The next in a series of game overviews to give you the ins and outs of the available games in place for this season’s Gallagher Premiership. If any new games pop up, please let us know at fantasyrugbygeek@gmail.com or @frugbygeek on Twitter.
Today we received the very sad news that Fantasy Rugby Draft will not be having a Premiership Rugby Game in place this season, leaving a huge Draft-based hole in the Fantasy Rugby landscape. We are scouring the net for alternatives, so today we are checking out a new app-first Draft style game, Fantasy Rugby World. Check it out here.
THE PREMISE
Fantasy Rugby World is an app-based game from a French agency. They have games in place for Premiership, Champions Cup, Top14, ProD2 and 6 Nations in February.
The game is draft-based, so you are in a league amongst a select and small group (Leagues can be 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10 players). However, rather than selecting players one after each other in a snake-style draft, Fantasy Rugby World is auction-based.
Auction based drafts sound complicated, but are actually quite simple when you get going. The basic premise is that to start with, you (and all your league rivals) add players to your team (a squad of 23) with the price you’d be willing to pay for them (you have a budget of £15 million so you can’t blow all your budget on big players), then when everyone has entered their team, the program works out who will be willing to pay the most for the selected players, they get assigned those players. This is one round. After this, then a new round of bids start up. And the rounds keep going until everyone has a full team. You are highly recommended to get everyone online simutaneously to draft your teams, as it will make the process much much quicker…
Once you all have your teams drafted then you are good to go and ready to play the match-ups against your league rivals on a round by round basis. The results are tracked on a league table (Victory = 4 points / Draw = 2pts / Defeat = 0pt / TB = 1pt / LB = 1pt) to determine the overall champion of your league.
You can add and remove players over the course of the season (if they are in the free agent pool…), but make sure you get your team in place in time for the deadline, which I am reliably informed is 2 hours before the kick-off of the first match of each Round.
You get a captain who will get double points (and a vice-captain in case your skipper doesn’t play), and also a designated kicker to get kicking points.
You have the ability to make transfers; you get 2 free transfers per gameweek. If you need to make serious surgery to your team, the more are allowed, but these are allowed at a cost of -5 points per transfer. You also get some wildcard options, 1 is a “Medical Joker” which allows an additional free transfer, and the other is the “Wild Card” which allows you to completely rip up your team at no extra cost (I believe you can only play these cards once over the season).
It’s mobile only and available on iOS and Android
THE KEY POINTS
- Squad Size: 23
- Team size: 15 – The 8 on your bench will replace anyone in your starting XV not playing (assuming they are the same position…)
- Double scoring captain?: Yes (If you select a kicker however, the kicking points won’t be doubled…)
- Designated Kicker?: Yes
- Transfers: 2 free transfer (player release) per gameweek, more are allowed, but allowed at a cost of -5 points per transfer
- Max players from one club: 6
THE EDGE
Team balance is key
The most crucial pointer is that you must use your squad well, it is critical that you have a match day 23 of players who should always be involved. 23 starters, even better, but what with squad rotation this is always a challenge. Avoid the temptation to load your starting XV with superstars, with your bench earning you half points, you are better served building a balanced squad of consistent performers rather than 15 superstars and a bench of low scorers.
Use your chips carefully
There are some bonus chips to be aware of…
- The double captain – Not clear from the description, but it seems this means that your captain will get their already doubled points doubled again. So quaudruple points…
- The 16th man – A bench boost of sorts, one of your subs will count as a starting player.
I’m not sure if the chips are only used once per season, it’s not clear, but the chips could be lethal near the business end of the season against one of your big rivals.
Bye weeks
This season brings a new wrinkle to Prmiership fantasy rugby players, byes! While Super Rugby fantasy rugby players are well used to bye weeks, this is a new experience for Premiership managers. With no relegation last season and the return of Saracens increasing the league to 13 teams, this season, we are going to contend with byes. So when are the bye weeks occuring?
Here’s a summary…
The teams with longest gaps between bye weeks are Wasps (18 rounds), Harlequins (18 rounds) & Saracens (16 rounds), while the teams with shortest gaps between bye weeks, Bristol (8 rounds), Newcastle (9 rounds) and Gloucester (9 weeks). Take this into account with your planning if you are looking to shift players in and out for the byes.
Ultimately, with 13 teams in the league and only 1 team on a bye each week, it should all be quite manageable; however, just avoid putting all your eggs in one basket, and be cautious with any handcuff strategies (“Handcuff??? What?” – Check out our Fantasy Rugby Glossary here…).
Keep an eye on the scoring system
Points are awarded for the following…
…make sure you crunch the stats to find the outlying players. There are some bargains to be had!
Dodge the internationals
Although it’s tempting to load up with big names, your limited transfers will be better used on guaranteed starters each week of the season so that you don’t find yourself having to make costly multiple transfers when it comes to the stars that will miss big chunks of the season for the Autumn Internationals and Six Nations. In addition, those who were involved in the Lions Tour will need to be rested for a significant period of the season start (mooted 10 weeks for all Lions squad members).
Multiposition players are worth their weight in gold
Given the transfer restrictions and the squad size, by filling your squad with players who can play in multiple positions, you will provide your team with a lot more flexibility in case of injury, resting and rotation.
Don’t miss the deadline!
You have a small window of time between the Saturday and Sunday squads being announced at midday and the Friday night game kicking off, so make sure you log on in this time to make sure your proposed 23 is actually playing. Keep an eye on the team announcements on the Fantasy Rugby Geek Premiership Twitter List to catch the team announcements as they come in.
Plan ahead
Keep an eye on the fixture list when making your transfers to ensure that you get the best bang for your buck. If a certain team has a good run of games coming up bring them in. Conversely a side could have an attractive fixture that week but follows up with some tough games against the top dogs, it could be worth reconsidering!
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