Truly, Zarathustra is a strong wind to everyone low; and he gives this advice to his enemies and to everything that spits and spews: take care not to spit into the wind!
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Part II, “Of the Rabble”
I myself am not yet timely; some are born posthumously.
— Nietzsche, Ecce Homo, “Why I Write Such Good Books,” 1
After the RotoViz Report pioneered the quad-managed Main Event team and then expanded to a penta-managerial approach, you knew it was only a matter of time before we set our sights on the dynasty format. “Too many cooks” is a problem for those with small kitchens and small minds. We galaxy brains know how to spin disagreement and difference of opinion into league-winning picks, and how to turn a hodgepodge back-burner stock into a refined consommé. “I tame every bear; I make even the buffoons mind their manners” (Nietzsche, Ecce Homo, “Why I Am So Wise,” 4).
Nietzschean elitism aside, when you have a chance to draft a dynasty startup team with three of the top minds in the industry, you have to do it. Thus, I teamed up with Hasan, Kevin, and Jesse to enter an FFPC RotoViz TriFlex Empire Startup. The starting lineup requirements are similar to the regular RotoViz TriFlex settings you are used to: 1 QB, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 TE, 2 Flex, 1 Superflex.
The difference between an empire league and a regular dynasty league is in the prize allocation: rather than giving all of the prize money to the top finishers each season, a portion is allocated to what is called the empire pot. The pot grows each season until one team wins the championship two years in a row, at which point they win the whole pot and the league ends.
The extra emphasis on building a dynasty team capable of winning two years in a row does influence how you choose to draft during the startup. While we always opt for approaches that will get us in the Permanent Championship Window (PCW), the empire element devalues Year 1 to a degree. Winning the championship in Year 1 nets a much smaller prize than you would get in a typical dynasty league. Depending on what you had to do during the startup to build a winning roster, it may also be counterproductive in your empire chase.
Instead, the smart move is to amass future assets and build a team that can use rookie picks and breakout players to enter the PCW and stay there for a long time. (Even if you are in the PCW, you are not guaranteed to win the championship. Therefore you need to try for more than two PCW seasons.)
With this in mind, we went into the startup knowing we wanted to make some deals to acquire future picks. Getting the best value on each individual trade wasn’t as important to us as getting good deals done and making sure we were taking steps to improve our future outlook. But did we go overboard? Nietzsche also said “what does not destroy me, makes me stronger,” but could some of our moves lead to our ultimate destruction? Or are we indeed the Übermenschen of dynasty startups?
Navigating an FFPC RotoViz TriFlex Empire Startup
We drew the 1.06 and immediately started shopping it. Before long we had a deal that netted us an extra 2027 first for what we felt was a modest move back.
