The Super Rugby Pacific season is now just around the corner, and yes, Fantasy Rugby Draft is back! And that means that Draft Day is coming, one of the best days of the year for Fantasy Rugby fans. If you’ve never done a draft before, get ready to enter a glass case of emotion. The draft is 1-2 hours of joy, pain and everything in between. Get ready. I feel a strong duty as FRG to prepare you for the experience, so here goes, with what you can expect on Draft day…
Preparing for the draft
For some people, prep is everything, for others, it’s all about the freestyle. Personally, I think it is well worth putting some time in before the draft to get prepared for the draft itself.
Spend some time looking at the player rankings, is there anyone in there who looks surprisingly low in the rankings? Also look at the player positions; is that a winger classified as a centre? A loose forward classified as a lock? Mark them down on your watchlist. If you want to properly geek out (yes, guilty), a spreadsheet is the order of the day.
Other things worth considering, if you have first pick, who would you go for? Look at the new signings, who do you think will make an immediate impact and who make take some time to get used to a new league or to gel in a new team. Often you may see some new signings right at the bottom of the rankings so go deep into the list. Double check none of your prospective signings have long term injuries. Likewise, are any of your prospective picks likely to be out for long stretches of the season for international matches? Tread carefully!
Ultimately what you put into your prep is what you get out of it, some people wing it and luck out over the course of the season, but in more cases than not, it is those who have done their homework that usually are in the mix by the time the play-offs come around.
How the draft works…
Okay, so you’ve done your prep, you’ve marked down your sleepers and busts (WTF is a sleeper? Find out here…) and you know who you are going for if you get first pick. Now it’s time for the draft. If your commish* (*The guy organising your league, details below), has got League Pro, then you may already know the draft order, if not, then log in to Fantasy Rugby Draft 2 hours before the draft start time and you’ll see in what order you’ll be drafting. You’ll see the clock ticking down to the first pick. So get ready to go…
When the draft starts, the clock starts ticking on the first person in your league. They have 90 seconds to choose their player before the clock runs out. And if it does run out they just get assigned the first player in the default rankings (aka Auto-draft), then it moves to the next person in the league. Once everyone has made their pick, the order switches so that the last person to pick in the first round, gets the first pick in the second round (aka Snaking). This continues until everyone has picked their team. Everyone will pick for 17 rounds if the league is playing the 11-man teams and 21 rounds if they are playing the 15-man teams. 90 seconds sounds a long time, but before you know it, that clock goes red and you get the cold sweats when you can’t find anyone you like and you just choose the first name you recognise (only to realise a couple of minutes later that they suffered a season-ending ACL injury in pre-season!). Be prepared!
Once the draft is over, it is time to take a look at the team of world-beaters you have selected…
…or in many other cases, suffer from post-draft remorse as your pre-draft plans came fatally unstuck in Round 1 and never recovered. You can expect plenty of bants in the league chat section. Whether it is when you get continually sniped* by your league arch-rival (Sniped* = When you have your eyes on one player who will make your team absolutely perfect and the guy right in front of you takes him) or when you have laid the perfect plan to handcuff* a top notch pair of fly halves only to see that plan blow up in front of your eyes when you leave it a round too late to pick up the second part of the handcuff (Handcuff* = Owning the primary backup to one of your better players. It’s a protection policy that allows you to replace your star player with the player most likely to step into the vacated role should an injury/suspension occur.), it will all get called out in the draft chat.
The type of people you see on draft day
Every draft is different, but there are always some typical characters that you encounter in every draft…
The Commish
The Commish (aka The Commissioner) is the key to the league. He/she is the one who has the thankless task of rounding up players, configuring the league, the near impossible task of finding a draft day that works for everyone and picking up the pieces when one manager accidentally drops their best player in the free agency pool and the vultures circle to pick them up in the waivers. The commish holds it all together. Buy them a beer, they deserve it.
The Autodrafter
Despite The Commish’s best efforts, there is always one who can’t make the draft, so they put their life in their hands with the Autodraft function. Guaranteed to end the draft with a team composed roughly 50% of injured players and 50% internationals who will spend half the season away on international duty. And there is absolutely 0% sympathy for their predicament from the rest of their league mates.
The Diehard
The Diehard is not here for the banter, socialising, camraderie, or fun. No way, they’re here to run their fantasy team like the DoR of an actual team. Arriving at the draft with a unique ranking algorithm that they’ve been developing all summer. Any move they make in the draft (Reaching for an unknown Fijian winger in the 7th round) inspires deep insecurity from the rest of the group (“what does he know that we don’t!”). Do not trust any trade offers from The Diehard.
