With the fantasy football league championships for most leagues just around the corner, I wanted to bring up an interesting question posed in our discord channel where, as a subscriber, you have full access to our fantasy football advice 24/7, 365!
Not All Losses Are Made Equal
The question is: if you’re going to lose, is it better to lose by a ton or a little bit? The question was derived from my experience with a semi-final matchup. I made the championship game in four of my leagues, but the one that stings the most is the one where I couldn’t quite get there.
In my main Devy league, I sold my Devy soul this offseason to assemble what I thought was an unbeatable juggernaut. I had a nice roster to begin with and a nice compliment of Devy assets and picks. I dealt all the assets and picks to build a monster of a team, incapable of losing; or so I thought.
With a 10-4 regular season record and a 2nd place finish, I locked up the bye for Week 15, with an eye toward this week’s semi-finals in Week 16. I scored the most points in the league when it didn’t matter with my bye in Week 15 and was projected to win by 30 here in Week 16.
Then, nothing but pain followed. I lost in the semi-final round last night, 136.71-136.78. You read that right: I lost by .07. If I had gotten one more rushing yard by CMC (or anyone for that matter), I would have won.
From my personal experience, I can tell you that this loss hurt so much more than the leagues I simply got blown out of. If I’m down big, I can resign myself to defeat pretty easily and move on. However, to be in a nail-biter down to the end and then lose by seven-hundredths of a point is pure pain. Assuming no stat corrections come in, I’d even be willing to say I haven’t felt this much fantasy pain over a loss in years.
To answer the above question is simple for me, as I’ve already alluded to. ‘Tis better to lose by 1,000 points than to lose by a mere .07 points. SEVEN HUNDREDTHS OF A POINT! That could have been made up from ONE receiving or rushing yard. Despite being in four title games, I can’t help but to place all my focus on this loss. I feel like the fantasy gods were not kind to me with this one.
Lesson Learned
I also feel like this loss taught me a lesson in fantasy football that I’ve known for some time and have since forgotten: the fantasy gods frown upon hubris. I’ve thought that team was going to win it all since the offseason after I loaded up. I forgot the very important realization that anything can happen come playoff time. Single-elimination games can breed madness, as almost any contender can beat another in any single week. Putting all your eggs in one basket will lead to disappointment more often than not; your odds of winning it all are almost certainly less than you think. Fantasy football is a fickle game, and come Week 16, anything can happen.
That’s a lesson I learned long ago that I had to relearn from this one game – and it will stick with me once again.
Thanks for reading! Any questions/positive feedback/negative feedback/whatever, I can be found on Twitter @DynastyPatrolHQ #DFFArmy #AlwaysBeBuilding #AlwaysBeScouting #DynastyFootball #NFL #NFLTrades #NFLDraft #NFLInjuries #PlantYourFlag
