Larejo is a mid-stakes tournament mastermind who specializes in outmaneuvering 150-max players with a small number of entries
I don’t write much here of value some weeks. But given the opportunity five seasons ago, my one commitment in every piece was to write something I would want to read. Selfish? Maybe. But interesting and unique? I definitely hope so. As the seasons have progressed, slates come and slates go and nearly every week I learn something just from playing DFS. And yet every week, because the odds heavily favor it, I walk away most weeks having to take those learnings and apply to the next week without a major win. One of the best parts of DFS, though, when you do it for long enough (2014 for me), is that slates start to remind you of previous ones, and you have a much better feel for how to process information. This 13-game main slate is no different. The NFL in 2025 means news cycles begin Sunday night, and by Saturday morning there are usually some strong themes or groupthink that forms. The data is SO good now that the good chalk is better than it ever was. It was a competitive edge years ago to do your own research, but now it’s simply a waste of time. What is still a competitive edge, though, is being unique in your own way because we know that the larger the slate, the more open paths there are to 250-point rosters.
Some real commonalities forming this week include:
Ignoring all of these thoughts is not the way. But taking some of them and leveraging them against (in a smart way) is the path. The data is too good now that there’s levels to this thinking. It used to be that we had bad chalk nearly every week. It’s now the case that the projections are going to be right more times than they will be wrong, and we must recognize that. If you are playing large-field GPPs, however, there is ALWAYS an angle to explore that is different. Sometimes, that angle will be something you uncover yourself. Sometimes, I hope I can provide it here in this space. Sometimes, we get underowned paths that this website (multiple contributors) is all over, and sometimes, it’s one that a different site is all over instead. Whatever it may be, whatever flavor of ice cream you prefer, on this massive slate there is no wrong answer. “You do you” as the kids say this week. And for me, that means team stacks and game overstacks.
