It’s finally here folks - the LEGENDARY Scott Fish Bowl tournament. And guess what? It’s now more accessible than EVER. For the first time, you don’t need to even be drafting to attend a live #SFB13 event! It’s not just for content creators or fantasy football scouts.  You don’t need to be cranking out dynasty fantasy football rankings, writing waiver wire articles, or publishing fantasy football cheat sheets. You don’t need to be scouring the NFL news and rumors for your NFL podcast. You just need to sign up and show up. Then you can rub elbows with fantasy football royalty and fans alike!

Don’t feel like going to a live event? Well, guess what - you can participate in satellites and tournaments that could get into SFB14. In fact, as of the writing of this article, seven percent of the spots in SFB13 are still open! So we’re going to take a moment to break down what the Scott Fish Bowl is, how you can get involved, and, for those participating in the drafts or satellites, how you can win!

What Is The Scott Fish Bowl?

The Scott Fish Bowl itself is a massive fantasy football tournament bringing professionals and amateurs together to raise money for charity and compete for prizes and respect. It started as a small tournament primarily of industry professionals at Scott’s site FFOasis and has since grown into a tournament with upwards of 3,000 teams.

How Do I Go To A Live Draft?

It’s simple really! Go to this page and check out where the live drafts will be held. If there is one near you, sign up and say whether you’d like to play or just attend. There’s no guarantee that you’ll get in to play but it’s worth a shot. At the very least, it will be fun to come hang out and attending will likely increase your odds of getting in next year. If you plan to go to the Boston one, shoot me a DM on Twitter @CoopAFiasco letting me know!

How Do I Get In The Scott Fish Bowl to Compete?

As far as I know, there are three ways to get in:

Sign Up - Scott himself is heavily involved in handpicking the tournament players but that’s not the only way to get in. No matter what, the first thing you should do is sign up over here. Scott keeps track of how many years you have signed up and it increases your odds of getting in. Once this year’s is closed he will open next year’s so make sure you sign up for that ASAP.

Win A Giveaway - The easiest way to make sure you see these is to follow the following accounts on Twitter and make sure you have notifications turned on.

Also regularly search for #SFB13 to see if other folks are giving them away. Scott himself will give away spots and he also lets a number of sites and podcasts give them away (we gave one away earlier this year during a Reddit AMA - shoutout to Camaron for winning!)

Win An SFB13 Satellite - For the second year in a row, you can get in via the SFB Satellite on Underdog Fantasy. It's a $5 buy in with the money going to Fantasy Cares and the top 250 players will automatically get into the 14th Scott Fish Bowl! If you aren't signed up for Underdog, you can sign up here using promo code FANTASYALARM and they will match up to $100 bonus credit with your first deposit. The entry link to the contest is on the very first page of Underdog's site and looks like this. Good luck!

How Does The Scott Fish Bowl Work?

Everyone in the tournament is divided into leagues of 12 teams. You draft and play vs. those 12 teams for the regular season which lasts 11 weeks. After 11 weeks, half of the field makes the playoffs. Any teams with 13 or more wins are automatically in and the remainder of the teams are in based on points. The playoffs are then done on a weekly basis starting week 12. Your score is your week 12 score plus your season average. In weeks 12, 13, and 14, the bottom 10% of the field is eliminated each week. In weeks 15 and 16 a whopping 34% of the field is dropped leaving us with only the top 2% of the field remaining. The winner of week 17 wins the tournament and is considered super cool. Forever.

