John Pausma Wins 2024 Rotowire OC Title & $150,000 Prize

[Greg Ambrosius]

NFBC Hall of Famer John Pausma of Tinley Park, Illinois won the 2024 Rotowire Online Championship and the $150,000 grand prize as he capped off a historic year. John won a total of seven Rotowire OC league titles and added a Main Event league title to pad his already impressive Hall of Fame resume. John entered this year 10th overall in Career Earnings, but could vault into the Top 5 after this season.

It was a wild race to the finish line in this one as John, Daniel Baker and Tyler Jung all had a piece of the lead at one point during the final week. They swapped spots throughout the week with John having a big push over the weekend to grab the lead and hold onto it through the Monday makeup doubleheader between the Braves and the Mets. He finished 296 points ahead of Baker and 472.5 points ahead of Jung for the title.

This is John's THIRD NFBC national title as he won the NFBC Main Event overall title in 2018 and he won the NFBC $50s Draft Champions National Championship in 2021. He has now earned more than $600,000 in the NFBC since joining the contest in 2006. He's also a two-time national champion in the NFFC, having won the Rotowire Online Championship and the NFFC Primetime. Like Clark Olson, he's one of the best in both sports.

John took 13 Rotowire OC teams in 2024 and he won SEVEN league titles, finishing 1st, 17th and 61st overall. He also had another team that cashed with a second place finish and three other teams that finished third. None of his OC teams finished lower than fifth.

He also won his sixth NFBC Main Event league title this year, finishing 44th overall there, while adding one Draft Champions league title.

His championship team came from the March 14th, 10 pm ET league as he finished with 111.5 league points to win that title easily. His overall total of 25,464.0 points were 93.07 percent of all available points, which is sixth best of all Rotowire OC overall champions over the last 16 years of this contest. We finished with a record 2,736 teams in 2024.

Daniel Baker earned $35,000 for his runner-up finish, while Tyler Jung won $25,000 for his third place finish. Kyle Brinkmann and Brendan O'Dwyer rounded out the Top 5, earning $17,500 and $12,500, respectively. We paid the Top 30 teams overall in 2024.

John drafted from the 8th spot in this league, building his foundation around Shohei Ohtani and Jose Ramirez. Luis Castillo and Tarik Skubal in the third and fourth rounds certainly solidified his rotation for the season.

Congrats John and congrats to all of the overall and league prize money winners. It was a fantastic season in our 12-team format as we crowned yet another new overall champion. John now becomes our 16th different overall champion in the Rotowire Online Championship over 16 seasons as nobody has ever won this title twice. That shows you just how tough this format is. Thanks all and congrats to the winners.

Here's the final standings:

