Monty Phan

Lead writer focusing on high-stakes fantasy football. 2017 FFPC Main Event regular season points champion. 4-time FFPC Main Event league winner. 2018 FFPC Bare Knuckle league champ.

Author Archive

In-Season Articles

In-Season Articles

High Staked: The Gritting-Teeth Emoji, It Is Us

Week 2 in the NFL was the embodiment of this emoji: Before Sunday even started, among the high-profile players already declared out were Chris Godwin (concussion), Michael Thomas (ankle), Kenny Golladay (hamstring), A.J. Brown (knee) and George Kittle (knee). That led to various jokes poking fun at Zero RB practitioners – “Imagine starting your draft with Thomas, Godwin, Golladay and Brown! Your season’s basically over!”…...

High Staked: And … We’re Back!

NFL football is back. Even a few months ago, that seemed iffy at best. Since 2010, I’ve watched the Thursday night opener with friends in Las Vegas, where we would spend the weekend doing various in-person FFPC drafts. Obviously, those plans were canceled months ago. The remaining question seemed to be: Would the same thing happen to the NFL season? For now, it seems all…...

Here’s What Happened When Zero RB Converts Went RB-RB in a Main Event Draft (Spoiler: They Liked Their Team!)

For 10 straight years from 2010 to 2019, I drafted a high-stakes fantasy football team live in Las Vegas, an annual ritual that will come to end this year because huddling around a table with a bunch of strangers probably isn’t the wisest decision right now, no matter how much I look forward to it each September. Of course, logic dictates that I take the…...

FFPC Strategy Sessions: Breaking Down the Main Event Draft, Round By Round

I’ll be honest: I’m a sucker for average draft position charts. When looking at how best to attack the high-stakes Main Event, the FFPC’s flagship contest, I base my draft plan on what appear to be the tendencies of those who have gone before me: how others have reacted to the previous season’s results, which draft positions seem better than others, how to adapt if…...

High-Stakes Drafters are Bullish on Top Rookie RBs — Should You Be?

Under normal circumstances, drafting rookie running backs in the FFPC Main Event is a complete minefield. The 2017 class likely ruined expectations for years after, as the likes of Kareem Hunt, Christian McCaffrey and Leonard Fournette finished in the top nine, a tidy profit on their third-round ADPs – and that’s not counting Alvin Kamara, who was drafted much later and finished as the overall…...

FFPC Strategy Sessions: Attacking High-Stakes Dynasty Startups With One of the World’s Top Players, Part 2

While trying to find ways to fight shelter-in-place boredom in this sports-deprived environment, I’ve taken on (probably too many) new FFPC dynasty teams, which inspired this guide to how I’ve built teams in four different formats: standard (one quarterback) and superflex head-to-head leagues, and standard and superflex best-ball squads. The first part focused on my general philosophy as well as the quarterback and running back…...

FFPC Strategy Sessions: Attacking High-Stakes Dynasty Startups With One of the World’s Top Players, Part 1

Monty won’t come out and say this, of course, but he’s one of the top high-stakes players in the world. He’s also an FFPC veteran with a wealth of experience in their various formats. I asked him to discuss his approach to FFPC dynasty leagues, including startups, orphans, and rookie drafts, and I’m excited to get his thoughts on both classic and superflex leagues. In…...

NFL Week 16: Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

Monty Phan wraps up the weekend of NFL action. For nearly four months every year, my wife puts up with a husband who is totally useless on Sundays, a slave to the Red Zone Channel and NBC Sunday Night Football. Just when the season crescendos to a climax – the fantasy playoffs – is when her patience nearly runs out. What’s she rewarded with? A…...

NFL Week 15: Coin Flips

Monty Phan wraps up the weekend of NFL action. If you’re wondering what caused the greatest uproar in the NFL Twitterverse yesterday, it should come as no surprise that it was what everyone believed to be a miscommunicated call between Cowboys coach Jason Garrett and Dak Prescott that could have had a huge effect on the rest of the game. It was the pregame coin…...

