ToO Annual Fantasy Football - Year 4!

[American Eagle]

Welcome to our fourth year of playing fantasy football! I don't come here often anymore, but a few people asked about playing again this year... so here I am.

History

• 2013 was a contest between E II, bookworm, Skylerbuck, John Chrysostom, EK, GIA99, SWA, KF, Laura and myself. Laura was the champion.
• 2012 was a contest between KF, JWS, Laura, bookworm, SWA, Monty, EK and myself. Knight Fisher won the championship.
• 2011 was between the same teams without Monty and EK. AE won the first championship.
• Click here for some history and here for last year's thread.

1. American Eagle (Avid Echos) - confirmed
2. Knight Fisher (Texas Staleys) - confirmed
3. E II (Bench Coolers) - confirmed
4. bookworm (bookworm's team) - confirmed
5. Laura Ingalls (Winoka Warriors) - confirmed
6. John Chrysostom (Constantinople Chrysostoms) - confirmed
7. godisawesomeness99 - confirmed
8. Jamesobie - email address needed - message me!
9. Skylerbuck (Canadian Nationals) - unknown status
10. EK (Gainesville Behemoths) - unknown status
11. Stop Wooton Around & friend? (Southwood Knights) - unknown status
12. ...teams available!

>> Click here to go to this year's league main office. <<

This year is open to anyone who wants to play. You simply need an ESPN account. One you have that, PM me your email address and I'll let you in.

If you played last year and want to stay in the league, just let me know and I'll keep you in.

[Knight Fisher]

I am so in. This has been a ton of fun the last couple years.

[E II]

While I was the runner up last year this yea we will emerge the winners! Count me in.

[bookworm]

I look forward to this every year; I have so much fun with it! Can't wait to get started!

[Laura Ingalls]

Count me in, too! The Winoka Warriors will repeat as the champions this year, just you watch.

[bookworm]

I hope EII and I can continue our team partnership, that was really great last season.

[E II]

Yep we both got good deals out of that. I would love to keep that going

[godisawesomeness99]

I'll sign up. It's one way I can stay connected here

[bookworm]

I have a few things to submit for consideration by the commissioner before the season begins.
A couple might not apply this year, it depends on who plays, they come from incidents during the last season.



First, I file a protest over the dual ownership of SWA’s team. It gives a clear advantage in acquisitions and strategy, and SWA himself admitted that it saved his season last year. He had turned away from the competition and should have been a sleeping team like EK and thus an easy victory for his opponents, but instead his other owner took over and kept the team not only functioning, but nigh unbeatable. This second pair of eyes, second brain, and second opportunity to be online made it nearly a sure thing for SWA’s team to be always on top of grabbing the good players each week, as well as making last minute changes to form an airtight lineup, all without SWA himself ever being involved. I don’t know who this mysterious second owner is, he isn’t even a ToOer, it isn’t right for him to come into our league and provide such an advantage. It would be one thing if SWA had stayed active and the two of them worked together. That would still be questionable, but it would be different. But no, SWA left! The only reason his team remained relevant was the intervention of his friend. I definitely want SWA to participate in the league again if he’s around, I enjoy playing with him, but I request that it’s just him. He should have to take the consequences of inactivity the same as all the rest of us if he misses a week.

[Knight Fisher]

To bookworm's points. A I don;t see a second point.

B I disagree. The two of them have been doing it from the beginning. Nothing has changed. And if I haven't said this before if you wont have internet access to set your lineup, if you want me to I can make sure you don't start injured players or something.

[bookworm]

You’re right that nothing has changed, it’s been an unfair advantage from the beginning. It just never had a significant impact on the overall league until last season. SWA completely picked up and left, the team was solely run by the friend for the second half of the season. That safety net prevented his team from going dead, which leads into issue number two.

I submit that one of the reasons the West is so consistently dominant is because EK is in their conference. Each year he takes leave of the competition part way in and becomes a sure win, boosting the stats of anyone who plays him without requiring any real effort. Because he is in the West, the teams in that conference play him more. They get at least two of these sure victories to an East team’s one per season.

