Buffalo66 Challenge Contest #23: Football Clincher

I won the latest football contest in the challenge. Final Score was 129-96. Results are here.

Blinders and myself both chose Aaron Rodgers at QB, who had solid day. We also shared Peyton Hillis' monster 37 point effort.

My one value pick of Randy McMichael really didn't pan out. I was hoping that Gates might still be hurt or ineffective, thus giving my TE more touches.

Regardless, most of my roster put up decent scores, giving me a comfortable margin of victory.

This win clinches the football portion of the challenge, with my lead at 7-2.

The overall challenge is now 16-7 in my favor.

Collaboration In Daily Fantasy Sports

When I started playing daily fantasy 4 years ago, it was every man for himself. Heck, you couldn't even get good player information online. There wasn't preemptive player news that could help your roster.

Now, that information is prevalent (and in some cases, redundant). But there's another development in the flow of information - collaboration between fantasy players.

It's no secret that daily players share lineups with their trusted brethren within the community.

My favorite early example of this is tuffled1 & ucla2 sharing/using identical lineups on Fan Duel. Now, this was back when everyone was matched up randomly, much like private entries work today.

This is basically an angle shoot. Since identical roster contests get their full entry fees refunded, this was a way for these two players to hog the contest pool. By bombing the pool with entries, the algorithm used would give them the most match ups. They never had to worry about playing each other (and losing rake).

This also suggests to me why they never played auto pick - because they would be forced to face each other with unique rosters.

In the current daily climate, it's gone even further. I have had players solicit me to share my roster for a fee (usually a percentage of their winnings). Players have also set up cliques - through chat, PM, IM, bulletin boards and message boards - in which they share roster & player info.

Heads up players have now become TEAMS of heads up players. Although it's not hard to figure out who is working together, it does affect game selection a little bit.

I don't really avoid anybody in the contests I play, so I hope the collaboration doesn't grow to where I am taking on 50 identical rosters.

Hopefully the proliferation of large field contests will stem the tide of this angle shoot.

Buffalo66 Challenge Contest #22: Streak Continues

I won the latest football contest in the challenge. Final score was 131-108. Results are here.

We both picked Michael Vick and the same kicker, but the rest of the rosters were different.

In the battle of value priced RB's, My pick of Fred Jackson outscored Cedric Benson 24-18.

But the highest performing unique pick was my choice of Greg Jennings. His 3 TD night scored him a total of 33.

With this victory, I'm now on a series best 5 game winning streak.

This leaves the overall challenge at 15-7 in my favor. I also lead football 6-2.

The challenge will resume next Sunday.

The Player Haters Daily Fantasy Challenge

Thank you for all the hate you've sent my way, bitches.

Since nobody is willing to take me on in a five sport daily fantasy challenge, I present to you a new challenge for all of the player haters out there. This challenge can start right now and only involves the two winter sports (hoops & hockey).

-50 total autopick draft contests @$107 each
-25 basketball & 25 hockey
-2 contests every Wednesday (big NBA schedule night)
-2 contests every Saturday (big NHL schedule night)

This challenge is open to anyone. I don't care. I'll take on multiple opponents if I get more than one offer.

So hate all you want. In the immortal words of Silky Johnson:

"I hate you, I hate you, and I don't even know you and I hate your guts. I hope all the bad things in life happen to you, and nobody else, but you."

Buffalo66 Challenge Contest #21: Corrective Comeback

I won the latest hockey contest in the challenge. The final score was 42-31. Results are here.

I actually almost missed this contest. I was very busy correcting all of my rosters when I saw Blinders' email with 3 minutes before start. I managed to fill it out in time to get the contest going.

Early on it did not look good. Stamkos scored as usual - he has been on fire all season. Washington took care of business, giving Neuvirth a win.

However, my team finally got going when Zetterberg scored in the 3rd, with Datsyuk adding 2 assists. Detroit ended up winning 7-3, giving my goalie Howard a matching win.

The dagger of the night was Jonathan Toews, who posted a natural hat trick against the Oilers. His 15 points were more than the margin of victory.

Blinders really put up a solid effort. His only mishap was selecting Perron, who is still out with concussion symptoms.

I wasn't sure what the final margin would be due to scoring issues on Fan Duel last evening. When they corrected scores this morning, I was able to see the final tally.

This win puts my overall lead in the challenge at 14-7. I also lead hockey 2-0.

Another football contest this Sunday.

Buffalo66 Challenge Contest #20: Halfway Home

I won another football contest in the challenge. The final score was 153-99. Results are here.

Going into the Sunday night game, I was trailing Blinders by almost 25 points. However, I still had 3 players to overcome the deficit.

I managed to score 31 between Mike Wallace & Heath Miller, mostly in garbage time with the Steelers down a bunch. This gave me a 5 point lead.

Then Michael Vick went off for almost 50 points on Monday night.

I now have a 13-7 overall lead in the challenge, with a 5-2 lead in football. My "magic number" is now 12, as 25 wins will clinch the challenge outright.

Hopefully we will get in another hockey contest before the next football Sunday.

Personal Growth In Daily Fantasy Sports

I've been playing the daily contests for 3-4 years and I've won or lost in almost every way imaginable. Walk off 3 run HR, 14 round OT shootout, or power outage in an arena. You name it, it's probably happened.

When I started to play, I would "sweat" (watch) the games religiously. It was fun to have a little action riding on a team or a player. I could find myself cheering a play one minute then cursing the next play.

You might find yourself screaming through the TV at the manager to make a move, or yelling at the coach to foul/kick a field goal. (Of course they can't hear you!)

