MCN Fantasy League - 2016

[VaFish]

Originally Posted by Alex

WSBK Race 1 was fun! Looks like they don't update the standings until the end of the weekend; Race 2 is live tonight....

So if Rea is my captain I'm off to a good start?

[Alex]

Yup! I was considering the same thing, but sadly have it set for Lorenzo.

[toEleven]

Argh, race 2! My WSBK pair seemed determine to fight each other and drop points for me. It's almost like they don't know I'm playing a no-stakes fantasy game...

[Sirref]

damn, sykes had such a good spot in both races but lost out pretty hard from making mistakes. At least he finished both races intact

I'm feeling good about how nicky hayden did though, if only he hadn't slipped the rear in the last corner but that's what ifs at that point

[VaFish]

So I had Sykes and Rea for my WSB team (Go Green!) and Rea was my captain.

So am I counting score right.

Race 1 Rea wins, and his grid position was 3rd so I get 25 points for the win, 3 points for his grip position, and that doubles because he is my captain for 56 points. Sykes was 5th for 11 points and his grid position was 1 so another 5 points.

Race 2, Rea wins again 25 points, no additional points for grid position, double for captain. Sykes was 6th for 10 points.

So 132 points total?

And yes it was beginners luck.

[Alex]

Here's what the standings look like:



You can log into your team, and it shows the points you received for each rider right next to their avatar. I'm not sure how the captain points are working, but it doesn't look like it doubles both wins. For Rea, for example, it shows people getting 56 points, plus 28 captain points.

edit: something still seems funky. Here are what the rules say in the "game rules" link:

Captain Points
You must choose one rider from your 6 riders in your team to be your Captain. This rider will score DOUBLE POINTS for all races that he remains as your captain!

Changing Captain / Captain Deadline

Captain deadline is at the same time as transfer deadline. You can change your captain as often as you like, but only the rider selected as captain at the captain submission deadline will receive double points for races. Any subsequent changes to your captain will not take effect until the next captain submission deadline.

[Sirref]

Well it looks like half of us bet on Rea continuing to be a beast

Still wishing WSS was on there, I finally watched the full WSS race and it was some glorious close racing

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by Alex

Here's what the standings look like:



You can log into your team, and it shows the points you received for each rider right next to their avatar. I'm not sure how the captain points are working, but it doesn't look like it doubles both wins. For Rea, for example, it shows people getting 56 points, plus 28 captain points.

edit: something still seems funky. Here are what the rules say in the "game rules" link:

I have 134 points now?

[VaFish]

Originally Posted by allanoue

I have 134 points now?

Yeah, looks like they have updated the points. And they are now showing me with the 132 points I thought I had.

[toEleven]

Chang Thailand World Superbike FP2 Results:

Pos No. Rider         Bike                Time      Gap   Speed
    Qualified for Superpole Two        
1 60  M. VAN DER MARK Honda CBR1000RR SP  1'34.629        296,7
2 50  S. GUINTOLI     Yamaha YZF R1       1'34.811  0.182 292,7
3 81  J. TORRES       BMW S1000 RR        1'35.217  0.588 298,3
4 22  A. LOWES        Yamaha YZF R1       1'35.224  0.595 290,3
5 1 J. REA            Kawasaki ZX-10R     1'35.314  0.685 296,7
6 69  N. HAYDEN       Honda CBR1000RR SP  1'35.344  0.715 291,1
7 66  T. SYKES        Kawasaki ZX-10R     1'35.406  0.777 297,5
8 7 C. DAVIES         Ducati 1199         1'35.461  0.832 290,3
9 34  D. GIUGLIANO    Ducati 1199         1'35.479  0.850 290,3
10 21 M. REITERBERGER BMW S1000 RR        1'35.498  0.869 295,9

vd Mark is starting the year strong . Not great news for my team at the moment though.

[Alex]

Update after this weekend:

[cbinker]

Sup B!tches! High_Sides in da house!

[toEleven]

The other two race series can't start soon enough.

[VaFish]

Originally Posted by toEleven

The other two race series can't start soon enough.

I think they will be my downfall.

[toEleven]

Has anyone come across a usable online TV schedule for bein sports? Their 'tv guide' is absolutely terrible, and I'm having a hell of time trying to plan based off of it. I'm not even remotely excited about their acquisition of MotoGP broadcast rights.

Originally Posted by VaFish

I think they will be my downfall.