2024 Rotowire Online Championship Top 100 Teams:
1 John Pausma JP OC6 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1345 25,464.00
2 Daniel Baker Baker $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1315 25,168.00
3 Tyler Jung RotoSocks - CLQ $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1042 24,981.50
4 Kyle Brinkmann JK ALL THE WAY OC 4 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #645 24,854.50
5 Brendan O'Dwyer O'Dwyer $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1747 24,630.00
6 Bob Catsiroumpas BC OC3__rP $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1198 24,588.00
7 BRENNAN LOGUE LOGUE $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1572 24,437.00
8 Robert DiPietro Chalky White OC2 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #875 24,409.00
9 Andrew Norman AN uno1 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1527 24,271.00
10 Christopher Hahn Rufe Hahn Co. $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1448 24,236.50
11 Matt Bush Chairmen of the Bored $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1192 24,170.00
12 Matthew King King $750 Rotowire Online Championship Online 3/27 @ 9:00 pm ET #1589 24,159.00
13 Mark Krom OC3-Judge $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1635 24,032.50
14 Eric Colburn Colburn OC1 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1128 23,969.50
15 Trevor Gobble Bird Law $350 Rotowire Online Championship #875 23,861.50
16 Mark Smalley Smalley $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1711 23,834.00
17 John Pausma JP OC2 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1060 23,768.50
18 Bryan Brooks BSBombers2 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #620 23,643.50
19 Samuel Horton Horton $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1797 23,579.00
20 Ryan O'Donnell Troublemakers Club $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1867 23,527.00
21 Douglas Roth Roth $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1215 23,511.50
22 Richard Kulaski Mackey and Bell Bells Avengers $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1706 23,431.00
23 Bryan Brooks Patrick's Pirates 4 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1436 23,384.00
24 Todd Hoppe CLQ Hoppe - CLQ $350 Rotowire Online Championship #408 23,339.50
25 Ian Hubbard Hubbard $750 Rotowire Online Championship Online 3/17 @ 8:00 pm ET #1461 23,244.50
26 Floyd Huston IMANAGAna tell you again. $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1794 23,198.50
27 Zach Wegner ZW CW $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1304 23,183.50
28 Steven Weimer Work a Shovel - CLQ $350 Rotowire Online Championship #956 23,158.00
29 Stephen DuBois DuBois $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1657 23,121.50
30 Keenan Howard Howard 2 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1789 23,121.00
31 Bradley Libros BillBros $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1272 23,119.00
32 JOSEPH HICKMAN All Betts Are Off $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1667 22,950.50
33 Keenan Howard Howard 4 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1864 22,907.00
34 Chris Kuehn TBC 04 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1706 22,792.00
35 Justin Snider Snider $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1747 22,766.50
36 Chris Oliver Mr. Robot $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1511 22,765.50
37 Griffin Benger Walker Texas Ranger $750 Rotowire Online Championship Las Vegas 3/22 @ 4:00 pm PT #1395 22,745.50
38 Jason Anthony Booms OC - CLQ $350 Rotowire Online Championship #757 22,700.50
39 Jacob Carson Hoerners Corner $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1403 22,680.50
40 Dale Morgan Sons of Liberty Roto $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1768 22,680.00
41 Toby Guevin BatFlip Crazy OC - CLQ $350 Rotowire Online Championship #982 22,656.00
42 Bob Catsiroumpas BC OC2__0rp $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1178 22,637.00
42 Tony Notaro Jeff and Tony One and Only III $350 Rotowire Online Championship #787 22,637.00
44 Zach Wegner Wegner OC 4 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1757 22,632.00
45 Jon Broska BroskaLazzo3 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1789 22,624.50
46 JAY BARRON BARRON $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1788 22,576.50
47 Ian Hubbard Hubbard $350 Rotowire Online Championship #325 22,573.50
48 Andrew Norman AN www1 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1730 22,570.50
49 John Rundle Townies 1 $750 Rotowire Online Championship Online 3/23 @ 9:00 pm ET #1652 22,555.00
50 Andrew Matney Room 609 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1240 22,533.00
51 Brandon Waddell CORKED WOOD 12 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1535 22,523.50
52 Tim Sansome Sansome OC5 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1808 22,489.00
53 Mark Krom OC1-Freeman $350 Rotowire Online Championship #885 22,470.00
54 Seth Trachtman Trachtman - CLQ $350 Rotowire Online Championship #458 22,459.50
55 Jeff Schwartz HEY MOO $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1848 22,446.00
56 Andrew Eckert Yoshi's Island $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1607 22,429.00
57 justin audia audia $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1759 22,386.50
58 James Maples OC 1 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #738 22,356.50
59 Matthew Kolp angry beavers 3 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1635 22,330.50
60 DAVID DEAN WOLF COLA $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1551 22,204.00
61 John Pausma JP OC9 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1083 22,167.50
62 CHARLES RANDALL The Blue Crew $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1114 22,162.50
63 Vlad Sedler Gut OC 1 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #347 22,155.00
64 Cooper Rushing RushingBaseball II $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1042 22,144.50
65 Brian Edwards FDT - CLQ $350 Rotowire Online Championship #897 22,138.00
66 Brian Steinhause MookieBlaylock10 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1554 22,117.00
67 Matthew Dugan Dugan $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1178 22,115.50
68 Matthew Dugan Dugan $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1568 22,104.50
69 Tony Notaro Jeff and Tony One and Only IV $350 Rotowire Online Championship #770 22,098.50
70 Eric Albright EA Sports OC - CLQ $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1043 22,075.50
71 CHRISTIAN AREL Goolia Boozler $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1742 22,040.50
72 Jason Sanderson OC2 John Deere Green Sox $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1478 22,039.00
73 Matthew Dugan Dugan $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1254 21,985.00
74 Brandon Waddell CORKED WOOD 6 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1132 21,925.50
75 Dominic Rello Rello OC - CLQ $350 Rotowire Online Championship #426 21,910.50
76 Alex Johnson Uribe's Chaw $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1304 21,904.50
77 Griffin Benger CJ Abrams' Mystery Box $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1677 21,859.50
78 Andrew Pelaez Pelaez $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1292 21,858.50
79 Kyle Brinkmann JK ALL THE WAY OC 1 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #426 21,833.00
80 Richard Kulaski Kokos Koko Bears $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1456 21,816.00
81 SAMUEL EAST rhubard and jack custard $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1562 21,800.00
82 Tony Notaro Jeff and Tony One and Only II $350 Rotowire Online Championship #705 21,794.50
83 Cj Kaltenbach Kaltenbach - CLQ $350 Rotowire Online Championship #893 21,757.50
84 Matthew Shepherd MORONS X $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1821 21,740.00
85 KEVIN WEIS WeiHaaVoj $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1511 21,710.50
86 Dave Petroziello Petroziello $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1639 21,709.00
87 Danny Bronski Dot Dash X $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1377 21,661.00
88 Tony Notaro Moola for Julia $350 Rotowire Online Championship #949 21,588.50
89 Bryan Royce SAB Paragon $350 Rotowire Online Championship #604 21,585.50
90 Bryan Brooks Patricks Pirates 5 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1834 21,582.50
91 STEVEN SAWA Polish Sausage1 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1120 21,566.50
92 nicholas durrell Calliandra Shade $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1742 21,561.50
93 Scott Jenstad Oak OL - CLQ $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1249 21,537.00
94 Rosario Cerrito MAMA WE MADE IT $350 Rotowire Online Championship #770 21,531.50
95 TIMOTHY BUETHE BUETHE OC3 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #757 21,511.00
96 Mark Northan Northan - CLQ $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1775 21,509.00
97 Dalton Del Don Del Don - CLQ $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1790 21,500.50
98 Kevin Tran 10SOARDAN-HRRRIBS 0 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1215 21,484.50
99 Michael Mager Bronx Yankees OC - CLQ $350 Rotowire Online Championship #1254 21,468.50
100 Tim Sansome Sansome OC1 $350 Rotowire Online Championship #938 21,465.00

