All Things Vital Downhill Fantasy

Nearly binned it out of top 100. Jeez. 96th. Looks like WhatsUpCountry fell only to 2nd, that's devastating... 

Congrats to MikeAlfaTango for just squeezing by to win. Clutch performance.

Alright, everybody... FESS UP. How many of you took Pinky and just nuked your fantasy? It was over before it even started.

(I had a stellar Andorra and world champs but otherwise kinda binned it all season... I thought I was set for a decent season first 2 rounds but it just went off the rails from there.)

It sucks to lose out on the last race but kudos to @MikeAlfaTango for crushing it this week to claim the overall title. Sacha Earnest's crash really hurt me this week and outside of Bouladou the rest of my team was pretty uninspiring. If they were to run it back I don't know if I'd pick a different team.

I guess I've got some work to do on my spreadsheet for next year.

(Raises hand).  Dropped out of top 100 because of Pinky.  Was at 85 I think.

Surprisingly best possible team did NOT have juniors womens winner, even though best actual player did pick Tilly. Great pick btw

Best possible did 3 elite, 4 juniors (mostly junior men). While best player did a very practical 4 elite and 2 juniors (equal split gender).

I did want to kinda ask Spomer, with his access to the back end... HOW MANY players picked Pinky and got nuked? 20%? 30? 40!? lol i wonder 

I switched Bouladou to Earnest and I think I would’ve had a top 30 result without it, so that was a bummer. But yea this was my first year playing fantasy and it was so fun and exciting and I can’t wait for the next season! 
My season highlight was a 2nd place from worlds, and now I have some reeeally nice deity pedals and grips waiting to get some dirt on them.

Wow I can't believe I actually finished first this round and that I managed to pick three of the four winners. Stoked for all the riders as well.

Not a bad way to finish an otherwise not great fantasy season (162nd overall). Previous best was 15th in Leogang and only one other finish under 200 (36th in Andorra), so fair to say I was struggling a bit.

Nice to see the 1st place going for a Finn. Stoked for you. 
Onnittelut @aivorunko !

I'm going to have to stick to my end of season message from last year 🙃, except this year I managed to squeeze to the top at the very end.

Thanks again @sspomer for another great year of Fantasy DH!

(p.s. please can we have a prize or two for the overall next year? 😅)

Just as I'm starting to learn the strategy to this the season is over. 

And of course i had Pinky.

edit: Thanks @sspomer for your efforts.

Loved the Fantasy @sspomer this year!  Crapped the bed with Worlds, but overall happy placing in the top 17%.  Love this format much more than the Pinkbike setup. As a very busy Dad, husband and business professional, having the ability to let Qualifying shake out before finalizing picks is a HUGE benefit to me 🙃

I swapped Newkirk for Bouladou. Had to put my bias aside... Feel like Anna been struggling with something late season. And Lisa found an entirely different gear I don't even think she knew exist. 

I will say... Don't know how much effect it had or whatever but... We should probably settle on a points system for an entire season. Obviously weighting has to change the whole time but, if the winner is decided by... Total points? As opposed to just rank (like golf scoring, lowest wins)? Then it's not super ideal to have some events (early ones this year) giving out so much more points. Regardless of the best possible score naturally changing each event.

I will rescind my nonsense statement if you run the golf scoring rank rules on the standings instead of total points number and everything is exactly the same lol

Kiitos! I'm technically not a Finn, though I have lived here for 16 years.

I had picked Bouladou early in the season a few times with varying success. She was cheaper and I had the budget. I always thought she'd come around, though. Her riding looked good.

I picked her straight away this round and I picked her then deselected her in lieu of Sacha Earnest last round.

I had Richie Rude plus some other picks in the elite men. I swapped some stuff around to make budget for Pinky and Dylan Maples. Shit.

I'm not a strategy guy as much an 'it's fun to predict what will happen" kinda guy. For my very first time playing any sort of fantasy sport, it was enjoyable. I'll be back next year to not do very well again!

Hm. Well. I dunno what to make of that. I ran rank scoring like golf. And its drastic. To the extent I can't be sure who is even the 'winner' now, as I only did 1 and 2.

But WhatsUpCountry ended up with a rank of 700. And MikeAlfaTango ended up with a rank of 851. So i dunno if it's "more" fair or "less" (just thought it would be useful to account for rounds that offered a way higher ceiling of total points compared to a round that had a much lower floor)

Mind you, highest best possible was 1102 at round 2 (this was before point changes I believe)... And lowest best possible was 670 at round 4. Like almost double points opportunity. Which... If the points system didn't change would be more of a 'the better player wins' scenario but... Due to the points change, it does mean doing well before it was a big benefit total points wise... And getting your good results later in the season diminished those efforts. It is what it is

But yeah I figured the numbers might flip if done by ranking and not total points... But I didn't realize They would be separated by 151 only by rank 'total'. To the extent i'm not even sure if whatsupcountry is the winner by rank lol. Would need to be a whole new system to look it up and check.

thought i might be on for a good result getting 4 from 4 winners. but just fell short. unluggggy. Also it was so good having world cup race at a good time here in NZ. so was able to have one monitor with the downhill on and another monitor looking like i was doing my actual job. Wee mini watch party going on in my office.

thanks for running fantasy this year spomer.  legend.

Shameless inquiry: Any prizes for top 3 season overall?