2021 NCAA All-American Tony Cassioppi (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com)If you think back hard enough, you may remember that your timeline was blowing up with random wrestler names and the hashtag #MatScoutsDynasty just over a year ago. That was the inaugural draft of the MatScouts Dynasty Fantasy League.
Since then, deals were made, duals were waged, and teams were sent to a grand National Tournament in March vying to be the Top Fantasy Wrestling Team in the Dynasty League. We now enter Season 2 of the #MatScoutsDynasty League, so let's catch you up to where all the teams stand.
As a refresher, here is the basic point scoring rules:
ex: if your wrestler beats Spencer Lee by Dec, your wrestler would get +3 for the Dec and another +6 for beating the #1 ranked wrestler.
If your wrestler loses by Dec to Spencer Lee, your wrestler is penalized only for -1 pt.
Murder Hornets'
Team Manager: Eric Knopsnyder (@knopsknotes)
How It Started:
We have a lot of PA Power in this Dynasty League, one of those power people is Eric Knopsnyder (and who was one of the first to have an ACTUAL team name). He was the #6 pick in the draft.
For Erics full draft recap, see the full draft board HERE
Hindsight Draft Review:
First Round Pick (#6 Overall): One of the most sought after wrestlers coming back from last year's group of Olympic Redshirts was Myles Amine (MICH). At the time of the draft, there was a lot of uncertainty of if he would be returning this season and if so, what weight. At the time of the draft, he was a three-time All American, who never finished worse than 4th (his Redshirt Freshman season) and even though he was mainly on the bench spot for most of the regular season and only wrestled in the last three duals, he entered the 2021 National Tournament as the #1 seed.
Great Picks: For the 2020 National Tournament, 157 Jesse Dellavecchia (RID) was the 4-seed. Not much has changed as this year, for the 2021 National Tournament he is the 4-seed again. Somehow, during the draft, Dellavecchia fell to the Murder Hornets in the 15th round. In his four regular season matches, he went 4-0 with two pins and two techs.
Under The Radar Pick: As his last pick in the draft (#256 overall), 157 Justin McCoy (UVA) ended up being the 8th best 157 wrestler in WrestleStat leagues, powered by his bonus wins in his first four matches of the season, and was runner up at the 2021 ACC Championships.
A Miss For This Season: Not a lot of issues here in the early rounds for Eric, the only “miss†in the top 10 rounds would probably be 157 Josh Humphreys (LEH) who ended up not being able to take the mat due to an injury.
In a late round pick that could have been a steal, 149 Kaden Gfeller (OKST) ended up not being able to find a way into the lineup during the regular season and kind of did hit the lofty expectations when cutting to 141 for the Big XII Championships. Gfeller was selected by the Murder Hornets in the 22nd Round.
How The Season Played Out:
The regular season started off with a string of dual losses going 1-3 in the first half of the regular season, which would repeat in the second half as well. Coupled with a run of low team point output to end the season landed the Murder Hornets in last place in both Dual and Total Point Standings, and zero bonus team points earned. That stings... (get it?!)
See the full Dual and Total Points Standings HERE
Not a lot of Transfer Portal action for the Murder Hornets as his team was pretty much postseason ready after draft day :
- Drop 133 Austin Gomez (Iowa State), adds 133 Korbin Myers (Virginia Tech)
- Drop 285 Issac Righter (American), adds 285 John Borst (Virginia Tech)
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The Murder Hornets was also involved in a trade during the season:
- 3/6/2021: Traded 133 Korbin Myers (Virginia Tech) to Danny B Mobbin for 174 Kaleb Romero (Ohio State)
2021 NCAA Tournament
The Murder Hornets approached the 2021 NCAA Tournament with this End-of-Season Roster:
And this is the lineup Eric entered for Nationals:
With 128 Team Points, Murder Hornets finished one point shy of runner up and took the 3rd place bronze in the #MatScoutsDynasty League Standings for the inaugural season.
Murder Hornets Entering the 2022 Season Draft
A foundation of current Sophomores in Camacho, Sasso, and Cassioppi leaves the ability to leave those three classes alone and draft where needed. For the immediate future, 165 desperately needs some backup and possibly 133 and 174 needs depth (depending if Romero stays at 174 but all signs point to an 84 move). RBY, Sasso, and Cassioppi will be in the Title hunt for the next few years and maybe the drop down to 157 by Joe Lee creates another weight that can be left alone for sometime, but that is yet to be seen.
The Murder Hornets have the #8 pick in the draft this season on October 18, 2021. Who should he target? Should he drop anyone before the draft? What weights need depth? Should he look to trade? who?
Let us know!
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