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Our latest qualifier in the Draftstars Biggest Bash is quite new to the scene in the community of DFS but is ready to make a name for himself. Zac Oldenhof aka “zjo777” definitely earned his golden ticket as not only did he finish equal top in the Stars v Scorchers match, he then had to survive a two-man playoff to qualify for the final!

Zac is a University student from the wonderful city of Launceston (well they do have the wonderful James Boags Brewery) who has been playing Draftstars for the past 18 months. Introduced to the game by a mate, Zac has played AFL and NBA before turning his attention to the BBL this summer. He loves the feeling of optimism before the start of a match or tournament after deliberating on certain plays and the feeling of success when they pay off! We caught up with Zac to hear how one night of Big Bash DFS turned into an anxious two night sweat.

The first game for Zac was at the MCG for the Stars vs Scorchers matchup. The Stars were missing the likes of Stonis, Maxwell and Handscombe for the match and the field wanted to load up on the Scorchers. Ashton Agar was 52% owned in the contest but had the all too familiar status change to “headed to the locker room” after the first over! Whilst he did return to the contest, Agar was never back to his best and produced a mediocre score of 17 fantasy points. We asked Zac how he went about setting his winning lineup:

“I only had one team in the qualifier which was pretty unreal but I remember I had pretty much everyone contribute. I had both openers for the Stars (Gulbis and Dunk) who were two of my cheaper options and they got off to a flyer which was handy. Tye managed to bowl economically to them and take late wickets to end up with figures of 4/22…I remember having Liam Bowe and he was bowling to Cameron Bancroft and I was sitting about 50th and realised I needed Bowe to get Bancroft out for me to be a chance. It was a weird feeling wanting your batsmen to get out, and sure enough he did!”

If only Alanis Morrissette knew about BBL DFS – she may have been able to add the lyrics to her Ironic song “it's like getting 20 points for wicket but no more for the batter…” Ok maybe not, it was a rubbish song, but I digress...

“I moved up to about 20th and it was all up to Ashton Turner, he was my key. Over the next few overs Turner went crazy and got me to second. There were about 15 runs to get and my heart sank as I realised the only way I could win is if Bravo took a wicket and bowled a tight over or two and he wasn’t even bowling!”

Dwayne Bravo however did return to the attack in a desperate attempt to grab wickets and managed to snare the wicket of the wounded Agar. With Zac in the box seat we asked him about the crazy finish:

“The scores weren’t updating quick enough but I knew I would be very close to the lead and if that wasn’t enough, Bravo cleaned up the next batsmen as well. I then knew I hit the front and was pretty up and about! It wasn’t until after that over when the scores updated that I realised I had tied and would have to playoff the next evening!”

With the tie with user “Dockerstars”, it was onto the next matchup in a head to head battle for the ticket on the following night. The Renegades took on the Heat in Brisbane and it turned out that the Heat couldn’t handle the bowling attack of the team in Red. Zac estimates he spent 'all 24 hours' working out his team for this head to head and he nailed it, so the playoff lacked the drama of the previous night. Zac had Usman Khan and Sam Harper as his point of difference players, who scored both heavily, which meant Zac easily coasted into the final!

So Zac, who is coming to the final in Melbourne?

“I am taking my mate who also plays DFS quite frequently and whom I discuss a lot of potential plays and opinions with. I was also going to take my father, but he also won a ticket just 3 days later!”

What an amazing result! The father/son duo from Launceston will be in Melbourne to take on the country in the Draftstars Biggest Bash! On behalf of the team the at DFR, congratulations to you Zac and good luck in the final!

Want to join Zac at Club 23, playing for a share of $150,000? Check out our full run down of the “Biggest Bash” contest and start playing the $2 qualifying tournaments running on every home and away match of the BBL08 season on Draftstars!

Have you qualified for the “Biggest Bash” Live Final and want to share your story with the world here on Daily Fantasy Rankings? Contact us or shoot us a message on Twitter and we will get in touch to share your story with the Australian DFS community!

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