Fantasy Recap: Fall Split

Congratulations on making it through the first split with your fantasy team and thank you for joining us on this new addition to FanRL and fantasy Rocket League. Everything for a draft league, up until this point, has been a learning experience. So let's take a deep breath and decompress. This article will take us on a little recap of the Fall Split and important fantasy players throughout, discuss key strategies and aspects for a draft league as well as the introduction of a new tool called Fantasy Player Value, or FPV. So without further ado, let's get started…

Fall Split Recap

Well, it's been confirmed EU > EU > NA. But in all seriousness, this split has separated the good from the great, the natural talent from the hard work. And that hard work sure did pay off as Gen.G with AppJack, Noly and Chronic are the 2022-23 Fall Major Champions! Their accomplishment of reaching every grand final in regional play could only be topped by winning it all in the major. Although, they weren’t the only dominant team from the past split as every region had a team reach each regional grand finals. Karmine Corps, Team Falcons, James Cheese, The Club, Limitless, and the Pioneers achieved this high honor in their respective regions.

The emerging regions seem to be moving in the right direction as SAM continues to keep pace with the big dogs, PWR was one win away from being the first OCE team since the open circuit to make an international top 8, and Rule One from MENA dominated in The Last Minute 1k against the likes of 4th place Team Secret. It’s exciting to see the regions getting closer to full parity and can only make one hopeful for the future. With teams like James Cheese dominating the APAC region, but also pushing the region to be stronger as a whole, we look towards to Psyonix to #FreeSSA and let them compete at majors. The only way to be the best, is to play the best. But until then, all we can do is hope they’re putting in hard work to show the world what they got.

The best part of the Fall Split is that it's only the beginning. The rivalries are still fresh, the recency bias is in full swing. There’s nothing quite like it anywhere else. We just got a roster mania that had everyone in full panic, and there’s still two more splits of high octane plays and a world champion to crown. This year is shaping up to be the best one yet and I can’t wait to sit back and watch. Good luck to all and remember, Torment is a solid fantasy option now.

What have we learned?

It’s Hard.

Trying to predict which players will do well before the season starts is actually impossible and thus you shouldn’t get discouraged if you have been struggling up until now. But it may be time to make that roster move. The bench and free agent pool are very important functions within a draft league. Utilize them. Leagues with more than two specified regions should have an easier time finding good players to fill a team, but those that stuck to NA/EU (or 2 other regions) are very limited and thus need to be creative. If a player is averaging less than 300 points, don’t waste a bench spot on them. If a player is in a slump for a regional or two, don’t be afraid to bench them for someone else. It’s okay to pick up a player for only 1 regional and then drop them immediately after the regional is over. There are many different approaches to draft league fantasy, so find what works for your team.

Emerging Regions Reign Supreme

MENA, SSA, and APAC all have a player within the top 5 of regional averages. If you’re in a league with multiple regions, make sure you aren’t blinded by an NA or EU player just because they are NA or EU. Players in these emerging regions, and not just the household names, are showing up week after week and could be a huge boost to your team's overall performance. Being eligible for a major is definitely helpful, but there are 9 regionals to the 3 majors and each regional is 5 league points up for grabs. Just give ‘em a chance.

Keepers Are Important.

The major was something that was a big question mark for draft leagues coming into the season. Now with one under our belts, we can start to make decisions for the next few. With only three players on a roster for these international events, each player’s score is twice as important. Being able to keep a high value player is of the utmost importance, the Daniels, Firstkillers or Archies of the fantasy world need to be held just a little bit higher. Granted, not every player needs to be kept for Majors, especially in those NA/EU leagues as players from other regions are available to draft. It is important to note that each keeper counts as a round in the major drafts. So essentially using a draft pick on someone like RelatingWave isn’t going to be your best option. But, if you have 2 players that you don’t think will still be available in the second round, hold on to those bad boys. Also with such a low fantasy average in the international major, it becomes worth thinking about holding onto players who may not thrive in Regional play but come alive during international events. But hey, that's what the bench is for!

Fantasy Player Value

Fantasy Player Value (FPV) is a score given to players based upon player fantasy performances. A player's FPV is calculated based upon both Regional and International performances. The amount of events played in, for both Regionals & Majors, will also heavily affect the FPV.

There will be two main FPV numbers to look at for a player, a yearly total and a current form. Yearly total will calculate all performances within the season to give an accumulative FPV. This will be a running number throughout the season. The Current Form will consider a player's performance over the last 4 events (length of a split), whether or not the player participated in said events.

The FPV is purely based on fantasy statistics across all regions, thus actual player FPV may differ between leagues who have differing regions. FPV does not take into account the "eye test" or changes to a team, thus should only be used as a guide and not a rule. However, a player's FPV can give you good insight on how that player is performing for your team, can help compare players involved in a potential trade, or help decide whether or not to pick someone up off of the waivers.