We recently announced three Jolly Jokers token-gated, season-long Rumble contests where Jolly Joker minters will be competing for $66,000 in prizes! (In addition to three JJ-gated Rumble Playoff contests bringing the total prize pool to $100,000.) These contests introduce new strategic elements that go beyond the public Rumble contest:

Season-long rather than weekly
Substantially smaller fields for the Field Goal and Touchdown contests
Addition of multiple entries in the Extra Point contest

Plus other elements that you’ll want to account for as you start prepping for these new contests. In this article, I’ll break down some of those early strategy considerations and give my take on how I’d approach each contest.

$20,000 Extra Point: Mint 1 Jolly Joker to qualify. Gain an additional entry for each Jolly Joker you mint.

In this contest, we can expect to have around 4500 entries, one for every Jolly Joker minted. Unlike the others, this will be the only contest you can have multiple entries – and that adds a very unique strategic element.

If I am playing this contest with one entry, I am starting off the early weeks with heavy correlation and going rather contrarian. If I can get off to a hot start, I’d then start playing a bit safer as long as I maintain my place near the top of the standings. If I have a few bad weeks and need to chase, I’ll go back to contrarian lineups to hopefully make up ground on my opponents. This high risk / high reward approach gives me multiple bullets in the chamber rather than starting off chalky like everyone else, and it being hard to really gain much ground and know whether I need to be taking more risks as the season winds down. Think of it like the decision to go for 2 after being down 14 and scoring a TD. The more information you have earlier, especially when it can give you two chances to convert, the better off you are.

If I minted the 6 entries to get into the Field Goal and Touchdown and am sitting with 6 entries in the Extra Point, I’m using more of a portfolio perspective. Across the six lineups, I’m likely going into the early weeks going with six different game stacks. A game stack is when you play a quarterback with one of his pass catchers (usually WR or TE), and then include another player from the opposing team. This way if your QB and stack partner have a high-scoring game, it’s likely someone on the other team is also scoring substantial points. The reason I’d be building six different game stacks is I’m trying to give myself as many chances as possible to get off to a hot start. My entries that are doing the best, I am then more likely to play my best / chalky plays. For my entries that are struggling, I now feel more willing to take crazier chances. Stack those teams no one else is because if it hits, that brings me right back into contention. And because I have multiple entries, each week I can strategize based off my season-long standings for what stacks and level of risk to use for each entry.

$33,000 Field Goal: Single-entry contest for those that mint 3+ Jolly Jokers

The Field Goal contest brings with it the largest prize pool ($33,000!) and substantially fewer entries than the Extra Point. The most possible entries would be 1500 but it could be considerably smaller than that. That makes this quite the valuable contest and one you’ll want to get right. Because it is single-entry, and you can re-use Moments from other contests in this one, I would expect ownership to mirror the ownership in the main, public Rumble contest. The majority of people, at least at the start, will likely even be playing the same lineup in this contest as they are in the public one.

However, there is one major difference that should be accounted for. In the public Rumble, not only are there about 10x more people playing but the prizes are weekly. Finishing a point outside cashing or dead last place is the same thing. In the season-long contests, there’s a HUGE difference. One bad week can be devastating to your season total. This means early in the contest, I’d be prioritizing high floor + high upside game stacks, perhaps being contrarian with a guy here or there but not my core. You can always overcome a bad game out of a RB but if your QB and WR/TE stack duds, meaning your bring back likely duds as well, you’re likely to take a major hit in the standings.

$13,000 Touchdown: Single-entry contest for those that mint 6+ Jolly Jokers

The Touchdown contest is undoubtedly going to be the most exciting contest for those that qualify. $13,000 up for grabs among only those that mint 6+? This is likely to bring with it the greatest EV. Say only 30 people mint 6, that puts the expected value of each entry at $433! The payouts will all be flat but that doesn’t mean you don’t want to still maximize your chances of finishing at the top. Given it’s such a small field, I would actually be considering making lineups that don’t have a stack. Simply focusing on the best plays for each week could be the key as just finishing above average in this contest will result in a very nice payday. This tournament also provides the most value to learning the behaviors and collections of your competitors. Because of the small size, you will likely be able get a feel for what QBs and stacks people like, and know how you can go contrarian if necessary as the season progresses. The sweats are going to be pretty crazy in this contest and I can’t wait to observe.

I am excited to watch all three of these contests play out and see various strategies employed. If you’re looking to dive deeper or discuss strategy more, head to the #rumble channel in the Jolly Jokers Discord. Or you can check out some of the great resources created by the community. Momentum Labs has both ownership as well as player projections, in addition to general strategy and game theory evergreen content. We’ve also got many great Community Partners talking strategy on their podcasts and live streams.

Best of luck to everyone minting and competing in these Jolly Jokers season-long contests. Feel free to shoot me an @ in Discord if you have questions or want to chat strategy further.

Note: stated prize pools are subject to minor changes based off total number of mints