Senior Weilin Sun eagerly selected Carolina Panthers star running back Christian McCaffrey with the first pick of his fantasy football league’s virtual draft in early September; he instantly knew it was the right choice when he heard the enthused reactions in his Discord voice call.
Sun had sky-high expectations. He created a short list of coveted players days beforehand, hoping to leap ahead of his competitors: an annual Fantasy Football league of 10 seniors who sought to maximize the excitement of the 2021-22 NFL regular season.
According to an ESPN statistic, more than 40 million Americans participate in fantasy football each year. It can be difficult to differentiate the competitive atmosphere of other leagues to that of Sun’s, but the fantasy football rivalries among these 10 seniors felt each year has served to bring them closer together as friends.
Sun deployed various strategies throughout the season to achieve success. He entered multiple mock drafts to test ways to boost his offensive talent depth. Sun also drafted a kicker, Las Vegas Raider’s Daniel Carlson, in the last round, a position that normally outputs the fewest points per week.
“Kickers are in high supply and low demand,” Sun said. “It’s wise to use my earlier picks on players which are more valuable throughout the span of the season.”
Although Sun constructed a catalog of strategies for success, he had his fair share of setbacks. Sun’s team was devastated mid-season with an injury to McCaffrey, who, until then, had guaranteed over 20 points per week. He turned to the waiver wire, a pool of unpicked free agents.
To counteract his lack of wide-receiver depth, Sun picked up Amon-Ra St. Brown, a Detroit Lions player with favorable matchups at the time.
“St. Brown was always on my radar,” Sun said. “I knew he’d help my team short-term as my key players slowly recovered from their injury.”
Senior Soorya Kuppam, who competed in the same league as Sun, resorted to different tactics. He drafted a mix of his favorite players and those with the highest projected point totals per week.
He accurately predicted that Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp would break out with new quarterback Matthew Stafford. Kuppam also held the second pick in the draft, choosing Alvin Kamara from the New Orleans Saints, a dependable and durable rusher and his favorite player.
Kuppam regularly facilitated trades in the league, polling members if they believed the transaction was fair for both sides. Kuppam and his friends often engaged in fiery debates mere hours before games on Sunday to approve last minute trades.
“These people are my friends as well as my competitors, so I didn’t want to sabotage their team,” Kuppam said. “If I could estimate the number of trades, it’d be more than twenty over the season.”
Kuppam relied on analyzing the head-to-head matchups of offensive and defensive players. If he started a running back against a porous defense, a high total score was likely. If a player consistently scored more points than average for a couple weeks, Kuppam was more inclined to start him for the upcoming matchup. Many of his efforts contributed towards improving his overall record.
“At the end of the day, there is some luck associated with it,” Kuppam said. “Still, you have to consider the strength of the opposition and previous trends.”
Kuppam and Sun placed second and fifth in the league, respectively, which ended in early January- their mutual friend, senior Yousuf Zaman, won the league. They stated that there was initially a jackpot of money for the winner, but not enough participants contributed to it to make it enticing to Zaman.
Both Sun and Kuppam said they were able to increase their love for the game through strategy, planning and execution. Nearly all of the ten seniors intensified their viewership of regular season games to watch their players. Many use sports as an outlet of their interests and passions, and fantasy football has successfully extended that for these ten seniors.
“I learned more about the game and enjoyed a fun competition with my friends,” Kuppam said. “We may be in college next year, but I can’t wait to do it all over again.”