2023 Week 2 + 3 LoL FFL Post:

Nazim Parupia
Sep 29, 2023
7 min read

WEEK 2:

Another week of un-notable results, some bad luck, a close top finish, and little intrigue as the games winded down. I’m sorry my words won’t carry the weight or humor of Kyriacos’ brilliance, but it’s been a while since I’ve had to write it out. Nevertheless, I have one takeaway to predict our champion this year, so you’ll wanna stick around until the end to show how Vegas should draw the line. Without further ado, let’s get into the matchups.

Naz v Ali

If only I had subbed in Ford for Jackson, who did not end up playing, and may never play again, this would’ve been a much closer contest. As I watched in agony, Lamar and OBJ let me down. I’m not sure who OBJ was praying to before the game, but it didn’t work, and now he’s out with injury. I literally screamed for dear life as I watched Zay Flowers absolutely break the corner’s ankles and torch the defense while Lamar failed to complete more than 1 pass down the field… What could have been. Despite having 0 for Zay Jones, Pittsburgh’s defense and huge RB games carried Ali to easy victory.

Ahsan vs Kyriacos

In what was possibly the lowest scoring effort I’ve seen in a long time with no injuries and no bye weeks… 43.7 points?! What an achievement: being able to score less than me. Bravo! Looking back at last year, there were only a few instances of such a low total, but they had pretty good reasons. Sean scored 39.4 in week 11 of last year with 4 bye weeks, 2 players on the IR, a QB that got hurt at the start of the game, and -3 from his defense… Same kinda sentiment for Humza in week 13 and week 14, but by this point he had traded away all of his productive players, had bye weeks, injuries, and didn’t even set his lineup… My point: it took a lot to get down to 40 points – so it’s kind of crazy how it happened in week 2. I’m almost certain if I went back further in history, I wouldn’t see a lower score in the first few weeks when bye weeks haven’t begun. Either way, I digress. An easy win for Kyriacos carried by what should’ve been my pick – Mike Evans.

Sean vs Rimmel

Rimmel got the most out of Mostert – sorry I had too – but it wasn’t enough. Chubb going down midgame ruined any chance of a win. After suffering a big blow from A-Rod going down and hurting Garrett Wilson’s value, he now has lost Chubb completely for the year. In addition, Akers has become obsolete to the Rams and has reverted to being useless. Another one bites the dust. It’ll be a long season for my preseason favorite, but there are many weeks to go and only a few that really matter. Sean’s payment for the Puke Nuke paid off and paid dividends for his team in addition to huge games from his Waddle trade counterparts, the RB duo of Connor and Walker. Even with a 25-point effort from Swift on his bench, victory was achieved.

Humza vs Alex

Another dominant performance by the Dallas defense once again carried Humza to a win against a running-less team for Alex. After losing both Ekeler and Aaron Jones to injury, he was forced to play Perine and McKinnon as his starting RB’s. Even with that, only losing by 11 points is an accomplishment when those players only provided a total of 7 points. Sufficed to say, injuries plagued Alex in this matchup. Humza gets away with another sub-par effort from Chase, Gibbs, and Kelce. MVP thus far has been the Cowboys defense without a doubt. As they go, he goes. We’ll see if they can keep that up!

Yas vs Colten

Yas played a valiant game putting up a solid total that would’ve beat all but 3 teams. Unfortunately for his, he happened to be facing one of those 3 teams, and not just one of them, the highest scoring team of the week, Colten. Yas suffered from the wealth of riches problem this week and made the wrong choice of who to play. Deciding to play Pierce and Moore, who combined for 10 points, instead of playing Pickens, Collins, Moss, or Kyren Williams in those two spots, each which scored 18+ points, cost him the game. Meanwhile, Colten made every right decision and was carried by the “boom” games from Brian Robinson, Gabe Davis, and the Buccs Defense. $10 in the bag and a crucial division win secured for Colten this week.

