The fall season marks the start of many things, but nothing symbolizes the arrival of the season like the glorious sport of football. For the 2015 football year, the tradition of fantasy football once again takes center stage for many fans.
One major fantasy football app is “ESPN Fantasy Football,” which allows the NFL fans to showcase their knowledge of the game and play head-to-head against each other.
“ESPN Fantasy Football” allows the user to either create a team or join a league. ESPN-sponsored drafts are nationwide, which allow you join the league and draft against random people. This feature is interesting because often one feels stranded or hopeless after drafting a bad team. However, this feature also allows the user to join a new league.
Although the draft itself on the app is at times confusing, it can be broken down into three different sections: top player available, top player per position and draft order.
For the top player on the board, the player can find the best player to draft on the squad. It is easy to see the team the player is on, their position and their projected points they can give to the team.
The next section, the top player per position, helps show the one position that you need to fill on the team. For example, if you forget to get a kicker in the late rounds while drafting, by clicking on the top player position feature, you are able to snag the best kicker that is still available.
The last, and definitely least likeable, feature in the drafting process is the draft order ticker. Not only is the order of the draft very confusing, but it is nearly impossible for one to know when they are about to draft. It requires constant attention in drafting for the league, and simply taking a restroom break can mean an auto draft on your team. Next season, ESPN should offer a more organized and designated drafting order for the viewer.
Once teams are assembled and the season starts, the fantasy begins on Tuesday when league members are encouraged to start/sit players, request trades amongst other teams and pick up “free agents” in the draft. To start/sit players, ESPN offers a very efficient helper. Notifications remind users that a benched player on their team is projected to do better than one of the starters, so users are given more tips than ever. Fantasy updates that are given from the app, tips to trade for players and pick up free agents are very accessible also. However, annoying ads pop up on the page and the fantasy videos are extremely redundant and tedious. The last day to fix teams is Thursday before the first game of the week starts. After that, teams battle head-to-head.
The way fantasy football scoring works is players are given points based on how they play during the certain weeks. For example, if Tom Brady is your starting quarterback and he passes for 466 yards and has three touchdowns, he gets 28 points. Those points add in with all the other points of the starting players and accumulate for the final score. At the end of Monday night, the user with the highest points wins. After Monday, a player is set up against a new opponent and the cycle restarts on Tuesday.
The simplicity of navigating through different leagues is also a notable feature on the ESPN app. The home screen offers quick links, such as news and analysis to help better the player’s team. The best feature on the home screen is the “Your Teams” feature, which allows the current player to see the overall record and provides a shortcut to the different leagues. However, notifications throughout the week sometimes can be an annoyance.
Whether playing for bragging rights or to win national recognition, the “ESPN Fantasy Football” app is easily accessible for the football die-hard fan, while adding the challenge of picking the right players during the season. Despite the excessive advertisements throughout the app, the user is able to see past that and enjoy the addictive worldwide game.
Adrian Broaddus may be reached at [email protected].
