Not only was Week 15 a huge week in traditional fantasy football leagues, with a lot single elimination semi-final playoff matches being played, but we hosted the Championship Round of our IDP Experts and IDP Everyman’s Tournaments.

There is an A side and B side championship for each tournament, the A side a triple header between our top two competitors through Rounds 1 and 2, and the B side a four team round robin between the next best competitors from the initial field of twelve players. It seems that none of the championship matches used the less than interesting New York Jets at Tennessee Titans Monday Night Football game in their challenges, so we can already announce our winners in each tournament.

Congrats to IDP Manor, our A Champion, and JeneBramel, our B Champion, in the Experts Tournament. For those of you who don’t know these IDP experts, IDP Manor is Gary Davenport from Fantasy Sharks. JeneBramel is Jene Bramel from Footballguys and his Second Opinion blog.

Congrats to Terminalkennedy, our A Champion, and Scott Kuff our B Champion, in the Everyman’s Tournament. It is fitting these two finished at the top of this tourney as Tk and Scott compete in the first Fantasy Throwdown weekly fantasy league against each other. Tk had a big early lead in the league when we first learned about it, but Scott has come back in a vengeance recently the last update we received. Now this gives each of them something else to crow about!

Thanks again to all of our fantasy experts for taking the time to compete in our Experts tournament to help showcase Fantasy Throwdown, and thanks to our regular players who competed in the Everyman’s tournament and for supporting the continued growth of Throwdown.

Our next special event is going to be for the NFL Playoffs (see: last year). Well, we might try to negotiate an Expert vs. Everyman Throwdown if Gary, Jene, Tk and Scott are up for it, but for most of you, keep playing Throwdown and make sure to keep checking back for our NFL Playoffs competition.

Here are the final standings for the Championship Round of each IDP tournament.

IDP Manor wins with a 2-1 record. IDPwithBEE took a chance on Robert Griffin III in their second game, but that didn’t cost him. That was the game he won! Check the rosters for each challenge.

JeneBramel wins the group using the head-to-head tie-breaker over Stwongbad. _BNQ finishes third using the head-to-head tie-breaker over TheFFGhost.

Terminalkennedy wins with a perfect 3-0 record.

Scott Kuff wins the group using the head-to-head tie-breaker over Wilforkisland. Airbus79 finishes third using the head-to-head tie-breaker over j0eo1s.

It is only Thursday, but the A Championships for each of our IDP Experts and IDP Everyman’s Tournaments are already drafted. These guys were keen to get their triple header challenges done and let the chips fall where they may.

In our IDP Experts A Championship, we have IDPwithBEE, Brandon Salamat of Roster Watch and @IDPwithBEE on Twitter versus IDP Manor, Gary Davenport of Fantasy Sharks and @IDPManor on Twitter. These two faced each other back in Round 1 of our tournament as they were randomly assigned to the same group. IDPwithBEE got the upper hand in that opening match. Here are the draft results from their three matches for the Championship Round.

In our IDP Everyman’s A Championship, Butkiss faces off against Terminalkennedy, two of our top regular players. Each played Throwdown last season, so they are very experienced players. Butkiss is currently ranked #3 and Terminalkennedy #5 on our Leaderboard. Here is how their drafts shook out.

Good luck to all of our competitors!

Parity, parity, parity. That is the name of the game in our IDP Experts Tournament for Round 2, apparently. After our field of 12 competitors from Round 1 reduced down to 9, we formed groups of 3 players each playing a double header round robin within their group. In two of three experts groups, every double header was a split, resulting in 2-2 won-loss records across the board and the point differential tie breaker to decide the standings.

Over in the Everyman’s Tournament, things were a little more clear. The first place finisher in each group did it based on their win-loss record with no tie breakers needed. There were some very close matchups in our Everyman’s Group D though (the group with our first place finishers from Round 1). laoch defeated Terminalkennedy 106.1-106, but then needed to defeat Airbus79 after Monday Night Football to claim second place in the group. The score? Airbus79 124.7 to laoch 124.4. Close!

