What gives you your edge? (1 Viewer)

[Air Stich]

I am exceptionally lucky.

But what about the other 5%?

 

[Toomuchnv]

my gut

 

[ZWK]

For me, I think the biggest edge comes from figuring out which of those many sources of information are worth paying attention to, and giving some weight to each of them. Most of what I can know is out there within that plethora of information, but it's not that easy to pick out the most important pieces and put them together.

The second thing that helps is volume: looking for as many opportunities as I can find to get an edge and taking advantage of them. Lots of little edges add up.

The third thing is being comfortable with numbers. The point of this game is to try to make one number as big as possible, and a lot of what we do is to look at other numbers and try to figure out how much they tell us about that number that we care about. So it helps to have intuitions that are good at sizing up numbers.

 

[BigTex]

We all know there is a huge amount of luck involved in this game. I'd offer two thoughts on that:

1) As my HS basketball coach Mom always use to say, "Luck Success is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." The better prepared you are, the better chance you have of maximizing opportunities when they come around, and consequently the more luck success you will have.

2) I highly recommend payouts to the teams with the best reg. season record and most total points. Both of my main leagues have significant payouts to best reg. season winner and numerous other categories. This balances out the luck factor a little bit as you are rewarding more that just the team that is able to go on a 2-3 game win streak at the end of the year.

Anybody can get lucky for a few weeks or even a season. But my experience has been that the better owners- the ones who spend more time, do more digging, and have better football/FF acumen---are the ones who are consistently in position to compete for championships.

To each his own.

Tex

 

[slackjawedyokel]

I am exceptionally lucky.

except in DFS. that's skill

ISWYDT.

 

[Wrigley]

These are not the droids you are looking for

 

[Madden Curse]

Just paying attention to news and being more active on WW, trades, less patient.

I agree with all that, and to specifically touch on that last point about impatience, I think having 1-2 "flier" slots on your bench who you're not afraid to rotate out quickly (rather than stubbornly hold for half the season) has gotten me good results. Yes I sometimes give up on a guy after a down week and he eventually bounces back to become a starter for someone else (sometimes a stud), but it's almost always to grab another eventual starter. In general, I think the managers who stubbornly hold onto guys like CMike all season waiting for him to emerge typically don't have the fast "fantasy reflexes" to adapt to new circumstances and consistently eke out wins.

 

[habsfan]

Just paying attention to news and being more active on WW, trades, less patient.

I agree with all that, and to specifically touch on that last point about impatience, I think having 1-2 "flier" slots on your bench who you're not afraid to rotate out quickly (rather than stubbornly hold for half the season) has gotten me good results. Yes I sometimes give up on a guy after a down week and he eventually bounces back to become a starter for someone else (sometimes a stud), but it's almost always to grab another eventual starter. In general, I think the managers who stubbornly hold onto guys like CMike all season waiting for him to emerge typically don't have the fast "fantasy reflexes" to adapt to new circumstances and consistently eke out wins.

Reading all the replies, I think it a combination of:

- "connectivity"

- not whiffing on early picks

- if you do "fail", fail quickly and move on.

 

[pyite76]

If I shared this... I wouldn't have the edge anymore.

 

[Mr. Know-It-All]

I had a huge edge before the proliferation of good information on the internet, consistently 10-3, 11-2, or 12-1 in regular season and an annual appearance in the championship game. Now the field has been leveled, the dead weight in our league was pruned and all owners are active and knowledgeable. So now it comes down to being less risk averse and more preemptive in waiver moves/trades, but the biggest edge is hoping for a lucky schedule when all owners are relatively equal. The one decided edge I have maintained is with regard to IDP, but the point scoring for our IDP system is significantly lower than for our offensive players so the edge I gain there is not as significant as it should be.

 

[Run It Up]

Homework. Investing time. That being said I don't think it's possible to account for injuries without gimping yourself in some way - so variance can wipe out your edge at any time.

 

[Kenny Powers]

Superior knowledge of the game

 

[thatguythere]

Superior knowledge of the game

You got to go!