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Michael Fay of Falls Church, Virginia won the 2023 NFFC Footballguys.com Best Ball National Championship and the $30,000 grand prize. Michael competed in the NFFC for the first time this year, took three Best Ball National Championship teams and one Rotowire Online Championship team and took home two league prizes, one national championship and $32,300 in prizes. Not a bad year. Congrats Michael.

While Michael is new to the NFFC, he has been playing in the NFBC since 2020. He mostly has played our NFBC Cutline Best Ball Championship and this year decided to try our NFFC Best Ball National Championship. Not a bad choice as he won one of his three league titles here and the national championship. Michael is our 13th different champion in the 14 years of this Best Ball Championship, with only Wayne Ellis as the two-time overall champion here.

We had 2,868 teams in this contest this year, consisting of 239 leagues. Michael drafted this team on August 16th at 8 pm ET in a nightly draft and rode it all the way to the top spot. This was a best ball contest through 17 weeks with no free agent pickups.

Michael's team made a steady climb to the top and held onto the top spot for the last two weeks of the season. It didn't crack the Top 20 until Week 13, then jumped to the Top 10 in Week 14 and moved into third place after Week 15. It finally grabbed the top spot with a 200+ point week in Week 16 and solidified that time in Week 17 with 221.70 points.

Michael finished 37.15 points ahead of Sean Malakin to win the title, with Sean earning $6,000 for his runner-up finish. Rounding out the Top 5 were Jordan Ramirez ($5,000), Mike Sanda ($4,000) and Adam Prasse ($3,000). We paid the Top 20 overall and the Top 3 in each league, with first place earning $800 for a league title.

Michael drafted from the 12th spot in this league and started out with Amon-Ra St. Brown and CeeDee Lamb. Not a bad start at all. Third Round Reversal allowed for Keenan Allen to be his first pick in the third round and he was off to the races. Well done.

Great job everyone and we will back with this contest next year with even bigger prizes. We're expecting a record year for this format in 2024.

Here's the top 100 teams overall for this national championship:

2023 NFFC Draft Champions National Championship Final Standings:
1 Michael Fay Fay 3,282.50
2 Sean Malakin Lynch Mob 3,245.35
3 Jordan Ramirez ElGreatRambino II 3,226.05
4 Mike Santos Santos 3,213.65
5 Adam Prasse Prasse 3,199.80
6 Aaron Hornyak Hornyak 3,199.35
7 winston guest Dead Hookers 3,195.10
8 Robert Rakoczy Smacks D 3,192.80
9 James Holecko james gang 3,182.35
10 David Webber DWsRaiders 29 3,180.15
11 Mike Santos Santos 3,178.25
12 STEVEN GROSS GROSS 3,177.75
13 Aaron Hornyak Hornyak 3,176.45
14 Rick thomas thomas 3,169.15
15 Darren Newberry Newberry 40 3,166.50
16 Artemus Ham Ham 3,165.00
17 Paul Huston Big Toothpick 3 3,164.35
18 Aaron Jones Jones DC14 3,162.85
19 Ryan-Allen Guenther Revenge of Rhino and the Whop 3,161.45
20 Artemus Ham Office Team 3,159.65
21 Shane Balls Balls 3,151.25
22 william tyrer BB2 3,137.85
23 Wayne Ellis Coltsfan 3,135.80
24 BRANDON KIM KIM 3,135.00
25 Mike Santos Santos 3,134.05
26 MARK FIERER FIERER 3,133.25
27 Benjamin Cunningham Cunningham 3,132.25
28 Aaron Hornyak Hornyak 3,126.05
29 Donald Daisley Little Donny 3,125.25
30 CONNER TENHOVE RegionRats2 3,123.10
31 GARY LEHNHART Braveharts BB1 3,121.80
32 Klaudian Molosiu Chiefest Chief BB 3,114.60
33 Benjamin Cunningham Cunningham 3,111.20
34 Aaron Hornyak Hornyak 3,111.10
35 Matt McClure McClure 3,111.00
36 Andrew Miller Renegades23 3,110.30
37 KJ Duke Duke FBG1 3,110.20
38 Andrew Miller voms11 3,110.15
39 Joseph DiGalbo DiGalbo 3,104.85
40 Mike Raudio Raudio 3,103.00
41 David Webb Webb 3,102.60
42 BRENNAN LOGUE LOGUE 3,101.20
43 Philip Glukhovsky Glukhovsky 3,099.25
44 Chandler Gibbs Gibbs 3,097.60
45 Aaron Hornyak Hornyak 3,096.15
46 Chris Eibl Eibl 3,095.95
47 Kenneth Porter Porter 3,094.25
48 BOBBY GRAVES GRAVES 3,091.20
48 Jeff O'Dell O'Dell 716 3,091.20
50 Jon Perozzi Perozzi 3,090.20
51 Aaron Hornyak Hornyak 3,088.80
52 Chuck Coyle Wolfpac 3,086.10
53 Aaron Hornyak Hornyak 3,086.00
54 Darren Newberry Newberry 11 3,085.70
55 Aaron Hornyak Hornyak 3,084.40
56 Jeff O'Dell O'Dell 704 3,083.80
57 Andrew Miller FFBMiller 3,082.65
58 Darren Emma The Chosen Ones DC2 3,082.20
59 Jeff O'Dell O'Dell 813 3,080.50
60 Eric Meza Erie Meng 3,080.00
61 Aaron Hornyak Hornyak 3,079.70
62 Kyle Estes Estes 3,078.60
63 Jason sumner sumner 3,077.05
64 Marin Garcia Garcia 3,075.85
65 KJ Duke Duke FBG2 3,074.40
66 Parnelli Baker Baker 3,073.90
67 Devin Heesch Heesch 3,072.60
68 Mark Szatkowski BB1 3,072.50
69 Benjamin Cunningham Cunningham 3,070.95
70 Alexander Grace Grace 3,069.60
71 Austin Mashaw SloppySloth 3,069.55
72 James Harrison DC1 3,069.45
73 Dave Taylor Taylor 3,064.85
74 Jordan Epping Jordy's DC 2 3,061.50
75 SAM ISFAN DC7 150 3,061.35
76 Chris Eibl Rex Grossmans Fantasy Team 3,060.50
77 Zachary Waxman Waxman 3,059.85
78 Rick thomas thomas 3,059.50
79 Aaron Hornyak Hornyak 3,059.25
80 Alexander Petrosky Petrosky DC2 3,059.10
81 Gerard Ciccone Ciccone 3,058.60
82 David Hinkel FE!NS 3,057.70
83 Gerard Ciccone Ciccone 3,055.10
84 Nate Anderson Big Data 3.0 3,054.65
85 JONATHAN KASS Prisoner's Dilemma 3,054.50
86 Brandon Webb Cosmos BB 3,054.05
87 Chris Eibl First Draft Ever 3,053.45
88 Andrew Miller PaydirtBurt 3,051.90
89 Aaron Hornyak Hornyak 3,051.45
90 Bob Catsiroumpas BBall BC1 3,051.40
90 brian shaw The Autumn Wind 3,051.40
92 Philip Glukhovsky Mad Russians 3,047.80
93 Aaron Jones Jones DC18 3,047.35
94 John Pierce Fat Frankie Inc BB400A 3,045.70
95 zachary peterson Goal line back 6 3,044.80
96 Wayne Ellis Coltsfan 3,044.50
97 Andrew Miller RZRenegades23 3,044.05
98 Kris Negus Negus 3,043.30
99 Rick thomas thomas 3,043.15
100 Nicholas Nincevich Nincevich 3,041.30

