The Craig Alme Story
2014 Basketball Challenge Grand Prize Winner!

Other Winner Stories

2015 Diamond Challenge - Points

2015 Baseball Super Challenge

2015 Football Challenge - Roto

2015 Football Challenge - Points

2015 Tour Trade 1

2014 Diamond Challenge - Points

2014 Diamond Challenge - Roto

2014 Football Challenge - Roto

2014 Football Challenge - Points

2014 Football Super Challenge

2014 Hockey Challenge

2014 Tour Trade 1

2014 Tour Trade 2

2014 Fantasy Cup - Circuit 1

2014 Fantasy Cup - Circuit 2

2013 Diamond Challenge - Points

2013 Diamond Challenge - Roto

2013 Baseball Super Challenge

2013 Football Challenge - Roto

2013 Football Challenge - Points

2013 Football Super Challenge

2013 Hockey Challenge

2013 Basketball Challenge

2013 Tour Trade 1

2013 Tour Trade 2

2013 Fantasy Cup - Circuit 1

2013 Fantasy Cup - Circuit 2

2012 Diamond Challenge - Points

2012 Diamond Challenge - Roto

2012 Baseball Super Challenge

2012 Football Challenge - Roto

2012 Basketball Challenge

2012 Tour Trade 1

2012 Tour Trade 2

2012 Tour Trade 3

2012 Fantasy Cup - Circuit 1

2012 Fantasy Cup - Circuit 2

2011 Diamond Challenge - Roto

2011 Football Challenge - Roto

2011 Football Challenge - Points

2011 Football Super Challenge

2011 Hockey Challenge

2011 Basketball Challenge

2011 Fantasy Cup - Circuit 2

Winning the Overall Championship in the 2014-15 Basketball Challenge gave Craig Alme the results he has been seeking after many years of competing. A veteran of of fantasy sports competition, the 43 year old Document Imaging VP from Fargo North Dakota has had five top ten finishes over the last 20 years, but had never won the overall championship.

And he managed the achievement without superstar LeBron James on any of his teams. "I look for inexpensive guys that can be good producers" Alme explained about his strategy. And he uses his own ranking system based on the last 5 weeks of player performances to aid in his decisions.

Some of those inexpensive players that helped him to victory were Victor Oladipo, Tobais Harris, Rob Covington, Draymon Green, Eric Bledsoe, Jimmy Butler and Gorgui Dieng. Teamed with top players Stephan Curry, Chris Paul, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis, Andre Drummond and DeMarco Cousins, it was the right mix to win an overall championship.

Alme had used 13 of his 14 buys by week 11, and admitted he was fortunate he didn't have any major injuries to his squad. His last buy was on Hassan Whiteside and his call-up was used for Rudy Gobert, two players who were key to his victory. An injury to Klay Thompson down the stretch who he didn't own was also a key factor in the outcome.

His use of mid-week switches was also attributable to the victory. " I had an injury to my team every week but one in 22 weeks", he recalled, "so the mid week switches were important". He kept his 3 teams the same until the last couple weeks, and had only one player different on them.

"It was exciting and stressful all the way to the end," he remembered, "and my wife thought I was really crabby". But when the final horn sounded and the victory was his, he was the happiest guy on the planet. Craig plans on using some of his $17,350 in winning on new golf clubs, which hopefully will improve his play there also!