I haven’t played fantasy football for many years, but I tried it this year after hearing about a new “guillotine” format, and I’m really enjoying it. I’m curious if it could work elsewhere too.
The idea is that the players on your team earn points based on their real-life performance, and your team’s points accumulate each week. The big twist is that the team with the lowest score each week (for that week) is kicked out of the league. Their players are added to the waiver wire for all remaining teams to bid on.
At first, this appears ruthless. But that’s not why it works so well. Rather, it means that every week feels like a victory for all but one team. For those winners, they then get to do a mini “draft” of sorts–typically there’s just one draft at the beginning of the year, and it’s the most fun part of a fantasy league.
Also, in any fantasy league there are a few teams that fall so far behind that their managers stop paying attention. The guillotine format removes that issue, because those teams are most likely trimmed early in the season, raising the stakes every subsequent week. That’s accentuated even more because the remaining teams get stronger every week due to the roster-worthy players that are available from dropped teams.
I’m really enjoying the guillotine league, and I’m curious to see how it continues to develop. Have you tried it?