Archive for the ‘Fantasy League’ Category

Results for Round 02 are in… Francuis won this round, and this helped him move up to 9th overall after 2 rounds. Michael Filetti came 2nd this round, and is now leading the overall standings, by a healthy margin of 12 points – many congratulations!! Finally, M.Saar came 3rd which also helped him climb up to 8th in the standings. Last round’s winner, TakumaSatoforthewin could only manage 70th place this time round, which dropped him back to 7th. In the overall standings, apart from Michael who is leading the table, Raifosa is now up to 2nd and domino 3rd. This looks like it’s going to be a very, very tight championship indeed. Here are the results of the 2nd round:

Round 02 Classification

And here are the overall standings:

Fantasy League - Standings

These are the points that each asset scored this round:

Drivers Scores

Teams Scores

Engines Scores

Finally, here are the new, updated values for the assets:

The Stock Market after Round 02

 

Hey! Back from rafting, and I am nursing a terrible, terrible cold. I tried to go to work today, but I had to call it a day very early… So, fellow fantasy league companions, the results for the 1st round are in, and they are just as interesting as the race itself. A lot of surprise results, a lot of good points going to unexpected teams / drivers, and it all bodes really well for an exciting and unpredictable season…

With no further ado, many congratulations to TakumaSatoforthewin, who obliterated the competition by scoring 54.27 points, i.e. 6 points more that the next best who was Jeanrien (47.23 points) in 2nd place and Belgian Underground (46.47 points) in 3rd place. 12 people in total managed to score 40+ points and got a very good start to the season. Myself, I ended up 43rd (27.61 points), so it seems that “inside” knowledge of the competition rules and regulations doesn’t always pay off… At the bottom end of the table, we had a few negative results; ozaziz and Hamza who posted their teams after the 1st Friday practice session had begun, received the minimum points scored, i.e. -15.58 points. They will be able to start scoring regularly though, based on their selections, from Round 02 onwards. Enough with the talking, here’s the Standings table (click on it to get a larger version):

Fantasy League Round 01 - Results & Classification

As you can see, I have broken down your scores, so you know how each asset from your team has contributed to your overall score (drivers, chassis, engine). Also, you will notice that the values of each team are no longer the same. The reason is that, after the 1st race, the values of each asset have been changed. I remind you that you are not allowed to make any changes to your teams at this moment. However, after round 04 (Bahrain GP) you will be allowed a limited amount of changes, so it’s generally a good idea to keep an eye on how the values change and how to plan your strategy. Here are the new values after Round 01:

The Stock Market - After Round 01

Finally, I thought it would be interesting to post how each driver, team and engine scored, analytically. In that case, you will be able to identify how the score was distributed across the field, which assets exceeded expectations, and which failed you miserably…:

Drivers Scores - Round 01

Teams Scores - Round 01

Engine Scores - Round 01

So, that’s it for Round 01 of our Fantasy League – see you all in Malaysia, Sepang. Hopefully today I will also be posting later on the analysis of the Melbourne race, or tomorrow the latest.

Take care πŸ™‚

Hello guys and girls!

I am sure you are all very pumped for the first race of the season. Friday practice sessions were a bit of a let down, because rain masked the true pace of the cars, but I am sure tomorrow we will get a lot of answers to our questions… Unfortunately, I will not be around for the next 3 days; I will go rafting at the beautiful mountains of North-Western Greece. I will still watch the action (of course!) but I will not be posting anything until Tuesday.

HOWEVER: On Tuesday, you should expect a full statistical analysis of the race, in an attempt to analyze the teams raw pace and see where everybody stands. We will also be making some predictions for Sepang (race 2) based on our analysis, and we will have a few other, juicy features lined up. So stay tuned. I am sorry that I will not be posting anything, but I thought it would be more decent to let you know in advance, instead of letting you visit the site over and over again just to disappoint you… πŸ™‚

On the subject of juicy features, one of them will be the results of our awesome Fantasy League. We have had a lot of participants over the last 1 1/2 months (111 to be precise; or, if you prefer, the age that Bilbo Baggins passed the Ring of Power on to Frodo and left Shire for ever)… In the meantime, I’ve promised you a few stats with regards to your selections, and here they are. First, your selections in one table (drum roll please):

2012 Abulafia F1 Fantasy League Participants

And here are the League stats… In total, you have spent 5.402 billion dollars to the stock market, and the average team value is 48,673,423$… 56.58% of your budget went into drivers, whereas you spent 29.75% of the budget on team chassis and 13.67% on the engine. The driver who dominated your heart and was selected the most was, by far, Kimi Raikkonen with 34 selections, followed by Heikki Kovaleinen with 22 and Jenson Button with 19. At the other end of the spectrum, no one selected Charles Pic or Narain Karthikeyan, whereas Sergio Perez (surprisingly!!) and Pastor Maldonado (less so) only received 1 selection each. With regards to teams (chassis), the pick of the lot was McLaren with 29 selections, followed by Lotus (24) and Red Bull (19). At the other end, no one selected Marussia or HRT, whereas Ferrari and Williams (how the mighty have fallen) only got 1 selection… Finally, with regards to engines, Renault (Red Bull) topped the tables with 24 selections, followed by Renault (Lotus) with 18 and Mercedes (Mercedes) with 16. At the other end, no one went for the Cosworth (Marussia), Ferrari (Sauber) only got 2 selections and Cosworth (HRT) managed to convince 3 of you (apparently cash depleted).

