As the fantasy football season draws to an end, some may wonder why this game has so much popularity in the first place. At its core, fantasy football is essentially a game where people “draft” football players onto their fantasy teams.

Fantasy teams will generally consist of a quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, a tight end, a defense (a type of fantasy “player” that encompasses the entire defense of an NFL team), a flex (which can be a tight end, wide receiver or running back), a kicker and a bench.

Every week, two fantasy teams are pitted against each other to determine whose fantasy players score the most points. A fantasy player scores points for their fantasy team when their real life counterpart makes a play, which can be anything from making a catch to running ten yards, or even kicking a field goal.

At the end of the game week, the total points scored by all fantasy players on their respective fantasy team are totaled up. The team with more points wins the week.

Towards the end of the fantasy football season, there will be a playoff bracket in which the fantasy teams who won the most games play against each other. The owner of the fantasy team that wins the playoff bracket generally receives some sort of prize, usually money from the group.

At the very end, there’s also a consolation bracket. As expected, the consolation bracket is for teams who weren’t good or lucky enough to make the playoff bracket. The loser of the consolation bracket is often considered to be the loser of the entire league.

The loser will generally have to perform some sort of special punishment, meaning they’re coerced into doing something by the rest of the group as a consequence of losing. These punishments can be anything from performing a dance in the talent show to sprinting through the halls for a month.