Meet FFFC Champion: GeneralV

FFFC Champion: GeneralV

$100 into $25,000

joe-vance

He started with a $100 deposit at the beginning of the Baseball season, and since then turned that into well over $25,000 and an FFFC Championship without ever needing to re-deposit; meet Joe Vance ladies and gentlemen.

Joe, a.k.a. GeneralV, used to be just a regular fantasy sports Grinder like most of us here. Then something clicked with him this October in the midst of NFL season, and also right around the birth of his first daughter. Since this epiphany, which Joe would not let on much about, he’s been a fantasy beast. Most of us would be satisfied with a 65% win-rate in heads up contests; try a 92% win-rate on for size. Joe told us that he has a “92% win rate on DraftStreet” and that “he can’t stand that the games in progress on [DraftStreet] count as losses until they complete, and thus take away from that win rate.” Must be tough Joe. Oh, and that’s not even just Heads Up contests he’s talking about. Joe, estimates that between “30-35%” of his wins are for contests with 3 or more players in them, the types of contests “he prefers”.

Well, it’s clear that Joe excels at the larger field sizes. To qualify for the FFFC finals Joe bested a whopping field of around 500 players in Week 10 to lock up the last available spot. Then when he got to Vegas for the finals, when all of the pressure was on, he put up 111.42 points to best a very tough field of 10 by a cool 12 point margin. I got a chance to talk with Joe on the phone about his win, and I have to say, it was one of the most enjoyable chats I’ve had about fantasy in a while. Joe is as passionate about this game as almost anyone I’ve ever talked with in all my experience, and it shows in his results. Combining factors such as travel time and weather into the more traditional focuses of grinders like stats and matchup, it was clear that ‘the General’ is on a whole ‘nother level of fantasy greatness right now. Don’t believe me that he is into what he does? Just check out this clip that FanDuel snagged from the finals in Vegas:

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There’s probably no need to put any of it back into any site, since “everything clicked” for V in October, Joe said his win rate has “probably been around 90%” then with an almost giddy laugh halfway-joked “maybe 100!” Joe took home $25,000 for his victory, which combined with his recent scores, makes him the biggest winner of the NFL season. The General told me that he only “rolls out $2,000 a week” and “withdrawals anything on top of that.” While he could up his weekly ante after this score, Joe told FanDuel that he plans to “put the money away for his [14 week old] daughter…for college.”

Unlike a lot of top Fantasy Grinders, Joe told me that “he never really got into poker.” He believes there is a better “dollar rate per time spent” in fantasy and that there is “no equivalent in the fantasy world to getting ‘rivered’ in poker” (a term used when a player gets really unlucky at the end of a hand to lose a pot). He currently only plays two sports (Baseball and Football) and two sites (FanDuel and DraftStreet). Between these sites he adheres to his $2,000 bankroll guideline mentioned previously. GeneralV is currently ranked #2 in the RotoGrinders Rankings, but “unless the FFFC win counts, Joe doesn’t think he’ll catch #1 etoppsfan” because etopps “plays all the sports, and V just plays Basketball and NFL, though he would love the honor.”

Joe made it clear that each week he used the same players across every lineup each week, “maybe switching one or two at most”. Money issues aside, he just “couldn’t deal with rooting against his players.” Well, here are the players he was rooting for on his way to winning $25,000. Joe gave me a brief glimpse into the thought-process behind the fantasy genius, by recapping his roster with me:

$25,000 Winning FFFC Roster

Joe enjoyed his time in Vegas. He told me FanDuel did an “extraordinary job with all the dinners, drinks, and events”, that he is “proud to be the first ever winner” and looks forward to being a “great rep” for FanDuel. He also enjoyed being prophetic in Lagasse’s Stadium, predicting a Pick 6 from Seattle’s defense to fellow RotoGrinder Tuffled1 just moments before it happened. At the time of our interview, FanDuel had not offered him any sponsorship opportunities, but Joe told us he is lined up for several interviews in the near future including possibly one with GQ magazine.

When you put it all together, GeneralV could be the best fantasy football player out there right now. His winnings are massive, his consistency and win-rate are unbelievable, and he told us that even “Kaiser avoids him.” But to many, all that really matters is the respect of your peers. As a testament to how much respect Joe has earned, fellow FFFC finalist and co-owner of RotoGrinders Cal Spears stated: “In my opinion Joe is the best daily fantasy football player. He just makes good picks more consistently than anyone else.”

Article Image Cameron MacMillan
RotoGrinders.com Fantasy Content Manager

About the Author

Cameron
Cameron MacMillan (Cameron)

Cameron MacMillan is an entrepreneur and angel investor, who co-founded RotoGrinders in 2010, alongside Cal Spears and Riley Bryant. Cameron operated as the COO, creating & implementing a multitude of business & content systems for the company over the course of 11 years, before Better Collective completed its acquisition of RG in 2021. In 2022, Cameron stepped back into an Advisory Role.