Fantasy Late Swap World Championship

From March 22nd to March 25th, I was in Scottsdale, AZ with 140 of my best friends to compete in the Fantasy Hockey World Championship (FHWC) on Sunday evening. On Saturday was the NBA event, the FBWC.

These two Live Finals are the capstone events of their respective DFS seasons with the playoffs just around the corner and serve as not only the largest prize pools in their respective sports for the year, but a great opportunity to network and meet like-minded folks in the Industry.

This year was not my first rodeo, as I was able to qualify two years ago for the event in Nashville, TN where I had a chance to take home the $150k top prize, using my three entries to finish my best squad in 3rd (but could not get my 2nd best to 5th, a feat only the Best To Ever Do It could achieve) for $50k. This year’s prize pool was $400k larger, up from $600k to $1M in total prizes, and this year’s FHWC title was good for $250k.

As a brief aside before getting into the weekend first, then the contest: The vast growth in the FHWC pool is rather encouraging in this era of stagnant (or declining) DFS prize pools. With FanDuel all but exiting the DFS game entirely, and Underdog making a limited effort to compete in the NHL space, DraftKings - to their credit - has taken the lead in the NHL DFS marketplace and is continuing to push the limits. This season alone we’ve seen the two largest top prizes in NHL DFS history awarded on DraftKings ($250k this weekend, $200k earlier this season).

Reminder, DraftKings was forced to pull out of Ontario, Canada two years ago. Imagine the NHL lobby with the entirety of Toronto (and the millions of Ontarians that live nowhere near Toronto!) available to draw from!

I don’t expect this FHWC growth to continue into next year, but even maintaining the status quo is a huge win, and I do hope the results were enough to keep this going next year. I distinctly recall telling NPK (the old DK VIP rep) in Nashville that there was more appetite for the FHWC qualifier contests than DK reckoned, and he told me that they were already setting plans into action. For a company that I (rightly, in my opinion) give a lot of crap to, sizing the FHWC aggressively (and accurately, presumably) is one of the better ways to keep the higher-stakes masses happy. I am suggesting that maximizing the amount of rake you take from customers is worthy of recognition as something that a good business would do, you are correct. We don’t take anything for granted over here.

FHWC Weekend

The Basics:

• Four nights at the Hyatt Regency Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale, AZ, arrive Thursday, leave Monday.

• Choice of excursion: A golf outing (rental clubs/transportation all included) or one 1-hour massage booked at the spa on-site.

• All events listed below included an open bar, really solid food options, and an even more impressive snack selection. As a recent convert to cereal bars/energy bar type snacks, a table full of Clif bars and Luna bars that you could stock up on at the end of the night made breakfast the next morning quite easy.

Personally, I probably didn’t have as much “fun” in Scottsdale as many others, I didn’t venture off-property except for the golf outing, but that was my own personal decision. I’ll talk a bit more about that when it comes to the contest itself down below.

The hotel itself was quite nice, and being a resort had absolutely everything one could have needed to entertain themselves for a weekend, especially with the weather largely cooperating for use of the pool. One element that I regret not taking advantage of: what looked to be a 24/7 game room that featured a ping pong table, foosball table, and pop-a-shot hoops.

Thursday:

• Arrived at ~9AM local, made it to hotel in time for the beginning of NCAA Tournament. When booking my flight, I said there’s absolutely no way I’m missing St John’s if they were to play early Thursday. St. John’s did not make the NCAA Tournament, much to the surprise of many.

• In a conscious effort to not partake in the NCAA’s evil games (Three Big East teams! Six Mountain West teams! What are we doing here? At least everyone but SDSU got catapulted out early, mostly in hilarious fashion. There’s 4 links here. Each one better than the last.), I spent four hours reading a book while waiting for my room to be ready.

• I got incredibly sunburnt, so badly on my arms that I managed to disappoint MN Matt’s wife upon meeting her as she noticed the burn, but also I blame Life of Pi. A great story about a tiger in perilous conditions will always keep me rooted to my seat, sun be damned.

