5 Ways to Be a Fantasy Champ
When you picture a fantasy champ, you may imagine someone basking in glory, having won a fantasy football league. While this is true, bringing home the #FootclanTitle isn’t everything. Sometimes being a real fantasy football champ simply means being a good fantasy football league mate, a great commissioner, or having a great fantasy football trophy. As the Fantasy Footballers have said, “More than a game, more than a title.” Here are a handful of things that truly make you a fantasy champ.
1. Being an active fantasy owner
Being “active” in your fantasy football league doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be trading players all the time. It really means keeping your roster competitive. Sure, sometimes your initial starting roster can skate by for the first few weeks, but we all know how common injuries happen in the NFL. Then when Bye Weeks come into play, you have to pay even more attention to your team. Monitor your players’ injuries, and always compare your squad with who’s available on waivers. Check out the podcast every Tuesday for Waiver Wire pickups and Wednesday for our Keep/Trade/Cut segment.
2. Don’t bail… EVER.
You need to stay active ALL season. There are countless stories of fantasy owners starting 0-3, 0-4, or even 0-5 and coming back to make the playoffs and win the championship. The integrity of the entire league is disrupted as soon as even a single owner starts to bail. Be an active owner for yourself and for your league mates. One last example to mention is about Mike “The Fantasy Hitman” Wright. He has said that if he’s already out of playoff contention near the end of the season, he’s angry and not letting up. He’s not going to take it easy on the waiver wire, he’s not giving an opponent an easy win; he’s going to wreak havoc! That’s a true fantasy champ attitude!
3. Be a good communicator
One key component of staying active is being a good communicator. While earlier it was mentioned that you don’t necessarily have to be a big trader, you do need to respond to trade offers sent your way. Leaving another league mate hanging, with no idea if you have even seen their offer to you, is simply the WORST.
One tip to fantasy owners to help avoid trade offers going unanswered: If you send a trade offer through the platform your league uses, (ESPN, Yahoo, etc.) you should send that owner a personal message right afterward to let them know. It’s a simple poke just to get the line of communication going.
This next one falls more on the commissioner, but you NEED some sort of communication hub for your league. Something like a Facebook group or a Slack channel can keep the conversation going and form a strong bond between owners, which is essential to keep a league going strong for years. Owners NEED a way to privately communicate with other owners for trade discussion. Good communication is potentially the most important part of a healthy fantasy football league.
Our Editor-in-Chief, Kyle Borgognoni, has taken league communication to the extreme for his home league (Snap Tackle Pop) by producing a weekly podcast specifically for his league mates to talk trash, answer a weekly mailbag, and amplify hilarious happenings during the season. Something I do as the commissioner for my league is type up a weekly newsletter. It has the previous week’s results, fun weekly awards that I make up based on what happened, a preview of the next week of action, and any updates to share with the league.
4. Celebrate like a Fantasy Champ
Okay, so now you know what it truly means to be a fantasy champ. It’s about the keeping the bond of the league alive and competition strong. All that being said, at the end of the day, every league DOES need championship gear. What better way to create excitement and motivation among league mates than with some top notch hardware to award at the end of the season? Whether it’s fantasy football trophies, rings, belts… Fantasy Champs has some genuine options that, quite honestly, are as good as it gets.
5. Be Prepared to Get Soaked Every Week
Whether you play fantasy football for bragging rights or to win some $, there is always room for added humiliation for the losers. Establishing league traditions like WaterBets can be the lifeblood of why we do what we do. Enter the Wheel of Water.
Lose a bet? Get wet! The Wheel of Water is an app (available on both iOS and Android devices) that allows you to spin a wheel and be flooded with different ways to horribly embarrass and drench your friends with a cup of water. It’s free to download and is perfect for draft season when the weather is warm and even more rewarding in January when the weather is not so warm.