NFL Week 14: You Winston, You Lose Some

Monty Phan wraps up the weekend of NFL action. It’s Week 14, so I’m sure a bunch of you barely lost last week in a win-and-you’re-in game to make the playoffs, or you’re now staring down elimination after Sunday’s games. Here’s a fun masochistic fantasy football activity I like to do: Continue to set your lineup even after your team is no longer in contention,…...

NFL Week 13: A Relevant DeVante Parker is Truly Fitzmagical

Monty Phan wraps up the weekend of NFL action. Let’s get something straight: Detroit rookie David Blough’s last name rhymes with “cow,” not “dough.” I get it, a lot of folks think it’d be funnier if it was pronounced “blow,” because, frankly, that’s what everyone expected an undrafted, third-string quarterback starting his first career game against the Bears defense would do. Except that nothing was…...

NFL Week 12: Penny Saved, or Penny Burned?

Normally, this space would be focused on FFPC high stakes, but I was asked to take a more general look at the weekend’s NFL slate, because my own FFPC season is pretty much over and I’m trying to branch out beyond writing about bitterness and regret. However, we can’t really have a full fantasy football experience without at least a dollop of bitterness and regret,…...

Bracket Busting: Survive and Advance

High-stakes writers Monty Phan and John Lapinski chronicle their entry in the FFPC Super Bracket contest. There are few activities more exhilarating yet ultimately meaningless than the rollercoaster of rooting for specific scenarios during the final game of the final week of playoff qualification in high-stakes leagues. Nothing made this clearer to me than when Chargers kicker Mike Badgley lined up for a field goal…...

High Staked: Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. Welcome to Week 11 in FFPC high stakes, where, once again, we’re reminded that there’s a big difference between what we think should happen and what actually occurs. For a lot of teams, it’s – mercifully – the final reminder, because it also happens to be the last week of the regular season. Unfortunately,…...

High Staked: Looking Behind to See Ahead, or Hindsight and 2020

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. It’s entering Week 11, so in four days, two-thirds of the 2,400 FFPC Main Event teams will do what eliminated teams do: look to next year. This year’s ADP was dominated by running backs in the first half of Round 1, with wide receivers, a few more RBs and tight end Travis Kelce selected…...

High Staked: What Went Wrong

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. I can officially say things didn’t work out this season like we’d hoped. For the first time since 2014, none of the FFPC high-stakes teams I run with three friends are likely to advance to the league playoffs or compete for the big money. The breaks we’ve benefitted from the past few seasons didn’t…...

Bracket Busting: Making Our Points

High-stakes writers Monty Phan and John Lapinski chronicle their entry in the FFPC Super Bracket contest. When our family goes around the table to say what we’re thankful for this Thanksgiving, I have my answer: the FFPC playoff seeding system that rewards high-scoring teams instead of only those with the best record. That’s right. While everyone else says stock answers like “I’m thankful for my…...

High Staked: Last Gasp Efforts

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. It’s the last gasps. With two more weeks left in the regular season, this is the time of the FFPC Main Event schedule when my friends and I would be bouncing group text messages off each other on how best to shore up the high-stakes teams we manage together in anticipation of our looming…...

High Staked: That Sinking Thielen

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. Observations from Week 9 in FFPC high-stakes leagues: Kirk Cousins continues to be one of the hottest quarterbacks since Week 5, having thrown for at least three touchdowns in four of his past five games, including on Sunday. So it’s absolutely maddening to see lines like these from his top wide receivers:   The Adam…...

High Staked: Bad Beats

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. I haven’t used this space that often this season to give detailed updates on the FFPC high-stakes teams I help run, but I’m doing so this week because I believe there’s a common unifier among those who play fantasy football: the bad beat. As opposed to the dominant teams we’ve had the past few…...

