[FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

With the passing of another IRI into the record websites, it’s time for another season of Fantasy FIRST! If more season long leagues crop up, we will use "Traditional"; otherwise, this is the only SLFF around. Sign on up... but make sure you've got the time!

We'll make this "quick hit" of the rules very fast: Miss 6 drafts (nominally 3 days, but we'll see how the schedule works out) in a row, you get one warning. Ignore the warning, you're out of the league and your teams are up for grabs! Speaking of teams, you get up to 5 players per team playing this game. Trades between playing teams are allowed if everybody agrees to the terms.

Drafting schedule is still to be worked out--I'm just getting started on that with existing events--but plan on starting right after Thanksgiving with 1-2 drafts/day, ending right before Kickoff.

As happened last year, all the district areas will get their own block draft at the end of the drafting season. So far, that's MI, MAR, NE, IN, PNW, GA, and Chesapeake--along with whoever ELSE decides to go that route for 2016!

Full rules are located at http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2574 (Updated to reflect changes noted above, and clarify a couple of items in the scoring section.)

And, as usual, I'm looking for some volunteers to help run the drafts and score everything... more details to come as we get closer to draft start.


1. Falcon (EricH)
2.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

1. Falcon (EricH)
2. OrangeJuice (orangemoore)


Also, I can run some drafts.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

1. Falcon (EricH)
2. OrangeJuice (orangemoore)
3. The Breakfast Company (BrennanB, JosephC, jlmcmchl) *Would love to fill up the team

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

I'm not interested in making a team for this upcoming season, but I am willing to put some time into the scoring portion and help take some load off of some of the members here.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Just as an FYI for anybody considering draft running: I am planning to retool the spreadsheet. There are a number of bugs that I've found running around--I intend to spend some evenings in "bug-squashing" activities--then maybe try to sneak a feature or two in there for easier running of extra rounds in the drafts. (The latter, I don't guarantee any success on...)

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

1. Falcon (EricH)
2. OrangeJuice (orangemoore)
3. The Breakfast Company (BrennanB, JosephC, jlmcmchl) *Would love to fill up the team
4. Koko's X-Cats.



I am no longer working straight nights so I can give almost all of my attention to running drafts.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

1. Falcon (EricH)
2. OrangeJuice (orangemoore)
3. The Breakfast Company (BrennanB, JosephC, jlmcmchl) *Would love to fill up the team
4. Koko's X-Cats.
5. Broconnor (Giantwalker, vikesrock777)

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

1. Falcon (EricH)
2. OrangeJuice (orangemoore)
3. The Breakfast Company (BrennanB, JosephC, jlmcmchl) *Would love to fill up the team
4. Koko's X-Cats.
5. Broconnor (Giantwalker, vikesrock777)
6. Team Sunshine (Thatprogramme) *pm me if interested

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

1. Falcon (EricH)
2. OrangeJuice (orangemoore)
3. The Breakfast Company (BrennanB, JosephC, jlmcmchl)
4. Koko's X-Cats.
5. Broconnor (Giantwalker, vikesrock777)
6. Team Sunshine (Thatprogramme)
7. Rotten Fruit Alliance (Anupam Goli, ghostmachine360, ttldomination, Navid Shafa, Dave McLaughlin)

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

No moar peaches! :ahh:

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Nikeairmancurry is joining Koko's X-Cats.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

1. Falcon (EricH)
2. OrangeJuice (orangemoore)
3. The Breakfast Company (BrennanB, JosephC, jlmcmchl)
4. Koko's X-Cats (Koko Ed, Nikeairmancurry).
5. Broconnor (Giantwalker, vikesrock777)
6. Team Sunshine (Thatprogramme)
7. Rotten Fruit Alliance (Anupam Goli, ghostmachine360, ttldomination, Navid Shafa, Dave McLaughlin)

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Peaches will always be with you.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

