In 2021, eight GDS seventh-graders started a fantasy football league. Four years later, the league has grown to 16 members, now juniors, who have bonded over weekly competitions, trades and embarrassing TikTok punishments.
These punishments have gained popularity, and their TikTok account has grown to over four hundred followers. Junior Arjun Bhargava told The Bit that each fall, students vie for a spot. Because there can only be a maximum of 16 players in the league, Bhargava has created a waitlist for aspiring members.
“We had a lot of people that were on the wait list trying to get in our league, so what we did was we implemented a 20 dollar buy-in,” Bhargava said.
After the end of the first season, juniors William Cromer and Eli Stein were the bottom two finishers. “The first punishment we did was the One Chip Challenge,” junior Ahren Sidhu said. The One Chip Challenge involves eating a single tortilla chip seasoned with extremely spicy peppers and waiting as long as possible before drinking milk or water.
Cromer and Stein also had to make thirst traps on TikTok until they hit a thousand followers. Although Cromer and Stein did not reach the follower goal, they made over 20 TikToks that each amassed over 1,000 views.
These embarrassing TikTok punishments became weekly traditions. The player who scores the fewest points each week must post a TikTok on an account created by the league’s members.
“When [the TikToks] come up, I’m always surprised; I don’t expect to see them,” junior Arlo Rising, who is not in the league, said. “Do I laugh out loud when I see them? No, probably not. But I think they’re a cool idea.”
The winner of the league receives $140, second place receives $70, third place wins $50 and the owner of the team that scores the most points across the entire season wins $40.
While players earn points based on their in-game performance, teams also are matched up directly against another team in their league each week, with the winner of the matchup being the team who records the most points. Teams’ records determine whether they have a spot in the playoffs. The winner of the playoff tournament wins first place in the league.
“It was a pretty important part of my life, honestly,” Bhargava said. “I think we just said we should do a fantasy league, and the next year we did it during the fall.” Members had played fantasy football in other leagues, but this was their first time playing with their GDS classmates. Once they completed their draft, the league was off and running.
“Nathan [Ginsberg] had to sing at Cabaret last year for losing,” junior Brady Leblanc said. Ginsberg donned a gray wig and a 1700s-inspired white outfit to perform a dramatic rendition of “You’ll Be Back” from Hamilton in front of a cheering crowd. At first, the crowd laughed, with most audience members having heard that the performance was simply a punishment. But as the performance went on and Ginsberg committed to his act, the crowd sang with him. When the song ended, the crowd gave him a standing ovation as he walked off. The league posted the performance on their TikTok account, and the video received one hundred likes and almost two thousand views.
Some league members think the league is losing its competitive nature. “People really don’t want to lose and do the weekly TikTok punishment, but I don’t think people care that much as long as they aren’t the worst,” Leblanc said.
“[The league is] competitive and serious,” junior Noah Petty said. “Lots of people will make trades, but rarely are there stupid trades. People make smart trades, and the waiver wire is also ransacked each week.” The waiver wire is a system in fantasy football where teams can add players who have been dropped by their previous team.
In the first week of the fantasy season, Arjun Bhargava was facing junior Sam Gross. Heading into the last game of the week, Bhargava was projected to lose the matchup. All of Bhargava’s players had finished their games, meaning his score was final. However, Gross had one last player, Chicago Bears tight end Colston Loveland, who was playing on Monday night. Bhargava estimated the score stood at 95–90, with Gross only needing more than five points from Loveland to win. (Gross is the editor-in-chief of the Bit. He did not read or edit this piece prior to publication.)
“I checked ESPN: At the halfway point of the game, he had like one catch for two yards,” Bhargava said. “I get on a call with my friend Brady [Leblanc] and we watch the rest of the half on a call, just praying to God that this guy is not catching another ball.” Loveland did not make another catch, and Bhargava won by 0.2 points.
The league has also helped members build connections. “Someone you don’t know will send you a trade, and you’ll talk to them about that or just other league news or football news,” Leblanc said.
“Even with people I’m not necessarily as close with, I am still in this really fun and competitive league that fosters engagement with people that I don’t usually hang out with,” Sidhu said.
CORRECTION (Oct. 5 at 9:05 p.m.): The original version of this article incorrectly stated that junior Arjun Bhargava is the commissioner of the fantasy football league. Bhargava is the league’s advisor.