High Staked: The Gritting-Teeth Emoji, It Is Us

Week 2 in the NFL was the embodiment of this emoji: Before Sunday even started, among the high-profile players already declared out were Chris Godwin (concussion), Michael Thomas (ankle), Kenny Golladay (hamstring), A.J. Brown (knee) and George Kittle (knee). That led to various jokes poking fun at Zero RB practitioners – “Imagine starting your draft with Thomas, Godwin, Golladay and Brown! Your season’s basically over!”…...

High Staked: And … We’re Back!

NFL football is back. Even a few months ago, that seemed iffy at best. Since 2010, I’ve watched the Thursday night opener with friends in Las Vegas, where we would spend the weekend doing various in-person FFPC drafts. Obviously, those plans were canceled months ago. The remaining question seemed to be: Would the same thing happen to the NFL season? For now, it seems all…...

Here’s What Happened When Zero RB Converts Went RB-RB in a Main Event Draft (Spoiler: They Liked Their Team!)

For 10 straight years from 2010 to 2019, I drafted a high-stakes fantasy football team live in Las Vegas, an annual ritual that will come to end this year because huddling around a table with a bunch of strangers probably isn’t the wisest decision right now, no matter how much I look forward to it each September. Of course, logic dictates that I take the…...

FFPC Strategy Sessions: Breaking Down the Main Event Draft, Round By Round

I’ll be honest: I’m a sucker for average draft position charts. When looking at how best to attack the high-stakes Main Event, the FFPC’s flagship contest, I base my draft plan on what appear to be the tendencies of those who have gone before me: how others have reacted to the previous season’s results, which draft positions seem better than others, how to adapt if…...

High-Stakes Drafters are Bullish on Top Rookie RBs — Should You Be?

Under normal circumstances, drafting rookie running backs in the FFPC Main Event is a complete minefield. The 2017 class likely ruined expectations for years after, as the likes of Kareem Hunt, Christian McCaffrey and Leonard Fournette finished in the top nine, a tidy profit on their third-round ADPs – and that’s not counting Alvin Kamara, who was drafted much later and finished as the overall…...

FFPC Strategy Sessions: Attacking High-Stakes Dynasty Startups With One of the World’s Top Players, Part 2

While trying to find ways to fight shelter-in-place boredom in this sports-deprived environment, I’ve taken on (probably too many) new FFPC dynasty teams, which inspired this guide to how I’ve built teams in four different formats: standard (one quarterback) and superflex head-to-head leagues, and standard and superflex best-ball squads. The first part focused on my general philosophy as well as the quarterback and running back…...

FFPC Strategy Sessions: Attacking High-Stakes Dynasty Startups With One of the World’s Top Players, Part 1

Monty won’t come out and say this, of course, but he’s one of the top high-stakes players in the world. He’s also an FFPC veteran with a wealth of experience in their various formats. I asked him to discuss his approach to FFPC dynasty leagues, including startups, orphans, and rookie drafts, and I’m excited to get his thoughts on both classic and superflex leagues. In…...

NFL Week 16: Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

Monty Phan wraps up the weekend of NFL action. For nearly four months every year, my wife puts up with a husband who is totally useless on Sundays, a slave to the Red Zone Channel and NBC Sunday Night Football. Just when the season crescendos to a climax – the fantasy playoffs – is when her patience nearly runs out. What’s she rewarded with? A…...

NFL Week 15: Coin Flips

Monty Phan wraps up the weekend of NFL action. If you’re wondering what caused the greatest uproar in the NFL Twitterverse yesterday, it should come as no surprise that it was what everyone believed to be a miscommunicated call between Cowboys coach Jason Garrett and Dak Prescott that could have had a huge effect on the rest of the game. It was the pregame coin…...

