Do draft and main one every year.
Draft I like the unlimited transfers and bold decisions on keeping players or risking a rival picking up your discards
Good question.
I think it is mainly because we are just used to this format here, and it also allows us to compete against everyone with OR, country leagues etc.
You are right that FPL players in fact do complain about having similar teams, but that is more so due to content creators and various websites and tools. However, that does not deter the vast majority from keeping on playing. It motivates many to look for differentials etc.
The draft format is just too limited in numbers of players per league, and players lose motivation quickly if they picked wrong or fall far behind.
All the major US sports have the draft format for their actual leagues, and from what I know, actual draft nights are key events. So I would imagine that it is a more natural thing for the fantasy players to feel familiar with.
Your third paragraph sums it up perfectly. The selection of players is too low and the reason for that is too many players are useless with the way the game currently awards points. DMs and CMs are more or less useless unless they contribute to the attack, which isn't something they're expected to do. The game doesn't take into account football as a whole
The game also hasn’t changed to mirror football’s evolution beyond 4-4-2.
We get 2 GK slots, 5 DEF slots, 5 MID slots and 3 FWD slots. That was a traditional 4-4-2, plus one sub in each spot. It gave the game variety when you had lots of FWDs but lots of conventional wingers at midfield.
Nowadays, most IRL forwards are MIDs in the game, with the exception of strikers like Watkins, Haaland etc.
What this means is there’s rarely any point picking MIDs that aren’t basically IRL forwards, like Salah, Son, Bowen etc - because your traditional number 8s or 10s rarely return as well. And at FWD in the game, there’s only ever a handful of guys that are viable.
A better game would switch to 4 MID slots, and 4 FWD slots, and then make players like Salah FWDs in the game - leaving you still with the more traditional midfielder picks like Odegaard, KDB, but potentially making it far more varied. You might not even need to tweak Midfielder scoring that much.
Thats why you dont play on the FPL site and instead use fantrax. Its scoring resembles the BP system fpl currently has. You can customize the scoring as you wish. The current scoring of Goals, Assist or CS or youre useless is pretty bland. After trying fantrax draft I cant go back to normal Fpl.
Also the free trades system is way better - I can offer Leno for Gabriel Jesus if I wanted to.
Draft is definitely more fun. Especially if you can get 8-12 people in your league then the usable player pool is way larger than in the regular mode. That being said you could play both.
The problem is with the way FPL works and how points are given for certain players, some players are extremely valuable and others not so much. It becomes less skill based and more whoever had a good draft at the start (no injuries, players in form, etc.).
For example, no one could've predicted Fernandes and Rashford to be terrible assets this year, but they were ranked incredibly highly in draft. KDB was injured, etc.
If points were given in other aspects like DMs making tackles and interceptions, then the pool of players becomes more useful and the draft aspect becomes more strategic past the first week.
This is coming from someone who is #1 in their draft ml and is doing well in regular FPL
That’s why lots of people prefer the Fantrax version of draft over FPL’s as it takes more of that into account. E.g. Kante was genuinely useful in Fantrax when he was useless in FPL, despite being a great player
Fantrax draft is fantastic. You can even tweak the scoring yourself and my league did so to try to make defensive players more valuable.
What happened unintentionally was a hilarious half a season where Calum Paterson (Cardiff) was flagged as a defender but played up front for them as a target man and scored 14 points per game due to aerials.
This season our keeper scoring has been a little off with 30 point hauls from multiple keepers on occasion.
The “problems” you have described are there in NFL drafts too. Half the fun is not knowing who will perform and having to change your squads as you go, hopefully beating your rival managers to the gems on the free market (waiver wire). Top picks can often bomb there too.
I mean, as I said, the issue is the fact that there aren't enough players to switch to because most players aren't very useful from an FPL standpoint. This affects draft a lot more because people are stuck with players, which means there's even less of a pool of players to select from.
