{Current
Mood: Stuffy}
So,
While we were
tailgating in the parking lot of Metlife Stadium for Wrestlemania 29 just two
short months ago, The Joan and I were approached by a man who was plugging his
new creation: fantasy wrestling.
If you’ve
read any of The Joan’s recent pieces, you probably know that we had been
discussing trying to form our own fantasy wrestling league, drafting players to a
weekly or nightly team, coming up with a scoring system, calculating the points by
hand, etc.
Our new
friends over at RealFantasyWrestling.com have beaten us to it.
If you’re a
wrestling fan and/or a degenerate gambler, you have to check out the site and
get on the ground floor of the first fantasy wrestling experience of any kind
on the interwebs.
It’s easy to
sign up and start playing for money right away. Hell I put $30 into my account,
entered a few freerolls and $1-$3 entry games and, after last night’s edition
of Monday Night Raw, I’m up $10.77 and have climbed to the #1 spot on the
overall leaderboards with a total score of 1,862.
This can only
mean one thing.
At least for
a few days, I AM THE #1 RANKED FANTASY WRESTLING PLAYER IN THE WORLD!!!
The Joan is
not too far behind me at #2 overall IN THE WORLD with a total score of 1,126.
The discrepancy could be due to the fact that I entered more freerolls than she
did and wound up putting up the best performance of my young fantasy wrestling
career.
Full
Disclosure: Before the leader board reset and became official, I was sitting at
around #15 overall. Not bad but not great. It would be silly of me to not acknowledge
the fact that there have been a lot of people who have been doing
good and finishing in the top three more consistently than I've been. I just feel
the need to brag since I don’t know how long my reign on top will last.
For those not
in the know: Over the last month and a half, The RFW guys have been putting The
Joan and I, as well as some of our friends over at The Ken Reedy Show, into
nightly (Raw) and weekly (Raw and Smackdown) freeroll challenges as a test run
for the site. The ten of us who were chosen to test the RFW waters were given a
$100,000 salary cap to choose a roster of ten people that we felt would give us
the most points: five wrestlers, two females, one non-wrestler, and two flex
players.
(Cheap Plug
Alert: Go to TheKenReedyShow.com and listen to the best in pro wrestling talk on blogtalkradio.com every Sunday and Tuesday night. The Joan’s wrestling
blogs are featured on their website and I’ll call into the show every once in a
while to keep my legions of fans posted as to how I’m doing in the crazy world
of professional wrestling)
Over time,
I’ve started to pick up on certain trends and am getting a better idea of who
to play and when as well as where value lies with certain wrestlers and
wrestling personalities. But I would always finish just out of first place.
Here is how
I’ve finished, out of ten people, in every RFW contest I’ve taken part in prior
to June 3rd:
April 22
(RAW): 3rd (175.3 points, eight points out of first)
April 22
(Weekly): 2nd (222.55 points, 32.9 points out of first)
April 29
(RAW): 5th (178.1 points, 30.4 points out of first, 10.5 points out of top
three)
April 29
(Weekly): 2nd (250.6 points, 19.85 points out of first)
May 6 (RAW):
5th (109.7 points, 21.95 points out of first, 14.45 points out of top three)
May 6
(Weekly): 7th (158.7 points, 78.6 points out of first, 58.35 points out of top
three)
May 13 (RAW):
5th (138.25 points, 10.6 points out of first, 6.05 points out of top three)
May 13
(Weekly): 5th (211.95 points, 25.85 points out of first, 17.45 points out of
top three)
May 19 (PPV):
2nd (183.35 points, 12.85 points out of first)
May 20 (RAW):
4th (150 points, 53.75 points out of first, 26.35 points out of top three)
May 20
(Weekly): 3rd (241.55 points, 40.05 points out of first)
May 27 (RAW):
3rd (176.25 points, 35.65 points out of first)
May 27
(Weekly): 4th (238.3 points, 34.7 points out of first, 12.2 points out of top
three)
(For the
record, I list how far I was outside of a top three performance because the top
three finishers are usually the ones who finish in the money)
Let’s now
take a look at how I finished last night’s Raw freerolls and paid contests. As
a side note, I used the same lineup for all of these games and scored 233.85
points:
Ken Reedy
Show Freeroll: 1st (The Joan, bless her soul, finished in 2nd and only 3.65
points behind me)
*18-Person
Freeroll: 1st (The Joan didn’t fare so well in this one, finishing in 9th with
181.25 points)
$1 for $8.50,
10 people: 1st (Winnings: $5.02)
**$5 for
$12.75, 3 people: 1st (Winnings: $12.75)
*This was
supposed to be a 20-person freeroll but only 18 spots were filled. I guess they
let it run anyway since it was a freeroll.
**Squeaked
out a win by 2.85 points in this winner-take-all battle
It only took
seven weeks but I FINALLY recorded a first place finish. Not that I hadn’t come
close being that I recorded five of a possible 13 top three finishes prior to
last night. Only three of the “original 10,” as I like to call us, recorded
more top three finishes in that time (including The Joan who had six, which
included two first place finishes) And
of the “original 10,” I was the eighth person to record a first place finish in
either a nightly or weekly game.