NFL Week 14: You Winston, You Lose Some

Monty Phan wraps up the weekend of NFL action. It’s Week 14, so I’m sure a bunch of you barely lost last week in a win-and-you’re-in game to make the playoffs, or you’re now staring down elimination after Sunday’s games. Here’s a fun masochistic fantasy football activity I like to do: Continue to set your lineup even after your team is no longer in contention,…...

NFL Week 13: A Relevant DeVante Parker is Truly Fitzmagical

Monty Phan wraps up the weekend of NFL action. Let’s get something straight: Detroit rookie David Blough’s last name rhymes with “cow,” not “dough.” I get it, a lot of folks think it’d be funnier if it was pronounced “blow,” because, frankly, that’s what everyone expected an undrafted, third-string quarterback starting his first career game against the Bears defense would do. Except that nothing was…...

NFL Week 12: Penny Saved, or Penny Burned?

Normally, this space would be focused on FFPC high stakes, but I was asked to take a more general look at the weekend’s NFL slate, because my own FFPC season is pretty much over and I’m trying to branch out beyond writing about bitterness and regret. However, we can’t really have a full fantasy football experience without at least a dollop of bitterness and regret,…...

Bracket Busting: Survive and Advance

High-stakes writers Monty Phan and John Lapinski chronicle their entry in the FFPC Super Bracket contest. There are few activities more exhilarating yet ultimately meaningless than the rollercoaster of rooting for specific scenarios during the final game of the final week of playoff qualification in high-stakes leagues. Nothing made this clearer to me than when Chargers kicker Mike Badgley lined up for a field goal…...

High Staked: Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. Welcome to Week 11 in FFPC high stakes, where, once again, we’re reminded that there’s a big difference between what we think should happen and what actually occurs. For a lot of teams, it’s – mercifully – the final reminder, because it also happens to be the last week of the regular season. Unfortunately,…...

High Staked: Looking Behind to See Ahead, or Hindsight and 2020

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. It’s entering Week 11, so in four days, two-thirds of the 2,400 FFPC Main Event teams will do what eliminated teams do: look to next year. This year’s ADP was dominated by running backs in the first half of Round 1, with wide receivers, a few more RBs and tight end Travis Kelce selected…...

High Staked: What Went Wrong

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. I can officially say things didn’t work out this season like we’d hoped. For the first time since 2014, none of the FFPC high-stakes teams I run with three friends are likely to advance to the league playoffs or compete for the big money. The breaks we’ve benefitted from the past few seasons didn’t…...

Bracket Busting: Making Our Points

High-stakes writers Monty Phan and John Lapinski chronicle their entry in the FFPC Super Bracket contest. When our family goes around the table to say what we’re thankful for this Thanksgiving, I have my answer: the FFPC playoff seeding system that rewards high-scoring teams instead of only those with the best record. That’s right. While everyone else says stock answers like “I’m thankful for my…...

High Staked: Last Gasp Efforts

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. It’s the last gasps. With two more weeks left in the regular season, this is the time of the FFPC Main Event schedule when my friends and I would be bouncing group text messages off each other on how best to shore up the high-stakes teams we manage together in anticipation of our looming…...

High Staked: That Sinking Thielen

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. Observations from Week 9 in FFPC high-stakes leagues: Kirk Cousins continues to be one of the hottest quarterbacks since Week 5, having thrown for at least three touchdowns in four of his past five games, including on Sunday. So it’s absolutely maddening to see lines like these from his top wide receivers:   The Adam…...

High Staked: Bad Beats

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. I haven’t used this space that often this season to give detailed updates on the FFPC high-stakes teams I help run, but I’m doing so this week because I believe there’s a common unifier among those who play fantasy football: the bad beat. As opposed to the dominant teams we’ve had the past few…...

High Staked: The Gritting-Teeth Emoji, It Is Us

Week 2 in the NFL was the embodiment of this emoji: Before Sunday even started, among the high-profile players already declared out were Chris Godwin (concussion), Michael Thomas (ankle), Kenny Golladay (hamstring), A.J. Brown (knee) and George Kittle (knee). That led to various jokes poking fun at Zero RB practitioners – “Imagine starting your draft with Thomas, Godwin, Golladay and Brown! Your season’s basically over!”…...

