Benjamin de Geest took home the title of Foxsports Fantasy A-League winner this year, with his superstar team Storm bRouxing. Rather fittingly, his team finished with exactly 1,500 points, 52 points ahead of second.
He took some time to talk to us about his season.
He took some time to talk to us about his season.
SCHQ: Why did you start playing fantasy football?
BdG: My best mates got me into it during the 2010 World Cup. I joined just after the first round started, but was in the top ten in the world of those that joined from that round. I had enjoyed it and realised I was pretty good at it. So then looked for another fantasy competition, which was Fantasy Premier League and eventually Fantasy A-League.
I really enjoy strategy games and played a few online games whilst I was in school. I quite often did some maths to pick more efficient strategies. Football is both more exciting and frustrating, frustrating as there is no perfect strategy to follow, but exciting because it’s real life modelling.
What do you get out of fantasy football?
I would never have guessed back in 2010 that fantasy football would occupy such a large part of my CV today. I developed statistical models to help myself make good choices and in some regards the intensity got a bit out of hand for a game.
But last year I came to realise how relevant modelling a real world sports environment is to my profession as an economist. The experience of dealing with uncertainty and complexity in football has been valuable real world experience. Through that I’ve come to realise how important factors like mentality are to performance. Fantasy football has allowed me to prove my skills in modelling and I’ve also been able to publish material for Fantasy Premier League on TotalFPL.
How much pre-season research and work went into your team?
It was made a bit easier by the harsh pricing this season. That certainly constrained the choices and ability for variety quite a bit. But research was required to know the budget players who would actually start. Roux, Maclaren, Caira, Pantelidis & R. Edwards helped to free some cash.
Did you take a particular strategy in the make-up of your squad?
I decided to sacrifice one bench player and just have a budget filler 75k midfielder. I decided to do this due to the budget restrictions which would have required atleast 150k for a midfielder who actually played (since I had R. Edwards already).
I picked players in advantageous positions. Flores & R. Edwards behind the striker and Troisi/Nichols playing as dual #10s for Victory were picked based on their good positioning being likely to lead to good points. Franjic was also key early on with his high chance of playing in midfield early on for Brisbane.
As for during the year, I just turned things over as I needed to with injuries or players on form, occasionally with a hit if I thought it would pay. A few did and a few did not so it was about even.
Were there some big calls, maybe on a unique player, that really gave you the edge?
An early big call was to bring in Shannon Cole in Round 5 when I saw he was playing in midfield from a Friday night lineup (before the deadline). I got him in then realised it was probably not a good call since we were expecting Hersi back the next week. But, he scored and the Wanderers kept a clean sheet - so it did pay off and Hersi wasn’t back for a few weeks in the end.
Which players were the biggest surprises and who were the biggest disappointments?
Flores & McBreen were pretty disappointing. Flores was on fire pre-season and in the early stages of the season but totally fizzed out. McBreen was the golden boot last season, but was thoroughly disappointing from a fantasy perspective.
Also, Taggart and Engelaar definitely outscored my expectations of them.
Which sources on news and data influenced your decisions? How much football did you watch each week?
There were 140 games in the season and to be honest I watched less than 5%. I monitored all players and teams by their stats and made my squad choices that way. I’ve constructed a model that attempts to have some predictive power on player’s future scores by using some base level statistics. Through that, I optimised my choices based on the budget, like a good economist. As I finished top with quite a sizable lead, I guess it’s reasonable to conclude that the model works.
The data from the FFA is what I used to monitor player performance. News came from many sources, but I found The West Australian, NewstalkZB, The Newcastle Herald and The Courier Mail particularly good at reporting their team’s news (Perth, Wellington, Newcastle & Brisbane respectively). The big teams generally had reasonable news sources too, it’s really just Central Coast that is hard to keep track of.
What should other coaches look out for next season?
There’s nothing to really look out for until the prices are set. The optimal picks are always dependent on the pricing. But I’d definitely recommend checking out SuperCoach HQ’s season preview, it could save you a lot of time researching.
Are there any rule changes you'd like to see to fantasy competition (take note FoxSports)?
Well, the most obvious for me is that I’d like to be eligible to win the prize. As I no longer permanently reside in Australia I’m not eligible to claim the prize. The A-League does have a New Zealand team in it, so the prize money should be payable to those residing in both Australia and New Zealand in my opinion.
I would also like to see more scoring metrics added. It would be nice to have a game that didn’t just value the scorers. Something that really recognised the contributions of players like Brattan and Reira to their team’s performance. So that picking your fantasy team was really about picking the best players on the park rather than simply the scorers.
What next? Will 'Storm bRouxing' be represented in 2014/15? Or will you retire the name and choose something new?
I’d like to continue developing my football knowledge, particularly in tactics. Coaching is certainly something that interests me in the future. My study is rather intensive this year, but I can certainly see myself continuing to build my models. It would be very cool to work with a club in data analysis, but that’s dreaming at this stage.
At this stage, I’ll keep the name. I do enjoy the pun names and particularly since Storm is a Kiwi. But if a new player comes around that inspires a name change, I might well go for it.
I’d just like to reiterate my thanks to Justin Civitillo for his reporting this season. He made a great contribution to the A-League fantasy community.