The Round 2 group standings are shown below. Next week is the Championship Round, and we have an A Championship and B Championship for each our tournaments.

The first place team from Group D and Group E play for the A Championship. They are going to play a triple header this week, Week 15 of the NFL season.

The first place team from Group F, plus second place from each of D, E and F, play for the B Championship. They are going to play a round robin to decide the winner.

IDPwithBEE wins the group with a 3-1 record. The second game between IDPwithBEE and JeneBramel was decided on Monday night, with the winner claiming the group.

IDP Manor wins the group using the points differential tie-breaker over Stwongbad and Tylerrose34. Stwongbad finishes second using the points differential tie-breaker over Tylerrose34.

TheFFGhost wins the group using the points differential tie-breaker over _BNQ and FansFantasy. _BNQ finishes second using the points differential tie-breaker over FansFantasy.

Terminalkennedy wins the group with a perfect 4-0 record.

Butkiss wins the group with a perfect 4-0 record. Scott Kuff finishes second using the points differential tie-breaker over patwat.

j0eo1s wins the group with a perfect 4-0 record. Wilforkisland finishes second using the points differential tie-breaker over cwill0303.

We kicked off our IDP Experts and IDP Everyman’s Tournaments last week, 12-team competitions for our players to showcase their individual defensive player skills. And as with everything fantasy football, a little luck never hurts. Case in point: Von Miller = great pick this past week; Jason Pierre-Paul = not so great pick. That’s the way the ball bounces, even on the defensive side.

The top three from each group advance to the next round played this week, Week 14 of the NFL season. This upcoming week determines which players advance to our tourney championship games in Week 15.

From Round 1, the first place finisher for each of Groups A, B and C form Group D. The second place finishers from Round 1 form Group E. The third place finishers from Round 1 form Group F. The fourth place finishers are out of the tourney. The tribe has spoken.

Each of groups D, E and F will play a double header round robin this week, which is four games. The games will be added to your Game Manager shortly so everyone can get started. Now without further adieu, here are the standings from Round 1 of each tournament.

IDPwithBEE wins the group with a perfect 3-0 record.

AndyMiley wins the group with a perfect 3-0 record.

JeneBramel wins the group using the points differential tie-breaker over Stwongbad and FansFantasy. Stwongbad finishes second using the head-to-head tie-breaker over FansFantasy.

laoch wins the group with a perfect 3-0 record.

Airbus79 wins the group using the points differential tie-breaker over patwat and j0eo1s. patwat finishes second using the head-to-head tie-breaker over j0eo1s.

Terminalkennedy wins the group with a perfect 3-0 record.

Thanks again to all of our competitors for taking part, and good luck to everyone still in it!

We got a lot of love for our last series of tournaments, the “For The Heck Of It” tourneys that spanned Weeks 7 through 10 of the NFL season. Last week we had our big Turkey Day Challenge event to celebrate Thanksgiving football. Time for another tournament? Yes. This time we get defensive and are rolling out two tournaments that draft individual defensive players (IDP) for all of the challenges.

First, we have an IDP Experts Tournament, and man, have we assembled a superstar cast of combatants for this one. They are all on Twitter, so give them a follow for some exceptional fantasy football insight. The group includes the individuals who currently hold down the #1, #2, #3, #4, #7 and #8 ranked spots in FantasyPros IDP Accuracy Scores (year-to-date)! Here is the lineup:

» Jene Bramel (JeneBramel), Footballguys
» Gary Davenport (IDP Manor), Fantasy Sharks
» Steve Gallo (IDPSteve), The Huddle
» Ross Miles (PFF_RossMiles), Pro Football Focus
» Andrew Miley (AndyMiley), Dynasty League Football
» Brian Quinlan (BNQ_), Roster Watch
» Jeff Ratcliffe (JeffRatcliffe), Pro Football Focus
» Brandon Salamat (IDPwithBEE), Roster Watch
» Walton Spurlin (Tylerrose34), Fantasy Sharks
» TheFFGhost (TheFFGhost), Dynasty League Football
» Steve Wyremski (SteveWyremski), Dynasty League Football
» Ken Zalis (FansFantasy), FansFanasyFootball

And here our the groups for the tourney:

Groups A and B each showcase a competitor from DLF, Sharks, PFF and Roster Watch, so if one website can win both of those groups, then it will be big time props to them. Group C is our mixed bag group, Huddle vs. Footballguys vs. FansFF vs. DLF. We have some Throwdown first timers here, and some Throwdown vets, so we see if that plays a part determining our Experts Tourney Champ.