High Staked: And … We’re Back!

NFL football is back. Even a few months ago, that seemed iffy at best. Since 2010, I’ve watched the Thursday night opener with friends in Las Vegas, where we would spend the weekend doing various in-person FFPC drafts. Obviously, those plans were canceled months ago. The remaining question seemed to be: Would the same thing happen to the NFL season? For now, it seems all…...

Here’s What Happened When Zero RB Converts Went RB-RB in a Main Event Draft (Spoiler: They Liked Their Team!)

For 10 straight years from 2010 to 2019, I drafted a high-stakes fantasy football team live in Las Vegas, an annual ritual that will come to end this year because huddling around a table with a bunch of strangers probably isn’t the wisest decision right now, no matter how much I look forward to it each September. Of course, logic dictates that I take the…...

FFPC Strategy Sessions: Breaking Down the Main Event Draft, Round By Round

I’ll be honest: I’m a sucker for average draft position charts. When looking at how best to attack the high-stakes Main Event, the FFPC’s flagship contest, I base my draft plan on what appear to be the tendencies of those who have gone before me: how others have reacted to the previous season’s results, which draft positions seem better than others, how to adapt if…...

High-Stakes Drafters are Bullish on Top Rookie RBs — Should You Be?

Under normal circumstances, drafting rookie running backs in the FFPC Main Event is a complete minefield. The 2017 class likely ruined expectations for years after, as the likes of Kareem Hunt, Christian McCaffrey and Leonard Fournette finished in the top nine, a tidy profit on their third-round ADPs – and that’s not counting Alvin Kamara, who was drafted much later and finished as the overall…...

FFPC Strategy Sessions: Attacking High-Stakes Dynasty Startups With One of the World’s Top Players, Part 2

While trying to find ways to fight shelter-in-place boredom in this sports-deprived environment, I’ve taken on (probably too many) new FFPC dynasty teams, which inspired this guide to how I’ve built teams in four different formats: standard (one quarterback) and superflex head-to-head leagues, and standard and superflex best-ball squads. The first part focused on my general philosophy as well as the quarterback and running back…...

FFPC Strategy Sessions: Attacking High-Stakes Dynasty Startups With One of the World’s Top Players, Part 1

Monty won’t come out and say this, of course, but he’s one of the top high-stakes players in the world. He’s also an FFPC veteran with a wealth of experience in their various formats. I asked him to discuss his approach to FFPC dynasty leagues, including startups, orphans, and rookie drafts, and I’m excited to get his thoughts on both classic and superflex leagues. In…...

NFL Week 16: Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

Monty Phan wraps up the weekend of NFL action. For nearly four months every year, my wife puts up with a husband who is totally useless on Sundays, a slave to the Red Zone Channel and NBC Sunday Night Football. Just when the season crescendos to a climax – the fantasy playoffs – is when her patience nearly runs out. What’s she rewarded with? A…...

NFL Week 15: Coin Flips

Monty Phan wraps up the weekend of NFL action. If you’re wondering what caused the greatest uproar in the NFL Twitterverse yesterday, it should come as no surprise that it was what everyone believed to be a miscommunicated call between Cowboys coach Jason Garrett and Dak Prescott that could have had a huge effect on the rest of the game. It was the pregame coin…...

NFL Week 14: You Winston, You Lose Some

Monty Phan wraps up the weekend of NFL action. It’s Week 14, so I’m sure a bunch of you barely lost last week in a win-and-you’re-in game to make the playoffs, or you’re now staring down elimination after Sunday’s games. Here’s a fun masochistic fantasy football activity I like to do: Continue to set your lineup even after your team is no longer in contention,…...

