We are in the middle of a double-round week in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season and that is always a tricky situation in the EuroLeague Fantasy Challenge, powered by Ardu Prime.
Fantasy Challenge, Round 10: Vezenkov and who else?
There is not much time to think, and you have to take decisions in less than 24 hours. Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade hosts Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv at 17:30 CET on Thursday, and it is the earliest game of the season until now, which doesn't help. Some teams are playing back-to-back home games and that always helps, even when it is not an unbreakable rule: EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, AS Monaco, Panathinaikos Athens, FC Barcelona and Valencia Basket enjoy this privilege in Rounds 9 and 10.
My team, Gancedato, scored 164.6 fantasy points in Round 9, which shows I am in the right track. I took a small risk picking Darius Thompson of Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz as team captain inbetween games, replacing Sasha Vezenkov of Olympiacos Piraeus, and that move gave me some extra points. All my bench players but one did well, some starters did not perform as I expected, and Joan Penarroya of Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz was an excellent choice, too. With all that, I ranked 1,566th in Round 9 and climbed a few more spots in the standings, being 2,128th overall.
Three trades are allowed before each round and you can trade your head coach, too. Since I am going all-in with Olympiacos, I am getting Georgios Bartzokas as head coach, as his team plays at home against ALBA Berlin. Olympiacos had two home losses already and I don't see them getting a third one, even when I may be perfectly wrong, you know. I am selling two LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne players, center Youssoupha Fall and forward Zaccharie Risacher, mainly because they play on the road against an improved Panathinaikos. I am also selling Johnathan Motley of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul because I expect Milan to react against the leading team in the competition. I am buying Walter Tavares because Real Madrid needs his physicality against Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade, Filip Petrusev of Zvezda, hoping he draws more fouls from now on, and Tim Schneider of ALBA because he didn't play in Round 9, and I suspect he will in Round 10.
You can take a look at my team here:
As you can see, my team features five players taking the court on Thursday and five more on Friday. Initially, I am putting Andreas Obst of Bayern as my sixth man, which doesn't matter because I am trade any player to that spot inbetween games, and making Vezenkov my new team captain. Vezenkov is a must, the most important player in the game so far this season. Everybody has him, and taking him out on a bad day should be critical in the long run. But not this time.
Remember, the 2022-23 EuroLeague Fantasy Challenge powered by Ardu Prime features better prizes than ever, so get your game on now!
And don't forget to use #fantasychallenge on social media all season long. Good luck!