1. Falcon (EricH)
2. OrangeJuice (orangemoore)
3. The Breakfast Company (BrennanB, JosephC, jlmcmchl)
4. Koko's X-Cats (Koko Ed, Nikeairmancurry).
5. Broconnor (Giantwalker, vikesrock777)
6. Team Sunshine (Thatprogramme)
7. Rotten Fruit Alliance (Anupam Goli, ghostmachine360, ttldomination, Navid Shafa, Dave McLaughlin)
7. Untitled 1 (GrifBot, Rishika (CD Account to come), Alev (CD Account to come)) Would love 2 more members, PM me if you're interested.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

1. Falcon (EricH)
2. OrangeJuice (orangemoore)
3. The Breakfast Company (BrennanB, JosephC, jlmcmchl)
4. Koko's X-Cats (Koko Ed, Nikeairmancurry).
5. Broconnor (Giantwalker, vikesrock777)
6. Team Sunshine (Thatprogramme)
7. Rotten Fruit Alliance (Anupam Goli, ghostmachine360, ttldomination, Navid Shafa, Dave McLaughlin)
8. Untitled 1 (GrifBot, Rishika (CD Account to come), Alev (CD Account to come)) Would love 2 more members, PM me if you're interested.
9. The ULCAN (umer936, LlNUX, Allgoodthehood, 3175student17, hawktomatoes)

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

I do have a *couple* quick notes as far as drafting schedule goes.

1) In general, we'll be going in order of competition week. That means that Palmetto (0.5) and "TBD Week 1 Regional" will be first up, the day after Thanksgiving.

2) I do plan to try to sneak a few off-days in if I can. As in, no draft that day unless whoever is running the one(s) for the next night decides to open early. This is heavily dependent on how many events we have to fill the 82 possible draft slots. Christmas and New Year's Eve are already planned as off; Christmas Eve and New Year's Day are the next likely candidates for some unknown reason.

3) Those off days will come at the "expense" of single-draft nights--plan on 2-draft nights all season.

4) I'll be putting the schedule up as a Google sheet, when it's ready to go.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

1. Falcon (EricH)
2. OrangeJuice (orangemoore)
3. The Breakfast Company (BrennanB, JosephC, jlmcmchl)
4. Koko's X-Cats (Koko Ed, Nikeairmancurry).
5. Broconnor (Giantwalker, vikesrock777)
6. Team Sunshine (Thatprogramme)
7. Rotten Fruit Alliance (Anupam Goli, ghostmachine360, ttldomination, Navid Shafa, Dave McLaughlin)
8. Untitled 1 (GrifBot, Rishika (CD Account to come), Alev (CD Account to come)) Would love 2 more members, PM me if you're interested.
9. The ULCAN (umer936, LlNUX, Allgoodthehood, 3175student17, hawktomatoes)
10. Swamp Life (MARS_James)

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

1. Falcon (EricH)
2. OrangeJuice (orangemoore)
3. The Breakfast Company (BrennanB, JosephC, jlmcmchl, mlantry, Wired_Mike)
4. Koko's X-Cats (Koko Ed, Nikeairmancurry).
5. Broconnor (Giantwalker, vikesrock777)
6. Team Sunshine (Thatprogramme)
7. Rotten Fruit Alliance (Anupam Goli, ghostmachine360, ttldomination, Navid Shafa, Dave McLaughlin)
8. Untitled 1 (GrifBot, Rishika (CD Account to come), Alev (CD Account to come)) Would love 2 more members, PM me if you're interested.
9. The ULCAN (umer936, LlNUX, Allgoodthehood, 3175student17, hawktomatoes)
10. Swamp Life (MARS_James)

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Now that we know what areas are going district...

We might actually have FEWER drafts than last year (which hasn't happened in quite a while). New regionals Iowa and Rocket City take two of the three drafts made available by Chesapeake (-2), North Carolina (0), and Peachtree (-1). New regional Orange County is replacing Inland Empire; Arizona North replaces Arizona East. So far we're at -1 from last year.

