Welcome back to another edition of Optimus Fantasy 101!

This series is focused on helping you to learn how to play fantasy football.

In this article, we’ll focus on the basics of what you need to start your own league. We will discuss how to decide what league format you want to play in, a few of the different platforms you can play on, and how to create your league settings.

First and foremost, let’s discuss deciding who you will be playing with.

Who Should You Play With?

This can make or break wanting to play in a league. Can you find enough other people who want to play in the league with you, or should you find a random league to join first?

If you choose a pre-made league with a bunch of strangers, it will make answering many of the questions that we will ask much easier because things like the league settings and who the commissioner is will be preset for you.

It’s not a bad way to learn about fantasy football, but honestly, it’s not the best choice.

Instead, if you want the full experience of playing fantasy football, you want to have people you can talk to each week.

Build From Within Your Community

Try and find people you will have the chance to trash talk when you beat them in your first win. People that you can send a quick text or stop by the water cooler to ask if they saw your trade offer.

Familiarity with your league mates makes playing fantasy football much more exciting. Finding people who want to play will be easier than you would expect.

Reach out to friends or family members. Ask your co-workers if they want to start a work league.

There are no expectations for how big your league should be, but you typically want a 12-team league. It’s a solid number that balances out the depth of each roster and creates a fun challenge.

If you’re having trouble finding enough people, you could certainly go with eight or ten players instead. Remember that you can always add more later!

Choose Your Format

Redraft Fantasy Football Leagues

Now that your people are picked out, let’s focus on deciding what format you want to play. You might have had to decide while finding people because some people only like to play certain kinds of fantasy football.

Redraft is one of the most common forms of fantasy football and is probably what I would suggest to anyone just starting.

This is because you get to draft a whole new team every year. In other words, if you play your first year and struggle, that’s alright because you get to start from the top when you play next year.

Redraft is far more forgiving, giving you a chance to get a feel for what the game is all about before you get into the pool’s deep end.

Keeper Fantasy Football Leagues

Next up is similar to redraft but with a twist: keeper leagues. Much like the title suggests, you get to keep a certain number of players, typically one or two, from your team the previous season.

It’s not uncommon for there to be some “penalty” attached to keeping certain players in this format as well.

For example, if you selected Buccaneers RB Rachaad White in the fifth round last season, certain leagues will require you to give up your fourth-round pick in this year’s draft.

We will discuss more details of this format later, but its similarities to redraft make it a perfect option for newcomers to the game.

Dynasty Fantasy Football Leagues

Now you hear about keeper leagues and wonder why you can’t keep the entire team you drafted.

Good news: You can! All you have to do is convince your league mates that what you really want to sign up for is a dynasty league. In these leagues, you draft your team and keep the entire roster in perpetuity.

Instead of picking their team over again annually, dynasty managers can add new talent to their squads through a first-year player or rookie draft.

It’s essentially like what actual teams do with the NFL Draft, and each manager is assigned rookie draft picks that can be used to take young incoming players or as trade assets for veterans.

In many ways, dynasty leagues are most like running a real-life football team.

Time to Choose!

There are many other formats, including best ball, guillotine, vampire, and so many more, each with its own twist. They are fun in their own right. But ultimately, it’s best to recommend settling on one of the first three, especially redraft, for beginners.

This isn’t to say that redraft is only for beginners either; my longest-lasting league is strictly a redraft league with my friends, and I look forward to it every year.

It’s all about finding what is suitable for you and your people.

Remember: there’s no wrong answer if everyone is having a good time!

I Want to Talk to Your Commissioner

So, you’ve picked your format.

Now is the time to find the person who will be in charge of the league. Finding the right person as commissioner is important because they have the final say in the league settings, issues with trades, scoring problems, etc.

Choosing someone with experience playing fantasy football can be helpful, but anyone can be the commissioner.

If you are the one who has set everything up so far, you might want to take over the reins anyway.

Don’t Forget About the Rules!

Once you have decided on the commissioner, you can get into the real nitty-gritty aspects of the league, such as the league settings and scoring.

Personally, I like to take a hands-off approach and let the decision be as democratic as possible. Everybody gets a say in what is happening and votes on the scoring decisions.

Is this going to be a point-per-reception (PPR) league or a standard-scoring league? What should waiver wires look like? Are you going to have a trade deadline? When is it?

These are many more questions you’ll want to ask about when setting up your league.

Understanding that you have all agreed on the rules will help with frustrations throughout the season. In addition to making the league rules, you’ll want to create a set of bylaws with all of this information recorded so that everyone has a document they can refer to if they need to.

Just the Tip of the Iceberg

Hopefully, this has helped you figure out the start for your deep dive into fantasy football!

Soon, you will become an avid degenerate like the rest of us. To get you there, keep an eye out for upcoming Optimus Fantasy: 101 installments.

We will discuss the different league settings, the other formats that you can play in, and much, much more.

 

For more from Richard Sickels, find him on X (formerly Twitter) @RichardSickelsGMB