 
Our second tournament is 100% Throwdown vets, as many of these names dominate the top of our Leaderboard. What was originally just named our IDP Tournament, we’ll call this one our IDP Everyman’s Tournament. These guys may not make a career or part-time career in fantasy sports, but this will be a very tough group in its own right to advance to and win the championship.

This tourney includes our #1, #2 and #3 ranked players, each in a different group. We’ve also got #5 through #7 and #9 through #12. Heck, our lowest ranked player in this is robmcangus, but I saw his Turkey Day results. He dominated our IDP achievements from the T-Day Challenge. I think the low ranking just means he was a little later to the party playing Throwdown this season. Yep, this is going to be a battle!

Okay, quickly lets go over the format and rules. Everything is pretty much the same as our prior 12-team tourneys, except with IDP lineups.

 
Week 13

• 12 players split up into three groups of four; Groups A, B and C
• Each group plays a round robin (3 games) in Week 13
• 1st place finisher in each group advances to Group D
• 2nd place finisher in each group advances to Group E
• 3rd place finisher in each group advances to Group F
• 4th place finisher in each group get bupkis, nada, zilch, nothing. You’re out

Week 14

• Each group of three plays a double header round robin (4 games) in Week 14
• 1st place finisher in Group D and 1st place finisher in Group E advance to A-side Championship
• 1st place finisher in Group F and 2nd place finishers in each of Groups D, E and F advance to B-side Championship
• 3rd place finisher in each group get bupkis, nada, zilch, nothing. You’re out

Week 15

• A-side championship involves three games between the two players in Week 15. The best won-loss record from the three matches is our A Champ
• B-side championship is a round robin between the four players. 1st place finisher in the group is our B Champ

Format and Other Rules

• All tournament games are Individual Defensive Player (IDP) lineups and PPR scoring format
• Group rankings are determined by won-loss record. In the event of identical won-loss records, the first tie-breaker is head-to-head record between the players who tied, and the second tie-breaker is point differential for all group games
• Official tournament games are created by Throwdown admin and will be marked as tourney games in your Game Manager. If you experience a problem with a tourney game, contact admin to help fix it rather than creating an unsanctioned game
• The assigned challenger and challengee for each game will be divided as evenly as possible across all games for each player. In the event of an odd number of games the challenger/challengee for the last odd game will be randomly assigned
• Games must be completed in the specified week. In the event of a game expiring prior to draft completion, Throwdown admin will determine one person who failed to sufficiently live up to their commitment to complete the draft and/or give their opponent enough time to draft, and declare that game a forfeit and drop the player to last place in his or her group.

Prizes

A Champ and B Champ will each receive an official Fantasy Throwdown t-shirt (time to order more!) and eternal bragging rights. A Champ earns 7.5 bonus points towards their Throwdown Leaderboard ranking formula mechanism. B Champ earns 5 bonus points towards their Throwdown Leaderboard ranking formula mechanism.

That about sums it up. Thanks to our experts for taking time to participate and good luck to all of our competitors!

That took some time tabulating results from our Turkey Day Challenge, but I believe I’ve got it all sewn up now. Congrats to Wilforkisland, our runaway Turkey Day Champ for 2012!

Wilforkisland (still love that username), competed in 33 qualifying Turkey Day challenges, won 20 of those matches, and invested heavily in Dez Bryant and Aaron Hernandez, two of our three mystery players. He won an amazing 14 of 20 by 14+ points, and 10 of those wins by 28+ points. Wow. That is some domination.

