Fantasy Draftathlon, Event 2: Movie Franchises

Can Bobby bounce back?

That was the biggest question going into the second event in our Fantasy Draftathlon, which saw our four intrepid analysts build 12-player teams out of the most renowned and beloved movie franchises of all-time. After struggling through the first event of the competition (TV Shows), Bobby eyed a rebound and was armed with the the first overall pick this time around, while Mike Tagliere – who won the opener – looked to make it two straight as he picked from the 4-spot.

The rules for this draft were (fairly) simple:

Each participant was required to choose 3 Comedy movies (green), 3 Action movies (red), 3 Drama/Horror movies (yellow) and 3 FLEX (blue) in a snake draft format.
Franchises consist of 3 or more movies, aside from “alternate universe” situations like the Spider-Mans (or Spider-Men, if you prefer.)
Marvel movies were divided up by character, with “The Avengers” considered separate.
All decisions regarding movie genre were made by the draft commissioner (though that didn’t prevent some hilarious discussions during the draft, including one exchange in which Kyle tried to convince the others that “Jurassic Park” was, in fact, a Drama, and not an Action movie. He did not fare well.)

Here’s a look at the results:

Final Draft Board

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Final Rosters

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Notable Omissions

Twilight (seriously, guys?)
X-Men
Star Trek (original, TNG and reboot)
Shrek
Transformers
The Terminator
Lethal Weapon
Matrix
Captain America
American Pie
Beverly Hills Cop
Friday the 13th
Bad Boys
Men in Black

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“The Deadpool Debacle”

Controversy struck when Tags selected the Deadpool franchise, which technically consists of two feature films and a re-cut version of Deadpool 2 with a PG rating. The commissioner ruled that, since the original and re-cut versions are largely treated as two separate movies; a furious Dan Harris (who knows his way around the law) had this to say after the draft:

Your honor,

I respectfully move to reconsider. We only agreed to allow the pick to stand based on a BLATANT misrepresentation from Mr. Tagliere. He asked if Deadpool was a franchise. I asked it there were three movies. He said technically, there were three. We all then agreed it was fine.

There is no version of the Deadpool series, technical or not, that has three movies. We may have made the mistake of relying on what we thought was Mr. Tagliere’s integrity, but we should not be penalized for doing so.

Further, how will it look to our readers where we have the rules of the draft laid out, and the TOP pick on Mr. Tagliere’s board violates the rules? Surely, our astute readers will notice, thereby cheapening the entire contest and hurting our brand.

In short, your honor, Mr. Tagliere should not get the benefit of duping both the honorable court and his fellow contestants. To allow such behavior to stand would only encourage contestants to mislead you and each other in the future.

The ruling was upheld, with Harris subsequently threatening to take his case “all the way to the Supreme Court” if necessary. Seems a bit extreme.

They Said It

Let’s just cut to the chase: My TV show draft was horrible. I don’t watch much TV. I wasn’t going to let losing happen again. So I put on my big boy pants and dominated. Yates nearly lost his mind when I took Harry Potter ahead of him at #1. In fact, I landed the top three drama franchises of all-time. The other analysts told me they were jealous that I grabbed all of my (great) comedies quickly before things got ugly in that genre. And in doing so, I still ended up with three strong action films too. What can I say; this was a walk in the park.
-Bobby Sylvester (@bobbyfantasypro)

I think we can all agree that Dan’s, Tags’ and my teams are playing in the NFL, while Bobby is currently playing in the AAF. My draft is obviously the equivalent of the Kansas City Chiefs. Dan’s is the Tennessee Titans (so close, yet so far away). And Tags’ is like the Miami Dolphins … not close to competing, but he gave good effort. There’s a clear winner here and it’s the team that put together a draft that includes The Avengers, Die Hard, Indiana Jones, Mission: Impossible, etc. It’s like having Mahomes, Saquon, CMC, and Julio all on one team.
-Kyle Yates (@KyleYNFL)

I had a pretty basic draft strategy: Get as many of the elite options as I could, hit comedies early because of position scarcity, and then get a mix of classics and crowd-pleasers. I not only secured my top option in each of the three major categories (Star Wars, The Godfather, and Toy Story), but also my second choice for action with the Bond franchise. I admit to getting sniped a few times (Tags with National Lampoon, Yates with Indiana Jones), but overall, I could not have executed this draft better. Late-round John Wick sealed it for me IMO.
-Dan Harris (@danharris80)

Once again, the three amigos decided to allow fan favorites to fall to me. While the box office numbers may look better on some teams, it’s due to the large quantity of movies in that franchise. There were a lot of solid picks, but when you pick a franchise that has ONE good film, you’re destined to finish behind me. Bobby: Ace Ventura and The Mummy? Yates: Jurassic Park, Scream, and Dumb and Dumber? All good movies with horrible sequels. Harris: Alien and Karate Kid? Thanks for gifting me the win, fellas.
-Mike Tagliere (@MikeTagliereNFL)

Who wins Draftathlon Event 2: Movie Franchises?

— FantasyPros (@FantasyPros) March 30, 2020

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Draft Highlights

Bobby offered Harry Potter up for trade within minutes of making the selection; there were no takers, presumably because Bobby was looking for a package that included someone else’s first six picks, along with $250,000 of real money and naming rights for their next child.
Ever the cinephile, Dan pointed out that Godfather 3 was actually nominated for Best Picture in 1991, which we can all agree was one of the worst decisions ever made by The Academy.
Reason #454,094 that Bobby is a national treasure: referring to Dan’s first-round selection as “Stars War”. More than once, in fact. Have at him, Star Wars fans.
Tags, after taking the same side as Bobby: “Wait, I’m agreeing with Bobby? Something has gone wrong. If I don’t wake up, my wife gave my ibuprofen earlier.”
The James Bond franchise caused some confusion as to whether it should be considered one pick; common sense prevailed, but not without Bobby admitting he has actually never seen a James Bond movie (along with roughly 80 percent of the other movies drafted, including Stars War.)
DAN (re: Rocky): “Best picture 1976. Then he’s fighting a wrestler named Thunderlips and ending the Cold War. Still great.”
YATES: “Should I try calling (my wife) ‘Thunderlips’ tonight?”
Tags, with what was probably the line of the night: “What the hell is Fantastic Beasts?”

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