RPS Best Ball Interview Series: Glock

June 1, 2023
By: Megan Shoup

The RunPureSports Best Ball interview series continues! And this week I talked to DraftKings’ MillyMaker Best Ball Finalist Glock about his best ball experiences and strategies.

The great thing about best ball, is you can have different player takes and strategies and still find a path to success. Just like DFS, you can play best ball differently and that doesn’t make it right or wrong. It’s quite interesting to hear different best ball player’s strategies and stories of success. And that’s what makes this RPS interview series so fun!

So let’s hear from Glock!

How long have you played best ball?

I have played Best Ball for the last 2 years, max entering the main large field contest on Draft Kings while dabbling here and there on Underdog. My reasoning for that was I felt like more of the casuals would be drafting on DK while the tryhards would be more on the Underdog side. Up until this year, you also couldn’t upload rankings into DK which helped my case that more of the casuals would be drafting over there. This year you actually can upload rankings into DK so it will be interesting to see how the field reacts.

My first year I wasn’t able to get any teams to the finals due to not having enough exposure to Rashad Penny, but last year I did get 1 team through that I felt good about. Unluckily, I didn’t make noise though as my main stack was Burrow + Chase + Higgins and we all know what happened with that game. (Does week 17 really matter?? I hope it does this year haha).

Why do you love best ball?

Honestly, Best Ball is a lot of fun because it is just another way to get sweat equity. If your weekly DFS team sucks for the week, you can always look to your Best Ball teams as somewhat of a hedge and morale boost. It also helps you get acquainted to team rosters and young talented rookies with upside very early on in the season. I also love Best Ball because you really just put in all the work before the season starts and reap the rewards during the season because you don’t have to modify your roster at all. Quite the opposite of NFL DFS so it is a nice balance.

“Best” best ball experience?

There is nothing quite like sweating Best Ball in the playoff rounds, especially the Finals. Last year, I had the below team advance. Unfortunately, I felt pretty dead early on because I didn’t have the Tom Brady + Mike Evans + CAR nuke, but I did feel good about my team rising up the leaderboard with the final game of Week 17 being BUF vs CIN.

Justin Jefferson was a huge chalk bust and I had Jamar Chase at 3.5% ownership!!! The first drive resulted in a quick touchdown and then we all know what unfortunately happened with Demar Hamlin. The game got PPD and the contests paid out as is. Results aside, this was a very fun sweat and I look forward to having multiple teams make the finals this year to get that same sweat going!!!

Which best ball site do I like the best?

As I mentioned previously, I have enjoyed trying to play for an edge on DK due to the belief that more casuals would be on that site. That could very easily change though due to the sheer amount of promotion Underdog is doing for their website and the fact that you can upload rankings now on DK. Still, I am OCD about having all my stuff in one place so since I do play DFS on DK, I’ll likely max enter DK first then prioritize Underdog.

Maybe even some Drafters this year (Shoutout Titletown!) because I do like the season-long sweat more than the round-by-round playoff sweat. I think that format does reward better teams while the round-by-round format definitely will take some more luck. I am a guy who jams in drafts 2-3 weeks before the season starts just to maximize the EV of my lineups so I am really drafting up until lock time. We will see this year how much I can get in!

Favorite lineup construction for best ball?

I’ve had profitable years drafting using the “hyper-fragile” construction where you draft 2 stud RBs with your first 2 picks and then go heavy on the other positions so I’ll likely continue to do that this year. Your hope is that those 2 stud RBs can carry your RB position each week while you bank on the volatility and upside of WRs and get more exposure that position in your portfolio.

Obviously, if one of those RBs gets injured or has a down year, it becomes difficult for that lineup to rise to the top, but my belief is that I am expecting those stud RBs to carry me to the end and be the workhorses for my BB team like they are for their real-life team. Also by taking 2 RBs early, I don’t have to worry about getting any more RB exposure until the later rounds.

Favorite best ball strategy?

Drafting for correlation is always my main focus and then week 17 stacking will be my secondary focus. As you can see with my team that made it to the DK Finals last year, CIN was my primary stack while NYJ was my secondary stack. Zach Wilson was cut off in the screenshot but he was my QB2.

CIN obviously came into the year with high expectations while my secondary stack of NYJ (in my mind), had a lot of upside with their young talent. I love building teams like this because it gives me 2 outs to strong offenses by the end of the year. Not to mention, these are easy to achieve if you draft 2 stud RBs to start then you can focus on your pass-catching stacks + QBs.