Big Events Breakdown Week 14: The Live Finals Are Underway!

by Stephen Keech (SBK) Last Updated 2013-12-18 00:10:10

For the first time in the history of daily fantasy football, $1,000,000 was rewarded to one winner after just a single afternoon of NFL action. Of course, RotoGrinders certainly had it’s hand in the action, with big names such as headchopper, PrimeTime420, maxdalury, along with eleven other members that had their shot at the million dollar top prize. The biggest event in daily fantasy football history took place on Sunday, and two other fake footballers will walk away with a $1,000,000 first prize in the next few weeks. DraftStreet’s final takes place this weekend, and DraftKings will crown their champion on December 22nd. The FFFC Final wasn’t the only game in town this weekend, so let’s recap all of our big winners in Week 14…

Fanduel FFFC Final

It would have obviously been nice to see one of our members take home the top prize, but second place (and $300,000) is still an insane accomplishment, especially when you do it two years in a row. Joeyengland98 actually finished as the runner-up in the FFFC last year as well, and his New England/Cleveland stack was a gutsy call that could have won him another $700,000 had Rob Gronkowski not gone down with a serious injury. He finished less than four points behind first place, and was near the top of the FFFC leaderboard right from the beginning. Joeyengland is our 73rd ranked tournament player and is 311th in the overall rankings, but both of those numbers will be on the rise after rankings are adjusted this week. PrimeTime420 was second among the RG members and seventh overall, and got there with big games from Jamaal Charles, Keenan Allen and the Arizona defense. As of now, PrimeTime is 4th in the TPOY and 9th overall, but it should be interesting to see where he stands after this performance. Ibdum was the only other RG member to finish in the top-15, and did so by pairing up Philip Rivers and Keenan Allen in addition to Bobby Rainey, Jordan Cameron and Eddie Lacy. He is 438th in the TPOY rankings, but again, those numbers have yet to reflect on the FFFC results. Congrats to all of our members who participated in this event, it will definitely be a weekend they won’t forget any time soon.

Fanduel 300K Sunday Bomb

Alanw630 was our only member in the top-ten this week. He finished in sixth place (good for $2,500) by pairing up Josh McCown and Matt Forte on MNF, who accounted for 66.52 points. Jamaal Charles, Julian Edelman, Jimmy Graham and the Cardinals D put him in a great spot, and the big Monday Night performances carried him into the top-ten. Alanw630 is 83rd on the NFL Grinder leaderboard, 84th in the TPOY rankings and is 203rd in the overall rankings.

Draftstreet $420 DFFC Qualifier

Congratulations to tipandpick for earning yet another DFFC entry in Week 14 after he secured his first entry just two weeks ago. It couldn’t have happened without a big performance from Josh McCown, but he got more than enough between him and Brandon Marshall and cruised to victory by over 15 points. Other than the Bengals defense, his entire lineup was productive and well-rounded. It should be interesting to see how he follows up next week in the DFFC Final, but now that he has two entries, he can mix things up a bit instead of relying on just a single lineup. You have to feel for Notorious after a rough Monday Night… he looked like a good bet to walk away with at least one DFFC entry (more on that in the $22 Q recap), but the Cowboys defense forgot to show up and the entire Bears offense walked all over them. He’s one of the best DFS minds in the community and does a lot for RotoGrinders, but he was just flat-out unlucky on Monday night. He’ll continue to be one of the best year-round players, and is our #6 ranked overall Grinder. BirdWings (3rd overall, 4th on the NFL Grinder leaderboard) finished third thanks to big games a few of his RB’s (LeSean McCoy, Marcel Reece, Jamaal Charles). MrTuttle05 managed to finish fourth even with the FFFC clearly at the forefront of his thoughts, but he’s already secured his spot in the DFFC Final. Miggytoddbest, who has come very close to taking down a qualifier a few times already this season, finished eighth this week. Miggy has climbed to 119th in the overall rankings and is 121st in the TPOY rankings. Lootmeister finished just a few points behind in ninth, and hit big with his Jason Campbell (3% owned) to Josh Gordon (6% owned) combination. He’s 377th on the NFL Grinder leaderboard.