There basically are only three main ways to get points, and that is goals, assists, and clean sheets. If the player doesn't fit under any of these categories, they're pretty much null and void.
Luckily, this season, there are a lot of players who are fitting under these categories some way. Unfortunately, in draft, if you have Haaland or Salah, you have a huge advantage that isn't really skill based.
I've done 2 drafts this year. One with 14 players, one with 8.
I'm top of the one with 14 players, 2nd in the one with 8 (but I have 80 more points than anyone else in my league, just been unlucky with fixtures).
I picked Rashford first in both.
Even with some poorer picks, you can work your way around with clever waiver choices.
Last season I finished 4th out of 12 and my first 3 picks were Ronaldo, Cancelo & Edouard Mendy so it's not even a one off that I'm doing particularly well this season.
I agree to an extent as I am also first in a league with 8, I'm just saying there are definitely a lot of things that are limited in draft.
I think this year it helps that there are a lot of different, unpopular assets that are doing well. Usually, these players don't consistently do well, unlike the Haalands, Salahs, etc.
I think the sheer amount of players makes it interesting though.
Yes, one guy gets Salah, one guy gets Haaland but they also get the worst set of players in the next cycle.
I think it's just generally a lot more tactical than just sticking with all the meta picks in a regular FPL.
I'm not saying that the style isn't fun. It is.
The problem is there just aren't enough alternatives. That's been my point all along. It is more tactical, but there isn't a big enough pool of useful players because FPL doesn't award players like DMs points for interceptions.
I agree completely. Never managed to stick the regular game past October, everyone has the same teams, same captains etc.
Went draft and never went back. End up watching games like Wolves-Palace and it means something because you or your opponent is waiting to see if Dawson can nab you a clean sheet.
Don’t see any appeal in the original game anymore and would urge anyone to try draft with a league of committed players.
Completely agree. I play both. At 30k OR in non-draft, near the bottom of my league in draft and much preferring the draft game. Normal FPL is too boring with template teams. I prefer the fight to waiver in the right defender each week. Usually whoever’s playing Luton/Burnley/Sheffield
The main reason is that the format has been around far longer and the average Brit historically would have had no concept of draft. The OFPL draft format is into year 7 and is growing in popularity each year as more people are seeking a proper test of their knowledge.
We at [Draft FC](https://draftfc.co.uk) are constantly banging the drum for Draft FPL and encourage everyone to give it a go!
My first experience with fpl was also through the draft mode with my college teammates. Loved it. But then I slowly started getting into the regular version as well and now I’m addicted bro. Sitting at top 100k worldwide right now and it feels good. And stressful.
Easy to find active draft leagues. Just go to the draft subreddit.
And don’t agree about the premium players being the deciding factors. Getting in players that people would never have in the regular game is much more essential. Most leagues I have seen do not have the Haaland/Salah owner at the top.
OP - we play Draft EPL on Fantrax and it's way better than regular fantasy. Our league is looking for more players though so if you and your friends are like 3-5 we'll be more than happy to have you guys next season.
Ever since I started playing draft it's been hard to get back into FPL. I still maintain a team but I don't take it as seriously.
I think the biggest argument in favour of regular FPL over draft is that you’re not completely fucked over by injuries. In fantasy NFL I drafted Richardson and Andrews, both of whom misses shit loads of games. You can replace them with waiver pickups but you’re essentially at a massive disadvantage through no fault of your own. In FPL, you’re just one or two transfers away from being back on a level footing
None that I could think of season long as most fantasy NFL is a draft style where you keep players the whole season.
The closest I could think of would be daily/weekly fantasy NFL offered by some sportsbooks where you could change your team each week - think of being able to free hit/ wildcard every week to change your team.
[see FanDuel as an example](https://www.fanduel.com/fantasy-football#:~:text=ONE%2DWEEK%20FANTASY%20FOOTBALL,bye%20weeks%2C%20or%20draft%20busts.)
Draft kind of.sucks unless younknow the people you qre in the league with.
