From early March to late October more than 32,000 people competed for the chance to be crowned champion of MLS Fantasy Manager. For one lucky (and skilled) fan this would be a great achievement. Cement your legacy as the No.1 MLS Fantasy player in 2014 and win some really cool prizes at the same time!
Injuries, suspensions, midweek games, trades, CONCACAF Champions League and the World Cup were in full force this season. So much so that creating and managing an 18-man fantasy roster successfully (with manual substitutions) seemed – at times – just as challenging as running your very own MLS team.
Finishing in the top 10 percent of the league is no easy task. Finishing in the top one percent is even tougher. Finishing in the top 50 is, by definition, nearly impossible. No. 1 overall? Well, that's a once-in-a-lifetime achievement.
I caught up with this year's MLS Fantasy winner, Richie Pherson, a D.C. United fan since MLS' inaugural season in 1996 from Great Falls, Virginia, to discuss his epic title run in just his second season playing the current iteration of the game.
"I used to play the original MLS fantasy game back in 2007 and 2008," says Pherson, who christened his squad In It Toux Wynne It. "I think I did well enough to win a t-shirt. Then I took a break because I got into football and hockey and eventually started back up again last season."
- Rankings: Where did your team finish overall?
He finished 98th overall in 2013, but with thousands more in North America and Europe ready to compete for this year's title, Pherson knew that 2014 would be a whole new challenge. He came prepared with a plan and made adjustments accordingly.
"I see fantasy success as one-third research, one-third planning and one-third luck," Pherson says. "I went with a 4-4-2 to start the season because I thought defenders would produce more. Then about halfway through I switched to a 3-4-3 and didn't spend more than $7.0m on defenders because they were all hit or miss. I focused on the players who would get you bonus points rather than pure goal-scorers. I made my transfers early the first half of the year to try and build value. Once I built up my value I waited until later in the week right before lineups came out to make my transfers."
Pherson considered Landon Donovan a must-have player. At forward, he rode the success of Robbie Keane, Obafemi Martins, Federico Higuain and Thierry Henry (for a little bit), but never owned Dom Dwyer or Erick Torres at any point throughout the year. Even more astonishing, he didn't have Bradley Wright-Phillips on his team until the final three weeks of the season. (Pictured right: Pherson's team for the final round of the season)
Despite steering clear of players that paced other successful Fantasy teams, he never dropped below 38th overall at any point in the season.
"I was No. 1 the first two weeks to start the season, but dropped out of the top five when I made the bad decision not to go with Donovan and Keane the week that they exploded," Pherson says. "That sent me into the 30s. I got back up to 10th, and then I went to Europe for two weeks and dropped back down again."
Meanwhile, his fiercest competitor, Harchester United, appeared destined to take the title. From Round 8 to Round 32, Harchester remained in first place – 25 straight weeks.
- MLS Fantasy Chatter: What did you learn this season?
With three rounds left, Pherson was in fourth place, 34 points behind the leader. His confidence was dwindling, but it wasn't over just yet.
In Round 31, he made four transfers – normally an eight-point deduction – but with an extra transfer rolled over from three rounds prior, it only cost him four. Pherson scored well that round, but remained in fourth place.
Then he closed the gap tremendously in Round 32. And with one round remaining, he was back in third place just 10 points shy of the No. 1 spot. Still, Pherson figured the title was just out of reach, expecting Harchester United to take advantage of Chivas USA's double-game week and make it 26 weeks at the top.
"I thought the person in first place would get [Dan Kennedy] and then use his second transfer on Torres," Pherson says, a scenario which played out as he expected. "I was hoping for a blank from Torres and a clean sheet for Chivas vs. San Jose."
Richie followed suit and picked up Kennedy, but instead of Torres he went with Chivas USA defender Bobby Burling, betting on the clean sheet over production from Cubo. He made the right moves, but he still needed a little bit of luck.
"I wasn't sure if I wanted to play BWP, so I subbed Brad Davis in for BWP [after the round started]," Pherson says. "And then when I found out Keane wasn't playing, I subbed BWP back in. I was actually planning on benching Wright-Phillips."
Wright-Phillips went on to score two goals against Sporting KC in the final game of the 2014 regular season. His 12 fantasy points pushed Pherson from third to first, securing the title by a margin of just four points.
"I never thought [winning it all] was a possibility until the final day of the season," he says. "It just so happened to work out perfectly."
How'd your team do this season? What did you learn? What will you apply to 2015? Let us know in the comments section below!