Yours truly, username Mike, finished second more thanks to quantity of games than quality of fantasy football skill. I did hit more different achievements and awards than any other competitor though, giving me the 5 points bonus award.

patwat finished third, TheKommish fourth and DLFootball fifth. Check the entire results table to see what achievements each person hit and how many times.

How important was the New England defense on Thanksgiving thanks to the pair of defense / special teams touchdowns? Thank you Mark Sanchez. That play will be burned into our brain for eternity.

Some notables from the challenge include RyanMc23 winning the largest round robin group of five players – cwill0303, DLFootball, FBGWILL, Mike and RyanMc23 – with a perfect 4-0 record. Not only was it the largest submitted round robin, but the games were “all bench” challenges, where every player drafted except kicker and defense were tabbed as bench players in our depth chart.

Browsing through the games, I’m sure there were more round robins. In fact, I think I even found one with at least six players and stopped there, it may be bigger. It wasn’t a planned round robin though, just a coincidence each person in that group played everyone else in the group.

DLFootball, RyanMc23 and Mike formed the trio with the highest number of Twitter followers. Okay, I’m riding coattails a bit there.

TheKommish was the only person, short of myself, who tagged our Facebook page in a post and I was the only person who tweeted out a screen shot of at least one of my Turkey Day Challenge drafts.

The longest touchdown pass I was sure was going to go to Robert Griffin III and Aldrick Robinson, but Tony Romo to Dez Bryant trumped it later in the same game. For the second year in a row the longest rushing TD went to a non-starter. Last year, Keiland Williams, who no one drafted. This year, Justin Forsett, who was drafted once by cwill0303 in an all-bench challenge.

The smallest margin of victory across all Turkey Day Challenges was just 0.10 points, Wilforkisland over Airbus79. That is a kick in the pants.

As mentioned, check the results table for the standings and I also included a link to download my results spreadsheet for a little more detail for each achievement and award.

Okay, that wraps up our Turkey Day Challenge. Congrats again to all of our standout performers, and thanks again for playing!

Our annual Turkey Day Challenge is in full swing, but the week is flying by and time is running out to get your qualifying challenges – challenges with at least two Thanksgiving Day games – finished prior to kickoff on Thursday. The first game on Thursday is Houston Texans at Detroit Lions, kickoff 12:30 Eastern.

Included below are some stats run from our database to give an update on the number of challenges and players we have participating in our Turkey Day Challenge, and how our players might be doing ticking off the achievements and awards list to be crowned our Turkey Day Challenge Champ.

Something I want to clarify with the achievements that are NFL player specific, like drafting the QB who records the longest TD pass for example. The players who help earn the achievement must play on Thursday. Even if you have a challenge which includes a non-Thursday game, and your QB throws the longest TD of any player who plays Thursday, it is the Thursday guy who had the longest TD. We are celebrating Thanksgiving Day football, after all. Okay, on to the stats.

• Drafts are ongoing (at a fast pace I might add!), but as of about an hour ago we had 114 qualifying Turkey Day challenges. These are challenges accepted at least to the point the games are picked, even if the draft may not be finished.
• Of the 114 qualifying challenges, 81 used all three Thursday games in their challenge. 33 used two of three and otherwise picked a Sunday or the Monday game.
• Here are our players with the most qualifying games played so far: Wilforkisland (25), patwat (23), Mike (15), TheKommish (15), Airbus79 (13), Terminalkennedy (13), robshell (12), WHUDEY (12), laoch (9) and then a bunch of people with 8 and lower.
• The only people I’ve seen hit achievement #2, tagging our Facebook page, is TheKommish and myself. The only person I’ve seen hit achievement #3, tweeting about a challenge draft and including our Twitter account, is me. Well on my way to the 5 points bonus for hitting the most different achievements and awards!
• The player for achievement #16 and #17 is drafted 47 times out of the 114 qualifying challenges. Note the player for #16 through #21 must be drafted to the active lineup, not blocked.
• The player for achievement #18 and #19 is drafted 57 times.
• The player for achievement #20 and #21 is drafted 53 times.
• Only one player so far, TheKommish, has mentioned a round robin group for group award #1, and I haven’t checked the status of his group. No one has put forward a trio for group award #2. Opportunity knocks!

