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Topic: Lineup Generators

1 Topic by MontyPatel
In all seriousness, a website like this with a generator...if you took every possible combination, you would have to win correct? for example rotogrinders has a lineup generator with projections(if you're a member) and it gives up 500+ lineups. Today it's at 731 is the highest I've seen it make, so if I made all 731 lineups, I would have to win a ton of money correct?
Not correct. Even on a short slate such as today in the NBA, there are 224,246,880 combinations of lineups. On the bigger slate days that number is up in the quintillions.
I think the number of possible lineups far exceeds 731 (probably in the hundreds of thousands if not millions in my rough estimation). Maybe there are 731 possible [i]good[/i] lineups. Still I wouldn't be so sure. But we can entertain that idea, let's say there are only 700 lineups. If the tournament allowed for far more than 700 entries, you are likely to make a decent amount of money, as you will win the entire prize pool IF no one makes a duplicate lineup of yours. If 5 people do the same thing and makes all 700 lineups, you will get one fifth of the entire prize pool. But you should keep in mind that this is ONLY a viable strategy if the number of possible lineups is much much lower than the maximum number of entries, if you do this for a tournament that only has 1000 possible entries, you will most likely lose your money to rake.
But if I do it in the big one for tonight, $1, 86k people. If I split 1st(6k), I would make $1,200 on top of whatever one of my lineups hit money, correct? I don't see how there are that many lineups with all the stipulations. For example today, if Wade and Deng are out, thats two more guys you subtract. Then you can only have 4 players from one team and they have to be under $60,000. Yeah if there were none of these rules and no cap then theres a 224,246,880 combinations. Where did you get that number? If thats a proven number I want to see how, because I'm very tempted to try this soon lol.
And you're right, I wouldn't do it for a tournament with a 1,000 people. I would do it for the big 86k one.
The biggest thing to restrict the number of combinations is the minimum total salary you'd like your lineup to have, but on short slates like this, it is very likely that the optimal lineup costs $55,000 (5k short of max). But yes, it is a known strategy to pick 20-30 players and play every permutation, it can be very successful. Also very tedious, it takes time to enter all these lineups, if suddenly news of a player in your pool is injured or news of a player outside your pool is playing and you want to add them, you've got a lot of cleaning up to do.
But if I do it in the big one for tonight, $1, 86k people. If I split 1st(6k), I would make $1,200 on top of whatever one of my lineups hit money, correct? I don't see how there are that many lineups with all the stipulations. For example today, if Wade and Deng are out, thats two more guys you subtract. Then you can only have 4 players from one team and they have to be under $60,000. Yeah if there were none of these rules and no cap then theres a 224,246,880 combinations. Where did you get that number? If thats a proven number I want to see how, because I'm very tempted to try this soon lol.

Let's assume for a second that there are no stipulations on entering a contest and you can choose any 9 players you'd like. FanDuel's player pool tonight consists of 62 players, of which we can choose 9. This is a simple combinatorial sequence of 62 choose 9 (or 62C9) which gives us 20,286,591,270 total unique combinations of players.

If you bring the normal factors into the equation (salary cap, team restrictions, etc.) it's very reasonable to believe that the number of total combinations will shrink from 20 BILLION to only 224 million.
BTW, I dont think you are wrong that this is a fine strategy and is something I have experimented with a couple of times on 2 game slates. This is something that FC is actually pretty good at, if you change the unique players per team to 3 or 4. There is still no guarantee, and I will tell you from my own personal experience, the last time I did this, the person that won out of 86k entries had the #2 perfect lineup.

You are right that there are not 224 million combinations, as I was not factoring in salary cap. There is still well over 100 million without a doubt.
There is no possible way there is over a 100,000,000. No possible way. I'm not saying keep in the guys you know who won't play. Such as Markell Brown or someone. But using guys that are in rotation and maybe factor a random player(punt option) into the lineup. Bad thing is is that FC only gives you top 100 but Rotogrinders gives you a ton more. Not complaining, I do like some of the stuff Fantasy Cruncher brings, but it does limit certain aspects.
imo a LU generator is only as good as its projections...

from what I've seen to date, FC is the best in that regard
There is no possible way there is over a 100,000,000. No possible way.

I can absolutely 100% guarantee that there are at least that many lineup combinations on any given night with a decent size slate.

Source: I have a graduate level education concentrating in advanced mathematics including, but not limited to, probability theory.