The Fantasy Report: Week 8 - LooseLeafs - A place for Leafeator's words.

Hey Now,

Holy shit guys. Did you watch phase 2? Those groups were ridiculous. 123 games in 4 days. Upsets galore. Place 3-11 was all within a few maps of each other. Talk about an entertaining tournament. I am going to break down the numbers in this week’s Fantasy Report.

Is this your first time coming across the Fantasy Report? Welcome my friend. Allow me to indulge you with the world of fantasy dota. While Season 1 admittedly has some kinks, these first 8 weeks have been a lot of fun, and actually quite comparable to my fantasy NBA and NFL leagues. Putting in five to ten minuets a day utilizing the right resources can drastically improve your game, and help you win your league. 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! If you would like to read the previous week’s posts (and you might wanna, there are some juicy tips inside) you can find those all over on my bloog, [looseleafs.com](http://www.looseleafs.com)

Week 8 was one of the most exciting in season 1. It is arguably how fantasy should be. A set 80 players playing a known amount of games against a known amount of teams. This was arguably the most “fair” system since fantasy inception, and the least confusing. Here it finally paid off to have fan favorite or strong picks. Well unless you were really backing [A]. =]
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Here are some tables with how the four days of Phase 2 reflected in fantasy :

Day1 :

Day2 :

Team| Score
—|—
DK|243.8
iG | 208.5
Liquid| 198.3
EG| 167.2
Titan| 151.3

Day3 :

Team| Score
—|—
EG|176.8
LGD| 169.7
DK| 155.2
Mouz| 154.8
Titan| 151.6

Day4 :

Arrow Gaming, previous fantasy leaders by far, finished with the lowest total team score of 292.9.

Mushi had the highest single day score with 57 points on Day 2, in fact all of DK had abnormally high numbers on that day.

Week 9 is going to be split up between Phase 3 playoffs ending on Monday, and the Main Event starting on Friday. That gives a good 4 days to jockey for players and build rosters for the week. Use that time to get the most active players possible.
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###Tools:
Rehashing last weeks post, I again encourage you to check out and use my spreadsheet. I have compiled a google doc 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.

**[You can find the document here](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PsDzbVMQ2a_mDUyXTg63tZ2mvjC9TicWdhhzYMPC0eY/edit?usp=sharing)**

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###Tips:
**Monday’s Bracket** – Newbee and Titan will play a Bo3 Monday. The winner will play Na’Vi in a Bo3. The winner will play iG in a final Bo3. While it is most risky to be playing newbee or titan players, they will reap the greatest rewards if they do well. While it might be safer to play iG players, you will at most be earning two games. Try to build you roster to have multiple people active on Monday. If a player is eliminated in this stage you can always drop then.

**Friday** – The next games will not be played until Friday. Here we will have all three winners bracket games, so VG, EG, DK + 1 will be playing. The losers of the first set will play again on Saturday. Keep this in mind for your Friday lineup that only these four teams will have games, and two of them will have double sets.

**Drop everyone eliminated** – Even if someone scores you points on Monday, but is eliminated, drop them. Their points will not go away. You need that roster space for players who are actually still chasing the dream!

**Know how the bracket works** – Like I outlined above, knowing what teams play on what days will be crucial in scheduling not only trades, but your active roster. Checking out the [survival guide](http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/wiki/events/ti4) that /r/dota2 put together should also help you greatly in this regard.

**Lower seed = Higher pirority** – Remember when you’re making your trades and attempting to build a good active roster, that the lower seed in the fantasy league gets priority if multiple people trade for the same player. If you’re low seed feel free to try and pick up the hottest free agent, you have priority. If you are a high seed, or even winning your league, be careful who you pick up. Trying to trade for Burning when 3 other people want him will only waste your daily trade. It’s better to settle than to be a victim of the trading metagame.

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###Week 9 Pickups:
I realize that in a competitive good league there will be little room to make trade now with so few players left. However if you have an opportunity to pick up one of these players, do so ASAP.
**iG.Chaun** – With iG doing very well, and playing Monday, Chaun is a no brainier to have on your active roster in the support slot through Monday and lower brackets. 430 is also a great choice for an IG player.

**EG.Zai** – This kid is a monster fantasy support scorer. EG will be playing at the start of the main event, and pending on how USAUSAUSA does v DK, will either do a second game, or have a lower bracket run.

**Newbee.Hao** – I think Newbee is going to tear through the bubble bracket tomorrow. They should play a lot of games and have a strong showing. Hao will therefore score big relative to everyone else playing. Then again I was burned by Newbee in Phase 2 also, I really think they’re gonna make a run for it tomorrow. Then they secure top 3 by beating VG.

**DK.Burning** – The highest scoring DK player. Why would you not want him.

**Vici.Sylar** – Similar to burning. A real great pick through groups with VG’s staler performance. Could play winner bracket games, or have a good lower bracket showing. Definitely choice 1 for a VG slot.

###Week 9 Drops:
**Eliminated Players** – Might seem obvious, but seriously. If you have someone on your roster who is out of TI4, trade them for a team that is still in TI4. Who cares if you’re trading a hard carry for a 5 support. You need people who are going to be playing. Build your roster up to have only people still in the tournament, and drop them after they get eliminated.
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###Stats:
**Highest Earning Player** – Liquid.Qojquva 180.1
**Superstar Support** – Liquid.Pegasus 144.5 ( But LGD.ddc should have, considering Jimmy is kinda C now. )
**Highest Earning Team** – LGD 671.7
**Most Games Played** – Liquid 21
**Total Week 8 Points** – 8285.3
**Average player score (active players only)** – 88
**Week 8 average total (sum of daily active player means)** – 440.5 <– The number you want to beat __________________________________ So how did you do in week 8 of fantasy? Were you able to pass average score? Did you have some high-value players disappoint you, or hidden gems on your team? Go ahead and comment below. I ended the week with a lackluster XXX points. It’s a little embarrassing I think. I had EGM supporting all week which was really disappointing. Good thing Zai brought home the bacon. Also with DK, iG, and Newbee doing well (I played a lot of Mushi, Xi, and Hao) I think it tanked my group score quite a bit. Next week will be a lot about having good active players for Monday, and making efficient trades for the main event. GLHF dominating your leagues in week 9. Get hype for TI4 main event!