How “Streaming” Affects Your Fantasy League
‘Scuse me Egon? You said crossing the streams was bad…
An Example of Streaming
I can recall a situation from a few years back that couldn’t highlight the issue of streaming any better. I was a part of a fantasy baseball league that was ultra competitive for being a public. There was a healthy amount of trash talking in the draft, pre-season, trading; the whole nine yards. What put the kibosh on a seemingly competitive situation was a manager who thought it was far more important to win than keep the integrity of the game intact. By season’s end, this manager used 426 transactions and absolutely crushed the opposition.
What is Streaming?
The idea of streaming is certainly an interesting concept when discussing fantasy sports and deserves some serious attention. For those of you who may be unsure as to what streaming players is, or if you have heard the term in your league, but are uncertain as to what it pertains to, it can be described as a manager who add/drops players night in and night out in order to maximize their chance of winning certain categories (for hockey, it’s likely goals, assists, penalty minutes, etc.) which are cumulative and is usually only a problem in h2h leagues with daily transactions.
If you poll the managers in your fantasy hockey league, you should find that the vast majority will agree that streaming is an unappealing tactic to gain the upper hand. Efforts in recent years from major fantasy game operations have been strong to quell the “cheating” that has been so prominent in the past. Streaming, alongside collusion, are the two of the bigger issues plaguing the integrity of fantasy sports at this point in time. Adding and dropping players at will to maximize a team’s production compromises the legitimacy, strategy and fun of a fantasy league.
Streaming in Rotisserie Leagues
Streaming in roto leagues is practically null and void in roto leagues simply for the fact that each position has a ‘max games played’ attribute that severely limits the opportunity to add/drop night in and night out. If you have a manager who decides to stream in a roto league, you’ll find that he or she will reach their maximum games allotted for certain positions much quicker than managers who opt not to stream. Once that max game number is reached, you can no longer have any activity at that maxed out position, thus rendering streaming, somewhat useless in rotisserie style leagues.
Streaming in Head-to-Head Leagues
Head-to-head leagues generate the most streaming because more often than not, settings tend not to address the issue of streaming. Since standard offensive fantasy hockey categories don’t penalize players nearly as often as some fantasy sports (like baseball does for strikeouts or ERA) it is far more advantageous for the fantasy managers to try and overtake goals, assists, power play points, etc. every night by making sure his or her roster is full.
What’s at Stake?
Managers who opt to stream players will certainly take a considerable amount of criticism from their fellow competitors and more importantly, will tarnish their fantasy reputation. Managers who decide to stream in a custom league in which they know the other managers do a huge disservice to their reputation. Those who do decide to stream players shouldn’t expect to be invited back to play in custom leagues, where the interaction is far better than any public league with a lot more is riding on the line.
How to Avoid Streaming
If you’re a commissioner looking to avoid having to deal with streaming in your fantasy hockey league, it may be wise to consider placing a transaction limit in the league. Furthermore, if you limit the amount of transactions allowed per week, if makes streaming extremely difficult. Those of you who enjoy public leagues don’t have the option of changing league settings, so it’s good to know that number of fantasy host sites offer excellent customer service options for commissioners and managers who suspect that some sort of cheating is taking place. They are usually quick and very effective. If you suspect streaming is taking place, especially in a public league, it may be appropriate to take action to preserve the integrity of fantasy sports.
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[...] is among the most controversial strategies in fantasy sports, and SaucerPasss has a solid article that breaks down the basics of streaming. Not a fall back if you totally screw-up your fantasy hockey [...]
Interesting article. At the end of the day while some might call streaming cheating, it simply isn’t. It might not be a very nice way to win a fantasy hockey season, but the fault should be placed on a Commish who doesn’t setup their league with rules that prevent streaming from being a viable strategy. Otherwise I don’t blame anyone who uses that strategy to win their league.
J-
Thanks for the comment. It certainly is a controversial topic in the fantasy sports community.
I agree with you 100% that it is the job of the commissioner in custom leagues to make sure the rules don’t allow for a manager in the league to stream players.
However, if you do public leagues, a lot of default settings in bigger services don’t take streaming into account. That’s why the manager I talk about in this article (http://saucerpass.com/2009/06/an-example-of-streaming-in-fantasy-hockey/)
was able to take advantage of the Yahoo! system and completely dominate.
I’m curious what you think about managers who stream in public leagues?
I have to admit that I have simply gotten away from joining public leagues, that being one of the reasons. I don’t have time to keep up with someone who carries about 75 transactions per week! It’s not a strategy I am fond of as I believe it rewards people with absurd amounts of time rather then fantasy hockey knowledge.
A strategy like IR stashing is one that is a bit closer to the line. It’s using the league rules to establish a marked advantage but I’m not sure I fully agree with the tactic. As a result in the leagues I have been in we’ve set limits on the IR slots that are available to managers. It’s a much trickier one to handle compared to streaming though.
I think you give good advice to people who have had the misfortune of joining a public league against a streamer though!
J-
I’m a huge fan of stashing players on IR. It’s a legit strategy that benefits those managers who have patience and the management skills to take advantage of a player that might go unnoticed because of his injury.
This past season, I traded for Marian Gaborik halfway through the season and stashed him until the last month of play. It paid off huge. I also did the same thing with Joe Sakic, however, that didn’t quite pan out the way I would have hoped.
I would love nothing more than to upend a manager in a finals matchup who has streamed all season. Fantasy hockey bliss right there.
It would seem to me that streaming of players in a head to head league would only really work if there are a lot of worthwhile players available as free agents.
We’ve got 14 managers and 22 players per team, with 10 players being keepers. If you were to drop a quality player there is no way you would get him back. You would be left with a very marginal team within a month. Streaming would be “suicidal”.
Also in most Rotisserie leagues there is a maximum number of games played per position which effectively negates streaming.
“I’m a huge fan of stashing players on IR. It’s a legit strategy ”
I’m relatively new to fantasy hockey, and have witnessed what you refer to as “streaming,” but wasn’t really sure how it was done until about midway through the season. I admit, it bothered me slightly, but mainly because I thought it was clever and not because I thought it was cheating. I’m curious how you can consider IR stashing a “legit strategy” and not this. I play mostly roto leagues so I don’t make much use of it anyways, but it seems to me if the actions someone is taking are within the parameters of the public league, it is not cheating. It is a strategy biased to those with more time, I completely agree, but it is a strategy nonetheless, and a legitimate one as long as the rules and boundaries of the league are such. You can call it every bad name under the sun when it comes to the fairness of the rules, but it is still within the rules. As long as the parameters of the public league indicate that managers are allowed to make unlimited transactions on a given day, then it is NOT cheating. It is certainly a questionable practice, but you can not call it cheating as long as it is within the rules. Now, if you were to say that Yahoo and the like should change the RULES to avoid these practices, then that is certainly a valid point, but it bothers me to see everyone rant and call something cheating when it is within the rules.