by Rippin and Tearin Mon Aug 05, 2019 11:46 am
Scoring, Subs, and AEs
You have a team of 16 starters and 8 subs.
Your 8 Substitutes will act as automatic emergencies in their matching position only. If one of you 16 starters doesn’t gain any fantasy stats your lowing scoring sub (with fantasy stats) will substitute in for their place.
I believe you can technically have an AE score for you in each of the 6 fantasy positions.
Captains Loophole
Like NRLF it is rolling lockout (i.e. players lock as their games start). But unlike NRLF your captain (c) and vice captain (vc) do not lock at the start of the round and you can change who you have them on up until the individual players lock out.
This means that there is the potential to utilise the so-called ‘captains loophole’.
How to do this:
1) you must have a red-dot (non playing person in your team).
2) Place the vc on a player playing early in the round (for round 1 this might be Matt Ryan for example).
3) Place your (c) on someone playing later (Todd Gurley for example).
4) Make sure you’re your red dot can be subbed into your team after Ryan has played (remembering how players lock out as their games start).
5) If Ryan goes really well and you want to take his score as your captains score, substitute in your red dot and put the captain on him. He will not score for the round therefore defaulting your captain choice to your vice captain.
6) You will get an AE for your red dot.
7) If you don’t want to take Ryan’s score as your captain, leave as is and Gurley will remain your captain.
Like it or not, this is a strategy employed by most who have played the VSDT platform and I have had a quick chat privately with some of the long term members on the site who have signed up for this comp and consensus was that the best way forward on this issue was to be 100% transparent about it, make sure everyone understand it, can use it if they want, and then at least everyone is on the same page.
I’d also point out that the strategy only works if you have a red dot. It would be a risk too purposefully have a red dot in your team to start the season to employ this from day 1 as you would potentially have no cover in a particular postion and also would be sacrificing a potential CC which I would argue is more important for the long game than the potential to be able to loop. That’s just my opinion though – each to their own.
Price Changes
Another important thing to understand about the VSDT site is that player prices change in a similar way to NRLF, i.e. based on their fantasy performance in relation to their price BUT player’s prices do not change until they have played 3 games.
This is very important from a strategy perspective and IMO makes the game a little bit more forgiving. It means that prior to round three you can trade up to four times to fix any mistake you have made with your initial squad. I would argue that everyone should take advantage of those four trades.
Starting Prices
The basis of doing well in this game is about finding ‘value’ particularly in your starting squad. The 2018 prices of players is mostly a product of their 2017 average scoring. So someone like Todd Gurley is expensive cause he went well last year, and someone like Jaquizz Rodgers is cheap cause he scored poorly last year. Value can be found therefore if you think a player will improve on last year.
Also, in NFL there are typically a bunch of fantasy relevant rookies. Rooikies can range in price but they will always be priced relatively low. So if you can find a rookie in a skilled position that will start, it is likely that they will offer some value. There are a number of QBs this year that might fit that bill. I might show my ignorance here but an example might be Baker Mayfield Im thinking he starts over Tyrod Taylor.
Lastly, like NRLF there is a discount on players prices if they played 6 or fewer games (I think that’s the number). An example from last year I David Johnson. He only played 1 game I think. This is where it gets a little complicated because it seems like they have priced DJ with no relation to his 2017 average. I suspect what they have done is priced him at a discount to his 2016 average. Either way, his price is not reflective of his 2017 average and that is because of the number of games he played. The point here is that value can be found in those players who played 6 or fewer games.