I honestly liked it more when there was not as much fantasy content and you had to do a bit more research to find trends and do analysis. Now it’s like everybody seems the same article and drops a million FAAB on the same guy every week
I agree, saturation of information is killing fanatsy for me. The “skill” part of fantasy is doing research. Now the research is mostly done, aggregated and easily accessible. The 4th round rookie that no one heard of and who looked explosive in camp? Theres already a reddit thread with a twitter “analyst” hyping him up. Everyones on a more even keel “playing field” so unless youre playing with braindead people its just pure gambling, “skill” part is gone.
Not even a million. Instead, everyone bids within like $2-3 FAAB dollars because not only do the articles tell you who to pick up, they also tell you how much to bid
I’ve been playing fantasy football for almost 20 years. This is the first year outside of my very first where I haven’t been running a league. So far, it’s been way more enjoyable for me to be out of that commissioner role. I’m looking forward to seeing how the season plays out.
You are in control of your actions and emotions. You can play fantasy football, and enjoy it more, with less research and without watching football all week long. You are in control of that aspect.
At the end of the day it's a game we play with our friends to stay connected to each other. The money involved clouds things but it's important to remember what it is supposed to be.
I know this is reddit so we all need to act like our teams sucks, fantasy sucks "but I'll be back for the pain!" yada yada but yes, I actually do like fantasy.
I was there and even too much of a good thing can feel shitty. I had to set boundaries tbh. I could not sit in front of the tv for fucking 12 hours on Sunday and eat shit food. I’d feel awful. If I constantly checked my fantasy score I’d feel awful too. I created more breaks and just tried rooting for my own team and accepting that truly we have no control over what happens in those games lmao. It’s been fun for years since even with the injuries and other BS
Maybe I'm weird, but I get more enjoyment from prepping for the draft, drafting, listening to podcasts and reading articles than I do watching the games on Sunday.
After waking up this morning I'm like wow from the early London game, I spent all day watching football and lost in every league. What a waste of a Sunday.
I have a rule that if by 330 on a Sunday, I'm in a shit mood over fantasy, I turn off the TV, close the apps, and go to the gym or just walk around outside for an hour. It's helped a bad fantasy week from tanking the rest of your actual mood that day.
I do enjoy fantasy football - I enjoy the draft, I enjoy the camaraderie and the trash talking, I enjoy the way it makes me interested in every team not just 'my team'. I enjoy the strategy and the decision-making process.
Putting down the phone and paying attention to the games is the goal for me these days. Like, even if one of your main your goals was to improve your fantasy results, watching the scores change on your phone won’t help—optimistically, watching games will give you context and perspective to make new choices, and pessimistically at least you watched an exciting game or two instead of staring at decimal points changing all day.
Funny enough, joining more leagues helped me with this. I have 3 teams, a wide variety of players, and I'm nearly always playing against one of my guys in another league. Its just made it impossible to get overly emotional about any of em. And it's just annoying shifting from league to league, checking the score, remembering who I'm up against. Now I just watch the games and enjoy.
What I do that helps is I don't check my scores until about midway through the afternoon games. I found rooting for and against certain outcomes really spoiled the games. If I don't know what players my opponents have I can handle it a lot easier.
I tried to have this convo with my husband recently about his fantasy sports ... um. Not quite a problem, but the way it affects our lives. He does fantasy baseball, two FF leagues, a Last Man Standing group, and something about squares during the playoffs.
And it feels like the randomness has only gotten worse with the ongoing evolution of scheme, not player (ie RIP true WR1s and bell cow RBs), based offense seeming to hit a critical point. We're all now chasing no name players in a random number generator. Personally I think the scoring and format needs to change too.
Fantasy is ultimately pointless. I only play because I started a dynasty league with some friends and it’s fun for us. But if it isn’t fun for you, go do something meaningful with your time.
It took me 9 years to win a fantasy championship. Whenever I’d lose I let it get to me. When I finally won, I stopped caring as much. Like I’m still invested, try my best, and research. But I wanted to experience winning the title just once and when that happened, losses never affected me as much. It’s just a “dang that sucks” but it doesn’t ruin my day like it used to.
Yea, I’m 0-3 in both my work league and friends league, but I already won the championship once in my work league so I don’t care as much if I have a sucky year in that league. Still haven’t won in my friends league though, so that record kinda stings. I’ve also had bad luck the past few years in my friends league and haven’t made the playoffs in like 4 years, so every year that goes by where I have a losing record gets harder and harder.
Well said! I, too, had a great weight lifted from my shoulders when I finally won the 'ship last year after a LITERAL DECADE. I'm still obsessed with this shit but I don't have a giant chip on my shoulder any more.
Just don't watch every game then, you are burning yourself out. Watch the team you support and leave it at that. There's no need to watch every game when stats and forums/Reddit can keep you updated with all the info you'll need.
Even if you have an 80% probability of a player doing something (an absurdly high level of confidence), the other thing still happens 20% of the time. Multiply that uncertainty by every player in the league and you’re left with a glorified guessing game. If you’re not cool with that then fantasy football might not be for you
I have been running FF leagues since the days when I had to get the Monday newspaper and tally the score from the box-score. Standard scoring was 6 for a rushing/receiving TD, 3 for passing TD. 3 for FG. 1 for Extra point.
