DraftKings 2015 NBA/NHL Finals Recap
Nothing quite captures the attention and imagination of the daily fantasy industry quite like a live final, when a select group of qualifiers get the opportunity to be treated like kings and queens by the sites they play on every day, and compete for a chance at big prizes.
This past weekend, DraftKings held their World Championships featuring a live final for both NHL and NBA, and there was plenty of fun to be had, and no shortage of drama in the main events.
You can recap all of the fun at our live coverage page, but here’s an overview of what went down.
NBA Main Event
Sunday night a new DFS millionaire was crowned as GOULET took down the top spot in the $2 Million Basketball Championship. The fight for first was intense right up until the end, as GOULET’s Boston and Detroit players squared off against Danilo Gallinari and Bradley Beal from second-place finisher Makisupa. But in the end, it was this lineup that brought GOULET a seven-digit grand prize.
Quincy Pondexter and Caron Butler stand out as very interesting inclusions, but they made sense given the injury situations for both teams. Pondexter figured to see extra opportunities with Tyreke Evans out, and Butler has been chipping in to provide some extra minutes for the Pistons recently with their injuries and general lack of talent on the wings. But they weren’t the ones posting the big points for this new DFS millionaire.
Instead, it was the combination of Russell Westbrook, Tim Duncan, Evan Turner, Jae Crowder and Andre Drummond which provided a solid spine of top plays on the day to propel him to the top of the leaderboard. Duncan was heavily owned, as his low price point on DraftKings coupled with a favorable and competitive matchup with the Hawks was easily spotted by over half of the field. But Turner and Crowder were owned by under a third of the competitors, while Westbrook and Drummond were under 20%.
Paying up for Russell Westbrook was a gutsy call, and it was one that paid off for GOULET, as he’s now one million dollars richer and has claimed the title of 2015 DraftKings NBA World Champion.
Makisupa’s second-place finish must be disappointing given his position in the lead late in the slate, but a $250,000 payday while hanging out in Vegas isn’t a bad consolation prize. To add insult to injury, Dean broke the news to Makisupa that he was defeated by a team with Caron Butler, which may have made his second-place finish taste a bit more sour.
Some other familiar names graced the top-10, as FFFC champion escot4 took down fourth place for $100,000, which may pale in comparison to his prize from the FanDuel NFL final, but is still a nice chunk of change from a relative newcomer to DFS who has already claimed a ton of prize money less than a year into his DFS career. He took some time to talk to Dean, and you can check that out here.
The DK King of the Beach 2014 champions from team Kobe/Troll4MVP (see their interview here) claimed sixth place for $50,000, GPP mastermind and RotoGrinders features writer Ganondorf claimed ninth for $20,000 (Dean caught up with him at the event, you can watch that here), and the red-hot maxdalury found himself near the top of yet another contest, picking up $20,000 for a tenth-place finish (check out his interview with Dean here).
NHL Main Event
Basketball may have featured a bigger prize pool and more contestants, but for a less heralded daily fantasy sport like hockey, the $200,000 Fantasy Hockey World Championship was a great opportunity to win big with DFS NHL. A total of 25 entries fought for first place, and it was LSphila who took down the whole thing, claiming the $100,000 top prize.
But he certainly didn’t win running away, as a late goal by the Predators’ Mike Fisher vaulted him into first and into the daily fantasy hockey history books. As is normally the case with daily hockey, LSphila nailed his pick at goalie, and put together a stack of teammates who produced goals, and that tried and true recipe for success ended up winning him the tournament. Here’s the winning lineup.
LSphila stacked Montreal, Ottowa and Nashville players to help bring home first place, pairing Brendan Gallagher and Tomas Plekanec at low ownership to set himself apart. He made the smart choice at goalie, going with Islanders’ netminder Jaroslav Halak, who faced a healthy amount of shots and stopped them all, earning a win and a shutout bonus. Unfortunately for LSphila, he was unable to attend the event himself, but sent family in his place for good luck and support, including his mother, who spoke with Dean at the conclusion of the event.
The contestant that was the victim of Fisher’s late heroics, JayWilly83, fell short despite a similar lineup, with only two unique players compared to the first-place entry. His decision to pick Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook and Ottowa forward Milan Michalek will be what ultimately cost him first place, but still contributed to a lineup that netted him a $25,000 prize to cap off a weekend hanging out in Vegas. Dean caught up with the relative newcomer to DFS, and you can check that out here.
The DraftKings Experience
Obviously only a handful of the group of players who earned seats in these live finals see their name in lights in this article, meaning they fell short of a big payday and can’t claim the title of “World Champion” of DFS NBA or NHL. But they still walk away with a nice payday and got to spend a great weekend in Vegas receiving VIP treatment from the DraftKings crew.
The finalists all got their shot at big prizes and championship belts this weekend, but the live final experience started earlier in the week, as the finalists checked in at the Aria Resort in Las Vegas and were greeted with some ridiculous scenery and all the sparkle and neon of the Entertainment Capital of the World. But the crew at DK didn’t leave the finalists on their own to fend for themselves among the casinos and live shows, but instead offered some truly unique experiences that made the trip worth it, even for those who didn’t finish as high as they’d hoped.
On Thursday, the players spent time watching the NCAA tournament in a room filled with televisions, food and drink, while also getting a chance to mingle and shoot hoops with none other than NBA legend Dr. J. The 11-time NBA All-Star was outclassed in a game of HORSE, with familiar faces Socrdave and CSURam88 knocking down long-range shots inside the hotel in what looked to be a really fun time. That evening, the finalists got to dine and mingle at the BANK Club at the Bellagio, and if you watch the video put together by the team at DK, you’ll be firing off some entries into the next qualifier you can find to try to get this kind of experience for yourself.
And then on Friday, DK pulled out all the stops to provide the finalists with some unique experiences that would help make the weekend even more memorable than it would be for DFS reasons. Indoor skydiving, golf and a trip to the spa sound like pretty solid experiences, but GrindersLive host Al_Smizzle made the wise choice of getting behind the wheel of some of the world’s finest automobiles and going for a spin at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Check out clips from a crazy Friday of excursions courtesy of DKTV by clicking here.
And then with the weekend came the live finals, as Saturday’s NHL final and Sunday’s NBA championship brought drama from start to finish. You can check out our live blog coverage to relive the weekend as it happened by following this link.
All things considered, it sounds as if DraftKings put together another fantastic live final experience, and one that the entrants and their friends and families won’t soon forget.