All Things Vital Downhill Fantasy

JHpatter with what must be the most impressive and efficient fantasy team build ever. NINE riders. Basically just picked all the winners, easily. Gangster strategy.

The Lisa Baumann pick was the most clutch honestly

I did the worst I've ever done and somehow only dropped 3 ranks in the overall

The average and high score was much lower for this round. Thought I had binned it but my score was pretty close to the average and actually moved up a few spots

Wasn’t that because of the lower budget / smaller team size?

I don’t think budget changed? Team sizes were probably smaller for everyone as you had to focus more on riders you thought for sure were going to get points and thus they were more expensive. As opposed to in past rounds when lower priced riders that happened to make it past Q2 and you knew they would score points

Hi @sspomer 

There must be a problem with emails so I’ve PM’d you on here. 

Hi @sspomer , I also sent you a private message because I did not receive any reply to my email after the race in Andorra.

My team is absolutely slaying...I had Hoffman, but off by 6 hundreths of a second was painful lol. Lisa Baumanwas great value in 7th place

Calling it right now...im top 10 this round 😎

Pierron, Hoffman, Vermette, Zierl, and all my underdogs did decent

I blew it. I need to stop pretending the riders who go fast in TT/Qs are gonna hold it down in finals, when there are certain riders who simply never do. And it sucks even worse because you want it for them and they are great values, but there's a reason they aren't expensive, regardless of qualifying. They don't show up on race day.

I need to stop picking people who have issues😂

Hell yeah! Sometimes you get lucky

Wow, welp, didn't do as bad as I had expected and actually went up in the 'overall' with a 100+ ranking number. Yet again a sign that people struggled with picks this round and even some of the better players were struggling.

I'm surprised this round had, by far, the lowest 'best possible score'? I would have thought the Tahnee and Amaury wins would have been a great way to make a buck but I guess all the other picks fell relatively in line... I dunno

The juniors winners weren't in best possible which isn't too surprising. Looks like I picked a lot of the low finishing riders that the best possible team used. Hm, well, great round! Lookin forward to the next 2.

Need to change up some of my pick strategies, break into that top 50 maybe take a podium.

Also checking out best possible score for round and doesn’t show a junior female. Not like that affects my score though. 

So stoked! Thank you so much vital and @sspomer for putting together the league. 
And thanks to the companies who’ve put up prizes. 


 

My last 2 rounds have been brutal, over the summer I have slightly reduced my internet addiction due to horrible things like work, life, family... I'm going to put a stop to that today and lock in to get back into the top 100 over the final rounds.

Oh hell yeah! Did you get the silver rims?? I'd be curious to know how the prize structure actually works. For 2nd place I am getting choice of Deity pedals/grips and a shirt. I chose silver Supervillains and black Knuckledusters (because I already have silver and purple clamps to use with them, otherwise I might've tried the Megattacks).

Vital has absolutely nailed it with this fantasy league. It has me fully engaged in downhill racing in a way I've never been before.

I just love the format. Maybe best fantasy I've seen so far for MTB/MX. You can pick like ~30 riders and do very well... Or you can pick 10.

You can do well without picking any of the race winners. Or you can pick all the race winners, and if they aren't the top cost riders they are epic values.

And that's the thing. Some would say racing gets boring if its just Jackson every weekend or just Jett Lawrence every weekend... But having a fantasy where a bottom rank guy goes mid pack and scores well for you makes you stoked for them! Everybody punching above their weight should be celebrated!

@sspomer do you happen to know when the prizes will ship? Thanks! 

Had to do it for USDH. If it wasn't for the budget I would pick Richie too

I'm gonna take one for the team boys... I can't live with this on my conscience yet another race. Even if Luca qualies P1 I am not picking him. I shant curse him any more this season. Go get that dub, Luca... You won't have my digital corpse hanging off your rear axle slowin ya down.

Qualified fastest in q1... Still not picking him? Lol

Nope. It just aint right. Not fair to da boy.

I am having serious struggles with like... just the weirdest budgeting this round. Having to fill with juniors because I end up with 10-50k left over any changes I make.

Just ending up with a weird strat this round cuz... I don't think this is going to be a consistency round. In between the fresh track and the rocky bits that are causing flats, I dunno. I don't want any expensive picks, basically. I want as many picks as possible just to offset the statistical burnt runs.

But that's never quite a winning strategy but... Whatever. I don't expect to win. What I EXPECT is to beat Jason in the overall... 

I went almost same route but took a couple non Us women. 

I'm already blown up with my Hulsebosch and Zierl picks

Allllright well I had Luke and Luca as well as Vali and Max, so who knows 🙂

Stoked to see some new faces at the top today

LMS FTMFW

Also, I threw away my Luca pick for a 2nd!? CMON luca I practically handed that race to you on a platter. Welp. I tried. I guess he's stuck on my fantasy teams forever now cuz I lost a lotta points lol

But stoked to see him all the way up there even if he missed the top step. 

Stoked on the Sacha pick but I traded out my Myriam pick and I feel like a dipsh!t for doin that, welp, wut can ya do

Was hoping for more out of Benoit. I kinda bombed on Rude and Max H. I def did a lot of late qualies trading pre-race that screwed me over which sucks.

Stoked for Matilda. Stoked for Ryder. Both Ryders actually.

Can't wait to see everyone's results come in, should be interesting. Some fresh names on the podium!!

EDIT: WELP... my 2nd worst performance and I cratered in the overall. Was still worth it to see Luca P2. 'sacrifices were made'. maybe I'll just try something wacky for MSA since I'm already way out to lunch on my picks

Kinda surprised I only got 67th this round. Luke and Luca were pretty obvious picks though given their quali times. Looks like Myriam Nicole and Sacha Earnest were some of the uber value picks I missed out on. Wayman too. MikeAlfaTango still absolutely slaying the overall, doesn't look like anyone's catching him. 

ya i'm a bit surprised in a way, going as low as I did. when i bring up the best possible team i think 'i have a lot of these picks tbh'... but that would just mean a ton of people did very well this round.

i do know i left out luca (he's not helping my superstitions) and I did swap out myriam because i'm a full on idiot... but even then i feel like my picks should be decent. i suppose all the other names were just scoring ok points, whereas the real meat of the best possible team is quite clearly luca and myriam, the major picks i swerved.

but ya i gotta check other users teams dang. did not expect to win but did not expect to rank 200+ and crater to nearly 15 spots lower overall