Madmen are hypocrites. We admit it.
Those of you who read our articles regularly will be well aware of our “football with a football flavour” philosophy: we want fantasy gaming to be as close as possible to the real-world product.
So in the real game, it doesn’t matter if a player gets the ball on a handoff or a pass, every touch is the same. Why should it be any different in fantasy? This is one of the reasons we hate PPR.
Similarly, a real football game never finishes with a score of, say, 24.3 to 21.7 because fractional points don’t exist in real football, so why do fractional points exist in fantasy football (with the exception of DFS contests)?
Or why do some fantasy leagues feature two quarterbacks when no team features two?
Ugh. … We’re caught. This is our weakness, the exposed vent in our fantasy Death Star doctrine. This is where we argue with ourselves, because we love superflex leagues too.
So yes, I will admit that this goes against our “football-flavored football” beliefs, but counterintuitively, it is our football-flavored desires that fuel this love.
Traditional fantasy formats are rife with a problem of grossly undervaluing quarterbacks. You can literally punt on the most important position in football during the draft and still build a fantasy football team that can win your league. In fact, we’d argue that this is the best way to build a winning team. And it’s this fact that bothers us.
What changes could make fantasy games more realistic? Most of the changes we come up with are too ambitious or cumbersome to manage, from a major overhaul of QB scoring to fantasy leagues with too many teams.
Luckily, you don’t have to be a Dr. Fantasy Frankenstein to find the solution: something has already come to life, and that creature is Superflex.
Fantasy Football DVQ Commentary
Hop out the pool, open your vacation suitcase, fire up your laptop and get ready: fantasy football season is back.
Fantasy Madman is back with the latest instalment of DVQ.
The Draft Value Index is a player rating system that assigns one universal number to every player that predicts the point in the draft when a player’s projected production will match up with his estimated draft pick value.
Because the disparity between the top production levels is large, the disparity between the top ranked DVQ values is also large.
A player’s projections take into account playing time, expected usage/touches, coaching tendencies, part performance, and injury history. DVQ measures these projections against the player’s schedule and takes into account position depth and replacement value.
These ratings are updated regularly.
In Superflex leagues, there are roster spots available for managers to start a second QB, which naturally increases the value of the QB, putting him on par with a running back or wide receiver. He won’t be valued more highly than other positions like in the real game, but at least he’ll be on the same level.
A smart superflex manager will try to have three QBs, two available each week and one good backup. Obviously, in a 12-team league, you don’t have 36 available QBs, much less 24 good starting options, so you need to jump on the draft fast.
In a traditional league, someone would laugh at you if you picked one in the first five rounds no matter how good the actual QB was, in superflex no one is going to look at you funny if your first two picks are both QBs.
With Superflex, you can no longer wait until the middle or later rounds to address the most important position in the game; now that position matters in fantasy too. This fantasy format at least has a stronger football feel and behavior, even if the rosters aren’t football-like.
So, in retrospect, maybe we weren’t such hypocrites after all, but in today’s world where nuance is dead, if you want to call us hypocrites, that’s totally fine.
