Fantasy sports are a genre of online games in which participants draft their own teams and compete against others in a league. Teams of real professional players are drafted by fantasy players at the beginning of each season and every week, participants must choose to start, bench or cut players on their roster. Points are earned for each players’ successes, such as scoring a touchdown in football or getting a rebound in basketball. Over the last couple of years, fantasy sports have become increasingly popular.
While the game evolved through developing strategies, punishments and experiences, one thing remains the same according to senior Avyan Mahajan. He believes it’s about the fun of following a sport you are passionate about, even when your actual favorite team is losing.
Mahajan, who plays fantasy football, baseball and basketball, says that fantasy sports allowed him to watch new players and teams he wouldn’t have ordinarily followed. Even though he is primarily a fan of the NFL team the Philadelphia Eagles, Mahajan still finds himself cheering for players on other teams because of his fantasy roster.
Math teacher Josh Kuo, who played fantasy basketball and baseball in college, shares this perspective. As a result of playing fantasy sports, he began to pay closer attention to other elements of the game.
“You’re more likely to watch teams and players that you don’t usually watch,” Kuo said. “Fantasy gives you a more number-based view of how the player is performing. When you’re watching, you’re more focused on their stats versus how they actually play.”
Senior and fantasy football participant Nimai Garg also analyzes the strength of opposing teams when choosing which players to start each week. Over time, Garg learned that accounting for matchups, the different fantasy teams one will play each week, when choosing teams can make a difference.
“If a player on my team is going to play against a bad team, I’m going to pick them over someone who’s going to play against a good team,” Garg said. “They will score more and get more yards because the other team is crap. That has made my entire fantasy team better.”
Fantasy sports have allowed many groups to connect with one another. Kuo played in three leagues, two in person and another online with strangers. Surprisingly, he found the league with unfamiliar people more engaging.
“I think the people you don’t know, ironically, care more about the game,” Kuo said. “At some point, people have too many things going on, and they don’t have time to keep changing their roster. Playing online means you’re interested in playing, so I actually had more fun playing online with other people at the time because of how many more active participants there were.”
On the other hand, Garg prefers the social experience of playing with his more dedicated friends. He originally began with online leagues, but later decided to create his own within his friend group to have more in-person discussions and enjoy the game together.
“I built friendships by talking about stuff that is fun for us, because we get excited to watch football,” Garg said. “Public leagues were really boring because nobody really cared about their teams. That’s what made me start this league — I wanted to be with people who talked about football.”
Garg’s most memorable moment came when he was watching a close NFL game. He recalls a particularly intense matchup during which a player on his roster scored a game-winning touchdown.
“My biggest memory was when the match was really close, down to a five-point difference,” Garg said. “One of my players got a touchdown, which gave me more points. I was really hopeful that the player would get a touchdown, and when it happened, I felt really happy.”
Some leagues have begun adding punishments to increase the stakes. Mahajan’s current league has each player put 10 dollars on the line, meaning if they lose the fantasy matchup, they must pay the winner. However, he has participated in leagues with other, more creative challenges as well.
“In the league with my baseball team, the loser had to participate in the Waffle House challenge,” Mahajan said. “That’s when you have to go to a Waffle House nearby, which for us is a Dennys, and you stay there for 24 hours, but every pancake or waffle you eat takes an hour off the time.”
While some punishments can be a fun twist to fantasy sports, Kuo says that players should be careful of blurring the line with gambling through the introduction of financial rewards. Garg also had this concern before he started playing, initially deterred by the stigma between fantasy sports and sports betting.
“I thought you would use money and have to bet things,” Garg said. “That’s why I never played fantasy football. When I understood that you don’t need to use any money, I thought it was really fun, and realized that a lot of people in my friend group played, so I thought I should play as well.”
