Promotion / Relegation System
Background
Thus far, I'm proud to say the Game of Stones has hosted a rotating cast of characters. Some have featured in Season 1, others only in Season 2, and a small subset have starred in both iterations. In total, we have seen 20 managers between these 2 seasons, and are expecting even more to join for Season 3. This lead me to wonder- how can we accomodate this increase in interest?
Promotion / Relegation
As many real-life leagues use, I decided that a promotion/relegation system would best suit the Game of Stones fantasy league. On top of the fact that the Official Fantasy Premier League draft mode can only have up to 16 managers in a league, I think the playable capacity is a little lower than that. Having experimented with a very small league (4 players, Season 0), a very large league (16 players, Season 1), and one that was somewhere in the middle (12 players, Season 2), I believe that the sweet spot where everyone has a few decent players and can often find good options on the waiver wire is somewhere around 12 managers per league.
Challenges
There will of course be challenges with having two parallel leagues, which I hope you, presumably a member of one of these leagues, will understand as we go through the process of ironing this out. Therefore, I'd like to discuss some worries I have about adding a pro/rel system to the league. Fortunately, my biggest worry falls under one rather large umbrella:
Incentive
My main goal of this fantasy league is for each of its members to have fun. I want seasons, players, and storylines to be memorable and impactful. Therefore, I need to consider why people play and why people want to join this league. I think this is a major factor in both recruiting new managers and retaining old ones. Both are important. Where does incentive come in? Well, if we have a second tier for the Game of Stones, not only do we need to incentivize new players to join that league, but we also need to incentivize old players to fight their way out of it.
Ideally, this should increase competition in the second division and spur managers on to learn the game and work towards promotion to the top tier. Therefore, we not only need to incentivize playing in the top tier over the second tier, but also make people in the second tier feel that #1 it is reasonably possible to finish in a promotion spot and #2 that it is okay to not get promoted. I understand that people are generally competitive and will strive to do their best (if they commit to paying attention to the league), but some people need outside influence - how can we provide that?
On the flip side, assuming any given player is reasonably competitive, every manager needs to understand that it is okay to be relegated. Just like how a Fantasy Football punishment puts you in a McDonalds for 24 hours when you finish last, relegation provides a punishment - and 'punishment' encourages competition. Relegation creates incentive for players who drafted poorly to play the waiver wire or make crafty trades in order to stay above the drop zone.
Proposal
These two leagues would have the same prizing system as one another, with the intention to provide a fair and equivalent opportunity to win prizes and participate in tournaments in each division. Both divisions will receive all benefits of the current Game of Stones league, including stats, copium tables, weekly updates, etc. At the beginning of each season, the teams from the previous season’s second division who finished in the top 2 will be promoted, and the top division teams in the bottom 2 will be relegated.
The exception to the final statement is, of course, this season, in which 4 teams will be relegated so that the top division goes from 16 to 12 managers. This is pending interest in the 2025/2026 season, and can be postponed as necessary.
We may also require B teams to populate the second division (especially from myself) in order to get the league up and running and monitored for weekly updates, etc. Should myself or anyone else have a B team in the second division, that team will be exempt from any prizing and promotion.