The greatest keeper league on Earth.

Super League Basics

07/17/2024

Intro

Welcome to Super League. This short article will tell you everything you need to know to get started. Ask the commissioner if you have any questions after reading this. There may seem like a lot of rules, but there are mainly two - set your lineups, and don't be a dick. I wanted this to be a video but my editing software asked me for money halfway through...

12 teams. 3 divisions. One goal - bring home a championship ring for your team. Super League is a keeper league with 3 keepers each, so choose your players and keepers wisely. A $30 buy-in adds up to $165 for first place, and the ring I mentioned isn't metaphorical. The league is hosted on Sleeper, so you will wanna download that app if you don't have it yet. Join the league here.

Makin' Moves

Super League was designed for wheelin' and dealin'. Trades and waiver pickups are the backbone of the league. There are three types of tradable assets in Super League:

  • Players

  • Draft Picks

  • FAAB

Players

Players are like Jared Goff or Najee Harris, you know these guys and how they work. The roster resembles traditional fantasy football but with a twist, there's an offensive utility spot that allows for a second QB to play for your team. This will be the final season with that roster spot, so plan accordingly.

Draft Picks

Draft picks can be traded when the "pick window" is open. The pick window is open twice a year, during August and November. You'll be able to trade picks for the upcoming draft in August, and your picks for the next year's draft in both periods. The August pick window is always opened after the draft lottery results are revealed. The picks are listed for each team in the sleeper app.

FAAB

FAAB is new to Super League this year. Think of FAAB as cash used to get free agents. Each team will have a chance to blindly bid on free agents each week, with the highest bidder earning the free agent. Players can still be added for free if no one bids FAAB. Each team starts with 100 FAAB a season. FAAB is earnable through challenges throughout the season, which will be brought up each week as they happen. FAAB is tradeable and can be combined with players and/or draft picks in the same trade.

General

These 3 asset groups make up Super League trades. All trades are approved or vetoed by the "trading counsel", which is made up of 3 members of the league including the commissioner. If a member of the counsel makes a trade, an alternate is brought in to determine that trade. Players and FAAB can be traded until before the final week in Super League.

Timeline

Expansion Draft / Lotto

The league will begin early this year, starting with a trading period where all 12 teams will be able to make player and current year pick trades. This leads up to the expansion draft, where the two new expansion teams (Brian and Tyler) will select from a limited pool of players on existing rosters, choosing one player from each existing team, which is designed to give them starting keepers to enter the full draft with. From there, all of August will be an open trading period, leading up to the full draft. Each team will lock in their 3 keepers the night before, effectively ending the trading window.

In Season

A new change this year will be the In Season Tournament, with the winner receiving some cool shit. I'm naming the tournament the Mickey Mouse Cup. The goal for the MMC is the same as any other week, score as many points as possible. The top two scorers from the first two weeks of the tourney will advance to the finals. Whoever comes on top will get a tiebreaker over all other teams for playoff seeding and some FAAB.

The second pick window is open the entirety of November. If you're having a rough season, you may want to consider selling a player for draft capital in order to position yourself better for next season. If you're having a nice season, you may consider the opposite. Players and FAAB will be tradeable until the final week of the regular season begins.

Playoffs / Toilet Bowl

The top 6 teams from the season move on to the playoffs, with the top 2 seeds receiving a BYE week. The ultimate winner will earn the Super League championship. Aside from the cash and the ring, the winner also gets to suggest a new rule for Super League to adopt, and a spot on the trading council for the next season.

That's the winner's bracket, but what about the losers? This year, the 6 teams who don't make the playoffs will be entered into the toilet bowl, an anti winner's bracket where the losers advance. The bottom two seeds get a BYE here. The ultimate loser earns the league punishment. This means all 12 teams will have something to play for in the postseason. This year, it's not so bad, as you will only have to walk or drive to a destination of the league's choice within your area. You could probably use the cardio.

Of course, this is too many dates to memorize, so we've made a graphic with all the key dates. Save this to your phone and search "Super League schedule" if you need to see this.

Off Limits

Next, let's get into some no no's for Super League. Overall, it's pretty simple - don't do something that hurts the integrity of the league. Tanking and collusion are simply not allowed in Super League. Making a trade using anything but the three asset types is illegal. You must also set your lineup each week.

If any of these rules are broken, or some other action detrimental to the league occurs, you may receive a strike. Strikes have penalties, with strike 3 being the most severe. Strike 1 is free, which essentially builds in the opportunity for a team to lose for free one game a year for whatever reason they so desire. The trade council controls strikes, and multiple strikes may be given at once if the situation permits. Strikes carry over into the next season, reduced by 1 each season.

Outside of strikes, pick trades must have equal numbers of picks, so teams retain a full selection of picks for each draft. You cannot trade first round picks in back to back years, like in the NBA. In general, if you don't want to stay in Super League long term, do NOT trade away future pick capital.

Extras

Lastly, we have some fun stuff. Each week throughout the season we will post power rankings on the website. These power rankings will also contain the FAAB challenge for that week, and list who won the FAAB challenge from last week. We have other articles on the website from time to time, and have some pretty cool pages in terms of history and records.

The only required thing for this league is to set your lineups, so you can interact with the fun stuff as little or as much as you want. Feel free to get creative with your team identity.

And that's Super League, simplified. Obviously, the full rule book goes into full detail on these topics, but now you know enough to play. I wish everyone a great season and wish you all the best of luck.

Dates for Timeline

  • July 25-28 - Initial Trading Period (current picks and players only)
  • TBD (before August 1) - Expansion Draft
  • August 1 - Draft Lottery / Pick Window Opens
  • August 28 - Keepers Lock / Buy In Due
  • August 29 - Draft at 8pm
  • August 31 - Pick window closes
  • September 5 - NFL season begins
  • October 6 - First week of IST
  • October 20 - IST Finals
  • November 1 - Pick Window Opens 12PM EST
  • November 30 - Pick Window Closes 12PM EST
  • December 5th - Trade Deadline at 12PM EST
  • December 12th- First week of playoffs / toilet bowl
  • December 25th- Championship week begins


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