BBL Supercoach – Back for 2018/19!

With the Cricket back for summer *yawn* and the Test Series in full swing, the BBL is about to kick off tonight in Brisbane. This means that BBL Supercoach is back also, which means yet another fantasy sport to cram into my life. Nothing to get too excited about,  for while I enjoy the Big Bash League T20 competition, the fantasy games are only mildly amusing, and are relatively hard to stay on top of because of a lack of media coverage needed to make a quality fantasy sport engaging, especially during a busy holiday period. Add to this the bad taste left in my mouth from the Australian Cricket cheating scandal last year, and the contemptuous approach from Cricket Australia in regards to TV coverage for watching Cricket this summer, and I am left rather disillusioned, and my interest in Cricket at an all time low.

As it turns out, I must not have been that keen last year either, for while I did play BBL Supercoach, I never had a Season Review, so I am guessing that I did quite poorly. Having said that, I did also play Fantasy BBL, and it would appear that I pored all my efforts into that, gaining a top 6% finish. As it stands, the benchmark set in the 2016/17 BBL Supercoach season was a top 10% finish, so that is a good starting point to try and better. Most likely, I will stick with the BBL Supercoach format from here on in, for the simple fact that it is the one with the most online media coverage that I can see.

Anyway, bring on the BBL! Hopefully the Thunder can do better this year than they did last! Well, it can’t get much worse. Not MUCH worse anyway.

January 2018 Update

As a new year starts, I can sit back and have a look at the state of play in my various fantasy sport games. 2017 was an up and down year. I cleaned up early in the year, but for the fantasy sport seasons that started during 2017, I was pretty poor. I am now trying to make comebacks where I can, but I am having to fight hard, especially as I try to repair a poor start to FPL season. This is the state of play at the moment…

Fantasy Premier League:

Absolute struggle town. My H2H is merely a long shot at the moment, having crashed out of the La Liga Mas Valiosa Cup, and 3 games back from a cash winning position in the league. A poorly timed wildcard and then some rotten luck with transfers (multiple players getting injured / suspended / dropped the week after bringing them into the team) has compounded a poor overall start. Nothing left to do but try and fight my way back into it.

I am also playing in a few other EPL games (Sportsdeck, FOX Fantasy), but these are just side games that I started late as little time killers, so not much to look at this season, but I may have more of a shake at Sportsdeck next season, while giving up totally on FOX Sports Fantasy, as it is such a crappy platform.

NFL Tipping:

The Purple Jesus Cup NFL Tipping Cup was back in 2017, and I was the defending champ! I lost some mojo, and my confidence took a hit with a poor star, but I worked back into it, and took the lead about halfway through the season. I kept a fairly comfortable lead until the last week of the season, when the usual “resting” shenanigans by teams threw my tipping out of wack, and old mate Bowman overtook me in the last week. Unlucky! I won the second prize of $31.25. Better than nothing I guess.

Fantasy NFL:

This was my first season in a NFL Fantasy League, having joined NFL Tackle Happy Fantasy League, was a bit of a rude awakening. I did not expect much, but I was hoping to at least go .500, but nix that, I crapped out big time, finishing with a record of 6-8. It was a good learning experience though, and I hope I can go a bit better next season, at least I know how to play now, and I have some idea as to who players actually are as well!

NFL Sportsdeck:

As I am trying out Sportsdeck for the first time this season, I did not really have any expectations going into it. I finished in the top 20%, which I guess is not too bad, but as per usual, I usually aim for a top 10% finish, so certainly room for improvement when I take it on again next season. More about this in my season review.

Fantasy Big Bash League:

Big Bash is in full swing, and as per usual, Fantasy BBL adds another tasty morsel to my already bloated diet of fantasy games. Doing OK in my mini league, but kinda not too fussed about this in general. It is always hard to get excited for these lesser fantasy sports with little to no media coverage for the fantasy game itself. Still good fun though.

Fantasy A-League:

I am just doing the Sportsdeck version this year, as I don’t even think that there is an official game for the A-League this season. I really think that the A-League has missed a trick with this, as I believe that fantasy sports are a good way do build interest and drive online traffic to the sport. Unlucky.

 

 

Fantasy BBL Season Review -2016/17

Looking at the results now, I find it hard to believe that I actually played two different BBL fantasy games this season. I just don’t care enough! Funnily enough, while I prefer the Supercoach format, I actually did much better in this game, as far as final rank goes. A top 4 percent finish is my best Fantasy BBL result so far, and is pretty good in any game. I think my success may have to do with not having an “All Rounder” position in this game format, which makes the game much easier in my opinion. Other than that, the two games are very similar, and I will have decide next season which one I decide to go with, as I doubt I will be bothered to run in two separate competitions again. Once again, made the GF in this format, and lost again. Unlucky!

Fantasy BBL has a new competitor – BBL Supercoach!

So, as summer rolls around again, it is time to look at some other sports that are gunning for Fantasy sport recognition. I have been dabbling with Fantasy BBL for a few years now, just as a way to fill the summer months with more Fantasy games that reflect my interest levels. While most of my time and mojo is going towards FPL, I still look to fill my spare time with other Fantasy games. However, Fantasy A-League is a bit of a dud, and NFL tipping can be a bit boring (however, my interest in NFL Tipping has been raised now that I have joined a paid competition), so Fantasy BBL is a great companion to watching it night after night in summer. It does have its faults, and like many lesser sports, can be hard to follow due to lack of media coverage, but it does what it says on the label. Anyway, this year, not only is there the official Fantasy BBL, there is now a BBL Supercoach! This is very exciting, because I do like the Supercoach format very much, however, not sure how far removed it will be from the official game. There are a few differences, but I think will have to play the two different games to work out which I prefer, and which I will continue on with in the future, as realistically, there is only room for one Fantasy BBL game in my life!