Fantasy Addicts: Two Left Standing

Fantasy Addicts utilizes several innovative concepts in the league, from ladder scheduling in weeks 10-13, to their five team playoff field, and one of those innovations debuts this season.  By new league rule, if the regular season standings winner – the Ladder Champion – is also the regular season points winner, then that team is given the privilege of choosing their semifinal opponent from the field.  Addicts’ other Pro Bowl Nominated team, rookie phenom, Kizzy’s Krackbacks (11-2-0), achieved those criteria this year, finishing the regular season in first place atop the ladder with the best record as well as leading the league in total scoring with 3712 total points.  Krackbacks’ coach, meigzoh, chose fellow rookie Suspension Freaks XL (8-5-0) to battle with in the single-week semifinal, leaving original franchises Black Sheep and monkeys on ecstasy (7-6-0) into their fifth all-time playoff matchup.

As dominating of a season as Kizzy had as a rookie in the Addicts League, Shane Rocks’ Freaks XL had almost as good of a run as the other new team of 2017.  Utilizing the Ladder Schedule to beat both Black Sheep and monkeys on ecstasy and finish as the #3 seeded team based on their record.  They also managed to beat the Krackbacks in Week 4, one of the few teams to do so,  and were hoping to be able to do so again in their semifinal matchup.  Kizzy drew first blood, putting up 14 points on Thursday night, to the Freaks’ 7.  The Freaks came back quickly Saturday, and momentarily took a small lead, before Kizzy moved ahead again.  When Sunday’s games came around, it was off to the races for each of them, but the Freaks never caused another lead change.  Throughout Sunday, Suspension Freaks remained within striking distance, but Kizzy never gave up the lead, finishing Sunday night with a 244-221 lead.  On Monday Night Football, the Krackbacks posted another 46 points with their quarterback to bury the Freaks’ chances and win the game with a 290-236 final.

When the Krackbacks selected the Freaks, the other arm of the bracket, by default became the 5th ever playoff match-up between a pair of former League Champions.  The Wild Card winner, Black Sheep, won the league in 2013, while monkeys on ecstasy have won it twice, in 2012 and again in 2015, and held a 3-1 advantage over the Sheep in head to head playoff meetings.  The monkeys came in just behind the Krackbacks in total scoring in 2017, accruing 3601 total points, and had already beaten the Sheep, 261-237 in Week 8.  Black Sheep posted just 3403 points in the regular season, meaning they averaged 15 points per game less than monkeys did through the year, and on a week by week basis, monkeys outscored the Sheep in 7 weeks out of 13.  That would not be the case in the playoff match as Black Sheep came out of the gate scoring and didn’t stop before posting their highest score of the season.  The Jet-Monkeys kept pace through the early games on Sunday, but the Sheep inextricably began to pull away.  Led by steller performances by halfbacks Bell and Gurley who posted a combined 73 points by themselves, the Sheep also benifitted from 5 IDP’s scoring 19 points or more, and almost across the board double digits from their roster (17 of 24 starters).  Though their flexback wound up being ruled inactive, shortly before gametime on Monday, but they certainly didn’t need him, beating the monkeys for just the second time ever in December, 362-269 – a performance that ranks fourth all-time in the Addicts Record Book….just behind monkeys in third.

Contenders for the Addicts Title now fall to just the last two teams standing, and Kizzy and Black Sheep will face off in the League’s two-week championship in Weeks 16 and 17.  It’ll be a battle of old vs new as the Sheep attempt to win their second League Title, and the Krackbacks try to become just the second non-chartered franchise to win an Addicts Championship.