Fantasy fishing’s photo finish
$1 million grand prize goes to stay-at-home Minnesota dad, decided by narrow margin
If you think fantasy fishing isn’t an exciting endeavor, you’d have to argue that point with the crowd that gathered Thursday in Colonial Center in Columbia, S.C., to witness the first $1 million payout in the history of fantasy sports. The winner of the seven-figure check – Michael Thompson of St. Michael, Minn. – was decided by the narrowest of margins, bringing a dramatic close to the inaugural season of FLW Fantasy Fishing.
(Click here to watch the video.)
Thompson, 33, became an instant millionaire by amassing the most points throughout the seven-event season, mirroring the schedule of the Walmart FLW Tour pro bass circuit and culminating in the Forrest Wood Cup championship held last week in Columbia. And believe it or not, Thompson, who learned about FantasyFishing.com through the weekly “FLW Outdoors” TV show on FSN, needed nearly every one of his 32,101 points to edge past the runner-up: James Brown of Lodi, Calif., who racked up 31,699 points over the season.
Here’s some perspective on just how razor-thin a 402-point margin is at the end of the FLW Fantasy Fishing season:
• It’s one-eightieth of Thompson’s point total.
• It’s about one-eleventh of the point value for a single tournament, considering Thompson averaged about 4,586 points per event across the seven-event season.
• It’s roughly on par with Thompson having had only one of 70 fantasy pros completely stumble and earn zero points for a tournament over the course of the fantasy season, speaking hypothetically.
• In other words, if this were an actual pro bass tournament and not a fantasy tournament, you could say the $1 million grand prize would have been decided by a scant ounce.
Both Thompson and Brown, 26, subscribed to Player’s Advantage, an online tool offered by FLW Fantasy Fishing to provide members with a veritable treasure chest full of stats, expert advice and myriad other tips for picking a fantasy team of FLW Tour anglers. Each had an edge with Player’s Advantage, but Thompson’s diligence in using the service clearly paid off handsomely.
According to Thompson, who is finishing law-enforcement school, he would spend about two hours 
combing the Player’s Advantage site to inform his picks for each tournament. To prepare his fantasy team for the season-ending Forrest Wood Cup, pro bass fishing’s preeminent championship, Thompson said he doubled his homework time to about four hours of research, which yielded the sweet pick that sealed his $1 million victory: Michael Bennett to win.
And if winning a million bucks in a virtual photo finish wasn’t exciting enough, it was Bennett – a 24-year-old bass pro from Lincoln, Calif., himself recently $1 million winner as the Forrest Wood Cup victor – who announced Thompson’s win on Thursday in South Carolina. Thompson, himself an avid bass angler, was therefore treated to one of his real-life heroes being the bearer of some awfully good news.
None of the top 15 finalists in FLW Fantasy Fishing’s inaugural season – all of whom were transported to Columbia, S.C., for the big event – knew who the $1 million winner would be until Bennett made the announcement, so the excitement onstage in the arena was palpable, even to those watching worldwide over the Internet. But just to ratchet up the excitement factor yet another notch, the remaining 14 finalists learned they would be the winners of big-ticket prizes ranging from Ranger bass-boat packages to a Chevy truck to five-figure gift cards and savings bonds.
And now a second wave of excitement begins for Thompson, his wife, Penny, and their two children: how to spend the money. After winning, Thompson already had some ideas, including paying off his Ranger Z20, buying a new vehicle and building a new home.
To be sure, the inaugural season of FLW Fantasy Fishing was one to remember, and FLW Outdoors and its family of big-name sponsors have promised that they will find a way to top it in 2009. So get in on the fantasy action when FLW Fantasy Fishing kicks off season No. 2 in February when the FLW Tour resumes competition.