Christmas Dreamin'

With this being my first season of publicly sharing my opinions on fantasy football, I thought I’d give a transparent summary of how that season is going.

I’m a firm believer in the “failing fast and often” method of tinkering toward growth.

Take action. Try stuff. Fail. Learn. Repeat.

Eventually you will have tried virtually everything, and you can toss out whatever your experience deems to be just “noise.”

Injuries will be lurking just around the corner as The Great Humbler of Egos, whenever you think you’ve solved this puzzle.

Yellow flags are Injuries’ wicked next of kin.

…and the puzzle is never stagnant.

GOOD.

Keeps things from getting predictable and boring.

Every season, month, week, game, half, quarter, drive and even play…the puzzle may shift.

We are left to interpret our next move in response to each shift in new information.

Much like Life itself.

From my first Bestball draft in mid-April to my final FFPC Main Event draft kickoff weekend, I tried to stay true to the rankings I shared on this site.

It bit me in the ass loading up early on players who never panned out, but that is very much a part of this game.

Any given play can result in a season altering injury in this collision filled sport with 300 pound men crashing, piling and tumbling into one another, so expecting a full season injury free is a non-starter.

We can boast all we want about the players we called correctly, and whine incessantly over those we did not, but when it is all said and done, we are left with our results.

Here is where I stand with two weeks remaining in the ever so short fantasy football season.

May as well start where it all began…home leagues!

Now what these leagues may lack in return on investment, they more than make up for in camaraderie and smak-talk!

I am lucky to have a few leagues where Draft Day is just as it was back in the early 1990’s… Loud, Live, and Liquored Up!

I have been commish of my league since 2000, and got invited into a friends league that has an even longer history.

Both are a BLAST!

The lore of draft days past could fill multiple articles.

Needless to say that with the advent of the internet and instant information for all, home league competition has increased.

All three (two LIVE, and one online) are in that $200 to $275 entry and have 12 teams each, so all three have top prizes exceeding $1000.00, so it isn’t chicken scratch.

I just missed out on making the final four (playoff teams) in one, tying in record with the 3rd and 4th seeds, but losing out on points tie-break.

In the other two I am top seed and face the 4th seed in the ever important first round of the playoffs in week 15. One win away from the Superbowl!

I entered one time in the KFFSC (online) main event, but did not do well, and will not be entering that contest again unless they alter the extreme defensive scoring they seem to enjoy as a trademark.

I entered once in the Rotowire Online Championship and failed to make playoffs. I found their free agent/waiver wire software to be a time waster and nonintuitive, limiting my desire to continue there.

I entered three times in the FFOC online championship and have one of the three in the simultaneous league and overall championship.

Currently 3rd in league (33.71 points behind leader) and 156th (out of 384) in the overall with two weeks to go in the chase for the $50,000.00 grand prize.

I entered three times into the RTS Fantasy Championship, with one team placing second in the league for $500 and that team is currently in 86th place out of the 851 teams that made the finals. That event has a top prize of $200,000.00!

My buddy sent me a screenshot of my team sitting in first place overall in the live scoring for what he thought was around 10 minutes or so during the Sunday morning games. Pretty cool. Two weeks of battle remain.

I entered 15 times into the FootballGuys Players Championship, and set a new personal best winning FOUR league titles! (previous best was three in one season)

The large “silver dollar” coin-like medals will make awesome additions to my collection! Each league championship prize is either $1500 cash or an entry into the 2019 FFPC Main event! (valued closer to $1850 each)

The 2019 FFPC ME will have a $500,000.00 top prize!

Half a Milly Maker! Now we are getting somewhere!

One of my four horses in the finals there is pretty much dead with the loss of Kareem Hunt and his replacement LeSean McCoy going down early, but the other three teams are currently ranked 206th, 386th, and 504th out of the 1574 teams that made the finals there.

Top prize is $250,000.00!

Would need to absolutely blow up to get into the mix for the big money, and that is what I intend to do over these next two weeks!

I entered once into the FFPC Main Event and made the playoffs, but fell short with so many of my players on bye week 12.

Sucks because I outscored everyone week 13, but it was only for 3rd place. (and $500.00)

So close.

I have a bunch of teams in those consolation or loser bowl playoffs should they get red hot down the stretch.

In Dynasty, I have three teams I maiden drafted, and four teams I purchased as orphan teams that were being let go by other owners.

Of the three I drafted from scratch, one is a dead duck (private 1K entry brutal Arena league) and the other two have advanced to the finals!

The orphans still need some work, as expected. One snuck into the league playoffs, but got ousted last week.

I had to fight my way into the league finals, as I failed to secure a top two seed, twice being equal in Victory Points, but losing out on the tie-break.

The two dynasty leagues where I’m alive and well are both hosted by the FFPC. One $500 and one $1250.

The 500 is a four-way total points fight over the next two weeks for the $2500.00 top prize.

The 1250 is the same, fighting it out for a cool $7000.00 top prize!

Weeks 15 and 16 will be extremely exciting!!!

In the SuperContest I entered once, we compete through week 17, so we have a full three weeks to go!

I am currently sitting in 67th place out of over 3000 entrants.

Time to catch fire there!!!

Much of that “Fantasy Limbo” I spoke of in my previous post ended up working out OK. Could have been much better, but also could have been much worse.

We are now in serious crunch time, where mistakes in “Who Do I Start?” or “Who Do I Bet On?” are amplified.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Mike Sexton (of poker fame) recalling a fond memory of the extremely well thought of Thor Hansen who recently passed away.

“I was in the Bellagio sportsbook once when Thor Hansen comes racing in eyeing a game that was about to tip off.

He said, “Give me Duke minus twelve”.

The clerk gave him his ticket & said, “Check your ticket”.

Thor took it without looking, smiled at me and said

“What difference does it make?”

Hashtag: ACTION!

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