Okay, that is it for the update. I haven’t figured out how many challenges had a QB blocked, which could set someone up for the “draft the top QB, block the 2nd best QB” achievement. I also haven’t figured out how many bench players are drafted so far, although I participated in three “all bench” challenges myself. There are a couple value picks out there on the bench.

Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving!

One of Fantasy Throwdown’s biggest special events last year, our inaugural season (not including that old prototype website… let’s not get into that today), was the celebration of Thanksgiving and football with the Fantasy Throwdown Turkey Day Challenge.

Thanksgiving week is finally here, and this is the official announcement to kickoff the second annual Turkey Day Challenge. The concept is pretty straight forward. Play Fantasy Throwdown, include NFL games in your challenge that are played on Thanksgiving this Thursday (Texans-Lions, Redskins-Cowboys, Patriots-Jets), and earn points from your Throwdown games based on the laundry list of possible achievements and awards below.

The player who earns the most points wins our Turkey Day Challenge. The more you play, the more chances you have to hit achievements and awards, and the more points you earn.

Last year, Throwdown games that used all three of the Thanksgiving Day games qualified for our Turkey Day Challenge. It was a ton of fun, but a bit tedious once we got 15 or so challenges under our belt. This year, all Throwdown games that include any two (or all three) of the Thanksgiving Day games qualify for the TDC.

Again, picking the games is in the players’ hands, so you and your opponent should agree beforehand you are playing a TDC match, and the two players must pick at least two of the three Thanksgiving games. Perhaps that is more incentive to choose the first two NFL games in the challenge. Obviously, the drafts for all TDC games still have to be completed prior to kickoff of your earliest Thanksgiving Day game.

In terms of prizes, our t-shirt stock is getting low, but we should be able to muster up an official Throwdown t-shirt for the top three finishers. We will also add 10 points towards the Leaderboard ranking formula for the TDC Champ, 7.5 points for second place and 5 points for third. Eternal bragging rights are also up for grabs.

Okay, ready for the achievements and awards list? We dropped a couple from last year because they turned out to be too difficult to score, but we added some new ones. Ready. Set. Throwdown!

Individual Achievements

1. Number of challenges issued to and accepted by a previously non-registered Throwdown player (referral) – 2 points per completed draft (both players)

2. Number of challenges issued and accepted by player who posts commentary or screen shot of their draft on Facebook and tags our Facebook page in the post – 1 point per completed draft

3. Number of challenges issued and accepted by player who tweets commentary or screen shot of their draft and includes our Twitter account in the tweet – 1 point per completed draft

4. Number of challenges issued and accepted by a registered Throwdown player – 0.5 points per completed draft

5. Number of games played (challenger or challengee) – 0.5 points per completed draft

6. Number of games won – 2 points per win

7. Number of games won by >= 14 points – 1 point per win by 14 or more points

8. Number of games won by >= 28 points – 1 point per win by 28 or more points (also scores 1 for achievement #7)

9. Number of games won using 2 or more bench players, excluding the Block – 1 point per win; bench players determined by the Fantasy Throwdown depth chart on Tuesday November 20 at 12:00 noon Eastern

10. Number of games won using 3 or more bench players, excluding the Block – 1 point per win (also scores 1 for achievement #9)

11. Drafted player who records the longest passing TD on Thanksgiving – 1 point per completed draft

12. Drafted player who records the longest rushing TD on Thanksgiving – 1 point per completed draft

13. Drafted player who records the longest receiving TD on Thanksgiving – 1 point per completed draft

14. Drafted player who draws the longest defensive pass interference penalty on Thanksgiving (its about time this was scored for fantasy, right?) – 1 point per completed draft

15. Drafted any player who records ten solo tackles, or two or more sacks, or a turnover plus touchdown on Thanksgiving – 1 point per completed draft

16. Drafted player who is the subject of this excerpt from Matt Waldman’s Rookie Scouting Portfolio:

1) He’s easier to bring down when forced to run parallel to the line of scrimmage than the backs ahead of him. 2) He struggled against defenses that forced him to choose a second option at the line of scrimmage. 3) He lacks dynamic change of direction. 4) Defenders have an easier time tackling [insert name] at the feet and ankles than the backs I ranked ahead of him. 5) His pass protection needs work and more consistent effort.