Now as the daily fantasy traffic began to grow, more of my time was spent finding opponents and doing research (projections). I could still watch the games once the contests started, but I'd more likely listen to radio broadcasts while I worked on getting more matchups.

After 3+ years of winning and losing - sometimes in strange ways, I guess you become somewhat numb to it. I just feel that way these days. When I hear people boast or whine about the wins & losses, I do understand where they are coming from. But I'm SO over it.

Developing my projections gave me a rather simple method to grade my team's performance. Since each player has a projected score, my roster has a total projected score. So my team will over perform or under perform, based upon the final tally.

Buffalo66 Challenge Contest #19: Good Enough

I managed to win another football contest in the challenge. The final score was 134-99. Results are here.

I really didn't spend as much time on this roster as I hoped to. I made my picks rather quickly and didn't follow up when the last hour info came out.

I had Kellen Winslow as my #2 projected TE and Brandon Marshall as my #5 WR. Both failed to produced much of anything.

I had considered picking up a 2nd Chargers WR with Gates out, or perhaps McMichael/Tamme at TE. I also considered changing my K to upgrade with Green Bay defense. Any of these changes would have improved my score immensely.

Instead, I just decided to trust my original picks - and fortunately it was good enough to win.

So this leaves the challenge at 12-7 in my favor, also leading the football portion 4-2.

Buffalo66 Challenge Contest #18: Hockey!

Last night we had our first hockey contest of the challenge. I won handily, 51-17. Results are here.

I had to make a last minute change on about 25 of my hockey rosters, when I found out Logan Couture would take the place of the suspended Joe Thornton. He did not disappoint, with a goal and an assist.

I actually played the whole line of Marleau-Couture-Heatley. They are great at home, while TB was on a brutal road trip with several injuries. My line figured in 4 of the 5 SJ goals.

Blinders loaded up with 5 Dallas skaters, but they were trounced 5-0 in Colorado.

This leaves the challenge at 11-7 in my favor, with a 1-0 lead in hockey.

Football runs again today.

Haters Gonna... Something

(I originally wanted to title this "Eff The Hatahs" but Waffles has the copyright on that.)

It's so funny to me how players want to hate on me when I'm winning. I've been doing this fantasy sports thing for about four years and I've had some amazing swings.

This MLB season was especially brutal. However, I had a great October, cashing some big prizes on Fan Duel. Even without the big contests I still had an excellent month.

All that the players haters can see are the short term results. "I went 45-0 last night." I've had plenty of night like that, without saying a peep to anyone. I've also had the 0-30 nights too. I'd much rather talk about those. The losing nights are much tougher for me to let go. I obsess over them.

With the advent of fantasy sports chat & message boards, the "community" is becoming more intimate, but not necessarily in a good way.

Let me cite specific examples, in a hater-to-me format:

Hater: "Why won't you play me at $xxx buy in. You just play the kiddie games."

Everyone knows I spread my action out over all opponents. I've explained this multiple times. I'll play as high as the traffic allows me to spread it out. Believe me, I can afford your buy in. When I can also match up against ten other haters at that level, I'll play there.

If you want to double your action against me, play both the draft/pick format and the salary cap.

And if you really think I'm a fish, take the Buffalo66 Challenge. I'll play $213 per contest, no problem.

Hater: "You're nothing but a leader board whore".

I wish! Whores get paid right? Getting paid to be on the leader board would be awesome.

Actually, I hate leader boards. I have asked to be removed from leader boards many times. It kills my action on the sites. Players see my name up there and they won't match my entries.

The only leader board/rankings I voluntarily joined were over at rotogrinders. They are trying to bring new players into the fold and I want to support that effort, because it means more money for all of the regulars.

BTW, their formula for ranking will never allow me to get to #1 overall. Not to mention if Kaiseroll13 was joined too he would be #1.

Hater: "You are a _______ ."

You can call me names, homey. I can take it. But why do people gravitate towards 12 year old behavior in this community. I think WoW players are probably more mature.

I understand that daily fantasy = instant gratification. People also like to talk smack. Whatever it takes to make you feel better about yourself.

But if you call me out, don't get all bent out of shape if I respond. I know players have spread lies about me. I carry the truth with me at all times, so ASK ME if you want to know something about me.

Now from a karmic standpoint, I probably deserved to be hated on a little bit for hating on Kaiseroll13 earlier this year. I apologized for being mean towards him, regardless of whether he did something shady or not.

To quote Jerry Maguire, "The world is a cynical place." I don't expect everyone to be nice to me. It's just tiring hearing the same old hater shit over and over.

Buffalo66 Challenge Contest #17: Last Minute Indecision

I lost the most recent football contest in the challenge. Final score was 124-115. Results are here.

I originally set up my roster with Deion Branch, who was announced as a game time decision at 12:30 pm (30 minutes before start time). So I rearranged my K, TE and WR corp with different personnel.

When the contest went off we had 4 identical players, making the game a 5-on-5 tilt. I expect this to happen more often as the season progresses, because the value plays become more obvious.

Our one unique WR match up was Brandon Marshall vs. Calvin Johnson. Megatron (CJ) put up a huge day with 28 points. This put me in a big hole. My TB defense managed to put up 20 points (despite giving up 35 points at home!). However, I fell 10 points short after the Sunday games.

Going in Monday night we had all of the same players active, so it left the outcome as a victory for Blinders.

This leaves the overall challenge at 10-7 in my favor, with the football portion favoring me 3-2.