So where did
the breakthrough come from? Luck? I’d like to think it was a combination of
that, number crunching, and a general feel for how not only professional
wrestling works, but for how RFW’s scoring system works and who it tends to
favor.
Let’s find
out who helped me break through the glass ceiling, how I approach these nightly
matches and why I placed my faith in who I did.
[A quick side
note, PPVs are a different beast when it comes to fantasy wrestling. They’re
the only shows where you know exactly who is wrestling who and in what kind of
match. The key there is making sure you select the people who are going to get
you the most points in their matches. It doesn’t always matter who wins and
loses. But that’s another strategy story for another time, as is the story of
how I approach setting my weekly lineups]
Ray’s Raw
Lineup for 6/3/13
Wrestler 1
(first tiebreaker): Seth Rollins – 20.45 points
Wrestler 2
(second tiebreaker): Roman Reigns – 22.4 points
Wrestler 3
(third tiebreaker): Daniel Bryan – 53.65 points
Wrestler 4:
Dean Ambrose – 33.25 points
Wrestler 5:
Randy Orton – 25.9 points
Female 1: AJ
Lee – 8.2 points
Female 2:
Kaitlyn – 12.1 points
Non-Wrestler:
Michael Cole – 16 points
Flex 1 – Paul
Heyman – 11 points
Flex 2 –
Curtis Axel – 30.9 points
Total = 233.85
points
Before I go
any further, I would like to note that a glitch in the RFW servers saw Randy
Orton available at a site-low price of $1300. Usually he goes for at least
$10000 more so you can see how this freed up the cap space for me to be able to
afford Michael Cole who is traditionally the most expensive player being a
color commentator who consistently scores between the teens and high 20’s. As a
degenerate gambler I, of course, used this to my advantage. Although I had a
backup plan ready in case Orton’s price shot back up.
Anyways,
Daniel Bryan recorded the highest RFW point total on record last night (at
least the highest I’ve found in my minimal amount of research) by virtue of him
wrestling twice. It helps that both of his matches were long too. He’s a guy
who will get you a ton of points for strikes, combo strikes, top rope moves,
and even double team moves if he finds himself in a tag match. Plus, he’s
universally recognized as a fantastic wrestler who has been all over the world
and will always be involved in a quality match. Had I known he would wrestle
twice, he would easily have been my #1 tiebreaker (although he is my #1
tiebreaker for my weekly matchups). He’s now scored 30-plus points in five
straight outings (Raw and Smackdown) and I’m personally going to continue to
target him for my lineups at least for the duration of this whole “weak
link” deal he’s got going on right now.
One thing I
look for when setting my lineups is the guys who are consistently wrestling and
are consistently in important matches. Right now, all three members of The
Shield qualify.
Last week,
Seth Rollins led all scorers (in games I was involved in anyway) with a
ridiculous 46.1 points. Both he and Roman Reigns received 14 points each for
double team moves and five points each for being involved in a title match. Looking
back, I probably wouldn’t have made Rollins and Reigns my top two tiebreakers
because, in a six-man tag match, the points you’d get for double team moves
between Shield members are inevitably spread out more. Last night, Rollins only
received four points for double team moves while Ambrose and Reigns each
received six.
Having said
this, I will still target Rollins and Reigns and make them tiebreakers if I
KNOW they’re in a two on two tag team match whether or not it’s for the tag
team titles, although the five extra points you’d get for it being a title
match would help. I still plan on consistently targeting Ambrose too. These
guys are consistently wrestling in important matches against the best in the
business, they all hold titles, and there’s way too much potential for a point
outburst and/or a six man tag team match to NOT be targeting any or all three
of these guys for your lineups.
I’d be remiss
not to mention the fact that Ambrose was the highest scoring Shield member last
night and, in one night, almost matched his entire point total from last week.
This after being the lowest scoring member on both Raw and Smackdown last week.
You know you’re going to consistently get points with these guys as long as
they’re dominating the way that they’ve been. Some people like to gamble on who
they think the most points will come from. I just hedge my bets, use all three
guys, & plan on continuing to do so until the strategy proves to be
counterproductive.
Speaking of
guys who have been wrestling consistently and in important matches: all aboard the
Curtis Axel bandwagon. Two main event matches on Raw against John Cena and a
potential feud with HHH looming? Sign me up.
Now I’ve been
playing fantasy sports for long enough to know that it’s not all about number crunching
and feel for the product, you have to have some luck as well. I was helped out
a lot last night by a few things: 1) Orton’s price glitch, 2) Five of my
wrestlers being in a six-man tag match that got bonus points for opening the show,
3) Axel getting extra points for being in the main event again.
Things like
that are all luck-based. There’s no accurate way to predict who will open/close
a show or who will get you the most points in a given match. So I just go with
who I feel will be utilized the most consistently in matches that can get my
team the most amount of possible points.