At this point I'm counting on my balanced strategy just to be competitive. In hindsight it may have been worthwhile to take team green during the WSBK only portion and then use my transfers to fix my team for the remainder of the year. Maybe next time.

[Sirref]

eagerly awaiting my BSB points hahaha

motogp I'm not too sure about, miller hasn't quite come into the bike yet and he was a gamble to begin with (at least I didn't go with rabat)

[cbinker]

MotoGP won't be hot for me, but BSB should be fair.

[Alex]

Transfers are allowed every weekend. I don't think there's any way to win this without staying on top of your teams every week to optimize riders. In years past the transfer windows were much further spread out, so it was more of a set it and forget it. It's different this year. It took me a week longer than most to first realize this though, so it will be a long uphill slog.

[toEleven]

Originally Posted by Alex

Transfers are allowed every weekend. I don't think there's any way to win this without staying on top of your teams every week to optimize riders. In years past the transfer windows were much further spread out, so it was more of a set it and forget it. It's different this year. It took me a week longer than most to first realize this though, so it will be a long uphill slog.

Well that would've been nice to know upfront. I was under the impression it was 2 transfers for the season. I'm basically playing an entirely different game/crashed at turn one of this race.

[HoneyBadgerRy]

Originally Posted by toEleven

Well that would've been nice to know upfront. I was under the impression it was 2 transfers for the season. I'm basically playing an entirely different game/crashed at turn one of this race.

I was under the same I press I on, and to be honest, I'm not sure I care enough to change my team around every week.

[Alex]

Links to the full rules here:

main rules

General FAQ for that site

[Alex]

@Mechanikrazy - recheck your team, it looks like you only have 5 riders (one rider chosen in GP only). This may prevent you from scoring any points until the team is full.

[Mechanikrazy]

Originally Posted by Alex

@Mechanikrazy - recheck your team, it looks like you only have 5 riders (one rider chosen in GP only). This may prevent you from scoring any points until the team is full.

Thanks for the reminder! Haha. I was out of transfers when my rider got reclassified. Then I just completely forgot about this with track season starting.

Oops.

[Alex]

Update after this weekend:

[toEleven]

MotoGP this year has not been a fantastic endorsement of Michelin products. Because so much is riding on your tires.



This is the second tire explosion --> withdrawal of compound by my count. Sunday looks like it will be filled with good races nonetheless. Sykes and Giugliano continue to disappoint me when it matters, but I'm enjoying the battles anyway.

edit: Insanity in MotoGP @ Argentina. Vastly preferable to Malaysia-style drama.

[Alex]

Update after this weekend:

[cbinker]

Originally Posted by toEleven

MotoGP this year has not been a fantastic endorsement of Michelin products. Because so much is riding on your tires.



This is the second tire explosion --> withdrawal of compound by my count. Sunday looks like it will be filled with good races nonetheless. Sykes and Giugliano continue to disappoint me when it matters, but I'm enjoying the battles anyway.

edit: Insanity in MotoGP @ Argentina. Vastly preferable to Malaysia-style drama.

interesting fact: both explosions occurred on Ducatis and the 2 biggest riders in motogp.

[toEleven]

Originally Posted by cbinker

interesting fact: both explosions occurred on Ducatis and the 2 biggest riders in motogp.

I imagine Yonny Hernandez must be particularly worried, as he's nearly as large as Redding and also on a Duc.

tl:dr - Lots of bad press for Michelin, not necessarily warranted, interesting either way.

Last I read the Baz tire in Malaysia suffered a puncture. Perhaps Redding's misfortune will result in a similar revelation. It seems to be the common problem of single tire series though: when things go wrong, there are volumes of bad press for the tire manufacturer. When everything is great, there is silence. Even the glut of pre-season crashes were effectively blamed on the tires.

[Sirref]

^ agreed

I hope we can go to multiple manufacturers in the future, I love seeing tire wars and I feel like bridgestone would win those wars in motogp. I've never been able to run michelin track tires but I've not rated them highly in the past and now less motivation to run them in the future due to seeing the rears fail in motogp


I'm really hoping the upcoming BSB races boost my points a bit, with miller and hayden not panning out like I'd hoped and vinales being just off where he could be I've been relying pretty heavily on Sykes so far. At least I know hopper and rispoli can put up some points

[Alex]

There may be advantages to multiple tire manufacturers, but there are also problems with that setup as well. When only the best riders get the best tires, no level of rider ability or even bike quality will result in competitiveness or close racing. I remember showing up at Laguna a few years back, when Yamaha was still on Michelin while the fast part of the field were on Bridgestone. I'm trying to find the Colin Edwards quote, as I remember it being particularly funny yet depressing.