By my count, we currently have 41 regional events and 12-13 district block draft days to fill 82 possible draft slots (2/day). But, I'm sure there are more regionals coming in the next few weeks, so I won't release any draft schedules yet.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

1. Falcon (EricH)
2. OrangeJuice (orangemoore)
3. The Breakfast Company (BrennanB, JosephC, jlmcmchl, mlantry, Wired_Mike)
4. Koko's X-Cats (Koko Ed, Nikeairmancurry).
5. Broconnor (Giantwalker, vikesrock777)
6. Team Sunshine (Thatprogramme)
7. Rotten Fruit Alliance (Anupam Goli, ghostmachine360, ttldomination, Navid Shafa, Dave McLaughlin)
8. Untitled 1 (GrifBot, Rishika (CD Account to come), Alev (CD Account to come)) Would love 2 more members, PM me if you're interested.
9. The ULCAN (umer936, LlNUX, Allgoodthehood, 3175student17, hawktomatoes)
10. Swamp Life (MARS_James)
11. Bobo Brigade (Zaque)

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

*scratches head* Where did all this empty space in the draft drafting calendar come from?

At this point, we've got 66/82 drafting spots filled (one is a placeholder just in case the district has enough teams to warrant a second day of drafting). I'm going to hold off on releasing until registration for the regionals starts later this week--partly to figure out how to fill all these here holes, and partly just in case somebody decides to put a regional on the calendar late in some out-of-the-way location.

BTW, I do plan on running two-a-day drafts right through--but there should also be plenty of no-draft days scattered around. Weekends look like a prime target for no-draft days right now, as do days around holidays* for some reason totally unrelated to the holiday being there that I can't put my finger on quite yet.

*Kickoff counts as a holiday, right?

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

So it looks like there will be 124 official events with 53 of them being regionals.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

What spreadsheet?

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Hasn't been released yet; still on my computer (not GDocs yet). I'll try to get to that tonight or tomorrow--checking that all the events match the FIRST site--and will post a link when it's ready.

53 regional drafts, plus 7 district block drafts (5 2-day, 3 1-day, off the top of my head) gets 66 draft spots; the calendar says we've got space for 82.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

The drafting schedule is now posted. See link.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing


Now, there's a couple of notes I'd like to make:
--You may notice that there are columns for the draft runner. If you're interested in running a particular draft, put your name in the slot right next to it. The more holes we have, the more volunteer calls I make.
--You may also notice that there are a lot of gaps in the schedule. On those nights, there may be a draft open, but it'll be the draft for the next night. This is so we can all take this rare thing called "a night off", which shortly after the drafting season we won't have at all. It's also some cushion--in case something happens and somebody can't run a draft, we've got the option to move the draft into those break nights instead of running a three-a-day.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Draft Running Spots are filling Fast! :D

Currently 40/66 spots are filled.
I put in all the drafts I want to do/can do. If you wanted to draft a specific event and I took it shoot me a PM and I probably would be willing to take the other draft that night.

(I should be available for the drafts I took barring any schedule change that robotics makes. )

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

The Smoky Mountain Regional seemed to disappear from the document between edits. I added it back on to the document in the spot it was.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

my bad.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

I filled in for every date that is not 12/1 to 12/15. Up to 62/66 now.

As far as I'm aware, drafts had changed slightly last year, so I'll need to get up to speed before 11/29. It takes place at 7:00 pm, right?

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

7 PM Eastern (6 PM Central, 5 PM Mountain, 4 PM Pacific), unless otherwise announced. I don't think we'll need to adjust any times this year, but if we do we'll try to keep it under an hour in either direction.


Last year was me buying some time (I get home at about 4 PM Pacific--depends on how fast I can get out the door from work).

