It's Official! Congratulations to Al Smizzle for winning the 2013 Tournament Player of the Year!

by Curtis Brodzina (DillingerFour) Last Updated 2015-03-09 20:38:04

Pulitzer Prize. Most Valuable Player. Rookie of the Year. Cy Young Award. RotoGrinders Tournament Player of the Year. All superlatives synonymous with excellence. This year we had an exciting TPOY here at RotoGrinders. Naapstermaan started off the year on a tear. He was the leader by almost double second place for the first half of the year. The race kept getting closer by the end of baseball, and holding onto the lead would be tough once football season began. Football season provided three $1 million payouts, not to mention a $300k Bomb for most of the year on Fan Duel. NFL turned the race into an all-out war. Naapstermaan managed to hold onto that lead through two one million dollar winners, but a certain Ric Flair icon-sporting man known as PrimeTime420 took over the lead by 1300 points in Week 16. Sitting all the way back in 13th, 5300 points behind going into the final week was AlSmizzle. Al pretty much needed to bink the DraftKings Millionaire, or finish in the Top 3 with a great week on other sites as well. And have a huge weekend he did. Al took down six figures and 5100 points in the Millionaire, picked up 1500 points in two smaller buy-in tournaments on DraftKings, along a sixth place in FanDuel’s King of the Girdiron for 1500 more points. The 7600 point weekend was enough that when the rankings were finalized, AlSmizzle was the top dog.

The final top 10 was loaded with the best of the best in our industry. Lets take a look at the top 10 and how they arrived at their final position.

10. headChopper – 11,239 Pts

HeadChopper put together another solid year. One of the Daily Fantasy originals, he has survived and thrived where many have fallen off. Chop started the year off by taking down the Fanduel Fantasy Basketball Championship for 1140 points and $50k. Then in the fall, Chop had maybe the most epic week in DFS history Week 11 of NFL. He Qualified for two live finals two times each that weekend along with a first place in the DK $200k Sunday to nab 1480 of his points on DraftKings. Chop made all three live football finals this year.

9. Stlcardinals84 – 11,412 Pts

Stlcardinals84 is one of our main contributors here on RotoGrinders, be it through Grinders Live or his daily picks in incentives and main page columns. An amazing player in all sports, Cards used scores from MLB, NFL and CFB to add to his TPOY points. His biggest score of the year came in the DSBC, where he finished second and collected 1116 points. He was also a finalist in the DFFC and had a third place finish in the DSBBC.

8. CSURam88 – 11,484 Pts

The 2012 DFFC champion couldn’t repeat as champion, but the frequent Grinders Live and GrindersU contributor still put together a solid year. Maybe the most dominant player on DraftKings this year, Pete picked up 1659 points with a 13th place finish in the Millionaire. He also was a frequent high finisher in the DK $200k Sunday tournament. A frequent nose-bleed stakes player, look for him to hit the TPOY with renewed vigor next year.

7. MrTuttle05 – 11,499 Pts

Barely beating out CSURam for the 7th spot was MrTuttle. Known for his contrarian plays and out of the box thinking, Tuttle is one of the best all around players out there. He was a triple qualifier this year for live finals picking up 3342 points in the three events, including a 2nd place finish at StarStreet. He also qualified for the FFBC where he finished 17th. His picks may make you scratch your head sometimes, but nobody can argue against his results.

6. Naapstermaan – 12,070 Pts

An NBA and MLB beast, Naapstermaan was the leader for most of the TPOY. He came out of the gate strong, winning the bank shot on DraftKings for $50k. He then took down another $100k in the Midsummer Classic on DraftKings. Naapster also qualified for the Playboy Baseball Championship, finishing 6th. He also proved his NFL mettle this year by qualifying for the FFFC and the PBFFC. Maybe the best tournament specialist in the game, Naapstermaan is my early favorite for 2014 TPOY.

5. McJester – 12,319 Pts

Maybe the most impressive man on this list is McJester. He was not even in the top 25 in July and steadily climbed the rankings through the last half of the year. His biggest point score came in the $25 bomb on FD where he took third place out of 11,115 people for 3rd place and 956 points. He did make one live final this year going to the FFFC and picking up 641 points, but the majority of his scores have come at the $25 buy-in level. To pick up so many points in $25 tournaments with such large fields is a testament to his GPP ability.

4. MSidla – 12,375 Pts

That’s M Sidla, not Ms Idla if you were wondering. Sidla was a relative unknown heading into the DSFFC. He took down second place for $250k in Vegas for 3675 points, and then put that bankroll right to work. Maybe the most impressive performance in the DraftKings Millionaire as he cashed seven times. He has since been seen in the high stakes games on DKs. It’s scary to think what he can do with a big bankroll. MSidla has a great chance of being the breakout player of the year in 2014.

3. Woopdeedoo – 12,574 Pts

He may take your money as Woopdeedoo, DirtyGirl15 or BeepImaJeep, but either way he is taking it. A football and baseball specialist, he qualified for the DSFFC and picked up 754 points. His two biggest scores came over at DraftKings. Over the summer he finished sixth in the Midsummer Classic for 869 points. His biggest score of the year came Week 1 of NFL when he took down the $1 Million kick off tournament for $150k and 3302 points.

2. PrimeTime420 – 14,244 Pts

Wooooooooooooooooooo. To be the man you gotta beat the man. PT420 beat most of the men this year. Our final NFL triple qualifier, PrimeTime used his 3080 points from the live finals to jump into first place with one week to go in the TPOY. He also qualified this year for the FFBC and the PFBC. If there’s a live final, there’s a very good chance you will find PrimeTime there. Good luck finding him though, as he is a superstitious guy and often won’t watch the games.

1. AlSmizzle – 15,944 Pts

And finally we have the man, the myth, the legend, AlSmizzle. Al kicked off his year by taking down the DSBBC for $50k and 1192 TPOY points. He then took down the DraftKings Walkoff in April. He was also a finalist for the DFBC and DSBC. By December though, Al had slipped down in the rankings, failing to qualify for any live finals in NFL. All was made right in Week 16 of the NFL though, as Al took 2nd in the DraftKings Millionaire for $350k and a whopping 5100 TPOY points. He paired that with a sixth place finish in the KOTG on FanDuel to jump Primetime420 and wrap up the TPOY. A grinder in all sports, Al had quite the amazing year.

Congratulations to everyone who finished in the Top 10. Truly the cream of the crop.