There are many different types of articles that can help fantasy managers prepare for each round. Player recommendations, injury updates, and captain polls always help, but MLSFB started with simple charts difficulty. Let’s get back to the basics.
These charts attempt to reduce bias by removing a human element and working 100% with data. Even so, the accuracy will be off some at the start of the season because there is little data to pull from. Everything will even out as the season progresses. Still, it’s a good estimation. Please feel free to provide feedback to me on twitter, e-mail, live chat, or at /r/FantasyMLS.
Round 9 Difficulty Chart
This chart was formally ranked by Game Ease over the coming 6 Rounds. It has been updated to fit the new unlimited transfer rules per user feedback. The chart now ranks by 1) Difficulty of Current Round, 2) Current Form, 3) Game ease for next 6 Rounds.
An opponents’ difficulty is ranked from 1 to 5 with a +1 advantage is given to the home team. Maximum difficulty is capped at 6. The chart can be read as: Team “X” on the left is playing Team “Y” at Home (if bold) or Away (if not bold).
The game ease percentage is based on the calculated difficulty vs the hardest potential difficulty. This removes bye weeks from much of the calculation because they add 0 difficulty. Double game weeks have a .5 modifier to represent increased fatigue. This means that teams with a lot of DGWs are often ranked as having tougher schedules. Teams with multiple bye rounds can also be ranked as difficult due to the overall potential difficulty of their reduced schedule.
Please not that this chart will be a little out of whack as old 2018 form drops off as the season goes on. It should work itself out, for the most part, before the DGWs start though.
Round 9 Form Chart
This chart breaks down a teams’ form into three categories: home form, away form, and form over last 6 games.\