If you just enter a random draft, likely that at the end of it 70% - 80% will go off-line.
This year i created a draft team and partially following it. The guy that got halland is inactive. I think there are 2-3 active teams there. I am currently no1 just byngoing there once every 3 weeks. And the couple of defeats i uave are also against inactives that somehow had a player that alone made about 60% of the total score.
.
At the end of the day, regular puts everybody in a level field. Everybody has the same starting point.
In a draft, where you know that there are a handful of players that will clearly outscore others - just being the last one to pick a player in thenfirst round is enough to set you back for the rest of the game.
Haaland, Salah, Son, Saka are going to be picked up early on. Those would be the ones that would deliver points on a consistent basis. Any others will always be a bit of touch and go and depend a lot on how he season goes 😋
Regular fantasy was introduced first and has been around a good 10/15 years now. Draft only got introduced 3 years ago I believe.
I think everyone just sticks to what they're used to.
I do think the draft is a lot better personally. Makes every game in the PL interesting. Everyone obviously has completely different teams.
I said this in a reply:
The problem is with the way FPL works and how points are given for certain players, some players are extremely valuable and others not so much. It becomes less skill based and more whoever had a good draft at the start (no injuries, players in form, etc.).
For example, no one could've predicted Fernandes and Rashford to be terrible assets this year, but they were ranked incredibly highly in draft. KDB was injured, etc.
If points were given in other aspects like DMs making tackles and interceptions, then the pool of players becomes more useful and the draft aspect becomes more strategic past the first week.
This is coming from someone who is #1 in their draft ml and is doing well in regular FPL
Edit: how is this comment getting downvoted when the exact same comment in the reply is getting upvoted?
I'm not even sure why 😂 my other comment with the exact same stuff has upvotes. I just wanted to make it separate so the OP can see my reply
Anyways, yeah. Like if you don't have Haaland, Salah, and get lucky with another top option, you're going to be struggling. This year it's actually a lot better in both modes of FPL as there are so many good picks like Gordon, Palmer, Kudus, Hee Chan, Gross, Mbeumo, etc. but this year is a little unique in that aspect
Considering it takes no real effort what’s the point? All you have to do is draft well and you can win the league without ever logging back in. The second place team in my ML drafted well but also drafted Nkunku and Countinho lol and hasn’t logged in since draft day. There aren’t enough quality options to make free agency that useful. My league has 9 people. In classic one is top 80k then myself and another are both top 150k. So we’re not bad at the game either
Not sure what you mean by same lineup. In the first gameweek, you can pick your whole team (within budget) that you think will perform the best.
Every gameweek we are permitted to make one transfer (without a penalty) and we make that depending on many factors including the fixtures, player form and potential.
There are around 10 million teams and although most have a few of the same premium players, it is the ‘differential’ players that result in a jump in your rank (especially if they perform well).
I suggest you read the beginners guide on the fpl website to get a better understanding.
In draft, every player is a dufferential. Fuck sake before afcon and asia cup everyone and their mother had Son Salah Saka Palmer Bowen midfield. What fun is there to be had if everyone has the same players?
Players only lock if your league rules has it that way. In our league players only lock after their game starts. We can make changes even in mid gameweek. We are playing h2h and we want 11v11.
Seeing potential in an underappreciated player in normal FPL is game changing for a few weeks. Seeing potential in an underappreciated player in Draft is season-changing.
Pretty sure there’s a different subreddit for draft, albeit significantly less popular
Do draft and main one every year. Draft I like the unlimited transfers and bold decisions on keeping players or risking a rival picking up your discards
Draft is only for bragging rights against 7 other people. FPL is for bragging rights against everyone
Can't brag if you don't know the people.
Hence MLs
Isnt that bragging rights over 7 people aswell?
That's where social media comes in no?
