2019 Fantasy Schedule: First Draft

2019 Fantasy Schedule: First Draft

Welcome back MLS Fantasy managers! I’m happy to see you have retained your manager position (for now!) and are ready to start planning for the 2019 MLS Fantasy Season.

The 2019 MLS Schedule was released a few day ago and, for me, that the unofficial start of the MLS Fantasy Season. Why? Because that means it’s time to create the first draft of my prediction for the Fantasy Season Schedule.H

How the Fantasy Season Works

In 2018, we saw a change in the Fantasy schedule. Instead of one season long game, the season was divided into two chunks with both Spring and Fall winners. This change was received with….mixed reviews. Personally, I like the change because it makes the game easier for players to join mid season without feel like they have no shot at a prize, but there was a problem with the communication as to when the Fall season started last year. This communication problem caused a lot of confusion and left some with a bad taste in their month.

The good news, I really doubt that this will be a problem in 2019 as Ben Baer even shared his frustration with this glitch on the MLS Fantasy Insider podcast recap episode. So I expect the dual season format to return in 2019 and MAYBE and Opening Weekend Challenge.

Below is my first draft attempt at guessing how the fantasy season will be divided. I base this prediction on previous seasons but there is always the potential that something could change to better accommodate the plans of MLS.

Rounds that start on a weekend on labeled as Blue, Thursday or Friday starts are Green, and Wednesday starts are Yellow.

If you see any mistakes, please let me know and I’ll put it on my list for the next draft update!

Link to Full Schedule – Link to R1-16 – Link to R17-31

Initial Takeaways?

• Get used to a Wednesday start to the fantasy week (18 Round start on Wednesday)
• Tougher Switcheroos (fewer round with a bye will add more room for error in switcheroos)
• Most teams have 5 or 6 Double Game Weeks on average. However, Atlanta has 8 and both Dallas and FC Cincinnati only have 3.