Fantasy football earned a couple of local guys a big check in the real world.

A really big check.

Avon’s Ed Oszterling, Avon Lake’s Craig Gillette and Jason Conn of Shaker Heights teamed up to win the Main Event of the World Championship of Fantasy Football. The prize: $300,000 and a trip to South Florida for Super Bowl week.

“It’s pretty overwhelming and kinda crazy,” Oszterling, 36, said. “It’s nothing we ever dreamt of. We just tried to get enough money to go back next year and hang out.”

Team Shocker beat 875 teams for the top prize in the Main Event division ($1,750 entry fee), and 2,250 teams participated throughout the World Championships. Oszterling, Gillette and Conn led a group of 10 family members and friends who pooled their money and drafted four teams.

Each will get what’s left of $30,000 after taxes.

“I promised my wife we could redo the closet if we won the whole thing,” Oszterling said.

For the uninitiated, fantasy football is a game played by fans, who draft teams of NFL players and win or lose based on their statistics in a given week.

For the fantasy football owners, the high-stakes league is just like the one that drafts at a local bar — after a decade on steroids.

The draft is held in Las Vegas, this season at the MGM Grand. A conference center is filled with giant draft boards and U-shaped tables of guys with reams of research, nearly all of them wearing some sort of jersey.

To take it up a notch, there are women dressed in referee outfits, a few celebrities — the guys have seen boxer Evander Holyfield, former NBA star Gary Payton and former NFL great Herschel Walker — and some yahoos dressed like wizards.

“It’s pretty much the World Series of Fantasy Football,” Conn said.

“It’s definitely unique, but still has that same feel of a normal 12-team league,” Oszterling said. “It’s a pretty cool overall experience.”

Oszterling and Conn work together and talk fantasy football all the time. They pledged a few years ago to pool their local winnings — if there were any — and try out the big-time.

They had small successes in their first five years in the World Championships and decided to give it another shot this season.

Texans receiver Andre Johnson (league-high 1,569 yards) in the first round was a great pick, but the best choice was Titans running back Chris Johnson (2,006 yards) in the second round. They also had Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco, Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles.

They won their 12-team league, advanced to the playoffs and kept piling up the points. The title — and a $250,000 difference between first and second — came down to Week 16.

“It was really nerve-racking,” Oszterling said. “It was the first time I ever watched games and couldn’t tell who won. I was so focused on the individual players’ performances.”

Contact Scott Petrak at 329-7253 or spetrak@chroniclet.com.

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