This isn’t a complaint exactly, I’m not requesting something be done about it because there’s isn’t really something that can be done about it, I’m just stating this for people to think about so the teams in the West don’t get arrogant. They need to realize this has a significant impact on the appearance of their performance. They aren’t simply inherently better, they have better circumstances.

This situation was especially frustrating last season when it combined with the first issue I mentioned. When SWA went inactive he should have also become a sleeping team, as I said, and he is in the East. So each conference would have had one and things would have been more balanced. But instead his friend took over and kept the team going, removing our potentially easy opponent, while the West retained theirs and a distinct advantage for the rest of the season.

[Knight Fisher]

It's a 15 game schedule Teams play 8 games within the division 7 games with the other. The West was in fact 16-19 against the East last year. Two teams from each side advanced to the playoff bracket. That's about as even as it's going to get.

And I'm pretty sure most years the playoff spots have come down to tie breakers. Though I stopped looking in Year One after I came across:

We believe in Caleb Hanie!

Dark times.

[bookworm]

I don’t understand most of what you said ( ) I just know that once EK left every opponent that faced him won the week, and using my and Laura’s teams as an example, I faced EK once and she faced him twice because you get more games within your conference.

In other words, because EK was no longer active going against him was a guaranteed win, and the West got to do it more.

[Knight Fisher]

Technically Laura for example played the first game against him week 2 so she really can't be used as an indicator. I played him week 5 so and I'm not sure when he left so I don't think I count either.

Football debates. I missed this thread. The offseason is way too long.

[bookworm]

Of course she can be an indicator, the point was that people play the teams in their own conference more than the other conference teams do. Everyone in EK’s conference is guaranteed two games against him, while the teams in the other get only what there is room for in the leftover schedule, so some only get one.
But if it’s such an important detail for you whether he was gone or not at the specific point in time being examined, then just to prove it doesn’t negate my point drop Laura and use your team in the example. Both of your matchups with EK were after he had left, and like Laura, you got two and I got one.

-- 29 Jul 2014 04:26 pm --

Football debates. I missed this thread. The offseason is way too long.

Ditto to all of this.

[Jamesobie]

Count me in! I just need to get an account!

[bookworm]

Lastly, I request a change in the trade procedure. (If possible, I don’t know how the inner workings of the league work.) The other issues were mostly just for consideration, however this one is a plea for real action.

Currently, when a trade is accepted there is a waiting period before the move is processed as there is when acquiring a player from waivers. Now, with the waivers the delay makes sense, it ensures everyone has time to submit any moves they want before it resolves. But with trades there is no reason a delay is needed. Both parties have accepted the deal, the player should be moved immediately. There is nothing to be gained and everything to be lost by the delay. More than once last season I came perilously close to being burned by a trade that, although accepted and finalized long before the weekend, wouldn’t clear until right before, making it questionable if I would be able to quickly get online between when it went through and when the lineups locked to play my new guy.

So one of two options needs done to remedy this, whichever is doable. One of them has to be. Either change the trade procedure so they process immediately upon acceptance, or change the player movement so traded players can be told where to go when the trade completes. For example, if I’m trading someone on my lineup for someone I want to replace that player with, when the trade processes my new player just goes onto my bench. I should be able to tell the trade process ‘When I get this guy, swap him for the guy I lose so my lineup doesn’t have a hole.’

[Jamesobie]

Oh, the Arizona Cardinals are soooooo gonna win the Super bowl this year!

[Knight Fisher]

With the trading it's actually a review phase of two days not the waiver system. That's there so if AE wants to trade AP, and Tom Brady to Laura for Caleb Hanie the owners can veto it.

[E II]

Yahoo this tv is there so if one team would get hugely beefed up and the other wouldn't the other players can veto it. I was in a mostly inactive fantasy basketball t e Anand It was won by a guy who made three accounts and three teams then traded all of his good players to 1 team.