– 1 point per completed draft

17. Drafted player from achievement #16 and he scores a TD – 1 point per completed draft

18. Drafted player who was graded in the “Best and Worst By Category” section at his position of Matt Waldman’s Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Best: Separation, Routes, Elusiveness, Balance, and Worst: Ball Handling – 1 point per completed draft

19. Drafted player from achievement #18 and he scores a TD – 1 point per completed draft

20. Drafted player who Mike MacGregor drafted in a 2012 mock draft writing, “He’s inherently risky, and we know this, but one of these seasons he may just pay off huge for the risk takers.” – 1 point per completed draft

21. Drafted player from achievement #20 and he scores a TD – 1 point per completed draft

22. Drafted top scoring QB and Blocked second scoring QB on Thanksgiving – 2 points per completed draft

Individual Awards

1. Highest margin of victory – 5 points for each of DEF, IDP, PPR, non-PPR formats

2. Smallest margin of victory – 5 points for each of DEF, IDP, PPR, non-PPR formats

3. Highest individual team score – 5 points for each of DEF, IDP, PPR, non-PPR formats

4. Lowest individual team score, and still won – 5 points for each of DEF, IDP, PPR, non-PPR formats

Group Awards

1. Largest round robin group, meaning largest group of Throwdown players who play at least one game against every other person in the group (i.e. a round robin) – 3 points per Throwdown player in the group; one group representative must submit the Throwdown user names of all group members to Mike for consideration

2. Trio of Throwdown players who each play at least one game against every other person in the trio (i.e. a round robin), and have the highest cumulative followers on their Twitter accounts – 3 points per Throwdown player in the trio; one trio representative must submit the Throwdown user names of all trio members to Mike for consideration

3. Highest combined score (both players) in a Throwdown game – 3 points per Throwdown player in the game for each of DEF, IDP, PPR, non-PPR formats

4. Lowest combined score (both players) in a Throwdown game, all starting players drafted excluding the Block – 3 points per Throwdown player in the game for each of DEF, IDP, PPR, non-PPR formats; starting players determined by the Fantasy Throwdown depth chart on Tuesday November 20 at 12:00 noon Eastern

Bonus Award

Player who achieves points in the most different achievement and award categories listed above – 5 points

There you have it, 30 different achievements or awards to hit and score points, plus the bonus award, to try to earn the honor of becoming Fantasy Throwdown Turkey Day Champ! Good luck!

To our regulars out there, thanks for playing Fantasy Throwdown, including providing feedback and helping build a great community of fantasy football players.

To our mailing list members who haven’t checked in for a while, or since last season, come on over. The regular season is past the halfway mark, but we’re going to continue playing Throwdown all the way through the Super Bowl, one week at a time.

Here is a snapshot of things going on this month:

Turkey Day Competition

It is back. Or will be next week, that is. Our favourite (note the “u”) holiday that isn’t even a holiday where Mike lives – U.S. Thanksgiving. Three games on the NFL schedule, which is perfect for a little game we like to call Fantasy Throwdown. It will be similar to last year’s hootenanny. Look for details posted early next week.

