Hope Mega League ’18 — Playoff Edition
“Wait, we still have a Fantasy League?” — Said most of you because you haven’t heard from me in a while.
But don’t fret! The playoffs are here, the league is still functioning, and some of us are on the path to total domination.
Others of you are on the path to…the 2019 season. With that in mind, i would like to take a moment of silence for all teams that we have lost along the way and will not be joining the rest of us on the journey of playoff immortality.
Just a few quick notes on this list:
- Nick Nigrelli has failed to win two years in a row despite having “The Best Team Ever Assembled.” That might not be his exact quote, but it is pretty close.
- Billy Davis had the 11th most points scored of all 60 teams across the 5 conferences. But with a record of 5–8, it didn’t matter.
- Kyle Phillippi had a similar problem as he only mounted 4 wins with the 26th highest score.
- It’s all about who you play, when you play and thats why we have the season.
Season Ending Results
Let’s take a look at how everyone faired. As I have done in year’s past, here is a list of all 60 guys ranked by total points for:
As you can see, there is plenty of parity with seed and playoffs.
- Joe Kucharski has locked up the 1st seed in conference E, despite having three other conference foes ahead of him in points for.
- Newcomers to the league, Tom Folcher and Matt Russell, have made statements that they are more than just the new kids on the block and should be feared as each have locked up first and second seeds respectively.
- Speaking of Matt Russell, he sports the 28th best score and is currently the 2nd seed in his conference. And he was 5.3 points short in week 13 from being the first seed.
- We had two teams finish with a ridiculous 12–1 record. Going undefeated is darn near impossible, but we had two teams pretty close. Troy’s Terrific Team got smoked in week 2, but is on an 11 game tear since then. Chris Black made it all the way to week 12 before getting his first L. It was a close match too, just 8.5 more points was all he needed to pull off this feat. Maybe it was because Gurley was on a bye for him that week. Maybe it was because he started the Bengals defense and racked up a goose egg from them. Maybe it was starting a combination of Phillip Lindsay and Corey Davis instead of Tevin Coleman and DJ Moore. Will that decision haunt him forever? We may never know.
- We had two teams score over the 2000 mark for the season (one of which almost eclipsed the 2150 mark, which equates to an average weekly score of 165.2). A third team was less than 4 points shy of that accomplishment as well. With our current format and roster size, that is a pretty tough milestone to achieve. In 2017, Craig Campagno was our highest scorer at 1790.4 points (with an average weekly score of 137.7). Craig almost achieved that feat this year, but fell short by 23 points. All in all, there were 5 total teams in the 1900’s. This is either due to better drafting, better roster management, or a lot more points scored this year in fantasy than last year.
- The average weekly score by our league this year was 127.8, up from 115.8 from last year.
- ALL OF THIS MEANS NOTHING!!! Because everyone (who made the playoffs) still has a chance to win the mug.
So…Now What?
Now that we have seen the teams that failed miserably at an attempt to secure one of the greatest and most coveted trophy of all time…
Let’s look at the what’s ahead for us in the next three weeks. For those unfamiliar with our playoff format, you can find the details at the very bottom of this article (below the links to each conference). I will highlight a few things:
- Conference championships are going on. Six people will be crowned conference champs.
- Mega Playoffs start this week. All 3–6 seeds will be in a battle royale. Top 10 scoring teams will move on (of the 24 teams). They will join the 1 and 2 seeds who are comfortably sitting on a bye.
Good luck to everyone and may the odds be ever in your favor!
Playoff Format
Conference Championships — Each conference will have its own set of playoffs where the top six teams battle against each other to crown its Conference winner. These playoffs will be typical playoff format.
- They will take place during weeks 14–16 of the NFL
- Week 14 will be the 3rd seed v. 6th seed and 4th v. 5th. Division winners will receive a bye.
- Week 15, the winners of those games in week 14 will play the 1st and 2nd seeds.
- Week 16, the winners from week 15 battle to crown a winner of the conference. Bragging rights included (and a small trophy)!
- To check out the playoff bracket (or projected right now), go to the Standings tab and you will see where to click:
HOPE MEGA LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS — During week 14–16, we will have a battle of epic proportions that will crown ONE victor. Here is how it will go down:
- The teams that advance to the conference championship will also advance to the Mega Playoffs. 36 total teams will enter.
- During week 14, the 3–6 seeds will face off in an all play. This won’t be head-to-head but total points in your starting lineup will be key. 24 teams total will enter, the top 10 scoring teams will advance to the next round. NOTE: The 1–2 seeds will all have byes this week.
- During week 15, the 10 advancing will meet the 12 teams on a bye (the top 2 seeds, which are the division winners of all conferences). 22 teams will enter this round, and the top 8 scoring teams will advance to the final round.
- During week 16, the final 8 teams will face off in one final all play. The top scoring team will be the Hope Mega League Champion.
Yes there is a great possibility that multiple teams in each round have similar rosters/players. We will keep an eye on free agency in each league to make sure no one is dropping players for someone in their division to pickup for the playoffs. We will lock rosters if necessary. If you notice anyone in your conference acting suspiciously or inappropriately in your conference, please let me know.
