Next up - Event 5 - 140 Mil DH

The next event will be 140 Mil DH. Last year with 219 active players at the time of Event 5, 4 leagues were able to be created "LIVE DRAFT" - right now our active pool is a little less at 187 active players. So I will count on having 3 live draft leagues and as we have done in the past, set them for a Tues/Wed/Thurs at 9pm EST/6pm PST. This will allow the left coasters time to get home from work. If I see higher demand, I may consider another LD league to be added. One minute per pick remains.

It should be said that no matter how many times I put out in the league entering email, in the created INVITE leagues themselves, or how much even SOM adds verbiage into the leagues themselves, people DO NOT all comply to "marking their team as ready".

In the last event I suggested that 24 hours should be "long enough" and to further clarify I mean that to be from the time you enter your league. After "long enough" passes, I may use the Commish powers to remove "that team" from the league and then you will need to contact me for the code for the NEW league if any are left.

I removed two teams from Event 3 and the second player just decided that he didn't like my email and withdrew his team and missed the event. He will be put on the inactive list and I assume he is done for the rest of tour. He was sitting on "not ready" for three days. Several players in the league emailed me.

People have suggested that I engage SOM to assist us to implement some sort of automatic "readying" of a team after enough time passes. This could work but only if a team already has the legal number and mix of players and a stadium picked. The INVITES system does actually allow a team to be placed into a league with no draft picks. So it can't "ready" a team that isn't actually "ready".

I wouldn't call this a flaw in the invites system as much as I would say that some people just aren't as enthusiastic as others in getting their team drafted and being able to prep it. A lot of Barnstormers jumped in for "something to do or try" and don't have the same competitive "Barnstormers" spirit. And hey, some of us are retired but a lot of us aren't. I do get that some of us are "busy".

Can anything more be done ? - Your thoughts?

MM

Ahoy,

Like most things in life it boils down to personal accountability. We know the rules going in (as Bolt commented on Sha'Carri) and need to be aware of the time frames and just focus on the next task for dates on Event 5 and when to get 'er done. I considered myself retired even though I am still working and have too many irons in the fire. Last Barnstormers I spaced out on League 5 and totally screwed the pooch getting in for Event 6 - so I understand how things can get distracted, but the worst part for me was letting down the rest of my opponents ready for draft in League 5 and League 6 last year. Almost spaced out getting into the Tourney this year so I have made it my duty to meet the time frames this year. Tweeking SOM to prevent delinquent or just distracted managers might not be they way, but it does put a heavy burden on the Tourney commish to manage the delinquents. All said - I have no constructive input other than we collectively step up our personal accountability - and Play Ball!

Yettie

I'd like to see Strat get rid of Ready altogether. For regular leagues, the 'Join a league' button is greyed out / not selectable until a team is completely ready. To make changes, you leave the league and risk losing your spot. Do the same with the invite code entry box - leave it greyed out and unable to accept the league invite code until the team is ready. Enter the code and join the league when you are ready, To make changes, leave the league and risk losing your spot. Allowing a team to enter and reserve a spot in a league when they are not ready serves no useful purpose IMO.

The 60M event ran quite smoothly for me. No complaints at all with how you handled it. I think your imposition of a 24 hour limit was just the ticket to keep things moving.

Not in favor at all of attempting to shift the onus to SOM since they generally either drop the ball entirely or like the current bullpen rules, make things much worse.

Now if we could just reduce or eliminate the five point bonus for winning a ring, I would be in hog heaven. It is still worth at least 9 extra wins in the standings to win an event. That should be sufficient. In the real world the primacy of playoff wins makes sense because it makes the owners money. Here, I think that overall excellence as reflected by the actual aggregate wins achieved is a better measure of who the best managers are in a given season of the tour.

I'd like to see Strat get rid of Ready altogether. For regular leagues, the 'Join a league' button is greyed out / not selectable until a team is completely ready. To make changes, you leave the league and risk losing your spot. Do the same with the invite code entry box - leave it greyed out and unable to accept the league invite code until the team is ready. Enter the code and join the league when you are ready, To make changes, leave the league and risk losing your spot. Allowing a team to enter and reserve a spot in a league when they are not ready serves no useful purpose IMO.

The "ready" was designed with Tournaments in mind. It's the quickest way to get a team "purchased" and dumped into a league quickly. Can you imagine those sitting around a table at SOM - "how can we quickly get people to the "purchase" screen?" Well that was it. But what a lot of people don't get is that you no longer need to "leave the league" to make changes. Mark yourself as "not ready" - make your change (all draft center options are available now including rankings and stadium choice) and then mark yourself as ready again. This is preferable to "leaving the league"

I'd rather see players tweaking their teams while "in the league" than jumping out and back in again. But I also want them to do it within a reasonable amount of time. I prefer that players reserve their spot ASAP than for me to wonder if they are aware that it's time to load.

I like the 24 hour rule. That's a reasonable enough time to get your team ready. If something comes up and you cant, no big deal. You get kicked out and try to get in the filler leagues. No matter what you do there are going to be stragglers who dont feel like they owe any obligations to other owners. And there are going to be people who lag because of RL. I think the 24 hour rule reasonably balances all of the competing interests here.

Knowing the rule ahead of time, and enforcing it consistently, is key and should be good enough for anyone.

I had a question in this last event--because I was quite busy and had some unexpected issues so wanted to ensure I knew the precise expectation. You quickly defined it unequivocally.

Once you did that, I knew I either needed to get moving or release my slot.
So I got my team finaled and marked it ready.
I can also see sjudd's point--it is frustrating when an owner truly doesn't give a rat's tail about the other owners and maybe try to game waivers dates for their own preference by squatting or whatever.

Thanks for your diligence

Druid--I agree--heck and I am the recipient of that largesse right now

This is my first time in the Barnstormers and for the last round I knew I would be busy at work that week and going out of town the weekend of the fourth. So since the league rules were known ($60M cap, no DH, etc). I created a team the prior weekend and didn't join a league. Then when I got the invite code joined the league and marked it ready instantly.
Since we know the round rules ahead of time you have plenty of time to prepare the team before the invite comes out.

Mike

SOM has made more improvements to what the "Commish" of a Tournament League can do. We can now modify stadiums and modify the amount of money a team has, for example a "dumper" who cut tons of players and reduces his overall team value. Well normally we would ask SOM to take the team over and bring the team back to competitive.

We can do this now as the COMMISH. I have yet to try it BUT WE CAN !

And another thing, WE DIDNT ASK FOR IT !!

I'll tell you right now that the INVITES and all the things that goes with it has made tournament leagues a lot better. Better for me, better for the Players Tournament, better for the Mystery Tournament. And better for all of the "andycummings" out there who create a ton of theme leagues.

MM

Hear hear