The Luck of It All

The following post is from a good friend of mine - Andrew. He has an interesting viewpoint on the fantasy playoffs that I believe many of us can relate to. In the interest of full disclosure, I am one of the people who laugh at his horrible playoff luck, perhaps even the loudest. Enjoy!



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So it's fantasy playoff time in most if not all of your leagues. Now is the time to prove that your drafting and management skills are better then everyone else's, or is it?



Getting to the fantasy playoffs is a great thing, and sometimes has to do with luck, but most of the time is due to having the knowledge of what players to draft when. Plus having the ability to keep up with player news through the season will greatly help your chances.



To me, the fantasy football playoffs are a downer. Not because I didn't make it, in fact I have the top scoring team in all 5 leagues I'm in and made the playoffs in all of them. (End shameless self promoting) But because the playoffs are just pure luck once they start.



You start your season by carefully studying players and spend time looking for those hidden gems prior to draft time. Then when it's your turn in the 10th round you proclaim yourself a genius because you drafted Ray Rice, while everyone else looks at you and says, backup by committee. You showed them didn't you! Rice has been dynamite all year, and surely has helped your team get to the fantasy promise land.



But now what? You are in the playoffs. What if he has a bad week. Wwhat if your teams' QB and a WR only play half the game because their team has already clinched the top seed in their conference? What if your players just happen to play against the best defenses that week?



All those things weigh into something that, for most people, has all the bearing on any payouts in your league. That's the kind of luck you have to deal with having a playoff system. So what to do about it? I suggest a movement in fantasy football, to be more like, dare I say it, fantasy BASEBALL?!?



No really, I'm serious. In traditional fantasy baseball you don't have head to head matchups and you don't have a playoffs. You are scored on your teams performance throughout the year and then at the end of the season, the best team is on top. What a novel idea!



This would remove most of the luck out of the equation and put the emphasis on having a real quality team not just having one that can squeak into the playoffs and get a lucky couple of weeks to win all the money.



I could go on and on about how unfair the playoff system is and how it's just pure luck, but you already know that. I've been doing this for 15 years and too many times I have gone in with the top seed and lost right away. It's happened so much that it's now a running joke in my office.



But when it comes down to it, I know I can't change how the industry runs it's games. Even though I'd like to see a movement towards the baseball style of league, I just don't see it happening. So I'll sit here and complain, get made fun of and swear every year that I'm going to quit fantasy football. And yet, next August I'll be lined up with my notebook full of research just like every one of you.



Yup sounds about right. I love this game too much. I'm just not that lucky.



But hey, that's just me.

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