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Kick-start your Fantasy Hockey Game
Search
October 6, 2003
Story by: Keri Aasen
The business of Online Fantasy Sports
is booming; it is predicted that for the
fiscal year of 2003, this industry will
bring in $50 Million (US). In Canada, almost
all of the major sports stations have their
own websites and their own fantasy game
offering. Slowly other industries that want
to be associated with sports are developing
sites and offering games as well. Aside
from those sites with major corporate sponsorship
there are numerous independent sites that
have a competitive product. This can make
the job of choosing the right fantasy hockey
game a tough one for the potential fantasy
player.
The different fantasy hockey game offerings,
and scoring options have been detailed below
to help make your decisions a little easier.
Some links to websites have been included
to kick-start your fantasy hockey game search.
Draft: Live Draft vs. Automated Draft
In a fantasy game that offers a Live
Draft, the participant will have to
first join a league. Each league will have
its own rules such as the number of players
required at each position, the points given
to goals, assists, etc. A draft date and
time will be assigned for the league; all
participants should be logged in at the
designated time ready to draft their team.
The drafting order will be pre-determined
by the website and/or the League Commissioner.
One player cannot be on more than one participant's
team. Simply put, only one team can have
Eric Lindros in its roster.
This is the closest to the normal pub or
office draft.
The Automated Draft is very similar
to the live draft. The difference here is
that there is a tool on the site for this
fantasy product that allows the participant
to pre-select the players he or she wants
for the team. The tool allows the participant
to rank the players. There is an assigned
draft date, however, no one needs to be
logged in for it to run. The draft runs
overnight on the assigned date. Again the
draft order is pre-determined by the website
and/or the League Commissioner and just
like the Live Draft one player can only
be on one team. If two participants have
asked for the same player whoever drafts
first will get the player, the second participant
will get the next highest ranked player
on his or her pre-selected list.
Leagues can either be Public leagues where
anyone can join or Private leagues where
everyone knows each other.
Some sites that offer Leagues with Drafts
are:
Yahoo! - http://hockey.fantasysports.yahoo.com/hockey
ESPN - http://games.espn.go.com/cgi/fhl/frontpage
Sportsline - http://hockey.sportsline.com/splash/hockey/spln/single
The Pick'em
The majority of the fantasy hockey games
offered on the 'Net are pick 'em games.
The basic concept is that the potential
fantasy participant joins the site, may
be given the option to join a fantasy league
and is able to select a team from the database
of players provided by the site. The site
will determine how many players are required
to make up a team, as well as how many players
are required per position. Scoring will
also be determined as Rotisserie,
Points
or Head to Head.
Some sites that offer Pick'em games are:
FSN - www.fantasysportsnetwork.com
NHL- http://nhl.com/fancentral/fantasy/index.html
CDMsports- http://www.cdmsports.com/
The Salary Cap or Managerial Game
As a twist to the regular Pick'Em game
the Salary Cap forces the fantasy participant
to be more selective when fielding a team.
In a game with a salary cap, the players
are all given specific market values based
on their previous season's performance.
Each fantasy participant has a specified
budget to use to select players; the catch
is that the participant cannot go over the
amount he or she has been given. The participant
is forced to develop a strategy: to pick
one or two expensive players and then fill
in the rest of the roster with lesser players
or to try and take a more moderate approach.
The key here is for the participant to know
how the team will be scored, if goals are
more highly valued than a goalie's wins
he may want to spend more money on a goal
scorer than a goalie.
Note that in some instances the Salary
Cap is not given in monetary terms, there
are instance where the player is given a
fantasy ranking value and each team is given
a maximum fantasy ranking value that cannot
be exceeded.
Some sites that offer Salary Cap/Managerial
games are:
FSN- www.fantasysportsnetwork.com
Sportsnet- http://www.sportsnet.ca/features/games/index.jsp
SportingNews - http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/hockey/home.html
NHL- http://nhl.com/fancentral/fantasy/index.html
CDMsports- http://www.cdmsports.com/
Head to Head
Head to Head uses points scoring, but it
pits fantasy participants against each other.
Different categories are given different
point values the same as would be done in
a game using straight scoring. The league
is divided into conferences and on a weekly
basis different fantasy participants' teams
play against each other. The points are
tallied for that week period and whoever
has the most points at the end of the week
wins the week. In the standings, the win
is noted under the appropriate team and
the loss is noted for the other team. In
some instances there may be a tie, in this
case each team would be assessed as such..
At the end of the season the teams with
the best records for their conferences play
off against each other, until one team is
ultimately named the overall winner.
Some sites that offer Head to Head competition
are:
Yahoo! - http://hockey.fantasysports.yahoo.com/hockey
Sandbox -
http://www.sandbox.com/fantasysportsgames/fullstrength.html
ESPN - http://games.espn.go.com/cgi/fhl/frontpage
Sportsline - http://hockey.sportsline.com/splash/hockey/spln/single
Atll Star Stats- http://www.allstarstats.com/
Types of Scoring:
Rotisserie scoring [ Return
to Article ]
This type of scoring allows for statistical
averages such as the GAA (Goals Against
Average) to be factored into the standings.
This form of scoring ranks the players in
the league based on different categories
for example, number of goals, number of
assists, highest GAA. If there are 10 players
in a league, the available points go from
10 points for the highest ranked participant
to 1 point for the lowest ranked participant
per category.
The participant with the highest number
of points at the end of the season will
win the league.
Example
A league has Goals, Assists, Game Winning
Goals, Wins, Losses and GAA as its categories.
In a league of 10 participants, George Smith
ranks 1st in Goals, 2nd in Assists, 2nd
in Game Winning Goals, 1st in Wins, 1st
in Losses, and 2nd in GAA. His total points
will be: 10+9+8+6+7+4=44
Points Scoring [ Return
to Article ]
In a league using points all categories
are given a specific points value. For example,
using this scoring approach, goals could
be worth 2 points, while assists are worth
1 point or a win could get 1 point while
a loss is given -1 point. This scoring system
does not account for any statistic given
in the form of an average. Hence, the GAA
will not be a category for this type of
league.
The participant with the highest number
of points at the end of the season will
win the league.
In the final analysis, the fantasy games
mentioned here are all fun to play. If you
are new to fantasy hockey games you may
want to start with a pick'em game that uses
points scoring. If you're a seasoned veteran,
a salary cap or head to head competition
may be more your thing. Whatever your choice,
you're sure to have fun.
Enjoy the season and remember, playing
online fantasy hockey games can be like
eating potato chips - you can't join just
one!
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