Several important assumptions made in the initial draft of this guide, specifically trade rules (tradevalue calculation) and playoff scoring, are proven invalid. This leads to the guide being possibly misleading without major revisions, which are planned but cannot be completed immediately. Please proceed forward with reservation.
- To reduce confusion, purchase points are refered to as .
- You can revise your fantasy team by clicking here
A fantasy league based on the revamped GomTV Team StarLeague, playable at http://www.teamliquid.net/fantasy/gstl/ . Team must be submitted by June 22nd.
Introduction
A fantasy league is a game where each participants, acting as virtual team owners, draft professional sports players to compete with others. Each fantasy team are scored by combining the actual statistics of players of a particular professional sport and ranked against the rest, using pre-determined scoring rules. Usually, the ranking of fantasy teams are finalized at the end of a play season, with the winner declared and sometimes awarded a token prize.
The game keeps the fans amused during the long regular season and adds a minor a personal stake in match-ups that fans would otherwise be uninterested in. This guide provides detailed statistics and analysis to maximize your chances for winning season 1 of TeamLiquid's Fantasy GSTL.
More Information
- GOM GSTL Season 1 Format
- Fantasy GSTL Ruleset
- Fantasy GSTL Discussion
- Voronoff's player draft primer
- GSTL player report by VGhost
- Computing the Best GSTL Team
- Liquidepedia - GSTL
- TLPD Teams, Korean
Team Selection
The players available for the fantasy draft are
:The players available for the fantasy draft are
- 9 - 4 players available
+ Show Spoiler + - 8 - 5 players available
+ Show Spoiler +
SlayerS -
Incredible Miracle - LosirA NesTea
StarTale -
Team SCV Life -
Old Generations -
For Our Utopia -
ZeNEX -
MVP - DongRaeGu
Prime - MarineKing Polt
New Star HoSeo -
FXOpen -
F.United - - 7 - 2 players available
+ Show Spoiler + - 6 - 3 players available
+ Show Spoiler + - 5 - 10 players available
+ Show Spoiler + - 4 - 15 players available
+ Show Spoiler + - 3 - 16 players available
+ Show Spoiler + - 2 - 24 players available
+ Show Spoiler +SlayerS - Taaeja YuGiOh BoxeR
Incredible Miracle - Junwi YoDa
StarTale - Ace August
Team SCV Life - PuMa
Old Generations - TheStC Ensnare
For Our Utopia - Lucky TheBest
ZeNEX - Puzzle CoCa
MVP - Violet Noblesse HwangSin Tails
Prime - Lotze
New Star HoSeo - Banbanssu Jjakji Tassadar
FXOpen - mOoNan qxc
F.United - - 1 - 92 players available
+ Show Spoiler +
SlayerS - Brown Cella Drughead Fairy Gambler Golden Jys Kuma Lots Milz Sleep Special Tiffany
Incredible Miracle - BBi dreamrtt HorroR IMHappy Ready True
StarTale - max Parting Sound Tiger Ych
Team SCV Life - Heart Smart
Old Generations - Carmel Cezanne hero HuK Hyperdub J Jinro JookTo LittleBoy TheWinD Vines
For Our Utopia - Artist Crane Imori Nuclear Shine Sirius Terious TopClass Weekend kasyu
ZeNEX - cOre Cutter FreeSaGa Hack IceCream Issue Jjun Life Naya Paralyze Yong
MVP - Avenge Aya DREAM finale Galaxy Keeping Lure Monster NalZa Sniper Vampire
Prime - AnnYeong BBongBBong Classic Creator Daisy Gerrard Hannibal Libero Maru Tankboy
New Star HoSeo - Fake ggod sculp Seal Shuttle SiaZenith
FXOpen - Anthony Filthy OpTiKzErO SLoG tgun Wolf
F.United - SocceR
Fantasy GSTL S1 consists of 12 pro-gamer teams and 171 draftable players with a league-wide salary totalling 406 (+46 total for pro-gamer teams). Each fantasy team is restricted to a salary of 36 to be divided between 8 players and a single pro-gamer team. Team salary ranges from 0 to 8, and player salary ranges from 1 to 9. Additionally, participants are required to draft 3 players into an "anti-team" whose performance will be deducted from the fantasy team, with minimum salary of 13.
