SmashUp Fantasy Sports: Week 17 Strategy

This article was written by Fantasy Pros writer Raju Byfield (@FantasyContext) about SmashUp Fantasy Sports and reposted here with their permission

Welcome to SmashUp Fantasy Sports, one of the most addicting twists on the fantasy football experience. SmashUp Sports is a completely free-to-play multiplier salary cap game that allows you to assign multipliers or boosts to players of your choice. This is done via SmashCards. SmashCards can be assigned to players or positions and can be adjusted at any time before the slate starts. Users can enter up to three lineups per week, but if you use the promo code FantasyPros, you will get to enter a fourth lineup up until the Super Bowl.

SmashUp Fantasy Sports: A New Way to Play Fantasy Football

Get excited. SmashUp Fantasy Sports has its biggest contest ever set for Week 17, with a 1st place prize of a brand new PS5 (in the form of a $500 Amazon gift card) and $500 cash. Not only is this the best 1st place prize we have seen at SmashUp Fantasy Sports, but there are now payouts for the top 200 instead of just the top 100. This is massive news for a completely free-to-play game, especially one that has proved to be as fun as SmashUp Fantasy Sports. It is easy to see why SmashUp Fantasy Sports is one of the fastest-growing free fantasy games. For more of an introduction to the game, click here.

Far from just a multiplier game with a twist, SmashUp Fantasy Sports requires more strategy than ever before. The SmashCards (which we touched on here) are multipliers, but you get to choose your multiplier and assign it to whoever you choose (providing you stay under the SmashCard salary cap). SmashCard allocation will be just as important as the roster you build. For example, take my choice to add the 2x multiplier card to Jalen Hurts two weeks in a row. This required me to surrender a significant portion of my SmashCard salary cap each week and did not pay dividends as Hurts has been in struggle mode. With new SmashCards being added every week, strategizing both roster build and SmashCard will be critical to success.

Strategy

As mentioned above, I have been playing SmashUp Fantasy Sports for a couple of weeks now and have begun to truly appreciate the innovation and differentiation. The graphic user interface (or GUI) brings back memories of the original Nintendo Entertainment System or Sega Master System, but this is far from an 8-bit production. For proof, hover over one of the SmashCards to see 2023 Magic Card level graphics.

For Week 17, I will be building three different lineups. I signed up before we had the promo code ‘FantasyPros’, so I do not have the luxury of a fourth lineup like you will when you enter the code upon signing up. Sign up, to setting a complete lineup, and applying SmashCards takes just five to 10 minutes. I went pretty vanilla with my SmashCard allocation over the previous two weeks and went studs and duds with both of my lineups, something that did not work out as planned as my duds put up duds alongside some of my players expected to be studs like Jalen Hurts.

My roster for Team 1 has Matthew Stafford, Christian McCaffrey, Kyren Williams, DeMarcus Robinson, Khalil Shakir, David Njoku, Jake Moody, Isaiah Likely, and the Los Angeles Rams defense. I would have much preferred the Rams’ defense against Tommy DeVito as opposed to Tyrod Taylor, but they were the best of the defenses available after the rest of my salary cap was spent elsewhere. Shakir, likewise, felt like the best option with a salary of $3,500 or lower. The SmashCards I used for this lineup were of the more simple variety, but I did choose one of the three brand new cards for this week in Hail Mary. This card requires the QB to complete a throw of 50 yards or more. If this happens, you get a whopping 30 points added to your score. This card is a large reason why I chose Stafford for this week. He has a strong enough arm to complete a pass with 50 air yards but also plays with some of the top after-the-catch threats in the entire NFL, giving him among the highest probabilities of any QB to hit a 50 yard completion this week. I also added Starting QB, which gives me a 1.5 multiplier on my entire score. If this applies to the Hail Mary points as well, I could be the proud owner of a new PS5 by Monday night. I added the 1.5x multiplier to CMC, as I always expect him to have excellent fantasy production. I went a little crazy with my final card as I chose Necessary Roughness, which gives me 30 additional points, but only if the Rams hold the Giants to single digits. You can see why I really wanted DeVito under center this week. Two tight ends seems like a good strategy with how well Njoku is playing and his salary vis a vis his wide receiver counterparts that have produced at a similar level recently. His SmashCards are also less expensive.

My roster for Team 2 has some interesting names. I tapped Jarret Stidham at QB to allow me to start some studs elsewhere and also tapped Zamir White, who is expected to start over Josh Jacobs, who is expected to (and should) sit out until he is fully healthy. The other players on my roster are Gus Edwards, Chris Olave, Amon-Ra St. Brown, David Njoku, Trey McBride, Jake Moody, and the Cleveland Browns defense. Cleveland is facing the New York Jets, so that is self-explanatory. McBride and Njoku have been two of the hottest tight ends in the league over the past few weeks and get a 2x multiplier for just $2,500 of my SmashCards salary cap. I applied one to both of them. The SmashCard, The Human Vulture, appears like it was made for Gus Edwards, who does not always rack up the yards between the 20s but is the player most likely to score if and when the Ravens get in goal-to-go situations. Finally, I applied the Starting WR SmashCard to both Chris Olave and Amon-Ra St. Brown. I did want to experiment with one of the two other new cards this week in Catching Smoke or Catching Fire, which makes receptions worth two points and three points, respectively, but come at a high enough tag that the bulk of my SmashCard budget would be used on just one card. I need to experiment with these at some point, but with a PS5 on the line, I will save my theory testing for next week.

My roster for Team 3 has C.J. Stroud, Raheem Mostert, Zamir White, Brandon Aiyuk, CeeDee Lamb, Tucker Kraft, David Njoku, Brandon Aubrey, and the Baltimore Ravens defense. The key to my lineup performing well this week will be Stroud in his return from an extended absence due to being in concussion protocol and whether or not Josh Jacobs misses another game as expected. Zamir has been better than he ever was in college and has a low enough salary to allow me to fit Stroud, Mostert, Aiyuk, and CeeDee in the same lineup. The SmashCards I went with here are Scramble Spikes for C.J. Stroud and Goal in One, Sacks in the City, and Starting Defense for the Ravens. Miami has looked lost against good teams this season, and Baltimore is as good as they come, even if the offense has yet to scratch the surface of its potential.

Looking ahead

There is a special promotion going on at SmashUp Fantasy Sports. Users who play at least two playoff contests and follow SmashUp Fantasy Sports on IG or TikTok and send them a DM with their username will be eligible for a smaller SmashBowl Tournament. This is in addition to the regular tournament, so this is not something to miss.

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