[Greg Ambrosius]

John drafted from the 8th spot in his March 14th, 10 pm ET Rotowire Online Championship League. I believe this was the "Beat Peter Schoenke" Rotowire Online Championship league. Here were his draft results:

JP OC6
1 8 Ohtani, Shohei UT JP OC6
2 17 Ramirez, Jose 3B JP OC6
3 32 Castillo, Luis P JP OC6
4 41 Skubal, Tarik P JP OC6
5 56 Altuve, Jose 2B JP OC6
6 65 Bellinger, Cody 1B JP OC6
7 80 Iglesias, Raisel P JP OC6
8 89 Sale, Chris P JP OC6
9 104 Langford, Wyatt OF JP OC6
10 113 Kimbrel, Craig P JP OC6
11 128 Swanson, Dansby SS JP OC6
12 137 Contreras, Willson C JP OC6
13 152 Murphy, Sean C JP OC6
14 161 Pivetta, Nick P JP OC6
15 176 Burger, Jake CI JP OC6
16 185 Happ, Ian OF JP OC6
17 200 Hoskins, Rhys 1B JP OC6
18 209 Suarez, Robert P JP OC6
19 224 Pena, Jeremy MI JP OC6
20 233 Puk, A.J. P JP OC6
21 248 Lee, Jung Hoo OF JP OC6
22 257 Siri, Jose OF JP OC6
23 272 Rogers, Trevor P JP OC6
24 281 Littell, Zack P JP OC6
25 296 Fedde, Erick P JP OC6
26 305 Bryant, Kris OF JP OC6
27 320 Whitlock, Garrett P JP OC6
28 329 Matsui, Yuki P JP OC6
29 344 Lopez, Reynaldo P JP OC6
30 353 Fraley, Jake OF JP OC6

[Greg Ambrosius]

Here were John's winning FAAB bids throughout the year:

JP OC6:
March 24:
Luis Gil 62
Jason Heyward 3

March 31:
Connor Wong 24
Steven Matz 21
Brenton Doyle 3

April 7:
Travis d'Arnaud 21
Sean Murphy 17

April 14:
Harrison Bader 7
Jon Gray 14

April 21:
Ceddanne Rafaela 7
Blake Perkins 4

April 28:
Yennier Cano 27
Josh Bell 13
Wilyer Abreu 7

May 5:
Christian Scott 189
TJ Friedl 27

May 12:
Ivan Herrera 23
LaMonte Wade Jr. 3
Ryan O'Hearn 3

May 19:
Eddie Rosario 2
Tyler Freeman 13
David Fry 2

May 26:
Willson Contreras 3
Tylor Megill 14

June 2:
Jon Gray 17
Luke Raley 2

June 9:
Max Meyer 8
Ivan Herrera 7

June 16:
Shane Baz 117
Josh Jung 37
Spencer Horwitz 8

June 23:
Lance Lynn 6
Tyler Black 5
Ben Rice 3

June 30:
Jose Caballero 17
LaMonte Wade Jr. 3
Gabriel Moreno 3
Charlie Blackmon 2

