Are you tired of the same old Fantasy Premier League game year after year? The template teams, unimaginative scoring, restrictive rosters, over-reliance on captaincy and the fact that only a small percentage of Premier League players are viable fantasy options? We’ve got good news: There is an alternative to FPL that offers much more excitement. Let’s dive into the world of Draft Fantasy EPL – what it is, how it works and why it’s the best version of fantasy football.
Check out our 23/24 Draft Kit for all the pre-season information you could ever need. We've got a Live Draft Aide, Draft Rankings, Team Previews, Cheat Sheets, Strategy Articles, Draft 101. Dominate your draft!
Fed Up With FPL? Play Draft PL on Fantrax!
So you're frustrated with the FPL game? Read below for all the details on why Draft Fantasy Football on Fantrax is the way forward, what it all means, and how to best set up your league. FPL is the past... time to start your journey to glory on Fantrax EPL!
The Draft Format of Fantasy Premier League
Imagine a fantasy game where every team is different and you can make a case for selecting just about every player in the player pool if they make their team’s starting lineup. Imagine players scoring points for in-game actions other than just goals, assists and clean sheets. Imagine a game where you can make as many changes to your team as you’d like without penalty. And finally, imagine having the flexibility to set up as many leagues as you’d like with completely customizable scoring and rules. You’ve just imagined the Draft Premier League experience on Fantrax.
Why Fantrax?
So Draft Fantasy EPL is the future. The competitiveness and longevity is unrivalled, and it's the most fun way to play Fantasy Soccer with your friends. Now it's time to pick a platform to play the game on...
The only real option is Fantrax.
Fantrax offers draft-style EPL Fantasy Soccer Leagues that are the most feature-rich, easy-to-use and customizable in the industry. A Fantasy EPL Draft League on Fantrax is an incredible experience, unparalleled by any other platform!
The customization options are pretty much endless. Want to put a halt on waiver wire claims for the next week? Go for it! Need to manually override a particular head-to-head score from the latest period? No problem! Any possible customization you could ever think of is available on the Fantrax Fantasy EPL offering.
What Does the Fantrax Website Look Like?
Many improvements have been made to the Fantrax UI in recent years, including a pitch view, a new and improved Draft Room/Draft Board, and general improvements to how the game looks. Check out the images below!
Pitch View:
The Players screen:
The Draft Board:
What Roster Restrictions Are There?
There pretty much aren't any! FPL has restrictions on the number of players per team and the budget available to you... The draft format has none of that. No limitations on the number of Manchester City players you can roster, and no limitations on budget taking the fun out of the game!
The only restrictions will be in regards to formations; the total number of players you are allowed to roster; and the maximum number of players per position. The best part of Fantrax is that all this is also customizable to fit your league's preferences. The default settings make it mandatory to start AT LEAST: 1 goalkeeper, 3 defenders, 2 midfielders, and 1 forward. You can start a maximum of 1 goalkeeper, 5 defenders, 5 midfielders, or 3 forwards - obviously, you cannot start more than 11 total players. Default settings will allow you to only roster 16 players at one time, so be sure when setting your waiver claims you are aware of that.
How Do You Score Points?
Draft Fantasy EPL offers a vast array of ways to score points, and these are fully customizable on Fantrax. Gone are the days when you earn points simply for goals, assists, or clean sheets. Fantrax Default Scoring offers a much more intelligent way of scoring points. These include points for key passes, shots on target, successful crosses, tackles won, interceptions, clearances, and aerials won. Opta statistics are used to create a sophisticated scoring system that rewards good statistical performances! As we've said, Fantrax offers full customization of the points scored for each of these areas.
An important note: Draft Fantasy EPL doesn't use captains! As each player can only be rostered by one manager, the need for captains to differentiate between the scores players gain isn't required.
How Are Player Positions Categorized?
Player positions are categorized by Opta data, which means players such as Rashford, Salah and Son are actually classified as forwards. In what world these players are "midfielders" we do not know! Did you see the recent player position changes for FPL for the 23/24 season? Jota, Richarlison, Mbeumo and Johnson being changed to midfielders? It's nonsense. In Fantrax wide forwards and wingers are classified as forwards, meaning there are attractive options across all positions. You can also change the position classification of a certain player if your league feels Opta have got it wrong.
Which Players Are Best?
Most EPL players have value, especially when you think of a week-to-week head-to-head format. There are a group of "elite" players that are usually always selected in the first few picks of the draft: Kane, Salah, Haaland, and Bruno are probably the consensus top 4 across most leagues this season. Throughout the rest of the first round, there will be a mix of players that are selected based on their ability to score goals and assists, or their prominence in ghost point scoring (points gained for actions that aren't goals, assists or clean sheets). The likes of Alexander-Arnold and Trippier are first-round candidates despite being defenders due to their strong "floors" of ghost points and added upside of clean sheets and set-piece duty. On the other hand, Rashford and Jesus offer similar value in a completely different way. The two forwards offer week-to-week upside with their goals but lack consistent ghost points and a floor. That is part of the reason they aren't among the elite 4 but are still worthy of a top-12 pick.
You always want to have some combination of "upside" and "safe" players when you come out of your draft. The safe players are guys such as Casemiro, Rodri, and Tarkowski who will get you a guaranteed number of points and don't rely on attacking returns. These kinds of players usually get taken in the mid-rounds of the draft. Combining these players with your "boom or bust" players is key. Boom or bust players are those who aren't usually taken in the first 2-3 rounds but can offer similar upside to those players, as well as significant downside, hence your ability to get them after the first few rounds. The likes of Mahrez, Porro, and Nunez fall into this category. For various reasons, whether it is a lack of ghost points, rotation, or inconsistency these players can't produce the week-to-week numbers of the elite ones, but on their day can still win you a matchup.