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Team Sunshine and Untitled 1 are merging into one team: FIRST Pick.
1. Falcon (EricH)
2. OrangeJuice (orangemoore)
3. The Breakfast Company (BrennanB, JosephC, jlmcmchl, mlantry, Wired_Mike)
4. Koko's X-Cats (Koko Ed, Nikeairmancurry).
5. Broconnor (Giantwalker, vikesrock777)
6. FIRST Pick (GrifBot, Thatprogramme)
7. Rotten Fruit Alliance (Anupam Goli, ghostmachine360, ttldomination, Navid Shafa, Dave McLaughlin)
8. The ULCAN (umer936, LlNUX, Allgoodthehood, 3175student17, hawktomatoes)
9. Swamp Life (MARS_James)
10. Bobo Brigade (Zaque)

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

1. The PVC Pirates (Team 1058)
2. BOB (Team 319)
3. Windham Windup (Team 3467)

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

What is this?

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Not a valid pick, that's for sure. Maybe a pickLIST for the NE block draft in January...

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Quick status update: a bit over one month until drafting begins, and we've only got two events that still need someone to run them. And, we've still got plenty of time.

If I remember, I'll release a slightly-updated version of the draft-running sheet sometime this week. I can't guarantee no bugs (trust me, there are a few improvements to be made), but once the sheet is released, I'm betting that's nothing a few mock drafts can't find for fixing. I've got a couple of (hopefully) minor coding tweaks that might increase performance significantly... or create more headaches, not sure which.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

For anybody interested, I've released the aforementioned update to the draft running sheet.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

is it too late to join as a new team?

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Nope, but do be advised that you may want to play with a few team members. This version of Fantasy FIRST takes a big time commitment, and you're booted from the league if you miss 6 drafts in a row.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

That's right. We're accepting new players right up until Thanksgiving. And playing solo is fine... but remember the time commitment. I'm fairly sure I'm the only player to play solo in every single season of FF... let's just go with "evenings are FF time" during drafting season.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Going solo isn't impossible depending on how much time you are willing to spend on it.

If anyone is interested in joining my team I would totally be up for it.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

It's a freshman Ed!

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Ah! You should guide the freshman to the proper team to participate on so he can get proper exposure to Fantasy FIRST.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

FYI I had to pull myself off an event on December 5th because of robotics commitments.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Unfortunately LTown won't be returning this year for him to be on.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Oh, the irony.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Are any teams still accepting/looking for another member? I would love to join a team but I will not be available too much, especially when exam week approaches in December.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Here's the current team list. The Breakfast Company, Rotten Fruit Alliance, and The ULCAN are full; Falcon isn't taking anyone else.

You may want to PM Broboraider and see if he's interested.


1. Falcon (EricH)
2. OrangeJuice (orangemoore)
3. The Breakfast Company (BrennanB, JosephC, jlmcmchl, mlantry, Wired_Mike)
4. Koko's X-Cats (Koko Ed, Nikeairmancurry).
5. Broconnor (Giantwalker, vikesrock777)
6. FIRST Pick (GrifBot, Thatprogramme)
7. Rotten Fruit Alliance (Anupam Goli, ghostmachine360, ttldomination, Navid Shafa, Dave McLaughlin)
8. The ULCAN (umer936, LlNUX, Allgoodthehood, 3175student17, hawktomatoes)
9. Swamp Life (MARS_James)
10. Bobo Brigade (Zaque)

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

As an FYI, I realized that another commitment will most likely take me off of all the Saturday drafts I'm signed up for. I could run those earlier or way later... but why do that when we don't have to? 11/28, 12/5, 12/12, and the first half of the MAR block draft on 1/2 are affected; I've highlighted them in yellow if anybody wants to take them (along with the other 12/5 spot needing a draft runner).

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Whens a good time to start sending lists in?

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Let's call it Thanksgiving week (starting the Sunday before Thanksgiving).

