Will The Tie Be Unbroken? Exploring MNY Series That Are Tied Heading Into 2023

As I have been updating the league website this summer, I’ve gotten a chance to reacquaint myself with some of the rich history MNY has to offer. One such thing is the head-to-head matchup stat. With just a few tedious weeks of copying and pasting schedule data and setting up some tiny little Excel formulas, I was able to see everyone’s records against the league. The most shocking thing I found was the number of tied series we have. So, in this article, I’ll be going over every series in the league that is currently tied and I’ll give you my take on which teams will pull ahead in their respective series. *TRIGGER WARNING* Ryan is in here a lot.

Tyler vs David (Series Tied at 5)

This series quite literally kept going back and forth for the first eight games of the series. It wasn’t until Tyler won his Week 1 matchup vs David last season that the series saw a back-to-back winner. However, it was only nine weeks later that David tied the series back up with his 22-point win over Tyler in Week 10. Stats indicate that this is one of the league’s closest contested series, with the average point differential per game hanging around 5 points and the total point differential being around 50 points.

It’s impossible to give an informed prediction on how teams will do this season before we even draft, but even with Tyler coming off of a championship, I predict the two will split again in 2023.

Kelvin vs Ryan (Series Tied at 5)

Who would’ve thought that Kelvin, traditionally not very good at fantasy football, would have a tied series with anyone? Ryan and Kelvin have both taken five games apiece off each other since 2016, however, Ryan may hold a slight edge as he’s outscored Kelvin by 31 points over ten games. That figures out to a 3.1 ppg point differential, which is not a lot. Kelvin, quite impressively, held his own in this series, very early on, starting 5-2 against Ryan in their first seven matchups, including three in a row from 2020 to 2021. Ryan struck back with a three-game winning streak of his own from 2021 to 2022 to even the series back up.

Who will come out on top in 2023? It entirely depends on when in the season they play. Kelvin, in recent years, has been a bit of a beast in the early season, but he quickly falls apart by about Week 7. If their first matchup this year is early in the year, I sense a split. Anything else and I think Ryan pulls ahead 7-5 by the year’s end.

Andrew vs Kelvin (Series Tied at 10)

What was I saying about Kelvin? Oh, who knows. Shockingly, our local league’s dynasty team is tied with our local league’s worst team in their head-to-head series. In 20 games, Andrew and Kelvin have each won 10, with Andrew outscoring Kelvin in these games by a total of 47 points (an average of 2.3 ppg). From 2015-2019, whenever Kelvin would win, Andrew would win right back. It literally went like this:

Year	Week	Kelvin’s Score	Andrew’s Score	Pts Diff	Result
2015	4	178	98	80	Kelvin W
2015	9	175	181	-6	Andrew W
2015	14	169	131	38	Kelvin W
2016	3	108.8	201.9	-93.1	Andrew W
2016	9	128.8	126.2	2.6	Kelvin W
2016	13	172	146.9	25.1	Kelvin W
2017	4	100.6	174.7	-74.1	Andrew W
2017	7	114.1	144.4	-30.3	Andrew W
2017	10	170.2	132.3	37.9	Kelvin W
2018	4	207.7	146.7	61	Kelvin W
2018	8	222.4	149.2	73.2	Kelvin W
2018	11	170.1	176.3	-6.2	Andrew W
2019	5	117.5	147.8	-30.3	Andrew W
2019	11	111	133.6	-22.6	Andrew W

They literally played Simon Says until Week 4 of 2021, where Andrew won two consecutive games after Kelvin had only won one. Since then, however, Kelvin has evened the series back up on a two-game win streak.

My predictions are very similar to Ryan’s and Kelvin’s: If Andrew and Kelvin play early in the season, I call a split. If not, Andrew pulls ahead and potentially for good.

Ryan vs Chad (Series Tied at 4)

We’ve gone TOO LONG without talking about Ryan. He’s tied with Chad! Can you believe that? They’ve had eight meetings and split the series! This series is very close with only a 4-point differential TOTAL. This is surprising to hear when you take into account that Ryan and Chad have only ever taken turns blowing each other the fuck out. The first meeting was a 54-point win for Ryan. The second and third matchups saw Chad win by 23 and 81 points respectively (although there’s nothing respectful about blowing someone out that badly). Ryan rebutted with a 46-point victory in 2021 and since then they have exchanged mildly close games.

When you’re asking me to predict the outcome of two games between two very hands-on and competent managers, things get murky. Despite Chad winning the last matchups, he’s lost two of the last three. I will not cop out and say they will split: Chad is winning both in 2023. Sorry, Ryan.

Ryan vs David (Series Tied at 6)

Oh, it’s Ryan again. Just like Ryan’s series versus Chad, Ryan vs David has been…an interesting ride. The series opened in 2016 with a huge 53-point win for David followed by a few tight wins by Ryan. The games that haven’t been complete blowouts have been very competitive, including a game last year that saw Ryan win by only half a point. However, in that same season, Ryan won a game over David by 81 points (one can presume he thought he was getting revenge on Chad). The amount of variance in this series makes my head spin. All and all, while the series is tied, Ryan holds the point advantage by about 60 points.

I predict that Ryan will continue to pull away with the series. Once by 92 points and again by .01.

Andrew vs Brent (Series Tied at 12)

This just feels right. I know, I know, Andrew has a lot more hardware than me. I know, I know, my days of consistent winning feel like a distant memory. But c’mon, the commissioners having a tied series just is the correct thing to happen. Andrew owns a total point differential of 12.4 points (this averages to a 2.4-point differential per game). More recently, Andrew seems to be winning games in pairs of two. Interestingly enough, neither of us had ever swept the season series before Andrew did it last year.

My heart wants a split so badly in this series, but the fantasy gods have such a cruel sense of humor that seemingly only exists to spite my wishes. For this reason, one of us is sweeping the season series.

Do you think my predictions were a cop-out? Do you think this article was a cop-out? Do you think I’m a cop? Please sound off in the comments below but please be nice, my feelings get hurt easily.