Years prior to that, when Michelin did rule the roost, their superior logistics allowed them to build a tire overnight depending on the specific conditions found during practice at the track. Cool technology, but again, not something interesting to compete on compared to rider skill.

A single-make tire means that the series can determine what type of tires might promote the best racing. It can determine what level of safety margin should be built into the tires (not always successfully, seen clearly above). Going to a single-make tire in WSBK back in 2004 is often credited with the massive growth of that series. (some background here and here)

For GP - I don't think there was a huge push for a single-make tire like there was in WSBK, it was more team driven (wanting the same tires as everyone else) and cost driven (Michelin not seeing a return on their investment if they were losing anyway). I was surprised when they came back as the single supplier this year, but perhaps the financials were much better for them this time around.

[toEleven]

Well said Alex.

However, how does one draw the line between what should be spec across the series and what shouldn't? It seems rather arbitrary to me. If uniform tires level the playing field, so would (in theory) uniform engines (Moto2), uniform chassis' (Indycar maybe? not my cuppa tea), etc. In MotoGP, it appears to be a widely held opinion that in order to compete, you need a factory ride. Spec tires or multi-manufacturer, the other unfortunates still aren't truly competitive no matter how talented the rider may be. F1 is perhaps a more stark example (ie want to win in '14 or '15? You'd better have a Mercedes). A built in level of safety margin is not dependent upon having a sole manufacturer. In order to determine that the lone manufacturer is meeting the spec, it has to be testable. If it's testable, you can test any manufacturers products to the same standard, right? If it's not testable, you can't enforce it.

Personally, I enjoy the manufacturer competition as much as the rider competition. I'm not ambitious enough to try and articulate it in detail, but for me there is something inherently less interesting about sending everyone out on the same gear. It may narrow the focus to rider skill, but for me that grossly underestimates the interest generated by the other variables that can be in play. Who wouldn't be intrigued to see a rider win despite an unequal playing field? I'd even venture to claim that inequality makes the whole endeavor more relatable to the real world most of us experience.

Both options (spec v non-spec), regardless of component, have pros and cons. I'd say it's a matter of taste, not a matter of objective superiority (and I do not mean to imply that anyone suggested objective superiority). The most important financial consideration from the rulemakers is perhaps straightforward: what setup creates a product that sells the most tickets? All other considerations - including safety, which is often less entertaining - are secondary.

[Alex]

Right, and if a series goes completely spec, it definitely has the risk of becoming boring to some (or many). But the extreme on the other end (every component between the ground and the rider's butt is bespoke), doesn't lead to manageable finances or competitive racing either. It's a balance.

Moto2 has run spec engines for years, and is often the most interesting race of the GP weekend. But in the top class, it is interesting to me that the leading teams are competing with very different engine technology.

[Alex]

Points have been adjusted again evidently; here is the status pre-COTA weekend:

[VaFish]

Originally Posted by Alex

Points have been adjusted again evidently; here is the status pre-COTA weekend:

I just want to reiterate that I have no clue what I am doing here. I just picked Kawasaki riders because, well I ride a Kawasaki.

[Alex]

update:

[HoneyBadgerRy]

Originally Posted by VaFish

I just want to reiterate that I have no clue what I am doing here. I just picked Kawasaki riders because, well I ride a Kawasaki.

And your winning?

Who won the basketball fantasy? I forgot the link, but I know I won from a local school group.

[VaFish]

Originally Posted by HoneyBadgerRy

And your winning?

Who won the basketball fantasy? I forgot the link, but I know I won from a local school group.

I'm down to 3rd place now.

[toEleven]

The few participants actively managing their teams seem to be moving up the charts a little.

Did anyone else notice Danny Eslick making a cameo in Moto2? That one left me scratching my head a bit. I'd love to know how that chance came to him....and who benefits from his dramatically off the pace presence.

[Alex]

I forgot to update my team last week to make Lorenzo captain, so cost myself a bunch of points unnecessarily. Will wait until Tuesday evening to post final results here for the week.

[Alex]

pre-weekend update: