iPhone App Reviews

Quick Picks Fantasy GM

Michael (Admin) | Sep 10, 2009 Sports

User rating: (3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...

I heart gambling and I heart football even more, so naturally I gravitated towards Quick Picks Fantasy GM the second it hit my inbox! It’s a weekly salary cap game where you re-draft your team every week so even if Tom Brady gets mowed down by a bus (perish the thought!) you won’t be screwed for 17 weeks straight like you probably were last season in your standard fantasy football league.

Not only do you get to pick a new team each week, but you can also win money doing it. That’s right… iPhone apps don’t cost money, they make money! Maybe. If you know your football. Free The Fan is giving out weekly prizes of cash and Overstock.com gift cards, plus there are some hefty cash and Overstock prizes for the overall season point leaders! In total, $10,000 in cash and prizes that will be handed out over the course of the NFL season.

It may sound easy but the salary cap is the Great Equalizer here. Is it really as simple as blowing $20 million of your $25 million cap on four studs when you have EIGHT roster spots to fill? Haha, you wish.

In Quick Picks Fantasy GM, you’re starting the following positions on a weekly basis:

• 1 QB
• 2 RB
• 2 WR
• 1 TE
• 1 K
• 1 DEF

Each position has players who carry values ranging from $1M to $5M, and I asked Free The Fan about how values are assigned because, let’s face it, even Adrian Peterson isn’t a $5M play every single week of the season. Here’s what they had to say:

In order to categorize the players into each of the five price categories they are evaluated upon the following criteria:

• Current Match-up/ Strength of Opponent
• Historical data versus opponent
• Historical data of average statistics
• Most recent game data (2009 season statistics)
• Injuries to Player
• Injuries to supporting teammates (ie: loss of Larry Fitzgerald would affect Kurt Warner’s output and thus his Quick Picks price in the game)

Whoa! So it sounds like the developer is going to set player values on a weekly basis. My sincere apologies to all the lazy bastards out there who were planning on a set-it-and-forget-it strategy.

Fantasy GM’s interface is nice and looks pro, but it’s hard to really know how this app will perform since the NFL season doesn’t officially kick off until later today. Some sections such as Results and Leaders can’t be evaluated right now because there are no results and no leaders, but based on the how the rest of the app is built I have high hopes for 17 solid weeks of fun as a Fantasy GM.

You do need to create an account in order to play, but if you have a Facebook account it’s simply a matter of signing in. Quick Picks Fantasy GM will post a little blurb on your profile when you make your picks, but to me that doesn’t seem like a big deal and I actually kind of like how it encourages competition among your friends who think they know football better than you.

As long as Free The Fan is diligent and at least somewhat accurate in their weekly player valuations, Fantasy GM should be a blast to play. I love the idea of picking a new team each week, I love the idea of player values changing over time (unlike in traditional fantasy auction leagues), and the overall concept just gives me a boner. I’ve never said that about any of the hundreds of apps I’ve tried over the past year so I’ll say it once more: Quick Picks Fantasy GM gives me a boner! You can quote me on that.

Winning cash and/or Overstock prizes with this app will likely take a balance of luck and skill but, even if you finish the season empty-handed, at least you’ll have gotten 17 weeks of fun out of it. Not many apps can say that, and anything that makes football games more fun to watch is a winner in my book.

Btw, I know you’re wondering what the weekly payouts are! Here they are, straight from the horse’s mouth:

Weekly Prizes (Each week of the season)

• 1st Place $200 Cash
• 2nd Place – $75 Gift Card to Overstock.com
• 3rd Place – $25 Gift Card to Overstock.com

Season Prizes (Total Points – Weeks 1-17 combined)

• 1st Place – $1600 cash and $2000 Shopping Spree to Overstock.com
• 2nd Place $1000 Shopping Spree to Overstock.com
• 3rd Place $300 Shopping Spree to Overstock.com

Also, Fantasy GM’s season starts THIS SUNDAY, so if you’re buying the app today you may not want to pick any Steelers or Titans this week since they play tonight. It should be safe to grab players from those teams starting in Week 2, though.

iTunes Link – Quick Picks Fantasy GM
Version 1.2
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.0.1

Tags: $1.99, american football, fantasy football, NFL