• That was pretty much my Thursday. Went to dinner with a nice DFS sweat, then afterwards tilted Nikita Kucherov and friends putting up like 95 DKPts at 50% owned across the board in a game where the team had 21 shots total against the f&#*ing Sharks that put me out of the money entirely. Karma, I suppose, for rooting so hard against those idiot MWC schools. The day was over by 9:45PM with me being so tilted I can hardly think straight with no late slate to go after. Time zones are weird.

Friday:

• Still licking my wounds from Thursday night, I tried playing both CS DFS and NCAAB DFS from the comfort of my hotel room in the AM. Bad decision. Immediately back on tilt to start the day.

• Brunch was in a courtyard that was surrounded by TVs. I may never forget where I was when the NCAA Tournament and early morning mimosas was cut into at 11AM local with Royal Drama updates starring Princess Kate or the body double or frankly I can’t keep these people straight. Who cares.

• Showed up to golf at McCormick Ranch Golf Club, a 6-7 minute drive from the resort, with a Coors in hand thanks to a FBWC player whose name I do not recall. Hilariously, the tee times for golf were either between 7-8AM or 1-2:45PM, and mine was at 1:52PM. Five minutes to tee time, I asked the DK staff on site if they had seen anyone I was supposed to be paired with. Three guys, all were set up with rentals, none could even be bothered to make an appearance. I can only wonder what sort of shenanigans they got up to on Thursday night to not make a 1:52PM free tee time.

• Despite the suggestion that I could play alone from the DK staff, Ben Hundley (benhundley on DK, bhundley in the MSP Discord) and his randomly-paired partner Chris, who just so happened to be from Buffalo, stepped up while waiting for a later tee time and said they’d head out with me at my designated tee time.

• On the second go-through of the beer cart, we were told that too was an open bar. Go figure. Loading up on beverages (but no food, as that was not covered because alcohol works better on an empty stomach, I guess?), we trek to an inevitable showdown with the sunset, not a surprise given our tee time.

• The only problem was the dudes in front of us who were there to drink first, golf second. Sitting at the 2:15 mark on the 8th tee, the marshal grabs us, a threesome, and tells us we can play ahead of the foursome (that was also with DK) to begin the back nine to try and get all 18 holes in.

• After some awkward interfacing, we tee off on 10 and played the back nine in well under two hours, finally catching the group that was “really slowing things down” on the 18th fairway. Nice try, fellas. I hope you tipped the cart girl well, in any case. She looked like she made a mean Transfusion.

• I shot a 93 on the round, mustering up only 3 or 4 pars, but not before hitting enough good shots that led to three putts that Chris tells me I am “not a 15 handicap” and getting a semi-serious invite to his member-guest tournament up in Buffalo this summer. I chalk it up to the alcohol on an empty stomach.

• Post-golf, there’s plenty of time to grab a shower and still hit the March Madness watch party for dinner, which had an incredible spicy sausage pasta dish that I truly wish I had taken a photo of, it was that good.

• Ben had met this couple from Central Jersey that just happened to be the guests of TheWhistlesGoWoo, who had entries in both NHL (1) and NBA (4). Friday night was spent with them, having secured plenty of snacks at closing time of the Open Bar. Cheers to new friends (that are even within driving distance of me!)

Saturday:

• Trying to be a responsible adult, hit the gym for some cardio in the AM then laze by the pool for the early afternoon. Free food starts at 2PM, NBA at 4PM, with a freeroll for all FBWC attendees (including guests!). Obviously, I played terribly and did not win.

• The top of the NBA board was littered with studs (from my perspective, at least), but the freeroll was won by Whistles’ guest. Not only did he win the 80-person freeroll, he would have won the 100-man FBWC for a cool Million (which also happened in Nashville, when the free-roll was only the ~30 FHWC players in attendance). And not only that, but had he entered the $15 MME NBA contest (note, the main slate on DK was the same as the FBWC and FHWC slates, which was new to me), he would have won $50k by almost 10 points. Sickening. He was a good sport about it though, taking his $1K free-roll win with grace and zero signs of remorse.

