Monday 19 September 2016
Fantasy Sports
This is the fourth consecutive year that my friends, and friends of friends which I have never met are playing Fantasy Football in a league of 12 team owners. For those of you not familiar with Fantasy sports, the idea of this game is to draft real players from any NFL to your team, that you think will produce points in order to beat your opponent. Many other mainstream sports also have Fantasy leagues, players score point based on their statistics for the game they are playing in that week. As an example, if Tom Brady throws a touchdown he receives 5 points plus the amount of yards he threw the football for that pass completion. Fantasy Football it is completely changing the way in which an audience watches a sporting event. There could be an NFL game in which the score is close and a team owners favorite NFL team is playing, but they are watching another game to see a player in that game they own will get them points in order to take victory over another competitor. This community of players engage in many forms of communication, especially through social media. I have attached an image of a meme that has been altered to form social media trash talking. I personal think that this is one of the most interesting things going on in professional sports right now. This form of entertainment has continued to progress since its creation and has the ability through social media to connect millions of people worldwide. I have also posted a link from Bleacher Report that outlines how big Fantasy Football is relation to the NFL games themselves. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/439792-is-fantasy-football-the-new-reality
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My brother-in-law is totally consumed with his fantasy football league right now. Every Sunday since forever my entire family has made a commitment to come together to eat a big meal together. Our Sunday's have become completely consumed by football. I enjoy watching the games but instead of just watching the game he is now not only watching TV but he is checking his iPad, texting his friends, and monitoring his NFL app while the game is on. All of these new technologies have altered the way in which anyone involved in the fantasy league perceives the game itself. From the moment the words "football season" are uttered they begin plotting who they would like on their team which is then followed by gathering the people in fantasy league and then doing a mock draft before the actual draft day. The NFL has done a fantastic job at utilizing all forms of social and digital media in order to solidify their relevance in the home.
ReplyDeleteI'm right into fantasy sports too Stu. It's unbelievable how serious it has gotten for my friends and me; raising the buy-in fee to $100...Our league is ran through Yahoo and I think that its sleek look and user-friendly feeling help us enjoy it even more. Displaying real-time stats so you're able to follow the game closely.
ReplyDeleteFantasy Sports has to the best thing I've discovered at University! I didn't play much in High School, however almost every single night of the last 3 school years I have spent glued to my phone reviewing my line-ups, add/drops, and draft strategy. With so much stress and anxiety that comes along with academic commitment, for me this is the perfect distraction. Some years I join several leagues of the same sport (NHL Hockey), as well as simultaneously playing in other leagues from the NBA and NFL. There's nothing quite like making the perfect line-up and defeating your opponent at the end of the week, especially if you play in a league of friends.
ReplyDeleteI personally do not follow football closely but I am big into fantasy hockey, for the past few years my buddies and I have used the yahoo fantasy system in order to organize our league. The drafting may be my favourite part of the whole season as we actually have gotten together and rented out a board room at a friends building in order to be together during the draft. After that the fun just continues as you are always connected with friends talking about how your team is better or trying to get them to trade you their star player. Overall I agree fantasy sports changes the way you watch sports but it also has the ability to bring people together and change the way they interact with one another.
ReplyDeleteIts kind of crazy how fantasy sports have changed the way we look at sports from a fan perspective. Although I'm a life long Ravens fan i have Antonio Brown on one of my fantasy teams, and even on Sunday found myself cheering for the Steelers (rival of the ravens) just because i kinda found myself caring more about my fantasy team than the team I've been a fan of forever. Its kind of cool what you said in class that there are people in leagues who you've never met but are constantly chirping at or even complimenting, kinda another example of how things social media (in a sense) breaks down the border of what was once private space and turns it into public space.
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