Draftstreet $22 DFFC Qualifier

Congratulations to Notorious on taking down 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th in this tournament, but I’m shocked that he didn’t end up with a DFFC seat. A few fourth quarter carries from Matt Forte put it out of reach, but I don’t think anyone could have imagined that Forte and McCown would combine for over 66 points. DeMarco Murray also did some damage, and this game turning into a shootout was the last thing that he wanted. At least Notorious will take home some nice runner-up money, but he obviously would have prefered his shot at $1,000,000. Mbomb44 (3rd on the NFL Grinder leaderboard, 4th overall) finished in 7th, 8th and 9th place, and did so with three identical lineups featuring Shady McCoy, Big Ben to Antonio Brown, Brees to Graham, as well as Marcel Reece and ended up over 220 points on the day. Both he and Notorious would have won the $420 with any of their top-ten lineups in the $22. Tnation (aka loured) rounds things out in tenth place, and his lineup would have also been the winner had he entered it in the $420. He is currently 394th on the NFL Grinder leaderboard.

StarStreet $1K PFFC Qualifier

With only 13 entries in the tournament, we’ll just recap the top six finishers, all of which are RG members. A big congratulations to TommyG1979 (108th in TPOY, 314th overall) on taking down a trip to the mansion, which he must be absolutely ecstatic about. He’s been close quite a few times this year but finally manages to secure his spot in Week 14. Philip Rivers to Keenan Allen was his big QB/WR combo, and big games from Shane Vereen, Matt Forte and Jimmy Graham also helped land him a spot in the PFFC. Pkane1 finished second thanks to big games from Josh McCown and Matt Forte on MNF, and also received nearly 30 points from Jamaal Charles. Bluestem89 (32nd overall, 34th on the NFL Grinder leaderboard) finished third, and his mind must be focused on the DFFC with just a few days to go before he’ll have his shot at becoming a millionaire. We wish you the best of luck! TeamSleep (43rd on the NFL Grinder leaderboard, 90th overall) rode Drew Brees and Jimmy Graham to a fourth place finish, followed by radthad954 (23rd in the TPOY rankings, 41st on the NFL Grinder leaderboard) in fifth place and our 18th ranked NFL Grinder Westy in sixth place.

StarStreet $109 PFFC Qualifier

Oldowl (aka mmpr) was so close to a PFFC entry, but Josh McCown kept putting up points and he eventually got passed. He still put together an extremely well-rounded lineup, and he got value out of every position except his second FLEX spot (Le’Veon Bell, who wasn’t that bad but was his least productive player in terms of $/point). Oldowl is our 238th ranked overall Grinder. Westy (95th overall) followed close behind in both third and fourth, and did so with two pretty different lineups that finished within a point of each other. Powerbait (123rd on the NFL Grinder leaderboard) finished fifth, and could have put up a much bigger score had Calvin Johnson not been stuck playing in a blizzard. BirdWings put together sixth and ninth place finishes, and had the under-owned combo of Drew Brees and Marques Colston which accounted for almost 65 points. MUredhawk (614th overall) finished seventh, followed by TommyG1979 who finished eighth in this one despite scoring more points here than he did in the $1K (which he won).

DraftKings Sunday 200 Grand ($200K Guaranteed)

Condia takes down second place and yet another FMGF entry… He was part of the 2.9% of the field who played Jason Campbell (33.34 points), and part of the 2.4% that rolled out Charles Clay (28.7 points). The man is a machine (not literally, although some seem to think so); he’s first in our overall rankings, NFL Grinder leaderboard, and our monthly leaderboard. LeoTPP (222nd in the TPOY rankings, 312th on the NFL Grinder leaderboard) finished fourth thanks to huge performances from McCown, Shane Vereen and Charles Clay, followed by metsfan828 in seventh. Our 10th ranked NFL Grinder secured another FMGF entry this week, and if you haven’t earned yours yet, this is the last week to do it (unless you want to pay $1,500 per entry). PrimordialAA (118th on the NFL Grinder leaderboard) rounds out the top ten.

DraftDay’s $11 Bracket Blitz

The $11 DraftDay Bracket Blitz still has one week to go, but we already know who the winner will be! Phyzz_Staxx (aka kgeorge, 19th on the NFL Grinder leaderboard and 51th in the overall rankings) had two entries in the final four, one against fellow Grinder tipandpick and another against deeshen13. He managed to win both of those match-ups, and will now face himself in the finals this week! Taking down both first and second place is an incredible feat in a tournament which has run basically all season long. He didn’t make too many mistakes along the way and can breath easy this week knowing he’s already got things wrapped up. Phyzz_Staxx is becoming an accomplished year-round Grinder as well, currently sitting in 21st on our NBA Grinder leaderboard.