Hello everyone! I know, I know, all good things must come to an end and the it’s the same with Sportingbet Fantasy Challenge, whose 2010-11 season will be over on Thursday, unlike the Euroleague itself, which continues through the Quarterfinal Playoffs and the Final Four. From my point of view, I just hope you enjoyed the game as much as I enjoyed organizing it. Technically speaking, this has been the best fantasy season ever, as we changed servers, which made the game much more efficient. Not having to wait until 4 a.m. to re-open the game and announce the winner had a good impact in my everyday life, especially when it comes to doing something interesting on Friday mornings. Some people have complained about the injury report sometimes, but hey, we publish what we see and what we are informed of. I got a very interesting mail from Nejc Tiran of Slovenia offering some improvements which I will study once the Turkish Airlines Euroleague season is over. Before anything else, any suggestions or possible improvements that we can make, you can always send them to fantasychallenge@euroleague.net. We are good at listening and also want the game to be better - and better! - every season.

So, the end is near and amazingly enough, we don't know who will be our 2010-11 fantasy winner. It goes down to three main candidates and only one of them will come to Barcelona to be the Euroleague's very, very special guest. I said it before, but being on court while the Euroleague champions are celebrating is an incredible experience. Even when I am working hard, chasing players to get quotes right away for all the media out there, being there is amazing. Having the chance to being right there... more

Hello everyone! Well, the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Top 16 is coming to an end soon, and so is this season's edition of Sportingbet Fantasy Challenge. The good thing about the Top 16 - and this year is far from being an exception - is that you get to see better showdowns each and every week. Just to name a few this week, Maccabi Electra hosts Regal FC Barcelona for first place in Group F; Fenerbahce Ulker and Olympiacos meet again in a Group H showdown; and Montepaschi Siena welcomes Efes Pilsen in a direct fight to stay alive in Group G. In other words, this is a kind of entertainment that you won't find anywhere else at this point of the season, in any basketball competition in the world. Great teams, tradition, rivalries, action, drama, all packaged in several Top 16 games.

Of course, some teams have ran out of chances to make it to the next round and in my humble opinion, these are the players you have to avoid in Sportingbet Fantasy Challenge right now. Different rotations may take place - even when every game counts in terms of final team rankings - and the motivation is never the same when a player knows he will have to watch the playoffs. As such, the more a player can compete, the more similar rotations will be and the less negative surprises you can have. My team, Meet the Boss, struggled this week. My trades worked out completely wrong, partly because Igor Rakocevic got... more

Hello everyone! Well, if there is a week that I consider to be the most complicated one of Sportingbet Fantasy Challenge - other than the opening one, which is critical - that's always Top 16 Game 4. Why? I hear you ask. It is pretty unusual and unique. Some Turkish Airlines Euroleague teams fight for survival, other have the chance to qualify as soon as this week, and some - luckily for the competition, seven this year - had to battle hard to win domestic cup championships over the weekend. Almost a dozen Top 16 teams - all except Panathinaikos, Unicaja, Olympiacos, Lottomatica Roma and Efes Pilsen - had to play on consecutive days to either win their national cups or reach the finals. Like I said, seven teams - Fenerbahce Ulker, Maccabi Electra, Montepaschi Siena, Partizan mt:s Belgrade, Regal FC Barcelona, Union Olimpija and Zalgiris Kaunas - won respective cup titles, but they risk paying a high price for their extended efforts as a critical Euroleague game will be waiting. Expect all of them to celebrate their cup victories once the season is over, because there's no time to do it now!

The cups weekend left some unforgettable moments, but none like a three-overtime quarterfinal game between Union Olimpija and Krka Novo Mesto, without doubt an instant classic. Olimpija trailed by 17 with around 4 minutes left in regulation time. Fullcourt pressure with Vladimer Boisa as Olimpija's only big man on the floor paid off, and free throws by Saso Ozbolt sent the game, incredibly enough, to overtime. Almost 5 minutes later and with the game on the line - Krka leading by two - Muric sinks a game-winning 'three-pointer', but as everyone was celebrating, it was ruled a two-pointer as he stepped on the line. Double... more

Hello everybody! Well, if the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Regular Season was exciting, the Top 16 is being just as outstanding. Just have a look at what happened last week! Six very close games - kudos to Khalid El-Amin for providing one of the biggest highlights of the season with his game-winning three-pointer -, some upsets, excitement and, above all, outstanding basketball. It is my favorite part of the season, as it goes from good to better - and the beat goes on until the Final Four. For some reason, I also play much better in the Sportinbet Fantasy Challenge once we get past the regular season. Maybe because there are fewer choices, or the fact that I don't think about accumulating credits anymore, or just that I am a little bit like Ramunas Siskauskas - the further along in the Euroleague season, the better I play.

I am happy to see that I rank 11th in the Top 16 standings - although not with my public team, "Meet the Boss". This one is called "Debaser" because of a Pixies song - I love the band and most of my teams are named after their songs. I missed being up among the leaders because of the terrible start I had. Even so, I only got better and better since that moment and it is beginning to pay off, too late. I am happy to see that we have our first back-to-back weekly winner of the season, Ivan San Jose Garcia. He has 7 out of the best 8 teams in the Top 16 this far. It is like fighting against an army, so I like the challenge! As for "Meet the Boss", I had a respectable score of 156.1 which allowed me to go up to 2,903rd overall. Still, I am hoping that everything clicks for that team in one of the final four upcoming weeks. It could be this one, hopefully. We'll see.

Fact is, I am... more