Scoring
+ Show Spoiler [Official rules] +
Player Scoring:
Lineup Appearance: +1 Point*
Game Win: +2 Points per win
Game Loss: -1 Point
2-Game Streak Break: +1 Point**
3-Game Streak Break: +2 Points**
Your Player's Team Wins: +1 Point***
Tie-breaks are decided by the team captain's score.
*Point given just for appearing in a match, regardless of win or loss. Only counts once, i.e. if MC goes 4-0, he still only gets 1 appearance point.
**Given when a pro-gamer defeats a pro-gamer on the opposing team who is on a two or three game winning streak. Streaks do not carry over between matches; all streaks must occur in the same match.
***This counts for all players on the team's roster, even if they did not play in the match.
Team Scoring:
4-0 Victory: 8 Points
4-1 Victory: 6 Points
4-2 Victory: 4 Points
4-3 Victory: 2 Points
3-4 Defeat: 1 Point
2-4 Defeat: 0 Points
1-4 Defeat: -1 Points
0-4 Defeat: -2 Points
Miscellaneous
Trade Tax: -1
Lineup Appearance: +1 Point*
Game Win: +2 Points per win
Game Loss: -1 Point
2-Game Streak Break: +1 Point**
3-Game Streak Break: +2 Points**
Your Player's Team Wins: +1 Point***
Tie-breaks are decided by the team captain's score.
*Point given just for appearing in a match, regardless of win or loss. Only counts once, i.e. if MC goes 4-0, he still only gets 1 appearance point.
**Given when a pro-gamer defeats a pro-gamer on the opposing team who is on a two or three game winning streak. Streaks do not carry over between matches; all streaks must occur in the same match.
***This counts for all players on the team's roster, even if they did not play in the match.
Team Scoring:
4-0 Victory: 8 Points
4-1 Victory: 6 Points
4-2 Victory: 4 Points
4-3 Victory: 2 Points
3-4 Defeat: 1 Point
2-4 Defeat: 0 Points
1-4 Defeat: -1 Points
0-4 Defeat: -2 Points
Miscellaneous
Trade Tax: -1
A total of 35 match-ups (30 bo-7 regular season and 5 bo-9 playoffs) will be played during the 13-week season. Each pro-gamer team will play 5 of these series in regular season and up to 3 more in the playoffs. Each player can play from 0 to 4 maps in each series (5 in playoffs).
Each pro-gamer team can score from -2pts to +8pts in a single series (10 in playoffs) . Therefore, in a full season a team can score anywhere from -10pts (0-4 in every series) up to 70pts (4-0 in every series, 5-0 in playoffs) for a fantasy team. Actual points scored will be closer to middle of this range.
Each player can score from 0pts to 12pts each series (14 in the playoffs), therefore in a full season a single player can score anywhere from 0pts up to 102pts for a fantasy team. Note that points are correspondingly deducted for anti-team players. Actual points scored will be closer to the lower end of this range for majority of players.
Scheduling
Picking the right team
+ Show Spoiler [Team Salaries] +
- 8 -
- 6 -
- 5 -
- 4 -
- 3 -
- 2 -
- 1 -
- 0 -
Picking the right pro-gaming team is the most important decision in making your fantasy team. Team scoring is far less variant and teams are guaranteed to play 5-series, making them a much more reliable source of points. The cost of viable teams have smaller range than player salaries, therefore salary considerations should not be a deterent for selection. Your pro-gamer team choice should simply the answer to this question:
Which team will win the GSTL?
Therefore the choices can be safely narrowed down to the two previous GSTL winners - SlayerS and Incredible Miracle.