• Whistles (guest), running like God and hitting the nuts? I never.

• Winning on Saturday was GiantSquid, edging out PetrGibbons by 0.5. Gibbons in the last game going had Deni Avidja, who stepped up to the free throw line with seconds to go for two shots. He hits either, Gibbons wins the crown. Deni misses both free throws. A pretty unbelievable finish.

• The FBWC was over by 8PM or so, I was not going to make the same mistake as Friday, so I grabbed several (seven?) beers at last call, in addition to a collection of snacks for hanging out on Saturday night.

Sunday:

• Hit the Gym fairly early, watched some Pickleball for the first time in my life (what a stupid, stupid game. I used to play that in elementary school gym class), and headed back to my room to prepare for 3PM lock.

• Weather was fairly shitty and chilly, so I didn’t miss out on much while crunching for the slate.

• Before we go over the contest itself, here’s a few more photos of the resort. 10/10, would go back. Especially when the water slide that was under construction is finished!

FHWC Contest

Prep:

Sunday’s FHWC was always set up to be an extremely interesting slate. The most important thing to know is that the contest was no late swap (more on that in a moment…). Meaning, once 3PM local hit (6PM EST), all lineups were locked, regardless of late news. Of the 14 teams that were playing, just six of them locked at 6PM, offering pre-game warmup news. Additionally, we had very few AM skates, six teams on a B2B, and less news from beat writers than usual given it was a Sunday.

Tampa was very clearly going to be the chalk, on a B2B 22 hours after a sludge match with LA (shots in a 4-3 OT Loss? 24-23…). I love Nikita Kucherov, but it isn’t just 20/20 hindsight that tells me it was a good spot to fade, especially once it became clear Jonas Johansson was slated to start in net.

I felt I was in a good place to compete. For anyone following along via Discord or even the podcast itself, it’s been a tough year for me in DFS. I have to be cashing <10% of slates I play (and my NHL approach is almost always a single lineup), and the past few weeks have been no different. As I mentioned with Thursday night, I recognized that I was in a horrible position mentally when it came to NHL DFS, and I pulled out entirely for Friday and Saturday. I hardly knew what was going on, I didn’t play a single slate. It’s probably the first time in four years I have intentionally skipped multiple days of NHL DFS in a row. The hard reset didn’t catapult me to a win, but it at least cleared my head a bit and allowed me to start fresh.

Anyway, as I dove into the slate, I thought through things sequentially. I wasn’t enamored with anything early, as Carolina is always a tough pill to swallow and McDavid was also faced with a B2B 23 hours after a brutal loss to Toronto, with Draisaitl moving to the 2nd line. Matthews drew my attention, but I ultimately consulted The Sheet and found my interest piqued by Cole Caufield and Nazem Kadri in a mid-tier focused build. MTL looked stellar, so after poking around MTL1 + Goalie (Primeau was confirmed, as opposed to the preferable Montembault) I decided that would be my stand. MTL1 + CGY2/Miromanov + Bouchard fit perfectly, but Pospisil having no PP role felt a bit gross. In working through alternatives, I found that JJ Peterka (L1 PP1) on the other end of the CGY game was $200 more, and Bouchard/Dahlin had interchangeable projections to find that $200 without sacrificing in goal (though admittedly, the xFPPG as of late did favor Bouchard strongly over Dahlin). Game stack activate!

I liked this for a number of reasons:

1. Buffalo stinks. Seattle stinks. Calgary stinks. Picking players against those teams, I can live with the possibility of failure.

2. You know that ownership will be tilted toward the early lock, because of the safety of news. With Tampa soaking up just about everything else, I felt there was no chance I felt bad about ownership, even on what wound up being a 30% JJ Peterka.

3. In analyzing every coach interview/player interview from the B2B spots, I knew that Kadri was interviewed and said how well Zary had played. Similarly, CGY coach Adam Huska was complimentary of his team’s effort amidst a 4-2 L to Vancouver. I felt strongly that CGY2 would remain intact, and Miromanov’s role too in the top four felt safe. MTL and BUF each had practiced the day before, so excepting extraordinary circumstances, I was not at risk of taking an auto-zero, a la Barrett Hayton being a late scratch in 2023’s FHWC.

