NFBC Champion Profile - Joseph Reagor

[Tom Kessenich]

For many fantasy players it takes years to reach the top of the high stakes mountain and reign supreme. For Joseph Reagor, two years was all he needed to prove he could be the best.

In just his second season playing in the NFBC, Reagor took home one of our contest’s most coveted titles, turning a single entry in the RotoWire Online Championship into a national title and winning its $75,000 grand prize. Reagor finished first in the event by a mere 11 points over Jeff Malatin’s second-place team.

“It was 50 percent relief and 50 percent disbelief when the season ended,” the 31-year-old Reagor said. “I have won other leagues in the past and have a won a few thousand dollars in a poker tournament but never anything of this magnitude. I just feel pretty lucky.”

Good fortune never hurts but it takes more than that to conquer a field of more than 1,240 teams and win a national contest. While Reagor was certainly able to put his years of fantasy sports experience to good use, he also was quick to admit he was aided in other ways on his run to a national title.

“Listing to the SiriusXM fantasy sports network was a big key,” he said. “The info provided on there is well above anything available elsewhere. I listened for probably eight hours a day on average from February through July.

“Ray Flowers really helped me a lot. He was so adamant about Corey Kluber and I took him in four out of my six leagues last year as a result. Me and Ray tend to think about baseball in a similar way to when he likes a player I usually like them too.”

In the end, though, it was up to Reagor to pull the strings and navigate his way through a treacherous and competitive field in the Online Championship. When the season was drawing to a close, the final days and weeks of decisions became even more paramount with so much riding on the outcome.

“The final weeks I was probably overthinking every move as I tried to focus on the categories I could gain points in,” the Long Beach, CA resident said. “I tried to focus on Wins at that point as I had already improved in a lot of other categories.”

Reagor vaulted into the Top 3 in late July and at that point he first began to realistically think that winning the $75,000 grand prize was a realistic goal. It also allowed him to begin tailoring his roster decisions more in line with what he believed would be necessary to take home the championship.

“I wasn’t satisfied (to just be in the Top 3) and I looked at where I was in each category,” he said. “My goal was to get into the Top 200 in each category.”

Reagor has been playing fantasy sports since he was 14 so at a young age of 31 to be a national champion in the NFBC is quite an accomplishment. He also believes this contest is a true test of one’s fantasy baseball acumen.

“I think that this format is a great opportunity for the people who are truly dedicated to the purity of fantasy sports,” he said. “It’s not for trash talk or anything else that goes along with your standard home league.

“I am proof that you don’t need 15 entries to take home the championship. I’m looking forward to next year already.”