Questions frequently asked about fantasy SkyLeague are answered below.  Contact VAN1SH1NG if you have additional questions and they will be added to this page.

Each player is assigned an initial salary the first week after they have completed 2 rounds.  The initial base salary is $800 x their current fantasy points per round average (FPPR), rounded to the nearest $100.  The minimum base salary is $2,000 for those players with a very low FPPR.

If a player already has a salary, the base salary formula is different.  Salary only changes by at at most $400 each week.  This means that even if a player starts scoring far more or less FP than their average, their salary won’t significantly change week to week.  You should consider this as you are building your team and look for players whose salary is low relative to their average FPPR.  If you are interested in specifics of the salary formula, read the next paragraph. Otherwise continue on to the next section about strength of schedule adjustments.

The formula above, $800 x FPPR, is still calculated.  If their FPPR has changed considerably and $800 x FPPR is $1,000 or more different than their previous salary, their new salary is their old salary +/- $400 depending on if their FPPR has increased or decreased.  If it has not changed by $1,000, but is at least $200 different, their new salary is their old salary +/- $200.  If the difference is < $200, there is no change.

Stats against the bottom teams in Altitude leagues are almost always significantly better than when playing the top teams or even teams in the middle of the standings.  The impact is far greater in Altitude than with most fantasy sports leagues, so it seemed strength of schedule had to be factored in.

Each players’ base salary is adjusted based on the strength of the teams they will play this week.  The adjustment per team is manually assigned each week although it is very closely based on each team’s goal differential.  Generally the top teams have a 0.9x multiplier, middle teams are 1.0x, and the bottom teams could have up 1.4x.

Because two teams are played each week, the base salary is first divided by 2.  Half of the salary is multiplied by the first round team and the other half by the second round team, before being added back together to get the actual salary for that week.  So if a player has an $8,000 base salary and plays a top team with 0.9x multiplier and a bottom team with a 1.3x multiplier their salary will be:

$4,000 x 0.9 = $3,600
$4,000 x 1.3 = $5,200
$3,600 + $5,200 = $8,800

The adjustments are probably not extreme enough to provide any kind of balance.  They are only meant to give some reason to consider players who are not playing against the bottom teams each week when drafting lineups.

Fantasy scoring has been done a bit differently than with most fantasy leagues.  Fantasy Altitude leagues present a couple major issues:

  1. The fact that almost everyone who will participate in the fantasy league is actually playing the fantasy league has the potential for major problems.  Certain precautions are needed to prevent players from playing SL differently in order to boost their own or their friends’ fantasy lineups.  Additionally it would be bad if players felt compelled to play all games in a round to maximize fantasy points.
  2. Unlike most sports, Altitude is not timed or otherwise limited to a certain length.  Stats such as kills can get very high when games take a long time.  This is not necessarily a problem because predicting when games will run long could be a consideration when building teams.  But it is best not to allow the potential to purposely extend games to earn more fantasy points.

The solution for these issues has been to use stat averages instead of totals.  Because there are a maximum number of goals and goals assisted that can be earned per game, goals and goals assisted stats are calculated per game.  Other stats are calculated per 10 minutes.  If a player plays 5 minutes and get 10 kills, that becomes 20 kills per 10 minutes.  Likewise if a player plays 20 minutes and gets 60 kills, that becomes 30 kills per 10 minutes.

The fantasy point formula used this season is:

2.0 x goals per game + 1.75 x goals assisted per game + 0.1 x kills per ten minutes – 0.1 x deaths per ten minutes  + 0.05 x kills assisted per ten minutes + 0.2 x ball carrier kills per ten minutes + 0.2 x passes per ten minutes + 0.4 x steals per ten minutes (0.4)

Note that a ball carrier kill also counts as a kill so the total points earned for killing a player in possession of the ball is 0.4.  However in the case of a goal assisted you do NOT also get the 0.2 points for completing a pass.

Players earn separate scores for both rounds played each week.  So if a player has 5.0 FPPR average, you might expect them to each you 10 points for the week you draft them.

If a player does not show or otherwise does not play for 3 minutes in a round, lineups with that player automatically score 2/3 of their FPPR the round. If a player plays in one round in a week, but not the other they will earn 2/3 of the previous FPPR for the missed round but still get normal points for the round they did play in.

Unfortunately it is difficult to predict who will show each week and it is not always possible to make last minute changes after you see who is online on Sunday.  If a player you draft does not show, scoring 2/3 points for that player gives you some chance to win if the rest of your lineup has good stats.

If you have not played one day fantasy sports before, where each player has a salary and your lineup has a salary cap, here are some tips when picking lineups.

Most importantly you are usually looking for players whose recent FPPR scores are considerably higher than their average.  More specifically you want to find players who had off weeks in the past which has lowered their salary or players who have simply improved over the course of the season.

Additionally you should look at the teams a player is playing against that week.  Players often score higher against teams near the bottom of the standings.  Unlike traditional fantasy leagues, salaries are adjusted each week based on strength of schedule.  However, the adjustment is not intended to fully balance everything out.  In many cases drafting players playing against bottom teams is still advantageous.  However it will cost you a bit more, so if you feel good about a player not playing a bottom team do not hesitate to draft them and save some money.

Finally you should consider the plane or play style of each player.  You are not necessarily trying to pick who will play the best for that week.  You are trying to pick the set of players who will score best using the given salaries and salary cap with the specific point formula being used.

With the current formula, generally players who have very high kill to death ratios but also chip in with goals and goals assisted will get the highest scores.  Randa players struggle some due to their k/d ratio and either have to score a lot of points or have very high pass and steal averages to achieve top scores.

Most likely there will be changes next season to take plane types into consideration when drafting lineups and/or the point formula will be different for each plane type.

A player is not able to be drafted until they have played in at least two rounds.  Only after a player’s stats are available for two rounds is their initial salary generated.