Season Wrap Ups

Well folks, apart from the DFF Post Season Brawl (hurry up and get signed up if you haven't already). The Fantasy Leagues are completed. I, as the glorious commissioner, managed to finish dead last in one league and first in the other. It doesn't get any weirder than that. DFF Grand Prix 2025

I was near the bottom the entire damn season and sank all the way to the bottom in the last 2 weeks so it wasn't very exciting for me, however, there was all sorts of craziness around the rest of the league. Let's start with the winners: 1st Place: Melissa Carter $425

2nd Place: Zack Barger $200

3rd Place: Allana Maddox $100

The top 10 of the league this season stayed pretty consistent with only a few dropping out or coming in for any given week. Zack, who finished in 2nd place, was in 1st for nearly the entire season due to the fact that he was crushing the H2H league and getting bonus points. He only fell out of 1st around week 14 I think and was never able to re-capture. It just goes to show you can't rely on just H2H to win! He had a rather lackluster performance in his PNTS league and it cost him first place. Missy on the other hand didn't win either her PNTS league OR her H2H league but still managed to win the top prize. It's a fun dynamic of the Grand Prix league. Our third place finisher wanted to be a drama queen and make the last week exciting. Knowing she was a mere 4 points away from taking over 3rd place, she judiciously managed her team in both H2H and PNTS. Alanna leapfrogged her husband taking over 3rd place in PNTS1 gaining 2 points in the process. And, while Berners Blitz didn't put up much of a fight in the last week, the W in H2H2 got her another two points jumping over both Shayne and Rickey to secure 3rd overall by a mere 4 tenths of a point. Nice work!! Honorable mentions

Dave Brown - First time fantasy footballer and nailed 6th place. We'll see him back next year in the top I'm pretty sure.

Jori Pike - One of our former champions was tickling the money slots for most of the year before falling off to a respectable 7th place

The Ricks Greenwood - The other father son duo in GP always seem to find themselves in the top ten (the elder rick even winning it all last year).

Jason Castro - Finished 8th in both his leagues this year!!! (that is only admirable in this league, not so much in HardCorps)

DFF HardCorps Dynasty 2025

For those of you that just play in Grand Prix, this whole idea of Dane's Fantasy Football started way back in 2015 with me starting a league for myself and some close military friends. I used to be part of a dynasty league (you pick players and keep them year to year based on some rules) but that one was discontinued. I really wanted to keep doing it, so I started my own. Hence HardCorps Dynasty was born. Since 2015 it has grown from an 8 man league to a 12 man league with some minor turnover. This league is tough. I had never won it. I got 2nd my first year, and 3rd my second year. I was the season high scorer a couple times. I just couldn't get the championship. It seems fitting that in the 10 anniversary year, I finally notched my first one! It feels good. Anyway enough about me. The winners for DFF HC 2025 are as follows:

1st Dane Pittman (the one, the only: Commish)

2nd Geoff Orwiler (OG, last years champ, and current all time money winner, he's basically Andy Reid at this point)

3rd Larry Pittman ("Dane, I am your father, and fantasy chops are strong with us")

In this league we also pay a nice chunk of cash to the person with the highest season total for points scored which fell to Travis Johnson (another OG). Travis' team far and away surpassed all others this year in points. He outscored the next closest team by almost 50 points and that was even with me posting really good scores for the last 4 games to try to catch him.

Other interesting tidbits

My brother also made the playoffs, so 3 of the 6 playoff teams were in the family (no, I promise there is no collusion, we are just Fantasy nerds and have been doing it awhile). In an utterly ironic twist of fate, Melissa finished dead last in DFF HC. So while she won GP and came in last in HC, I won HC and came in last in GP. Balance must be preserved!! Lastly, to give you an idea of how competitive this league is, 11 of 12 teams had six or more wins (most of them bc they played Melissa lol ). Going into the last 2 weeks, Missy was the only manager mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Every other team had a shot of making it. Two were long shots but there WAS a chance. The final slot was taken by Larry on a tie breaker that could have gone to any of four people going into the last week. And could have affected even the 2nd seed knocking him down to 4th (and stealing a bye) if things had gone another way. So that's it for the leagues in 2025. I'd really like to grow this thing in the future which is why I write these kinds of articles. Hopefully, it makes it more enjoyable for you and keeps you coming back for years to come. I would really appreciate it if, next year, I could get more people to log on and read the articles and participate in the group chats. I've tried to make the website more user friendly. I heard some people still weren't clear on how the Grand Prix really works, it turns out that there is a spread sheet on the GP league page (not mobile friendly I know, I'm working on that, but try looking at it from a real computer or laptop if any of you millenials or zoomers know what that is). The spread sheet keeps track of what place you are in over all as well as provides weekly commentary from statmaster Pops (bootlegger). It gives details on payouts and other relevant scoring information as well. It's a really good tool for Grand Prix participants and you should be checking it weekly. In addition to the league page there is a league group (for both HC and GP). In the groups, I post memes, semi regular writeups about the way the league is going, as well as pontificate about how stupid/genius I was in setting my lineups each week. Overall, participating can make the fantasy football experience more fun. And that's what we are all here for (and to hopefully win some prizes). So with all that, let me extend my sincere thanks to you all for taking part in my hobby. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Thank you for your patronage in 2025 and I hope to see you again in 2026. (Or even in the Post season Brawl for 33 dollars. Check out the details here).

With gratitude,

Dane