Demons in the Details: Fantasy Football Scandal Intensifies with Sinister Swaps & Supernatural Excuses
The fantasy cheating scandal at the National Fantasy Football Championships (NFFC) has somehow gotten worse less than 48 hours after the Ship Chasing crew broke the story.
For starters: Other NFFC users have been combing through the transactions made by the user accused of teaming up with an administrator to change his lineups, post-lock, in the Post Season Hold’em contest.
And while combing through those transactions, other incidents were found of the user apparently getting his lineup switched.
More fantasy football cheating uncovered
On X, formerly known as Twitter, “Drewby” uncovered a similar situation in a different contest, the “Mini,” in which Nico Collins of the Texans was switched into a lineup over an hour after lock. Collins had scored and had around 75 yards at the time of the switch.
Found another “isolated” incident from Willis in the Mini .. assumes timestamps still in CST as
ShipChasing</a> orig found<br>-User *allegedly* swaps onto "(player-popup #nico-collins)Nico Collins":/players/nico-collins-2861874 at 5:33ET<br>-Related: "(player-popup #nico-collins)Nico Collins":/players/nico-collins-2861874 had ~75 yards and a TD in the 1Q of the game Sat 1/13 game that begin 4:30ET <a href="https://t.co/EulUy5a2ll">pic.twitter.com/EulUy5a2ll</a></p>— Drewby (drewby417) January 26, 2024
Separately, the Ship Chasing team received a tip that there was a regular season contest in which a similar move happened. They also posted to X with their findings.
We received a tip that indicates
TheNFFC</a> playoff contest was not the 1st time Bradley Willis' lineup was changed post-lock<br><br>Below details a 2023 Week 16 move in a $350 regular season contest<br><br>We corroborated w/ transaction & lineups pages that an apparent post-lock move was made <a href="https://t.co/WqcaOA6EVm">pic.twitter.com/WqcaOA6EVm</a></p>— Chasing Kerrane (ShipChasing) January 26, 2024
NFFC founder addresses cheating scandal
And adding fuel to the fire, Greg Ambrosius, the general manager of consumer fantasy games for the SportsHub Games Network and founder of the NFFC, went back to the NFFC forums to try and quell the anger directed at the NFFC administrator who was fired for his role in the scandal.
This doesn’t help at all.
— Pat Thorman (@Pat_Thorman) January 26, 2024
The “demon” didn’t just crush a single business, he put a black mark on an entire industry.
People who scream “rigged” when they lose now have something real to point at.
Spare everyone the tears for this guy, and the blaming a “demon” nonsense. pic.twitter.com/ZdE1sPA6IJ
“It’s obvious to me that he has a demon,” Ambrosius wrote in part. “That demon gave him the courage to do something so inexplicably stupid that he can’t even understand it. That demon gives him the courage to say stupid stuff on Twitter, an account that thankfully he has deleted. That demon must die. That demon must be eradicated.”
On more practical matters, Ambrosius wrote, “We as a company … took immediate action and we were as transparent as we could be with all of you. We’re taking our lumps in the industry now and we’ll never have this stain removed. We understand that. And we’ve taken steps to never let this happen again.”
The details of the original incident were explained in the Ship Chasing podcast, which you can listen to here.
How it all started
In summary, the Hold’em contest that started the scandal involves contestants selecting one player from each of the 12 playoff teams. Points are earned based on multipliers for each round a player remains in the playoffs. As players are eliminated, contestants can choose new players.
The scandal unfolded when the Ship Chasing hosts, part of a team in the contest, observed another team with a similar roster leapfrogging them in the standings. Using game theory as their guide, the Ship Chasing crew picked up Travis Kelce, anticipating the other team would choose Rashee Rice.
After the games locked at 6:30 p.m. ET, the Ship Chasing crew confirmed their decision was correct as the other team had indeed chosen Rice.
Kelce went out and scored a pair of touchdowns, but after checking the standings post-game, the Ship Chasing crew noticed the user with the similar lineup, who they had identified earlier, remained in the top 10. Upon further investigation, they discovered the user had switched out Rice for Kelce, three minutes after Kelce’s first score.
Further digging revealed a similar incident the week before, where the user had swapped Raheem Mostert for Aaron Jones. Both instances involved an administrator making the switches. Through Twitter, the Ship Chasing crew uncovered a long-standing personal relationship between the user and the administrator.
The matter was reported to NFFC management, leading to the prompt termination of the administrator and a lifetime ban for the user. The contest continues unaffected for other teams, according to Ambrosius.
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