I only do it because I lost all interest in pro sports a long time ago. So it gives me a reason to watch the NFL. And really, that's about it. I play in a pretty casual league with old friends and the entry fee is only $40.
You should try DFS. I've been playing for awhile and the last few years I've really tried to be more competitive. Getting a nice DFS hit makes your week 1000x better when redraft inevitably disappoints
I had this thought last year (or maybe the year before, time is abstract and life is a blur) so decided I would set my lineup on a Thursday, grab any waiver wire/FA players I think I needed without going too deep into it (check target/carries and expected score as per the app) then only touch the lineup 10 minutes before the Sunday games if there's been any injury questions.
Same. I love RedZone specifically for fantasy. If I wasn't playing fantasy, I wouldn't have red zone and I probably wouldn't watch a ton of football since watching a regular game can be boring between two not so good teams--this could be due to RedZone ruining football for me though haha
Gives me extra incentive to watch games. Nothing like watching a game live and seeing your player score a lot of points. Makes Sundays 100x better. No way in hell I’d be watching the Vikings without fantasy football
I fuckin hate fantasy football..I commish a league and am a part of 1 other. I will 100% be dropping the extra league and possibly the one i commish next year. I like it because the leagues im in are all with guys i grew up with and are in our 30s, but i fuckin hate it becuase the game has passed me by and I suck now. donating $500 a year for this shit is getting old and im done with it.
I stopped listening to podcasts a long time ago. I’ve listened to a lot of different podcasts and they’ve never helped me. In fact, they’ve contributed to me losing leagues. This is my 9th season of fantasy football and I just look at off-season news, acquisitions, depth charts, common sense. The more you watch football as a sport and not just for fantasy, you start understanding the game more and in turn, doing better in fantasy
I feel like people need to understand that fantasy experts are human just like we are. They are also very risk averse. They don’t want to rank a player who went undrafted higher than a mid round pick—because if the undrafted guy lays an egg, they look like an idiot for the whole internet.
Another thing social media has ruined imo. Most “experts” now just tryna find that next viral player a la OBJ rookie year in the hopes that one player helps people win a championship and it gets them a larger following online. Also the weekly rankings reek of bias and it’s disgusting. If I’m gonna base a decision of an opinion, I’d rather it be my own.
It's helpful to remember that nobody knows a god damn thing. We're all speculating. Some people get paid to make guesses, but they don't know any more than you or I. This game is 95% luck.
Same. Sat penny for Cooper despite knowing penny was the play. I'll go with my gut when the rankings are close but when they are that far I second guess myself. Thankfully it wouldn't have mattered because my opponent put up 170.
Fantasy Footballers is a good program but they really suck at their job, they talk shit about players and then that week the player they said to bench or drop puts up crazy numbers. Fantasy experts are the same as the lotto experts. No one knows what will happen any given Sunday.
Experts give you general guidance but ultimately the game is based on luck. Sure, statistics support certain decisions but relying on experts is a good way to lose. There is a reason why there are so many fantasy football podcasters; there isn’t much objectivity so experts can make bold “claims” with confidence. Go with your gut and ride the wave
If you don't like it, don't play. I enjoy the challenge, it's fun when you win, but can still be exciting even if you lose. Just have to learn to not take the losses so hard.
Fantasy is weird. Last season I started 0-3 and still made the playoffs. This season in my pay league I’m 0-4 and in my fun league I’m 4-0. Fantasy is a lot of luck no matter what the joker who stumbled himself into first in the league says otherwise.
Last year was my first year, I took the players I knew were good and auto-drafted the rest. Actually had a great time even though I finished like 5th or 6th!
I don’t know about you but I absolutely love watching RedZone, especially when there’s a string of 4-5 instances where your players are in the red zone or goal line and like dominos your players fail to convert the TDs
Serious. Deleted my app yesterday. Found myself wasting absurd amounts of time reading about football. Waking up at 4:30 am daily to get a head start. Made a trade for a player that got hurt yesterday, lost when I was 3-0. Then realized is was absolutely upset. Ruined my day. Realized it's not healthy and deleted it.
I'll quote my now-wife from seven years ago. She joined a league and a third of the way through the season said, "I don't like this fantasy football, it's bullshit."
This is exactly why I play in 6 leagues. The chance that all 6 are bad teams is improbable. Has never happened to me. But I imagine FF is awful if you've only gotn1 or 2 teams and they both suck. Why even watch every week
This was it for me. I used to have one team and would live and die (usually die) with them on Sundays. Blood pressure would be through the roof on a bad week. I now have 7 teams (some dynasty) and just enjoy the ride on Sundays, sort out the wins and losses after the fact.
Really? I found this to be the opposite. With one team, there's only so many choices you can make and so many news to keep up with. With multiple leagues, there's much more you need to know and follow and thus there's a bigger time suck.
idk, I find having that many teams really takes the fun out of it. Having 6 teams, especially if you draft a little differently makes it so likely you'll just end up with the nuts in one league. I think 1 or 2 is the sweetspot, personally.