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

If you still need a team I would love for another person.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

1. Falcon (EricH)
2. OrangeJuice (orangemoore)
3. The Breakfast Company (BrennanB, JosephC, jlmcmchl, mlantry, Wired_Mike)
4. Koko's X-Cats (Koko Ed, Nikeairmancurry).
5. Broconnor (Giantwalker, vikesrock777)
6. FIRST Pick (GrifBot, Thatprogramme, tindleroot)
7. Rotten Fruit Alliance (Anupam Goli, ghostmachine360, ttldomination, Navid Shafa, Dave McLaughlin)
8. The ULCAN (umer936, LlNUX, Allgoodthehood, 3175student17, hawktomatoes)
9. Swamp Life (MARS_James)
10. Bobo Brigade (Zaque)

Adding a new member to our team.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Is this shaping up to be the final* schedule?

*Tentative

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Looks like it is. There are some holes that need filling--I'm considering moving the 12/5 drafts to 12/7 if someone doesn't step up to run those--but for the most part this is the final schedule. I haven't heard of anybody trying to add a last-second regional.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

I can run a draft on the 7th but not the 5th.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

I'll take the 5th.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

I can likely fill in, just trying to work out my schedule.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Same

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Which districts/events are slated to be broken up into tiers?

Edit: Just asking because having 17 drafters last year made random seed order for districts pretty brutal

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

At this point, Idaho (24 teams) is the only one I can think of offhand. MOST events will have 30+ teams, and so far, there are only 10 teams playing, so that's 3/team with one tier.

We don't "slate" events to be broken into tiers--if the number of teams is less than the number of players*3 (and I can't recall for sure, but I want to say that it's actually (# of players * 3) + 1, to allow for somebody dropping out), the players are randomized and then broken into 2 or more tiers. However, that's determined when the draft is set up (because you never know, several teams might suddenly add or drop). Otherwise, it's just wherever you land.


Draft runners may want to run some extra rounds of randomizing, their choice... Or not. I may or may not know anything about occasionally doing an extra couple of rounds because somebody was at the top for the umpteenth time, or was not near the top and hadn't been for a while, and I certainly may or may not know anything about why the program randomizes no fewer than three times before generating the random list of players for each draft...:rolleyes:

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Makes sense. As long as it's not a 17 person draft, I can deal with it. :p

Uhhh

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

;) Usually I only even think about doing that if it's been really obvious that someone is in a "favored" spot with the randomizer. Doesn't happen often.

The program part was because apparently Excel likes to set a particular random number as the first one, every time it wakes up, and THEN randomize it, so that's just to clear out the initial random number. For a while we had one particular player as the starter unless the runners re-ran the setup. That's when I added that in.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

I would be interested in joining your team. PM me if you want to work together

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

I have to take myself off of drafts for the first couple of weeks. I will have limited computer access due to my laptop screen going out. (I'm using an external monitor to write this--you have no idea how sore my neck is getting!)

Palmetto, Pittsburgh, Israel, and Arizona North need coverage. I've flagged them in red on the GDoc.

Hopefully I can get a repair done/new computer within that timeframe, and cover the rest of my slots.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Eric,

I can, at least, cover Palmetto.

I have the resources for running a draft, is there somewhere that I need to submit the final picks and stuff?

- Sunny G.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Haven't made that yet. Last year we just used a google sheet with the players and picks, arranged in blocks by event. I'll have to see if I can find a link.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Not sure if it's too late to join a team yet but if anyone needs a member who is an expert on teams in the southwest then I'm your guy. As for other regions, I know who most of the top teams are around North America by number and name. Let me know in thread or PM me if you want me on your team.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

1. Falcon (EricH)
2. OrangeJuice (orangemoore, mastachyra, Rangel(kf7fdb))
3. The Breakfast Company (BrennanB, JosephC, jlmcmchl, mlantry, Wired_Mike)
4. Koko's X-Cats (Koko Ed, Nikeairmancurry).
5. Broconnor (Giantwalker, vikesrock777)
6. FIRST Pick (GrifBot, Thatprogramme)
7. Rotten Fruit Alliance (Anupam Goli, ghostmachine360, ttldomination, Navid Shafa, Dave McLaughlin)
8. The ULCAN (umer936, LlNUX, Allgoodthehood, 3175student17, hawktomatoes)
9. Swamp Life (MARS_James)
10. Bobo Brigade (Zaque)

Adding a member to the team.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Eric,

I can also cover Northern Lights tomorrow.

