Announcing The 2020 Fantasy MBA Grand Prize Winner

When we created Fantasy MBA early in 2020, COVID-19 was hardly a murmur in the United States. With reports of a few cases overseas, we didn’t see a pandemic sweeping the world and changing everyone’s lives, including those who played our rankings game. We began with the hope of having our readers fill out four brackets for four different MBA rankings. In return, we would offer a sweet, three-school consulting package for the winner.

But alas, this was not possible when Businessweek suspended its 2020 ranking and The Economist delayed the release of its list until January of 2021.

Full disclosure, we also ran into a few hiccups. Yale University’s School of Management, while  visible to us site admins on the game board, was not available for players to plug into the brackets. And then, schools that tied with the same rank proved a conundrum. I’m glad to report that we finally solved both of these issues in time for the 2nd bracket of the 2021 game when Forbes releases its bi-annual ranking in September of this year. Until we reach that point, all players are at least on a level playing field.

With only two rankings brackets available for players last year– U.S. News and Poets&Quants –to earn points and some logic to iron out, 2020 has  definitely been the beta testing ground for Fantasy MBA. That said, you know we’re going to keep our promise and award the winner a $1,000 cash prize while runners-up who connect with us will each be sent some swag and a $100 award for playing.

The winners are based on TOTAL points, even for brackets that were not able to be scored. The players did their part, so those points count. In this inaugural accounting, the Quants trashed the Poets. Among our five standout winners, only one self-identified as a Poet. So there may be something to that numbers thing.

As a reminder, here’s how the scoring works: There are four ways to score points in Fantasy MBA: opening points, list points, and two types of community points. Players earn 25 points for joining (opening) a bracket. Players then earn 15 points for every school that is correctly named and ranked among the top five spots  and ten points for every school that is correctly named in the places sixth through tenth. Each bracket list is worth a total of 150 points: 25 for opening and 125 for a perfect match with the actual ranking. If a school is named, but in the wrong place, no points are awarded. Players earn bonus points for community engagement: two points for each comment given on another player’s profile, and one point for every comment posted by other players or game fans on their profile.

Without further delay, here are the winners of the 2020 Fantasy MBA Ranking Game!

FIRST PLACE

STS

Current MBA At Yale SOM, Team Quant, & $1,000 Grand Prize Winner

STS opened all four available brackets and took advantage of community engagement posts to earn a total of 192 points. Opening the brackets and making selections was what won the game for this player. Staying loyal to Harvard as #1 in both scored brackets didn’t earn STS any points. In the U.S. News bracket, STS placed three of the top five schools earning 45 points by placing Wharton at #2, Booth  at #4 , and Sloan at #5.  In the P&Q bracket, STS placed four schools correctly with Wharton at #3, Columbia at #7, Haas at #8, and Tuck at #9, earning another 45 points.

SECOND PLACE

Lambda77: A Recent Alum, Quant, & Our Runner Up 

Lambda77 was so close to being the 1st place winner, trailing STS by only two points with a total score of 190. Had Lambda77 taken advantage of community points, he would be getting a check for $1,000. But there’s still some good news We’ll be sending Lambda77 a $100 gift card, our favorite P&Q hoodie, along with an invitation to play and possibly win it all next time!

3rd, 4th, & 5th PLACE

JimboJambo: A 2025 Prospective Applicant and our one and only token Poet seized third place  with 184 points. We want to keep tabs on this player and find out where JimboJambo applies in the future. Until then, we’ll be sending him a $100 gift card and the coveted P&Q hoodie!

 

 

 

Mr. Bangladeshi Analyst: A 2020 applicant and Quant earned fourth place with 176 points. We can keep tabs on this player since Mr. Bangladeshi Analyst has an MBA Watch profile. Did you apply & get into HBS? We hope so and are cheering for you. Send us an update! Meanwhile, we’ll be sending you a $100 gift card and the super-comfy P&Q hoodie!

 

Gimme Dat Scholarship: A prospective MBA, Gimme Dat is the fourth Quant of our top five players. Gimme Dat earned 170 points over three brackets. We can’t give Gimme a scholarship or the grand prize but this player will also receive the $100 gift card the that really cool P&Q Hoodie.

Congratulations! Players, we’ll reach out to you but if you read this first, please email me to claim your prize!

PLAY THE 2021 GAME!

You can still win brackets or even the grand prize. Total points wins in November. Hint: Use the opportunity to gain extra points via community engagement! Since players earn two points for leaving comments on 2021 player profiles, you can quickly gain ground, even if you missed the 1st bracket. In fact, you still have a shot at the grand prize.