July 7:
James Wood 137
Jordan Hicks 1
Colin Rea 1

July 14:
Lawrence Butler 3
Ernie Clement 2
Jose Soriano 1

July 21:
Ke'Bryan Hayes 13
Victor Robles 2

July 28:
River Ryan 5
Colin Rea 2

August 4:
Jeffrey Springs 17
Yennier Cano 8
Junior Caminero 2

August 11:
Nolan Jones 3
DL Hall 1
Danny Jansen 2

August 18:
Matthew Boyd 13
Reynaldo Lopez 2
Gavin Lux 2
Yariel Rodriguez 1
Adrian Del Castillo 1

August 25:
David Festa 2
Cody Bradford 2
David Fry 2
Jake Cave 2
Michael Massey 1

September 1:
Josh Bell 2
Andrew Benintendi 1

September 8:
Max Scherzer 3
Bobby Miller 2
Clarke Schmidt 2
Mitch Garver 1

September 15:
Alec Marsh 3
Tommy Pham 2
Gabriel Moreno 2
Justin Steele 2
Victor Caratini 1

September 22:
Yariel Rodriguez 1
Casey Mize 1
Reese Olson 1
Jonathan Cannon 1
Ivan Herrera 1
Gavin Lux 1
Charlie Blackmon 1

[Greg Ambrosius]

Here was the prize breakdown for the 2024 Rotowire Online Championship:

Overall Prizes:
1 - $150,000
2 - $35,000
3 - $25,000
4 - $17,500
5 - $12,500
6 - $7,000
7 - $6,000
8 - $5,000
9 - $4,000
10 - $2,500
11 - $2,000
12 - $1,500
13 - $1,300
14 - $1,200
15 - $1,000
16 - $900
17 - $800
18 - $750
19 - $700
20 - $600
21 - $550
22 - $500
23 - $450
24 - $400
25 - $390
26 - $380
27 - $370
28 - $360
29 - $355
30 - $350

League Prizes:
1 - $1,400
2 - $700

$750 League Prizes:
1 - $4,300
2 - $2,000

$1,500 League Prizes:
1 - $9,000
2 - $4,100

[Greg Ambrosius]

John Pausma becomes the 16th different owner to win the Rotowire Online Championship since we started this in 2009. Nobody has ever won this national title twice, which tells you how tough this 12-team contest is.

Here's our updated list of Online Championship champions. They include:

2009 - Lindy Hinkelman
2010 - Jaime Baird
2011 - Gino Yu
2012 - Michael O'Brien
2013 - Eric Heberlig
2014 - Joseph Reagor
2015 - Chad Schroeder
2016 - James Tomony
2017 - Jim Phan
2018 - Chris Oliver
2019 - Andrew Edenbaum
2020 - Matthew Bredin
2021 - Chris Fessler
2022 - Andrew Geller
2023 - Drew Forte
2024 - John Pausma

[Greg Ambrosius]

John Pausma drafted from the 8th spot to win the $150,000 grand prize in this 12-team national championship. The Top 20 teams featured teams drafting from 10 of the 12 available spots, with only picks No. 1 and No. 7 not being represented in the Top 20. The first six finishers all drafted from different spots, while No. 11 was the most popular draft spot with four Top 20 finishers. Here's a look at where the Top 20 overall teams drafted from:

No. 1 - 0 teams
No. 2 - 2 teams
No. 3 - 1 team
No. 4 - 1 team
No. 5 - 2 teams
No. 6 - 1 team
No. 7 - 0 teams
No. 8 - 2 teams
No. 9 - 1 team
No. 10 - 3 teams
No. 11 - 4 teams
No. 12 - 3 teams

Nos. 1-3 - 3 teams
Nos. 4-6 - 4 team
Nos. 7-9 - 3 teams
Nos. 10-12 - 10 teams

13 teams drafted in the bottom half (picks 7-12),while 10 teams drafted in the 10th, 11th or 12th spots. This is almost the exact opposite of last year when seven of the Top 20 teams drafted from the No. 1 spot. What a difference a year can make. Enjoy.

[Navel Lint]

This is John's THIRD NFBC national title as he won the NFBC Main Event overall title in 2018 and he won the NFBC $50s Draft Champions National Championship in 2021. He has now earned more than $600,000 in the NFBC since joining the contest in 2006. He's also a two-time national champion in the NFFC, having won the Rotowire Online Championship and the NFFC Primetime.

There are a lot of really talented and smart players in the NFC world. There are a few Great players in the NFC world. I won't list them, but we all have a good idea who they are.

In my opinion John is the very best player in the NFC world. You all are welcome to your own opinion, but you would be wrong

Congrats John!