- Sunny G.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

FYI,
So Far Bobo Brigade has missed all 4 drafts of the season.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Which means that if they don't show up tomorrow, for either draft, the PMs and public warnings start flying.


FYI, I should be (mostly) back in draft-running form after tomorrow. Still getting the computer situation squared away, but it's getting there.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Make that 6 as of tonight.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

And a warning PM has been sent. Tomorrow night's draft runners will need to be keeping an eye out.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Welp, have computer, and am setting up the Pittsburgh draft. We'll see how this goes...

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

1. Falcon (EricH)
2. OrangeJuice (orangemoore, mastachyra, Rangel(kf7fdb), Broboraider)
3. The Breakfast Company (BrennanB, JosephC, jlmcmchl, mlantry, Wired_Mike)
4. Koko's X-Cats (Koko Ed, Nikeairmancurry).
5. Broconnor (Giantwalker, vikesrock777)
6. FIRST Pick (GrifBot, Thatprogramme)
7. Rotten Fruit Alliance (Anupam Goli, ghostmachine360, ttldomination, Navid Shafa, Dave McLaughlin)
8. The ULCAN (umer936, LlNUX, Allgoodthehood, 3175student17, hawktomatoes)
9. Swamp Life (MARS_James)
10. Bobo Brigade (Zaque)

Adding one last member to the team. I cleared this with EricH already (if anyone was wondering).

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

So.....

Mark me down for one absence on my part of the San Diego draft. I'm very, very embarassed on missing this draft entirely. I get the whole thing set up and going, and then I completely forget about it today. It's 100% on me.

Thank you to those who took over the draft today. It's a bit difficult taking over someone else on the fly a lot of times in FF.

I won't miss anymore from this point on.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

And we've avoided the first boot of the season. Bobo Brigade has sent a list for Pittsburgh.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

And LA

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Just as a reminder, tomorrow (12/1) is an off day as far as drafts are concerned. Of course, if there's a draft up, feel free to make a pick if it's your turn.

And, for what I think is the first time ever, we haven't issued a boot at the first opportunity! All players have checked in at least once.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Folks, we seem to have a slight problem. And it's not on our end, it's on FIRST's end.

Very simply, the FRCLinks method of getting the team lists goes to the older version of the site. The older version and the newer version are not always in sync. So, we've had some picks that are rejected because they aren't on the newer version.


Until further notice (or FRCLinks updates their links to the new pages), we will be using the NEW page for event team lists. If someone claims a team using the OLD list (and the team isn't shown on the NEW list), we will consider that an invalid claim until the NEW list is updated. If you post in the thread that such-and-such a team is on the OLD list, we'll play the waiver game* at a later time.**

*Waiver game: Teams that become available after a draft are "waiver" teams. Because I'm lazy, the priority this year will be reverse order of signup to start with. Highest priority to make a claim gets the team, as long as the claim is made within 3 days from the first claim being made.

**Palmetto gets a grandfather clause, and maintains current status.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

*sigh*

This decision is fine (we needed a call sooner or later), but it's worth mentioning that as of right now, it's an absolute pain in the $@#$@#$@# to automatically import a reliable team list...

...that is to say that TBA isn't a reliable source, FIRST API won't have 2016 data until the 2016 season starts, USFIRST is apparently out of date, and firstinspires is (currently) remarkably difficult to extract data from.

