Our Draft 101 series is designed to familiarize those new to Draft Premier League to the game by explaining many of the basics that veterans often take for granted. There are many potentially confusing elements in the Draft game including the draft itself, waivers, trades, head-to-head matchups, and simply establishing a league. This series hopes to help new users build their knowledge base, explain the basic elements of the game, and clear up those areas of confusion.
What is Draft Premier League Fantasy Football?
The Draft game is growing each year in popularity as people seek an alternative to some of the other Fantasy EPL options they've been accustomed to. Others have simply had a mate talk them into joining a league, which they have done with some potential reluctance. Yet more are familiar with NFL-style fantasy football and just realized that there's a comparable game for the English Premier League. No matter which category you fall into, allow us to welcome you to a fantasy football experience that is loads of fun and to a Community that is inclusive, vibrant, and supportive!
An Overview of the Draft Game
Draft Premier League has some similarities to the widely-played salary cap version offered by the Premier League (FPL) itself, but there are notable differences that make the Draft game unique.
Here are the basics of the game:
You and your mates create a league and all join it. Leagues usually consist of between 8 and 14 people.
When the season starts, the league holds a draft in which Premier League players are selected one-by-one and "drafted" onto fantasy teams. Once drafted, a player can not appear on any other team in the league. This is the major difference in the Draft format to other salary cap versions of fantasy football.
Each week, you will play against one other manager in a head-to-head matchup.
When playing against another manager, you will start 11 Premier League players who will take on the 11 players put up by your opponent. Whichever team scores more points will win.
Your performance against that manager will result in either a win (3 points), a draw (1 point), or a loss (0 points).
If you're unhappy with your roster, you can pick up any player not already rostered or you can trade for players already owned by other managers in your league.
A league table will show every manager's record as well as their accumulated league points.
At the end of the season, the manager with the most league points is crowned the league champion (unless your league decides to implement a playoff system).
Draft Premier League Platforms
Most of the remaining questions about the Draft format can be answered based upon which fantasy football platform that you and your league-mates decide to use. Your choice in platform will determine how customizable your experience is. Some platforms will have a bit more of a learning curve than others, but all of them will provide the fundamentals of what makes Draft so enthralling: a draft, trades, and weekly pick-ups! Let's look at the three main providers offering versions of the Draft game at this time.
Fantrax as a platform is far and away the most customizable. For that reason alone, we use their site as our go-to provider. Plus, Fantrax allows us to utilize a scoring method that rewards players for contributions all over the pitch, not just goals, assists, clean sheets, etc. For more info on the default Fantrax scoring categories, see below.
This platform does require a bit of getting used to, however. Your league commissioner will need to spend a bit of time clicking around and exploring the vast array of settings. If you run into any issues, any questions can always be directed to us here at The Draft Society or directed to the amazing Draft Community on Twitter.
This is the default scoring for Fantrax, which is an iteration of the traditional Togga scoring method with minor tweaks, can be seen here. We at The Draft Society prefer a scoring method such as this one which gives players points for various contributions that have an effect on the match, rather than just awarding points for attacking returns or clean sheets. This results in a more immersive experience when watching games live. For more information on the rationale behind this scoring system, check out our article on The Fantrax Scoring System.
For those who would prefer a scoring method that more closely mirrors the incredibly popular salary cap version of Premier League fantasy football offered by the league itself, they also have a Draft option available on their site. The scoring is not customizable, but will be a natural transition for those who have already played FPL. As such, the Draft learning curve will be quite minimal. Plus, you can use the same account that you already use for the salary cap game. The downside of this version, however, is a lack of customizable features and less robust scoring system. But, this can be a great gateway into the Draft game! Below, you will find the scoring system for the Draft version of this game, which is the same as the "normal" Premier League fantasy football game.
Draft Fantasy Football is the final platform available for the Draft game at this time. Offering a beautiful interface and a very user-friendly experience, this site is another option for new leagues. The scoring mirrors that of the official version mentioned above, but they have recently unveiled some more customizable options including custom scoring. Some of these features fall under their 'premium' package, which requires a monthly/yearly fee. That being said, their platform may be the most intuitive and aesthetically pleasing of any of the options mentioned thus far, and they have recently taken on a very active improvements package.
The Specifics of the Draft Game
In order to keep this article to a reasonable length, we plan to continue to publish Draft 101 articles detailing the other elements of the Draft game. You can find the list of topics below, which will be updated with links as these articles are published. The article you've just read, combined with the articles below should give you enough base knowledge to tackle the Draft game head-on and set you up for success!
Draft 101 Topics
What is EPL Draft Fantasy Football?
What is the Draft?
What are Waivers?
What is Free Agency?
What are Player Trades?
While the game can seem daunting at first, most users are thoroughly engrossed and enthralled after getting the hang of it! If there are any other Draft 101 articles that you would like to see, please do let us know! Our goal is to make this information as straight-forward as possible, spread the goodness of the Draft game far and wide, and grow the Draft Community.
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