LooseLeafs » Fantasy

The Fantasy Report: Week 8

leafeator — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 03:05:58 +0000

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]. =]
<~--more-->
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!

The Fantasy Report: Week 7

leafeator — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 00:06:47 +0000

Hey Now,

Welcome back to another exciting and super duper awesome Fantasy Report. With only three weeks left to go in Season 1, we will be spending our time doing a lot of TI4 stats, and I could not be more excited. It really is Christmas in July.

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 7 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 go back you can view and fantasy reports!

I am going to have to keep the Week 7 recap short this week to avoid copious amounts of flame and anger. tl;dr The fantasy system was fucked up. With only fringe league being played in the by week before TI, they failed to record stats for the few teams that were playing. Only 35 players reported scores this week, when in reality a good 70 should have posted. Even though they had their scores recorded in their profile, they did not calculate to the team. This effected leagues like: BoraDota, ZSword, Vietnam Esports CHampions League, GG League, DatBet, Western Digitial, and AMD D2M. Hyper Glory, LGD2, Invasion, Mineski, PR, CNB, Union, Titan, MVP, Arrow, and more all got fucked over. It wasn’t very cool. The system was actually broken. Like unplayable because of this. Regardless of how hard you tried, you might have goten a great pickup for this week (Invasion.Ghost) only to see him play a good 13 games, win most of them, and not score a single point. Sigh.

Well I sincerely hope that in week 8 we find ourselves elevated of these problems as we focus on the 19 teams currently having the time of their lives in Seattle. TI4 is here baby, and we kick off with the playin series tomorrow. After that we have group stage Bo3’s until Saturday, and we round out Sunday with some brackets. Lots of TI this week in prep for the main event next week.
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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. I’ve updated it to better mirror TI4 stuffs.

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Tips:

Don’t All-In on the Play-In – Although VP players might look great on paper in order for you to get an advantage early this week, the TI4 wildcard winner will surely be stomped on in bracket stage. While it is advised to pick up a play-in player today for use tomorrow, you most certainly will want to trade him away the next day for someone who will be preforming better in groups.

Diversify! – With 16 teams and no clear favorite, you would be shooting yourself in the foot to pick up a lineup full of all IG, EG, Empire, or whomever. Spread the love out in the group stage. Prioritize teams that will be doing well in groups for the first few days. Trade in order to insure you have players on hot teams after day one, but do not put all of your eggs in one basket. While the likes of DK, IG, and Newbee are sure to top the group, other strong teams like Alliance EG and Vici will be putting up strong scores too against the weaker teams. The more diverse you are the easier it will be for you to adapt as the week goes on. In addition to this, while having rank 1 and 2 team’s players on your roster for groups, they will be missing stage three entirely. A best-case scenario is having players who will be finishing in 6th-10th and making bracket tears. They will be playing the most games and therefore hold the most weight in terms of point scores. Having players in stage 3 will be key.

Work the Bench – Ideally you should have 8 players on your roster participating in TI this week. Analyze who is hot, and compare that to who they are playing tomorrow, to help insure that you have as many stomp games as possible. If Empire is playing the group leaders tomorrow, maybe you want to sit Silent and play Trixi.

More than just 8 – Recently I realized that there is a misconception about how player scores work. Some people think only the players you end the week with and have scored count towards your total. Others think that only your top 8, as shown on the match up tab count. That’s all wrong. Every player on your team that scores, regardless of if they are a top 8 scorer, or on your team at the end, count. This is why fielding VP.God for one day, and then dropping him like a hot potato, is a fine idea. You will still get the points he scored. So don’t be afraid to draft a wildcard player for a 24hr contract.

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Week 8 Pickups:

C9.Aui_2000 – Aui is one of the top scoring supports through all of S1, relative to his carry’s score. If you need to put a support in this week, give AUI a shot. How C9 does in groups is still up for debate, but I do not think they will completely flounder.

DK.Burning – Now I doubt that this guy is un-drafted at any league at this point, but if he is open grab him now. Burning is on the one team that seems like a lock for 1/2 in group, and he puts up some of the highest carry numbers around.

IG.Ferrair_430 – See DK.Burning.

Newbee.Hao – Similar to Burning and 430, but arguably more volatile. WIll put up high numbers against weaker teams. May or may not make the top of groups. Should crush through phase 3 if he finds himself there. Or Newbee could crumple.

Vici.Sylar – See Newbee.Hao.

Week 8 Drops:

Arrow.ddz – My boy ddz has been wrecking up to this point. He has been playing, and winning the most games. He was the first individual player to break 500 points. However his time has come and past as he will be outshines at TI. Tis sad, and I hope arrow does well in the coming year, but now is not his time.

NaVi.Dendi – Dondorz has not been a fantasy powerhouse in Season 1. I really believe, contrary to my inner fanboy, that NaVi is going to have their worst TI showing ever. Keeping Dendi on your active roster because you believe in your heart of hearts that they’re going to he finals might not be the best thing this week.