The most important takeaway here is that all players within the draft format of Fantasy EPL will have value on any given week. Players such as Podence, Soucek, and Webster can literally win you your game for the weekend.
Draft League Essentials: How it Works
Read below for all the details on how exactly a Draft League works on Fantrax...
What Do You Mean by 'Draft'?
So we've mentioned this being a 'Draft' version of Fantasy EPL. This means that at the start of the season, each of the managers in your league will draft their team from all of the available players. No two managers can own the same player!! The way it should be! There are no player values involved here, you just pick the best team you possibly can from the free player pool as the draft progresses. If each player can only be owned by one manager, it makes things so much more intense and competitive. The draft 'snakes' from one end of the draft order to the other, creating a fair system for all. A squad of 16 players will be drafted.
Head-To-Head League
A Head-To-Head format for your Draft League is essential! This means that you will play against a certain manager for each separate period of games. The manager who scores the most points between the two will pick up three points for the win. This is instead of an overall scoring league, where your points total is an accumulation of all your weekly scores.
This format increases the banter within your group of managers by a substantial amount, but also, perhaps most importantly, will keep the league standings close throughout the season. Every manager will know that if they put together a few consecutive wins they could shoot up the table and be in title contention! The competitiveness and longevity of your league will increase greatly, and it makes beating your rivals all the sweeter if it’s during a straight-up one on one match-up!
How Many Managers Should You Have in a League?
Ideally, you should have 8, 10, or 12 managers in your league. Get a group of your friends together and enjoy Draft Fantasy EPL in a medium-sized group. If you have a larger league than this the player pool will be spread extremely thinly, and managers will be stuck with players in their squads that never actually play. If you have a smaller league than this, there will be too many good players to go around and therefore all of the managers will have very good squads!
With between 10 and 12 managers you'll have the ideal amount of players to go around. Most of the squads will be of similar quality and this still means that there will be good players available in the free-agent pool. In addition, having an even number of managers will ensure that all matchups will be even. If you have an odd number of managers every week someone will either need a "bye" week or to play the "league average" which is obviously less enjoyable than a straight head-to-head matchup.
How Do You Set a Lineup?
You will set your lineup based on the best fixtures that the players in your squad have. As the roster size is 16, and many players within the game being attractive due to the intelligent scoring system, you'll mix up your starting lineup a lot throughout the course of the season. Pick your best eleven for the weekend's fixtures and away you go! There are lots of options here for lineups though. You could select options for autosubs to be brought into the team if one of your players doesn't play, like on FPL. Or you could select options so that you can make 'live' changes to your lineup, with each player being locked into your team only 1 minute before kickoff for their particular game. Read our article here for more information on these revolutionary Live Lineup Changes. Something to consider once you get used to the Draft Fantasy EPL format!
How to Sign Players... The Free Agent Pool?
All of the undrafted players go into the free agent pool once the draft has been completed. These are the players that are not owned by a manager. Throughout the season, you can pick and choose players from the free agent pool, replacing an existing player in your squad. You have unlimited pickups from the free agent pool during each period. This is an important thing to note in this Draft Fantasy EPL 101! Unlimited pickups, every single week, with no point deductions! Therefore, constantly adding and dropping players from the free agent pool (streaming) is recommended based on the weekend fixtures!
How to Sign Players... The Waiver Wire?
The waiver wire is the order by which league managers can pick up players from the free agent pool, at certain times during each week. Waiver wire requests are usually processed on a Tuesday and a Friday, but this can be fully customized. Once a player begins their weekend match, they will be 'locked' from being signed by a manager, and placed into the waivers. Managers will then need to request to sign them using the waiver wire after the gameweek has finished. If multiple managers request to sign a certain player, the manager at the top of the waiver wire order will get the player.
This is used as a fair way to determine the order by which managers can sign players. The idea being if a free agent player scores three goals at the weekend, every manager will have a chance to sign him on the next waiver wire processing date.
Can I Trade Players With a Fellow Manager?
Yes! This is one of the best aspects of playing Draft Fantasy EPL. Due to the fact that each player can only be owned by one manager, you can offer trades of players to try and get hold of players that you really like! This is where banter and competitiveness is aplenty in the draft format. Offer your fellow managers trades to try and take their strongest assets. You can find some tips on trading here! Check out these trade strategies to get your juices flowing!
Now What...?
So now that you know Draft Fantasy EPL is the future, its time to get a bunch of friends together, set up a league on Fantrax, and have a brilliant Fantasy Football experience for the 23/24 season! Make sure you keep up to date with all the goings on at Draft Society HQ for all the hints and tips you need to navigate your first season on Fantrax. And if you want an extra helping hand, sign up to our Inner Circle benefits to help dominate your league. Our 23/24 Draft Kit promises to be the best, most thorough edition ever created!
Check out our 23/24 Draft Kit for all the pre-season information you could ever need. We've got a Live Draft Aide, Draft Rankings, Team Previews, Cheat Sheets, Strategy Articles, Draft 101, plus so much more. Dominate your draft!
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Have you heard about our revolutionary new Draft Fantasy Football app? We call it The Fantasy Toolkit. Expand to read more!
Each gameweek, The Fantasy Toolkit will bring you:
Recommended waiver adds & drops
Optimal lineup suggestions
Matchup projections
Trade calculator
All in one customized and personalised package
It's included in our Ultimate Pass and Season Pass plans and will give you a massive leg up on your league-mates. Check out a full demonstration video HERE for more info!