fire Salamanders (928 TPE) - Terry Yaki (382 TPE) 546 TPE difference
RB - Darrell Williams, Philadelphia Liberty (1106 TPE) - Fuzzy Dotson (511 TPE) 595 TPE difference
WR - Tychondrius Hood, San Jose Sabercats (1049 TPE) - Zach Crossley (603 TPE) 446 TPE difference
WR - Luca Scabbia, Chicago Butchers (905 TPE) - Sean O'Leary (748 TPE) 157 TPE difference
TE - Austin McCormick, New Orleans Front Line (796 TPE) - no back up 796 TPE difference
Flex (RB, WR, TE) - Gunner Thorbjornsson, Arizona Outlaws (870 TPE) - Tatsu Nakamura Starter (1204 TPE) -334 TPE difference
OL (Human only) - Lord Beerus, Orange County Otters (717 TPE)
K - Blago Kokot, Yellowknife Wraiths (628 TPE)
Team Defense - Orange County Otters
Taking into account positions like QB, OL, K, and D where the point differential really doesn't matter because there's not really competition for those spots, the TPE differences seem to be pretty in favor of my team. The only back up on the Team is Gunner Thobjornsson, who has one of the lower TPE differences to his starter, and honestly a pretty high rating in his own right. Additionally the lowest TPE difference on the team is between Luca Scabbia and his WR partner Sean O'Leary, however they are the only 2 receivers on the team and will both be playing at the same time, so I don't really see that as too much of a negative if Sean can draw coverage away from Luca by being competent. This again makes me feel fairly confident in my team and that perhaps following Frostbite's advice wasn't a terrible move.
Overall I have to say I'm pretty pleased with how my draft turned out, I think I put together a pretty solid team for my first time playing in the IFSL fantasy league, especially considering all the changes that happened this year. Plus worst case scenario I still get my one million cash prize just for participating.
Word Count: 1544
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