Fnatic.N0tail – He might be a beautiful butterfly, unicorn, and rainbow, but his fantasy numbers are weak, and Fnatic does not look like they are going to have a killer showing.

Titan.KyXy – While Titan has potential to do well, and god knows I want them too, KyxY is a risky addition to a roster. If you have him, I would not drop him right now. Maybe feel out day one and see how the SEA powerhouse performs first.

LGD.Rabbit – Like KyxY a risky pick who at once point was a superstar. Wait and see before you unload, might be fools gold.

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Stats:

These stats mean nothing because fantasy was so fucked up this week who caressss
Highest Earning Player – Titan.kyxy – 48.8
Superstar Support – Titan.Net – 29.7
Highest Earning Team – Titan – 139.4
Most Games Played – Invasion ~ 13 (LOL GOOD THING ALMOST NONE WERE RECORDED)
Teams who had unreported scores – 12
Total Week 7 Points – 515.8
Average player score (active players only) – 14.7
No weekly base score stat today kids. Just pat yourself on the back if you scored.
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So how did you do in week 7 of fantasy? Did you field a player who scored? Did you trade for players who were playing but you were robbed? What would you like to see from these articles in the future? Go ahead and comment below.

I only scored 40 points. It could have been >200 if the system wasnt broken. So whatever. I’m not bitter or anything. It’s not like I lost this week when I shouldnt have and my record is tarnished. Yeah. It’s cool. >=[

GLHF dominating your leagues in week 8.

The Fantasy Report: Week 6

leafeator — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 02:26:23 +0000

Hey Now,

First and foremost thank you to the warm fuzzy responses from the pilot Fantasy Report last week. You most definitely encouraged me to not toss this project to the wayside, and keep writing about fantasy on the weekly. I aim to not disappoint and keep these articles at a high quality. Thanks.

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 6 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!

Week 6 was quite the exciting one. D2L, Good Play, and Bounty Hunter were all tournaments that ended early on in the week. Monday alone saw 900 points injected from 59 players. Arrow went on a tear winning two tournaments, and EG was equally impressive with their D2L win. When Arrow stopped playing, EG went on to end the week by playing 8 games Sunday and taking second place in ESL. Empire saw some action in D2L, but they gained some serious points by shit-stomping NaVi.US on Wednesday. Fun stats below.

Week 7 is going to be the foil to 6’s action-packed crazy antics. 7 is sure to be a real snore. As we build up to the start of TI4 in week 8, week 7 is our calm before the storm. I have done extensive research attempting to aggregate all of the match information this week. It was much harder than I thought it would be. Week 7 is going to be fantasy hell, as we see very, very, very few active fantasy teams and players. Even more so there is no good resource (gosubet, liquipedia, ingame calander) to schedule players off of.

By my count there are seven active leagues that *might* be playing games this week. I have them all collected with these notes for easier access in the google doc below. Final’s for EU/NA/Asia are all still going on. They have been for a long time. Unfortunately no word on when the games will resume. Similarly in the land of “hey when the fuck are these games actually being played,” we have and Both of these events are organized by DotaTalk, and it seems as if they are just completely unable to efficiently communicate information about their tournaments. Fun fact: Datbet was scheduled to end May 18th. AMD D2M might have games too? I have no fucking clue.

Speaking of shoddy organizers, can anyone tell me who is running ? They didn’t even have a liquipedia page until I made that for them. For the life of me I cant find information about them on the web. However they do have their games on gosubet, and look like they will being played on a regular basis. Other current tourniments that have websites, and will be playing games this week, but I had to make Liquipedia pages and . Making the liquipedia pages was oddly enjoyable. I just wish that we had more tangible data for these leagues. At least we know that these three will be playing games. The four mentioned above….who knows.

If every one of these leagues were active, these teams would be participating in X of them:

* 5 – Arrow
* 4 – Titan
* 3 – Scythe, Invasion, Mineski
* 2 – Union
* 1 – Orange, CNB, XGame, PowerRangers, VP, hehe, MYM, SNA, MVP

We see yet another week of heavy SEA bias. However I believe that this might be misleading. If we assume that only GG, VECL, and BoraDota play games, then the chart looks like this:

* 1- Arrow, Scythe, Mineski, XGame, PowerRangers, Union, CNB

Whining about tournament information aside, week 7 is going to be rough. I can not tell you for sure who will be playing, and when they will be playing. JoinDota and GosuBet are not gonna do that much of a better job. If you want to stay on top of it be ready to trade daily, watching both their and my calendars. Good fucking luck comrades.

If your league is super competitive, I might even consider throwing a week away in prep for TI4, which will start Playoffs in week 8. More on that below.
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Tools:

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Tips:

With this week being pretty dull, I am going to go over some more basic tips this week.

