Shawn Siegele breaks down results from the first round of the Underdog playoff tournaments and begins the strategy session for new versions of the Gauntlet and Mitten.
The Underdog playoff contests are compulsively addictive six-person drafts. Each team selects a 10-player best ball lineup that starts 1-QB, 1-RB, 2-WR/TE, and 1-Flex in the battle to progress through each individual playoff round and win the big money on Super Bowl Sunday. One interesting tension in these drafts was between early-round advance and late-round upside.
Our strategy sessions attempted to bridge that gap and create a high first-round advance rate that left us with full SB teams on the final weekend. As the ADP landscape matured, our early draft plan got much more popular and correspondingly expensive. We had to evolve and create new plans to advance.
In order to bring you updated looks at prices and plans throughout the draft period, I participated in 50 drafts. Through the first weekend, those plans were successful.
* The top team out of six advanced in the Gauntlet and Mitten 2 tournaments. The two top teams advanced in Mitten 1, 3, and 4.
| First | Second | Total advance | 1st or 2nd place % | Total Teams | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gauntlet 1 | 2 | 1* | 2 | 50% | 6 |
| Gauntlet 2 | 3 | 2* | 3 | 55% | 9 |
| Mitten | 3 | 0 | 3 | 75% | 4 |
| Mitten 2 | 2 | 3* | 2 | 71% | 7 |
| Mitten 3 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 67% | 9 |
| Mitten 4 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 40% | 15 |
| Total | 15 | 13 | 22 | 56% | 50 |
Now it’s time to turn our attention to the second wave of Underdog playoff drafts and build new scenarios to beat the market.