Good question. I think it is mainly because we are just used to this format here, and it also allows us to compete against everyone with OR, country leagues etc. You are right that FPL players in fact do complain about having similar teams, but that is more so due to content creators and various websites and tools. However, that does not deter the vast majority from keeping on playing. It motivates many to look for differentials etc. The draft format is just too limited in numbers of players per league, and players lose motivation quickly if they picked wrong or fall far behind. All the major US sports have the draft format for their actual leagues, and from what I know, actual draft nights are key events. So I would imagine that it is a more natural thing for the fantasy players to feel familiar with.
Your third paragraph sums it up perfectly. The selection of players is too low and the reason for that is too many players are useless with the way the game currently awards points. DMs and CMs are more or less useless unless they contribute to the attack, which isn't something they're expected to do. The game doesn't take into account football as a whole
The game also hasn’t changed to mirror football’s evolution beyond 4-4-2. We get 2 GK slots, 5 DEF slots, 5 MID slots and 3 FWD slots. That was a traditional 4-4-2, plus one sub in each spot. It gave the game variety when you had lots of FWDs but lots of conventional wingers at midfield. Nowadays, most IRL forwards are MIDs in the game, with the exception of strikers like Watkins, Haaland etc. What this means is there’s rarely any point picking MIDs that aren’t basically IRL forwards, like Salah, Son, Bowen etc - because your traditional number 8s or 10s rarely return as well. And at FWD in the game, there’s only ever a handful of guys that are viable. A better game would switch to 4 MID slots, and 4 FWD slots, and then make players like Salah FWDs in the game - leaving you still with the more traditional midfielder picks like Odegaard, KDB, but potentially making it far more varied. You might not even need to tweak Midfielder scoring that much.
Thats why you dont play on the FPL site and instead use fantrax. Its scoring resembles the BP system fpl currently has. You can customize the scoring as you wish. The current scoring of Goals, Assist or CS or youre useless is pretty bland. After trying fantrax draft I cant go back to normal Fpl. Also the free trades system is way better - I can offer Leno for Gabriel Jesus if I wanted to.
Draft is definitely more fun. Especially if you can get 8-12 people in your league then the usable player pool is way larger than in the regular mode. That being said you could play both.
The problem is with the way FPL works and how points are given for certain players, some players are extremely valuable and others not so much. It becomes less skill based and more whoever had a good draft at the start (no injuries, players in form, etc.). For example, no one could've predicted Fernandes and Rashford to be terrible assets this year, but they were ranked incredibly highly in draft. KDB was injured, etc. If points were given in other aspects like DMs making tackles and interceptions, then the pool of players becomes more useful and the draft aspect becomes more strategic past the first week. This is coming from someone who is #1 in their draft ml and is doing well in regular FPL
That’s why lots of people prefer the Fantrax version of draft over FPL’s as it takes more of that into account. E.g. Kante was genuinely useful in Fantrax when he was useless in FPL, despite being a great player
Fantrax draft is fantastic. You can even tweak the scoring yourself and my league did so to try to make defensive players more valuable. What happened unintentionally was a hilarious half a season where Calum Paterson (Cardiff) was flagged as a defender but played up front for them as a target man and scored 14 points per game due to aerials. This season our keeper scoring has been a little off with 30 point hauls from multiple keepers on occasion.
The “problems” you have described are there in NFL drafts too. Half the fun is not knowing who will perform and having to change your squads as you go, hopefully beating your rival managers to the gems on the free market (waiver wire). Top picks can often bomb there too.
I mean, as I said, the issue is the fact that there aren't enough players to switch to because most players aren't very useful from an FPL standpoint. This affects draft a lot more because people are stuck with players, which means there's even less of a pool of players to select from. There basically are only three main ways to get points, and that is goals, assists, and clean sheets. If the player doesn't fit under any of these categories, they're pretty much null and void. Luckily, this season, there are a lot of players who are fitting under these categories some way. Unfortunately, in draft, if you have Haaland or Salah, you have a huge advantage that isn't really skill based.
