The draft went hybrid and permanent this year. Still online, but the league now congregates in person with the draft board on a projector, the old tradition of being in the same room preserved even as the stickers stayed digital. A small but meaningful nod to how this league got started. Andrew Vinz appreciated the gesture. Andrew Vinz won the championship.
Sort of.
This was the year of Damar Hamlin. On January 2nd, 2023, with the championship game pending the outcome of multiple players in the Bills-Bengals Monday Night Football Week 17 matchup, Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest on the field. The game was suspended and never replayed. Fantasy implications hung in the air with no clean resolution available. After deliberation, the two finalists, Andrew Vinz and Paul Loveland, agreed to split the championship, dividing the prize pool and putting both names on the trophy with an asterisk. An unprecedented outcome for an unprecedented moment. Both deserve the credit. Neither gets the clean story.
What we can say: Andrew Vinz went 11-3, won the regular season title, led the league in scoring with 1,811 points, and posted the season's biggest blowout, a 76-point demolition of Matthew Beyer in Week 4. He was the best team in the league by every measure, which matters slightly less when the season ends in circumstances nobody could have written. Paul Loveland went 8-6 as the 3-seed, won the 2022 Hamlin Co-Championship, and remains one of this league's most improbable success stories.
Ryan Wingerson, the defending champion, went 9-5, finished 5th, and scored 1,802 points, second most in the league. The bracket took Ryan's ring away almost as fast as it gave it to him.
And at the bottom, Wesley Hoops finished last at 3-11, posting just 1,174 points, the lowest season total in the modern era of the league. Wesley won this whole thing back in 2009. Fourteen years later he's planning the banquet. Time is a flat circle, and so apparently is Wesley's roster.
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FINAL STANDINGS
| Finish | Owner | Record | Points For | Points Against | Reg. Finish | Net Payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| * | Paul Loveland | 8-6 | 1,690.1 | 1,645.9 | 3 | +$110 |
| * | Andrew Vinz | 11-3 | 1,811.0 | 1,485.5 | 1 | +$385 |
| 3 | Dennis Lynn | 7-7 | 1,625.3 | 1,590.8 | 7 | $-5 |
| 4 | Jarod Hilmer | 8-6 | 1,670.9 | 1,576.8 | 5 | $-55 |
| 5 | Ryan Wingerson | 9-5 | 1,802.0 | 1,588.9 | 2 | $-55 |
| 6 | Alex Benedict | 8-6 | 1,760.3 | 1,557.5 | 4 | $-50 |
| 7 | Bernard Lynn | 8-6 | 1,576.5 | 1,588.6 | 6 | $-55 |
| 8 | Derek Hilmer | 7-7 | 1,441.7 | 1,567.6 | 8 | $-60 |
| 9 | Matthew Beyer | 6-8 | 1,631.7 | 1,744.1 | 9 | $-55 |
| 10 | Jeft Cavey | 6-8 | 1,404.6 | 1,493.2 | 10 | $-60 |
| 11 | Phillip Redenius | 3-11 | 1,382 | 1,610.1 | 11 | $-60 |
| 12 | Wesley Hoops | 3-11 | 1,173.9 | 1,520.9 | 12 | $-60 |