SFB11: A Complete Guide To The Scott Fish Bowl
It’s time for the Scott Fish Bowl (SFB11) folks.
For anyone who is new to the Fantasy Football industry the Scott Fish Bowl is, in its own words:
“the premier pro-am tournament in the fantasy football industry bringing together every fantasy football analyst in the industry, many famous celebrities, former professional athletes, and hundreds upon hundreds of fans. It’s about community, networking, and of course raising money for worthwhile causes. SFB has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity. This tournament, which drafts in early July, has become known as the unofficial start of fantasy football season many.”
This is the 11th year of the Scott Fish Bowl, known as SFB11, and participants are starting to gear up in a big way. Divisions are being set, draft spots are being chosen and group chats are forming to talk strategy (and a fair amount of nonsense too!).
The key thing to know about SFB is that every year there is some quirky scoring to keep participants on their toes. I wanted to look at some of those key quirks and understand what they mean as well as highlight some amazing resources.
Head to the Scott Fish Bowl website to see the whole thing, the rules, the divisions and more.
3RR or 3rd Round Reversal
This is designed to even out the disparity of the draft spots through the first few rounds by flipping the draft on it’s head at the end of round two. Where the draft would normally snake around on the 2nd/3rd round turn, it stops at the end of round two and round three repeats in the same order as round two. In other words, the team picking at the start of round one, picks at the end of round two and then again in the same spot at the end of round three. From there, it goes back to a normal snake for the rest of the draft.
Kickers
This year, kickers are included and can be played in a flex spot. Might sound odd to many in the ‘ban kickers’ movement but this will lead to a lot of different strategies and there’s something to be said for solid points that some kickers can bring on a weekly basis. More on that later.
Different Quarterback Points
A carry over from last year, Quarterbacks lose 1 point every time they are sacked or throw an incompletion, but they do get 0.5 points for every completion.
It’s also a Superflex so Quarterbacks automatically become more valuable due to being able to play a second Quarterback in a flex spot. This pushes them up the board and means you need to jump early to get your Quarterbacks on your roster.
First Downs, Receptions and Tight End Premium
There is 0.5 points for every first down obtained either through receiving or rushing, and 0.5 points for every reception. Tight Ends get an extra 0.5 points in these categories, giving them 1 point per reception and 1 point per first down.
Visit the website Scottfishbowl.com and head to Rules to see the full breakdown.
Impact v ‘normal’ Scoring
Stop reading right now, follow this link and download this database:
Addison Hayes of Dynasty League Football has created this database of SFB11 scoring impact and it’s incredible.
Addison has done an amazing job putting together almost 11,000 lines of data on players since the year 2000 – their stats, their various scores and, critically, what those scores would have been using the rules of SFB11. If you want to know what the rules really do to scoring, this is it right here. You can get it for a small donation that you wouldn’t even notice on your bank account, but please consider a larger donation as all proceeds go to the Fantasy Cares charity.
2020 Impact
Using this database, I looked at players from 2020 that played more than 6 games to see if I could pick out some of the big impacts.
Firstly, the Tight End premium pushes the Tight Ends much further up the board than in non-premium leagues, that’s an easy one.
The order of Running Backs was less affected with most being within one or two spots of the RB rankings compared to the usual half-PPR leagues. Only three backs had more than 3 points per game extra and the next 58 backs were within 2 points per game extra.
Wide Receiver is a similar story in terms of points per game but there is more movement within the ranks here. Jarvis Landry was the stand-out benefactor from movements within the rankings.
Quarterback is where it gets interesting. I’m not going to fully analyse the whole list and encourage you again to download the database to see it for yourself and support the cause. However, there is a significant swing between Aaron Rodgers at the top of the ‘extra points per game’ list and Carson Wentz at the very bottom. The contrast is stark with this format rewarding those accurate passers who look after the ball, and damaging those that don’t. The rushing quarterbacks will always be the prize assets but all of a sudden there is a smaller gap to those statues who are accurate and protect the ball. This is where your edge will be in the SFB scoring.