And here’s the table to go with the above:

Abulafia F1 Fantasy League - 2012 selections

And with that, I leave you for now. See y’ all back on Tuesday, with lots of updates, analysis and opinions!!

I hope you enjoy the 1st race and take care… πŸ™‚

Hiya all – a bit busy these last days, so things have been a little slow.

Thanks for the e-mails, comments and posts (over at Planet-f1 forum) with your participation – keep ’em coming! πŸ™‚

There is a small update (addition) to the rules: In case of a late entrance (e.g. an entrance after the 1st round), the entrant will not start from zero points. He will start with the same points of the lower placed contestant in the standings.

This is meant to give late entrances a fair (albeit long) shot at it.

As you can see in the menu above, I have added a “fantasy league” button which you can press to see posts only related to our competition. In this way you can navigate easily and find the post you like, either to check the standings or to enter your team, instead of having to go through the entire home page to find the post that interests you.

It appears that HRT may not even make it to the first races. They have just moved their operations to a depressing little warehouse in the Valencia area, and it seems that they don’t have the means or the time to have a 2012 spec machine in time for the first races, let alone pre-season testing.

Quite predictable.

With regards to our competition, I feel the need to add the following rules:

1. In case a team does not appear in a race, then (as per the rules already posted), they will be classified as DNS (drivers and chassis) and will be deducted points accordingly. If you want to change them, you’ll have to wait for the first opportunity (after race No 4). Drivers who get lapped will be deducted 1 pt / lap.

2. In case a driver moves to another team mid-season, then the players who have selected him, will have to keep him in their roster (i.e. they do not inherit his replacement in the team). If a driver loses his seat and is left without a drive, then the players who have selected him will automatically inherit his replacement.

3. In case, at the end of the season, we have a tie between players, then the order will be determined by who posted his/her selections first.

4. We have already identified 3 opportunities that you can change your roster in the season. In addition to that however, you will only be allowed the following number of changes:

4a. Drivers = 2 changes per season (1 per each driver)

4b. Teams (chassis) = 2 changes per season

4c. Engines = 2 changes per season

You will, therefore, have to be careful with the timing of your changes…. πŸ™‚

I am really looking forward to this competition. Thanks for the many entries so far; your selections have a surprising variation. No two rosters are the same…

Hm, okay. Williams and HRT have yet to announce their final 2 drivers (and there’s still a small chance that Trulli will be dropped), but there’s really no reason for us to wait. In fact, a brave player may decide to take a gamble early on and choose one of theseΒ 3 drivers to get a better price. If, for instance, Sutil gets the 2nd seat, then 6,500,000$ is a good bargain, but if Alguersuari or Senna gets it, I am not so sure. Let’s not delay any further – these are the rules of the game:

1. Team selection

Each player must select 2 drivers, 1 chassis (team) and 1 engine. The budget is 50,000,000$. From now on, we will refer to the drivers, chassis and engines as “assets”.

The value for each asset is represented in the table below (click on it to enlarge):

The Stock Market

Please post your selections in the comments section, or drop me an e-mail at abulafiaf1@gmail.com. It’s that easy and that’s all you have to do really. Just remember to keep within the budget (I will be checking!). Please be careful though: To ensure proper identification, if you register your team via the comments section (at the bottom of this post), please include your favourite number (or any number that you can easily recall). This number will be edited out from your comment, but I will ask you for it at the end of the season, just to make sure it’s really you… πŸ˜‰

There is no submission deadline – you can create a team whenever you feel like it. However, any submission that is sent after the start of the 1st practice session of each race, will not be taken account in the results of that particular race, and will start scoring from the next round.

As I said, the above assets’ values will updated after every race. However, the players will have three (3) chances to change their roster. The first will be after the 4th race of the season (Bahrain GP). If the Bahrain GP doesn’t take place, it will be after the 5th race of the season (Spain, Barcelona). The 2nd opportunity to change roster will be after the 10th race of the season (Hockenheim). Finally, players will get the chance to change their team for a 3rd time (and a final push towards victory!) after Round 16 (South Korea).

Each time a player changes his team, he/she must use as budget the value of his team at that time; any change of asset will use as value the value of the asset at that time. For example, after Round 4 my team’s value may have risen to 55,000,000$. That means I have an extra 5,000,000$ to spend. Also, Schumacher presently costs 14,000,000$. If after Round 4 he costs 17,000,000$ then you’ll have to spend an extra 3,000,000$ to recruit his services.

All the above means that you will have to judge carefully which assets you select at first. You may not go for the ones that will produce the better results, but for those whose value you expect to rise dramatically, thereby giving yourself a better budget for the remainder of the season.

