With the start of a new season and a refreshed Sounder at Heart, we are putting together some more-or-less "official" MLS fantasy leagues for people to join. Since Washington is off-limits for the daily fantasy outlets (FanDuel, DraftKings, et al.), we are pretty much limited to MLS's own offering. I did a bit of research and couldn't find anyone offering anything for the NWSL, either. Fortunately, MLS's offering is a streamlined experience that has been refined over the last decade. Why fix what isn't broken?
If you just want to join our big league, here is a link to the Sounder at Heart Open Division.
We are also organizing smaller Head-to-Head leagues with playoffs on our Discord (look for the "fantasy-league" channel). The first one currently stands at 18 members as I write, with a max of 20, but we can put together more if there is interest. If you're interested but you aren't on Discord, well, maybe it's time to sign up!
MLS Fantasy
If you're not familiar with MLS Fantasy, or it has been some years since you have played, here's a quick guide. You are given a budget of $100M to assemble a team of 15 players made up of two GK, five Defenders, five Midfielders, and three Forwards. Each player is assigned a value by the system, from Messi at $10M to deep bench players like Kitahara at $4M. Players earn points for things like playing time, keeping a clean sheet, fouls suffered, shots taken, high passes/pass percentage, and, of course, goals and assists.
At the start of the season, everyone has the same $1o0M budget. However, player values change over time depending on how they perform on the field, so you may end up with a bigger or smaller budget. You have unlimited transfers, so you can completely re-make your roster every week. You must start a GK, 3 Def, 3 Mid and 1 Fwd, but you can mix and match your field players in anything from a 5-4-1 to a 3-4-3. If players play two games in a week, they earn points for both matches. Players are locked in when their match kicks off, so you can wait to swap players at the last minute if there are injury concerns. If a player does not play, the highest-scoring bench player is automatically inserted in their place (as long as the formation is valid).
The official MLS leagues, some of which you are automatically entered into, have a variety of prizes you can earn. There are weekly prizes of $150 (MLS store credit, lol) for the top-scoring team, $2,000 for the top overall team for the season (plus some rewards for the rest of the top 50), and 50 teams from four qualifiers over the course of the season (200 total) are entered into a "Fantasy Champions League" with a grand prize of $500.
The first week starts on Wednesday, Feb. 21, so you'll want to sign up soon!
