(Editor's Note: Last season, RW's Jim Coventry won the 2021 King's Classic Jim Brown Division. The competition is part of The Fantasy Football Expo in Canton, Ohio. Jim previews the upcoming 2022 drafts as well as the Expo below. If you are anywhere near Ohio on August 12-14, visit the Expo.)
The King's Classic. The Fantasy Football Expo. These two annual events create a weekend of fantasy football nirvana, baby. Since 2018, the second weekend in August sees Canton, Ohio and the Pro Football Hall of Fame overrun by fantasy analysts and enthusiasts. Visionary Bob Lung of Big Guy Fantasy Sports started this weekend out with just the King's Classic expert competition.
Lung's goal was to get the best minds in fantasy football together for the signature fantasy football league in the industry, with the season starting at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Classic started with two leagues - The Jim Brown division that drafts in the Gold Jacket Lounge and The George Blanda division which drafts in the Hall of Fame Media Room. An international division has since been added, bringing the total number of analysts in these leagues to 42.
In 2019, Lung added the Expo. The Sunday event had booths from many fantasy football companies. It also had workshops on many different fantasy football topics. It's a place where everyone can learn more about fantasy football. And as great as that is, it pales in comparison to what the weekend has become for many. It's a weekend to meet and make friends with people who love fantasy football.
The Expo has expanded to an entire weekend and is catching fire. In past years, the most that would happen on Friday is that people would meet up for dinner before the King's Classic on Saturday. Now, there's a Texas Hold 'Em tournament during the day and a cornhole tournament in the evening. And although the King's Classic is the headline event on Saturday, much more has been added. 'Draft Night Out' has been set up where hundreds of people have live drafts. In the evening, there's a huge outdoor party in downtown Canton. Those who are able to spend the weekend in Canton are guaranteed to have a memorable time.
The Jim Brown division auction is my focal point of the weekend. I'll be competing in a league of 14 fantasy analysts, many of whom are the best of the best. The group includes Bob Harris, Mike Clay, Brad Evans, Jeff Ratcliffe, Dave Richard, Curtis Patrick, Patrick Daugherty, Andy Behrens, Corey Parson, Colby Conway, Dom Cintorino, Scott Atkins and Bob Lung.
Although I've made the playoffs in three out of four years, I enter this season having just accomplished the 2021 Triple Crown (best record, most points and the championship) in the salary-cap league last year. That may have been my greatest accomplishment in 28 years of playing this great game. So going into 2022, how will I prepare in my quest to repeat?
First, the particulars about the leagues. I believe there are two ways to make a fantasy league more challenging. The first thing is to add teams to the league. The second is to require a deep starting lineup. This has been accomplished by having a 14-team league that not only starts one QB, two RBs, three WRs, and a TE, but it also requires three flexes (non QB). This reduces the margin for error significantly.
Since no kickers and defenses are used in this league, there will be 224 position players drafted. So having a top-150 list is pretty useless. Not only do I maintain my deep personal draft board all summer, but I'm constantly refining my rankings to make sure each player is in their optimal spot. In a league full of sharps, any player I think I have an inside edge on will likely have that opinion shared by at least three others. And if there's a player I feel compelled to draft, I'll likely need to do so at least a round earlier than I would in other drafts. So although I have my draft board, there are tactical decisions I'll need to make.
Another issue is positional scarcity. With 14 teams, the pool of useful players in a tier can dry up quickly. Preparing a strategy as to when to attack each position is important. When drafting a position too early, other positions may suffer. Wait too long and miss out after a positional run occurs.
In addition, having three flex positions in weekly lineups forces a change in endgame strategy during the draft. It's too risky using picks on longshot players. Therefore, it's important to identify players who offer a palatable floor with some potential for upside.
After the snake draft and a short break, we move to the salary-cap draft -- a poker game based around football. There are no mock drafts that can prepare someone for the competitors in this league. However, four years of experience against this group is useful. Knowing the passive and/or aggressive tendencies of the competitors is helpful.
Aside from similar strategies mentioned for the snake draft, there are a couple of added differences for the salary-cap draft. In a league this deep, a 'stars and scrubs' strategy is a recipe for failure. Teams that use that approach end up with not enough stars and far too many scrubs to compete. The desired approach is having the lowest number of minimum-salaried players possible. Actually, I prefer to have at least eight dollars (out of $200) allocated for each of the three flex positions and a few dollars for each player on the bench.
I'll adhere to a few certainties. At QB and TE, I'll spend less than four percent of my cap for each. In terms of high-end players, I'll avoid spending more than 20 percent of my cap on any player. Although that ensures I won't have any of the top-30 players on most draft boards, I plan to load up on players at the next tier. Depth is essential.
It's also important to not be too rigid with any plan. Every salary-cap draft has a life of its own. Before the draft, I plan out a number of potential contingencies. With each, I plan for a number of general scenarios and how I plan to react. Although not foolproof, it increases my ability to be objective and emotionless during the draft.
Although being prepared for every draft is a critical part of being a competitive fantasy player, there's the occasional draft, like the King's Classic, that requires a true elevation of one's game! After the August 12the event, I'll report back with an update of how my drafts went.
