2017 DraftKings Recap

Happy March, boys and girls. Our 2nd annual DraftKings-Indoors Extravaganza went down last weekend and their was much rejoicing (yay). D3AS rode his region to the top of the standings, and will therefore be getting an interview with me at some point in the coming weeks. The winners of the non-blogger standings were Purple Rain and Jack Spade 2017. Purple Rain made his team using less money, so we will be reaching out to him/her for another interview. Don’t be too disappointed, Jack Spade 2017, because if Purple Rain declines we’re coming to you. Here’s a look back at some of what stood out from our recent adventure into DraftKings.

TOP OWNERSHIP

Jonathan Jemison was owned in 60% of DraftKings lineups!

Jonathan Jemison (Emory, 32/53, 60+%). Jemison led the way with an astounding 60+% roster rate, EVEN THOUGH HE WAS THE MOST EXPENSIVE PLAYER IN THE ENTIRE GAME! He totaled 10 points, putting him well below the target threshold of 1.15x value. If you need a refresher there, check out my article from before this year’s DK bonanza. That being said, any guy who can put up double digit points is always worth consideration, and 7 of this year’s top 10 teams owned Jemison.

Radha Vishnubholta (Wash U, 19/53, 36%). At $3,500, Vishnubholta fit squarely into the somewhat rare singles specialist category. He was hot off a win over a D1 player, and many players thought the sophomore would earn at least two singles wins. Unfortunately, while he beat Kenyon, he lost to Chicago and CMU, netting only 3 points for the entire weekend. Radha will almost certainly be a tough out all year long, and I’d feel good about betting on the junior in his return to Indoors in 2018.

David Omsky (Emory, 14/53, 26+%). The doubles specialist to end all specialists, Omsky was rostered by over 1/4 of owners this weekend, even with a maximum possible score of six points. Omsky and Jemison lost to Trinity Tx in the opening match at #3 dubs, but won their latter two matches, so David brought in 4 points this weekend. While 4 is not 6, a 4 point weekend is still a great value for somebody priced at only $2,750.

TOP SCORERS

Adrien Bouchet (Emory, 13 points). Bouchet, Bouchet Bouchet Bouchet. Bouchet! Bouchet! The top point scorer this weekend was the Emory sophomore who D3AS predicted was going to have a huge weekend. Only rostered on 5 teams, 3 of whom finished in the top 5, Adrien’s lone blemish came against CMU in doubles. Otherwise he rolled through his singles matches and was named D3AS’ POTW.

Chas Mayer earned 12 points, the second highest total last weekend

Chas Mayer (Trinity Tx, 12 points). Similarly, Chas was named POTW by D3West for his outstanding weekend. His only loss on the weekend came against Emory in the opening round, but he closed the tournament with two 5-point days against Case Western and Kenyon. Pretty good for somebody who hadn’t really played singles in a match yet this spring.

Marko Mandic (Pomona-Pitzer, 11 points). What a value here. I can’t say enough about Marko’s Indoors performance. He was one of only a handful of people to win all three of their singles matches (Mandic’s came against Chicago, Kenyon and Case), and also threw in a win at #1 doubles against Case to push his way into double digits for the weekend. At only $4,000, Mandic was one of the best buys of the weekend, as you’ll see in the next category. He’s been on my roster in each of the past two years, and I can’t wait to go 3/3 next year.

BEST VALUES (two-way players)

Marko “Herb Serb” Mandic

Marko Mandic (Pomona-Pitzer, 11 points at a $4,000 price = 2.75x value). I’ve said my piece about Mandic, but if you weren’t already convinced then listen to this. Mandic was on 3 of the top 4 and 8 of the top 13 rosters. The 12 people who rostered Mandic all finished just about in the top 1/2.

Weston Noall (Kenyon, 8 points at a $3,375 price = 2.37x value). Noall was one of the most pleasant surprises of the tournament, finishing with two singles wins and a doubles win, and a 5 point performance against PP. The freshmen really stepped his game up this weekend, and it didn’t hurt that he’s about 9 foot 11 inches with a big old serve that booms indoors.

BEST VALUES (specialists)

Freddy Daum/John Bendetto (Case Western #1 team, 4 points each at $500 price = 8x value!). What a team we have here! D3Central has openly talked about Case’s #1 team being the weakest of its three teams, but Bendetto and Daum won two matches this weekend! At their bare minimum price, that’s a total value of 8x their price! Whether they treed or rode the home crowd doesn’t matter, they earned the top value of any players in the entire game.

JJ Kroot (Wash U, 6 points at a $1,125 price = 5.33x value!). Wash U’s doubles were a force to be reckoned with this weekend, and the best value of all the Bears came from the man with the hair, JJ “I am” Kroot. Kroot teamed with Jeremy Bush to win all three doubles matches for the Bears at the #2 position, and in doing so earned a value of more than 5x his minuscule price.

Robin Engel (Wash U, 6 points at a $1,500 price = 4x value). Like Kroot, Engel was a Wash U freshman who crushed it this weekend. Engel smoked Wadwani from CMU in the clinching match when Wash U beat the Tartans 5-4 to secure 3rd place. Engel also won his opening match against Mike Roberts from Kenyon.

Important things to remember for 2018 DraftKings

THERE ARE NONE! I’ve spent the past 5-10 minutes looking for patterns across the top 5 teams, and I haven’t come up with a single one. Some have a cheaper doubles specialist, some have multiple, some have none. Three of the five have the most expensive player in the game, but that exact % applies throughout the rest of the other 48 teams as well. The most popular school amongst the top 5 was Emory, the eventual champs, but D3AS who won the whole thing only had 1 single Emory player (Bouchet), and had players from the teams which finished 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th. Perhaps we should instead look at…

Important things to NOT do in 2018 DraftKings

  1. Stay away from #6 players, especially on deep teams. It’s not worth the risk of taking guy like Jaird Meyer or Kevin Lee or Shaun Berman when you’re not sure that they are going to play at all. Yes, they will be priced appropriately, but the juice just isn’t worth the squeeze.
  2. Similarly, avoid injured guys. Indoors is a grueling couple of days, and if a guy isn’t quite right heading into the tournament, odds are that he won’t be around to finish the tournament.
  3. Stacking three or more guys from a team that isn’t the tournament champion. We had a couple teams find success by loading up on Emory players, but if you went all in on Chicago or Wash U guys, you likely found yourself towards the bottom of the standings even though both teams won multiple matches. Next year I believe we are planning on implementing a couple new rules including that you cannot take more than 3 players from any school.

There you have it. If you have any questions, or suggestions as to how we can improve DraftKings for next year, please comment or send me an email at D3Northeast@gmail.com. Check back later today for our 1st POWER RANKINGS OF THE SPRING SEASON!!!!

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