I'm not really expecting you to do anything, just my little rant.
- Sunny G.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

I'm not particularly happy either.

When I manage to get some time (probably Wednesday or so) I plan to leave a note in FIRST's site feedback calling attention to the discrepancies. It's on their end, therefore it's their problem.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

The easiest way I have found to import teams for drafts is going to this page:
1)http://www.firstinspires.org/team-event-search

2)Finding the event (which is a lot faster on the new website)

3)Then copying the team information table and pasting it into excel. For me it creates a single column of cells with all of the data.

4)The last step is to sort the data from A-Z which puts the teams in order and all at the top.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Sidenote to this:
I think I found an error in the draft assistant. When I have had drafts with large numbers of teams the bottom row doesn't seem to clear when a team is picked from it.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

I noticed that as well, it seems that it doesn't handle edge cases (ends of lines included). I'll take a look later in the week, maybe Thursday. Thought I'd cleared that but maybe I confused it instead.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Issue:
Seeding order assigned in any draft, especially those of District drafts greatly impact the performance of a Fantasy FIRST team in their respective District Championship.

Important points:
- The difference between two consecutive seed positions at a given event will not necessarily have a resultant score that differentiates in a linear fashion.

- Seeding positions are also not comparable between events. For example, certain events have more dominant teams at the top end, resulting in a wide swing in the max vs. minimum point potential. Other events may have a wider distribution, with a deeper roster, allowing late seeds to pull in more fantasy points from their position in the draft, compared to other shallower events.

Data Analysis:
I compiled a spreadsheet of 2015 Fantasy FIRST data to analyze the impact of seed order on draft outcomes.


- While scoring data is easily available for manipulation at any given event, seed data is not. *I'm tracking seed position this year*

- The important piece of data to note, is that fantasy teams are not statistically likely to move very far from their original rank, based on initial seed.

-In a 10 person draft, a fantasy team will on average only move ~3 seed positions (absolute), in rank from their initial seed.

Proposed Solution:
In order to get one step closer to similar seed benefits across events, the average seeding order should be statistically uniform. This means, if a team receives a first seed at one event, they should be statistically likely to receive a last seed at another to match. Their average seed order across the total events in the specified pool should be nearly the same as all others Fantasy teams. While the proposed solution is not a perfect one, it should help to remove some of the statistical advantages given out to specific teams, based on a system with ‘entirely’ random seeding generation.

Here’s the algorithm that would need to be developed:


You have 7 Districts, to place 10 Fantasy teams (A-J) in. There can’t be multiple instances of a Fantasy team in any given District. The goal is to maintain a similar average seed across all fantasy teams. You don’t care how the distribution resolves itself, but it will likely naturally result in a bell curve. The algorithm should randomly generate solutions to the table with a *small* average seed deviation.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

I agree with Navid. Though I'm new to FF, it seems our team has noticed based upon drafting that certain teams pretty much pick the same as us. We might all just have bad systems of measuring team but I suspect it's more likely we have come upon good systems of measurements that will be inherently similar. That being said, there are some differences but those differences are miniscule compared to the effect pick order has. I like Navid's changes that keep it random but make sure everyone has the same average pick rank. That way we are lessening the impact of the pick order which inherently makes the small differences between our picklists matter more in the whole scope of things.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Well, our current system is more automated than that. If we can't figure out a way to get into firstinspires, then that seems like the only option.

It's worth mentioning that the usfirst domain actually appears to be the more "correct" version right now. GTRE is showing 118 on usfirst but 118 is not listed on firstinspires. After confirming with 118, they are going to GTRE.

For what it's worth, I think that's a compelling reason to stick to the usfirst domain.

- Sunny G.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Consider this our first waiver ;)

118 for 4343

Also, I have e-mailed Frank, he responded. I'll post here when he has more information.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Echoing on what Navid has said. People who received high drafts in the first round of the district drafts had a significant advantage, and on the way back I don't think reversing the draft order compensates enough.