Picking the right players
Each pro-gaming team differs significantly in the number of players they have. However, each team can only play at most 4 players per series. This means a significant numbers of the 171 draftable (and vast majority of the 1 -) players will not play in this season. These Benched players waste the supply and spent on them. Good draft choices are those whom have good chance of being fielded, these can largely divided into two categories, Aces and Snipers.
The draftable players play for the following teams:
- SlayerS - 22 players, 51
+ Show Spoiler + - Incredible Miracle - 13 players, 41
+ Show Spoiler + - StarTale - 13 players, 37
+ Show Spoiler + - Team SCV Life - 9 players, 33
+ Show Spoiler + - Old Generations - 19 players, 45
+ Show Spoiler + - For Our Utopia - 16 players, 34
+ Show Spoiler + - ZeNEX - 16 players, 26
+ Show Spoiler + - MVP - 19 players, 39
+ Show Spoiler + - Prime - 17 players, 42
+ Show Spoiler + - New Star HoSeo - 11 players, 20
+ Show Spoiler + - FXOpen - 10 players, 16
+ Show Spoiler + - F.United - 6 players, 22
+ Show Spoiler +
Mark-ups: likely Aces, likely Snipers, likely Benched.
Some pro-gamer teams such as IM have multiple Aces, thus they will not necessarily be field in every series. This means the Ace's team is an important consideration (same is true with Snipers to a lesser extend). Additionally, Aces are generally cheaper in weaker teams, thus making them more affordable way for scoring points, all things equal.
Anti-Team Selection
Because of the scheduling and trade-rules, there's an unique, (near) optimal solution for the anti-team. Take a look at the above schedule. Team F.United does not play between week 1-5, which means their players (Moon -5, Lyn -5, ThorZaIN -4, NaNiwa -4, SocceR -1) cannot possibly incur a single point for those weeks. Therefore, the optimal solution for a 13 anti-team are Lyn, Thorzain, Naniwa (or Moon, Lyn, and Thorzain under certain contigencies). Since the trade-rule stipulates that you may make only one anti-team trade a week, simply swap out the anti-team players out as you approach week 6.
There are two concerns with this play. One is that it guarantees 3pts in trade penality. Second, and more serious, is that there may not be viable under-performing players to trade up for between week 4 and 6, thus you may become stuck with strong players in a small team that can result in serious penalties in your fantasy score.
In summary, this anti-team selection ploy is one that swaps five penalty-free weeks for potentially more risks down the season. However, these are the same types of risks that exists with any anti-team picks in the first place, so overall you're reducing the numbers of weeks where you'll at risk.
Reader counter-argument
On June 22 2011 15:06 Disquiet wrote:
Criticism of this strategy: You can only trade anti-team players for those of a higher value
You cannot trade out moon, lyn, thorzain etc. for an underperforming FXO player because their price will be too low. I'm not sure how the number of games to play will affect the price of players, all that I know is that it does have an effect. The price of players with more games still to play will either rise over time, or the price of those with games already played will fall, or both, I'm not sure of the mechanics here. Either way it will make it difficult to trade out your anti team for players that have exhibited poor performance in the first few weeks, and since F.United is a tiny team those players are very poor choices for an anti as they will likely play every match.
Criticism of this strategy: You can only trade anti-team players for those of a higher value
You cannot trade out moon, lyn, thorzain etc. for an underperforming FXO player because their price will be too low. I'm not sure how the number of games to play will affect the price of players, all that I know is that it does have an effect. The price of players with more games still to play will either rise over time, or the price of those with games already played will fall, or both, I'm not sure of the mechanics here. Either way it will make it difficult to trade out your anti team for players that have exhibited poor performance in the first few weeks, and since F.United is a tiny team those players are very poor choices for an anti as they will likely play every match.
