Fantasy Football Evolution is back and draft rooms for the 2018 season are live NOW! But pump the brakes a little bit. Training camps aren’t open yet and you don’t want to go drafting a player that gets hurt during the preseason because, in this format, you can’t replace him. But Fantasy Alarm is excited to partner with Fantasy Football Evolution again and I cannot wait to get involved for my second straight year.
For those who aren’t aware of Fantasy Football Evolution, this introduction will break down how this site differs from other fantasy football contests out there. It’s a bit of a theatrical play that occurs in three acts: League Play, Elimination, and a Tournament. Trust me, you want to make the tournament round because it is one of the most exciting and innovative ways to crown an overall champion. So lets go round-by-round and dive into each specific stage.
League Play
League play takes up the first seven weeks of the season and you play against computers. That’s right, you’ll draft a team and play against computer-generated rosters for the first seven weeks of the season. But as long as you win at least four of your matchups against the A.I., you’ll move on to the second round. Yes, the first seven weeks are a little brutal to get through, but this is how FFE trims some fat and, to be honest, it’s not overly difficult to move on to the second round. Out of the eight teams I had last year for FFE, six of them moved on to round two. But once you tread through stage one, you’ll have a better idea of how you stack up against the rest of the field.
Elimination Round
This is where it picks up. The elimination round will take place during weeks eight, nine, and ten. Yes, it’s only a three-week period and you aren’t playing any computers or real teams yet. During this period the objective is simple: accumulate as many points as possible. The sum of your points during these weeks as well as the average total amount of points during stage one will determine if you move on to the final stage. Confusing? Sure. But just take the average points from weeks one through seven and add it to your totals from weeks eight through ten. The nice part about this is that the standings update each week to show the teams leading in points. The 64 teams with the most points after week ten move on to the third stage: a March Madness-style elimination format.
The Tournament
It’s simple: win and move on. Lose, and you’re done. This is the best part of FFE’s main event contest. I was fortunate enough to have a team make it to the top 64 last year. I even got a little lucky and won my first two matchups in the tournament to make it to the Round of 16. Unfortunately Rob Gronkowski ’s one-game suspension was costly to my team and I failed to move on to the quarterfinals. But still I was pretty ecstatic about the success I had. Overall the tournament style is fantastic and you the further you go, the more you win. Win the Main Event tournament and you take home $25,000.
New Features in 2018
Take advantage of the mock drafts that Fantasy Football Evolution offers. FFE is introducing mock drafts this season so users can get a feel for how the FFE drafts really go when you're drafting against 11 teams on autopick. Don't worry too much about the pace as you are allowed to take your time, whether it be days or weeks, to build your team.
Being able to get a feel for the draft is incredibly important because similar to Best Ball leagues, there are no waivers in Fantasy Football Evolution. The team you draft is the team you play with for the entire year. Be smart with your mock drafts because they are a commodity. You get two free mock drafts and then you’ll be charged $5 for every mock draft thereafter. The reasoning behind charging for mock drafts is that experience and knowledge of FFE’s draft format are big advantages so take advantage of the two freebies they offer. If you need tips on how to go about your draft, don’t worry there will be a strategy piece coming soon. There were some strategies I tried last year that did and didn’t work. So I’ll provide some objectivity and let you know what are the best ways to go about building a team.
The scheduling is also a little different this year. Last year the championship rounds were in week 17. That presents some challenges for FFE players because some NFL teams that are playoff bound will bench their best players and this impacts fantasy. So FFE took that into consideration and moved the championship round up to week 16 to improve competition during the final week.
Promotions and Contests
As mentioned above the Main Event contest is the most alluring contest on FFE. But there are smaller contests as well. Depending on where you live there are prizes for champions from each state. So even if you don’t qualify for the main event, have no fear because you can still make money in the statewide competition that you automatically get entered into. Additionally, the team that scores the most points on any given week wins $100 and don’t forget to enter your team in the Fantasy Alarm Private competition and compete against Howard Bender, myself, and other member of the FANation.
The best time to buy a team (or teams) is right now. FFE recently opened up registration and they’re currently offering some of their best prices for customers. From now until August 1st you can purchase one team for the main event for $25. If you purchase a second team the price will drop to $22.50, and your third team will be $20. The best deal is to purchase a pack of five or ten teams. Five teams will be $90 and the ten-team pack, which is the best value, is going to be $165. These are the prices that are good for the rest of July. Feel free to refer to Fantasy Football Evolution’s Pricing Structure to see how the prices change from July, to August, and then to September and October. Here’s one piece of advice I’ll give: while you may want to purchase your team now you will want to wait draft towards the end of training camp.
Now as mentioned before this won’t be the last Fantasy Football Evolution article from Fantasy Alarm. I’ll be sure to provide some helpful strategies down the line, but for those of you with any other questions feel free to reach out to me on Twitter (@RealDANlanta) and I’ll do my best to answer any questions or clarify any pieces of this article you may still find confusing. Happy Drafting!