:(

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

So does somebody have something just a little more concrete than "We think this should be done this way?" Like, some sort of algorithm? I can't say that I have time to do much development on that (BTW, that's a massive understatement), and I've got some other bugs to hunt down and improvements to make first, but if someone can work something up that will work in Excel's VBA code, I think I can put a work-around in to use a different form. (That being said... it needs to work across the file being closed and re-opened.) Or I can put a work-around to not randomize, leaving the list as-entered, which would allow an outside source to generate the lists.

Assuming that this is actually a problem (which I'm not totally convinced of yet). Remember that the only thing the regular season final ranking does is determine the draft order for the deepest event of 'em all, CMP (AKA, biggest game of chance out there).



@ttldomination: Actually, it isn't. Unless you have something that pulls team lists automatically, the team list has to be put in by manual pull. I never did get that part of the program working at all.

I agree that the usfirst.org does seem to be more correct (or more complete) but what that tells me is that FIRST hates their new look as much as some other folks do (or haven't figured out how to update it, not sure which is worse).

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Meh, it's not 100% automated, but it's the next best thing. It spits out a list of team numbers that nicely sit in the first column of the spreadsheet. After that, it's just a simple VBA macro to update that list.

- Sunny G.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Not a bad idea, that. If you could figure out a way to integrate that with Excel, or just post it, I think I can get that integrated somewhere along the line.


BTW, a quick clarification on my earlier post:
I have no objection, per se, but I'd like to see--in layman's terms--what the problem/solution statements are. I understand statistics a little bit, but I'm not really a stats sort of guy. Even if it's something like "the draft order in the districts determines the finishing order", that's clearer than "statistics say this". We'd need to do a rules change as I recall--just to clarify what exactly any new methods apply to.



Also, for reference, here's the general sort of "things to work on" for the draft-running program, in kinda-sorta order of priority:
--The removal function (for when a team is picked) doesn't always work, and needs fixing. (Hopefully Thursday/Friday--I might have an idea for what's wrong.)
--Additional feature: allowing "Random" and "Rookie" in team lists to trigger a hunt through the random list for those sorts of teams. (This might be easy or very difficult. No idea when I'll get around to it.)
--Additional feature: The ability to generate a draft without randomizing the player list. I *think* that'll be easy enough if I add another button or something along those lines, but remember: I'm a mechanical guy, and those are one set of famous last words. (This one I want to get done by the time the block drafts roll around.)
--I think there's a couple more items, but I can't remember what they are offhand. Possibly some sort of indicators if there's a list present or something like that.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

I'm not 100% following this line of discussion any more (started with going to usfirst, not sure where we are now), but this is integrated into excel. RFA has been using this system for our lists for the past 2-3 years.

- Sunny G.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

I'll PM.

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

I had to take myself off of the 12/5 New York City Draft because I cannot confidently confirm I will be home/available to run it at 7pm est. A event in need of volunteers is more important than Fantasy First.

I am sorry to do this so close to the draft but the event i am helping with didn't get back to me until today.

Roger

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

The Internet is currently down at my place and may not be up again until Monday. I could petentially still run Greater Kansas City tomorrow (12/5), but I will either be borrowing a laptop and going to a Starbucks, or I'd be tethering my desktop to my phone as a hotspot.

I can get the thread up tomorrow morning-ish...
*The more lists people can send me the better*

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

I'm thinking that, given the mass lack of draft runners (even with GKC up, NYC doesn't have anybody to run it), we move the 12/5 drafts to the open slot on 12/7. I believe I've heard a couple of folks saying that might work out better. Any commentary?

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

Fine by me, I won't be able to run it though if it's on a Monday. Sorry :S

Re: [FF]: 2016 Season Long Fantasy FIRST
 

I can run a draft on 12/7.

Also it seems that the event team lists seemed to magically update sometime in the past 24 hours.