Monthly Contest "Rigging"

Sweet Swinger...thanks for bringing this to light. There is nothing more nefarious than one operating within established rules to maximize a competitive advantage.

Sweet Swinger...thanks for bringing this to light. There is nothing more nefarious than one operating within established rules to maximize a competitive advantage.

That's the whole point, there are no established rules other than BUILD WHATEVER TEAM YOU WANT even if it means circumventing the "spirit" of the contest.

Sweet Swinger...thanks for bringing this to light. There is nothing more nefarious than one operating within established rules to maximize a competitive advantage.

That's the whole point, there are no established rules other than BUILD WHATEVER TEAM YOU WANT even if it means circumventing the "spirit" of the contest.

Thank you for making my point for me. There is a rule and that league follows it.

Proposing a modification for going forward to Strat is a reasonable idea...but mounting your pedestal to cast judgement on others is something that should be avoided.

Just some free advice...which I hope is more valuable than a free credit.

Sweet Swinger...thanks for bringing this to light. There is nothing more nefarious than one operating within established rules to maximize a competitive advantage.

That's the whole point, there are no established rules other than BUILD WHATEVER TEAM YOU WANT even if it means circumventing the "spirit" of the contest.

Thank you for making my point for me. There is a rule and that league follows it.

Proposing a modification for going forward to Strat is a reasonable idea...but mounting your pedestal to cast judgement on others is something that should be avoided.

Just some free advice...which I hope is more valuable than a free credit.

Not casting judgement and certainly not making your point. Just pointing out the obvious. This league was created to bloat the contest.

Easy enough fix, Auto leagues only

So I guess the question is which is worse. Setting up a league so 12 teams are competing for prizes or joining an auto league where one team sets up to win these prizes? In the first the players best suited to win get distributed amongst the teams as everyone has the same goals. In the second the best players for the contest are consolidated on one team where the other teams may not even know the contest is occurring.
Stack a league or stack one team. Does it really matter? Why is one bad and the other is fine?

So I guess the question is which is worse. Setting up a league so 12 teams are competing for prizes or joining an auto league where one team sets up to win these prizes? In the first the players best suited to win get distributed amongst the teams as everyone has the same goals. In the second the best players for the contest are consolidated on one team where the other teams may not even know the contest is occurring.
Stack a league or stack one team. Does it really matter? Why is one bad and the other is fine?

EDITING MY RESPONSE TO MAKE IT LESS CONFUSING ...

The issue that I am highlighting is when a league is built to give EVERYONE IN THE LEAGUE an advantage (see the parameters of the league in question) that is the situation. When a league is specifically constructing to sabotage the contest or at the very least circumvent the "spirit" of the contest, that is where I see a problem.

Several points I'd like to bring up relative to your counterpoint (which is a reasonable counterpoint by the way):

1) When vying to win one of these contests, it is not at all uncommon to have multiple teams "going for it". I see it all the time where multiple teams all go for the same players that fit the mold of the contest.
2) There are typically dozens of teams that are clearly trying to win the freebies based on the construction of the team and/or the actual name of the team.
3) Granted there might be less people trying to draft the same players in a standard league, BUT what you are not considering is that in a standard league, your divisional opponents can easily game plan for your team. Example: If I'm going for the Stolen Base Contest, all my divisional opponents need to do is load up on good hold pitchers and strong
armed catchers and they will totally negate your chances and you have no control over it.
4) Now let's say your trying to win the HR Contest and you draft the perfect Polo '41 team, if you end up in a small ball heavy division and/or league, it doesn't matter how good your team is, you're screwed.
5) In the fewest pitcher walks contest several months back, every pitcher on my staff had ZERO WALKS on their card. But, I didn't even place in the top 25, why? Because a team in my division built a super high OBP team with tons of walks on their hitters cards. A single team ruined my chances of competing in the contest, not intentionally, it was just the way it worked out.

The key point is that I do not believe there is an inherent advantage to a Standard League

Conversely, in a League with specific rules such as the league referenced in this post, there is no way to negate it because all teams are bound by the same BENEFICIAL rules. Such as bad hold ratings and bad catcher throwing arms.


And you are 100% correct when you say it's not against the rules, but it is against the spirit of the contest.