Thank you so much for your time, and once again, congratulations!
Follow Benjamin on Twitter for heaps of football news and info here @chemikills.
BdG: My best mates got me into it during the 2010 World Cup. I joined just after the first round started, but was in the top ten in the world of those that joined from that round. I had enjoyed it and realised I was pretty good at it. So then looked for another fantasy competition, which was Fantasy Premier League and eventually Fantasy A-League.
I really enjoy strategy games and played a few online games whilst I was in school. I quite often did some maths to pick more efficient strategies. Football is both more exciting and frustrating, frustrating as there is no perfect strategy to follow, but exciting because it’s real life modelling.
What do you get out of fantasy football?
I would never have guessed back in 2010 that fantasy football would occupy such a large part of my CV today. I developed statistical models to help myself make good choices and in some regards the intensity got a bit out of hand for a game.
But last year I came to realise how relevant modelling a real world sports environment is to my profession as an economist. The experience of dealing with uncertainty and complexity in football has been valuable real world experience. Through that I’ve come to realise how important factors like mentality are to performance. Fantasy football has allowed me to prove my skills in modelling and I’ve also been able to publish material for Fantasy Premier League on TotalFPL.
How much pre-season research and work went into your team?
It was made a bit easier by the harsh pricing this season. That certainly constrained the choices and ability for variety quite a bit. But research was required to know the budget players who would actually start. Roux, Maclaren, Caira, Pantelidis & R. Edwards helped to free some cash.
Did you take a particular strategy in the make-up of your squad?
I decided to sacrifice one bench player and just have a budget filler 75k midfielder. I decided to do this due to the budget restrictions which would have required atleast 150k for a midfielder who actually played (since I had R. Edwards already).
I picked players in advantageous positions. Flores & R. Edwards behind the striker and Troisi/Nichols playing as dual #10s for Victory were picked based on their good positioning being likely to lead to good points. Franjic was also key early on with his high chance of playing in midfield early on for Brisbane.
As for during the year, I just turned things over as I needed to with injuries or players on form, occasionally with a hit if I thought it would pay. A few did and a few did not so it was about even.
Were there some big calls, maybe on a unique player, that really gave you the edge?
An early big call was to bring in Shannon Cole in Round 5 when I saw he was playing in midfield from a Friday night lineup (before the deadline). I got him in then realised it was probably not a good call since we were expecting Hersi back the next week. But, he scored and the Wanderers kept a clean sheet - so it did pay off and Hersi wasn’t back for a few weeks in the end.
Which players were the biggest surprises and who were the biggest disappointments?
Flores & McBreen were pretty disappointing. Flores was on fire pre-season and in the early stages of the season but totally fizzed out. McBreen was the golden boot last season, but was thoroughly disappointing from a fantasy perspective.
Also, Taggart and Engelaar definitely outscored my expectations of them.
Which sources on news and data influenced your decisions? How much football did you watch each week?
There were 140 games in the season and to be honest I watched less than 5%. I monitored all players and teams by their stats and made my squad choices that way. I’ve constructed a model that attempts to have some predictive power on player’s future scores by using some base level statistics. Through that, I optimised my choices based on the budget, like a good economist. As I finished top with quite a sizable lead, I guess it’s reasonable to conclude that the model works.
The data from the FFA is what I used to monitor player performance. News came from many sources, but I found The West Australian, NewstalkZB, The Newcastle Herald and The Courier Mail particularly good at reporting their team’s news (Perth, Wellington, Newcastle & Brisbane respectively). The big teams generally had reasonable news sources too, it’s really just Central Coast that is hard to keep track of.
What should other coaches look out for next season?
There’s nothing to really look out for until the prices are set. The optimal picks are always dependent on the pricing. But I’d definitely recommend checking out SuperCoach HQ’s season preview, it could save you a lot of time researching.
Are there any rule changes you'd like to see to fantasy competition (take note FoxSports)?
Well, the most obvious for me is that I’d like to be eligible to win the prize. As I no longer permanently reside in Australia I’m not eligible to claim the prize. The A-League does have a New Zealand team in it, so the prize money should be payable to those residing in both Australia and New Zealand in my opinion.
I would also like to see more scoring metrics added. It would be nice to have a game that didn’t just value the scorers. Something that really recognised the contributions of players like Brattan and Reira to their team’s performance. So that picking your fantasy team was really about picking the best players on the park rather than simply the scorers.
What next? Will 'Storm bRouxing' be represented in 2014/15? Or will you retire the name and choose something new?
I’d like to continue developing my football knowledge, particularly in tactics. Coaching is certainly something that interests me in the future. My study is rather intensive this year, but I can certainly see myself continuing to build my models. It would be very cool to work with a club in data analysis, but that’s dreaming at this stage.
At this stage, I’ll keep the name. I do enjoy the pun names and particularly since Storm is a Kiwi. But if a new player comes around that inspires a name change, I might well go for it.
I’d just like to reiterate my thanks to Justin Civitillo for his reporting this season. He made a great contribution to the A-League fantasy community.
Thank you so much for your time, and once again, congratulations!
Follow Benjamin on Twitter for heaps of football news and info here @chemikills.