04You've been here before
You always overpay for at least one guy.
Every year. You probably know while you're doing it... or maybe you don't.
You bid off a number you made up ninety seconds ago. Win a fight you should've walked away from. He haunts you every Sunday. Or you wait too long and your money dies on the board.
That was never bad luck. It was a bad price.
And bad prices come from one thing... which is exactly what the room hands you, if you know where to look.
05Looking at it the other way
An auction is more about the people in the room than the players.
Now you know what they'll pay before they do.
The guy who chases his own team's quarterback eleven bucks too high, or reaches two rounds early for him. You let him.
Panicking on a run of players? You're already past it.
Somebody spends everything early and has nothing left for a running back, and desperation is never pretty, and you're holding the guy he needs.
Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.
Now you can be the one throwing it... once you know the three places the room tips its hand.
06A sample
A few of the things it knows before you do.
The rest, I keep behind the door.
- When a position is about to get expensive. Nothing to do with the players. There's a moment it flips, and almost nobody sees it coming.
- Why everyone keeps passing on one player. That's often what makes him the best deal left.
- The player on your roster who looked like a steal and isn't. Usually the pick you felt best about.
Every one of those has an answer. None of them are on this page. What's on this page is what it does to your reputation... which is the whole reason you're really here.
07Be the one they can't figure out
Every league has the spreadsheet guy. And the guy who just keeps winning.
You want to be the second one.
The spreadsheet guy posts his projections in the group chat. Everyone knows how much homework he did.
The quiet winner says almost nothing. He just keeps winning. After a while everyone starts wondering what he knows.
RIVAUX stays private. Your league sees your draft and your results. They never see the tool behind them.
Let them wonder.
08This isn't about one season
Anybody can have a good year.
You want it to stop being a surprise.
Year one they say you got lucky. Year two they say it again, a little quieter. By year four nobody says it at all, because there's nothing left to say.
That's not a season. That's a reputation. And it gets built one draft at a time.
09Who this is for
This isn't for most people.
It's priced like it.
For you if
- Losing eats at you for a week, not an hour
- You've drafted against the same people for years and you know which one you want to beat
- You want the bragging rights more than the money
Not for you if
- You want a cheat sheet like everyone else has
- You're in a different league every year
- The price is the first thing you're going to ask about
10The price
It's expensive. On purpose.
Cheaper than another year of losing and all the smack that comes with it.
If everyone in your league had it, none of you would have anything. That's why it's one seat per league, and why I check.
The people who have it don't talk about the cost. They talk about the year they stopped losing.
Price is on the call. You already know whether that's a problem.