Daily Site Review: Fantasy Throwdown

Zach Bahner Posted On December 28, 2014

review

Editor’s Note: This article is part of our Daily Content section in DLF. Daily leagues are growing in the fantasy community and we’ll cover them throughout the regular season. Remember, you can get a DLF Premium account free for year (or your current subscription extended for a year) just by signing up with FanDuel and making an initial deposit. For more information on that special offer, click here.

Each edition of this series will highlight a different daily fantasy football site. Towards the end of the season, we will do more of a comparative analysis between the sites, giving a comprehensive overview of the daily fantasy football landscape. For starters, though, we will focus on each highlighted site individually and give general impressions in order to give the reader an idea of exactly what the site has to offer.

Our previously site reviews can be found here:

Sports Tradex
Draftster
Victiv
Reverse Fantasy Football
StatKings
Fanday
DollarFootball
Fantasy Spin

Website and URL: Fantasy Throwdown, http://www.fantasythrowdown.com

First Impressions: The site has a clean design that’s easy on the eyes, with all the menus easily navigated. With just a quick look it is clear that there is a major emphasis on head-to-head games.

Mobile Options: I did not find an option in the iOS store, but the mobile site works well.

Types of Contests

The main focus is on head-to-head games, with challenges made either directly to other competitors or publicly. There are also tournaments and other games held at different times during the season, but the overall focus is on beating a singular opponent.

Lineup Format: QB-RB-RB -WR-WR-TE -K-DEF

This is the default lineup configuration, but it is customizable. Challengers can add flex positions, additional skill positions and defenses, individual defensive players and superflex positions. This is the most lineup flexibility I have found on a daily site and I think that is a huge asset.

Scoring Format: Passing touchdowns = 4 points, all other touchdowns = six points, one point per 10 yards rushing/receiving and per 20 yards passing, interceptions thrown = -1 points

In addition to lineup flexibility, there is also some flexibility to the scoring system. The default scoring is non-PPR, but it can be adjusted to full PPR. There is another wrinkle to the scoring system: offensive players do not get points for kick return touchdowns or blocked kick return touchdowns. Those points are awarded to the team defense position.

Creating Lineups: Lineups are not created based on a salary cap on Fantasy Throwdown. Instead, players are selected via snake draft. Each drafter can also “block” one player from being drafted to make it more difficult for his or her opponent. These are both nods to the emphasis on the head-to-head nature of the site, and I think both are good for the competitiveness of the game. The last twist on drafting is that drafters select only three NFL games to be included in the player pool. This forces them to pay extra attention to exploitable matchups and adds value to those players.

While I tend to stick to 50/50s and GPPs when I play daily games, this is a really fun addition to the format. When I want to challenge friends or colleagues to head-to-head games, this is where I’m going to do it. This is also a great place to set up tournaments with friends that can expand over several weeks. I recommend checking out the site, and feel free to send me a challenge any time.

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