Big Events: Divisional Round Contests
Coming off of the last major weekend of daily fantasy NFL action, its struck me how much I’m going to miss watching a full day of football every Sunday. DraftKings sent the season off in style, running a $400K Guaranteed tournament where the winner took home $100,000. FanDuel also continued on with the $300K Bomb, which will run again this coming weekend, albeit on a weekend with just two games. It’s hard to run NFL contests with just two games (limited player options, similarity in lineups), but if you want to make the conference championship games more interesting, you’ll have your chance. In addition to the Bomb, DraftKings is running a $50K GPP, and DraftStreet/DraftDay are also offering a number of different tournaments, although the prize pools are smaller compared to recent weeks.
Quite a few Grinders put up big performances in the DraftKings $400K this past weekend, including well-known names such as PrimeTime420 and maxdalury, who both finished in the top-ten. Guys like Jonathan Bales, headChopper and Al Smizzle were also near the top of the leaderboard, but were a player or two away from cracking the top-ten.
DraftKings Playoff $400 Grand
| Finish | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | aemd23 | $100,000 |
| 2 | Biffster | $40,000 |
| 3 | dmussari | $20,000 |
| 4 | aemd23 | $11,000 |
| 5 | BrandonAdams | $7,500 |
| 6 | maxdalury | $5,000 |
| 7 | TheOldStand | $4,000 |
| 8 | Ramp | $4,000 |
| 9 | PrimeTime420 | $3,000 |
| 10 | jsurab | $3,000 |
| 11 | ineedmoney23 | $2,000 |
| 12 | neversafe | $2,000 |
| 13 | KDG16 | $2,000 |
| 14 | 22kc22 | $2,000 |
| 15 | KDG16 | $2,000 |
When the weekend came to a close, maxdalury was our top finisher in sixth place. He rostered the three players necessary to compete in GPPs; LeGarrette Blount, Keenan Allen and Marshawn Lynch, and also did pretty well with Andrew Luck and Knowshon Moreno. Maxdalury is 11th in the overall rankings and 13th on the NFL Grinder leaderboard. Ramp (aka DSMatt), whom you know if you’ve spent any time in the DraftStreet chat rooms, finished a few spots behind in eighth. PrimeTime420 (10th in both the overall and NFL Grinder rankings) was one of just 3.7% of entries that rostered Stevan Ridley, who was one of the top RB’s of the Divisional Round. Following PrimeTime’s ninth place finish was ineedmoney23 (115th on the NFL Grinder leaderboard, 201st in the overall rankings) in 11th place, who flew up the leaderboard once Kennan Allen and Philip Rivers got it going in the second half. KDG16 (35th on the Monthly leaderboard) finished with entries in both 13th and 15th, and he also benefited nicely from San Diego’s late push.
Fanduel 300K Saturday Bomb
| Finish | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | joeywats19 | $25,000 |
| 2 | bernsteinadvantage | $12,000 |
| 3 | kidcal | $8,000 |
| 4 | josh_tilley | $5,500 |
| 5 | drewbibb | $4,000 |
| 6 | kingsamuel | $2,000 |
| 7 | zorion82 | $2,000 |
| 8 | dewcrew7 | $2,000 |
| 9 | endzonedance23 | $1,100 |
| 10 | endzonedance23 | $1,100 |
| 11 | johnnyff | $900 |
| 12 | eande_enterprises | $900 |
| 13 | joaocof | $900 |
| 14 | juice317 | $800 |
| 15 | adriantm69 | $800 |
| 16 | deagan | $800 |
| 17 | goldfinn | $800 |
| 18 | hotshotj11 | $800 |
| 19 | redaddy25 | $750 |
| 20 | jason_boris | $750 |
Congratulations to zorion82 (497th on the NFL Grinder leaderboard) for his seventh place finish in the Bomb. In addition to Blount, Lynch and Allen, he also had one of the week’s top WR’s in Marques Colston, who was not owned by much of the field. The only other RG member to finish in the top-twenty was redaddy25, who also rostered the same big four that led zorion82 to his big finish. Redaddy25 is currently sitting in 251st in the overall rankings.
It’s been a pleasure recapping the major NFL events across the industry all season long, and we hope to keep this article concept going as the major NBA tournaments get underway. If you’re an NFL person who’s looking to continue the daily fantasy grind, I would highly suggest trying your hand at the NBA. While it can be a frustrating sport at times with late-breaking injury news, there’s a long seven months ahead until the 2014 NFL season kicks off. If you sign up for a new site through our links, you’ll get free access to incentives for that site, which are invaluable tools that can make a big difference in your bankroll. During this NFL season, we’ve seen arguably the biggest growth period for daily fantasy sports so far, and the big events in 2014 should continue to grow from the multi-million dollar prize pools we saw this season… Exciting times are ahead!