The game works just like other salary cap style fantasy games. Players are given a budget for each MMA event to spend on the fighters competing on the televised portion. To make fantasy gaming work properly with the unique nature of MMA, the game contains two innovative features:
Disclosure: I do contract work for FightMetric. With that out of the way...- Players can purchase multiple "units" of fighters to fill their roster. This adds a layer of strategy while ensuring that every player's picks are different, despite choosing from only 10 available fighters.
- The scoring categories in the game are all rate statistics, like Strikes Landed per Minute (SLpM). This is necessary to reward and avoid penalizing fighters who finish their fights quickly in favor of fighters who rack up high volume numbers simply by fighting longer.
I helped playtest the game during its private beta, and I'm a fan.
Each fighter has a unit price. For instance, Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard are priced at $10 and $8, respectively, for their trilogy fight at UFC 136. Each player is given $500 to buy up units as they please. The only restriction is that you may not spend more than $150 on any one fighter. So, you could buy a maximum of 15 units of Frankie Edgar ($10 X 15 = $150).
The unit mechanism adds a layer of complexity that you won't find in more typical "pick 'em" games. (And, let's be honest, betting against the spread is only fun with real money.)
If you love fantasy games, I highly recommend checking it out. The scoring system takes some getting used to, but the game is a lot of fun once you get the hang of it.
I've set up a public pool (Bloody Salary), though I'm not sure of the functionality at this point. (The game is still technically in a beta release.) But if you sign up, try to join it and let me know how it goes. Otherwise, you'll play with me against the full leaderboard.