After I spoke already about the different rule changes made by the Euroleague for their new Fantasy Challenge, I wanted to know from the organization what were the reasons for them. Well here is the interview I had with Javier from Euroleague.net.
A major change in the rules has occurred this year in the trading rules. Only three trades in general are allowed now during the regular season. What was the goal of this change?
Hm, I guess I didn’t express myself very well in the article, which I just edited when I saw this question. Of course, three trades PER WEEK will be allowed from now until the end of the regular season. We will open unlimited trades until the start of the Top 16 and then three per week again until the end of the game, at the end of the Top 16. The game works really well the way it is, so there is not need to make major changes. That would have limited the teams way too much.
Another new feature is the possibility to create ten teams per player. What does the Euroleague expect from this change?
Well, a lot of people get frustrated because their team loses chances in the beginning of the season. The more teams, the better. Of course, we wouldn’t like to have single users with hundreds of teams, as it happened in other famous online games like the outstanding SuperManager ACB.com. But we agreed that five users per team was limiting people way too much. We started with one team per users and increased to number to 5 and now to 10.
How much work would you consider that is necessary to be successful participant in the Fantasy League?
First of all, you have to work outside the Euroleague, because if you win the week, you don’t win prizes – believe me, I ranked first AND second one week in 2006-07 and all I got was the entire Euroleague Office joking about me not getting anything. 🙂 Being honest, you have to pick up players that will give you credits in the beginning, those who are overpriced. The more minutes a player stays on court, the more he will produce, too. Analyzing opponents and injuries are also a key feature. A good trick for me if this: if a starting Euroleague player gets injured, I usually get his backup and his potential matchup in the opponent team. It always works fine…
Will you also have Euroleague players that are competing in the League again?
We are preparing a surprise which will be unveiled soon. You all have to wait until Monday, though… And don’t forget to make your teams!