The key is to do at least 3 leagues imo. Fantasy football isn’t necessarily completely random, but there is a ton of variance - sort of like poker. The key is the get small edges and hope it works out, but even great play won’t always work out (again, just like poker). If your doing several teams each year and you are generally winning more than you lose, year over year, that’s success. It’s hard to win more than 55-60% of games in competitive leagues. If you aren’t consistently making playoffs, there is probably a leak in your process.
All this year has showed me is I need to stick to my 1 main league I've done for the past 10 years and screw the rest lol. Too much pain with too many leagues that you cant even enjoy the ones you do good in.
I go through this about 16 times per season. This week my lineup went from “fuck yeah!” to “ah fuck” before the late games had started, but there’s always next week!
If I may ask, how much of fantasy do you play for money? That might contribute to hating it. It's frustrating no matter what, but I have a feeling the more money you've got riding will contribute
This year, I have started making sure I don’t look at who I’m playing in Fantasy has on their team. That way I can enjoy the actual games more. It’s too much when you already have to worry about your own players lol
Unsolicited advice: Stop listening to “experts.” If you’re watching all the games, trust your eyes. If you’re following the players, you’ll know enough to make your own start/sit decisions.
I like fantasy because I have a sense of perspective and proportion. I feel like you need to get a grip, it’s not fantasy’s fault that you make yourself miserable when interacting with it
This year I overstretched the amount of leagues I enjoy being in and it's made it less fun. I'm in 5 where as since I started I was in 1-2. Next year I'm going to cap it at 2 or 3 and I think it will be more fun again
It’s definitely a love-hate kind of thing for me. One minute I love it and am super interested in my team and their stats and the next I just want to be done with it altogether
Pretty sure I’m going to be dropping out of all my leagues after this year. Being in one with close friends was awesome. Multiple leagues where you’re starting players in one league and playing against them in another kind of took away the fun.
I was loving it yesterday up 40 points against only mike Evan’s and Matt gay. Then Evan’s dropped 30… gonna be stressing all night for gay to stay at 9 or under. Mannn thought I had an easy one
The thing that helps me the most is to not look at the app too much while the games are going on. It's too easy to get sucked in and spend 6 hours waiting (praying?) for your numbers yo tick up. Check in after each round of games to see how fucked you are.
I think when you weigh your happiness on the outcome of any game, be it fantasy, competitive games on consoles/PC, gambling, etc. then you are looking to the wrong place. This should be fun, so if the lack of control is ruining it for you, then do something you have control over while the games are happening. Take care of yourself man
I completely agree. I’m kind of tired of it this year and don’t really care anymore. It’s all luck. We are no different than degenerate gambling addicts and crypto moon-boy’s.
I started my season 0-3 with a half decent draft. Thanks to injuries and fluke wins.. shit start to the season. Over it.. letting Jesus take the wheel now.
honestly no - I play fantasy for a couple of other sports (nba and mlb) and they are both way better IMO. Longer season rewards consistency and I feel like its much less random given the lack of significant injury in those other two sports.
I count the days down to when this season starts with the excitement of a toddler on Xmas. By week 5 I am balled into a fetal position in the shower a la Crying Game just repeating my roster over and over like some war veteran who just came off Omaha Beach.
What you do means nothing for fantasy football. Is 100% luck and gambling. Don’t take any pride in your team or like expect hard work to pay off. It’s just a crap shoot. Once I realized nothing I do matters, it became more fun. If that makes sense. I feel like fantasy baseball and fantasy basketball takes bit more skill and research and numbers really make sense and help, so I enjoy those long term more. Football is just a rush and exciting on a Sunday.
I noticed that I would get this way some weeks when I first moved. It turns out, I'm much happier if I lose when I'm actually spending time with the people I'm competing against. Seeing them throughout the week or just that day, it makes it feel okay to lose because I can actually talk with the guys and enjoy their win with them.
Now 0-4 in one league I can’t figure out how turn things around. In the other I was up by 50 prior to last nights game slightly worried but hoping i was safe, lost by 3.
Yeah that's definitely where I'm at. I'm going to take the advice of a lot of these comments and just not spend too much time with it. That's what hurts the worst, following the games, rooting for teams, then getting worked. If I don't know who I'm playing against it shouldn't hurt too bad.
Sometimes I hate how fantasy makes me question my own sanity. Like, I'm in 4 leagues and you can see common threads between the teams. Obviously they aren't all the same but I clearly had some ideas about how the season would go and drafted accordingly. I have 2 teams at 4-0. 1 team at 2-2. 1 team at 1-3. And if I look objectively I still swear that 1-3 team is the best of all of them.
Fantasy use to be more fun period tbh I remember when I would always lose like 2-3 years ago last year I won a ton it’s just the backup players and how it works all comes down to luck and it’s not very fun and will ruin games and the way you think of players most ppl that play fantasy need a substitute for something because there super bored. Thinking your “ skilled “ at fantasy is laughable there’s no such thing lmao
I took a break last year, and I gotta say, I enjoyed the hell out of my Sundays. I didn't fuss all throughout the week about how shitty my team will be this week, or what moves I can make, or who I should watch, etc. It was really nice
I love all of the preparation and excitement before the season. But I miss watching games on Sundays and just enjoying the game. Watching my team at 1, the random game at 4:30, and SNF just because it's football. Not caring how individual players do, no stress attached. I miss that.