The Lineup:

Here’s the link to the contest if you’d like to review yourself.

Right after puck drop, the DK host makes an announcement. There’s been a mistake, you see. DraftKings allowed for late swap in this contest. We are told NO MAKING LATE SWAPS, WE WILL VOID ANY SWAPS YOU MAKE ANYWAY. I’m curious enough to consider trying it, just to see, but I opt against it. We should have known this was an epic case of foreshadowing.

The Sweat:

The first sweat was finishing better than 31st. With an entire team locking at the last possible timeslot (both games started at 6PM local, meaning the 3PM games would be entirely over!). In 30th, you started to rise above the min-cash (which $8k was earned immediately upon winning the ticket, which I can confirm I have lost in terms of profit/loss since mid-January!) line. Leaving empty-handed would suck, no doubt about it, even if just from a mental standpoint.

Toward the tail end of the 3PM games, with a rather uneventful early slate of games in the 3rd period, we got the bombshell. Brayden Point was a late scratch, along with Victor Hedman, due to injuries. 30% of the field took a 0 from Point, and 3 players were additionally burned by Hedman. Shout out to Whistles, who not only played Point and Hedman, but even ate a 0 on the GTD Trevor Zegras, who was projected in early in the day but ultimately did not play.

Shanksalot, with just one slot to go (Tage), had gotten out to a commanding lead thanks to a mishmash of uncorrelated nonsense. He ultimately held on to win by 30, but the extent to which he was leading was also a clear indicator that PMR had a huge opportunity to still crack six figures.

I’d highly urge anyone wondering about the timeline of the sweat to check out the contest, but to boil it down, CAR1 and EDM1 were very popular, didn’t quite fail, but also were nowhere close to must-haves at very high prices across the board. Bouchard had a powerful 26, while most everyone else on these popular teams did well but not exceptionally so.

Almost immediately, MTL1 scores. And then they score again in the first period, alternating with two Alex Newhook goals to get Primeau out to a huge lead and setting MTL1 on the verge of blowing up the slate with one more goal. Slafkovsky wound up not getting credited for his goal (Guhle shot, he did not tip, instead getting an assist tacked on), but in the mid-2nd period is when I started to move up the leaderboard as Primeau racked up the saves in a positive game script. CGY scores a PP goal in the 2nd to tie that game at 1, Miromanov getting an assist but Kadri being frozen out.

Entering the 3rd period of these latest games, I was right around 25th, an Anthony Duclair goal sent some Point lineups past me for a spell. One MTL1 goal or CGY2 goal was going to be a godsend, and Dahlin was on the doorstep of a shots bonus. At this point, first place was still 70-80 points ahead, but the top 5 was only 30-35 points away.

Then Peterka scores. 30% owned, this doesn’t help me a ton, but it shakes the game out of the snooze it had been in, as these two listless ships could no longer trade dump-ins as they waited for overtime.

The MTL game ends with a whimper, as after the first period only a Mike Matheson shorty was all they could/wanted to muster, with next to no shot volume coming in, either (a huge bummer), but Primeau does his part by racking up a saves bonus and the win without allowing any goals despite a flurry of Kraken chances in the 3rd. At this point, I’m sitting in 15th-18th range, $12.5k all but guaranteed, and a 2-1 BUF-CGY game offering me, and pretty much only me, a chance to crack even the top 4 and $60k+ with just one goal and an OT winner. Most of the leaderboard was pretty well decided otherwise.

There’s about 5 minutes left in that game, and Kadri/Dahlin are each sitting on 4 shots. Kadri tips a shot toward goal, the only problem being that Dahlin takes that puck right to the face. Down the tunnel he goes, I don’t think we saw him again. A painful 1.3 points for both him and for me, the focal point of the hockey universe at this juncture.

