I think we should do some introduction to the topic, so people know what the heck we are talking about.
Welcome to EnWorld Fantasy Basketball!
Every year EnWorld users get together to play fatasy basketball by putting together fictional teams (based on real-world stats) of players to compete against each other (in rankings, not by playing directly against each other).
You do not have to know much about basketball, you just have to be willing to learn, take chances, and have fun. The setup includes a message board, where people will be more than happy to offer advice to newcombers, and talk trash with veterans.
How it works (mostly borrowed from the ESPN Fantasy description): The first order of business in creating any fantasy league is collecting its members. As "team owners," these individuals draft real-life, professional players to be members of their respective teams. The statistics these players generate in their real games are collected, and fantasy points are awarded based on these numbers -- the better a player performs, the more fantasy points he accrues for his owner's team. In fantasy basketball, these points determine a winner in a rotisserie manner. The team that accumulates the most points or victories over the course of the season is declared the League Winner.
Fantasy Basketball is the closest thing you can find to buying your own franchise and becoming the team's manager, owner, and president all in one. All decisions are yours to make. Each team owner is supplied with all of the tools -- multiple draft methods, unlimited waivers and trades, free agency, an all-empowering commissioner, chat rooms, league bulletin boards, sortable stats for all players, etc. -- everything needed to build a team in the best manner possible.
Statistical reports, expert analysis, and up-to-date feature articles are readily available to keep owners informed. Armed with this information, owners are free to create the team of their dreams. To win, an owner has to be crafty, as each team competes directly with other owners who are equally determined to come out on top.
Like the race for the final NBA playoff spot, in rotisserie basketball the league champ could be determined on the very last day of the season. Regardless of your regular season record, your team is guaranteed to play in every week of the NBA season.
As proof that the last day can be important...I happened to win last year, and I was not ahead going in to the last game.
As further proof that you don't need to know much - I didn't know much! It was my first fantasy game, and while I watch some basketball (LA Clippers are my team), I am by far not a basketball expert. In fact, if you were interested enough to click on this thread, you probably watch as much basketball as I do.
How much time does it take? Not much time at all. You can set up which player's you want to play when about 4-5 days in advance. If you don't want to, you don't have to change it again until the end of that period, and if you forget, it won't kill you. Players will continue to play in whatever slots you set them in, however it just means that you won't have other players filling in on days off. For example, if you have player X set to the Point Guard position, and you don't change it, and X only plays 2 games that week, the other days of that week will have nobody getting points for the point guard position. That won't kill you, since you don't need someone playing every single position every day (in fact there is a maximum number of games each position can play before you stop earning points for that position), but if it becomes a long-term issue it will cost you points. That means basically you have to fiddle with things about 1-2 times a week. But each time it can take as little as 5 minutes to change things around. The longest time committment is how long the season goes...which is of course matched by the real-world basketball season. So, this will go on until about mid-April I believe.
So, join on in! All you have to do is say "I'm in", and come up with a fictional name for your fictional team composed of real-life players, and Krug will (eventually) set us up on how to log in.
And again, honestly, you don't have to know what you are doing. We will give you advice, and it won't take long to figure things out. You just have to have at least some interest in basketball, and be willing to interact with your fellow EnWorld and play for this years basketball season online.
So, who is in? Who wants to hear more? Any questions? Comments? Concerns?
Anyway, I didn't do much. Just kept it to default settings.
