atrophy noriega: The Driving Force Behind Fantasy Sports ? both sides of the lamb

By Kevin Alan Lamb, dictator of diction

Countless billable hours are pissed away each year as grown men and women stare blankly into their computer screens, waiting for a sign from the gods indicating whether to start the proven Eli Manning at Philadelphia, or the rising-star, Cam Newton, at home versus New Orleans.

Fantasy sports haven taken the world by the Johnson, but that?s not anything you don?t already know. With the ever growing popularity of another form of fantasy you probably won?t ever share with your wife, creative and opportunity pouncing individuals have taken a simple concept and applied it to the sports they love.

For middle school teacher Aaron Brooker, a single summer away from the game he loves, disc golf, was enough to inspire the creation of playfantasydiscgolf.com. Brooker partnered with programmer Rob Hruska while recovering from surgery to create what they believe promotes competition and community through fantasy disc golf.

?I love fantasy football and I love disc golf. I had thought about the idea a while back.? I noticed it has been done with some Excel files.? It looked like fun, but a lot of work with emails. It wasn?t until I was laid up after a surgery reading some of my friends Start-up blogs, that I thought it could exist as a website. We have a lot of great ideas to put more control in the user?s hands next year,? said Hruska.

A native of Nebraska, Brooker shed light upon what is ultimately the driving force of fantasy sports.

?Living in Nebraska I never had an NFL team.? Basically I watch the games on Sunday and root for me.? I am the team I root for. Fantasy sports allow me to cheer for myself.? The NFL has adapted to this by incorporating stat trackers at the stadiums.? I don?t know if it still exists, but there was a company that would allow you to buy an insurance policy on your top round picks,
said Brooker.

The co-creator of Fantasy Disc Golf revealed the evil genius within after proposing the idea of Fantasy Fantasy.

?Here?s my novelty idea, please don?t steal it.? I tend not to be very proprietary.? If you have some resources to make this happen, let me know. Fantasy Fantasy.? You pick a team of fantasy guru?s and see if your fantasy experts are better than the next guy?s picks. Next level right? I think that could make a small circuit tour through the fantasy world,? said the fantasy mastermind.

Fantasy Disc Golf is free to play and offers two seasons of competition based on the PDGA National Tour. Fantasy Disc Golf lets you organize a team of disc golfers and get points based on their performance. Once you sign up you?re part of the Fantasy Disc Golf?tour, which has many of the major?tournaments?played throughout the year. Points for each tournament accumulate for the duration of the tour, and the player with the most points at the end of the tour wins!

Past versions of fantasy disc golf have been a semi confusing stream of excel files and email picks.

?We received quite a bit of praise for taking it to the next level.? Our plans for next year will rope in a lot more disc golfers. This first year we had about 1500 signups and around 400 stay active,? said Brooker.

The 2011PDGA Tour will come to a close in Laingsburg, MI with the Ichabod Crane Open, Sunday, October 30^th. The 3^rd Annual Ichabod Crane is a sanctioned singles tournament played at Sleepy Hollow State Park. This year will feature the 1st Annual Ichabod Crane Open Pumpkin Carving Contest! Carving utensils and pumpkin will be provided. Bring your best carving game and celebrate Halloween with the final stop on the PDGA Tour! Sign-up for the Carving Contest will be at check-in. Winner will receive free entry to Kick Out the Yams, November 19th, at Grand Woods Park.

Fantasy Beer Pong

Countless programs can be easily adapted to ?fantasise? your own sports. Simply create your own brackets, establish rules, assign point values, and track all activity.

For example: two points if you make a cup; four points if you make more than three consecutive cups; four points if you bounce; five points if you win a match.

The more creative you can be, the more fun you will have!

Step 1: Host a party for Super Bowl XLVI. Step 2: Inform your friends you will be administering a Fantasy Beer Pong Tournament. Step 3: Revel in the glory as you and the Lions become champions on Super Bowl Sunday.? . Seriously

Beer Pong Stars

A group of Penn State undergrads with sub-par GPA?s and a lot of free time took it to another level. Beer Pong Stars automatically organizes your Stats, Teams, League, and BPS World Ranking as you record your Individual and Team games.

BPS is owned and operated by the world League of Beer Pong LLC. Just like college football, your rating is determined by the strength of your opponent and the outcome of that game. Ratings are even calculated using an ELO Algorithm: yes they employed some nerds.

Certification is necessary to verify the true legitimacy of a player. The low-cost transaction is processed through PayPal and secures a Lifetime Membership.

?http://beerpongstars.com/home

Create your own virtual team of real-world tennis players at tennis-pool.com, an online fantasy tennis game. Own a virtual team of real-world tennis players in the WTA Tour and ATP Tour.

Select players for every single tournament and accumulate points each time an individual player wins a match. Pick 10 WTA players and 10 ATP players.

Trade up to six players each week and win prizes competing against all of your closest women?s tennis friends. Each participant has a limited budget of $15 million for each team, so choose your players wisely.

It is unlikely that you will find greater bragging rights than atop the tennis-pool.com fantasy rankings. Seriously

http://www.tennis-pool.com/

FLW Fantasy Fishing presented by Straight Talk, now in its fourth year, is free to play, and offered in conjunction with the 2011 Walmart FLW Tour.

Select a team of 10 anglers for each of the 10events. Fifty prizes are awarded for each tournament as well as 10 cumulative prizes that go to the top overall finishers at the end of the year. In total, FLW Fantasy Fishing will award more than $500,000 in cash and prizes in 2011

?http://www.fantasyfishing.com

While the purpose and specifics of the sport itself may elude the likes of the masses, the iced-game with large smooth stones, tiny swiftly-sweeping-brooms and players under cover of kneepads and spiked-shoes has a fantasy market.

Prior to the Curling Zone, fantasy curlers were forced to comprise the fantasy elite after devastating news surfaced that fantasy curling would not be picked up again this year on Yahoo Sports. Fans of the sport were shamefully returned to the primitive and daunting task of scoring by hand (or Excel), the way it was in the beginning of all fantasy sports.

The Curling Zone hosts fantasy games centered on the World Curling Tour and the Ontario (Canadian) Curling Tour. Pick the winners of the World Curling Tour, Order of Merit and Playdown games!

Make picks to participate in CurlingZone Fantasy Pick?em. Pick your winner by picking the headshot of the team.

http://dev.curlingzone.com/index.php

In the Liverpuncher Fantasy Boxing League you predict the outcome of upcoming fights and earn points.

A correct prediction earns you 20 points, bonus points are earned if you predict a KO (+10) or predict a stoppage in the correct fight period. The highest score at the end of the season is the winner!

http://www.liverpuncher.com/