All of Kadri, Zary, and Miromanov spent time on the ice with the empty net, but ultimately nothing comes of it, not even a paltry Kadri shot, and the contest ends with me having worked my way up to 13th.

The Entrants and Results:

• Having already covered the winner, I do not look forward to seeing shanksalot on this trophy next year (manifesting my return to the FHWC, of course). Necas + Teuvo, Bennett + Montour, just a piss poor job of lineup-building that of course gets paid off to the tune of the largest DFS NHL prize ever. Because of course.

• In 2nd place was Fantassin, who got off to an excellent early start with Bouchard and Stolarz coming through. A 3-man ARI alpha stack and 3 MTL pieces later, including a 23-spot from Alex Newhook, gets him a relatively safe (if not the cleanest of sweats with how the goalies behind him were charging!) look at $125k. Another guy who in his trophy presentation came across incredibly kind and respectful, congratulations to him.

• In 3rd place (and 5th place, as he made sure to let everyone know in his speech, calling it “even more impressive than winning”. I’m checking with my lawyers to see if he’s even allowed to say that?) was HossDaBeast, with maybe my favorite (read: least favorite) lineup in the event. EDM Beta PP stack (4 man PP stack, yes. leaving off MCDAVID… huh?) with a FLA beta L2 stack (Lundell, Luostarinen, no Samson?????), chalk JJP and a junk Power, carried to the top by UPL stonewalling my sweet sweet Flames. Impressive stuff there, King.

• Also making appearances in the top 10 were DAL2 (Duchene’s empty net vaulting Nawada into 7th, good for $25k. He was more excited for my first period MTL goals than he was his DAL2 ENG to break into “bigger” money. Having spent several hours with him at multiple events now, I still can’t tell if he’s genuinely that good a dude or is just taking advantage of good karma being repaid by the ENG gods) and BUF1 stacks, thanks to Tage’s ENG. In a 40-man field, you didn’t need a ton to make the top ten of this contest, as the smattering of 4.3s, 3.0s, and even 0.0s (including a Point team!) can attest to.

At the close of play, I was incredibly disappointed to finish where I did. Ultimately, being one/two goals away from turning a massive L of a season into a supreme W is never going to be fun when it doesn’t hit, but I felt more as if I ran about as pure as I possibly could have. McDavid hardly McDavided, most of the chalk failed, and the main chalk piece (Point) literally was a scratch. Having all the PMR in the world and an explosive MTL start only added to the confluence of events that went in my favor. To get burned by the Flames for yet another slate doesn’t feel good, even though I know the process was sound. Also, Huberdeau hit a shot bonus. Seriously? No wonder Kadri/Miromanov failed, he stole all the good PP1 looks.

No one is reading this to feel sorry for me, however, so we’ll wrap this up here. I hope you enjoyed as good a peek behind the curtain as I am able to offer and thank you for allowing me to share in my experience with you. I am super fortunate to be in the position that I was in, and continue to be in, to chase these contests (less so this year than the past two, but alas), and the event itself was certainly worth the dedication and commitment I’ve made to it and the NHL DFS game in general.

To everyone that I met, saw again, or that rooted me on from afar… Thank you. It’s not lost on me that nobody has to care about what I do, what I think, or what I say. That people in this community continue to show up and support me, sometimes literally at the expense of themselves, is a testament to a kind of people that I want to be included with, even if I can’t be quite as altruistic.

As a signoff, here’s MN Matt (nolt0032) with some perspective from his end of things, part of his recap posted in our Discord:

The unspoken part is “he comes across plain and rather dry, just like the podcast”, but I’ll take the certificate of authenticity at the very least.

We’ll be back to contend for the title next season. Until then, I’ll continue to grind out content via the Morning Skate Podcast covering Tuesdays and Thursdays during the regular season, and posts/YT shows on Underdog Playoff Best Ball Contests sporadically to keep improving. If you sub to this newsletter, follow me on Xwitter, and subscribe to each of the podcast and YT channel linked above, you won’t miss a thing!

Thanks for reading!