If you played MLS Fantasy last season, you're probably familiar with the term "caparoo" – a peculiarity in the system that allowed fantasy managers to control which subs were used and who got the captain's armband after some of the players on their team had already played.
With the elimination of automatic subs and vice-captains this season, in part to eliminate the caparoo, this trick has fallen by the wayside. But with every new season comes new opportunities, and leave it to our friends at Reddit to come up with this year's secret move.
Some may call it cheating. Others might file it under working the system. I like to think of it as a money-making scheme (you can see the players whose prices have risen the most this season above). Totally legal, sure, but there seems to be a tad bit of collusion involved, too.
As most of you know already, Round 11 offers fantasy managers unlimited transfers. And since Round 10 has already begun, you've been allowed to tweak your lineup for next week endlessly since Wednesday.
Here's how the ploy works...
A player can rise in value $0.1m per day and $0.3m maximum per round. Since the sell price is 50 percent of a player's purchase price, you can buy a player for $4.0m, watch him increase $0.3m in a matter of days and then dump him – accumulating a $0.1m profit.
It may not sound like a lot at first, but if you apply this tactic to several players over the course of weeks, minimal investments could potentially result in serious gains. But keep in mind that with limited spots available in your lineup, and players from all over being added by others, you'll want to be very careful about which players you choose to transfer in and which players you don't.
For this money-making opportunity to work, you have to realize the difference between a player like Benny Feilhaber, who you'll be counting on to score you points next round, and a player like George Fochive, who is strictly there for investment purposes only.
Both players have already increased in value $0.1m this week, but they are not the same. Fochive's value will increase, but he is disposable. Fantasy owners can do what they want with him and let him go without any love lost.
Benny's value will increase, thus making it more expensive for people selecting him days from now in preparation for Sporting KC's double-game week in Round 11. At the same time, he's not disposable. If you picked him up for $8.0m and you sell him next round (after his DGW) for $8.1m, it could cost you anywhere from $8.3-$8.6m to bring him back in for SKC's DGW in Round 13.
Most fantasy owners have gotten the hang of it by now and are racing to come up with a gameplan for the next few days. Some of you need a little refresher. That's okay. All you need to do is bookmark these two pages – Price Rise (Round) and Transfers IN (Round) – and check on them periodically.
If you notice that a player is being transferred in by a lot of people, add them to your team. Remember, you have unlimited transfers this round. You can move guys around between now and the Round 11 deadline – May 14 at 8:15 pm ET.
Don't let this opportunity pass you by. You have five days to make some coin. Get to work!
