Hey Now,
Are you playing Fantasy Dota yet? If you’re not then you are missing out on a new level of competitive dota immersion. Yes season 1 of fantasy league is a bit rough around the edges, but this new feature is laying the groundwork for griping competition outside of ancient defending.
These Fantasy Reports will be a repeating weekly articles to share tips, highlight rising stars, help with roster swaps, stats, and to discuss everything that is fantasy doto!
Week 5 was dominated by the Chinese scene. GEST, WVW, V Gaming, and CDEC all saw a ton of Chinese teams playing a massive amount of games. 101 potential games could have been played between DK, IG, Newbee, and Vici. That’s a shit ton of games, and it reflected in their point totals. Those four teams combined for a total of 2615 points. Newbee alone was 838 of those points. Hell I barely beat that with my hyper micro-managed team.
We also saw the Dreamhack conclusion, and a bit of western dota play. While these teams did not come close to matching the volume of games, and therefore points, of the Chinese teams, they did put up respectable numbers. Alliance netted a cool 205 points just in the finals.
Week six should be a lot quieter than week 5. Prepare for ongoing tournaments to wrap by Wednesday, and ESL to consume weekend dota. Remember that you get a player swap every day, so make the most to try and have an active roster, and prep for ESL.
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Tools:
I have compiled a google spreadsheet that has each player’s daily point earnings. This should be valuable information in letting you pick up only the best, and most active players. In addition on this document you can find overall team totals, and a handy calendar that will tell you what teams are playing when. USE THE CALENDAR! If you do not have active players every day then you’re losing points. Don’t lose points yo.
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Tips:
Play for today, not TI4 – There are 10 weeks of Fantasy. You know how many of those TI4 main event covers? 1 week. That’s it. Sure you might have thought it was a good idea to draft your TI4 finalists (Hell DK and Newbee are doing well, right?) but in all reality you need to be be playing week to week. Drop players who are not playing. Pick up players who are. You will not score points on a really cool roster filled with your favorite players, if they’re all on the bench.
Losers often win – One of the most criticized aspects of Fantasy S1 is that it allows losers a real chance to win in terms of points. Being knocked down into the lower bracket early and clawing your way back to the finals provides teams and players with more games. More games = more points, regardless if they are winner or loser bracket games. EG got fantasy rich off of The Summit because of their lower bracket crawl. While EG was netting points for their owners, everyone fielding DK players were just sitting there watching. Watch for Arrow to make waves this week in tournaments they lost early in.
The golden SEA – Speaking of Arrow making waves, all of their waves have come in the golden SEA region. Think SEA players are all pub trash who’ll will MUFC TI4? Well you might be right. But you know who are consistently the highest earning players through the first 5 weeks? SEA. Specifically Arrow and Titan who have combined for over 3k points. I’d be willing to bet that fielding 5 Arrow or 5 Titan and sticking to only those 5 would be better than average. Arrow and Titan are heads and shoulders better than the other SEA teams. With tournaments like Bounty Hunter, Good Play, and GEST around they are playing a MASSIVE number of games against teams that they demolish. Having a pocket Arrow player on your bench (I wuv you ddz) should be able to fill in gaps all week on your roster, and you might be surprised with just how high they score.
The 3 C’s – If you are playing standard fantasy (and you should) then you will know about how your fifth daily team slot is a flex player. This means that you can either put a C (Carry) or S (Support) player in that role for the day. In order to maximize points you should always keep that flex player as a C. Carry’s on average score significantly more points than supports do. Putting in an active C over an active S could net you a good 10 points extra on the day. However keep in mind that is is obviously better to have an S play over an inactive C. Try and roll 3 Carry players every day, and do to this you might find that you need 2, or even three, on your bench.
4’s not 5’s – Now when you do have to play Supports, you still want to maximize how many points you’re scoring with them. The widely accepted player roles (1-5) would classify supports as 4 and 5. The 5 role almost always plays the hardest support, and therefore gets less points than a 4 player. EGM will outscore Akke, LaNM outscores MMY, Zai outscores PPD. If you have the option when choosing supports, pick the 4 player, not the 5.
Pre-ESL – This week in particular is a bit dry in terms of matches, compared to the last few weeks. We do have V Games, D2L, Good Play, and Bounty Hunter all finishing up. However these tournaments will not supply that many games, and they will be early on in the week. With that being said, ESL will be taking place Saturday and Sunday. ESL is single elimination, and therefore very risky in terms of fantasy. If you have the winning team’s carry on your roster expect a lot of points that will have a high impact late in the week. With this in mind, after your players are eliminated or done playing matches for the week, start trading for ESL candidates. IG is the obvious choice in my book, but make a lot of trades to diversify your players in preparation for ESL. Many league match ups will be decided by ESL this week. Do not miss out on these points.