That being said, I think that Strat NEEDS TO PUT RULES IN PLACE MOVING FORWARD. As has been mentioned, the simplest solution is probably to only allow auto leagues and perhaps to not allow extreme salary caps.

This has been asked and answered several times. SOM does not appear interested in restricting contest winners to only standard auto-draft leagues. They run the contest in an attempt to increase business. In this case, they are giving away 6 credits on a monthly contest, and they earned 12 from a theme league that was designed intentionally around said contest. That seems like a win to the company from my perspective. My best suggestion would be, find a group of 12 owners who will join you in a custom theme league to pursue the contest, and fair play to you!

The issue that I am highlighting is when a league is built to give EVERYONE IN THE LEAGUE an advantage (see the parameters of the league in question) that is the situation. When a league is specifically constructing to sabotage the contest or at the very least circumvent the "spirit" of the contest, that is where I see a problem.

Several points I'd like to bring up relative to your counterpoint (which is a reasonable counterpoint by the way):

1) When vying to win one of these contests, it is not at all uncommon to have multiple teams "going for it". I see it all the time where multiple teams all go for the same players that fit the mold of the contest.
2) There are typically dozens of teams that are clearly trying to win the freebies based on the construction of the team and/or the actual name of the team.
3) Granted there might be less people trying to draft the same players in a standard league, BUT what you are not considering is that in a standard league, your divisional opponents can easily game plan for your team. Example: If I'm going for the Stolen Base Contest, all my divisional opponents need to do is load up on good hold pitchers and strong
armed catchers and they will totally negate your chances and you have no control over it.
4) Now let's say your trying to win the HR Contest and you draft the perfect Polo '41 team, if you end up in a small ball heavy division and/or league, it doesn't matter how good your team is, you're screwed.
5) In the fewest pitcher walks contest several months back, every pitcher on my staff had ZERO WALKS on their card. But, I didn't even place in the top 25, why? Because a team in my division built a super high OBP team with tons of walks on their hitters cards. A single team ruined my chances of competing in the contest, not intentionally, it was just the way it worked out.

The key point is that I do not believe there is an inherent advantage to a Standard League

Conversely, in a League with specific rules such as the league referenced in this post, there is no way to negate it because all teams are bound by the same BENEFICIAL rules. Such as bad hold ratings and bad catcher throwing arms.


And you are 100% correct when you say it's not against the rules, but it is against the spirit of the contest.

That being said, I think that Strat NEEDS TO PUT RULES IN PLACE MOVING FORWARD. As has been mentioned, the simplest solution is probably to only allow auto leagues and perhaps to not allow extreme salary caps.

I don’t play a lot of random leagues. Maybe four or five in the four years I’ve been playing here so maybe I’m judging them more harshly than I should. Please correct me. I have always tended to think those leagues were in general more inexperienced players. (Which is not to say I’m not of course). I used to play on a RISK site where experienced players would deliberately join games with newbies just so they could dominate a game or two and boost their player ranking (ranking there was determined by points with each winning player taking points from each losing player. This was known as farming. In general I never respected players who played that game but I admit it may have colored my feelings about open games here in SOM.

And in the interest of transparency. I’m not in this league but I did play in a similar league run by the same commissioner a few years ago. https://365.strat-o-matic.com/league/458789 It’s a similar concept (although while this one kicks it up a notch it’s not new for him to run it.) Clearly though it’s a run at the monthly prize. I don’t think that’s the debate. The debate is. 1). Is this a problem. 2). Is it a problem because it’s an entire league set up for the monthly prize or is any team set up for the prize a problem inherently and 3). Assuming it is a problem. What if anything would we as a community like SOM to do an out it.

Just like a lot of the things Strat-O-Matic has done (and not done ) lately I always knew these contests were literally the dumbest thing possible.

Why wouldn't they just have a normal contest, like for instance- PLAYER WITH MOST HR, SB or whatever. If it was just one player you wouldn't have to build your whole team around these ridiculous contests, and everyone would have a legitimate chance. And there wouldn't be cheating. Who wants to waste a whole credit building a team that walks a lot. So dumb and pointless. Whereas if it was a single player award, everyone would have an equal chance. This isn't rocket surgery guys.

But SOM is too cheap, lazy and stupid for such common sense.