In the endless pursuit of the perfect fantasy football draft, I present you with EA Sports’ foray into the crowded field. The company is offering a downloadable tracker/manager for your league on the Xbox 360 ($5) and the PlayStation network (.50). And if you’re wondering about the price disparity, it’s a promotional gimmick for those on the PSN.↵
FirstCuts: EA Wants Your Fantasy Football Team
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↵↵Some of this is incredibly intriguing to me, because fantasy football draft day is all about limiting any liability that can screw up the draft. Twelve separate computers in one draft? At least one is destined to freeze or crash at some point, inevitably costing the person one or two picks. An in-person draft eliminates that possibility, but brings the “guy who doesn’t pay attention and keep track well” into play. The guy who eventually gets the old “That would’ve been a great pick ... when he went three rounds ago,” because he drafts someone who has long been off the board.↵
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↵In theory this draft does a little bit of both. Giving you a digital player bank to pick from means you won't run into that second problem. Isolating the draft one on console limits your technical risk, depending on just how much the three red rings of death scare you.↵
↵↵But ultimately, this brings another thing into play: drunk guy. Someone always drinks a little too much at the draft. Now imagine if one controller is in charge of the draft and he gets a hold of it, screwing everything up. Sure, you’ll probably be able to backtrack, but what if he somehow finds a way to erase your results? And two more words on passing around a controller to do your draft: wing sauce. Gross.↵
↵↵The EA interface is snappy-looking, but I’m guessing people are so entrenched with the sites they use right now that they might be hesitant to make a switch, not to mention that you’ll need everyone in one place if you’re going to use this system. [Puts on sellout hat] You should totally just sign up for Sporting News Fantasy Football. OMG, it’s, like, the bomb!↵
↵↵Anyone out there going to give this a try?↵
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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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