Here was the overall prize payout for the 2023 NFFC Best Ball Draft Champions National Championship:

2023 NFFC Draft Champions National Championship Overall Prizes:
1 - $30,000
2 - $6,000
3 - $5,000
4 - $4,000
5 - $3,000
6 - $2,000
7 - $1,750
8 - $1,500
9 - $1,200
10 - $1,000
11 - $800
12 - $750
13 - $500
14 - $450
15 - $400
16 - $350
17 - $300
18 - $250
19 - $200
20 - $150

League Prizes:
1 - $800
2 - $300
3 - $100

Michael Fay drafted from the 12th spot in this nightly draft on August 16th Best Ball Championship League:

Fay:
1 12 St. Brown, Amon-Ra WR Fay
2 13 Lamb, CeeDee WR Fay
3 25 Allen, Keenan WR Fay
4 48 Hockenson, T.J. TE Fay
5 49 Williams, Mike FLEX Fay
6 72 Cook, James RB Fay
7 73 White, Rachaad RB Fay
8 96 Moore, Elijah WR Fay
9 97 Richardson, Anthony QB Fay
10 120 Achane, De'Von RB Fay
11 121 Bateman, Rashod WR Fay
12 144 Love, Jordan QB Fay
13 145 Purdy, Brock QB Fay
14 168 Pierce, Alec WR Fay
15 169 Rice, Rashee WR Fay
16 192 Jets, New York (NYJ) TDSP Fay
17 193 White, Zamir RB Fay
18 216 Saints, New Orleans TDSP Fay
19 217 Henry, Hunter TE Fay
20 240 Bengals, Cincinnati TDSP Fay
21 241 Chandler, Ty RB Fay
22 264 Williams, Kyren RB Fay
23 265 Chargers, Los Angeles (LAC) TK Fay
24 288 Ingram, Keaontay RB Fay
25 289 Dolphins, Miami TK Fay
26 312 Davis, Corey WR Fay
27 313 Thomas, Logan TE Fay
28 336 Jackson, Deon RB Fay
29 337 Shenault, Laviska WR Fay
30 360 Trask, Kyle QB Fay
31 361 Trautman, Adam TE Fay
32 384 Robinson, Demarcus WR Fay
33 385 Wicks, Dontayvion WR Fay
34 408 Blackshear, Raheem FLEX Fay

The NFFC Draft Champions National Championship originally started as just private leagues in each city and then combining the leagues into an overall prize pool. But by 2012 we had created a separate national championship at the $150 price point and originally had 14-team leagues. We've had the 12-team format the last several years as this contest has grown and grown to the point where this year we had 2,868 teams.

Here's a look at our past overall champions:

NFFC Draft Champions Best Ball Overall Champions:

2010 - William Cleavenger
2011 - Wayne Ellis
2012 - Steve Geisbert
2013 - Thomas Wagner
2014 - Parnelli Baker ($20,000)
2015 - Wayne Ellis ($20,000)
2016 - Mark Srebro ($22,000)
2017 - Timothy Hennessy ($22,000)
2018 - Brian Edwards ($22,000)
2019 - Christian Wheeler ($25,000)
2020 - Cheryl Springer ($25,000)
2021 - Aaron Jones ($30,000)
2022 - Frank Greenidge ($30,000)
2023 - Michael Fay ($30,000)

One note:

** Wayne Ellis has won two NFFC Draft Champions National Championships, one when we counted the Live DCs (2011) and one as the online version (2015) we now have. But it's pretty amazing how tough it is to repeat as champion in our contests.