LORD of the BYES 3

LORD of the BYES:

Lord of the Bye's is back; Bigger and better than ever!

The competition for every fantasy fanatic; whether you're flying or just winding your way into the season, this is the competition for everyone.

Are you a strategist?, a number-crunching ultra-planner?, a super-spreadsheeter?, or a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants gut-feel savant?
Well, just maybe, you have what it takes to navigate the trickiest Bye period in recent memory!

LORD of the BYES is a rapid, action-packed shoot-out over the notoriously challenging bye period.
Only this time, we move from 6 weeks with 2 major byes last year, to an 8 week block featuring 3 major and 3 minor byes - how good can you navigate these unchartered waters?
We start from Round 13, with one goal; to maximise enough points to take the crown of the Ultimate LORD of the BYES.

Rounds 13 to 20 will reveal which Fantasy Fanatic is the greatest BYE-round exponent as we crown:
The Lord (or Lady) of the Byes


Winner gets:
Mass-respect!
A title that you can to your profile.
The opportunity to the elite company of former winners.
All the good that comes with being a supreme bye-player - last years edition saw Dark Knight move from 151st to 3rd place overall, and more than half the field cut their starting rank by 2/3rds of better.


Additional Awards:
The biggest rank gain (you have to be in the FOG comp to contest this).
BYE rounds Master: most points accrued in Round 13, Round 16 and Round 19 specifically.


The reigning 2022 champ:

@darkknight


Honours Board:
2023 Lord of the Byes: @Contrastinghobby
2022 Lord of the Byes: @darkknight
2021 Lord of the Byes: @pain

2022 Top Rank Improver: @Revraiser
2021 Top Rank Improver: @Revraiser

2022 Bye-rounds Master: @theweapon
2021 Bye-rounds Master: @theweapon


JOIN UP HERE:
https://fantasy.nrl.com/fantasy/league/join?code=CLOSED

OR
Go to the "Join a League" page and paste the code: CLOSED

Registration closes at kick-off of the first game in Round 13.

https://fantasy.nrl.com/fantasy/league/join

A few rules:
Get your entry in before the first game of Round 13
The competition runs from Round 13 through to and including the minor bye-round of Round 20.
Use your existing FOG team. - No new registration teams allowed (it's about managing the tricky period with a normal volume of trades left)

What is encouraged:
- Encouragement to your competition
- You are welcome to list your Bye-friendly squads.
- You are welcome to celebrate your successes or great learnings.
- Numbers are great, how many are you playing for Round 13, Round 16, Round 19?
- Strategy ideas
- Having a crack, even if it goes peer-shaped
- POD's and no-brainer selections
- How much your ranking has moved
- You are welcome to use GIF's

As with the last two years, I will post summaries and tables as we move through the rounds...

An intro...

2022 was a landmark year for the Fanatics as we watched DarkKnight, Wolfking, Mulvy and Pookus soar up the rankings to the rarified air of a top 20 spot.

However, for one of them, it was the launching pad for an assault on the Overall title finishing with an impressive top 3 placing.
It was indeed an outstanding year for the man we lovingly know as DK.

"Finishing top 3 was great, and yeah the huge flatscreen TV was a nice bonus, but for me, I will always remember it as the year that I was crowned the Lord of the Byes"

I asked the legend if he felt the LOTB championship helped set up his season; "Sure, without a doubt, balancing bye-round numbers with careful trade management allowed me to finish strong. It's always been about pairing good numbers with elite quality, you want as many 50+ point players as you can across those rounds, if done well, it puts you in prime position for the run home".

Runner-up for the '22 title, Wolfie, was already planning his 23 campaign "Look, it was tough falling just 33 points short. Fair play to DK, he managed to get 3 more players on the field across the competition, but I don't plan on letting that happen this time around.".
I asked him what he's planned; "It all centres around Manu; he'll be the rock my LOTB campaign is built around. I've been saving trades and maintaining a low profile, other than that, it's like DK said, numbers and quality - you can't go wrong" - and Wolfie should know, finishing an outstanding 18th overall.

Everything was in place for a riveting 2023 competition, but NRL Headquarters had one more trick up their sleeve.
Rumours emerged about meetings with stakeholders on how to push the NRL Fantasy season into the stratosphere.
There were suggestions of upping the prize money, more KFC and 6 figure cash prize incentives were bandied about, but it was the master of RL ideas that came to the fore; "What we need are more byes. NRL Fantasy is the future, and if I know my Fantasy, nothing beats the bye rounds. We need a 17th team, and a competition with both major and minor byes, three of them. Get it done, I'm off to lunch"

And so it is, that we find ourselves with the greatest Lord of the Bye competition yet, 3 major byes, 3 minor byes, an extra 2 weeks to survive and find out if you can be the greatest Lord of the Bye's we've ever seen!

The 2023 Lord of the Byes:
==============================

@Contrastinghobby

Reserved

I love this. An outstanding write-up and a very exciting competition. Thank you. I hope my gun collection strategy works out!!!

I've been preparing to win this year by making sure my pre-bye rank is as low as possible. That way I can gain the most ranks.

Great read mate.

Must confess a little imaginary/fantasy 'stiffy' type feeling when I see my name in there. I can't back up this year as I'm much higher than usual... for now.

Revraiser wrote:Great read mate.

Must confess a little imaginary/fantasy 'stiffy' type feeling when I see my name in there. I can't back up this year as I'm much higher than usual... for now.

You have been absolutely gunning it, keep seeing your team up near the top of the monthly.

I guess it's time for you to add the major title to your collection

My absolute favourite time of year. Better than finals!!!!

Thanks again for running this awesome comp, and making it really fun each year!

Great work again running this. Saw the league invite today and straight up it cost me two trades as i try to bolster my numbers for round 13

After winning last year, a tv turned up on my doorstep. I hope the prize is just as good this season.

I am playing and look forward to whelming the competition!

In, and just like Papa, I began planning for this Round 1 by setting my team to start the Byes with the worst possible rank I could muster.

I’m here to make up the numbers.

Looking forward for my first crack in this! Let's go!

Im in. No idea whhat im doing, but ill have a crack regardless!

Thank you to everyone who has joined up so far - we're currently at 45 teams!

It's great to see so many forum legends participating, lots of returning players and especially great to see those having a go for their first time.

Here's a list of everyone registered so far: (seeding based on 2022 results)

(1) DarkKnight - Defending 2022 Champion
Pain - 2021 Champion
Revraiser - Two time Rank Improver champion (2022 and 2021)

(2) wolfking
(4) Mulvy
(5) FaringdonSwirl
(6) Bullbender
(7) Papadontbleach
(8.) rhinoceroo
(10) Jumping Marlin

Aardvark
Ando
arsendragon
BCT05
Bethany_B
Boozecluez
Camo123
Chewie
Chucky
Cookie Monster
EasyTiger
ForanAgainst
Goodnight Kiwi
GreenSchist
Holy Moly
Jele
Liverpool_Bulldog
multiple.scoregasms
Rabbits21
robelgordo
sajjos
SeattleSupersonics
Shady2K
Snatchpato
SoylentGreen
StuDogg101
The Bludger#2
The Goat Boys
thelastdodo
TheWeapon
UKJC
Welsh Mafia
White Lightning

Here's a look back at the players that scored the most points across the Lord of the Byes comp last year (The six Rounds from 13-18) 

Bye-round points-machines:

Love this. I knew there was a reason I didn't captain the Chin last week. Needed some extra places to climb.
Seeing so many of the people ahead of me in this is destroying my thoughts of some easy ranks to climb over this period.