For the general public, a standard fantasy football league suffices. If you’re reading this article, you may have grown weary of normal leagues and would like to try something new. Crash Course, a Fantasy Football Universe series, delves into unique formats. So, let’s start with “Bite & Conquer: Unleashing the Fangtastic Fantasy of Vampire Leagues”.
How Does it Work?
A vampire league is simple. It’s your typical fantasy football league with a twist. That twist is that one of your league mates will be transformed into a blood-sucking fantasy vampire.
How is it different?
As I stated above, the vampire is the only difference. For 11 managers, this league is essentially a normal head-to-head fantasy football league. The only week that will be different for those 11 managers is the week in which they face the vampire. Each team can face the vampire only once time per year, in that matchup they must be careful not to lose. If they lose to the vampire, the vampire can steal any player from their starting lineup to add to his roster.
Each win the vampire accumulates makes it stronger while weakening a team in the league. If you are in a league with a smart vampire who gets a bit of good fortune early in the season, the vampire can become a nearly invincible monster, if they are inactive and start on a winless streak, they can quickly become little threat to the league. This league is entirely defined by how the vampire does early in the season.
How does the Draft work?
The startup draft can be done in three ways:
- The 11 Normal Managers: for the 11 managers who aren’t the vampires, this is your standard fantasy football draft with whatever settings you see fit. The only difference to them is there is one dead spot in the draft for the vampire.
- The Vampire: the vampire doesn’t get a draft. In most leagues, they draft a position such as a kicker or IDP, and in some cases, they are assigned retired players. In the end, it’s up to you how you fill out the vampire draft, as long as they don’t receive any usable players. The vampire will have to fill out their roster after the draft, which we will get to later on.
A look at the Rosters
Rosters are open to league preference, but a typical roster is 15 spots or less. The goal is to have roughly 10 starters with only 4-5 bench spots. This allows more waiver wire options for the vampire and forces the non-vampire teams to make tough decisions with their squad.
It’s key to strike a fine balance here. Too many players on a roster and the vampire is rendered weak and pointless, too many roster spots and it becomes impossible for teams to overcome byes and injuries and the leagues turn into a case of the winning team being the lucky team that stays healthiest.
How does the Waiver Wire work?
Here is the kicker. For the 11 non-vampire squads, there is no waiver wire. Since the vampire isn’t allowed to draft any active players, they are forced to fill out their roster with players found on the waiver wire. If the vampire makes some shrewd adds early in the season, they can quickly have a monster of a team.
The 11 non-vampire teams must draft to plan for bye weeks and draft to plan for injury backups. If they don’t draft accordingly they can be put in a terrible place with no waiver options available.
This brings us to the trickiest part of the league. Trading is allowed, but only with the vampire. If a non-vampire team loses their only quarterback to injury, they have essentially two options. Play the rest of the year at quarterback or trade for a quarterback with the vampire. Since the vampire has all the leverage this can be the exact thing that swings the power in favor of the vampire. A team with no quarterback may choose to save their season by overpaying for a quarterback. It’s common to see teams make “a deal with the devil” to save their teams, which is exactly what the vampire is hoping for.
How the scoring works
Again, scoring is not impacted by the league and can be done in any manner of your choosing. There is no wrong or right answer here, it’s all up to you and your league mates.
The Consensus Strategy
- Plan for Bye Weeks: There is no waiver wire for non-vampire teams, so ensuring that you draft a backup quarterback, tier end, etc with a different bye week is critical. If you neglect this strategy, you will be forced to play with an empty spot in your lineup or to make a deal with the vampire.
- Use Tier-Based Drafting: As with most leagues, employs a tier-based drafting approach to ensure you prioritize the positions that are about to fall off a value cliff over those with considerable depth left.
- Draft For Upside: Drafting for the upside is an all-or-nothing approach that many take. When it works, it gives you a considerable edge over the rest of the league, but with no waiver wire, it leaves you with a wasted pick when the dart-throw fails to pan out.
My Strategy
- Draft A Backup at Each Position: It’s easy to figure this approach out. Whether you are facing eventual bye weeks or injuries, ensure you have a backup for every position, this includes positions like tight end and quarterback where you would normally only draft one of those players.
- Draft a Balanced Team: Again, with no waiver wire, it is imperative to have a balanced team with as much balance as possible. in a standard fantasy league, you could mine the waiver wire to strengthen weak spots in your roster, but with no waiver wire, your draft will have to be as close to perfect as possible. Think of this league almost like a best-ball draft.
- Draft For Floor: While it can be important to have players with immense upside, I am typically risk averse in this format. I would rather have a deep and consistent squad that allows me flexibility as opposed to having a riskier team with tons of upside that leaves me with multiple bust players on my bench.
- Avoid Drafting Your Handcuffs: Don’t draft your handcuffs. While it may be a common strategy in standard fantasy leagues to draft the backup to your star running back. In this case, it leaves you with a useless player on an already thin roster. A player like Elijah Mitchell could be a potential league winner if Christian McCaffrey goes down to injury, but in this format bench handcuffs are a waste of a crucial bench spot that you need for bye week replacements and injury substitutions.
In Closing
This format is all about the vampire. I have had vampire leagues with a shark at Vampire and they worked the waiver wire early, got a little bit lucky, and quickly became an unstoppable force in the league. On the other hand, I’ve been in a vampire league where the Vampire was inactive and the league essentially became an 11-team league with a Vampire bye week.
In the end, the more difficult the Vampire is to take down, the more fun this league will become. The ultimate fun becomes when a team makes a deal with the Vampire and enrages the league by making him stronger, but in the end, it’s every man for themself.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of the Crash Course Series. Here is the live stream for the 2024 Fantasy Football Universe Vampire League as well as the draftboard over on Sleeper.