As a final note, the values will be determined by me, and they will not be debatable. I will try, as much as possible, to make them an accurate reflection of both performance and expectations… It goes without saying that you don’t have to make any changes if you don’t feel like it. You can keep the same team for the entire season. Also, if a driver loses his seat, then you automatically inherit the replacement driver, along with his value.

2. Rules and Scoring

You don’t need to read this part in order to understand or to participate, but I highly recommend it, in order to understand how the points will be distributed which will allow you to make intelligent and strategic selections.

2a. Drivers

Each driver in your team will be getting 25 pts for 1st place (classified finishing position), 18 pts for 2nd place, 15 pts for 3rd place, 12 pts for 4th place, 10 pts for 5th place, 8 pts for 6th place, 6 pts for 7th place, 4 pts for 8th place, 2 pts for 9th place and, finally, 1 pt for 10th place.

However, in addition to the above, and in order to make your choices much more interesting and strategic, the drivers will be scoring pts in numerous other ways:

If a driver does not finish the race due to an accident (it doesn’t matter who’s at fault), 5 points will be deducted. If he doesn’t finish the race due to any car-related problem, 2 points will be deducted. If a driver does not start a race (for whatever reason) 5 points will be deducted. If a driver does not qualify for a race, 6.5 points will be deducted.

Also, for every place that a driver gains in relation to his starting position he will get +0.25 points. For every place that he loses, he will lose 0.25 points. Pole position will be awarded with 1 point and fastest lap of the race with 0.5 points.

Finally, to award the battle between team-mates, for every tenth of a second (0.1 seconds) that a driver is faster than his team-mate, he will get 0.15 points, and vice versa (for every tenth he loses, he will lose 0.15 points). The lap times that will be compared will be the fastest lap of each driver from all qualifying sessions. In case a driver doesn’t post a laptime, no points will be awarded. In case there is a huge difference between laptimes due to weather (e.g. Q1 is under rain and only one driver advances into Q2, which is dry), then points will be awarded taking into consideration the laptimes of the session that they both participated in.

2b. Chassis (team)

Each team will be scoring according to the higher placed car, in the classified results. 1st position will be awarded with 20 pts, 2nd place with 14 pts, 3rd place with 11 pts, 4th place with 8 pts, 5th place with 6 pts, 6th place with 4.5 pts, 7th place with 3.5 pts, 8th place with 2 pts, 9th place with 1 pt and, finally, 10th place with 0.5 pt.

Further to the above, if one car does not finish the race 3.5 points will be deducted, whereas 7 points will be deducted in the case of a double DNF. In case of DNS (did not start, for whatever reason) for one car, 3.5 points will be deducted, whereas 7 points will be deducted in case of a double DNS. In case of DNQ (did not qualify) for one car, 4.5 points will be deducted, whereas 9 points will be deducted in case of a double DNQ.

Pole position will be awarded 0.8 points, and the fastest lap of the race 0.4 points.

Finally, for every place (on average between the two cars) that is gained in comparison to their average grid position, 0.5 points will be awarded. Similarly, 0.5 points will be deducted for every (average) place lost.

2c. Engine

Each engine will be scoring according to the higher placed car, in the classified results. 1st place will get 10 pts, 2nd place will get 8 pts, 3rd place will get 6 pts, 4th place will get 4 pts, 5th place will get 3 pts, 6th place will get 2 pts, 7th place will get 1pt and, finally, 8th place will get 0.5 pts (yeah, no points for 9th and 10th).

Additionally, each DNF due to engine problem only will be penalized with 2.5 points.

Pole position gets 0.4 points and the fastest lap of the race 0.2 points.

Finally, for every place (on average between the two cars) that is gained in comparison to their average grid position, 0.25 points will be awarded. Similarly, 0.25 points will be deducted for every (average) place lost.

OK THEN… You are now more than ready to make your choices. 2012 looks to be a great season, once more. Looking forward to having a great fantasy league with you guys. After each race, I will be posting the results, the updated values and lots of interesting tables and graphs so that the geek side of you can rejoice…

Oh, by the way, I will be sending out an 1:18 replica of a 2011 F1 car (not decided which one yet!) to the winner. It’s not a gift and it’s not a promotion, since this blog has no advertisements and no sponsors – it will just be a personal thank you and well done πŸ™‚

Abu.

Fantasy League

Posted: January 9, 2012 in Fantasy League, Formula 1
Tags: , , ,

Following on from a couple of critically acclaimed, yet unfinished attempts in the past, I will be staging a fantasy championship for the 2012 season. I think it will be by far the most intriguing, challenging and thought-provoking out there, due to the complexity of the rules and the attention to detail. Entries (of course) will be free – this is just for fun, right? Everybody’s welcome to join; the more, the merrier.

Soon I will be posting the rules and I will open the competition. Should be fun…. πŸ™‚

If you are interested, just send me your e-mail at abulafiaf1@gmail.com and I will let you know as soon as the competition is up and running.

In the meantime, I will be thinking about an appropriate gift for the winner….