Grey explored the essence of our contest in Grey’s RazzSlam Recap: I Don’t Know What I’m Doing and Neither Does Anyone Else.

The pith of that essence?

“Unlike roto leagues, I think Points Leagues are more about exploiting the format than about what players you draft.”

Dude.

Yeah.

Same.

Love it.

I wanted to recap a different points league I’m in with Grey and 29 other people are playing via Prospects Live, but we’re in round 32 of 50, and the will to continue is waning, so I guess that’ll have to wait.

But anywho, Grey’s quote up top perfectly describes how I’m playing that league. I’ve been mentioning it occasionally in this space: The Dynasty Baseball Championship. Played it last year, and it feels a lot more like a points league stretched across five years than a dynasty. Most of the league is taking players they like, irrespective of the five-year time frame. I’m playing it like a board game, or any kind of strategy game really. 

I feel an Eldritch Horror (board game) segment coming on here but suffice it to say that Eldritch is all about building up to a point and then sprinting for the finish before the turn clock runs out. I tend to walk that line too closely, preferring to build a buff enough character to actually seal the deal when the time comes rather than rushing into a battle I’m not ready for just because we might run out of turns. It’s a devastating co-op game that way. A hard cap of total turn cards and several soft caps the game can hit to kill your crew if it’s not keeping up with the pace. It’s all about timing that big push. 

Similarly, RazzSlam doesn’t give players the error bar of a season-long league or even a game of Pandemic, where the timeframe is dictated by the player’s competence. If you’re not good enough to finish top 3 during that first stretch of RazzSlam, that’s that. You’re done by July. Sure, there’s a consolation game for those who missed the cut, but who wants that? Nobody. That’s like adding turns to the Mythos deck after Eldritch Horror has ended your night. Not cool. Game’s over, bub. The elder gods have won. 

Alright, so with the fate of the world in flux, let’s see how I did.