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By Fernando Stepensky (Contributor)

Everybody has that one thing they wish they would've done differently in their fantasy season. Whether it was making a trade, paying attention to their lineup more, or just making better decisions; everyone regrets something. Here you will find three tips to help you win the coveted championship and have as little regret as possible. These three tips, along with wise player decisions, could lead you to a fantasy football championship.

1) Check the waiver wire regularly

The Waiver Wire is where champions are born. You will not win your fantasy league without checking waivers on a regular basis. The simple reason why is because there are tons of unclaimed players that are bound to be successful. Michael Vick, Peyton Hillis, LeGarrette Blount, Miles Austin, and many more were all found on the waiver wire. So, paying attention and claiming these players is essential. If your league's waivers are on a first come first serve basis, you have even more of a reason to check regularly.

Another reason you need waivers is that the team you drafted is never good enough three weeks into the season. You might look at your team right now and say, "Wow I did a tremendous job." However, once the season starts you are going to need to make changes. Players get injured, eventually the bye weeks will haunt you, one of your players could slump or become a backup, etc. The waiver is your way out of a fix.

2) Never have a backup defense or a back up kicker

This is an essential part for all Fantasy Football Champions, yet people ignore it time and time again. Out of the seven drafts I have watched and or attended, six of them had two or more people draft kickers and defenses before the last two rounds. You never waste early, middle, or late round draft picks on defenses or kickers! You are going to get rid of them regardless. In the late rounds you stack up on running backs, wide receivers, and the occasional quarterback or tight end. Never use the late rounds on kickers or defenses. Think of it as a commandment of fantasy football: "Never draft a kicker or defense until the last two rounds."

The best approach to a team defense is picking up a new one each week. If you just picked up the defenses that played the Panthers each week last season, you would've been very happy with the results. Also, defensive ratings are tough to predict. Last season the top three defenses were: New England, Arizona, and Oakland. Nobody had them ranked anywhere near the top three going into the season.

Kickers are even harder to predict. Just draft one last and hope for the best. Don't waste your time adding and dropping one each week (like you should do with defenses), just let it be. Even if a kicker is going crazy putting up insane numbers, which is highly unlikely, the chances are that it won't last.

Basically, extra defenses and kickers just take up a roster spot and the more options at running back and receiver you have, the better. There won't be too many great pick ups at those positions throughout the year anyway so getting them on draft day is ideal. Don't waste a pick on kickers or defenses before the last two rounds and certainly don't have two kickers or two defenses on your roster!

3) Know your scoring system

This is taken for granted more times then people would like to admit. Not all leagues have the same scoring system. Even NFL.com, ESPN, and Yahoo have some differences in scoring. For the most part, people are taking running backs and receivers before quarterbacks, but if your league awards six points for each passing touchdown (instead of the usual four), it is wiser to draft a quarterback early.

In a league where pass completions count as points, the champion team likely included Peyton Manning. He had 126 more completions than Tom Brady, 138 more than Aaron Rodgers, and 217 more than Vick! Some leagues subtract more than just two points on interceptions. This would mean last season, you would've preferred to have Brady (4 INTs) than Peyton Manning (17 INTs). Little scoring quirks like that can alter the leagues results.

Some leagues give extra points for over 40 yard touchdowns, some leagues count points for receptions (known as PPR leagues), and there are tons of unique settings some leagues posses. The bottom line is you need to be careful. You never know the kind of weird rules and scoring units that can be in place in your league. It doesn't take much more then 2-3 minutes to give your league settings a quick scan and that might be the difference from your dimwit friend winning the league rather than the person that deserves it more, you!