The FFPC Playoff Challenge is back again for 2019. For those that are new to this competition, we would like to give an overview of the competition, some historical data to look at, and provide a framework (AND TOOL) for putting together your lineups that is based upon the analysis of winning rosters.

1) Overview

You can go to the FFPC Playoff challenge overview HERE for complete rules, but here are the highlights:

• Create a roster of 10 Players in the FFPC roster format. There is no draft. Simply select your roster as described below. This will be your roster for the entire duration of the contest. Contest runs from the first week of the NFL playoffs thru the Super Bowl. Each week’s score will be added to your team’s total which will accumulate for the duration of the contest. Super Bowl points will count as DOUBLE the points toward each team’s total.

1-QB
2-RB
2-WR
1-TE
2-Flex (RB, WR or TE)
1-K
1-D

•  ONLY ONE PLAYER PER NFL TEAM -> The software will enforce this when you create your lineups
• Scoring is FFPC format (PPR w/ a 1.5 PPR TE premium)

Entry fees for this contest in prior years were offered only at the $200 level. In 2019, a “Footballguys” version of the contest has been created, which has a lower entry fee of $35 per team. Note however, the # of teams you will be competing against is about 50% larger in the $35 format than the $200 one. The table below compares the two versions of the contest side by side.

2) Historical Results – Go HERE

We captured detailed data from the 2018 competition.

•  Player ownership across the 4,250 teams from last year, along with the results of games played and points scored
•  All 4,250 team rosters including:

*  The final standing of each roster
*  The point total of each roster
*  The uniqueness of every roster (IE. Was it unique, if not, how many other teams shared this team)
*  Every player rostered along with the # of games played, total points scored in playoffs, and contest ownership % of that player

• Analysis of “The Perfect 2018 Roster”. Though the overall winning team in 2018 scored 382.35 points, the Perfect Roster would have scored 421.8 points .
• Analysis of the roster construction of all 4,250 teams. Was there an optimal roster construction? Are there configurations to avoid? Find out.

3) A framework (and tool) for building your team for 2019 – Go HERE

Strategy? Easy. Roster players from teams you project to play many games and score the most points, duh. Well, maybe not so easy. Last year most people projected the Rams to play one game, but they ended up playing 3 including the Superbowl.

Process? Many players have their own process, but if you are new to this contest, you may want to consider the framework we outline which is based on tools we have used to identify players that you will want to roster, and a roster construction based on analysis of previous winners. Even if  you are a veteran of this contest, you will at least find these recommendations “interesting”. The spreadsheet optimizer we have created to assist you in putting together the lineups will also give you a jump start on building lineups, and easily doing “what if” analysis based on points projected per player, number of games played, and Superbowl participants. For some, it may be considered a gamechanger for this contest. We are not aware of any optimizer tool having been created SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS CONTEST before. Note that the spreadhsheet requires a minimum of Excel 2007 and you must enable macros within the spreadsheet once it has opened. There is a tutorial video included on the framework page (link above) that walks through how to use the tool.