All Things Vital Downhill Fantasy

FYI there are only 20 Junior men awarded points not 25 as indicated on the fantasy page

I think picking after qualies is great and I have always felt that way.🤥

Spomer, wondering if you have a backlog? Nobody managed to curate a 'perfect' team last year right? After the event a perfect team was made up with the data to show us I believe? And I don't recall anyone even coming very close really. Would love to see like... Who had the smallest margin between their team and the perfect one

LCQ actually makes the drafting a bit harder this year which is fun, as the LCQ guys go first in finals, but might have been much faster than someone from Q1.

Only aspect I don't like about changing the team post qualies is the time window is quite short and missing it would be a huge blow to the points, I also think it makes it very hard to catch up later in the season when everyone will have solid picks each race (less variability).

That's said going into round one with a team of 10+ riders is so much fun and makes the racing itself more engaging! 

I lightly tried to find past points breakdowns, past winners, their secret sauce, etc... as I was loading every ounce of info into chatGPT to have it make all the picks, moneyball style, but couldn't find the past data-so did the best I could. Kinda funny with an excercise like this when you know the sport pretty damn well, better than an LLM, but, its cool to have it math out scenarios for you. 

It's definitely more 'interesting' this year as I feel the Q2s ran slower and not just slower because they are slower riders. When you look at the names. Looks like either the track could have been a touch slower or simply the effort of 2 full gas runs played hell on riders such that... Can't be sure if they actually are kinda off the pace or just gassed and will be recovered by finals.

I was thinking oh I'm going to have to really line up Q 1 and 2 to see who was fast, but honestly most of Q2 was well below top Q1 guys anyway. So it wasn't just like mechanical stuff or one big mistake stuff. Who knows. Def seems spicier than semis format and traditional protected Q2F format.

I'd love to hear from some of the top performers last year what feels different to them. If it is indeed harder or if they adjust to it and it becomes even easier. I'd reckon trying to go by qualy times is going to be even less valuable than last year, when 33% of the riders are doing so under different circumstances such that you can't be sure how fast they 'can' go. Sorta.

And as is tradition, the weather wreaks havoc and my first fantasy team is already in shambles. I can already tell somebody who just picked good riders they like instead of focusing on qualy times killed it this round. Wonder if a lot of the season will see weather, at least up until that halfway break or whatever.

best possible score was 1800. top player was 1375. yeah we didn't stand a chance lol

max possible score used 24 riders. round winner used 18 riders. "Gotta diversify yo bonds..."

For some reason my dashboard shows me as rank 102. But the actual leaderboard shows me at 1120 tied 93-96. Also kinda blown away how different the teams are with who I am tied with. Fun game!

I used only 15 riders despite spending 1k more than the leader. Rookie numbers, gotta pump those up.

kind wish I remembered my team pre-qualies (they all made it through) before I shuffled them up as a comparison. 

Yeah on the table im first but a little bit up it says rank 3 

Until the men I was sweet I can still curse riders 😂

Fixed. Noice. Figured out what it was?

Adding guys to your fantasy team in near double digits because "They won a World Cup but are cheap to add" is crazy.

Initial picks are only a 10-rider roster with 1k to spare. Can't wait to DIVERSIFY MY BONDZ after qualifying.

Rookie numbers. Gotta get at least ~15 rider roster. Doesn't the 'max score' team pick like 20+?

Though I do wonder who has won a round with the least riders on roster. I hope we didn't fully lose last year's 'data', Spomer? Just for... funziez. 4science...

The countdown clock is a useful feature, thanks for including that. From the looks of it, we kiwis get a bit more time than last week to make our picks. No need to get up early on a Sunday morning this time round.

Whos weekend do I want to ruin? 😂

Timed training has got me feeling like nostradamus so far... Can't wait for everything to flip on its head in qualifying. (And then flip once more in finals, of course...)

My issue is getting value out of juniors picks. Often times I only pick one per category even though the best teams always have multiple juniors picks. The best possible team is less than 50% elite men (not even picking Loic the winner for Poland). I think the relative inconsistency of juniors is offset by the small field and low costs. Whereas an expensive elite pick finishing low is a death sentence to fantasy.

I haven't received any email yet

Vital team might need to rethink guaranteed games of Pro fantasy if the spots aren't filling up? Currently 5 people at $20 a piece ($100); guaranteed total payout of $160. Somehow that doesn't seem like a winning business strategy.

mkay diversified my bondz sumthin FIERCE this round. see if it pays out or just does worse than last round.

i suppose i need to actually look up the points payout between elite and juniors. just to get an idea of what lower performers may get. but i dont wanna fully break out the spread sheet yet like some of the winners were doin. but ya i actually picked some juniors this time. and tried a better balance of elite men and women as well. rookie numbers... gotta pump those numbers up

And I continue to be the kiss of death for riders  I pick.

Top 30 baby!

Wait am I qualified for the final or do I need to do a Q2???

Ever so slightly takes away the sting from not seeing Ronan destroy the field.

Can we see the other users picks before the race?  If so I will take bids to who I should copy in order to ruin their team.