By Kyle Chan, Staff Writer
Fantasy football is a game where participants play a role as a general manager of the virtual professional American football teams. There are plenty of apps that provide that format, such as ESPN, Yahoo, Sleeper, etc. You can either play with a group of your friends or you can join a random league where you go against other people. The purpose is to maintain the best team by scoring the most points. Before the season starts, the host has to schedule a draft day where all the competitors in the league select players from any team based on their draft pick. As the season progresses, each player will be facing off another player from the same league. Then, they will watch football games to determine how each player on their team does. The better performance each player has, the more points they will receive. Fantasy football playoffs begin during Week 15-16 of the regular season. These matches will determine who will be the best of the best, based on your wins throughout the past weeks. There are also other brackets that match up based on seed rankings, even including a loser bracket.
Many ecstatic sports fans that participate in fantasy football have “prizes” or “punishments”, but since it is the most spine-tingling time of the year, let’s talk about some of the most petrifying punishments that losers in fantasy have to concede to.
With the craze that fantasy football has been since the start of the season, the addition of the spookiest time of the year brings up the devious penalties fantasy players come up with during this year’s league. Ranging from many shameful dares, here are some of the scariest but most popular loser punishments that Mills students have come up with in their fantasy football league.
Starting off with the classic “wear an embarrassing outfit to school”, this challenge stipulates that the loser will wear a humiliating halloween costume to school and will have to wear it the whole day without taking it off, causing questioning stares left and right from the entire school.
“Our punishment for fantasy is that the loser has to wear a maid dress with cat ears,” said Ernest Cheng (12). “It would be during a random day at school, where the loser has to wear the dress from the beginning of school to the end without taking it off.” He also states if his team keeps up the competitive spirit, that he will be avoiding the punishment.
With embarrassing punishments being on one side of the spectrum, there are also gross and disturbing punishments on the other side. “My league’s punishment is that the loser of the loser’s playoff bracket has to drink a small glass of a mystery beverage,” said Justin Kang (12). “Each player brings two ingredients of their choosing and we blend it all up”. Kang, who is in an eight man league, says that the punishment is on the “gross side”, but it was fair since everyone voted and agreed before the league started. Although the season is only at Week 6, which is about one-third of the season, he states that, “I might dislike the punishment more than the other players in my league because my team is projected to finish in last place.” He then adds on that he has a team of reliable players and has faith in them.
Some of the punishments may even threaten or test the manliness of some players. “Our league’s punishment is that whoever places last must ask out five girls,” said Tyler Okada (11). Even though the season is still early, Okada mentions that the punishment “lowkey” scares him because of the injured players on his team. He states, “My team is absolute garbage right now.”
One final example can be letting the whole world know you garbage you are in fantasy no matter where you go. “‘The punishment for my league is having to wear a bright pink license that says “I suck”’, said Dean Christian. Mr. Christian is in a ten man league that consists of other Mills teachers and staff. He states that his “pride” is hurt as he is on the chopping block because of his winless team throughout the season.
If you and your friends are avid sports fans who enjoy watching football, you should create and participate in a fantasy league. It can create better bondage between friends, while watching sports. It can also be fun and enjoyable, only if you are able to avoid being the sole loser.
