After going to new heights in 2024 with an Australian record prize pool, we catch up with the winner of the $1 Million AFL Star who took down the first prize of $250,000. For those who do not know, we now have a two-time champion!
‘asanque’ can now proudly boast that he is a two-time AFL champion after winning the title in our first AFL event in 2019 (behind the Biggest Bash). We catch up with our champion, which we might add is a very busy man to ask him a few questions!
We’ve finally caught out breath!
CONGRATULATIONS now to the 2-TIME #AFL #Draftstars Final champion. A 2024 title to go with our first event in 2019. @JusticeAlba23 you can now claim to be Australia’s RICHEST AFL Fantasy Prize Winner. 🥳 pic.twitter.com/aiyVWbembQ
— Draftstars (@DraftstarsAU) September 21, 2024
Congratulations Dennis (asanque)! For those who do not know, where abouts are you based these days?
I am in the traditional lands of Hokball! That’s Melbourne.
How did you get into playing Daily Fantasy Sports?
I have a history in AFL Dreamteam and Supercoach (including winning a weekly prize back in the far distant past when you had to enter teams by mail and make team changes via telephone!). I’ve also run a Supercoach Draft League for the past decade with a group of mates which helps keep me interested throughout the year.
How long have you been playing on Draftstars?
I feel like a bit of a veteran now but I was lucky enough to also win the AFL Draftstars Live Final in 2019. I have very fond memories of that amazing night and the championship belt is still one of my most prized possessions 🙂
Do you play any other sports on Draftstars? What is your favourite?
I’ve dabbled in other sports from time to time but AFL is my main passion (even more so nowadays with the mighty Hawks up and about!).
Tell us about your strategy when putting together your entry and who were your key players?
For a high stakes final, I tend to take an ‘all or nothing’ approach. That means identifying players with a high ceiling.
Top of the list was ‘Joel Amartey‘ and ‘Logan McDonald‘ who I still remember destroying the Hawks back in early 2023 and I expected them to do likewise against Port.
Fortunately, Amartey played like ‘Buddy Franklin’ in his prime and McDonald began strongly but unfortunately got injured in the 3rd quarter!
Tell us about the sweat. Where did you watch the game(s), who with, when did you realise you had won? Any notable plays that got you the win?
Funnily enough, it wasn’t too bad because I was at a close friend’s wedding interstate on Saturday night. That was my primary focus but I did keep a peripheral watch on the scores throughout the night. I didn’t pay close attention as I honestly didn’t think I had any real chance coming into the Cats v Lions match. I was never confident of victory until post adjustments (and even then I was in disbelief for a few hours after!). Looking at my closest rivals, I feel I got extremely lucky with the injuries to Big O (Oscar McInerney) and then Max Holmes. Without doubt, my star player was Noah Answerth and I will gladly buy him a few beers after he had a blue moon game and scored a career high 104.
What are your feelings now that you have taken down $250,000?
It feels like the competition is getting tougher and tougher. As an old school player, I rely mainly on instinct (and luck). However, the data analytics for fantasy sports is fun to keep an eye on and getting extremely sophisticated (Shout out to Morts and his website DFS Australia).
What is your favourite thing about playing daily fantasy sports?
Unfortunately, I was never going to be a star athlete. So as a sports fanatic, this is the closest I can get to being part of the action 🙂 It is also great to banter with others with similar interests. For example: I am also part of NFTeams (The ‘Hydras of Justice’ are both my sporting franchise and Draftstars icon!) which is a monthly tournament based fantasy sports community with many Draftstars players including the 2022 AFL Live Final winner Newbie.
Congratulations to Dennis but most importantly to all participants of the AFL Star for 2024. Unbelievable to bring a $1 Million Prize Pool to battle it out for!