NFL Week 13: A Relevant DeVante Parker is Truly Fitzmagical

Monty Phan wraps up the weekend of NFL action. Let’s get something straight: Detroit rookie David Blough’s last name rhymes with “cow,” not “dough.” I get it, a lot of folks think it’d be funnier if it was pronounced “blow,” because, frankly, that’s what everyone expected an undrafted, third-string quarterback starting his first career game against the Bears defense would do. Except that nothing was…...

NFL Week 12: Penny Saved, or Penny Burned?

Normally, this space would be focused on FFPC high stakes, but I was asked to take a more general look at the weekend’s NFL slate, because my own FFPC season is pretty much over and I’m trying to branch out beyond writing about bitterness and regret. However, we can’t really have a full fantasy football experience without at least a dollop of bitterness and regret,…...

Bracket Busting: Survive and Advance

High-stakes writers Monty Phan and John Lapinski chronicle their entry in the FFPC Super Bracket contest. There are few activities more exhilarating yet ultimately meaningless than the rollercoaster of rooting for specific scenarios during the final game of the final week of playoff qualification in high-stakes leagues. Nothing made this clearer to me than when Chargers kicker Mike Badgley lined up for a field goal…...

High Staked: Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. Welcome to Week 11 in FFPC high stakes, where, once again, we’re reminded that there’s a big difference between what we think should happen and what actually occurs. For a lot of teams, it’s – mercifully – the final reminder, because it also happens to be the last week of the regular season. Unfortunately,…...

High Staked: Looking Behind to See Ahead, or Hindsight and 2020

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. It’s entering Week 11, so in four days, two-thirds of the 2,400 FFPC Main Event teams will do what eliminated teams do: look to next year. This year’s ADP was dominated by running backs in the first half of Round 1, with wide receivers, a few more RBs and tight end Travis Kelce selected…...

High Staked: What Went Wrong

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. I can officially say things didn’t work out this season like we’d hoped. For the first time since 2014, none of the FFPC high-stakes teams I run with three friends are likely to advance to the league playoffs or compete for the big money. The breaks we’ve benefitted from the past few seasons didn’t…...

Bracket Busting: Making Our Points

High-stakes writers Monty Phan and John Lapinski chronicle their entry in the FFPC Super Bracket contest. When our family goes around the table to say what we’re thankful for this Thanksgiving, I have my answer: the FFPC playoff seeding system that rewards high-scoring teams instead of only those with the best record. That’s right. While everyone else says stock answers like “I’m thankful for my…...

High Staked: Last Gasp Efforts

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. It’s the last gasps. With two more weeks left in the regular season, this is the time of the FFPC Main Event schedule when my friends and I would be bouncing group text messages off each other on how best to shore up the high-stakes teams we manage together in anticipation of our looming…...

High Staked: That Sinking Thielen

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. Observations from Week 9 in FFPC high-stakes leagues: Kirk Cousins continues to be one of the hottest quarterbacks since Week 5, having thrown for at least three touchdowns in four of his past five games, including on Sunday. So it’s absolutely maddening to see lines like these from his top wide receivers:   The Adam…...

High Staked: Bad Beats

Veteran high stakes fantasy football player Monty Phan chronicles his season. I haven’t used this space that often this season to give detailed updates on the FFPC high-stakes teams I help run, but I’m doing so this week because I believe there’s a common unifier among those who play fantasy football: the bad beat. As opposed to the dominant teams we’ve had the past few…...

Connect
Support

rotovizmain@gmail.com

Sign-up today for our free Premium Email subscription!

Data provided by

© 2021 RotoViz. All rights Reserved.

Welcome Back to RotoViz...

– IF YOU HAVE ISSUES LOGGING IN PLEASE CONTACT ROTOVIZMAIN@GMAIL.COM

– PLEASE NOTE THAT ROTOVIZ USES WORDPRESS FOR ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT. IF RESETTING YOUR PASSWORD YOU MAY BE FOWARDED TO A WORDPRESS PAGE.