Fantasy is stupid. I am only in 2 leagues, narffl and my main. Narffl always drafts first so I put more research and effort into it. Main league is isually last minute and I just wing it.
A. We see this post every year. We see many other posts that say "this year seems different, worse than others" every year. I know scoring is down, but this year being abnormal is in fact very normal.
That's the caveat. I've seen the "this year seems different" posts but for me it's more of the time vs joy debate if I even really enjoy it as much as I think or thought I would.
I agree with you 100%!! I study it. I read fantasypros. I draft well. Then I lose the week to some jerkoff who drafted 2 TEs and starts both of them has TJ Hockenson. Next week it'll be because someone starts a D against that'll score 2 TDs. Or someone will pick up Mike Boone and he'll go off even though Denver has sucked all year. It's all bull shit
No I hate it and I can’t wait for next Sunday.
“Fuck you and I’ll see you next week!”
I hate fantasy football it’s awesome
I hate this game, it's my favorite thing to play!
We like it when we win!
can confirm. my nfl and fantasy team are both undefeated and this is fun
I honestly liked it more when there was not as much fantasy content and you had to do a bit more research to find trends and do analysis. Now it’s like everybody seems the same article and drops a million FAAB on the same guy every week
I agree, saturation of information is killing fanatsy for me. The “skill” part of fantasy is doing research. Now the research is mostly done, aggregated and easily accessible. The 4th round rookie that no one heard of and who looked explosive in camp? Theres already a reddit thread with a twitter “analyst” hyping him up. Everyones on a more even keel “playing field” so unless youre playing with braindead people its just pure gambling, “skill” part is gone.
Not even a million. Instead, everyone bids within like $2-3 FAAB dollars because not only do the articles tell you who to pick up, they also tell you how much to bid
I usually hate it by week 4 or 5. I run 2 leagues.
I’ve been playing fantasy football for almost 20 years. This is the first year outside of my very first where I haven’t been running a league. So far, it’s been way more enjoyable for me to be out of that commissioner role. I’m looking forward to seeing how the season plays out.
You are in control of your actions and emotions. You can play fantasy football, and enjoy it more, with less research and without watching football all week long. You are in control of that aspect.
Look at this well-adjusted motherfucker over here.
This guy meditates
I agree besides being back to work on Monday with a positive attitude.
Yeah I like it because of the friends angle. Zero interest in playing against strangers.
…but what if you have a matchup riding on Monday night?
At the end of the day it's a game we play with our friends to stay connected to each other. The money involved clouds things but it's important to remember what it is supposed to be.
I was 0-3 and hated it.
Saaammme man. You an Ekeler/Jacobs owner too?
I know this is reddit so we all need to act like our teams sucks, fantasy sucks "but I'll be back for the pain!" yada yada but yes, I actually do like fantasy.
I was there and even too much of a good thing can feel shitty. I had to set boundaries tbh. I could not sit in front of the tv for fucking 12 hours on Sunday and eat shit food. I’d feel awful. If I constantly checked my fantasy score I’d feel awful too. I created more breaks and just tried rooting for my own team and accepting that truly we have no control over what happens in those games lmao. It’s been fun for years since even with the injuries and other BS
Maybe I'm weird, but I get more enjoyment from prepping for the draft, drafting, listening to podcasts and reading articles than I do watching the games on Sunday.
After waking up this morning I'm like wow from the early London game, I spent all day watching football and lost in every league. What a waste of a Sunday.
Yeah, I worked on our kayaks for a few hours during the day yesterday and damn near went fishing, the hawks won which was great :)
I have a rule that if by 330 on a Sunday, I'm in a shit mood over fantasy, I turn off the TV, close the apps, and go to the gym or just walk around outside for an hour. It's helped a bad fantasy week from tanking the rest of your actual mood that day.
I think people take the game too seriously. It’s much more enjoyable don’t.
If you take anything that is supposed to be fun too seriously, you will not have a good time.
I do enjoy fantasy football - I enjoy the draft, I enjoy the camaraderie and the trash talking, I enjoy the way it makes me interested in every team not just 'my team'. I enjoy the strategy and the decision-making process.
Well said. I still find myself drawn to a better game than I am a better performance. So I feel I have decent control over fantasy and it's draw.
Putting down the phone and paying attention to the games is the goal for me these days. Like, even if one of your main your goals was to improve your fantasy results, watching the scores change on your phone won’t help—optimistically, watching games will give you context and perspective to make new choices, and pessimistically at least you watched an exciting game or two instead of staring at decimal points changing all day.
I commented above that I stopped doing another fantasy thing during the playoffs years back since I feel the same way you do
Funny enough, joining more leagues helped me with this. I have 3 teams, a wide variety of players, and I'm nearly always playing against one of my guys in another league. Its just made it impossible to get overly emotional about any of em. And it's just annoying shifting from league to league, checking the score, remembering who I'm up against. Now I just watch the games and enjoy.
