Engel's Angles: Ways To Keep Fantasy Fires Burning During Sports Outages

We love fantasy sports for many reasons. Among the prime factors is that it fuels our competitive fires, the ones that still rage when we are not playing actual sports themselves. Maybe we can’t make the Major Leagues, but we can certainly strive to be one of the best in fantasy baseball. Or even if we are very good athletes, we can still compete in something else that is so compelling when we are not on the real fields or courts.

Fantasy sports also are a great interactive and communal resource. We stay in touch with friends, meet new ones and develop fun virtual rivalries. They help us simulate the professional sports experience as owners and coaches. We love trash-talking. There is always a great amount of satisfaction in being one of the most knowledgeable sports fans in your personal circles.

The postponements of several major sports have made us search for new outlets to compete, interact, socialize online, and talk some smack. Some of these you may have already tried, but we put some new spins on it as well. This an in-depth guide on how to best redirect your fantasy sports energies while we wait for our favorite major sports leagues to resume action.

Keep Competing, Connecting and Learning

Put a New Spin on Madden 20: Many fantasy football players are Madden players. But some of them focus on competing with one team or building their best Ultimate Teams. What I have chosen to do is something I used to in past years and now have time to resume. I play with every single team in franchise mode. It is time-consuming, but it is a heck of a teaching tool and a lot of fun.

You get exposed to the ratings and skills of many additional players, and their abilities are so true to life it actually helps you learn even more about the sport. This is especially valuable in absorbing more on non-skill players that do play roles in affecting fantasy results. To keep it simpler, you can play with a few different teams every week of the NFL schedule and compete in all the playoff games.

If you are not a Madden player, drop the “I don’t play video games anymore since I am grown-up” snob stance and you will see just how much it gets the competitive blood flowing. You can compete in fantasy drafts and manage every single move of your team on and off the field. Online games and leagues truly capture the essence of a fantasy football experience with the highs and lows of winning and losing and trash talk. If you have not played in years, now is the time to pick the controller back up.

MLB The Show 20

MLB The Show 20: Madden 20 is improved, but The Show is the most realistic sports game I have ever played in my life. Serious baseball people I know really respect what a tremendous simulation it is. You can learn a heck of a lot more about players and their tendencies and abilities. Even if you are a dominant fantasy baseball player, you can always absorb additional info.

This season’s edition has actually added real Minor League players to the available rosters, making it a deeper experience than ever. Not only will you get more exposure to the deepest player pool ever, it is a tremendous rush for those hardcore baseball types to simulate with prospects.

Candidly speaking as well, online matchups in MLB The Show are a major adrenaline rush when you find serious players to compete with who are interested in an authentic MLB experience. Join a league when you find the right online friends to compete with.

Season Simulations

I grew up playing Strat-O-Matic in basketball, baseball, football, and even hockey. It was a true earlier version of fantasy gaming, as my friends and I would draft players and form our own teams. The game is still available in board game setups and you can compete in online leagues as well. You can simulate past seasons and even play with all-time legends.

Hardcore baseball fans have been taking part in other online baseball simulations such as Baseball Manager, Out of the Park Baseball, Pennant Chase, and Diamond Mind. You can build your own stadiums, manage game flow and even simulate past Minor League seasons. Fantasy baseball players are the most serious and intense players in all sports, and these simulations truly appeal to their great appetites for absorbing minutia and committing to excellence of knowledge.

If you already play one of these types of games, now is the time to get your friends more involved or share your results on social media to stir some chatter.

DFS

Fantasy is truly not inactive: DFS sites are still being creative and active. For example, DraftKings is now simulating NFL games through Madden 20 and running NBA simulations, and you can participate in the contests.

The Outlaw Golf Tournament carries on in Arizona and you can still play DFS golf games based on it. NASCAR has been successful with its Esports events, televising iRacing weekly with Mike Joy and Jeff Gordon calling the action as usual and you can play DFS games based on events with actual drivers competing against each other.

And of course, there are Esports DFS contests for League of Legends and other games, and RotoBaller has launched a new Esports Season Pass to help you win big, Enter KING at checkout for a discount.

Online trash talk

If you have a need to beat your chest or debate with other sports fans, there are a lot of great social media destinations for meeting new sports fans and talk trash. Facebook groups are a top destination here. One of my favorite groups on there is NFL Memes.

People post really fun memes to poke at other people’s favorite teams or brag about their own. Plus, there are daily debates about items such as where does Dan Marino rank among the all-time QBs, is Michael Vick a Hall of Famer, and did Dez catch the ball, etc. Put on your favorite jersey and start commenting. It’s a very active and entertaining online community.

Draft ‘em, rank ‘em and brackets

You can have fun drafting, ranking, and creating bracket tournaments of anything you like on social media. Every weekend on RotoBaller Radio on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio, Michael Florio and I have drafted our favorite fast food joints, Impractical Joker moments, TV shows, and more. Then we put polls out to see who won the drafts. You can do the same.

Rank whatever you like and get your friends to do the same: Favorite movies, favorite bands and musical artists, favorite athletes, favorite fantasy experts (draft me first even though Nick Mariano will probably get taken ahead of me), best WRs of all time, greatest dynasties in sports, etc.

On one of my staple music sites, we have bracket tournaments of albums, pitting them against each other to determine the best album ever by that artist.

NFL Mock Drafts

Many NFL fans are engaging in online NFL Mock Drafts, taking their favorite team in a draft with other fans. Sites such as Pro Football Focus offer an NFL Mock Draft Simulator where you can take any team and flesh the draft out.

At RotoBaller.com, we are simulating the first three rounds of the 2020 NFL Draft with full in-depth analysis on every pick. Check out the results here.

Best Ball Drafts

Many of you who read the content on RotoBaller are very familiar with this format, but I am amazed how many mainstream fantasy football players and some fantasy baseball players have never even heard of Best Ball leagues. Spread the word and get more friends involved.

You will be helping them enjoy drafting as often as they want and discovering something new and fun. We have a Best Ball hub here on RotoBaller.

Keep Preparing

The delay to the start of the MLB has given you more time to prepare for when play hopefully starts again. You can spend time gathering more knowledge and studying up even more. All of us can learn more. The more you know, the more powerful you become as a fantasy player.

RotoBaller is pumping out tons of free and premium content while we await the first pitch and the NFL season. Enter KING at checkout for an additional discount on any premium Season Pass Package and check out all we have to offer, including great tools and optimizers included for the upcoming DFS seasons.

RotoBaller Testimonials

Readers of RotoBaller's eSports DFS articles have been winning money on DraftKings and FanDuel regularly. Some of them are winning contests daily and bringing in some serious cheddar. Check one out below and lots more here!

Did you read a RotoBaller article and win too? Send us your screenshots on Twitter @RotoBaller and we'll add it to our winners Hall Of Fame!

Had a member of slack take down the Insomnia Special last night. Pretty cool seeing that @RotoBaller logo up at the top! #Esports #LOL #Draftkings pic.twitter.com/S5FFRSUNB1

— "Thunder Dan" Palyo (@ThunderDanDFS) April 16, 2020