How to set up and run a FF League properly.

[Alex Cormier]

I have noticed a few things this year. We have had an outburst of FF Leagues, larger and quicker then last year.

1. Find a Regional that you would like to start with, see if available.
2. If you start it, you must be the one who scores it, drafts it, and go through all the way with it. Yes you can get help doing those (recommended).
3.Don't start up too many leagues that you can't handle. - If you started 2/3 leagues that play on the same week it starts to get crazy to score and control it.
4. Be patient with the Drafting process and the sign-ups for the league.

Any other Ideas or Tid Bits?

[Billfred]

Here's one that should be obvious, but still: Get a spreadsheet going. Learn how to add in references (so if a trade goes through on one sheet, it'll go through on the other), and feel free to add more complexity if it suits you. It'll speed the process along, trust me.

[Koko Ed]

If you are not capable of running the league yourself, get capable backup.
All transactions should go through you and you alone (too many chef's spoil the soup)
NO TRADES FOR REAL WORLD OBJECTS.
Even trades (1 for 1, 2 for2, 3 for 3 or 4 for 4).
Come up with a fair system that would allow people ample time to make their picks and announce it well ahead of time so they can plan accordingly (contrary to popular belief people do not live on the Chief).

[Alex Cormier]

I have noticed a few things this year. We have had an outburst of FF Leagues, larger and quicker then last year.

1. Find a Regional that you would like to start with, see if available.
2. If you start it, you must be the one who scores it, drafts it, and go through all the way with it. Yes you can get help doing those (recommended).
3.Don't start up too many leagues that you can't handle. - If you started 2/3 leagues that play on the same week it starts to get crazy to score and control it.
4. Be patient with the Drafting process and the sign-ups for the league.
5. Get a spreadsheet going. Learn how to add in references (so if a trade goes through on one sheet, it'll go through on the other), and feel free to add more complexity if it suits you.
6.If you are not capable of running the league yourself, get capable backup.
All transactions should go through you and you alone (too many chef's spoil the soup)
NO TRADES FOR REAL WORLD OBJECTS.
Even trades (1 for 1, 2 for2, 3 for 3 or 4 for 4).
Come up with a fair system that would allow people ample time to make their picks and announce it well ahead of time so they can plan accordingly (contrary to popular belief people do not live on the Chief).

Any other Ideas or Tid Bits?
__________________

[Conor Ryan]

Well heres my tips and a walk through on running a fair league, let me know what you think.

Sign ups:
When you make your thread announcing your league you need to establish several points,

Your Scoring System
Number of Players
Number of Rounds in Draft
Deadline for Sign ups
Approximate Draft Date
After you do that, make sure you keep tabs on it, who's signed up? (if the players are keeping a running list, make sure its right, if its right don't post unneeded posts, FF threads get crazy so don't post what you don't need to. Then STICK TO YOUR DATES! If you say your gonna draft on 3/7 then draft on 3/7, if registration closes 3/5 then it closes 3/5, make sure you post announcements like this.

Drafting:
Here is how drafting is done and generally accepted, completely random first round, don't do it in the order everyone signs up, randomize it. It doesn't help to be a gracious and voluntarily not take the first overall pick. To randomize it you assign everyone in the league a number, then find a random number list generator (http://www.random.org/sform.html) and then match up. For the second round you do the reverse of that, so if you had the last pick, you now have the first pick, and if you had the first pick you now have the last pick. This is done because it is a lot fairer.

The third round is where it gets interesting, ideally what you do is you put the people that pick early and late in the middle and then give the people in the middle an earlier or later pick. If you have a forth round, make it the reverse of the third.

So when your done you'll do this
Round 1: Completely Random
Round 2: Reverse of Round one
Round 3: Average out the picking order
Round 4: (if needed) reverse of third

Also as a personal preference, I prefer a league that has 4 rounds and less players, theres less people to manage and drafting works out better mathematically.

Below is a draft order that I came up with for a FF tournament that has 8 players, ironically the Chesapeake FF has the same list, so if its ok with you guys I'll use it as a walk through.

Order Everyone Signed up:
1. Freddy Schurr
2. Alex Cormier
3. Koko Ed
4. Tim Delles
5. Conor Ryan
6. Levin571
7. Greg Needel
8. The infamous player 8

The random number generator gave me this order
5
4
8
3
1
7
6
2Oh no! I'm making this and I have first pick, somethings fishy! Lets show our GP
New order!
Round One Order
6 Levin571
7 Greg Needel
8 The infamous player 8
5 Conor Ryan
3 Koko Ed
4 Tim Delles
1 Freddy Schurr
2 Alex Cormier

Ok well thats the round one order, round two will pick like this
Round Two Order:
2
1
4
3
5
8
7
6

Notice how Alex redeems his terrible First round order by getting first pick in the second round. Fair enough.
Well now is where it gets a little more interesting, watch how round 3 should pick
Round 3 Order:
3
5
8
4
7
1
6
2

Notice how the people in the middle in the first round, now get to pick earlier...or later but thats ok a fictious round 4 can fix that!
Round 4 order:
2
6
1
7
4
8
5
3

Draft Times
Now thats how a fair draft order, now to handle draft times. I believe the fairest way to set up a draft is to do 1 round a day, don't go with a massive FF (at least for regionals) , go with a smaller one that way you can get the draft done easier. So then with a smaller group of people you can have a system that I like, One Round of Drafting a day, and 10-20 Minutes per pick, makes it easy. Also allow for the draft to start as soon as the order is created, the official times should have a day's notice to be fair, and fair is what you want to be if your a commissioner. Make sure that you are around (or have someone watching for you) when the draft starts and stops each day.

Once the draft starts, every three picks or so, post a running total of who's picked what, I feel a team list is unnecessary but if you want to do it, go ahead. At the end of every round, post who's picked what, and the times for the next round. Typically 7-10 works best for most people.

After the draft ends, post the final draft results, and then set the trading deadline. Make sure you are in on all trades and that they are fair.

As soon as the competition ends, get the Official Results from FIRST's website and then start posting the scores, remember, regional results have a week until they are final.

Good Luck being a Commissioner, and if you have any questions ask me.