One of the best things about fantasy sports is the competition. Each league is made up of a group of people that each aim to build the best possible team. The fun of the competition can be ruined by other teams quitting early. This is especially true if the quitting manager does not quit “ethically” blanton’s full set.
So what’s the right thing to do when losing (terribly) in a fantasy season? Ideally one would just keep playing and try to get better. But,
no doubt, that can be a hassle, especially when they have been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. But there is a right way and a wrong way to quit a fantasy sports league.
If you are going to quit then the best thing you can do for the fantasy sports community is to do so gracefully. If you are going to play every other team in the league exactly the same number of times you might consider just benching your whole team and being a bye team.
It is far more likely that you will be playing some more than others though. In that case, finish setting your lineup for the year and “lock your team”. By “lock your team” I mean commit to the concept of no more drops, no more adds, no more lineup adjustments, and no more especially no more trades. The following paragraphs explain why each of these commitments are important.
• No more drops – if you drop players (especially good ones) then all of a sudden the balance of the whole league is shifted. A manager with a good waiver position gets better through no effort of their own. Whether that manager is the #1 manager or the #9 manager, it is unfair to everyone else that they are getting something for nothing from a team that has no vested interest in the outcome.
• No more adds – the same principal as with the “no more drops” rule applies here. Don’t “steal” players when you don’t care to be in the league anymore. A guy you randomly pick up may be someone else’s sleeper.
• No more lineup adjustments – adjusting your lineup is playing the game. If you only do so occasionally, then that is actually worse than just quitting. If you don’t play against one team you should not be playing against other teams.
One team will get the benefit of playing a mediocre version of your team. Another will have to face the best version of your team. That is not fair to either team. It’s not even fair any of the other teams. Those wins / losses will affect their position in the standings as well.
• No trades – this one is a big one. There is always often someone who is just waiting for someone to appear to drown. When a team becomes eliminated and seems to quit the gull will swoop in and try to grab as much as they can for themselves.
The gull will offer some ridiculous trade for the best players on the team that has been eliminated. In return, they offer their worst players. The hope is that the losing team will be so dejected (or uninterested) that they will just accept the trade.
If your team is drowning then you may view participating in a trade such as this as either a final strike against the league that dashed your hopes or you might view it as “giving hope” to the gull. In reality it just ruins the league for half of the other managers (the ones still playing competitively). Resist the temptation to be involved at all once you make the decision to quit.