FFPC Best Ball Winning Roster Construction
Cracking the code of the best roster construction in FFPC Best Ball drafts has been pursued by many. Because of the unique scoring and lineup requirements of the format, it is difficult to say definitively that “x” number of players drafted at each position provides an advantage. This is unlike other best ball format that have less flexibility, less positions (no kickers), and less roster spots (FFPC has 28 in their best ball format). FFPC requires a starting roster of :
1 QB / 2 RB / 2 WR / 1 TE / 2 Flex (RB,WR,TE) / 1 K / 1 D
In our opinion, player experience will also weigh into the success of a given roster construction. You cannot expect to simply apply a given roster construction scenario and expect it to deliver for you. Also, there is a segment of FFPC players that implement what seem to be odd draft strategies, that at face value, may seem suboptimal. But if you know the history of FFPC, and who the successful players are, you have a different perspective of what may otherwise seem to be an odd roster combination.
For the purposes of generalizing some of the more common and successful roster construction combinations, the chart below lists constructions with the highest win rate that were drafted by at least 20 teams across the set of 2017 FFPC Best Ball leagues. There are many other, more successful combinations, but those may be considered ‘outlier’ roster combinations. In fact, there are many of these “one hit wonders”.
In the table below, the “Combo Win Rate” answers the question : “What percentage of rosters using this construction won their league?”
Assuming an average win rate is 8.33% (1 team winning in a 12 team league), these combinations seem to have had some success.
| qb | rb | wr | te | pk | def | Drafted | Won | Combo Win Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 8 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 32 | 7 | 21.87% |
| 4 | 6 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 26 | 5 | 19.23% |
| 2 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 26 | 4 | 15.38% |
| 4 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 72 | 11 | 15.27% |
| 3 | 5 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 20 | 3 | 15.00% |
| 2 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 20 | 3 | 15.00% |
| 4 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 40 | 6 | 15.00% |
| 2 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 114 | 17 | 14.91% |
| 3 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 48 | 7 | 14.58% |
| 3 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 160 | 23 | 14.38% |
Our members can access the complete roster combination dataset HERE. There are over 900 roster combinations listed, with the number of times drafted, and their win rate. This is a great mechanism to evaluate your roster construction strategy for an upcoming draft, or look back on drafts you have already completed and want to see how it fared in 2017. Ultimately, it will come down to the PLAYERS you drafted on your team, but if you implemented a construction that yielded an unusually low win rate, you may have cause for concern.