The Demise of Yahoo Sports Fantasy Football
Yahoo at one time had what I deemed to be the best Premier League Fantasy Football game going. But this season has seen it plagued with problems. The sad thing is, is that it's not because this seasons changes have ruined the game, its simply because these changes haven't been implemented properly. The game has become a pain to navigate and picking your team is a source of constant frustration.
The scoring in the Yahoo Fantasy Football game is close to being the best there is. Other games are too reliant on the Apperance/Cleansheet/Goals/Assists system, which only sees players getting points if these things happen in a game. (plus bookings etc. and some even have a bonus point system in too) Whereas Yahoo points were geared more towards a player actually playing well. If he wins a free kick, that's worth some points; does he give away too many free kicks? then that's some minus points. Successful crosses, blocked shots, interceptions, tackles won or lost, could all have a bearing on the points a player scores.
This season Yahoo shook things up a little. It now apes the format of the Official Premier League Fantasy game. You must have 4 subs and you also have to designate a captain who gains double points. (I'm not sure where I stand on the whole picking a captain in fantasy games, I'm not a huge fan of it to be honest) They did not implement a restriction on the number of players from any one team though, which most other games go for. So if you want, and can afford!, eleven Chelsea players, then put them in your team. You also still have an extra half hour to make crucial changes, as the deadline would be at noon.
The Problems
Where to begin! Unfortunately some of the problems are not the game itself but the layout of the site. It wants to load and reload after every button press. Sometimes players you drop will magically appear back on your team and often effect the amount of money you have to do a transfer. It has become nearly impossible to take out a number of players at a time. You are often reduced to doing one transfer at a time, forced to save, then move on to another one. If you were moving money around in order to afford a new star, you could well have to sub in some cheap players you have no intention of keeping, just so you can have transfer funds. It is cripplingly annoying to change your team. (I have tried a number of browsers and even different internet providers! but I and many other people I know, keep getting these same problems)
I like that it has tried to add Live Scoring, but often it doesn't work or some games/players don't get awarded points until after the match has finished. Other mainly aesthetic elements are annoying too. The weekly performance pages in private groups are hard to read because of the layout. Also why cant I look at who each player on my team is playing in any given week? You need, (and it insists on loading!) a list of every player in the game below your squad.
It really has become horrible to navigate around, but that would be forgivable if you didn't have so much trouble changing your team. Yahoo used to be the game of choice for the annual game between me and my friends. I'm sorry to say, unless things drastically improve, this could be the last year playing it. A lot have already given up trying to make changes every week as the game is just too slow. This is very sad indeed, and if they just fixed the site it could be a great game. Despite having one of the best scoring systems around, it gets less and less of my attention every week.
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