2001s

The Journey of Your Not-So-Average Sports Fan

Adam Vickers
Sports Editor

S: have you ever wondered what
all the talk about fantasy sports

is all about? Here is your chance to
get insight into the life of a fantasy
leaguer. There are many different
types of fantasy leagues out there,
and they range from small groups of
5 or 6 good friends, to company or
nationwide leagues. In an article on
Newsgames by Ray Vichot, it was
claimed that Fantasy sports are a
$1.5 billion industry, with an average
cost per team being $150. Fantasy
sports began with some guys getting
together and crunching baseball stats,
and then found its way to football. The
endeavour into football is what really
kicked off fantasy sports, as it allows
America's biggest sport to be an outlet
for fans fo get more out of the game.
Not until the dot com era and the

rise of the internet did fantasy sports
really find a home. With the rise of the
Internet came a slew of fantasy sport
websites, where fans from all over the
world could get quick up-to-date stats

on how their team players were doing.

Fantasy sport enthusiasts begin

by picking players from a pool of
professionals. Depending on the
sport, the stats of each professional
are scored differently. Each sport has
different types of pools, changing
according to the size of the pool.

In bigger pools, the goals are a

bit different as there are too many
people to have every player picked
once; a league needs to allow all
players to be picked for any team

at any time. In bigger pools, one can
change their lineup to get the top point
performers each week so that, by the
end of the season, one will win the
league by having the most points. In
other versions of big pools, one picks
players from smaller subcategories

of players at the beginning of the
season, and then, at the end of the
season, whichever team has the most
points wins. Compared to the bigger
pools, smaller pools require a lot more
attention and research. In smaller
pools, one often has a fantasy draft

of all players in the league, and can
pick each player only once, making

it ditficult to get the players one may
want. Once dratted, teams can trade,
pick up, or drop players fo improve
their fantasy teams. In these pools, one
usually has weekly matchups against
different teams in the league. The
teams with the most wins make it into
the playoffs, where teams battle it out
in the last weeks of the professional
leagues season to find an overall
winner of the pool. Every sport is
scored differently, as all sports have
different positions and rules.

Each pool also has different point
allocations depending on individual
fantasy league rules. In general,
leagues run on these premises: in
football, there are a number of
different positions, and each position
is scored somewhat differently.

In general, offensive players are
scored individually, getting points for
touchdowns, rush, passed, or received;
defensive players are scored as a team
defense, getting points for turnovers

O1

3 9

4 7

Puzzle by websudoku.com

and losing points from beginning,
floated points as the team is scored

on by the opposing team. In hockey,

all players are scored individually with
skaters getting points for goals, assists,
plus/minus, and penalties; goalies get
points for wins, shutouts, and any points
that a skater would also get points for.

Why is it a big deal for fans of all
types of sports? It is simple: engaging
in fantasy sports are much like the
fantasy books we read that give us

a sense of being somewhere else.
Fantasy sports allow armchair coaches
a chance to participate in the sports
they love to watch. It gives people a
chance to cheer outside the teams we
would die for and cheer for ones we
built ourselves. Fantasy sports allow

an escape from reality and create a
personalized team that we think will
win, rather than merely accepting the
adjustments made by professional
general managers. Fantasy truly is a
journey down a rough road filled with
adversity and heartbreak, not just for
your average fan.

Coffee Break

Electr: ca| $oc K ots ave

i tle 6 Cre fs wg Pais