The full rules are located here at the website along with the format and other important information. We aren’t going to break down the full rules here when they are broken down there but let’s take a quick peak at the scoring:

Passing:
  • 6 point passing TD
  • .1 points per completion
  • .1 points per 1st down
  • 1 point for 25 yards passing (.04/per),
  • 2 point per 2 point conversions
Rushing:
  • 6 point rushing TD
  • 1 point for 10 yards rushing (.1/per),
  • 2 points for 2 point conversions
  • 1 point per 1st down
  • .25 points per carry
Receiving:
  • 6 point receiving TD
  • 1 point for 10 yards receiving (.1/per),
  • 2 points for 2 point conversions,
  • 1 point per 1st down
  • 1 point per reception
TE:
  • Extra 1 point per first down
  • Extra 1 point per reception
Kicking:
  • 3.3 point for a made extra point
  • Decimal scoring bonus for FG (37 yarder = 3.7 points, 24 yarder = 2.4 points)
Special Teams:
  • 6 point for any return TD
  • 6 points if your player recovers a ball in the endzone for a TD (fumble recovery TD on Sleeper)

NOTES

  • PASSING - In past years they had negative points for incompletions. This year the scoring is juiced up big time so there’s no negative points for ANYTHING. Incompletions, interceptions, nothing.
  • SUPER FLEX - For those unaware, this means that you can elect to start a QB in one of your flex spots, allowing you to start two QBs a week. That along with the passing will make QBs quite powerful.
  • TIGHT END PREMIUM - See those extra points for first downs and receptions just for tight ends? That levels the playing field. Levels it for everyone but Travis Kelce that is, who might be the best non-QB player.
  • POINTS PER FIRST DOWN - You get a point for every first down (rushing, receiving AND passing). Tight ends get double points, as we mentioned.
  • POINTS PER CARRY - All players get a point per carry but this obviously benefits RBs and mobile QBs the most. 
  • KICKING - Pay close attention to this - kickers who can hit from range could rack up points easily. And there are no negative points for missed kicks.
  • Third Round Reversal - Technically it’s not “scoring” but part of the draft but this league has a unique setting for draft order. After the first two rounds, the draft order FLIPS. So it’s a normal snake from picks 1-12 then 12-1 for the first two rounds but the third round STARTS at 12, not 1. In superflex leagues, this evens the playing field. 

Advice For First-Timers

This might sound crazy to you but I firmly believe that winning isn’t the most important thing in this tournament. Yes, of course it would be nice to win but it’s a charity tournament where you are going up against 3,000 of the best fantasy football players in the world. We are going to talk about some tips to give yourself a better chance to succeed in the next section but my advice would be to simply enjoy the experience. Here are some tips to help with that.

  • GO TO THE LIVE DRAFT - Seriously, if you can go then go. Last year was the very first year and it was a ton of fun. It will only be better this year!
  • Make Friends - Regardless of whether you can attend a live draft or not, join the group chat for your draft spot (if you are having trouble finding yours, DM me on Twitter and I’ll put you in touch with the right person). And join the group chat for your league as well. Some of my best friends have come from this tournament. I even have a podcast I do called the Fantasy Besties that is all people that I met in my very first Scott Fish Bowl. It’s worth it!
  • Give Back - This is the entire spirit of the tournament so make sure you get involved. Besides simply donating to Fantasy Cares, there are a couple fun ways to give back and also get something for yourself. One is buying SFB shirts with money going to charity (this year the theme is brands and there are an INSANE number of designs to choose from). The other is to buy a custom avatar from the SFB Avi Makers which also donates money to charity. Here’s a little hint - they also know who donates or buys merch and that COULD help your resume to get in next year!
  • Be Respectful - This one is huge and people take notice, especially Scott. Folks in this community know who is rude or a bully. They can also see how many years you have signed up for the SFB so don’t complain about signing up year after year and not getting in if you haven’t. Also, if you are in FCEliminators, SFB Satellites, or the SFB itself, do yourself a favor and be mindful of the clock. The slow draft clock is to help everyone navigate their day but timing out multiple times is a waste of time for everyone involved and reflects poorly on you. In the eliminators and satellites, it also locks your team on autodraft which is going to hurt your chances of winning. Or maybe help it, I have no idea if you are good at this or not.