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Week 6 Pickups:
IG.Fereri_430 – Although IG should lose its bo5 to DK today, and to Newbee the day after, they will put up good games and decent points. IG will however get to play in the 3/4 V Games match (probably a bo3 win v Vici), and I expect them to win ESL. 430 should bless us you with oodles of points and be active nearly every day this week. If you cant take 430 I still suggest you grab an IG C quick this week.
DK.Mushi – The highest earning DK player should be doing more work vs IG today. He will round out the week in the V Games Tournament were he should be playing 3 more bo3 matches. Although he will not be partaking in the crazy number of matches he did in Week 5, DK should be stomping nerds through Wednesday, after which you can drop him for an ESL player.
Arrow.ddz – This guy is the fantasy god. He only narrowly makes the list this week of hot players because Arrow is not playing that many games. I do however expect them to power through SEA lower brackets in Good Play and Bounty Hunter, and pick up a decent cluster of points on the way.
EG.RTZ – If this sadboy wears his lucky underwear and inst in some jet lag funk I think he’ll be able to carry Mason and push EG to some solid games in ESL. It’s also entirely possible that they go out 0-2. So be a little cautious with this pick. If you feel the need to play it safer choose H4nn1 because Fnatic will be playing more games this week.
Empire.ALYWAYSWANNAFLY – I guess I should include at least one Support on this list. Empire will be playing in the D2L lower bracket, and a bo5 v Fnatic in the Dota 2 Champion League finals. AWF is consistently one of the top scoring foreign supports, so he is great almost any week when he has games. You might want to trade him after Champions to prepare for ESL, because empire will not be participating.
Your favorite ESL Team – Like I said earlier, we’re looking a little bleak pre-ESL this weekend. If you ask my opinion, IG and Vici will go deep in ESL. They’re might only see resistance from [A] or C9, but since those two play round one it is really a tossup and hard to bet on either of them. If you think EESama has what it takes to beat [A], and go deeper in D2L, then please pickup SingSing. Maybe you like Na’Vi, EG, or Fnatic’s shot in both the D2L and ESL. I think you’re crazy, but follow your gut.
Week 6 Drops:
Titan Players – Even though I just told you that SEA is on a point tear as of late, this week is not going to be a good one for titan. They are only playing in the Good Play league this week, and I bet they lose to Arrow. Arrow on the other hand will be playing the the Good Play loser bracket, as well as the Bounty Hunter Asia special. Drop your titan players, but expect to re-add them to rosters in the coming weeks.
Mouz Players – They’re not going to be doing anything this week until Saturday, when they drop 2 games to IG and get knocked out of ESL.
LGD.Rabbit – Rabbit has been on a tear in China, even though his team on a whole has not been winning too much up against the Chinese big boys. Rabbit lost his games in V Tournament to speed, lol, and did not make it out of his group. I think he’s done for the week, so no need to keep him around.
Vici.Sylar – Vici had an easy group in V games, but they lost to Speed and took second. Now instead of a bo3 v TongFu in Round 1, they will have to fall to Vici. I also think that Fnatic could knock them out round 1 in ESL, but that’s a stretch. Sylar is Vici’s top scorer, and unless they have a breakout at ESL he will not be doing much scoring.
C9.SingSing – The Sing man is my favorite choice when I need a Cloud 9 player. With their bowing out of D2L Sunday, they only have ESL on their docket. Even more so they run into Alliance round 1. I don’t think he’ll be bearing fruit anytime soon (god damnit Ayesee).
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Stats:
Highest Earning Player – Newbee.Hao – 217.2
Superstar Support – Newbee.Banana – 160.3
Highest Earning Team – Newbee – 838.3
Most Games Played – DK ~30
DK v Newbee__ “bo9″ Fantasy Results – Newbee: 218.9 v DK: 186.5
Total Week 5 Points – 7030.2
Average player score (active players only) – 52.9
Week 5 average total (sum of daily active player means) – 607.8 (The score you want to beat)
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So how did you do in week 5 of fantasy? Were you able to pass average score? How do you feel about Season 1 on a whole? What would you like to see from these articles in the future? Go ahead and comment below.
I personally have become enthralled with the fantasy system over the last few weeks. It can be very casual, or competitive. The spreadsheet and this article are a combined effort to educate and promote fantasy S1. I hope you find some use out of them. By no means would I consider myself an expert on the subject; but I do devote a bit of time to it daily, and would gladly accept criticism. My advice could prove wrong. My week 5 score ended up being: 844, which was mostly on the backs of DK and Newbee.
GLHF dominating your leagues in week 6.