Chris vs Parth

Daniel Jones as the starting QB with 30.7 points?! Crazy move that worked out really well, but ultimately fell just short of securing the most points this week by 1.7 points. Despite that, Chris was able to put away Parth and ride the big games from CMC and Tee Higgins. Hurts, Barkley, and Deebo were able to put up big totals for Parth, but unfortunately Dalvin Cook with the -0.3 and 1.0 from the Broncos Defense really let him down in this one. It’s always tough when your team puts up 100+ points and you take the L, but it HURTS even more when it takes you down to 0-2. It’ll be a long road to recovery from this one.

POST-WEEK 2 FORESHADOWING:

So, in the past years, we’ve looked at the teams that have started 0-2, 1-1, and 2-0, and what that has meant for end of season results. Well, last year happened to follow the same trend, so I anticipate we may be able to see who will win it all this year. Since 2016, every champion has started the season 1-1. This year, we have 4 teams in that scenario: Sean, Alex, Kcos, and Yas. So, betting money on this year would be to have one of them win. We shall revisit and see if that becomes true again this year!

WEEK 3:

Let's just jump right on into it!

Naz v Sean

Sean took this one with ease and secured the most points this week over Rimmel by a slim 0.6 points. $10 in the bag thanks to a 31-point effort from the Bills defense and another Waddle trade victory – the RB duo of Connor and Walker proved fruitful once again – your welcome! I was also present in the game to watch, no need to revisit my players in this one. Another week, another loss. It’s a long season. We’re playing for week 15! We move on. Let’s RIDE! (I’m sorry for the stray bullet Parth, but the Dolphins almost scored as much as my fantasy team…)

Rimmel v Alex

Another week where a tremendous effort goes to waste. Alex puts up a huge total, 3rd most this week, only to fall to the second highest scoring this week, Rimmel, who once again got the most from Mostert and carried him to victory with 42 points, despite Alex getting 36 from Keenan Allen and Devante Adams. Another week of plagued RB’s failed Alex for another week. Perine and Hubbard this time combined for a measly 5 points in place of a hurt Jones and Ekeler. Another killer loss for Alex but is looking strong for the future once his RB’s return to the fold. Rimmel almost secured the $10 but will take his first win this week instead!

Ali v Humza

The king has finally fallen. The Dallas defense has let Humza down and with them he goes. A negative 1-point effort from them allowed Ali to stay undefeated despite a 0-point game from Josh Reynolds. I just know Kcos would be furious about this result as Ali’s KICKER got him a whooping 18 points this week and was his 2nd leading scorer behind his QB. A solid effort from everyone else helped his point total and was enough to keep Humza from pushing forward even with Chase finally deciding to show up.

Colten v Kcos

A subpar performance from all the heavy hitters on Colten’s team except for Tyreek were the downfall this week. Just not being able to put enough points on the board and barely scoring more than myself led to an easy victory for Kcos, who was able to get solid numbers and break tat 100-point barrier. Not much else to note here, other than Kcos will get a nice boost from Kamara coming back next week, so look out…

Chris v Yas

Remember how Daniel Jones had 30 points last week? Well, he forgot the 0 this week… 3 whole points from Danny Dimes this week, and that’s just not gonna get it done. CMC and Olave can’t carry that hard, especially with huge games from Tua, JJ, and Moss. I can’t even imagine what Waddle would’ve had if he had played… Yas coast to victory and him and Chris both move to 2-1 on the season, leaving Ali as the lone undefeated team left.

Ahsan v Parth

The battle of the winless teams – someone will get their first win of the season! Yeah, okay, so we thought… TIED?!?! I guess we all stay winless haha. I mean, I could talk about this game for hours. The possibilities of 1 yard in any game those games changing the outcomes is insane to think about. The possible butterfly effect that could’ve had, the implications of each scenario, and of course what it means for our standings and end of year results. This game could ultimately decide who plays me in Week 15. It’s just nuts! In the end, both teams didn’t win or lose, and both get the tied result, which according to Yas, is, well, not a good thing… I’ll leave it at that. On to next week!