Randy Orton
is another guy who fits this description. Orton, Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, and Kane
seem to get anywhere from 15 to 30-plus points every time they wrestle. They’re
always good bets to wrestle against somebody and Kane will continue to get big
points as long as he’s associated with Daniel Bryan and/or facing off against
The Shield.
I would take
Bryan over Kane because of Bryan’s penchant for striking but that’s just me. I
chose Orton mainly because of the price glitch but also because, since the
Extreme Rules PPV, he hasn’t put up less than 25 points. Even with guys like
Sheamus, Del Rio, and Kane likely to put up big numbers on any given night, I
personally plan on riding out Orton’s hot streak.
My other
contributions came from Paul Heyman, Michael Cole, AJ Lee, & Kaitlyn, Heyman
should continue to get double digit points on the cheap thanks to the rise of
Curtis Axel and the impending return of CM Punk. Cole usually scores higher than the
other commentators though he’s the most expensive overall player to choose
from. I have noticed, however, that Cole’s point total has been dropping from
the high 20’s to the high teens. I’ll continue to monitor this to see if it’s
just an outlier or not.
AJ has two
wrestlers she manages and gets three points every time she accompanies Big E Langston or Dolph Ziggler to the ring. Not to mention she has a future Divas title match which
may happen at any given moment. I’m banking on Kaitlyn picking up a few big wins
before this title match with AJ eventually takes place.
One thing you’ll
find with fantasy wrestling is that a lot of bigger name guys and/or great
wrestlers won’t always get you consistent point totals. Guys like John Cena,
Ryback, Chris Jericho, HHH, & The Miz can’t always be banked on to give you
matches, especially if they’re involved in a big storyline. But when they do,
they have the potential to put up great numbers. I’ll usually only target these
guys if it’s already been announced that they’ll be in a match that night.
There are a
lot of other great wrestlers like Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, and Antonio Cesaro
that can get you decent point totals but can also burn you if they’re involved
in a short match or if they don’t wind up wrestling or even making an
appearance. I love the in-ring work of all these guys, but they’ve gotten me
more goose eggs than I care to go back and count. Also, consider that Rhodes
went from being in a tag team match and scoring 28.1 points last week to
putting up a paltry 5.4 points last night in a loss to Sheamus. Until these
guys start to show any signs of consistency, I can’t trust them.
Looking a bit into the not-so-distant-future: If you want to start winning at fantasy
wrestling, you’re going to have to account for the impending returns of Dolph
Ziggler and CM Punk and you’re going to have to figure out how to work them
into your lineups. Early on, Ziggler was always good for at least 30 points a
night (rough guess, but once I do a bit more research I’ll be able to hopefully
back that up) and I have no reason to believe Punk won’t put up the same types
of numbers once he comes back.
It’s all
going to be a question of who you feel most comfortable with and who you can
fit under the salary cap. And, unless you’re the one deciding who’s going to be
wrestling who on any given night, you may have to get lucky in deciding who’s
going to be involved in the matches that are going to get you the most points.
Once the
weekly games conclude, I’ll delve into how I did and what I would’ve changed.
Provided I
don’t run the table again.
#KThanksBye
-Ray Ray
Marz-
PS: For the
interested parties, here’s a list of all the fantasy relevant wrestlers,
personalities, etc. who put up points last night (in no particular order). This
is based off of the games I entered being that there is currently no database
where you can see how many points everyone scored on a given night. I guess
this is that unofficial database for the moment. If you want to know how
everyone gets scored, visit the website for those details. Enjoy:
Dean Ambrose
– 33.25
Seth Rollins –
20.45
Roman Reigns –
22.4
Curtis Axel –
30.9
Daniel Bryan –
53.65
Randy Orton –
25.9
Michael Cole –
16
Paul Heyman –
11
AJ Lee – 8.2
Kaitlyn – 12.1
Fandango - 7.45
Dolph Ziggler
– 0
John Cena –
23.8
Natalya – 4
Ricardo
Rodriguez – 7
Ryback – 26.05
Sheamus – 26.3
Raw Referee –
13
Damien Sandow
– 9
HHH – 6
Chris Jericho
– 3
Brie Bella –
5.5
Justin Roberts
– 7
Big E Langston–
10.3
Kane – 22.6
Naomi – 11.8
Cody Rhodes –
5.4
Nikki Bella –
6.8
The Miz – 17.35
Mark Henry –
0
Jerry Lawler –
18
Brodus Clay –
1
Tensai – 1
Alberto Del
Rio – 15.4
JBL – 11
Cameron – 8
Wade Barrett –
10.25
Titus O’Neil –
8.3
Jack Swagger –
0
Zack Ryder –
1
Summer Rae –
6
Vickie Guerrero–
0
Lilian Garcia
– 0
Zeb Coulter –
1
Antonio Cesaro
– 0
Layla – 0
Teddy Long –
0
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