Wordle
Unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably at least heard of Wordle. The game has exploded in popularity the last few months and, from someone who plays Wordle regularly, I can understand why. It is seriously addicting and fun to play.
Like a myriad of other games that have gone viral, you would expect Wordle to be played on an app. It’s not. It runs entirely in your web browser from The New York Times website. Best of all, it’s totally free to play.
Wordle is a simple game to play. You are given six opportunities to guess a random, 5-letter word of the day. With each guess, the game will indicate which letters you’ve gotten right. The background of the letter turns green if it is in the word and in the correct spot; yellow if it’s contained in the word, but in the wrong spot; dark gray if it’s a letter that’s not contained in the word.
When you’re done with the Wordle puzzle for the day, a slick little ‘share’ feature pops up that makes it easy to share your results by text, email, or social media, and it does it in such a way that the answer is not revealed. That’s one of the best aspects of the game. Everyone can share their daily scores with one another to commiserate on a tough word, revel in a good day, or whatever. Of course, there’s always the opportunity to mix in a little trash talking.
Fantasy Wordle
After being introduced to Wordle and enjoying the game for a few weeks, I started thinking. Sure, Wordle is entertaining and addictive to play, but what would take the game to a new level? Then it hit me. Why not create a schedule and have friends and family play head-to-head Wordle, fantasy football style? I present to you Fantasy Wordle!
When playing normal Wordle, each day is a game in and of itself. You guess the word, you brag or complain to your social clique, and you’re done for the day. You have no skin in the game. Fantasy Wordle, on the other hand, is normal Wordle on steroids. If you want to win your league, you need to consistently outdo a new opponent each day, build a playoff-qualifying win-loss record, and campaign your way through the playoff bracket. Do you believe your Wordle skills will allow you to dominate your league? Here’s your chance to prove it.
How to play Fantasy Wordle
This is how I set up our Fantasy Wordle league. You can imitate it verbatim, or fine-tune things as you see fit. My goal was to keep it as simple as possible. If you decide to add more detail to your league, just remember that commissioner duties are done by hand. All league maintenance is dealt with by you. There are no Fantasy Wordle websites to host your league.
The first thing to do is scrounge up a group of brave individuals that are willing to give the league a try. This was easy for me since I was already part of a Wordle troop of eight people that had been sharing our Wordle results. If you can only marshal up six players, that should work just fine too, but I think the more people you have – up to a point, anyway – the better. (How cool would it be to mirror the NFL with a league of 32?) Just keep in mind that you’ll want an even number of players for matchup purposes.
