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From the Master's Mind

I've been laying low in the attempt to be humble about the lead that I've taken. My first post said that my team would dominate and I wasn't wrong. Honestly, some of the excitement has gone out of the fantasy league for me. The height of the excitement was probably during the draft when I was unsure of what the makeup of my team would be. Lucky for me, my opponents seemed to have forgetten some key factors when choosing their own teams.

Going into the draft, we already had one episode to get a feel for the team dynamics and really check out the stock. I'm not sure how much would have changed if we started our draft without seeing all the players, but the online bios on mtv were very helpful.

Appearance - If someone has put on a few pounds (of fat, not muscle) or perhaps has stopped working out, you can tell and this makes them a less valuable competitor.

History - People are inherently the same. Winners will keep winning and losers will keep losing. The people who you saw working out all the time on Real World, those are the people you want! People that just sit or slut around are not mentally focused or physically ready to endure a challenge.

Level of Crazy - Stay away from crazy! Ahem, Tonya, Katie... This falls in line with history. Once a crazy, always a crazy. Crazies are too much of a gamble. When you act out, you get a target on your back.

Race - Very rarely do minorities win. If things had gone my way, I would have Darrell instead of Johnny, but a Darrell win doesn't stand out in my head. Nor do I recall Syrus winning, not that I wanted his rusted @ss on my team anyway. Johanna and Veronica know how to hook up with winners, but can they stand on their own two feet? I think Johanna has put too much trust in those guys and that level of dependence is a weakness. And like I said, I didn't really remember Ibis. Now if Ruthie was in the picture, I would definitely give her a second look. Who was the last Asian person on a challenge? Does Adam count? Is he part Asian or did I make that up? Either way, he wouldn't be a good pick unless he gained about 25 lbs of muscle. I do hope Adam gets more of a chance at some point down the line though - he was robbed. Out of our fantasy teams, mine is the only one without any minorities...

As the draft unfolded, there were definitely some surprises with people's picks. I didn't spend much time trying to figure out the logic behind them at the time, I just knew who I wanted. Now, I'd like to take a look back round by round and try to apply my key factors and see where things went wrong.

Round 1 - Evelyn, Wes, Evan, Kenny, Derrick

I would say the first round of picks went quite predictably. Unfortunately, the first two picks are already out of the game, which was quite UNpredictable!

Round 2 - Brad, Darrell, Johnny, Dunbar, Danny

During this round, I was really surprised that Johnny was left for me to pick. I thought that everyone would pick from the Champions team first, but Jon proved me wrong and chose Brad. It looks like it's working out for him so far, though I'm sure we're all waiting for the big fight to see what goes down. (BTW - maybe next time we play, we should give extra points for people that are kicked off for fighting) Victor and George followed suit and also went with Challengers instead of Champions. Unfortunately, Danny got put on the fatty wagon straight home to Melinda.

This was a dicey round for me. I had Darrell on my short list (despite the whole race thing, I know!) and was weighing the pros and cons of choosing a male over a female. I could have gotten a leg up with choosing a girl this round by going with Susie, waiting it out worked in my favor.

Round 3 - Veronica, Kelly Anne, Susie, Johanna, Kimberly

It seemed like a lot of our strategies were lining up with selecting guys before girls (with the exception of Evelyn). Was this because it was easier to determine which guys are stronger than to determine which girls are stronger? Clearly, Evelyn was the strongest girl, but with the guys carrying most of the weight during the challenges, it's hard to see which girls can really step up. With the exception of Veronica, all the third round players are left. Oddly enough, Veronica was the first pick in this round. She is strong, but "Chunks" has not been maintaining her fighting weight and your T&A can only keep you around for so long. I knew Kelly Anne was a true competitor, but I am having a hard time getting past her appearance. She looks like a pile of sticks with balloons attached, but she's a very good pick - probably enough to redeem Victor for his loss of Wes.

Round 4 - All of the players from this round are gone with the exception of Sarah. I definitely got lucky on this one. What can I say, Sarah's mtv bio sold me.

Round 5 - I guess I got pretty lucky here as well. Cohutta has earned me the most points out of anyone on my team so far, but as the "fatted calf," he won't last long. He's just too easy a target for someone like Evan or Kenny. We haven't seen much from Darrell. Maybe he'll be the one to go into the ruins tonight. Victor also got lucky in this round with Casey. I wonder if she will ever prove herself in any way shape or form.

I don't know how seriously everyone took the draft. I went through and ranked all the players in the order that I would pick them and it worked out well for me. I carried my list with me and crossed people off as they were selected. How much thought did you put into your draft? How much did you let your feelings about certain players influence your choices?

Our fantasy league point system will have to be tweaked in the future. Maybe each week teams could be matched up to play against each other and we could track wins and losses. I'm considering retiring while I'm on top, so maybe I could work on that!

5 comments:

esca said...

At one point, I remember asking Jon if he thought we should include +1 for Ruins nominations. The Bill Simmons draft had literally points for everything, which made it silly.

HT you are going to win. This is about as certain as death and taxes at this point. You have a > 2wk scoring advantage with I think 3(?) episodes left.

Perhaps we should strip some of your players and assign them to George. Poor George, the self-proclaimed Reality Queen. And in the words of Queen, another bites the dust! ^_^

jonyangorg said...

The next few weeks is an extended victory lap.

I took the draft VERY seriously. I knew who I wanted. I even did some research on the MTV archives. Little did I know that I should have paid attention to weight/fat ratio and ethnicity. The next time around won't be so easy... *shakes fist*

Next time we play we're gonna have a slightly more advanced scoring system, for sures.

esca said...

Hilarious. The comments are great. Shake that fist Jon.

Da Curious One said...

i would be slightly offended here mocking my self-reality queen title but as i love queen and that particular song, i will let this pass...i'll be back next year! maybe.

esca said...

Je suis desole! George I think you're awesome and would not mock you. I was playfully teasing you though.

The blog and the game wouldn't be quite the same without your presence. Retourne s'il vous plait? Pour l'encore?