I've done 2 drafts this year. One with 14 players, one with 8. I'm top of the one with 14 players, 2nd in the one with 8 (but I have 80 more points than anyone else in my league, just been unlucky with fixtures). I picked Rashford first in both. Even with some poorer picks, you can work your way around with clever waiver choices. Last season I finished 4th out of 12 and my first 3 picks were Ronaldo, Cancelo & Edouard Mendy so it's not even a one off that I'm doing particularly well this season.
I agree to an extent as I am also first in a league with 8, I'm just saying there are definitely a lot of things that are limited in draft. I think this year it helps that there are a lot of different, unpopular assets that are doing well. Usually, these players don't consistently do well, unlike the Haalands, Salahs, etc.
I think the sheer amount of players makes it interesting though. Yes, one guy gets Salah, one guy gets Haaland but they also get the worst set of players in the next cycle. I think it's just generally a lot more tactical than just sticking with all the meta picks in a regular FPL.
I'm not saying that the style isn't fun. It is. The problem is there just aren't enough alternatives. That's been my point all along. It is more tactical, but there isn't a big enough pool of useful players because FPL doesn't award players like DMs points for interceptions.
I agree completely. Never managed to stick the regular game past October, everyone has the same teams, same captains etc. Went draft and never went back. End up watching games like Wolves-Palace and it means something because you or your opponent is waiting to see if Dawson can nab you a clean sheet. Don’t see any appeal in the original game anymore and would urge anyone to try draft with a league of committed players.
Completely agree. I play both. At 30k OR in non-draft, near the bottom of my league in draft and much preferring the draft game. Normal FPL is too boring with template teams. I prefer the fight to waiver in the right defender each week. Usually whoever’s playing Luton/Burnley/Sheffield
The main reason is that the format has been around far longer and the average Brit historically would have had no concept of draft. The OFPL draft format is into year 7 and is growing in popularity each year as more people are seeking a proper test of their knowledge. We at [Draft FC](https://draftfc.co.uk) are constantly banging the drum for Draft FPL and encourage everyone to give it a go!
My first experience with fpl was also through the draft mode with my college teammates. Loved it. But then I slowly started getting into the regular version as well and now I’m addicted bro. Sitting at top 100k worldwide right now and it feels good. And stressful.
Easy to find active draft leagues. Just go to the draft subreddit. And don’t agree about the premium players being the deciding factors. Getting in players that people would never have in the regular game is much more essential. Most leagues I have seen do not have the Haaland/Salah owner at the top.
Exactly. I waivered in Palmer in gwk 10 or so.
Same. What a champ
Normal fpl is all inclusive. Draft requires a small group of 6-12 committed players. Huge difference. I thoroughly enjoy both
OP - we play Draft EPL on Fantrax and it's way better than regular fantasy. Our league is looking for more players though so if you and your friends are like 3-5 we'll be more than happy to have you guys next season. Ever since I started playing draft it's been hard to get back into FPL. I still maintain a team but I don't take it as seriously.
My family started an auction draft using the fpl draft tool 3 years ago. It is the MOST fun.
I think the biggest argument in favour of regular FPL over draft is that you’re not completely fucked over by injuries. In fantasy NFL I drafted Richardson and Andrews, both of whom misses shit loads of games. You can replace them with waiver pickups but you’re essentially at a massive disadvantage through no fault of your own. In FPL, you’re just one or two transfers away from being back on a level footing
Chubb and Jefferson picked here, not a great season
Is there anywhere that does the FPL format for NFL fantasy? I definitely would be interested in that
None that I could think of season long as most fantasy NFL is a draft style where you keep players the whole season. The closest I could think of would be daily/weekly fantasy NFL offered by some sportsbooks where you could change your team each week - think of being able to free hit/ wildcard every week to change your team. [see FanDuel as an example](https://www.fanduel.com/fantasy-football#:~:text=ONE%2DWEEK%20FANTASY%20FOOTBALL,bye%20weeks%2C%20or%20draft%20busts.)
