Best ball fantasy football is a format where you draft your team and then do nothing for the rest of the season. There are no lineup changes, waivers or trades, and the platform sets your best possible lineup each week. It is one of several fantasy football league types, and the rest differ in how much carries over, how a week is scored and how the league is run.
What are the main fantasy football league types?
Think of a league as three choices stacked together.
- How much carries over: redraft, keeper or dynasty.
- How a week is scored: head-to-head or total points.
- How the league runs: a standard managed league, best ball, a guillotine league, or one drafted by auction.
A common office league is redraft, head-to-head, managed by its owners and drafted in a snake. Everything else is a variation on one of those choices.
What is a redraft league?
Every player goes back into the pool each season and everyone drafts again. Nothing carries over. It is the easiest format to join and to explain, which is why most office leagues use it.
What are keeper and dynasty leagues?
Both let managers carry players into the next season. A keeper league holds over a small, capped number of players. A dynasty league keeps the whole roster, and the annual draft is mostly for rookies. They need more rules and more commissioner work, which is covered in keeper vs dynasty leagues.
What is head-to-head fantasy football?
Each week you play one other team, and your win-loss record decides the standings. It gives the league a weekly story: you beat your rival, or your rival beat you. The downside is luck: a big score can still lose to a bigger one, and a weak score can win against a weaker opponent.
What is total points scoring?
Every team is ranked by the points it scored over the season, whoever it played. There is no luck of the schedule. The downside is that the weekly contest disappears, so there is less to talk about on Monday.
What is best ball?
Best ball removes in-season management. As RotoWire explains, you draft in a snake draft and the platform sets your best possible lineup each week, so you cannot make pickups once the draft ends. Points over the full season decide the result.
It suits a group where people will not check in every week, because there is nothing to forget. The trade-off is that all the skill is in the draft.
What is a guillotine league?
In a guillotine league, the lowest scoring team each week is eliminated, and its players are dropped to waivers, where the remaining teams can claim them. As Yahoo describes it, the last team standing wins.
There are no head-to-head matchups, and nobody can coast, because the bottom team goes every week. The league has to start with enough teams to last the season, so the size of the league sets its length. It makes every week count, and it punishes one bad week hard.
What is an auction league?
Every manager gets the same virtual budget and bids on each player in turn, instead of picking in order. It is a draft style, not a scoring system, and it can be combined with any of the formats above. We cover how it compares to a snake draft in snake vs auction draft.
How do you choose a format for a workplace group?
Ask three questions.
- Will people check in every week? If not, choose best ball or total points.
- Is everyone familiar with fantasy? If not, choose redraft with a snake draft, and keep the rules short.
- Do you want a season that lasts or a quick burn? A full season suits a redraft or a total points league. A guillotine league ends for most people long before the season does.
If you are unsure, run redraft with head-to-head and a snake draft. It is the format most of your colleagues will already half understand, and you can add a twist next year.
Which of these formats will Fanzava support?
None yet. Fantasy on Fanzava is on a waitlist, nothing is open to players and there is no date to quote. It is planned first as season-long draft leagues on your hub for the NFL, NHL and MLB, with a live draft room and a chat beside the board. Keeper and dynasty rules are not part of that first release, best ball and guillotine are not planned, and which draft formats a league can choose will be confirmed when it opens. There is no fantasy football page yet, so read about fantasy on Fanzava to see what is planned.
What runs on Fanzava today for the same group?
Survivor is the elimination format closest in spirit to a guillotine league, with one team picked each week, no repeats, and one loss ends your run. The NFL survivor pool page explains the rules in full. Be aware that Fanzava does not ship survivor as a self-serve competition type today, so talk to our team about it.
What you can start today is an NFL pick’em or confidence pool, which keeps everyone in for the whole season. Read about NFL pick’em and the NFL season. Whatever your group plays for is between you and your members, and the rules where you live apply.
Frequently asked questions
What are the main fantasy football league types?
Redraft, keeper and dynasty describe how much carries over between seasons. Head-to-head and total points describe how a week is scored. Best ball, guillotine and auction describe how the league is run. A league combines one choice from each group.
What is best ball fantasy football?
A format built around the draft. Once you draft your team there are no lineup changes, waiver claims or trades, and the platform sets your best possible lineup each week. Cumulative points decide the league.
What is a guillotine league?
A league where the lowest scoring team each week is eliminated and its players are released for the remaining teams to claim. It continues until one team is left.
What is the difference between head-to-head and total points?
In head-to-head you play one opponent each week and your record decides the standings. In total points, every team is ranked by points scored, whoever it played.
What is the best fantasy format for a workplace?
A redraft league with head-to-head weeks is the usual choice, because it is familiar and easy to explain. Best ball suits a group that will not manage lineups every week.
Which of these formats does Fanzava fantasy support?
None yet, because fantasy on Fanzava is on a waitlist and nothing is open. It is planned first as season-long draft leagues for the NFL, NHL and MLB. Keeper and dynasty rules are not part of that first release, best ball and guillotine are not planned, and which draft formats a league can choose will be confirmed when it opens.