Fulfilling Fantasies
Wednesday 26 October, 2005
I have fallen in love with Fantasy sport teams. I've always enjoyed tipping, but more than ever it seems like that added competition piques my interest in the league as a whole, rather than just checking the score of your favourite team's game. It's also a very good way for me to waste time online (generally when I should be working, shhh).
Fantasy leagues also suit me very well. I love watching sport and playing the video games, so I'm quite knowledgeable about all the players and I've got my favourite players to choose too. Fantasy sports feel like a great combination of watching real-life sport and playing a video game.
Currently, I'm making a charge in our Yahoo Fantasy Hockey league. I learned the rules properly so I feel equipped to take on the runaway leader, Brad. After I started dead last, I've clawed my way up to second place and one of my star players, Marian Gaborik, is about to come back from injury, so I think I'm in a good spot to challenge for the win. Well, I sorta dropped back to third today despite a good scoring day (Brodie's goaltender got a shutout), but it'll turn around if my first round pick Marty Turco can save some freeking pucks!
I'm faring OK in the Fantasy NFL league as well. In a head-to-head format, I'm 4-2, good enough for second place in my division and I'm tying with Dean for leader of our friends in the comp (4 total). My roster needs a little work at WR and RB, but barring any injuries I should get through to the playoffs (or whatever) in good shape.
My ChampCar squad has me positioned 213th out of thousands too and winning my league of 2 people easily. I invested most of my budget on champion Sebastian Bourdais and fared well on European rookies Timo Glock and Bjorn Wirdheim. I traded Glock for Oriol Servia after Servia got a replacement drive with the best team, Newman-Haas. I had to drop Wirdheim because he hasn't got the money to continue racing in ChampCar. Basically, my success came because I've had 4 of the top 5 in the championship and the rookie of the year driving one of my five entries.
Cabbage has masterminded an NBA league, and while I'll be the first to admit I know nothing about basketball, I think having Allen Iverson, Vince Carter and Kobe Bryant should give me a good shot at it. I think Brad's team is in with a good shot, considering I know the names of four players (Shaq, Tim Duncan, Stephon Marbury and Tracy McGrady) in his team, the most of anyone's teams.
I joined Fantasy Premier League late, and we never got a league together, but I put together a team for fun anyway. My focus of buying Thierry Henry first and then worrying about the rest failed this year when he got injured. Too many eggs in the one basket syndrome. Keep in mind, that strategy won me the competition two seasons ago, and I didn't do too bad last year either.
I like to think I've got a good history with this sort of thing. At one stage, I'd won two footy tipping comps in a row, the Fantasy Premier League, World Cup 2002 tournament and led the Geocities F1 tipping competition for the first 7 rounds ahead of 1000+ people. Hope I'm not losing my touch!
Fantasy NFL team
Manning, Peyton QB IND
Portis, Clinton RB WAS
Westbrook, Brian RB PHI
Holt, Torry WR STL
Stallworth, Donte' WR NO
Smith, L.J. TE PHI
Carney, John K NO
Dolphins, DST DST MIA
Backups
Roethlisberger, Ben QB PIT
Faulk, Marshall RB STL
Muhammad, Muhsin WR CHI
Troupe, Ben TE TEN
Stover, Matt K BAL
Lions, DST DST DET
Fantasy NHL team
C V. Lecavalier (TB - C)
C P. Datsyuk (Det - C)
LW M. Naslund (Van - LW)
LW P. Kariya (Nsh - LW)
RW T. Bertuzzi (Van - RW)
RW S. Doan (Pho - LW,RW)
D Z. Chara (Ott - D)
D R. Blake (Col - D)
D J. Pitkanen (Phi - D)
D B. Rafalski (NJ - D)
G M. Turco (Dal - G)
G M. Kiprusoff (Cal - G)
Bench
BN M. Gaborik (Min - LW,RW) - injured (day-to-day)
BN B. Richards (TB - C)
BN P. Kubina (TB - D)
BN P. Elias (NJ - LW) - injured reserve (long time)
BN B. Stuart (SJ - D)
BN P. Lalime (StL - G)
Fantasy ChampCar team
Sebastian Bourdais (FRA): Running 1st in championship
Justin Wilson (GBR): 3rd
A.J. Allmendinger (USA): 5th
Oriol Servia (ESP): 2nd
Andrew Ranger (CAN): 12th