Kickers
I can’t stress this enough, go download the database. There is a specific tab set up for Kickers which not only gives you all their stats and scoring checks but also shows you where each kicker would rank against the other positions. The number one ranked Kicker in 2020 would have been RB27 in this scoring format, with the number 12 Kicker coming in at RB50. There’s an edge to be had here too.
When you get in to the later rounds of your draft and you’re looking at bench stashes, RB3/4s, WR 4/5/6s you should be looking at kickers too. Not only are they putting up similar scores to these later round players but they’re probably more consistent too. Sure, it’s a lower ceiling but it’s a much more stable floor and there’s absolutely a place for that. Do your research, work out where these kickers fit in and be ready to take them in the right spot.
Mock Drafts
As with all leagues, mock drafting is a must. That’s easier said than done though when there are quirky settings and rules that aren’t available on most platforms. There’s two places you need to go.
- The Football Workshop is a site created by Andy Estridge and allows you to mock draft without waiting for live drafters to join. It works quickly, you can pick your draft spot and try all sorts of different approaches, finishing a draft in minutes or abandoning part way through if you’ve got the information you wanted from it.
- Or you can join a live mock where you can mock draft against other real-life people. As with these things, you have to wait for others to join and there’s a chance a troll messes things up for everyone but this should give you a more accurate look at what participants are likely to do come draft day. Head to this pinned tweet from John Hogue (@SuperFlexDude) and follow the link to sign up for a mock
These are both incredible resources and the creators have put a lot of time and effort in to providing these for free. Use them, try some things out, work out what things might look like, and when you’re done consider a charitable donation on their behalf for their efforts.
The FF Engineer (@KevinobrienFF) is also running the ADP (Average Draft Position) from these mock drafts here. This is another fantastic resource that has been made available to you for free and if you don’t have time to get involved in 1,000 mock drafts before the real thing starts, it’s a great way to see where players are generally being drafted to help with what you might be able to expect on draft day. Once again, this is a free resource so show Kevin your support and consider a charitable donation on his behalf.
Projections
Another resource that I highly recommend checking out is what projections would look like with this scoring format. Wyatt (@WyattB_FF) has put the scoring in to his own player projections and made it available for free for anyone who wants it. Take what you learned from Addison’s database of previous results and see how it could look in 2021, it doesn’t come a lot easier than that really!
Once again this is a free resource so show Wyatt your support, and also consider a donation to charity on his behalf.
Join the Conversation
Finally, if you’re lucky enough to be competing in SFB11 there are already conversations happening. There are groups being set up for each draft spot so if you’re drafting at the 1.01 spot go and join the 1.01 group. There are also groups for the divisions so if, like me, you’re in the Beatles division then there’s a group chat happening with everyone in that division. This is one of the best things about SFB and is a wonderful opportunity to meet like-minded people, kick around strategies, and have some fun with some awesome people.
Head to this tweet from @kevinobrienFF and get in touch with whoever is listed against your draft spot:
#SFB11 draft position DMs
Hit these folks up if youd like to join.1 @FFTraderJoe
2 @TheCommishFF
3 @CHUBZBURGER
4 @FYFJohnLuke
5 @DaddysHomeFF
6 @MattFFball
7 @ktompkinsii
8 @JPeekFF
9 @dynastyisland
10 @SuperFlexDude
11 @DynastyFFAddict
12 @4WhomJBellTolls— Kevin (@kevinobrienbets) June 13, 2021
Avatars
Another way to contribute to the charity is by getting an SFB11 Avatar. Head to @SFB_AviMakers, give them your division and anything else you want to add in and they’ll do the rest! You’ll then have a kick-ass avatar that you can use on your Twitter profile to brag to everyone about your SFB participation!
That’s It
That’s the crux of it. Go enjoy yourself, remember to have fun and this is ultimately for charity so stay respectful and embrace the chaos!
