Fantasy season for Wakaw man
By Cory Wolfe, The StarPhoenix
Published: Tuesday, February 05, 2008
As an ardent Philadelphia Eagles fan, Chris Peterson says he cringed each time he added a Dallas Cowboy to his fantasy football roster.
He's not wincing anymore, though.
The 34-year-old Wakaw resident earned $100,000 US by outwitting more than 50,000 armchair quarterbacks in the RotoHog.com Fantasy Football League.
"My wife (Crystal) and I tried to stay as skeptical and as grounded as we could," says Peterson. "With about three weeks left in the season, I let myself think, 'If I don't screw this up, I could win 10 grand.' That was the third-place prize. Then it was $25,000 for second and $100,000 for first."
Peterson's roster -- which he named Green Machine as an homage to his two favourite teams, the Eagles and the Saskatchewan Roughriders -- proved unbeatable. Entry was free, but Peterson paid $9.99 US for an upgraded statistics package. He's scheduled to pick up his prize Saturday during an awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
Peterson says he had a simple strategy -- ride the best players, the go-to guys. He wasn't one for playing hunches on second-rate players.
"A lot of guys will pick one guy, who might not be the best and take a chance on him on a weekend," says Peterson, who first played fantasy football three years ago with friends. "My strategy was to play the best player all of the time."
Offensively, Peterson relied heavily on New England's record-setting tandem of Tom Brady and Randy Moss, plus running backs LaDainian Tomlinson (San Diego) and Brian Westbrook (Philadelphia). Unlike traditional fantasy leagues, multiple RotoHog competitors could own the same players. Rosters evolved by buying and selling players in a virtual stock market.
"The prices of players go up and down, based on supply and demand, just like stocks would," says Peterson, a SaskWater employee. "You have to make a bunch of money, especially at the start of the year. Then for the last half of the year, you can buy whichever player you want. I had made enough money so that on Sundays I could put in whoever I wanted. You have to do that because otherwise you can't compete against somebody who can play Brady, Moss, Tomlinson . . ."
Peterson is RotoHog's first-ever fantasy football champion. The website debuted last spring with a fantasy baseball league. Bryant Martin, RotoHog's vice-president of marketing, says the site generates its revenue through advertising and the optional statistics packages.
"In this particular league, to win the $100,000, (Peterson) was competing against our entire customer base," says Martin. "It's not a series of small round-robin leagues.
"For 17 or 18 weeks, you have to stay on top of what you're doing and keep an eye on things daily."
Peterson, a father of two, says he has both practical and adventurous plans for his windfall.
"My wife put me through school and she's just finishing up her education degree at the U of S, so there's a lot (of bills) from that. But we haven't taken a real good family vacation for a long time, so we'll probably spend a bunch on a real vacation."
Peterson also plans to defend his title next season.
Source: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/sports/story.html?id=3c557b55-1eae-47ad-9b4e-e5d17303c927&k=50943
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2008