Real-life fantasy

While exploring various sporting forums online, like pinoyexchange.com, gameface.ph, and peyups.com, I encountered some threads that discuss this thing called “fantasy basketball.” My curiosity about this online competition grew, as fantasy basketball threads are usually updated on an hourly basis with a growing number of basketball aficionados getting hooked on this game.

With all the oohs and aahs of real-life basketball, how come fantasy basketball generates a seemingly same kind of excitement?

Playing boss

Fantasy basketball is an online game wherein a user gets to be the “team manager” of a “fantasy team.” The common objective of the game is to collect as many “fantasy points” (FP) as possible.

In the Philippines, there are two websites catering to fantasy basketball—pbfantasy.com (Philippine Fantasy basketball) and pbasim.110mb.com (Philippine Basketball Association Simulation).

Rules vary in each fantasy basketball site but to see specifically how fantasy basketball is played for starters, let us explore the Philippines' most popular fantasy basketball website, pbfantasy.com, which has 14,000 registered team managers.

In pbfantasy.com, there are three real-life basketball leagues where a team manager can play—the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), National Basketball Association (NBA), and the Universities Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) seniors men's basketball. Registration is free; a registered user must then join a “fantasy league” where his fantasy team will compete against other fantasy teams.

In the PBA section, a fantasy team is comprised of five players with two guards, two forwards, and a center. Given a “fantasy budget” of P1 million, a team manager will choose from the current roster of active PBA players who are classified according to their respective positions. Each player has a corresponding monetary value based on his real-life performance in the current PBA tournament. A player's “fantasy value” is measured by five statistics—points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks per game.

A team manager must maximize his given capital by picking a starting five with valuable statistics. With a P1 million budget, a team manager cannot purchase five all-star players. He must be careful in purchasing players from the pool and must ensure that the “fantasy five” will deliver the desired fantasy points in the schedule play date.

In pbfantasy.com, the key to winning is to collect the most number of FPs in a given week or month. Each player's stats has a corresponding FP—one FP for a point, 1.5 FPs for a rebound, two FPs for an assist, and 2.5 FPs each for a steal and a rebound. With this in mind, a desired fantasy player must possess a statistically well-rounded game and the fantasy five must be versatile in both offense and defense.

Playing fantasy b-ball

After registering in the PBA section of pbfantasy.com, I created a team named “Sct. Chuatoco Pegasus” and randomly joined a league named “Laro Lang (Just Play),” which is comprised of newly-registered team managers.

The scheduled play date at the time I joined was the just-concluded Philippine Cup quarterfinals game five matches between the Talk 'n Text Tropang Texters and the Barangay Ginebra Kings, and the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters and the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants, so I had to choose players from those four teams. It must be emphasized that a team manager must choose players from teams playing on a given week.

For point guard, I chose Roger Yap of Purefoods, who cost P220,000. Yap, at 6'1”, is one of the tallest and versatile point guards in the league and can score heavily at crunch time, as manifested in his quarterfinal performance. For shooting guard, I chose Ginebra's Mark Caguioa, who cost a low P75,000 because he played just four games in the conference due to injuries. In the quarterfinals, he averaged around nine points and I expected a big scoring night from him. For center, I picked Purefoods' Rafi Reavis, who could provide the rebounds, the steals, and the blocks at an affordable cost of P185,000. The same reasoning went for Willie Wilson of Ginebra, whom I placed as power forward for P185,000. And saving the best for last, I chose JC Intal of Ginebra, who averaged more than 20 points and eight rebounds in the quarterfinals and had a price of P305,000.

Choosing carefully from the vast pool of players, I saved P30,000 where I got affordable players who could deliver the much needed stats. And to my surprise (since I'm a newbie in the game), I emerged on top of the Laro Lang league with a total of 177.5 FPs from last Sunday's game. Yap had 44.5 FPs (16 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and four steals), Caguioa with 13 FPs (two points, six rebounds, and one assist), Reavis with 31 Fps (nine points, 10 rebounds, one assist, and two blocks), Wilson with 30.5 Fps (14 points, eight rebounds, one assist, and one block), and Intal with 58.5 Fps (28 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, and three blocks).

Game of talent, not of names

Even if you're a hardcore fan or a game critic of basketball, I still dismiss fantasy basketball as a game of luck, although it really helps if you know the potential of each basketball player as a guide for playing an excellent fantasy game.

Deep knowledge and appreciation for real-life basketball is the real capital in playing fantasy basketball. Mere fancy of star players or a basketball team would not help, for, at the end of the day, basketball is a game of talent, not a game of names.

However, even the best players may have an off-night or may sustain an injury during a game. Or worse, stats may be nullified in a game that ended in a forfeiture, just like the recent walk-out of Talk 'n Text in their game four match versus Ginebra. I'm sure many fantasy team managers who picked players from these teams were disappointed.

On a positive note, fantasy basketball is designed to deepen a basketball fan's appreciation of the game by not just merely fantasizing about a popular or hyped baller, but also, by developing a critical mind in analyzing the game itself and all the players of a team.

“Hoop Dreams” by Daniel Go, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved

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