“For The Heck Of It” Tournament

We ran three concurrent, 12-team tournaments that featured ten fantasy football celebrities, played 135 Throwdown matches, spanned four weeks, weathered one super storm, and concluded this past weekend. Congrats to our A Champs, Shasta, WHUDEY, Mike and our B Champs, EyeoftheGator, JeneBramel / jrnall2 and cwill0303. If you missed participating, you missed a good one, but maybe you’re up for the next one…

IDP Tournament

The reason we don’t spell out acronyms like IDP very often is because we know we attract top fantasy football players who can break down expected tackle distribution numbers when stars Ray Lewis and Sean Lee are sidelined. If you qualify – or maybe it is time to learn – sign up for our next tournament which includes more Vontaze Burfict and less Trindon Holliday.

Player vs. Player Stats

Wondering how your head-to-head record stacks up against Players X, Y and Z? Sure, you could just count the wins and losses in your Game Manager history, but we’ve made it a lot easier. Go to our new stats tool, start typing your username, select and hit submit. Don’t get mad if you find one or two players are bringing your overall win % down. Get even.

Challenge Friends and Get Social

To help grow Fantasy Throwdown, we need more people to play, and that is where you guys and gals come in. Marketing geniuses we ain’t. Deep pockets we ain’t got.

Help spread the word by introducing football fans to our game and challenging new people to play. We’ll do our best to improve features of the game and keep the website chugging along.

Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, and even Google+ for each of Mike and Matt. You follow or like us, maybe share a link or thought to your timeline, and that helps our exposure. Win-win for all. Think how you can boost your Leaderboard ranking with a wave of potential opponents who don’t know their Block from their backside.

Leaderboard

User patwat is on his third consecutive week holding down the top spot on our Leaderboard, and he’s built himself a little cushion. MtgProHammer and laoch currently sit in second and third, respectively, but there is a lot of jockeying for position in the two through six spots. The more you play, the better you play, and the better ranked players that you beat, the higher points you earn and better ranking. Go!

Thanks again for your time! Don’t forget the Turkey Day Challenge next week.

Our first tournament of the season is in the books. Three tournaments actually, run concurrently, and by all accounts they went great. I know many of our competitors are already champing at the bit to get in another tournament, many to redeem themselves for an early exit in this event.

The tournament winners were determined through the Sunday games. We didn’t need Monday Night Football’s Kansas City Chiefs at Pittsburgh Steelers overtime … what is the opposite of “thriller”? … to identify our A and B Champions from each of the tourneys, even though a few individual games still hung in the balance.

Now we can make it official, congrats to Shasta, WHUDEY and Mike (that’s me) who are our A Champs for the Dynasty League Football, Footballguys and Pro Football Focus tournaments, respectively.

The B Champs are EyeoftheGator, JeneBramel / jrnall2 (Jene took over for jrnall2, who was unavailable due to the birth of his third daughter – extra congrats, and good luck!) and cwill0303.

Our winners each earned eternal bragging rights, obviously, for finishing at the top of our 12-team, three week competitions. Each also won an official Fantasy Throwdown t-shirt and earned bonus points towards their Leaderboard ranking. A Champs received 7.5 points and B Champs received 5 points. Our 10th ranked player on the Leaderboard currently has about 70 points, so the bonus points are pretty significant. Those additions are already reflected in the updated Leaderboard.

Special events on the horizon include bringing back our Turkey Day Competition, but we’d also like to squeeze in another tournament or two between now and the NFL Playoffs. You can sign up for an IDP Tournament in the forum, and we’ll get that rolling as soon as possible, hopefully next week.

Thanks again to all of our players, and especially Jarrett Behar (EyeoftheGator), Eric Dickens (DLFootball), Ryan McDowell (RyanMc23) representing Dynasty League Football, Sigmund Bloom (Bloom), Jene Bramel (JeneBramel) and Will Grant (FBGWILL) representing Footballguys, Mike Clay (MikeClayNFL), Bryan Fontaine (Bryan_Fontaine) and Ross Miles (PFF_RossMiles) representing Pro Football Focus and Jim Day (Fantasytaz) from FantasyTaz and honorary Fantasy Throwdown rep for this event. Every one of these guys is on Twitter, and I’ve linked their names to their Twitter accounts, so give them a follow if you aren’t already.

Here are the final results from our “For The Heck Of It” Tournaments.