At first glance, fantasy sports seem to imply a sophisticated system, out of reach for people without mathematical know-how who are always keeping up-to-date with the sports events. On the other hand, fantasy sports can be viewed in a much simpler manner: essentially, a group of people joins a league (typically online) and creates a team from various players of a certain sport. The interesting aspect of fantasy sports is that the real performance of the players in their sport has a direct impact on the way they perform in the fantasy league. And, let’s not forget what Billy Joel pointed out: in certain situations, fantasy is all you need.

Fantasy sports before the internet era

Even though it sounds a bit surprising, the truth is that many fantasy sports fans claim they were able to analyze their choices from a completely different point of view, which was also more favorable. Some may say this perception came from having extraordinary players in the league, such as Emmitt Smith in his prime. However, if this was the case, let’s not forget that players such as Chris Warren were also among the popular choices (especially when he was playing for Seattle).

You have to admit that this situation demanded some tough decisions and to illustrate this point of view, let’s use the Chris Warren example. Even though he was the example of the world’s best running back then, his team was playing without its two best run stoppers. The bottom line is that this kind of situations forced people into dissecting the fantasy sports games like never before.

How decisions should be made in fantasy sports

The advantage of fans who played fantasy sports before the internet era is that they can see the big picture. Nowadays, you will see various fantasy sports handicappers making huge mistakes like mismatching. To be more precise, more often than not, you can notice hasty handicappers making all sorts of rush decisions when a key offensive player gets injured. In other words, this can only mean 2 things in their opinion: more points for a key defensive player or fewer points for offense players.

In all honesty, the solution is not that simple: if you were to assume that a run blocker typically on the offensive line gets injured, that can also mean that the team needs to pass more. As you can easily observe, teams compensate for injured players – of greater or less importance – by adjusting their gameplay accordingly.

At the same time, even with totally unfortunate injuries (eg. 2 best run stoppers injured), it is advisable to take the time and determine how it will influence the opposing team. Have you ever thought that the opponents may not be motivated to run more? Assuming that this was the case, then you need to further analyze the ball possession: if the opponents have a lower possession, then it can be interpreted as fewer scoring opportunities.

Read “The Amazing World Of Fantasy Sports – Part 2” for the rest of this story