2024 Main Event Preview and 2023 Retrospective
2024 Preview
The Main Event is the FFPC’s flagship high stakes season long format competition with a prize of $1,000,000 for the #1 finisher overall. Each entry fee is around $2,000 (less when leveraging discounts for multiple teams).
Slow drafts begin JUNE 1st this year. Last year the slow drafts started on the 4th of July. Live Drafts are scheduled to begin Friday July 5th. Prizes are awarded for finishing as 1 or 2 seeds within your league after the 12 week regular season ($2,000) and additional prize money for placing 1st ($4,000), 2nd ($1,500), or 3rd ($500) in the league playoffs (week 13 and 14). Up to $12,000 is allocated to league prize money among the top finishers in individual leagues. The true goal, obviously, is to make it to the Championship Round (total points weeks 15 to 17) of the competition and win the $1,000,000 overall prize. Second place receives $200,000, and 3rd Place wins $100,000. Lesser amounts of cash prizes scale down to 150th place, beginning at $50,000 for 4th down to $1,000. In 2024, there will be a maximum of 355 leagues (4,260 teams). In 2023, there was a maximum set at 350 leagues, but only 338 filled, so there was a small bit of “overlay”. Of the 338 leagues, 291 were drafted online (86%), and 47 were drafted live in Las Vegas (14%). Whether you draft online or go to Vegas and draft, you will join the fraternity of #HighStakesBros competing for the million dollar grand prize!!
The prize chart for 2024 is the same as it was for 2023, with ONE MILLION DOLLARS for the overall winner and two more 6 figure payouts for 2nd and 3rd.
The competition’s schedule is broken into 3 segments :
- Regular Season – The 2024 regular season will again be 12 weeks. Week 6 will be conducted as an “ALL-PLAY” week, where the 12 teams will be ranked according to points. The top 6 teams get a win, and the bottom 6 teams a loss.
- League Championships – Weeks 13 and 14 are a 2 week head to head elimination between the top 4 seeds coming out of the regular season (seeds based on overall record and win loss record).
- Championship Round – From each league, 2 to 3 teams will earn a berth to the Championship Round, which is a 3 week total points sprint in weeks 15 -17 (added to their one-game point average from the regular season) for the overall title. The regular season overall points leader and win-loss leader from each league automatically win berths into the Championship Round. An additional third team can make it to the Championship Round if they win the league championship, but were not the league point / win-loss leader (ie. seeds 1 and 2 entering the league playoffs).
Similar to our Best Ball Analysis, we have examined the drafts of the winning teams in the 2023 competition to identify trends on player selection and roster construction. This year the analysis include ALL drafts. For the first time, draft data for the LIVE Vegas drafts was captured in real time, so we have this additional data for analysis.
If you are a new player, the data contained in these reports should help provide you with a framework for drafting in 2024. If you are an experienced player, a lot of what you see may seem like things you already know, but seeing the numbers crunched should confirm a lot of the best practices that you have been implementing when drafting these teams in the past. Also note that unlike best ball, the drafts for these season long contests are only a partial component of overall success. Waiver wire pickups and weekly lineup decisions also play a huge part in determining your success. You may find reviewing the 2023 waiver wire pickups helpful to provide some guidance there. You can see how much FAAB is generally required to win players based on the particular week of the season. You can find that data HERE.
The analyses provided here are in the context of making it to the Championship Round. Success during the Championship Round is going to be based primarily on the production of players within that 3 week (15-17) sprint which can be unpredictable. In 2023, there were 832 teams in the Championship Round (about 20% of the overall pool). There is a lot of player overlap among the teams. Having the top performers during weeks 15-17 (and actually starting them) is the primary determination of your success. Unlike best ball tournaments in the fantasy world these days, this is not a week by week elimination. Your total points accumulated over that 3 week period ( added to your weekly average from the regular season) is what counts. When you review the “Deep Dive into the Top 5 Overall Winners”, we note a player’s performance at a position specifically within that timeframe.
Enough of the chit chat, let’s look at the data! (FYI, the analyses themselves are premium subscriber material)
Roster Deep Dive of the Top 5 Winners OverallAn in depth look at the rosters of top 5 teams overall from 2023 with a master chart that breaks down the detail from each of those teams. These teams won between $1,000,000 (1st) and $25,000 (5th). The master chart that we compile will show: • Every player rostered on every top 5 finisher during the championship rounds (weeks 15-17)
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Draft Slots of Winning TeamsThis analysis examines the draft slots of the teams that made it into the Championship round |
Winning Roster Construction of Drafted TeamsThis analysis breaks down the number of players drafted at each position for every team, and compares those metrics with the number of players drafted at each position by every team that made it to the Main Event Championship Round in 2023. |
Championship Round Teams Player Ownership RateThis analysis looks at the drafts of the teams that made it to the championship round and looks at the percentage of players owned on those teams. |
Rookies Drafted Per Main Event Championship Round TeamThis analysis looks at the drafts of the teams that made it to the Main Event Championship Round and counts the number of rookies drafted by those teams to determine if there is an optimal number of rookies to draft. |
Player StackingWe have created a few player “Stack Explorer” tools on the site. These have been very popular during the tournament draft season. We also created a stack explorer which lets you analyze player stacks for the teams that made it to the Championship Round. You can also simply use it to see which teams (or how many) roster a given player across the pool of championship round teams. If you read our 2022 “Roster Deep Dive” analysis, you’ll see the anecdote of how the $1,000,000 overall champs used THIS VERY TOOL to gain leverage on the field in a Week 15 lineup decision. (Note that the teams in the Footballguys Championship Round can also be analyzed using this tool). 2023 Main Event Championship Round Final Standings Stack Explorer |
Draft Online OR Live in Vegas? Draft BEFORE or AFTER the Thursday Night Opener?This analysis looks at the drafts of the teams that made it to the Main Event Championship Round to see if there was a significant advantage for teams that drafted Online vs Live in Vegas, or between those that drafted before or after the Thursday night NFL Opening game. This may be the first attempt to quantify the results ever, though it has long been a question among Main Event players. 2023 Main Event Draft Type Analysis : Online vs Live – Pre or Post Thursday Night Opener |