What I do that helps is I don't check my scores until about midway through the afternoon games. I found rooting for and against certain outcomes really spoiled the games. If I don't know what players my opponents have I can handle it a lot easier.
It's like everything else, if you're not getting enjoyment out of it that's a signal it's time to take a break.
10 is not fun IMO. Every team is pretty much guaranteed to be good. Very hard to differentiate between above average and average
My wife has commented that I seem to get much more frustrated with football since I started playing fantasy...
I tried to have this convo with my husband recently about his fantasy sports ... um. Not quite a problem, but the way it affects our lives. He does fantasy baseball, two FF leagues, a Last Man Standing group, and something about squares during the playoffs.
And it feels like the randomness has only gotten worse with the ongoing evolution of scheme, not player (ie RIP true WR1s and bell cow RBs), based offense seeming to hit a critical point. We're all now chasing no name players in a random number generator. Personally I think the scoring and format needs to change too.
Ooof this hit home haha
Fantasy is ultimately pointless. I only play because I started a dynasty league with some friends and it’s fun for us. But if it isn’t fun for you, go do something meaningful with your time.
Name checks out.
It took me 9 years to win a fantasy championship. Whenever I’d lose I let it get to me. When I finally won, I stopped caring as much. Like I’m still invested, try my best, and research. But I wanted to experience winning the title just once and when that happened, losses never affected me as much. It’s just a “dang that sucks” but it doesn’t ruin my day like it used to.
Yea, I’m 0-3 in both my work league and friends league, but I already won the championship once in my work league so I don’t care as much if I have a sucky year in that league. Still haven’t won in my friends league though, so that record kinda stings. I’ve also had bad luck the past few years in my friends league and haven’t made the playoffs in like 4 years, so every year that goes by where I have a losing record gets harder and harder.
Well said! I, too, had a great weight lifted from my shoulders when I finally won the 'ship last year after a LITERAL DECADE. I'm still obsessed with this shit but I don't have a giant chip on my shoulder any more.
Bruh, I'm a Lions fan. Playing fantasy is way more fun than watching the Lions every week.
I had the same thought as a Bears fan. This is the only way I can enjoy watching football every week.
Idk your guys’ offense is pretty exciting to watch tbh.
As a neutral fan, that Lions-Seahawks game was pretty fun.
Texans fan here, I sure as shit am living for fantasy. I have Herbert for fantasy and you bet your ass I'm over there rooting for touchdown throws.
I play because I love playing with friends and having live draft parties.
I had 89 points last week. I hated fantasy football then. I got 153 points this week. I love fantasy football now!
Just don't watch every game then, you are burning yourself out. Watch the team you support and leave it at that. There's no need to watch every game when stats and forums/Reddit can keep you updated with all the info you'll need.
Losing sucks more than the joy you get from winning.
Even if you have an 80% probability of a player doing something (an absurdly high level of confidence), the other thing still happens 20% of the time. Multiply that uncertainty by every player in the league and you’re left with a glorified guessing game. If you’re not cool with that then fantasy football might not be for you
I have been running FF leagues since the days when I had to get the Monday newspaper and tally the score from the box-score. Standard scoring was 6 for a rushing/receiving TD, 3 for passing TD. 3 for FG. 1 for Extra point.
Yeah FF is much more reliant on luck and random variance than fantasy basketball
Depends.
I only do it because I lost all interest in pro sports a long time ago. So it gives me a reason to watch the NFL. And really, that's about it. I play in a pretty casual league with old friends and the entry fee is only $40.
I cant watch pro sports without some type of currency on the line. Whether it be pride or $.
When I win: “I’m a genius”
Best ball or daily/weekly fantasy is a better option for some.
You should try DFS. I've been playing for awhile and the last few years I've really tried to be more competitive. Getting a nice DFS hit makes your week 1000x better when redraft inevitably disappoints
This was my first year with fantasy football and I can say fantasy basketball is just leagues ahead of it.
I had this thought last year (or maybe the year before, time is abstract and life is a blur) so decided I would set my lineup on a Thursday, grab any waiver wire/FA players I think I needed without going too deep into it (check target/carries and expected score as per the app) then only touch the lineup 10 minutes before the Sunday games if there's been any injury questions.
Great advice, I'm going to pull back from focusing on every game all day.
I have done the same for the past several seasons.
If it weren’t for fantasy football, id really not watch football.
Same. I love RedZone specifically for fantasy. If I wasn't playing fantasy, I wouldn't have red zone and I probably wouldn't watch a ton of football since watching a regular game can be boring between two not so good teams--this could be due to RedZone ruining football for me though haha
It's my only gateway into caring about anything other than my favorite team.
Bro it’s not heroin, just don’t play
Gives me extra incentive to watch games. Nothing like watching a game live and seeing your player score a lot of points. Makes Sundays 100x better. No way in hell I’d be watching the Vikings without fantasy football
I fuckin hate fantasy football..I commish a league and am a part of 1 other. I will 100% be dropping the extra league and possibly the one i commish next year. I like it because the leagues im in are all with guys i grew up with and are in our 30s, but i fuckin hate it becuase the game has passed me by and I suck now. donating $500 a year for this shit is getting old and im done with it.
Have you considered playing bestball?
I have not liked it for a long time now. Every year I want to quit and every year my league mates talk me out of it. Legit think this is it for me.
Fantasy football is a sunk cost fallacy time sink for a 2 second dopamine rush when you open the app and see that you’re winning
I do it with my college friends as more of a way to keep in touch because we live all over the country.
0-4 baby
Take an upvote!
I’m done listening to experts to effect my lineup. I would’ve crushed with CEH and Jacobs this week. Instead I started Saquon, Dillon, and Doubs.
It’s always better to be right with your own gut decisions vs being right just following expert advice
I stopped listening to podcasts a long time ago. I’ve listened to a lot of different podcasts and they’ve never helped me. In fact, they’ve contributed to me losing leagues. This is my 9th season of fantasy football and I just look at off-season news, acquisitions, depth charts, common sense. The more you watch football as a sport and not just for fantasy, you start understanding the game more and in turn, doing better in fantasy
Why would statting saquon be a bad thing he had a good game, there’s no world in which you should have sat the #1 rb (in ppr at least) vs the bears
I feel like people need to understand that fantasy experts are human just like we are. They are also very risk averse. They don’t want to rank a player who went undrafted higher than a mid round pick—because if the undrafted guy lays an egg, they look like an idiot for the whole internet.
I would not consider whoever told you to start Doubs over Jacobs an expert.
Another thing social media has ruined imo. Most “experts” now just tryna find that next viral player a la OBJ rookie year in the hopes that one player helps people win a championship and it gets them a larger following online. Also the weekly rankings reek of bias and it’s disgusting. If I’m gonna base a decision of an opinion, I’d rather it be my own.
why would you have ever benched Saquon? lol
It's helpful to remember that nobody knows a god damn thing. We're all speculating. Some people get paid to make guesses, but they don't know any more than you or I. This game is 95% luck.
Yeah, I go with my gut. I started Metcalf over Drake London this week just because I had a feeling and it paid off.
Same. Sat penny for Cooper despite knowing penny was the play. I'll go with my gut when the rankings are close but when they are that far I second guess myself. Thankfully it wouldn't have mattered because my opponent put up 170.
Fantasy Footballers is a good program but they really suck at their job, they talk shit about players and then that week the player they said to bench or drop puts up crazy numbers. Fantasy experts are the same as the lotto experts. No one knows what will happen any given Sunday.
I started doing a lot better when I just went with what I thought best and ignored experts.
literally not a single person told you to start doubs over jacobs
Experts give you general guidance but ultimately the game is based on luck. Sure, statistics support certain decisions but relying on experts is a good way to lose. There is a reason why there are so many fantasy football podcasters; there isn’t much objectivity so experts can make bold “claims” with confidence. Go with your gut and ride the wave
If Deebo scores less than 15 tonight, then yes I enjoy FF
If you don't like it, don't play. I enjoy the challenge, it's fun when you win, but can still be exciting even if you lose. Just have to learn to not take the losses so hard.
Fantasy is weird. Last season I started 0-3 and still made the playoffs. This season in my pay league I’m 0-4 and in my fun league I’m 4-0. Fantasy is a lot of luck no matter what the joker who stumbled himself into first in the league says otherwise.
Last year was my first year, I took the players I knew were good and auto-drafted the rest. Actually had a great time even though I finished like 5th or 6th!
Every year I say this is my last year playing this shit. Every year I keep coming back.
I don’t know about you but I absolutely love watching RedZone, especially when there’s a string of 4-5 instances where your players are in the red zone or goal line and like dominos your players fail to convert the TDs
Serious. Deleted my app yesterday. Found myself wasting absurd amounts of time reading about football. Waking up at 4:30 am daily to get a head start. Made a trade for a player that got hurt yesterday, lost when I was 3-0. Then realized is was absolutely upset. Ruined my day. Realized it's not healthy and deleted it.
I'll quote my now-wife from seven years ago. She joined a league and a third of the way through the season said, "I don't like this fantasy football, it's bullshit."
Wise words, she's a keeper!
I’ve been watching Nebraska football for the last 20 yrs. It’s really just more of the same.
5 teams like me, so you can be 0-4, 1-3, 2-2, 3-1, 4-0.
My mental health is definitely better now that I only do one league. Rooting for and against a player at the same time is the worst.
Been playing for 20 years and have won the league 7 times, you’d think I’d be happy, but no.
Sounds like me for real. My friend and I were joking when I changed my team name to Punching Bag.
It keeps in touch old friends and co workers. We get to talk about football for 4 months, makes trades and shit talk.
I see you too went RB RB
For 2 years I’ve been saying I love the idea of fantasy football, the prep, the podcasts, the takes, but I am miserable every Sunday.
I'm 0-4 and fucking hate fantasy football. But I wake up every game day excited as all hell for my first win.
Worst. Pastime. Ever. Now if you’ll excuse me. I’ve got a waiver wire to peruse.
It's literally random. Once you accept that injuries and random chance matter more than any amount of research you can do, it's a lot more fun.
Fantasy football is predominantly based on luck! Embrace it and set your mind free
This is exactly why I play in 6 leagues. The chance that all 6 are bad teams is improbable. Has never happened to me. But I imagine FF is awful if you've only gotn1 or 2 teams and they both suck. Why even watch every week
This was it for me. I used to have one team and would live and die (usually die) with them on Sundays. Blood pressure would be through the roof on a bad week. I now have 7 teams (some dynasty) and just enjoy the ride on Sundays, sort out the wins and losses after the fact.
Really? I found this to be the opposite. With one team, there's only so many choices you can make and so many news to keep up with. With multiple leagues, there's much more you need to know and follow and thus there's a bigger time suck.
idk, I find having that many teams really takes the fun out of it. Having 6 teams, especially if you draft a little differently makes it so likely you'll just end up with the nuts in one league. I think 1 or 2 is the sweetspot, personally.
The key is to do at least 3 leagues imo. Fantasy football isn’t necessarily completely random, but there is a ton of variance - sort of like poker. The key is the get small edges and hope it works out, but even great play won’t always work out (again, just like poker). If your doing several teams each year and you are generally winning more than you lose, year over year, that’s success. It’s hard to win more than 55-60% of games in competitive leagues. If you aren’t consistently making playoffs, there is probably a leak in your process.
To add to that, if you truly do think you are an above average player, find leagues that reduce variance.
No
All this year has showed me is I need to stick to my 1 main league I've done for the past 10 years and screw the rest lol. Too much pain with too many leagues that you cant even enjoy the ones you do good in.
There’s always one league that really matters and the rest are just a waste of time.
It certainly walks the edge between a fun distraction/hobby and an emotionally taxing addiction.
I go through this about 16 times per season. This week my lineup went from “fuck yeah!” to “ah fuck” before the late games had started, but there’s always next week!
If I may ask, how much of fantasy do you play for money? That might contribute to hating it. It's frustrating no matter what, but I have a feeling the more money you've got riding will contribute
Very true and I'm a competitive person. They are all money leagues, but I'd like to win even in a free league.
Personally, one league for 150, and two more for 100 apiece.
Man I lost by .16
Picking at #9, I was forced to take Dalvin Cook…. Of course I hate FF right now.
This year, I have started making sure I don’t look at who I’m playing in Fantasy has on their team. That way I can enjoy the actual games more. It’s too much when you already have to worry about your own players lol
I reach the point you’re at about once a decade. I take a season off and then I’m fine again. A fantasy sabbatical can be reinvigorating.
I'm averaging 120+points in ppr in all three of my leagues and have a combined 2 wins so no, I hate it very much.
Unsolicited advice: Stop listening to “experts.” If you’re watching all the games, trust your eyes. If you’re following the players, you’ll know enough to make your own start/sit decisions.
I’ve kind of stopped watching for these reasons. I’d get tired of restricting my Sundays to football and then being annoyed with the outcomes
I took a couple of years off, before coming back this year. I took a break because I was not enjoying it, and didn't like the trash talk.
I like fantasy because I have a sense of perspective and proportion. I feel like you need to get a grip, it’s not fantasy’s fault that you make yourself miserable when interacting with it
This year I overstretched the amount of leagues I enjoy being in and it's made it less fun. I'm in 5 where as since I started I was in 1-2. Next year I'm going to cap it at 2 or 3 and I think it will be more fun again
It’s definitely a love-hate kind of thing for me. One minute I love it and am super interested in my team and their stats and the next I just want to be done with it altogether
I went a few years not playing and it was nice tbh just to enjoy the games
Pretty sure I’m going to be dropping out of all my leagues after this year. Being in one with close friends was awesome. Multiple leagues where you’re starting players in one league and playing against them in another kind of took away the fun.
I was loving it yesterday up 40 points against only mike Evan’s and Matt gay. Then Evan’s dropped 30… gonna be stressing all night for gay to stay at 9 or under. Mannn thought I had an easy one
Depends. If I am winning it’s either fun or “that’s ok I’ll be fine”
Meh. I'll keep playing as long as the league I'm in stays active.
The thrill of victory too often is outweighed by the agony of defeat.
I compare it to playing League of Legends or any other hyper-competitive, teambased video game.
Definitely more losses than wins
Ha. See ya next Sunday brother
The thing that helps me the most is to not look at the app too much while the games are going on. It's too easy to get sucked in and spend 6 hours waiting (praying?) for your numbers yo tick up. Check in after each round of games to see how fucked you are.
No I hate it lol
I think when you weigh your happiness on the outcome of any game, be it fantasy, competitive games on consoles/PC, gambling, etc. then you are looking to the wrong place. This should be fun, so if the lack of control is ruining it for you, then do something you have control over while the games are happening. Take care of yourself man
I completely agree. I’m kind of tired of it this year and don’t really care anymore. It’s all luck. We are no different than degenerate gambling addicts and crypto moon-boy’s.
I started my season 0-3 with a half decent draft. Thanks to injuries and fluke wins.. shit start to the season. Over it.. letting Jesus take the wheel now.
What else are you going to do?
As a man who started JT, Dillon, mariota, mandrews, and Denver D…. Nah
I woke up this morning wondering how I could pawn my team off on someone else but still be commissioner (I like that part).
hell no i dont
honestly no - I play fantasy for a couple of other sports (nba and mlb) and they are both way better IMO. Longer season rewards consistency and I feel like its much less random given the lack of significant injury in those other two sports.
It's actively making my life worse...
When I started, the competitive gap between people who just set a lineup, and people willing to spend the time researching, was huge.
I count the days down to when this season starts with the excitement of a toddler on Xmas. By week 5 I am balled into a fetal position in the shower a la Crying Game just repeating my roster over and over like some war veteran who just came off Omaha Beach.
What you do means nothing for fantasy football. Is 100% luck and gambling. Don’t take any pride in your team or like expect hard work to pay off. It’s just a crap shoot. Once I realized nothing I do matters, it became more fun. If that makes sense. I feel like fantasy baseball and fantasy basketball takes bit more skill and research and numbers really make sense and help, so I enjoy those long term more. Football is just a rush and exciting on a Sunday.
Could I potentially interest you in day trading? Even less fun and you lose money!
I think like most of us you’re just competitive. Nothing is really that fun for competitive people when you lose and fantasy is no different.
I noticed that I would get this way some weeks when I first moved. It turns out, I'm much happier if I lose when I'm actually spending time with the people I'm competing against. Seeing them throughout the week or just that day, it makes it feel okay to lose because I can actually talk with the guys and enjoy their win with them.
Now 0-4 in one league I can’t figure out how turn things around. In the other I was up by 50 prior to last nights game slightly worried but hoping i was safe, lost by 3.
Yeah that's definitely where I'm at. I'm going to take the advice of a lot of these comments and just not spend too much time with it. That's what hurts the worst, following the games, rooting for teams, then getting worked. If I don't know who I'm playing against it shouldn't hurt too bad.
I would HIGHLY recommend that you avoid looking at who your opponent is starting.
I hate losing!
Sometimes I hate how fantasy makes me question my own sanity. Like, I'm in 4 leagues and you can see common threads between the teams. Obviously they aren't all the same but I clearly had some ideas about how the season would go and drafted accordingly. I have 2 teams at 4-0. 1 team at 2-2. 1 team at 1-3. And if I look objectively I still swear that 1-3 team is the best of all of them.
I have been put though such garbage this year, but I’m 2-2 somehow and I demand a rematch from life
Fantasy use to be more fun period tbh I remember when I would always lose like 2-3 years ago last year I won a ton it’s just the backup players and how it works all comes down to luck and it’s not very fun and will ruin games and the way you think of players most ppl that play fantasy need a substitute for something because there super bored. Thinking your “ skilled “ at fantasy is laughable there’s no such thing lmao
This week sucks but next week will be much better
I took a break last year, and I gotta say, I enjoyed the hell out of my Sundays. I didn't fuss all throughout the week about how shitty my team will be this week, or what moves I can make, or who I should watch, etc. It was really nice
I love all of the preparation and excitement before the season. But I miss watching games on Sundays and just enjoying the game. Watching my team at 1, the random game at 4:30, and SNF just because it's football. Not caring how individual players do, no stress attached. I miss that.
Fantasy is stupid. I am only in 2 leagues, narffl and my main. Narffl always drafts first so I put more research and effort into it. Main league is isually last minute and I just wing it.
I dunno I started off 0-3 in a league that I really wanna win in (and have been playing in for a while), and floated the idea of trading Ekeler.
It's not that serious, bud.
I'm 0-4 and I'm always in the bottom 10 in a 12 man league so I'm thinking this is my last season of fantasy.
Yes. I'm a Lions fan. It's the only chance I will ever have in my lifetime to feel any "winning" related to football instead of 100% pain and misery.
"losing when you have little to no control over your team" just say you're bad at this and move on
hell yeah i love it! the thrills and highs of dameon pierce breaking off a 75 yard TD run will last me all week as work beats me down
That was awesome to see, def a highlight play from yesterday and I have him, but I still lost haha
Every week the players I bench outperform the players i play. can never win
I forced myself to stop paying an insane amount of attention to it; was getting in the way of family life.
A. We see this post every year. We see many other posts that say "this year seems different, worse than others" every year. I know scoring is down, but this year being abnormal is in fact very normal.
That's the caveat. I've seen the "this year seems different" posts but for me it's more of the time vs joy debate if I even really enjoy it as much as I think or thought I would.
I agree with you 100%!! I study it. I read fantasypros. I draft well. Then I lose the week to some jerkoff who drafted 2 TEs and starts both of them has TJ Hockenson. Next week it'll be because someone starts a D against that'll score 2 TDs. Or someone will pick up Mike Boone and he'll go off even though Denver has sucked all year. It's all bull shit
That's a dangerous question around here, cowpoke.
ahh must be 0-4 :(
[удалено]
Damn sounds like you should take a break then brother. I love it sooo much every goddamn week
The sour taste of fantasy football is a nightmare, and Im going to play it everyday for the rest of my life.