Barnstormers and the "invite" feature. Waiting for Semi's.

Cool feature that you don't have to leave the league to tweak or change up your team, very nice !!

Go away for a day and all heck breaks out!

Certainly TLD also wasn't the only person who expressed concern, so I think it is worth saying if it is not obvious: The tourney is better with people like Bruce in it. It is also appreciated that someone like Moose takes it on to manage.

One reason I am a long time player but don't play much is because I seek to compete with folks who are good competitors and quality people. Bruce is both in spades. And there are others, even if there are times of disagreement. And on that note, I echo Chompsky's plea. No need to publicly post responses to Bruce regarding the status of his prize.

That said--it is not whining to treat the tourney with priority and anticipation such that we are responsive league mates--it should be the desired behavior and be encouraged among everyone. It is no one's fault but those players who are lagging--and that's OK--but maybe help them step aside for someone who is ready. We can get there from here it would seem. The invite thing has great promise and also has some potentially needed tweaks even though it has probably been an 80% solution already. But like JS Mill warned...hopefully we don't drown the few voices like Bruce and others by shouting from the center of the mob.

Colleagues,
In an environment where the level of chaos seems to be growing exponentially, I feel a little perspective is needed. We are talking about Strat-O, a gift from Hal Richmond that has provided all of us a wonderful diversion from the rigors of the real world ( 50 years in my case). All will be well. Thanks to Moose's , often thankless, dedication, drafts will take place and sometime around game 90 my hopeful season will once again be derailed by a ten game loosing streak.
Take a breath and try to find a real ball game on cable. I hope all of you, and yours, stay well during our current circumstances.
John

I just think when someone is providing a service to the community, a service to YOU...for FREE...and that service has perhaps benefited YOU over the years and enhanced your Strat experience...you might want to be a little circumspect in your criticisms. I have been part of many real and fantasy sports teams/leagues over the years and so often people will take for granted something until it is gone and sometimes such enterprises end because of minor complaints by people who take such things for granted.

By all means, make whatever demands you like for whatever product you are paying for.
BUT that is not the case when someone is volunteering to enrich your Strat experience with a well-run tour. You can make your complaints known without taking them to a level that you know will irritate the commissioner. There is a difference between saying leagues are filling too slow maybe we can try doing something to fix the problem...and saying if leagues dont fill fast enough you're out of here. Moose is trying to fix a problem--cherry picking leagues--that I know players have complained about (I have no idea if it is a significant problem or not but it sure wouldnt surprise me if it were given my life experiences), glitches should be expected, and give him a chance to iron them out. I want my leagues filled yesterday--everyone does--but a delay in one league of yours getting filled while there is an attempt to better the tournament by equalizing or at least randomizing competition is "small potatoes."

Agree with John, Freeman, others. It's just a brilliant tourney.

The labor that is the wellspring for the tourney is massive in scale--it is totally amazing, really.

So my hat is off (briefly, can't go around getting sunburned!) to Moose.

This morning I woke up whistling "always look on the bright side of life." Yes, there are things that get us pissed off. But if we can notice how we feel, and then let it go, life is pretty amazing.

And yes, baseball is back! Wooot!

For Event 5, - 140 Million - we usually have at least 1 but since we have so many maybe 2 or 3 live drafts. For Live Drafts, here is how the invites feature will work. I will send out an email to the entire Barnstormers player list asking if they want to do live draft in Event 5. Those that do will need to send me a confirmation by return email. The live draft in a Barnstormers Event has been 1 minute per pick and we have traditionally locked in Tuesday or Wednesday evenings at 7 pm PST / 10 pm EST to allow for West Coasters to get home from work. The email will ask which day you prefer. The first 12 I get will be "locked" into a league and the invites feature will be used. Since this isn't the same as an autodraft, all 12 players must have "joined" the league before the scheduled time. If I get more than 12 that are interested but some are slow in entering their team, I may OVERINVITE to get the league filled in time. The live drafts will be Tues Aug 18 and Wed Aug 19.

Which means if you want to do live draft, do not ignore the invite - if you snooze you lose and you will be back to autodraft.

Once twelve players are in the league, nothing more really happens with the invites feature other than the leagues are randomly split into divisions as is the draft order. Correction 8/17/20 the Divisions are not created until the draft is over.

I think to make it interesting, I will engage the feature to require live drafting your stadium as one of your picks. I like this and think we should use it for all live drafts. And it eliminates those who forget to choose a stadium and get one chosen by HAL.

Any questions ?

Invites aren't going away, despite the minor flaws we experienced. SOM and I are working together to decide what to do on the players who don't mark themselves as ready. I haven't forgotten about this.

One thing we ARE working on is not to allow the league to create divisions until all teams are marked as READY. This is to overcome objections of players being able to select their stadiums AFTER knowing who is in their division. That will fix that.

With Event #5 put to bed, I have completed the List of Stadium Groupings Used to Date thread to include Event #5 stadiums. This will NEVER BE AS IMPORTANT as it will be when we start loading the Final Event #6 our 200 Mil Event. If you haven't made any groupings violations so far AND you have played in all events, you will only have 2 groupings left to choose from for your Event #6 team, so check there very carefully.

Live Draft was quite popular in Event #5 with 4 Leagues loaded. The 200 Mil Event USUALLY is even more popular with the Live Drafters. As with Event #4, I will send out an email to the still active players to inquire whether they wish to participate in Live Drafting their team. The request will ask preference for Tuesday or Wednesday evening OR EITHER. Those with strict day requirements will be paired.

But again, if Live Draft is important to you, once the invites go out - you will need to be sure to get your team in as early as you can because it could be difficult to fill a league with live drafters if only 1 or 2 are in a league. We experienced a Live Draft glitch in Event #4 which allowed players to change their stadium after their Live Draft ended. This SOM "glitch" will be plugged going forward.

Your goal is Top 81 to make the Semi-Finals. A strong Event #5 and/or Event #6 can see you climb the ladder very swiftly and make up a lot of ground so lets not give up yet.

The INVITE feature is bringing players into their leagues AS A WHOLE a lot quicker than before. Only 20 out of 220 were left to load after the last event was open for just 5 days. Leagues are also being OVERINVITED and this brings leagues full faster. The feet draggers are usually always the same people so they ignore INVITES just like they USED TO IGNORE ME ! Some things never change.

Hope you're enjoying your Barnstormers and ATG 9 experience. Hey, it's one of the few things we can look forward to in order to escape from our new way of life.

I have sent out emails taking reservations for Live Draft in Event 6. After 3 days of getting back the responses, I have 55 signed up. Hopefully I will get at least 5 more in order to make 5 full Live Draft leagues. If you're on the fence about Live Drafting Event 6, please let me know as soon as possible.

The live drafts will be held on Tuesday Sept 15 and Wednesday Sept 16 – both will be at 7PM PST / 10PM EST. 1 min per picks, stadium included as a draft pick.

If it turns out a LD league would not be filled, I'll gladly move to an autodraft if needed. I am good either way

Thanks Frank. We are at 59 live draft requesters now so that makes the situation looking really good for 5 solid LD's. Happy Labor Day to everyone. I will create the LD leagues and send out the invites on Tuesday Sept 8th.

EDIT: oops up to 62 now - We will just let it be that the LAST 2 to get their team in will move back to autodraft. That's fair.