freeman wrote:My input:
(1) A three round draft is fine. I do believe that it should be done by order of finish. It's a modest bonus for doing well in a tournament with a fairly high percentage of participants playing 4 or 5 events making the semis.
(2) You need a clock. Maybe like 10-10 EST. 3 hour time limit. You miss your pick you come back later and submit it. It's not the end of the world, man.
(3) People need to understand their obligations. If you disappear for a while when play-offs are about ready to begin you risk getting replaced. Again, not the end of the world. There should be an initial estimate of when the tournament is going to end. Play-offs will not begin before then. You need to be checking once a day around that time. The estimate of when it begins will likely be fine-tuned around that time. I would say if you've disappeared for 72 or 96 hours after the end of the qualifying round....you risk being booted from the tournament. Again, not the end of the world.
I've appreciated to a great degree lots of good input on this topic from the majority of people. Freeman, J-Pav, Palm and others...good stuff.
I agree with several that we can do it more efficiently. I like your suggestion, freeman. Delays do happen, and in my league, I was one reason for that. But frankly given the number of people who had conflicts we gotta understand there are circumstances that can be difficult. I think three other people have said as much. One cannot always be available, and earning a spot after 6 months or so and five leagues and getting bumped isn't really flowing with the spirit of healthy Strat competition IMO...
In my case, I scheduled a business trip to Mpls Mon-Tues. Now, it just so happened that the dates miraculously coincided with deer hunting season...I was basically off the grid from Tuesday evening until Saturday morning...and despite what some folks say about internet being everywhere, when you are a couple miles from the Canadian border, in a deer stand on a farm outside of Baudette, MN, one has squat for reception... I come back and find the drafts had started...
This is not about my situation-it was my first year, and I realize I should've somehow posted about it--and would try to figure it out a way in a coming year. Rookie mistake to be sure.
All of that said--this is why I was a proponent for setting a date for the draft start. In a few posts I've suggested we can know a good date (might be off a day or two based on how long the final league's playoffs go) about two months in advance... My thought was we know the season takes about 54 days, and with some time between the end of the season and the playoffs, we can get darn close. You suggest something similar, freeman, and I'd be all for it...and once that date is set folks need to be around or find a proxy.
I do agree that, having been involved in my first season that there are measures any of us could take...such as sending picks a disinterested party from another league, or the commish, or a friend in the event something occurred that might take you off the grid. Understanding things happen is important, but freeman you are correct that owners do need to take some responsibility. I still hate the idea of anyone earning a spot and missing out...but if we have a date and it's been out there for two months, there is plenty of time to find a solution.
If we did have a known start date, I would be all for having the three-hour window (or similar) as freeman suggests.
Finally, these delays have really caused a lot of stir, and as Palmtana pointed out, some folks thinking that these forums are their personal venting space. I was in later starting leagues in each of the rounds. I think the poor guys in the first league to finish in session 5 had to wait just over three weeks for the final league in session five to finish...so I guess I just don't get too concerned about a three-round draft taking a few days.
I also agree with the many folks who have suggested that a live draft is not a realistic possibility.
One final point on this whole situation...I have posted and seen a few other posts (including chris on page 1 of this thread) addressing the fact that we can't choose which times we decide to follow the rules. I get this delay really bothered a FEW people to an extreme degree, and they let everyone know about it, including me. But these same people didn't seem to care about other delays throughout the qualifying rounds of play. A bit hypocritical IMO. As Chris mentioned as well, there were rules and posts talking about strict deadlines in other areas which simply were never enforced. One league couldn't get fillers and almost two weeks after the deadline it got moved into the open public forum for non-participants to help fill...and still took another week to fill.
How can we legitimately enforce deadlines in a playoff draft when we didn't enforce deadlines in other areas? We either enforce all deadlines or shouldn't have them when it comes to deadline dates.
If there is a deadline to fill a league, and it doesn't fill...that should be it...no one else can join at that point. Either fillers come in, or that league folds... For fillers, maybe there is some caveat that winners of sessions who earned credits help fill that pool, or it is a responsibility given to the commissioner/board...or, talk about moving things along-- if a person is at risk of having the last league in a session eliminated if we can't get fillers, that will surely get people to sign up quicker and move things along
Hope everyone is off to a good start to their playoff seasons!