Ortiz Bowl III
Ortiz Bowl III was the third edition of the Ortiz Bowl fantasy football league. There were no changes in the number of teams or in team managers, but several team names changed.
Changes
Several scoring changes were made this season. The most notable were those that penalized kickers and defenses less, making both positions more viable in terms of scoring. Additionally, though, points for both individual kickoff and punt return yardage were added to league scoring rules. This was also the first season that keepers were in play. It should be noted that though points for kickers were improved, there was no special bonus for either attempting or making a 60+ yard field goal. This certainly played at least a small role in the outcome of the season, as the 2024-2025 NFL season featured more made 60 yard field goals than ever before. As this looks to be a trend moving forward, scoring rules will likely be changed again heading into next season.
Draft
The Ortiz Bowl III draft was conducted on August 24th, 2024 at 3:00 p.m. Pacific. The draft order hadn't been solidified before league settings were locked. As a result, the draft order was completely randomized. The Anaheim Steamrollers received the first pick in the draft, though they didn't get to benefit from it (see the Controversies section below for more information on this).
Regular Season Standings
| Fierro Conference | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | Manager(s) | Wins | Losses | Ties | Winning percentage | Points for | Points against | ||
| (3) USERNAME | Ryan Ortiz | 10 | 4 | 0 | .714 | 2,050.73 | 1,748.48 | ||
| (4) Baby Back | Weston & Welles Beljajev | 9 | 5 | 0 | .643 | 2,086.79 | 1,739.87 | ||
| (5) Jesus lives | George Beljajev | 8 | 6 | 0 | .571 | 2,162.43 | 1,911.93 | ||
| (8) Hug-a-Bear | Sandi Ishii | 6 | 8 | 0 | .429 | 1,873.82 | 1,923.59 | ||
| Colorful Flowers | Erin Peterson | 5 | 9 | 0 | .357 | 2,014.10 | 2,088.73 | ||
| Dak side | Curran Beljajev | 5 | 9 | 0 | .357 | 1,906.19 | 1,986.58 | ||
| Rits Crackers | Anne Ortiz | 4 | 10 | 0 | .286 | 1,585.48 | 2,092.91 | ||
| Alvaro Conference | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | Manager(s) | Wins | Losses | Ties | Winning percentage | Points for | Points against | ||
| (1) Gnoble Gnomes | Jessie Peterson | 11 | 3 | 0 | .786 | 1,825.55 | 1,644.13 | ||
| (2) California Cats | David Peterson | 10 | 4 | 0 | .714 | 2,151.78 | 1,918.23 | ||
| (6) Go Dbacks | Andrew Bienias | 8 | 6 | 0 | .571 | 2,060.50 | 1,927.17 | ||
| (7) Teeth | Natalie Ishii | 7 | 7 | 0 | .500 | 1,765.63 | 2,049.31 | ||
| Anaheim Steamrollers | Steve Ishii | 6 | 8 | 0 | .429 | 1,741.61 | 1,870.10 | ||
| COrtizeses | Ben Ortiz & Teri Vasquez | 5 | 9 | 0 | .357 | 1,889.46 | 1,909.95 | ||
| Mountain Raige | Codi Ortiz | 4 | 10 | 0 | .286 | 1,796.62 | 2,099.71 | ||
Hard Luck Hamster
By virtue of giving up the most points during the regular season, Mountain Raige won the 2024 Hard Luck Hamster.