Advice For Actually Winning The Scott Fish Bowl

  • CHOOSE YOUR DRAFT SPOT WISELY - More important than picking your favorite logo is getting the draft slot you think works best for you. And, because of the third round reversal, the farther back you can pick and still get a player you love, the better it will pay off in not only round two but also round three. I personally like five players so I picked spot five and I’m happy getting any of them. If there are nine guys you like - even better as you will get two better players on the way back.
  • THERE ARE TWO DRAFTS - In Superflex leagues, especially with this scoring, there are two drafts. What I mean by that is, inside of the actual draft, there is a smaller draft - the quarterback draft. They are going to be prioritized HEAVILY and they could all be gone as early as the fifth or sixth round depending on how aggressive your league is. You really want at least two or three QBs and, if you miss out, your draft could be over before it really even gets going.
  • USE TE PREMIUM TO YOUR ADVANTAGE - I mentioned there are five players I like - well, four of them are QBs and one of them is a tight end. I’ll let you guess which one. But the TE premium point system gives you DOUBLE points for receptions and first downs. Not only does that put the top dogs up there with the top WRs, but it takes the whole mid TE2 range and now makes them viable at the flex. In this league you start 11 players so there will be a LOT of tight ends in lineups every week. Take the Texans for instance where we don’t know who will lead that team in targets. If all targets are equal, the ones for Dalton Schultz are worth double…
  • LEAN INTO WHAT YOU ARE GOOD AT - Some of you may know that I specialize in analyzing tight ends. Especially finding breakouts. So, for me, I’m going to lean into that and wait then draft a bunch of late tight ends. If you are good at finding late breakout WRs, don’t start your draft with six straight WRs. Play to your strengths. If you find yourself gravitating to a certain position with your waivers moves, load up on the positions you don’t like. A lot of people draft tight end early for this reason and that is absolutely fine.
  • USE ADP DATA - There are actually two sources of ADP data. There is early mock draft data here. And there will be LIVE data from actual drafts here when it starts. A few of the live drafts will be over well before the slow drafts and the slow draft data is updated live so you can see who is being taken and where.
  • KNOW YOUR SLEEPER TARGETS - We have all this ADP data? Perfect. Find where YOUR guys are going and figure out where you need to take them to get them. Reach a little. The odds of you winning this tournament are slim so, if you are going to win it, you might as well win it with YOUR guys. You need to draft TWENTY TWO players. That means 264 players will be drafted. Make a top 250 player list at least and highlight some late guys you like.
  • UPSIDE ISN’T EVERYTHING - One of the big mistakes folks make is shooting for the moon trying to win this thing with only crazy upside plays. I know that because I did it myself in the past, drafting guys like Antonio Brown and Lamar Miller in July when they didn’t even end up playing. With 11 starting spots, things get VERY dicey when injuries and bye weeks come around. Make sure you have actual viable players who can start for you. They might seem “boring” but you will be happy to have them. There is plenty of time for both upside and balance.
  • KICKERS CAN BAIL YOU OUT - Speaking of scrapping for starters, kickers are actually very solid in this and, in a pinch, you can start MULTIPLE. The are no negative points for misses so they have a pretty decent floor. That doesn’t mean you need to load up on them in the draft but adding them off waivers when you are hurting can really help you out. Here’s a look at kicker stats with SFB13 scoring from my favorite kicker analyst.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

As the end of the day, you probably aren’t going to win. So have fun with it! Go to a live draft event, whether you are drafting or not. Talk it up in the group chats. Pick YOUR guys. Gary Haddow, a founder and friend of the Lightning Round Podcast, won by waiting on tight end and draft four back to back to back, hitting on Darren Waller. The guy who literally invented Zero RB, Shawn Siegele, didn’t draft his first running back until the 11th round in my division one year and he finished second in the division, making the playoffs. Mike Faiella spent his whole Boston live draft last year sniping my favorite players before I could take them - and it was hilarious. As long as you are having fun, being respectful, and helping raise money for a good cause, there’s really no wrong way to play things. And I’m sure that’s how the great Scott Fish intended it to be.

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