One of the best things about the summer is that there’s almost always a fantasy football draft in my world. Mock drafts, real drafts, snake drafts, salary cap drafts, slow drafts, fast drafts, keeper-league drafts, seasonal drafts. Heck, a few months back, we even did some magazine drafts. It’s the best day of the year, why not keep doing it, over and over?
Are you looking for one more league, one more draft? Why not get together a Yahoo Fantasy guillotine-style league? It’s a unique challenge for the fantasy football manager, a delicate dance between being good today and building a monster team for later in the season. It will test your skills and at times warp your brain — in a good way. You’ll be forced to consider angles and nuances you’ve likely never dealt with before.
[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy guillotine-style football league]
Guillotine-style leagues are pools where everyone plays against everyone else each week, with just the lowest-scoring team eliminated. Everyone else advances. And here’s the catch — when the bottom-scoring club is cut, all of its players are added to the waiver-wire pool for the next FAB run.
I fell for this format the first time I tried it. I think you will, too.
Some of the benefits of a Yahoo Fantasy guillotine-style league (in collaboration with Liquid Death) includes:
Although a big group is my preferred way to approach a guillotine-style league, you can make it work with pretty much any number of managers (and an odd number is no problem).
All you need to do is beat one team every week! If you’re a consistent type or a floor-driven manager, this is the format for you. (You know I love this style; I’m that guy hitting a 3-wood off every tee.)
There’s almost always a Monday night sweat as managers try to avoid being the low-scoring team headed for the exit. That final game takes on some extra juice.
The waiver wire is a blast every week when the surviving managers are sorting through all the cuts from the team most recently eliminated. In a traditional league, you’ll never be able to land a healthy Ja’Marr Chase or Lamar Jackson from your FAB. Something like this is available every week in guillotine. And you always have to judge between grabbing the goodies for today or saving for the potential goodies of the future. It’s tricky, and it’s challenging, and if you do the dance right, it’s very rewarding.
If you survive deep into a guillotine-style league, your roster will be loaded late in the year. While I’m all for the nuance of deep leagues and flex options, there’s something to be said for building a Dream Team, every so often.
Reference links
Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy guillotine-style football league!