Drafters - The Hidden Best Ball Gem
Last years NFL off-season was an interesting one that was centered around how to proceed with COVID. Drafting Best Ball teams was no different and in the beginning our options were very limited on what platform we could even draft on. DRAFT was purchased by FanDuel the year before so that platform was gone, FanDuel refused to put out a Best Ball platform, Underdog didn’t come along until later, Draftkings was another late to the party platform and options like BB10s and FFPC were also slow to get going. Drafters on the other hand had Best Ball leagues available right from February on until the season started. It was my first year using the Drafters platform and I was impressed as I could enter SLOW or FAST drafts starting at as little as $1.10 and I could do so using their APP or on the website.
Drafters also had a big tournament that was a $5.55 entry fee and are back again with that same tournament structure. I wanted to give a shout out to the Drafters team for continuing to run NFL Best Ball contests and for their unique $5.55 Best Ball Championship tournament.
Drafters $5.55 Best Ball Championship Breakdown:
The tournament is currently 4,552 out of 10,008 entries full (so nearly half full).
It is 20 Rounds compared to 18 Rounds so you get two more shots at those late round fliers.
It is cumulative scoring instead of elimination playoff rounds. So it is just draft the best team that scores the most points and you win.
It is full PPR compared to a 0.5 PPR league.
Max entries is set at 150 with $5.55 entry fee per entry.
They are FAST drafts with a 30 second timer.
12-man leagues (834 total leagues = 834 x 12 = 10,008 entries)
Roster is start 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 FLEX
Total prize pool is $50K with top prizes: 1st = $10k 2nd $5k and 3rd $2.5k
When playing in big field Best Ball tournaments you want to know the rules and how to attack the drafts. Knowing that this format is full PPR and you have 20 rounds you want to come up with a game plan on what type of roster construction you want to come up with. Maybe just starting out you want to draft 3 QBs, 7 RBs, 7 WRs, and 3 TEs as a basic starting point. But once you start drafting in a few of these you will see if you are higher on a certain position and can maybe only draft 2 QBs or TEs or maybe you are strong at RB so you only go with 5 or 6 and add more WRs.
The full PPR league makes you want to value the pass catchers more and the extra couple of rounds gives you a better shot at landing late round gems like Chase Claypool or Tee Higgins from last year when they were being drafted in the 16-20th rounds or going undrafted. Best Ball is fun on every level but sometimes playing a high volume of tournament teams can really hit your wallet hard with some entry fees $20-$25 (and even higher), but for $5.55 it feels like you can get some extra drafts in and it doesn’t hurt so bad. In a tournament that has 10,008 total entries with a top prize of $10k this might be your best bet to win big money for a smaller buy-in.
Head over to Drafters now to show some support and if you don’t have an account already follow this link to help me out.
If you are a fan of Best Ball and want to discuss NFL Best Ball in general feel free to contact me via Twitter @JamesBrimacombe
