I have an admission….after 18 months engaging with FanCraze, its time for me to finally come clean.
I royally suck at Flash.
Sorry for the click bait if you were hoping for something more juicy. But seriously. How much do I suck at it?…
Well, I can count on one hand how many times I’ve finished first …. oh, and on that hand, there are no fingers raised. You won’t see the glorious name cra1gsnax on any weekly, monthly, or lifetime winner leaderboards. Perhaps what makes this all much worse, is that I’m still (barely) a “Top 100” collector according to the FanCraze rankings.
There are probably a few factors to my poor performance:
- I’ve never been much of a gamification in sports / Fantasy player in general.
- Like many who joined FC in the early days — I joined because of the collectible aspect of sports memorabilia. While I admired the crucial pivot to Flash which has kept FC a success in a difficult time, it wasn’t my initial reason for joining.
- I haven’t invested nearly close to the illustrious names of Robbie, Jingra, iHust on the Mount Rushmore of Flash; or my fellow wordsmiths Brett and Arnie who are also Flash killers.
Its left me with this nagging impression though, that I’m missing out on fun… and with the idea that losers always make excuses, whilst winners make changes. The rules of Flash are also now rewarding consistent engagement more than ever (via XP on moments) surely I can squeeze more juice out of my sweet FC moments.
So — with the IPL starting tomorrow (hallelujah), join me on a wild ride, as we try to take the journey through the IPL….. of FanCraze Flash Zero to Hero.
Rules
To make it interesting, and to answer the question on whether a renewed focus and strategy is sufficient to turn this sinking ship into a deadly, torpedo armed, flash winning submarine, I’m holding myself to the following restrictions:
- I can leverage my existing population of moments — selling on MP is allowed.
- I can purchase moments on MP, or from packs.
- I will have my current balance of 230USD for — MP activity, Pack buying, and Entry fees into flash games
An overwhelming investment of dollars to achieve the goals I have, will not be possible as a result. But what are the goals?
Goals
We’re going to have 2 goals in this series.
1.Win ANY Pro or Semi-Pro game of Flash
We’re going to aim to finish top in any single one of these games. As per the announcement today we have the following across the IPL:
11 Semi-Pro: Common games
41 Pro: Common games,
41 Pro: Rare games
36 Pro: All games
This might sound easy to some of you.. but like I said earlier, the number 1 spot has eluded me for over a year now. I’d wager a bet that some out there maight even think its impossible (we’ll show them though)
Like any good story though, it’s as much about the journey as it is the end result — so, let me introduce you to a high quality piece of art that I’ve slaved over for at least 10 minutes on paint. It’s the Zero to Hero Heat Check!
We’ll check in on this temperature check over the next 7 weeks to see how we’re performing. With the goal in mind of…
2. Doubling my Money to 500
This will allow time for me to build up experience, make mistakes and hopefully strike it lucky. Maybe i dont have enough cash on hand to achieve this…we shall see. Eitherway, we’ll track how I’m doing over the next 7 weeks, starting in the middle of the board. Based on my past performance, I think double my money is a good outcome. Anything more is gravy. (Note — this will certainly dip initially due to purchases and flash fees)
Strategy
I have a significant limitation on cash spending, as noted above. Given the pricing of Epic moments and packs containing them, I think Pro: All is not the right approach for me (right now).
This is doubly true given the state of my Moment collection:
- 184 Commons
- 51 Rares
- 11 Epics
- 1 Legendary 😊
Very common heavy. For this reason, I’ll be focusing on the 41 Pro: Common games, and 11 Semi-Pro games. I may be able to take opportune moments to sell certain Rare and Epic moments to fund the common effort — KL Rahul Epic being the one that springs to mind for me.
Given I’ve not been successful on flash much to date, I will be trying a couple of things new to my flash style.
1) Multiple Lineups: I rarely set multiple lineups…this will change. I will set at least 2 lineups for each game I partake in. The thinking here is giving myself the maximum chance of hitting the Flash Pack of the Day Spot correctly (Bat / AR / Bowl), and also maxing out XP on my moments as much as possible as we go along for future use.
2) Flipping moments — being more aware of the price dynamics from in play games during the swap. If my flash is getting wrecked, see if flipping is an option.
3) Commit to a few Top Serial guns — I have a Jos Buttler Top serial common, about to hit XP level 1. Hardik Pandya and Hasaranga Mids are not far behind. I’ve seen the margins are fine in some of these Common games when it comes to placing. There are times when 5 points jumps you 25–30 places and it makes all the difference in your winnings. (I’m yet to decide how much of this I will do in the pack arena, or the MP — those CSK and MI packs at 49USD look pricey against my budget)
Schedule Week 1 (Friday March 31st — Thursday April 6th)
The schedule looks like this (All Pro: Common games in mind):
Friday — GT vs CSK
Sat — PUN vs KKR ; LSG vs DC
Sun: SRH vs RR ; RCB vs MI
Mon: CSK vs LSG
Tues: DC vs GT
Wed: CSK vs RR
Thurs: PUN vs GT
That’s nine flash games to start. Plenty of opportunity early doors.
So there we are. These are the principles ill start with. There will be highs, lows, laughter and tears, and ill report back as I go along.
FC Flash is a wild jungle though. If you see me making obvious mistakes out there, have thoughts on strategy, or just fancy talking crap about cricket — lend a brother a hand a reach out!
Can’t wait for the IPL to start. Hope you all enjoy.
CraigSnax
