Why do people play Fantasy Sports?
Fantasy League
Oh, Fantasy football, people who play it love it and others don’t understand the whole fascination about the competition.
What is fantasy football you may ask?
‘Fantasy football is a competition in which participants select imaginary teams from among the players in a league and score points according to the actual performance of their players.’
The game of fantasy sports is growing rapidly over the recent years, with sports being one of the most preferred types of entertainment for us. I am guilty of listening to football commentary while I was on my desk working, I highly recommend you to do it at your own risk.
Fantasy sports is just people making imaginary teams and hoping that the team will score maximum points over the season, the format has multiple rules and regulations based on the sport. In a way, it fulfills my desire to be a manager of a team and if you play with your friends it is just added motivation to get the bragging rights over the season.
Humans as a race want their environment to be under control, belief in one’s ability to exert control over the environment and to produce desired results is prioritized by us. The unpredictability of sports and the desire to control it reflects in fantasy sports competitions. Every week participants/managers select teams which they think will do well over the coming game week, and the days before the game are spent analyzing, speculating, and figuring the correct selection of players who’ll perform well, this decision could be based on data over the previous games or players you saw doing well in the previous game or just an intuition that a player will do well. Fantasy sports could fall under calculated gambling bets as the results are highly luck-based too, participants know that anything can happen so game week results also becoming a humbling experience when things don’t go according to plan for their team. Fantasy football for many makes the games more interesting as something of them is invested in the game, they have more to gain or lose from that particular game, it could be a player or players playing for their fantasy team and them scoring points could be really helpful for them, on the other hand, such scenarios do not bode well for some mangers as it could be frustrating if the player in their fantasy team is playing against the team they support in real life, but managers know what they are in for and they select their own team although I understand the frustration.
Fantasy sports competitions are believed to be one of the best ways to stay connected to the game they love so much, it involves analyzing statistics of potential or current players, teams they could face over the coming game weeks, how the team will do against the opposing teams. It’s all about who can get more predictions correct over the season. Playing with a group of people you know could also turn out to be a lot of fun as you understand the true personalities of people when people are competing against each other.
I play FPL every year and to be honest, I am not that good at it but it still is fun to play against your friends and get the bragging rights at the end of the season if you manage to win the whole thing, it becomes more interesting when there is money involved or any other added incentive. To improve your score multiple tools are also available on the internet, the Twitter and Reddit communities are very strong and supportive where you can make new friends, share thoughts, happiness, and most commonly frustrations. I found the FPL community on Reddit to be very helpful and welcoming although you need time to understand the fantasy language and from there on it’s just a joy ride. Now I know you must be thinking that it’s a bunch of nerds, doing nerd things but honestly playing fantasy football is just one hell of an activity and honestly very few are capable of doing well in it consistently.
Fantasy sports also come with questions, while the competition could be really fun it could also be slightly problematic with some. It is an activity that requires some research over selecting teams although research is a black hole and there is no end to research as the sport involves multiple variables such as players, teams, even fixtures, game history, and so on. With too much research comes higher expectation from your team and when the game week is just horrible you feel defeated and I know it’s just an online competition and over 7 million people play (FPL) the game, it still hurts but as the community will say ‘there is always next week’. People often get burnt out by the game as they have to go through too much information and maybe no game week selection works for them, so it becomes difficult for managers to keep going. In some cases, managers get involved in the game too much that their lives revolve around game weeks which may affect their relationship outside the screen although these are extreme cases but could happen when any activity is overdone.
I have shared few instances when my mood was affected by the game week results, I still remember Suarez scoring 4 goals in a game I guess I have never felt that kind of happiness ever before, but I’m guilty of game week results overcoming my mood and creating a problem which could have been easily avoided if I had not let FPL overcome myself at that time.
Conclusion
Fantasy sports are here to stay, could be football, basketball, baseball, rugby, or F1. In recent years people are joining the tribe in numbers and is expected to increase in the future. Although it is not for everyone I would still suggest everyone to try it once and get the feel of the game, it can be difficult to find a group of friends who follow the same sport and are willing to play the game but it is fun when played with the correct attitude. Looking forward to competing with you online, may the best manager win.
