Colossus - Lineup Optimizer

This thread is for everything and anything related to Colossus, the most badass lineup optimizer in daily fantasy sports. We will keep a bug report and development list here for reference. If you have an idea or feature you'd like, please post. It will help us continue to make Colossus the best it can be. All of our tools are optimized for Chrome and mobile-friendly.

NBA Lineup Optimizer

11/6 - Injuries are now available

11/10 - Exclude All Injuries turned on by default

12/23 - Mobile-Friendly

1/2 - Color coding on Positions and Cafe Value

NFL Lineup Optimizer:

9/28 - Defaulted Colossus projections to GPP

9/29 - Added default option to "On" to disallow pairing of QB and RB's from same team.

10/9 - Added Maximum Number of Players Per Team Advanced Option. Defaulted to On and 1 player per team. You can turn this Off or select up to 4 players.

10/14 - Added saving of last settings used (locks, exposure, etc) for the entire week. Previously it reset each day.

12/23 - Mobile-Friendly

MLB Lineup Optimizer

Definitions

Position Color Coding: the color coding of players in Colossus are based on projection value.

Green = Tier 1 player

Yellow = Tier 2 player

Red = Tier 3 Player

Cafe Value Color Coding: the color coding of players in Colossus are based on value of the player

Green = High Value

Yellow = Medium Value

Red = Low Value

@harrythebullyt - I was just wondering the same thing. I've played 3 50/50s. The first one I played an injured QB which didn't play and I came in 7th. The other 2 I used Colossus and won them both. That gives me a win rate of 67%. The first time I used Colossus, I set it to cash and the Sunday games and excluded all injured players and the rest defaults (no advanced models). The second time I used Colossus, I set it the same, downloaded the .csv file of projections and applied a transformation. It switched out the TE, FLEX, and DST. I would have won either way because DeAndre Hopkins did much better than I was expecting.

I guess this week, I'll choose my lineup the same (because it is working for me) but I'll track the projections for my lineup with and without using the Vegas total. I think that between the GPP/cash radio button and the 3 advanced model option checkboxes, Colossus can generate 16 projections of varying accuracy for each player.

Update - Of the 16 projections, the (GPP, unchecked Yds Allowed, unchecked Vegas Total, and unchecked FP Allowed) combo produced the projection that came the closest to my actual score. The lineup I choose was from (Cash, unchecked Yds Allowed, unchecked Vegas Total, and unchecked FP Allowed).

Geez... I didn't realize the forum went to a second page. So as I'm sitting on Sunday night playing 50/50's and H2H with two games left I'm 18 and 1 on FD and 5 and 6 on DK. Last week was the first week I used Colossus and won just a few. I should come out with a profit for the week so needless to say I'm happy!

I spent some time each day through the week gathering players my core players and plugged them into Colossus on Saturday/Sunday morning. I turned on both individual and global player exposure. I start out pretty much locking the Kicker and Defense I want unless there is a couple I like. Then locking the main players I want to use in most of my line-ups then let Colossus do it's thing. This week I used 5 line-ups on FD and 6 on DK. I know one successful week doesn't mean anything but it sure in ecouraging!

@harrythebullyt - good to hear. Exposure becomes more and more powerful when you get into a larger number of entries. Still a long way to go, but hope you hang on to those wins! Keep us updated on how you utilize Colossus.

@Eboneezur - why are you looking for integer values for projections? The optimizer does not need them to be integer - it uses floating point precision (doubles, actually) for its calculations.

What's the best way to restrict the builder from combining Eric Decker and Brandon Marshall into the same lineups, but not capping number of players on a team to 1?

Like I'm fine with the builder giving me some 2 spot combinations of Amendola/Blount/Pats D, but I don't want 2 WRs from the same team. I like Decker and Marshall enough to keep them used equally, but only on an individual basis.

@setcamper - Individual and global player exposure would be the best. If you like one more than the other, you could also run a set of lineups with Decker at 75% exposure and Marshall at 25% and then vice versa.

I noticed the last few days the when you check the box for Defense Efficiency Rating in the lineup optimizer under draftkings nba it adds like 100+ points to the players projections..so for the whole team i would be looking at 890 pts or so..

@TheMightyPlague - Ok, thanks for heads up. We're looking into it now

If I save 10 different stacks and then I want to use colossus to create 100 lineups and I want to set exposures for those different stacks, how do I do that?

For example if I want 10% exposure to each stack as a rule, then if I want to tinker with individual player exposure max's as well, can I use colossus once to do that, or do I need to run the lineup optimizer each time for each stack?

Thanks

@Schikk - you can do this one at at a time for each stack you save. You can do this in Advanced Options by Turning Stacking On. You can then adjust stack exposure. Then turn individual player exposure on to adjust exposure on players outside your stack.

What Colossus filtering would I use to create a DK high floor NBA lineup using projected DFS points?

Same question for a high floor lineup using recent (e.g., last 10 games, last 2 weeks, etc.) actual DFS points?

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

@August71

- I would first set the filter up top to only have players on team's with team totals 100 and over in the player pool.

- Locking in high ceiling players like Anthony Davis, James Harden, etc is a good place to start as well. Colossus will build around those players, and if you lock in two or more will tend to create a studs and scrubs lineup. (No more than two players from one team)

- Our projections use seasonal data, so a guy filling in could use a bump in projections. The FPPM just hasn't caught up. A guy like JJ Barea who has filled in for Deron Williams the last few days may have a smaller projection than what we anticipate for that slate. He might have just a 22 projection. I would go in and tack on an extra ten points in the custom projections to add to his ceiling.

- With that being said, a last two weeks, or ten games hasn't been added yet to our system. Definitely a model we will look to apply in the future!

Also any lineup you want reviewed or broken down, there is a forum page daily where users can post lineups to get feedback on.

Hope this helped!

Thanks for the advice, JasonG4s.

For FanDuel NFL, I can't get the Saturday players to show as available for this weekend's games. DraftKings works fine.

I will pass this on. Thanks for the heads up.

Hey everyone!

a few questions,

On the lineup optimizer, is it a bad idea to click off all 3 apply models? Or is it better to use either FPPG or Defense efficiency rating? Your thoughts? When positions are highlighted in green, yellow, or red, what does that mean? I see there is no correlation between that and the cafe value. Do you projections update as players are ruled out of games? ie, Durant was out the other night. Do you increase Westbrook or other players based on that, as info comes in daily? I think read somewhere on here that it doesn"t. But please verify. Your input is much appreciate

The downloaded CSV file, since the latest modifications, no longer separate your NBA lineups into the correct columns for a quick upload to DK. It previously generated lineups separating the columns as PG, SG, SF, PF, C, G, F, Util. Any plans to fix this in the near future? It makes it a lot easier for uploading bulk lineups.

@ jshewbridge@gmail.com - please update your username in My Dashboard so your email isn't displaying (could get spammed). We are working on the csv upload now to work automatically with a Chrome Extension we are developing. We'll see if we can keep a similar format and also satisfy our requirements.

A couple of questions--Is there an easy way to upload my projections so i can run then through the optimizer? today I downloaded the template and had to manually enter my projections. My player file dosent match the template player for player so I cant do a simple cut and paste. also, it looks like the optimizer is geared to cash games, anything I can do other than stacking to gear a little more to GPP? thanks!!!!! John

@Krush88 - In terms of getting your projections more geared towards GPP, on our MLB Projections page, play around with applying the Projection models. Apply the models you think important and they will update projections in the Optimizer as well.