TIME-ZONES! – is the time zone that fantasy dota exists in. Time zones are pretty tricky. Valve tried to resolve this confusion by posting, in bold, what time your rosters lock. If you live in PDT like I do, we are seven hours behind CEST. Therefore midnight roster locking occurs at 5pm my time. I need to make sure to do all my swaps and trades before 5pm. In addition to rosters locking, all games played follow their date in CEST. A game played at 5:30pm for me on a Monday, is actually a Tuesday match. This is why the time zones can get messy, and it’s super important you understand when games are played. Fortunately for everyone Gosubet and my calendar convert all the times to their CEST equivalent.

Best of X – When a team plays a Best of X series, not all of the games will always count. If a team plays a Best of 3, and wins/loses 2-0, both of those games are recorded to their stats. However if the set goes to all three games; the fantasy system takes their 2 highest scoring of the 3 games, and uses those for their stats. Similar in a Best of 5, a player’s top 3 games will be recorded, and extra dropped.

1 Trade, but All the Swaps – Every day you can drop 1 player from your roster, and add a free agent from the large available player pool. This is something that we have already gone over, but it is critical to succeeding. Especially in a week like this one with very few players playing! Take advantage of your daily drop to secure players who are….playing. Even tho you can only preform one trade, you can swap player’s limitlessness. Make sure that your active players are not on the bench!

Only Ticket’d Events Count – Something I myself learned after last week, if an event does not have a ticket in the store (v games) then their matches do not count towards fantasy points. Now that I know this I will make sure to only include teams playing in events that have dota store tickets in these analyses.

TI4 Prep – Play-ins start Tuesday the 8th. Round robin group of 16 is the 9th through the 12th. The 13th is day 1 of phase 3 brackets. There is not going to be a lot of time between Week 7 nothingness and Week 8 awesomeness. It might be best to snag a few good players with your leftover trades now in preparation for next week. Dont be left with a roster of shitty SEA/South American players when it’s showtime. I’ll totes go more in depth on this week in the TI preview next week. =]

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Week 6 Pickups:

Arrow.ddz – ddz is god. ddz is life. ddz is the first fantasy player to score 500 individual points. ddz has the highest weekly average. ddz should be drafted by every league. If by some chance you can still get your hands on him, please do. His stock should be dropping after this week when Arrow gets outclassed at TI4. However if most of those tournaments have surprise games that are currently unlisted, Arrow is going to dominate this week (again) in points. If you cant grab ddz pick up another arrow player and just lit him sit active. You might get lucky!

Mineski.Jay – Jay is the only player on Mineski who gets to have a fantasy profile. He must be a pretty cool dude or something. He gets the nod for support player this week. He consistently preforms well as a high scoring support, and he will be playing some games for sure. Should be a safe pickup to ensure points this week.

Scythe.poloson – Playing some SEA games this week in the VECL, Poloson is sure to top the charts as Scythe’s mid player. We know he will be playing, so he is worth a pickup.

PR.Chshrct – Another player who can be seen towards the top of the weekly average list is Power Ranger’s Chshrct. All be it I do not watch many PR games, I do not see how they lose the GG League. He’ll probably lop up a shit ton of points in at least 2 BO3’s this week.

xGame.Watafaka – Much like Chshrct, Watafaka is sure to win a few BO3’s stomping his random euro opponents. Sure he will probably lose in the GG finals, but I don’t even know if those games will take place in Week 7.

Week 6 Drops:

All your players who have no games and have shit changes in TI4 playoffs – Self explanitory, right? Most of us probably have a few players on our teams who are now useless as we get into TI4 playoff time. Time to dump the trash and start loading up on your DK, Newbee, IG, EG, and [A] players before it’s too late. Drop your low profile, low scoring players this week in favor of those who are actually playing, or those who will be in TI4 round-robin. Nobody gets a specific highlight this week.

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Stats:

Highest Earning Player – Arrow.ddz – 144.1
Superstar Support – Arrow. Mozun – 112.9
Highest Earning Team – Arrow – 616.1
Most Games Played – IG ~17 Games
First Player to 500 Individual Points – Arrow.ddz
Player Leafeator most wants to engage in coitus with – Arrow.ddz
ESL Weekend Points – 1203.7
Best ESL Performance – EG – 276.5 (IG – 227.2) (Na’Vi – 56.1)
Total Week 6 Points – 3963.5
Average player score (active players only) – 38.9
Week 6 Average Total (sum of daily active player means) – 623 ___________________________
So how did you do in week 6 of fantasy? Were you able to pass average score? Was last week’s article helpful in improving your game? What would you like to see from these articles in the future? Go ahead and comment below.

I was personally disappointed with my week 6. I only left with an abysmal 535.3 points. Next week’s points are looking to be even grimmer as the number of tournament games being played falls off a cliff. This will only make trading for good players who are actually playing games even more necessary this week.

GLHF dominating your leagues in week 7. Actually GLHF getting active players on your roster. Hell that in and of itself will be a challenge.

The Fantasy Report: Week 5

leafeator — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 03:21:24 +0000

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.

___________________________

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.