Draft kind of.sucks unless younknow the people you qre in the league with. If you just enter a random draft, likely that at the end of it 70% - 80% will go off-line. This year i created a draft team and partially following it. The guy that got halland is inactive. I think there are 2-3 active teams there. I am currently no1 just byngoing there once every 3 weeks. And the couple of defeats i uave are also against inactives that somehow had a player that alone made about 60% of the total score. . At the end of the day, regular puts everybody in a level field. Everybody has the same starting point. In a draft, where you know that there are a handful of players that will clearly outscore others - just being the last one to pick a player in thenfirst round is enough to set you back for the rest of the game. Haaland, Salah, Son, Saka are going to be picked up early on. Those would be the ones that would deliver points on a consistent basis. Any others will always be a bit of touch and go and depend a lot on how he season goes 😋
Regular fantasy was introduced first and has been around a good 10/15 years now. Draft only got introduced 3 years ago I believe. I think everyone just sticks to what they're used to. I do think the draft is a lot better personally. Makes every game in the PL interesting. Everyone obviously has completely different teams.
I said this in a reply: The problem is with the way FPL works and how points are given for certain players, some players are extremely valuable and others not so much. It becomes less skill based and more whoever had a good draft at the start (no injuries, players in form, etc.). For example, no one could've predicted Fernandes and Rashford to be terrible assets this year, but they were ranked incredibly highly in draft. KDB was injured, etc. If points were given in other aspects like DMs making tackles and interceptions, then the pool of players becomes more useful and the draft aspect becomes more strategic past the first week. This is coming from someone who is #1 in their draft ml and is doing well in regular FPL Edit: how is this comment getting downvoted when the exact same comment in the reply is getting upvoted?
You’re getting downvoted, but I agree. I tried draft one year and this is exactly what happened.
I'm not even sure why 😂 my other comment with the exact same stuff has upvotes. I just wanted to make it separate so the OP can see my reply Anyways, yeah. Like if you don't have Haaland, Salah, and get lucky with another top option, you're going to be struggling. This year it's actually a lot better in both modes of FPL as there are so many good picks like Gordon, Palmer, Kudus, Hee Chan, Gross, Mbeumo, etc. but this year is a little unique in that aspect
It’s pretty garbage
What about it is garbage? Im pretty sure I can counter some of your criticisms.
Considering it takes no real effort what’s the point? All you have to do is draft well and you can win the league without ever logging back in. The second place team in my ML drafted well but also drafted Nkunku and Countinho lol and hasn’t logged in since draft day. There aren’t enough quality options to make free agency that useful. My league has 9 people. In classic one is top 80k then myself and another are both top 150k. So we’re not bad at the game either
Not sure what you mean by same lineup. In the first gameweek, you can pick your whole team (within budget) that you think will perform the best. Every gameweek we are permitted to make one transfer (without a penalty) and we make that depending on many factors including the fixtures, player form and potential. There are around 10 million teams and although most have a few of the same premium players, it is the ‘differential’ players that result in a jump in your rank (especially if they perform well). I suggest you read the beginners guide on the fpl website to get a better understanding.
In draft, every player is a dufferential. Fuck sake before afcon and asia cup everyone and their mother had Son Salah Saka Palmer Bowen midfield. What fun is there to be had if everyone has the same players?
You should try the fantrax game. Much better, loads more scoring categories, players only lock at kick off etc
Players only lock if your league rules has it that way. In our league players only lock after their game starts. We can make changes even in mid gameweek. We are playing h2h and we want 11v11.
Seeing potential in an underappreciated player in normal FPL is game changing for a few weeks. Seeing potential in an underappreciated player in Draft is season-changing.
I’ve done both. The regular one is the best fantasy sports game I’ve ever played - by far. Draft is… ok.
r/DraftEPL
Use Fantrax the FPL one is shite