On June 22 2011 18:29 Scorch wrote:
In past Fantasy Proleagues, a player's trade value was
adjusted trade value * number of matches left to play,
where the adjusted trade value was calculated from a player's starting cost and performance in previous matches. A 5 cost player who underperforms may go down to, say, 3.2 points, or go up to a value of, for example, 8.1 if he rips it up.
This means that once F.United players get to play, other teams will already have played half their games, thus making F.United players relatively twice as valuable as players from other teams, and therefore almost impossible to trade out of your anti team.
In past Fantasy Proleagues, a player's trade value was
adjusted trade value * number of matches left to play,
where the adjusted trade value was calculated from a player's starting cost and performance in previous matches. A 5 cost player who underperforms may go down to, say, 3.2 points, or go up to a value of, for example, 8.1 if he rips it up.
This means that once F.United players get to play, other teams will already have played half their games, thus making F.United players relatively twice as valuable as players from other teams, and therefore almost impossible to trade out of your anti team.
Trading
TradeValue = ( GamesLeft * Salary / 5 + 5/9 * Score ) * GamesLeft
TradeValue = ( GamesLeft * Salary / 5 + 5/9 * Score ) * GamesLeft
+ Show Spoiler +
Trading Rules
Basic Trading Strategy
- Between each week of games, you may trade players (swap a player for someone you don't have)
- Player and team values will increase or decrease every week, depending on their performances.
- Every player has a trade value, and you can only trade for players of lower value (higher value for anti-team)
- You are limited to a maximum 2 Main Team and 1 Anti Team trades per week
- Trades do not carry over from week to week if unused
- Your team captain cannot be traded
- Each time you trade, you will be assessed a -1 point trade tax
Basic Trading Strategy
- Check the schedules each week! You'll want to know what teams are playing (and thus, which players are likely to appear)
- Don't make trades just for sake of making trades, as they cost you trade tax points and you may get stuck with a player you don't want
- The trade price formula takes into account number of matches remaining -- so players with more matches remaining will have higher prices
- You must trade for players with less value, but try to minimize the value loss. For example, if you trade someone worth 30 for someone worth 20, next week you can only trade the 20 for someone less. It's much better to trade the 30 for someone worth 29.
You are allowed up to 2 player trades and 1 anti-team trades a week, noncumulative. Trades are determined not by the purchase salary of the players, but instead a floating valuation that is a function of , performance, and series remaining. These conditions mean that trades should be made strategically and not taken lightly. The most important use will be to cut your loses early in a bad bet.
The emphasis on player performance also means that the first week performance affect valuation significantly. This opens door for a strategy where you spent a significant supply in undervalued, low players and trade them upwards with the increased valuation, effectively increasing your salary cap.
Recommendations
- You have only about 30 for 8 players. Which means you can only pick at most 3 Aces to fill your fantasy team. Consider a balanced roster with 2-3 Aces, 3-5 Snipers, 1-2 Bench warmers.
- Look for value in weaker/smaller teams. Because of their small roster, players like SocceR, Tassadar, and OpTiKzErO are almost guaranteed to be fielded for F.United, HoSeo, and FXOpen.
- Use trades strategically and remember the floating valuation changes week-to-week. Dump your bad bets early and fast.
- Double check the schedule. FXOpen's and F.United's are obvious, but do you know that HoSeo plays all its games within a 7-week period or that ZeNEX plays 4 of its match-ups within a 5-week period?
- Benched players only score (a maximum of 1pts) if their team wins a series. Avoid them unless you're high on supply and low in .
- If you have to pick a Benched player, consider picking up one on an otherwise expensive team like TSL for free team-win points.
- All other things being equal, players in smaller team have better chance of being in the line-up, thus more likely to scoring points.
- Generally speaking, Aces are generally more expensive than Snipers. Identifying snipers are the key to a successful fantasy team.
TL; DR
- Draft: IM as your pro-gamer team.
- Anti-team: pick Lyn, NaNiwa, and ThorZaIN. Switch them in week 4-6.
- Draft: Younghwa GuMiho Sheth Ace HuK