Championship Bracket
The 2024 Ortiz Bowl playoffs featured the top 8 teams, regardless of division, who faced off against each other in a three round tournament that was held during weeks 15, 16, and 17 of the 2024 NFL regular season. Regular season record determined seeding, with total points scored being the first tiebreaker, with the exception that USERNAME, as a division winner, claimed the second season over the California Cats, despite the latter having scored more points.
| 1 | Gnoble Gnomes | 156.43 | |||||||||||
| 8 | Hug-a-Bear | 168.41 | |||||||||||
| Quarterfinal 1 | |||||||||||||
| 8 | Hug-a-Bear | 161.78 | |||||||||||
| 4 | Baby Back | 168.52 | |||||||||||
| Semifinal 1 | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Baby Back | 181.82 | |||||||||||
| 5 | Jesus lives | 171.99 | |||||||||||
| Quarterfinal 2 | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Baby Back | 190.56 | |||||||||||
| 6 | Go Dbacks | 158.13 | |||||||||||
| Ortiz Bowl III | |||||||||||||
| 3 | California Cats | 136.04 | |||||||||||
| 6 | Go Dbacks | 180.29 | |||||||||||
| Quarterfinal 3 | |||||||||||||
| 6 | Go Dbacks | 203.47 | |||||||||||
| 2 | USERNAME | 179.27 | |||||||||||
| Semifinal 2 | |||||||||||||
| 2 | USERNAME | 169.55 | |||||||||||
| 7 | Teeth | 162.50 | |||||||||||
| Quarterfinal 4 | |||||||||||||
Third Place Match
The semifinal losers Hug-a-Bear and USERNAME competed in the third place match during championship week. It was a tight contest, but Tee Higgins monster three touchdown performance was too for Hug-a-Bear to overcome, with USERNAME defeating Hug-a-Bear by a score of 188.16 to 163.66. This was Ryan's best finish yet.
Footstool
In the consolation bracket, Dak side was wallopped by COrtizes by a score of 179.20 to 59.75, thereby claiming the Footstool. Curran made it clear initially that he wanted to undo the rule put in place by his brother Weston the previous year and remove keepers from the league, but he later backtracked on that. The league awaits his final decision.
Notable events
This season featured the two closest scores in Ortiz Bowl history. In week 2, the Gnoble Gnomes edged out COrtizes by a score of 117.46 to 117.40. The 0.06 margin of victory was razor thin, and easily the slimmest victory in Ortiz Bowl history—until week 11, when the California Cats managed to beat USERNAME by a score of 155.55 to 155.52. It all came down to the last play of the last game, where Derrick Henry was brought out for a rest rather than being given another rushing attempt to run out the clock at the end of the game between the Ravens and Chargers. Provided he didn't fumble, that one carry would've given USERNAME the victory.
Controversies
The draft this season was a chaotic affair. In addition to several unrelated technical issues, there were two major sources of controversy that took many by surprise. The first was all league settings lock at a certain point before the draft. David had given a presentation on how to play fantasy football, and by the time he was done, he was no longer allowed to alter the league's settings. In addition, those who hadn't yet selected their keeper were no longer allowed to do so. This affected two teams: Colorful Flowers and Teeth.
The second issue was resolved once it was discovered exactly how NFL Fantasy handles keepers. Apparently a keeper becomes a given team's automatic first pick in the draft. With a snake draft, this means that even though the Anaheim Steamrollers received the first pick in the draft, the first non-automatic pick was done by Jesus lives. Thus, even though the Anaheim Steamrollers technically had the first pick in the draft, Jesus lives had the de facto first pick in the draft.
This, however, wasn't the end of it. Twelve of the fourteen teams had an automatically selected pick for their first pick because of their keepers. Colorful Flowers and Teeth didn't. Since they were able to make their own first selection, though, it was determined they should simply choose the player they intended to keep from the previous season. Colorful Flowers did so, choosing Tyreek Hill. When Teeth's turn came up, though, they mistakenly chose Ja'Marr Chase rather than the player that was supposed to be their keeper, Jalen Hurts. Due to the mixup, it was determined that Jalen Hurts would immediately become available for anyone to select. Despite this fact, Jalen Hurts was still available when Teeth's next pick came up, and so Teeth went ahead and took Jalen Hurts. Thus, despite the mixup, every team ended up with their intended keeper.
In future seasons, David will have to get the draft order settled well ahead of the draft, and will also bear in mind that the first round will be given to keepers, meaning that in order to set a specific draft order and do a snake draft, then the desired draft order will need to be reversed.