The Over-confident Ones
They will be the loudest on draft day, criticising every pick (apart from theirs), and then loudest immediately after the draft (“good luck against me lads and ladies, you’re going to need it!”). Then when their team unravels over the course of the season, they will ensure that they will tell you ad nauseum of their misfortunes. They’ll be the first to tell you how they’d have beaten nine other teams this week had they played them, or how their bench scored 50 points, or how if it hadn’t been for injuries, they would be unbeaten and cruising to the play-offs.
The Analyst
There is always one. The Analyst plays a pure numbers game based on data they have scraped from Ultimate Rugby, ESPN, The Rugby Mag and last seasons FRD stats, and since they are untethered from any misguided “gut” feelings or allegiances or YouTube highlights, they are a threat to win every single week. Watch out for the Analyst.
The Sniper
Everyone’s nemesis, it’s almost like The Sniper has hacked your phone line, your computer and your brain. The Sniper knows exactly who you are planning to pick next and beats you to it. Every. Bloody. Time.
The Freestyler
Most will do at least the slightest bit of research before the draft. Not The Freestyler. The Freestyler turns up at the last minute and hopes for the best. How hard can it be! Into Round 2 and the Freestyler is already struggling. The Freestyler makes every sweaty, nervous pick expecting the remainder of the league to laugh because he just selected a fly half whose metatarsals are in tatters after they dropped a jar of mayonnaise on their foot making a late night sandwich or the player who has just transferred from the league champions to spend a year playing in Japan. He is the frequent recipient of the “maaaate, it’s 5 minutes to deadline, swap out your Bye players so you can beat Diehard/Analyst/Sniper for me” text.
The Trader
The Trader doesn’t really care about the draft. The trader plays Fantasy sport for one reason and one reason only. To trade and nothing else. The more complicated and complex the trade the better. Frequently under scrutiny from the rest of the league for dodgy deals. You receive a “Hi mate!” WhatsApp message from The Trader and you know what is coming next. Their strategy is literally to throw as much shit against the wall as possible to see what lands, which inevitably, sooner or later it does, because one of the league mates (usually The Freestyler) just accepts to get them off their back.
Tips to successfully navigate Draft Day
So now you know what to expect, do your research and be ready to draft with a cool head and a clear strategy. The league is not won on draft day but it certainly can be lost! Here are some final tips to ensure you are going into draft day in the best shape possible!
Know your league’s point system
There are many ways to gain an edge by analysing the points scoring, so do yourself a favour before you do anything else when starting a game and dissect the rules and scoring.
Be Prepared
Come prepared and organised to your league’s draft (but be ready to change your strategy depending on how the draft is panning out – if all the fly half options are flying off the board, get in there before they all go). Also avoid putting all your eggs in one basket with the same team as you will get burned on the bye weeks. Also tread carefully in picking up international players in the early rounds and also keep track of injured players.
Depth
Identify the relative depth at every position (You need to understand every player’s value relative to every other player and the depth of that position as it relates to your squad needs). There could be 20+ great options at Outside Back but only 3-4 genuine points scoring options at Half Back, so adjust your strategy accordingly.
Rankings
Use the player rankings flexibly and in context (Whether they are your own, someone else’s, an average of multiple people, the Manager Pro Rankings or even just the default ones in the draft room), when you draft you are going to have a set of rankings. They are certainly helpful, but they should be used only as a guideline, and more so in the early parts of the draft. Once you get your first six or seven players, it really becomes about squad construction based on what positions you need to fill, how much risk you’ve already taken and how the draft is playing out.
Analyse the lower ranks
Quite often there are many great options sitting down in the lower ranks of the overall rankings. New signings, previous top picks recovering from injuries or deep sleepers set for a breakout season. Don’t draft without sifting around the lower ranks to find some golden nuggets.
Keep FRG Handy
Lastly, always keep an eye on FantasyRugbyGeek.com and the FRG Twitter for news, tips and insights as we reach the season start. We’ll keep you at the top of your FRD Leagues throughout the season (and please consider buying me a coffee if the tips go well for you!).
With Draft season fully underway, don’t miss our summary coming soon of this year’s Sleepers and Busts to help you to select an unstoppable team for this unique and strange season. Also, for even more tips to give you the edge, make sure check out our interview with some previous top Fantasy Rugby Draft players, including Bryn Williams and Roy Robertson.
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