As fantasy football has grown, so have the ways it can be played. For most people, the only option when they first started was your standard ten-team redraft league. Then you discover the keeper league, where you keep one or more players from your previous season’s team to your next season’s team. Then, if you are lucky, you discover the world of Dynasty, which begins to bring exponentially new challenges. You have Devy leagues, IDP, Superflex, Campus to Canton, Vampire leagues, Guillotine leagues, Empire leagues… The list goes on and on.
One of the more recent incarnations has been combining the new growing popular style of Best Ball with the long-term managed style of a traditional Dynasty. In standard Best Ball leagues, you draft your team before the season starts and cannot make waiver additions or trades for the entire season. At the same time, you do not need to set lineups either. Each week your highest-scoring players will be automatically entered for you. People have combined this idea with Dynasty but with a slight twist. Having waivers and trades allowed, like in a traditional Dynasty league. This was the birth of Dynasty Best Ball leagues. In this piece, my goal is to make you aware of these leagues, inform you on good and bad settings when creating and running one, as well as the pros and cons of playing in a Best Ball Dynasty versus a traditional Dynasty.
Getting Started
First, I think it is best to lay the groundwork for how the league settings should be built. Without the proper foundation, your league cannot stand. To start, if you are playing with people you do not know, I recommend using LeagueSafe. The fees are well worth the convenience of the site, and this way, no one can argue if the payments are safe. I would also recommend making a rule where if an owner trades a future pick, they must pay for that season’s buy-in. This is not meant to discourage trading but rather to help prevent players from coming in, building an older win-now team, selling all of their picks, and then leaving. This could still happen, but at least the orphan owner will have a free season or two to turn the team around. These are just general Dynasty rules, but I also recommend Superflex, TE Premium (this could be tiered PPR or just extra PPR for tight ends), 11 starting slots, 25-30 total roster slots, and third-round reversal (or auction startup). For the Best Ball specific leagues, I like adding an extra game vs. median and turning on waivers and trades. And I typically prefer to do one RB slot, one WR slot, one TE slot, one QB slot, one SF slot, and the rest flex. This allows people more freedom to build their team how they want, and it can be especially fun to use this setup in Best Ball. I have added the exact scoring settings from my most recent Dynasty Best Ball league. I like to have fun with it and add bonuses; this is up to you.
Passing
- Passing Yard: .04 pts
- Passing TD: 6 pts
- Passing 2-point conversion: 2 pts
- INT: -2 pts
- 40+ Yard Completion Bonus: 0.5 pts
- 40+ Yard Pass TD Bonus: 1 pt
- 50+ Yard Pass TD Bonus: 2 pts
- 300-399 Passing Yards Game Bonus: 1 pt
- 400+ Passing Yards Game Bonus: 3 pts
Rushing
- Rushing yard: 0.1 pts
- Rushing TD: 6 pts
- Rushing 2-point conversion: 2 pts
- Rushing 1st Down: 0.15 pts
- Rushing Attempts: 0.15 pts
- 40+ Yard Rush Bonus: 0.5 pts
- 40+ Yard Rush TD Bonus: 1 pt
- 50+ Yard Rush TD Bonus: 2 pts
- 100-199 Rush Yards Game Bonus: 1 pt
- 200+ Rush Yards Game Bonus: 3 pts
Receiving
- RB reception: 0.5 pts
- WR reception: 1 pt
- TE reception: 1.5 pts
- Receiving yard: 0.1 pts
- Receiving TD: 6 pts
- Receiving 2-point conversion: 2 pts
- Receiving 1st Down: 0.15 pts
- 40+ Yard Reception Bonus: 0.5 pts
- 40+ Yard Reception TD Bonus: 1 pt
- 50+ Yard Reception TD Bonus: 2 pts
- 100-199 Receiving Yards Game Bonus: 1 pt
- 200+ Receiving Yards Game Bonus: 3 pts
Special Teams
- Punt Return TD = 6 pts
- Kick Return TD = 6 pts
Miscellaneous
- Fumble: -1 pts
- Fumble Lost: -1 pts
Pros and Cons
There are many things to love and hate about Dynasty Best Ball. I will try to stay objective here and give what seems to be the consensus opinions. That way, you can decide whether you want to test the waters with this format or not.
One of the main reasons we started playing fantasy football is because it was fun, right? So when deciding to play in or create a league, that should be one of the selling points. That poses the question: what are the fun and not-so-fun aspects of fantasy football? Most people agree that drafting is the most fun part of fantasy. A pro of Best Ball is that you can draft more leagues because they take less time to manage on a weekly basis, as you are not setting lineups and scouring injury reports. This, however, brings our first con. Removing this part of the game takes the edge away from the more involved owners who do spend their Sunday mornings scouring team inactive lists. If you put more time and effort in, you should be rewarded with more knowledge of which players you should be playing. Since Best Ball automatically fills your best lineup, this is not possible. On the flip side, the pro here is that if you are in a lot of leagues, you can focus more time on your non-Best Ball leagues and still pick up that edge there. You can enjoy your Sunday morning knowing that your starting lineup will be healthy and play their best.
This brings us to the second con of managed leagues: injuries. You can do all the research, check matchups, research team tendencies, look at the weather, and so many things to decide between two players. You make what you think is the best choice, and then boom, the player you selected gets hurt in the first quarter, scores 1.2 points, and the guy you benched goes off for 20. This is heartbreaking. It is also unavoidable and could cost you a win through no fault of your own. In Best Ball, that player that scored 20 would be in your lineup, fighting to give you a win for the week.
Another thing people like to do is compare Dynasty to the NFL. In the NFL, if your quarterback gets hurt, your team doesn’t just play 10 vs. 11 with no QB; they get to play their backup. Why should we not have the same opportunity? I would much rather risk a fringe player going off for my opponent and securing them the win than watch my player get injured to secure me the loss. At least in the first scenario, both teams gave their best performance, and someone has to be the loser.
This brings me to my next pro: getting rewarded for stashing good players. In Dynasty, we have all low-value players we “truther” for, but we seldom get to start these players because we simply have better options. With the Best Ball aspect, if your deep stash has a good game, you get rewarded for it by him entering your lineup. This could be seen as a con, and I understand it is not fun to lose to a bench player who randomly has a crazy game. But I have two counters. Firstly, this also sucks in managed leagues. There is nothing you can do if your opponent started a scrub in place of a player that was on bye or injured, and they randomly popped off. However, in Best Ball, your entire bench at least had the chance to try and match that performance. Secondly, I like to fight fire with fire. If everything is “overpowered”, nothing is “overpowered”. You have to face your opponent’s absolute best performance every week, but you also put out your max performance each week! To me, this is a true “better team wins” scenario. Victories feel more rewarding because you beat their best, while losses feel more justified because at least you gave it your best shot. Then the rest of the league is the same. You can still pour through waivers, make trades, sell pieces to tank, and buy vets to contend. All of the same aspects still exist. Best Ball just makes the actual game on a more even footing, in my opinion.
That is it for me, and I hope you enjoyed reading about this new and fun format. It is my favorite, and I really hope you give it a shot!
Wow, you read all the way through! Thank you, I appreciate you using your time to enjoy my content. If you would like to talk to me about my article or ask me any generic dynasty or trade questions. You can find me on Twitter @ChrisMiles1017, DFF Draft Director. Shoot me a DM; they are always open. Come join the #DFFArmy, where I provide #Dynasty, #Redraft, and #Analytics content for @DFF_Dynasty. Thank you so much!
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